General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

1911 (辛亥革命)

1911 (辛亥革命, also released as The 1911 Revolution) is a 2011 Chinese historical epic film directed by Jackie Chan and Zhang Li that dramatizes the Xinhai Revolution, the 1911 uprising that overthrew the Qing Dynasty and led to the founding of the Republic of China.¹ Produced as a centennial commemoration of the revolution, it stars Jackie Chan as the revolutionary commander Huang Xing and Winston Chao as Sun Yat-sen.²

Key fact	Detail
Original title	辛亥革命 (Xinhai geming), English titles 1911 and The 1911 Revolution¹
Directors	Jackie Chan (credited as primary director) and Zhang Li¹^•³
China release	29 September 2011, for the revolution's centennial¹
Budget	Over 100 million RMB, with more than 70 Chinese performers in the cast⁴
Lead cast	Jackie Chan (Huang Xing), Winston Chao (Sun Yat-sen), Li Bingbing (Xu Zonghan), Joan Chen (Empress Dowager Longyu)²
Critical reception	Metascore 37 from 13 critics; 8% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer⁵^•²
Worldwide box office	$3,807,134, of which $135,739 came from North America⁶

Spoilers

Story

The film follows the key events of the Xinhai Revolution with Huang Xing and Sun Yat-sen at the center. It opens with the Wuchang Uprising of 1911 and covers the Second Guangzhou Uprising of 27 April 1911 and the deaths of the 72 martyrs, the election of Sun Yat-sen as provisional president of the new republic, the abdication of the last Qing emperor Puyi on 12 February 1912, and Yuan Shikai's installation as provisional president in Beijing on 10 March 1912.¹ Chinese publicity materials describe the film's chapters as "Blood-Stained Huanghuagang," "The Wuchang Uprising," "The Defense of Yangxia," and "Founding the Republic."⁷

The English-language synopsis frames the setting as a China divided and impoverished after 250 years of Qing rule, headed by the seven-year-old emperor and Empress Dowager Longyu, with the dynasty's "New Army" raised to suppress rebellion while officials sold concessions to foreign powers.¹⁰ Huang Xing, who had studied modern warfare in Japan, leads a series of armed rebellions against the Qing.¹⁰ A romantic thread links Huang Xing with the revolutionary Xu Zonghan, played by Li Bingbing.³

Production

The film was made to mark the 100th anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution, which fell on 10 October 2011. According to Shanghai Film Group president Ren Zhonglun, the production cost exceeded 100 million RMB, and more than 70 Chinese actors took part, most of them established performers rather than newcomers.⁴ The screenplay was written by Wang Xingdong and Chen Baoguang; producers included Peter Lam, Guoqing Gu, Bin Guo, and Li-Juan Liu.¹^•²

A group of ten Chinese production and distribution entities backed the film, including Changchun Film Studio, Shanghai Film Group, and Huaxia Film Distribution Company.⁷ Producer Wang Zhebin later wrote that the project originated in a 2009 suggestion from Jia Qinglin, then Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, who proposed a film for the coming centennial after seeing the stage play Beiping 1949; Wang and Wang Xingdong had previously collaborated on the screenplay of The Founding of a Republic.⁸

Director Zhang Li said the film follows historical facts and real people, and shooting took nearly a year.⁴ The film contains five battle sequences, covering field, naval, and street combat; Zhang used a near-documentary shooting style with special camera techniques to capture continuous movement and flying bullets.⁹

Cast

Jackie Chan plays Huang Xing, a role far from his usual action persona; critics noted that only one martial-arts scene appears in the film.²^•¹¹ Winston Chao, who had played Sun Yat-sen in earlier productions, took the role again here.³ The large supporting cast includes Joan Chen as Empress Dowager Longyu, Sun Chun as Yuan Shikai, Jaycee Chan as Zhang Zhenwu, Hu Ge as Lin Juemin, Jing Ning as Qiu Jin, and Yu Shaoqun as Wang Jingwei.⁵

Reception

Critical response was largely negative. The film received a Metascore of 37, labeled "generally unfavorable," based on 13 critic reviews, with 31% negative and no positive reviews tallied; the user score was 5.5 out of 10.⁵ On Rotten Tomatoes it held an 8% Tomatometer from 24 reviews and a 30% audience score.² Common criticisms targeted the film's structure: the New York Daily News called it "earnest and studious to a fault," a reviewer at Mania.com described "constant title cards explaining key details," and the Chlotrudis review called it "the dullest sort of history lecture," while crediting its cinematography and battle scenes with polish.²^•³ The San Francisco Chronicle praised Chan's all-dramatic performance as a rebel general.¹¹

Commercially, the film earned $3,807,134 worldwide, with 96.4% of that total from international markets; Japan was the largest single market at $2,204,459, followed by Singapore at $621,670 and Malaysia at $359,861.⁶ Its North American release was limited, opening 7 October 2011 and grossing $135,739.²^•⁶

Context among 2011 centennial productions

1911 was one of several screen works produced in China for the revolution's centennial. A television series of the same name, scripted by Wang Chaozhu with Tang Guoqiang as chief director, aired on CCTV-1 in prime time in September 2011 with 10 million RMB in special funding from the Tianjin finance bureau.¹² CCTV also aired a six-part documentary in October 2011 covering the revolution's background through its aftermath.¹³ A scholarly commentary in China Film News places 1911 in the lineage of Chinese "red films" and official historical epics such as The Founding of a Republic and Beginning of the Great Revival, noting that it draws on action and war genres and star casting as commercial elements.⁹^•¹⁴ An academic account describes the film as an inflection of the official centennial narrative that shifts focus toward Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing rather than the Communist Party.¹⁵

Reported running times differ across distributors and databases: 90 minutes on the Well Go USA site, 99 minutes on several review sites, 122 minutes on the Japanese database Filmarks, and 2 hours 5 minutes on Rotten Tomatoes.¹⁰^•³^•¹⁶^•²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › War and historical films (individual works) › Historical dramas and epics › Titles symbols to L › Titles 1 to Em

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

Notice something wrong?