New epic to retell CPC's first National Congress

Two years after the 2019 revolutionary film The Bugle from Gutian, actor Wang Renjun will again play Mao Zedong -- the founding father of People's Republic of China -- in the upcoming epic 1921.

Set in the title year when the Communist Party of China was founded, the crew of the film, which is scheduled to open on July 1, held a news conference in Peking University on May 13.

As an attempt to seek a breakthrough, the patriotic tale creatively blends multiple perspectives such as from Japanese and Europe and espionage elements to retell the historical moments of the Communist Party of China's first national congress in summer 1921.

Actor Wang, a native from Shandong province, revealed he went through lot of documents to research his character of Mao, who is featured at the age of 28 in the film.

Unlike most of the previous revolutionary films and TV series featuring Mao at mid-age or older periods when Mao had become the CPC leader, the new film will showcase his lesser-featured aspect as a patriotic young man who also has a sense of humor.

Producer Ren Ning said the crew has endeavored to get more historical archives and documents through traveling to many places domestically and abroad, managing to obtain threads of Japanese spies' attempt to destroy CPC's first national congress and the French concession in Shanghai receiving information about the meeting in advance.

Besides, the crew built real-life replicas of the buildings that held the first and second CPC National Congress meetings as well as the campus of Shanghai Bowen All-Girls School, which was once used to accommodate CPC delegates.

Actor Huang Xuan stars as Li Da, late Chinese general who was an early CPC member in charge of preparing and organizing the first congress, in the movie.

The stellar cast playing historical figures also includes actor Chen Kun as Chen Duxiu and actor Li Chen as Li Dazhao, both the major founders of CPC.

Also a highlight of the film: A group of intellectual women who strived for the rise of China are featured, teaming up dozens of renowned actresses including Zhong Chuxi, Liu Shishi, Yuan Quan and Song Jia to play historical figures.