| Volume 6, Number 2, April 2009 |
Interpreting the Generations
of Film-Makers
by 刘无 Liu Wu
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HAVING won a number of prestigious film awards, such as the Golden Bear of the Berlin Film Festival and the Golden Lion of the Venice Film Festival, a group of young film directors called the Sixth Generation have in recent years advanced to a leading position in contemporary Chinese film industry. Meanwhile, in the academy, the controversy over the questions “What does the label of the Sixth Generation really mean?” and “What is the best way to characterize its aesthetics?” continues to preoccupy scholars and has not yet been resolved. Other important questions such as “How and why did the Sixth Generation appear?”, “Has it changed much since it emerged in the early of 1990s?”, and “If it has changed, why has it changed?” have so far remained unanswered. To base the discussion of the Sixth Generation on a solid ground, the concept of the “generation” itself should be clarified.
The “Generation” in Chinese Film History
The concept of “generation” comes from the need to study the Fifth Generation. In the mid-1980s, films such as One and Eight (Yige he bage, dir. Zhang Junzhao, |
1983) and Yellow Earth (Huang tudi, dir. Chen Kaige, 1984) shot by some young directors shook China’s film industry. These directors belonged to such a different style than their predecessors that the critics needed a way to distinguish them from other directors. Therefore, in the 1980s, the critics assessed the whole of Chinese film history and divided it into five generations.(2) The First Generation referred to the pioneers of Chinese film who began working in the industry around 1905 when film was initially introduced into China. The Second Generation referred to filmmakers who began their careers during the 1930s when films with sound became popular and left-wing thoughts entered the film industry. Directors who made films in China mainly between 1949 when the People’s Republic of China was founded and 1966 when the Cultural Revolution broke out, were classified as the Third Generation. Directors in the generation who began making films after the Cultural Revolution and preceding the Fifth Generation were classified as the Fourth Generation.(3) The Fifth Generation referred to the directors who graduated in 1982...
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| Issue 6.2 |
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Economy, Employment, Education, Ethics
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