Mao Tse Tung China S Peasant Emperor

The film unfolds the reality in a communist country in the 1970s through the eyes and wise ways of an ordinary gypsy. The events take place in a small town in Albania. Besides the well-organized civilized life, a strange Gypsy community is settled in the town. The calm flow of their life is troubled by the birth of a child. The son, who is the ninth child in this Gypsy family, will bring joy not only to his family, but to the entire gypsy community. What could possibly trouble the strong communist establishment of the time? A child is born but not an ordinary one. His name is Mao Tse Tung. A gypsy Mao Tse Tung in the 1970s.

Nagisa Oshima's documentary details the rise of Chairman Mao during the revolution and shows the Communist Party's struggle and cultural upheaval. Made in 1969 for NTV station, this TV documentary also questions Mao's dictator tendency during the cultural revolution.

This film is a product not of the China of today, but of Red China's Cultural Revolutionary era: a period when the most radical and histrionic thinking strove to turn China's immense population into martyrs for Chairman Mao's ideals. This film, whose original title translates to "The Great Advancement of Mao Tse-Tung's Thinking," was captured by American intelligence in the mid 1960's (who provide the simultaneous translation on the soundtrack). It must have scared the hell out of them, for the film shows Chinese soldiers engaged in strenuous training for post-nuclear attack. The great lie of this film - from the Chinese leaders to their own people - is that the radioactive fallout from a nuclear blast will not kill them. In the film's most haunting scene, we see a Chinese cavalry charge in the Gobi desert into the aftermath of an above-ground nuclear explosion. Both rider and horse are wearing gas-masks! A harrowing look at the unbending will of fanaticism.

A documentary on Chairman Mao and the Chinese communist revolution by Single Spark Films.