Morning Sun

It is a well-researched smorgasbord of newsreel and documentary footage spliced with current interviews with those on the front lines.

Using newsreel footage, clips of artistic propaganda (e.g., joyful proletarian farm ballets), and interviews with survivors, the movie draws us into the annihilating fervor of an era in which purge followed upon purge, in escalating waves of terror and control.

The story they are telling here is still in the process of being written. It's as good a sign as any of how absorbing Morning Sun is that the film's sudden ending makes you greedy for more.

It's scary to see how one man can brainwash a gigantic nation, as Mao did.

Informative and richly illustrated documentary.

Does a thoughtful job of streamlining the bloody realities -- both literal and psychological -- of China's Cultural Revolution into roughly two hours of film.

Admirably balanced production that pulls the curtain back slightly on a little-charted period of modern Chinese history.