As strange as it might sound, we wish this had been a true Chinese propaganda film. During its 60 years in power, the Chinese Communist Party has gotten pretty good at making propaganda flicks. But “The Founding of a Republic,” made solely to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of our dear People’s Republic of China, is not one of these. With virtually no storyline, a strange soundtrack and plenty of bizarre “funny” scenes, this film has won even less respect from us than an unintentionally kitschy propaganda flick such as “Red Detachment of Women.”

The film describes the last few years of Kuomintang governance of China in the late 40s, and how the Communists led by Mao (Tang Guoqiang) overthrew them. As far as the propaganda aspects go, it’s a bit obvious. Mao, Zhou Enlai, et al are decisive, intelligent, diligent and united. They care about the masses, they live in mud huts, etc. Meanwhile, Chiang Kai-shek and his ilk live in fancy mansions, rarely talk to laymen and are wracked with in-fighting and petty grievances. A weakened Chiang walks with a stick in virtually every scene.

Sure, we expected them to portray the Communists as strong and the KMT as weak, but what we don’t get is why they felt the need to minimize the typical propaganda themes—the well-loved actors Zhang Guoli and Chen Kun were cast as Chiang and his son Ching-kuo. This is just the start—the directors seem intent on minimizing the propaganda aspects as much as they can. Perhaps they are wary of increasingly sophisticated mainland audiences calling them out on it, but it just comes off as odd. Instead of playing a patriotic red anthem when Mao announces the founding of the republic, we get... bongo drums. WTF? Also, after the decisive battle in the war, Mao parties so hard he passes out—what is this, “The Hangover”? Later, madame Chiang Kai-shek (Vivian Wu) walks by an African-American soldier in Washington and he coos, “Man, she’s sooooo hot.” WTF x2.

The disconnect runs much deeper than just a few stupid scenes—with no real connecting matter in the storyline, the entire film comes off as a series of isolated vignettes. Maybe that’s because they decided to shoehorn in over 80 of China and Hong Kong’s biggest stars (think Chow Yun-fat, Australian national Jackie Chan and Zhang Ziyi). The end result is a propaganda film that is more embarrassing than patriotic. I would have preferred to be brainwashed than to see this piece of crap. Speaking of which, I hope I can still visit the mainland after this goes to print.

2/5 Stars by Winnie Yeung.

China. Directed by Han Sanping, Huang Jianxin. Starring Tang Guoqiang, Zhang Guoli, Xu Qing, Chen Kun. Category IIA, 139 minutes. Opened Oct 1.