History of Chinese Cinema

In the history of Chinese cinema, the new period of cinema occupies a prominent position, not only because it accounts for one fifth of the time, and is the most prolonged among the various periods; but also because it is distinctive and individual, and appears to be the most colorful!

From October 1976 to crush the "Gang of Four" in one fell swoop, to the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Chinese ****production Party in December 1978, is a short period of conflict in the history of **** and the country. In this period, the film industry, in addition to exposing and criticizing the "Gang of Four" cultural authoritarianism as the centerpiece of the crime, mainly to do two things: First, the restoration of the "Gang of Four" designated as "poisonous weeds "The first was to resume the release of films about the seventeen years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, which had been designated as "poisonous weeds" by the Gang of Four, and which had been greatly criticized; the second was to organize the creation of films focusing on the subject of the struggle against the Gang of Four. In these two areas, a lot of achievements were made: the re-released films were welcomed by the audience with great hunger and thirst; the creators of these films also achieved corresponding spiritual liberation. At the same time, more than 50 feature films were produced, especially the re-releases of accomplished directors such as Chengyin, Xie Tieli, and Xie Jin during the Seventeen Years, which showed some creative vitality. But in general, at that time, people's thinking was not very emancipated, in the creation, thinking about the problem, there are still such and such scruples, to the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee as a symbol of the beginning of the reform and opening up, modernization and construction of a new period of time, in the history of the People's Republic of China *** and the country carved out a brand-new era. The impact on China and the world has been enormous. With the ideological liberation movement as the spearhead of the beginning of this period, the people's spirit is uplifted, relaxed and spirited. It brought the spring of science and culture, the spring of literature and art, and the spring of movies.

From then to now, after 20 years of development, Chinese movie art, like other literature and art categories and the development of Chinese society as a whole, has traveled a road that is not straight and smooth, but upward in development. In this process, it has encountered unprecedented difficulties and challenges, and suffered some ups and downs, which is inevitable in any society in great changes. However, through the efforts of the Party, the government and all movie workers***, significant achievements have been made that have attracted the world's attention; of course, there are also shortcomings and deficiencies.

After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, the film industry has been more active than ever, and the enthusiasm has been greatly mobilized. Summarizing the historical experience of the film after the founding of the country, and emancipating the mind as a breakthrough, the people have continued to open up a new way of thinking about the creation and theory of the film. Film and those who engage in film creation are a social phenomenon, not just individual behavior. Since this is the case, the views of movie makers, who are the people of the society, cannot be completely consistent, and there are inevitably differences, contradictions, disagreements and struggles. At the Fourth Literature Congress held in October 1979, Comrade Deng Xiaoping reiterated in his benediction: "Adhere to the direction proposed by Comrade Mao Zedong that literature and art should serve the broadest masses of the people, first and foremost the workers, peasants, and soldiers; adhere to the policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom, pushing forward new ideas, utilizing the foreign for the Chinese, and applying the ancient for the modern; advocate the free development of different forms and styles in artistic creation; and advocate different points of view and schools of thought in artistic theories. In artistic creation, we advocate the free development of different forms and styles, and in artistic theory, we advocate the free discussion of different viewpoints and schools of thought". At the same time, it was pointed out that "what to write and how to write can only be explored and gradually solved by artists in their artistic practice. In this regard, do not interfere." These, as well as other elements in the benediction, were conducive to unifying the thinking of film workers and guiding the healthy development of film work. After that, the film art creation and academic theory, have begun a bold innovation and exploration.

In academic theory, from the spring of 1979, the People's Daily to carry out the "how to get the film work up" discussion, and then the "film art" on the "modernization of film language" discussion, in the next few years. In the following years, there was an unprecedented activity in the thought of movie art, and by and large, people spoke freely. Discussions on the relationship between cinema, theater and literature, on cinema aesthetics, on the nature of cinema, on the nationalization of cinema, on cinema innovation, on the promotion of the aesthetics of documentary, and on the translation and introduction of traditional and modern Western film theories, such as Montage Theory, Long Shot Theory, Structuralist Semiotics, Feminism, Textual Analysis, Archetypal Criticism, and other modern and post-modern theories, as well as the introduction and translation of theories from and into the West, and the introduction and translation of theories from and into the West. The translation and introduction of these theories, as well as the discussion of traditional Chinese film theory and aesthetics, film analysis, character studies, and so on, have formed a spectacular academic phenomenon that has never been seen since the founding of the People's Republic of China. To varying degrees, they have, either explicitly or implicitly, influenced creative work, and in particular, promoted the importance of film creators to film theory and even cultural theory as a whole. In addition, the organization of various film festivals and retrospectives, various awarding activities and film festivals, as well as the going out and inviting in of the creative and theoretical circles of the film industry have greatly increased the domestic and international exchanges of films, and broadened the horizons of the filmmakers. At the same time, the introduction of films from Taiwan, Hong Kong and foreign countries, as well as their co-productions, have also increased the opportunities for learning from them. All these artistic phenomena and related conditions constituted a major feature of the new era of cinema. There is indeed a great difference between the development of films with an academic atmosphere and those without.

It should be noted that in these discussions and debates on film art, it is not necessary or possible to make a scientific judgment on who is right and who is wrong. Because this still needs to be proved by history and tested by practice. However, it is certain that they are all beneficial to the progress of Chinese movies and the development of movie academics; they have done a better job of freely discussing different academic points of view, creating a loose academic environment. In the new era of film theory and criticism, their papers, monographs and collections have decorated the academic garden of Chinese film with a sense of vitality.

The unprecedented activity of academic theory is synchronized with the prosperity of creative work. 1979, the first year of the reform and development of the movie creation has made outstanding achievements. This year **** production of feature films (including stage art films, the same below not to mention) 63. "From Slave to General", "Trail of Tears", "Ji Hongchang", "Returning to the Arrow", "Ah! Cradle〉, 〈Smile of an Afflicted Person〉, 〈Small Flower〉, 〈Gunshots from the Secret Service〉, 〈Trembling of Life〉, 〈Sakura〉, 〈Ao Lei?, 〈Ao Lei? A Lan〉,〈Bitter Heart〉,〈Overseas Red Son〉,〈Sacred Mission〉,〈Beidou〉,〈Two Springs Reflecting the Moon〉,〈Li Siguang〉,〈Wizard〉,〈View the family〉,〈Small Characters〉,〈She two and they both〉," the long list of 22 feature films awarded the Ministry of Culture's 1979 "Outstanding Film Prize! This long list of as many as 22 feature films that won the Ministry of Culture's 1979 "Outstanding Film Award" is sufficient proof of this achievement. If we analyze this list a little bit, it is not difficult to further find that there is not only the richness of the subject matter, such as history and revolutionary history, exposing the crimes of the Gang of Four, the construction of "four", children and youth, stories of overseas Chinese, friendship between China and foreign countries, and the destiny of folk artists, but also the diversity of styles and forms. It also has a variety of styles and forms, such as drama, tragedy, comedy, biography and thriller. From the level of the creators, there are both accomplished writers and directors who have had some creative experience in the 17 years after the founding of the People's Republic of China. In the former category has been customarily called the "third generation" director's creations, they are in pursuit of the return of realism in the intention, and strive for artistic authenticity, typicality, and strive for the form and content of the perfect unity as far as possible, and strive to write their own artistic personality and style. The same is the theme of historical figures of the film, "from slaves to generals" written slowly, gravity, and "Ji Hongchang" is unrestrained, radical; "ah! Cradle〉's loose culture,〈Secretariat's gunshot〉's suspense,〈Tear〉's rigor,〈Trail of Tears〉's deepness,〈Bitter Heart〉's freshness,〈View the family〉, 《Smaller Characters〉,〈She's two and they are two〉's clear comedic flavors, all of which make the director of this generation's creation, the realism of the premise of the consistency of the show a variety of colorful styles.

From this list, the works of directors who graduated from film schools before the Cultural Revolution and had the opportunity to direct a movie independently for the first time occupy a prominent place: 〈Sakura〉, 〈Small Flower〉, and 〈Smile of the Afflicted〉. They also follow the same spirit of realism, but put their artistic eyes on the daily lives of ordinary people; in terms of artistic methods and forms, they try to break through the previous ones and take a new path. The factual approach and documentary-style photographic treatment of 〈Sakura〉, the story structure of 〈Vibrato of Life〉, the story structure of the film and the musical structure superimposed on each other, the alternation of time and space between the past and the present in 〈Small Flower〉, and the distinction between color and black-and-white formats, and the intersection of phantasmagoria, dream and reality in 〈Smile of the Afflicted〉, which form a unifying thread of the characters' psyches; all of these mark the creator's dedication to the artistic conception of his film. All of these are indicative of the creators' dedication to artistic conception. Although these films were quite experimental and showed different traces of tenderness, their courage to innovate was extremely commendable, and their works gave the audience a sense of freshness. "The year 1979 was a rich year for China's film production", "a number of good films with colorful themes and styles, innovative contents and styles, and a certain artistic quality emerged", "there was a turning point and a very encouraging development. A turning point, very welcome progress".