East Asian Cinema
Yip(Ip) Man Biography
(1893-1972) Yip Man, or Ip Man, is a martial arts master best known for teaching the Wing Chun form. Kung Fu master and icon Bruce Lee was one of his students. Yip Man was born on October 1, 1893, in Foshan, China. He studied Wing Chun and went on the become one of the most respected martial arts masters of his time. Among his most notable students was Bruce Lee. Yip Man died on December 2, 1972, in Hong Kong. In 2013, two films about his life were released, The Grandmaster and Ip Man: The Final Fight
Director Zhang Junzhao
(1952-present) Films directed by Zhang Junzhao: (Three Daring Daughters 1993) (Blood From Mother's Hand,1992) (Arc Light ,1988) (Come On, China, 1985) 一(One and Eight, 1983)
Yip Man
(2008) Directed by: Wilson Yip Cast: Donnie Yen, Simon Yam, Lynn Hung, Gordon Lam, Fan Siu-wong, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi. This is the story of Ip Man, a legendary Wing Chun Kung Fu master from Fo Shan, China. Ip (Donnie Yen) has an amazing wife, plenty of money, the most beautiful house in town, and a blossoming martial arts academy. But when the Japanese occupy his hometown of Foshan during the Sino-Japan war (1937), Ip, like the rest of the locals, is forced into hard labor and brutal sparring matches for the enemy's amusement. His incredible skills catch the eye of the Japanese Colonel, Mr. Miura, who wants Ip to teach Wing Chun to his soldiers. When Ip refuses, he faces the most intense challenge to both his training and his honor.
Auteur theory
-In film criticism, Auteur theory holds that a director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision, as if they were the primary "auteur" (the French word for "author"). In spite of—and sometimes even because of —the production of the film as part of an industrial process, the auteur's creative voice is distinct enough to shine through all kinds of studio interference and through the collective process. -Auteur theory has influenced film criticism since 1954, when it was advocated by film director and critic François Truffaut 杜魯福. This method of film analysis was originally associated with the French New Wave and the film critics who wrote for the French film review periodical Cahiers du Cinéma. Auteur theory was developed a few years later in the United States through the writings of The Village Voice critic Andrew Sarris. Sarris used auteur theory as a way to further the analysis of what defines serious work through the study of respected directors and their films E.g. John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock etc.
The Image of Hero in Bruce Lee's Films
-Kung Fu master -An invincible hero -Project the image of master of his own style -Super human martial artist -Self-mythologization: narcissistic to body muscle and unique local Kung-fu display -Bruce's Character: Never U-turned, never be defeated and never showed pain
The Image of Hero in Jackie Chan's Films
-Kung fu kid -An ordinary hero learned from suffer -He never sought to find a style of his own, calling his approach "chop-suey" -Kung-fu comedian -Another version of self-actualization: one stressing boundless determination and a good-humoured willingness to suffer -Chan's character: avoid great danger, always be defeated at the beginning, showing painful feeling in fighting scenes -
Tien Yi
1930s production company. For producing entertaining films.
Lianhua
1930s production company. Patriotic slogan calling for the revival of Chinese cinema.
Mingxing
1930s production company. Producing "light" entertainment.
Little Toys
1933. • Directed by: Sun Yu Cast: Ruan Ling-yu • Production Co: Shanghai, Lianhua Film
The Goddess
1934. Directed by: Wu Yonggang
Sons and Daughters in a Time of Storm
1935. Directed by Xu Xingzhi Starring: Yuan Muzhi, Wang Renmei Studio: Diantong Film Company
Street Angel
1937. Directed by:Yuan Muzhi Cast:Zhao Dan, Zhou Xuan, Wei Heling, Zhao Huishen Production Co: Mingxing Company
The Way of the Dragon
1972. • Directed and written by: Bruce Lee • Cast: Bruce Lee, Nora Miao Ker Hsiu , Church Norris • This was the only film Bruce Lee scripted and directed. Lee's skills in martial arts were fully shown in the final duel with Morris at the coliseum in Rome • The film showed how Bruce Lee to display his narcissistic idol exercised in front of the mirror, proudly displaying his well- developed muscles
Fist of Fury
1972. • Directed by: Luo Wai • The fight scenes were the most flamboyantly designed in Lee's career, and the weapon. He used the double-jointed pole (雙節棍)- has become synonymous with the superstar • Bruce Lee's show-piece fights, were step by step demonstrations of the superiority of Chinese Kung-fu to Japanese and Western forms.
Snake in the Eagle's Shadow
1978. • Directed by: Yuan Heping • Cast: Jackie Chan, Huang Zhengli • The first Kung-fu comedy film that was full of Chan's smart brand of Kung-fu acrobatic as mixed with comedy touches • Chan eschewed/avoided Lee's earnest style of Kung-fu to create a more light-hearted and humorous variant of the martial arts
The Sword
1980. • Directed by: Patrick Tam When a master swordsman observes how his own blade is destined to bring misery and bloodshed to all who come in contact with it, he decides to fully exclude himself from the pressures of the martial world. His reputation, though, will not allow that great warrior to rest and soon an honourable young swordsman 李驀然(Cheng) looks to challenge the legendary fighter. However, this new challenger has his own battles to face as the partner 連環 (Keung) of his old girlfriend decides to erase him from the scene. Alongside this evil objective is his twin desire to own the fabled sword and take over the rulership of the martial world. With this in mind, he sends out his vicious minion 陳鐵衣(Ko) to help complete both tasks. The prophetic tragedy that had surrounded the sword continues to effect all three of these very different men and especially the women they love.
One and Eight
1983. Directed by: Zhang Junzhao Cast: Daoming Chen, Xiaoyan Lu, Zeru Tao Production Co. Guanxi FIlm Studio
Pollice Story
1985. • Directed by: Jackie Chan • Cast: Jackie Chan, Brigitte Lin, Maggie Cheung, Yuen Chor • The character of Chan Ka Kui 陳家駒 is an everyman figure who fights against opponents with strength and will power • Jackie Chan performs such dangerous stunts in Police Story that it's a testament to his strong conditioning and bravery. • The ingredients for success are with the actor/director's trademark of slam bang action sequences with a touch of the absurd. • It is one of Hong Kong action pictures that would influence numerous American action pictures of late 1980s- early 1990s.
Ruan Lingyu
Actress. Born 1910. Committed suicide on International Women's Day 1935.
Mark Lee Ping Bin
Also known Mark Lee, Ping Bing Lee (1954 - ) A critically acclaimed Taiwanese cinematographer with over 40 films and 9 international awards to his credit.
Zhou Xuan
August 1st 1918-September 22 1957, Shanghai
Condensed Notes to "Notes On The Auteur Theory In 1962"
By the auteur theory, if a director has no technical competence, no elementary flair for the cinema, he is automatically cast out from the pantheon of directors. This is true in any art. The second premise of the auteur theory is the distinguishable personality of the director as a criterion of value. Over a group of films, a director must exhibit certain recurrent characteristics of style, which serves as his signature. The way a film looks and moves should have some relationship to the way a director thinks and feels. The third and ultimate premise of the auteur theory is concerned with interior meaning, the ultimate glory of the cinema as an art. Interior meaning is extrapolated from the tension between a director's personality and his material.
Duality of "Goddess"
Day-Night Holy/Ideal Mother-Debased prostitute Sacrifice-Fight for Survival Dignity-Self Pity Happiness Reward-Social Punishment Glorify Maternal Virtue-Be Condemned Immoral
The Black Cannon Incident
Directed by: Huang Jianxin Starring :Liu Zifeng Gerhard Olschewski Yang Yazhou Gao Ming Production Co.Xian Film Studio
Brothers Lumiere
Inventor of cinema, 1895
Major Films of the 1930s
New Women-1934 Song of the Fisherman-1934 Crossroads-1937 Street Angel-1937
"Golden Period"
Post 1930 era. Mainly leftist talented directors worked. Ex: Fei Mu, Shi Dongshan, Wu Yonggang
Realism
Realism: in cinema, realism describes a type of filming in which fidelity to the nature of the subject itself is more important than the director's attitude toward it. As opposed to expressionism, there is usually a minimum of montage and special effects.
Cinema in Chinese before it changed to film
Shadowplay, electric shadow
First screening of a motion picture
Shanghai, August 11th, 1896
1930s "Progressive" Chinese-produced films
Spring Silkworm-1933 The Big Road-1935 The Goddess-1934
228 Massacre
The 228 Massacre, 2/28 Massacre, also called 228 Incident by Kuomintang (KMT), or 2/28 for short, was an anti-government uprising in Taiwan that began on February 27, 1947 which was violently suppressed by the KMT-led Republic of China government中華民國政府 and which resulted in the massacre of numerous civilians, beginning on February 28, or 2/28. Estimates of the number of deaths vary from 10,000 to 30,000 or more .The incident marked the beginning of the Kuomintang's White Terror period白色恐怖時期 in Taiwan, in which thousands more inhabitants vanished, died, or were imprisoned. This incident is one of the most important events in Taiwan's modern history, and is a critical impetus for the Taiwan independence movement. The subject was officially taboo for decades. On the anniversary of the event in 1995, President Lee Teng-hui 李登輝總統addressed the subject publicly, a first for a Taiwanese head of state. The event is now openly discussed and February 28 is commemorated as Peace Memorial Day
Effects of Japanese invasion of China
The Japanese invasion of China, in particular their occupation of Shanghai, ended this golden run in Chinese Cinema. Many filmmakers fled Shanghai, relocating in Hong Kong.
Zhao Dan
The People's Artist. 1915-1980.
Sons and Daughters in a Time of Storm Synopsis
The plot follows the young poet Xin Baihe (played by Yuan Muzhi) who flees Shanghai with his friend Liang. However, whereas Liang soon joins the resistance against the Japanese invaders, Xin chooses to pursue a relationship with a glamorous and westernized widow in Qingdao. After hearing that Liang has been killed however, Xin has a change of heart and rushes to join the war effort.
The March of the Volunteers Theme Song
The theme song to the movie, "The March of the Volunteers", was sung by Gu Menghe and Yuan Muzhi. March of the Volunteers is the national anthem of the People's Republic of China, written by the poet and playwright Tian Han with music composed by Nie Er. "The March of the Volunteers" was selected as the national anthem of the People's Republic of China in 1949. This decision was formally written into the Constitution of the People's Republic of China in March 2004.
Melodrama
v The word "melodrama" comes from the Greek word for song "melody", combined with "drama". Music is used to increase the emotional response or to suggest characters. There is a tidy structure or formula to melodrama: a villain poses a threat, the hero escapes the threat (or rescues the heroine) and there is a happy ending. In melodrama there is a constructed world of connotations. A melodrama in a more neutral and technical sense of the term is a play, film, or other work in which plot and action are emphasized in comparison to the more character-driven emphasis within a drama. Melodramas can be distinguished from tragedy by the fact that they are open to having a happy ending. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
A City of Sadness Synopsis
• A City of Sadness is a 1989 film by Hou Hsiao-hsien about a family embroiled in the tragic "White Terror" wrought by the Kuomintang (KMT) on the Taiwanese people when they began to arrive from mainland China in the late-1940s. • During the White Terror Era (白色恐怖時代), from 1949-1987, thousands of Taiwanese were rounded up, shot, and/or sent to prison by the KMT. The film is considered historic in Taiwan because it was the first movie to touch on the 228 Incident of 1947 and deal openly with the KMT's authoritarian misdeeds after its 1945 takeover of Taiwan 台灣光復from Japanese colonization日本统治. • In the course of the film's narrative the eldest brother Lin Wen Xiong林 文雄 is murdered by a Shanghai mafia boss, one of the middle brothers Liang文良 is driven insane in a KMT jailhouse, and the youngest brother Lin Wen-Ch'ing文清 (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) is a mute who wants to flee to the mountains with his friends to fight in the anti-KMT resistance movement. • By the end of the film only the youngest brother, the photographer
The Terrorizers Synopsis
• A complex narrative, structures the plot around six primary characters, whose lives are gradually revealed as dramatically intertwined. An upper-class young photographer and his girlfriend, a female criminal known as the White Chick; Chou Yuk Fen and Li , a married couple on the outs; and the woman's magazine editor boyfriend form the primary nodes of this unit. • The married couple both pursue success in separate fields, he as a doctor, she as an aspiring writer. Their relationship is defined by sacrifice-her attempts to tailor her dreams as a writer to fit the necessities of marriage, and his anguish at being unable to make her happy. Chou decides to leave her husband. • Chou's departure is at least partially facilitated (although its degree of responsibility is one of the film's mysteries) by a phone call she receives from an anonymous caller, claiming to have important information about her husband, and demanding to meet. • We later learn that this call had been placed by the White Chick, who in her enforced convalescence following the shooting that opens the film, has taken to placing mean-spirited and misleading phone calls to strangers.
The Black Cannon Incident Themes
• A direct comment on the contemporary reform era, exploring the question of whether reform-minded intellectuals would be adequately heeded by the socialist bureaucracy • The film is perceived as a political satire and symbolism. E.g. The huge clock face. • Red stands for neither revolution nor its older Chinese association with good fortune, but is the colour of warning lights, signifying anxiety. • The movie constructs bizarre aesthetic qualities - uses an industrial setting and discordant music to symbolize visually China's awkward transition into modern Western-style life and the clash of cultures. • The cinematography and set design of the film evoked the aesthetic and thematic concerns of modernist art, including alienation, expressionism/ abstractionism and distanciation, which served to "break aesthetic stranglehold of socialist realism on the cinema "(Chris Berry and Mary Ann Farquhar: 1994: 110).
The Rise of the 'New Wave' Films in the 80s
• A group of new and sharp directors emerged from the ranks of TVB, CTV and RTHK The rise of "auteur theory' film discussion. The importance of film in the 80s as film 'authors' were the centre of film critiques in the 80s. • TVB closed down it film unit, making many of its directors leave and enter the film' industry in the beginning of the 80s. • Even cinematic techniques of the 'New Film' all denoted a locally oriented development in Hong Kong films. • A lot of new directors were mostly received formal training here or overseas, the majority served their apprenticeship at local television stations. The stations represented their "Shaolin Temple"
Gender identity disorder/confusion
• A male or female that feels a strong identification with the opposite sex and experiences considerable distress because of their actual sex. • Individuals with gender identity disorder have strong cross-gender identification. They believe that they are, or should be, the opposite sex.
Taiwanese "New" Cinema in the 1980s
• After China's defeat, Japan colonized 殖民化 Taiwan from 1895(Treaty of Shimonoseki 馬關條約) until 1945(Japanese Surrender日本投降 : End of Pacific War 太平洋戰爭). Most films exhibited were from Japan, China or the United States. Japanese censors tightly controlled any other films including Taiwanese participation. • After Japan's defeat in World War II, China once again assumed control of Taiwan, which became subject to cultural domination by Chiang Kai- Shek's(蔣介石) Nationalist government, the KuoMinTang (KMT 國民 黨). • The dominant post-war Taiwanese cinema was exclusively government- financed and controlled. Chiang Kai-shek's regime used it as a propaganda vehicle. The government shunned both aesthetic innovation and any probing of Taiwan's history or social tensions, producing a largely escapist cinema (e.g. comedies, melodramas文藝片, Kung Fu/Martial art films). • When Chiang Kai-shek died in 1975, his son (蔣經國) who succeeded him began to allow more liberated cultural expression, evident in the development in the early 1980s of a new Taiwan cinema. • Hong Kong cinema's success led the Taiwanese government to promote film as an industry, which helped produce a renaissance of Taiwanese cinema. • Early examples of new Taiwanese cinema were government-financed but exhibited a freedom of expression and social criticism not evident before the 80s. • Taiwan cinema is "new" in that it carries out a rebellion against previous genre cinema (類型電影) and attempt to produce a socially critical and aesthetically innovative cycle of films appropriate to explore contemporary Taiwan society. • The new Taiwan cinema attempted to develop a new type of national Taiwanese cinema, which seeks to define Taiwanese history and identity and to deal with current social problems previously ignored or suppressed in the national cinema(國片) and in Taiwanese culture at large. • Many core Taiwanese new directors adapt nativist Literature鄉土文 學 to films: ingeniously contrasted local people with those arrived from abroad,describing their similarities and differences in terms of
Sandwich Man Themes
• All three of the short films: "The Son's Big Doll" 兒子的大玩偶, "Vicki's Hat"小琪的那頂帽子, "The Taste of Apples"蘋果的滋味 are based on stories of local Taiwanese writer Huang Chun-Ming 黄春明 about 1960s Taiwan. • The acting is very naturalistic 自然 in the first two films, and a little more melodramatic in the third, according well with its lighter, amusing tone. • All three films use numerous flashbacks, as a way to give background detail how it relates to the present situation of the characters. • The state of Taiwanese society changing at the time is clearly visible in all three stories.
Fifth Generation Films
• Beginning in the mid-late 1980s, the rise of the so-called Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers brought increased popularity of Chinese cinema abroad. • Most had graduated from the Beijing Film Academy since 1982. They accepted professional training in filming during the period when China first initiated its epoch-making reform and opening-up policy. After graduation, they worked with new passion and brought some new momentum into the Chinese film industry. • The first generation of filmmakers to produce Chinese films since the Cultural Revolution, they jettisoned traditional methods of storytelling with orthodox social function : "Art is serving for Politics" and opted for a more free and unorthodox aesthetics approach. • They are very keen on new expressive ways and new thoughts, striving to find a new angle for each of their movies. They have a fervent desire to explore the history of China's culture as well as the structure of the national psychology. • These films came with a new style of shooting as well, directors utilized extensive color and long shots. As a result of the new films being so intricate, the films were for more educated audiences than anything. • Extremely diverse in style and subject, the Fifth Generation directors' films ranged from black comedy, to the esoteric, but they share a common rejection of the socialist-realist tradition worked by earlier Chinese filmmakers in the Communist era. - The Fifth Generation movement effectively ended in the 1989 Tiananmen Incident, although its major directors continued to produce notable works. • It is this generation of directors that really brought Chinese films to the world stage. The directors' personal struggles, the successes of their movies, their popularity both in China and abroad, and even the process for them to be recognized (criticized at the beginning, before gradually being acknowledged and accepted) are also an epitome of the changes of their time.
Characteristics of Bruce Lee's film 2
• Bruce Lee as an Chinese Kung Fu icon: Kung-fu is no only skill but also a way of living to understand both himself and his life • Glorified the beauty of muscle, masculinity and physical strength • The films showed the "real" fight-performance by using a medium or long shot • The fighting seemed to become 'real'. For Lee the fight represented a ritual of self-affirmation to be a serious martial artist • In the films, Lee rejected women and love. His only love was Kung- fu and emotional isolation was seen as the price of being a Kung-fu master • Lee's films often adopted a high-pitched whine
A City of Sadness Themes
• City of Sadness is Hou's most ambitious feature film to date,and is the first Taiwanese film to achieve international critical celebration: Golden Lion Award at the 1989 Venice Film Festival. • It is the first Taiwanese film to broach the subject of the most traumatic experience in the nation's history, the February 28 Incident. This was a 1947 massacre by the Nationalist Party 國 民黨 which resulted in 18,000 to 28,000 casualties. • Using a Lin family (our brothers: 林文雄、文森、文良、文 清) as a matrix through which to filter the historical events at the moment of the founding of the nation (1945-1949), Hou re- presents Taiwanese history in both micro and macro perspectives. • The film's complex representation of history, combined with Hou's unique style in unravelling political taboo and his portrayal of family life, have provoked a critical debate among
Characteristics of Heroic image in Bruce Lee's film
• Construct the new Charismatic image of martial artist as a Self- fulfilled , stylistic Kung-fu master • Established the martial art films--Kung-fu films as the dominant genre of the 1970s • Bruce introduced a formidable martial arts skills:--- A unique weapon - the double-jointed pole (雙節棍) A unique Kung-fu- Jeet Kune Do (截拳道) A suggestive nickname- Three-legged Lee (李三腳) • To project a super human image, an invincible Kung-fu fighter--- an immortalized hero • Contain a certain anti-foreign sentiment in the films:---- Defeated Karate---to strike against the Japanese imperialism Defeated western Boxing--- to strike against the Western imperialism • Bruce Lee became an international legend, his name also became synonymous with Chinese Kung-fu
Yellow Earth Themes
• Describing the harsh conditions that not only resulted from unforgiving nature and political turmoil, but also from the burden of traditional Chinese culture---feudalistic thinking: conformist mentality, herd behaviour, conservatism. • Images of " Worship heaven, worship earth" and feudal tradition themes are powerfully integrated. • In landscape shots typically four-fifths of the frame is taken up by the yellow ground. The top fifth is left for the sky. Human figures sometimes walk along the line between earth and sky, overwhelmed in nature. • The final shot of Yellow Earth communicates a critical modernist vision of history by showing the inability of the people to come together and the absence of any vision of the future. • The Yellow Earth was a pioneer in the film exploration of so called "the search for roots" (Xungen). The fascination with cultural origins that might be free of Confucian and other orthodoxies was an indirect way of questioning the contemporary orthodoxy of Marxism
Horse Thief Synopsis
• Devout Buddhists, Norbu and Dolma live with their young son Tashi in a clan in Tibet. Norbu is a highwayman. Charged with stealing from the temple, inexplicable because he gives the temple most of his loot, he and his family are banished. • Impoverished and marginalized, they can do little when their beloved son becomes ill. Tashi dies of a fever. • After a second son is born, Norbu focuses his every action on keeping this child alive, seeking re-admission to the clan for his wife and child, then risking all to save them from isolation and starvation in winter. • Images of harsh landscapes, vultures, and prayer wheels carry a virtually wordless narrative.
The Terrorizers
• Directed by: Edward Yang
Sandwich Man
• Directed by: Hou Hsia-Hsien, Tseng Chuang-Hsiang, Wen Jen
Dust in the Wind
• Directed by: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Horse Thief
• Directed by: • Tian Zhuangzhuang • Cast:Rigzin Tseshang, Daiba, Jiji Dan, Drashi • Production Co.Xian Film Studio
Farewell my Concubine
• Directed by: Chen Kaige • Original Author: Lilllian Lee (Lei Bik- Wa) • Production Co.: Thomson Films • Cast: Leslie Cheung, Zhang Fengyi, Gong Li, Ge You
A City of Sadness
• Directed by: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
A Time to Live and a Time to Die
• Directed by: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Red Sorghum
• Directed by: Zhang Yimou • Production Co. Xi'an Film Studio • Cast: Gong Li, Jiang Wen, Ten Rujun
Raise the Red Lantern
• Directedby: Zhang Yimou • Cinematography:ZhaoFei • ProductionCo.:ChinaFilmCo- Production / ERA International • Cast:GongLi ,MaJingwu
Yellow Earth
• Directedby:ChenKaige • Starring : Xue Bai, Wang Xueqi, Tan Tuo • Cinematography Zhang Yimou • Production Co.Xian Film Studio
Farewell my Concubine Synopsis
• Farewell my Concubine' is based on a novel of the same name by Lilian Lee • Duan Xiao-lou and Cheng Die-yi are the fellow apprentices of a Peking Opera troupe. They grew up together. And they become the opera stars by performing their famous renditions of the opera 'Ba Wang Bie Ji' (Farewell My Concubine), with Xiao-lou in the role of the King and Die-yi playing the Concubine`their lives. • During the War of Resistance against Japan, Xiao-lou marries Ju-xian, a local prostitute. This makes Die-yi feel very lonely because he has always felt that his soul is attached to Xiao-lou, so he decides not to perform in the opera with him any more. • Long after, the political liberation comes; Die-yi and Xiao-lou decide to perform together on the stage again. However, the Great Cultural Revolution soon begins and they both fall into a state of terrible havoc. The revolution broke their performance again. • After some hard days, the revolution is over and they play this opera again
Little Toys Synopsis
• In the late 1920s a village woman's life is shaken by a series of tragedies indirectly caused by the development of the capitalist economy and the outbreak of war. A mother of two, Ye earns her living by making small toys which her husband sells in the town. • During a battle between warlords, her husband is killed, her son Yu'er is lost, and her village is practically destroyed. Ye and her daughter, Zhu'er, move to Shanghai and resume their business, but they can barely compete with the more modern and sophisticated toys produced overseas. Ye and her fellow workers help the Chinese troops fighting against the Japanese invasion of Shanghai. Zhu'er and her boyfriend are both killed. • Left completely alone, Ye sells her toys in the street. One day she meets again the son she had lost years before. Yu'er now lives with a rich businessman who had bought him from a child trader. Mother and son meet without realizing each other's true identity. • Not long after, frightened by some firecrackers which remind her of the bombing, Ye starts yelling at people urging them to wake up, react, and fight.
One and Eight Synopsis
• It is 1939, and the Red Army is deeply engaged in the war against the Japanese, which for the communist Chinese has been going on for many years. Though they are ostensibly allies, the Kuomintang armies under Chiang Kai-shek have done very little to oppose the invaders, so the battle is theirs. • In this story, nine men are being held prisoner by the army along the front lines. Three of them are ordinary "honest" thieves, one was caught spying, another poisoning, the third was accused of collaborating with the enemy because he alone survived when his unit was wiped out and the remaining three deserted from their units. • During a battle, when almost every one of the regular soldiers is killed, it is up to these prisoners to fight to help the army, or die. Led by the accused collaborator, they acquit themselves with great bravery. • This was the first film production of the Guanxi Film Studio in Naning, China, pre- dating the (1983) production Yellow Earth by some time; however official objections to portions of the storyline and consequent re-shooting and re-editing resulted in it not being released until 1987.
A Time to Live and a Time to Die Themes
• It is the second installment of Hou Hsiao-Hsien 's "Coming -of-Age Trilogy" (成長三部曲) that features three prominent Taiwanese screenwriters' coming-of-age stories. • The other two are: My summer at Granpa's 冬冬的假期(1984) inspired by the childhood memories of Chu Tien-Wen 朱天文 and Dust in the Wind 戀戀風塵 (1986) inspired by the coming-of-age story of Wu Nien-Jen 吳念真. • The film is not just Hou's personal memory, it records the collective memory of many residents on Taiwan. • The film captured the sense of what it was like to live at that time, as the kids develop their own sense of belonging, in a country they adopted just as it has adopted them. • Hou murmurs about time lost and time found, using cinema not as an amazing machine but as art.
Short biography of Jackie Chan
• Jackie Chan was born Chan Kong-sang on April 7, 1954, in Hong Kong, China. He began studying martial arts, drama, acrobatics, and singing at age seven. Once considered a likely successor of Bruce Lee in Hong Kong cinema, Chan instead developed his own style of martial arts blended with screwball physical comedy. He became a huge star throughout Asia and went on to have hits in the U.S. as well. • In the early 1990s, Chan broadened his range even more, turning in a rare dramatic performance in the melodramatic Crime Story (1993). He also made several sequels to his hits Police Story and Drunken Master. As one of the biggest international box office stars, his popularity in America was limited to the savviest filmgoers. • Chan's profile began a meteoric rise in the mid-1990s, however, when a series of events combined to bring him to the attention of a wider American audience.
Kung Fu Films
• Kung fu film (Chinese: 功夫片; pinyin: Gōngfu piàn) is a sub-genre of martial arts films武打片 and Hong Kong action cinema動作片 set in the contemporary period and featuring realistic martial arts. • It lacks the fantasy elements seen in wuxia武俠, a related martial arts that uses historical settings based on ancient China. Swordplay刀劍 is also less common in kung-fu films than in wuxia and fighting is done through unarmed combat. • Kung fu films are an important product of Hong Kong cinema and the West, where it was exported. Studios in Hong Kong produce both wuxia and kung fu films.
Yip Man Themes
• Never wanting to use his skill for personal gain, the disappearance of villagers and the general welfare of Ip's family leads him to enter the tournament. This film presents the story of a small town man becoming a national hero. • Ip Man 's character is introverted, aloof, and purposeful. • "I'm just a Chinese man," says Ip Man.He is the every-man of China, confronting the frightening reality of Japanese occupation with a tremendous gift, the ability to fight back.
Dust in the Wind Synopsis
• One of Hou's earliest commercial and critical successes, DUST IN THE WIND is the story of Wan亞雲 and Yuen亞遠, a young couple living in a small mining town九份 in Taiwan. • Tired of the demands of school and discontented with the limits of country life, the two quit school and move to Taipei, where they work menial jobs for little money. • The monotony of their lives is broken when Wan is drafted into the army - a fateful turn that alters their lives irrevocably. • Filled with grace, beauty, and bittersweet humor, the film is an engaging exploration of love, innocence, and the harsh realities of modern life.
Raise the Red Lantern Themes
• Oppressive system/rules in traditional Chinese family and marriage system. • Surveillance • Rituals/rules of family • Authoritative / male dominant power Lanterns cover in black: Permanent Demotion / never have chance to have offspring or heir Master Chen represents: • Patriarchal-feudual system • Paternity /privilege figure
The Goddess Synopsis
• Ruan Ling-yu plays a prostitute who uses her earnings to support and educate her son. The title of the film "The Goddess" was the Shanghai way of describing a woman who sells her body. • The heroine is forced to enter this oldest of professions as it is she only way for her and her child to survive and to provide for his education. One night she encounters a gangster as she flees from the police. He forces her to work for him, giving up her earnings at the end of each night. Yet she is able to hide some of her money in order to continue payments to her son's school. • The school board discovers her occupation, and the boy is expelled despite the pleading of the sympathetic headmaster. • When the gangster steals her money, the prostitute after a brief struggle kills him. She is sent to prison for 12 years.
Yellow Earth Synopsis
• Set in 1939, the film starts with a CCP military cadre, Gu Qing 顧 青 (Wang Xueqi王學圻), arriving in the Shanbei 陝北 area around Yanan延安to collect folk songs for the army to use, so that "the people will know why they are suffering, why their women are beaten, and why they should rise up." Gu Qing stays with the very poor family of an 47-year old widower (Tan Tuo), his 14-year-old daughter, Cuoqiao翠巧 (Xue Bai), and his younger son, Hanhan 憨 憨 (Liu Qiang). • While witnessing the harsh life of the local people, who believe that they are destined by their "fate," Gu describes to them an image of a different life in the south, where under the Communist regime arranged marriages have been banned and women there can cut their hair, fight against the Japanese, and can read and write. • Sharing the fate of many peasant girls, Cuiqiao has been betrothed訂婚(娃 娃親) to an older man she has never seen. Gu's stories of life in the south offer her hope of escaping, so she asks Gu Qing to take her to Yanan. Without knowing her real situation, Gu tells her that because of regulations he has to gain official permission first, then he will return to retrieve her. • After Gu leaves, Cuiqiao is forced to marry. In a desperate attempt to escape her torturous life, she sets out in search of the "other shore" by
The Fourth Generation
• The Fourth Generation also returned to prominence. Given their label after the rise of the Fifth Generation, these were directors whose careers were stalled by the Cultural Revolution and who were professionally trained prior to 1966.
The Terrorizers Themes
• The Terrorizers, a complex multi-narrative urban thriller that reflected on city life and that contained the crime elements and alienation themes of an Michangleo Antonioni(European art film director) film. • The film's main concern is with the interconnectedness of the modern life and how ever random actions reverberate throughout society. • The film's intersecting narrative constructs a peculiarly urban context epitomizing postmodern space, a series of boxlike packages tat contain, separate and isolate inhabitants. The grids and glass panel organizing social life in the allow chance encounters, forging unexpected connection. • The film has a story sense of contingency and chance, yet events unfold with a meticulous, fateful quality. Visual composition within the frame and the shot is similarly painstaking, indifferent to conventional plays of curiosity and suspense in commercial genres.
The decline of the 'New Wave' film in the mid-80's
• The changes in the mass tastes for commercial genre films, the reliance on big stars, heavy investments in trendy genre films. • All contributed to the production companies' neglected in fostering personal, unique creativity and their demands on a heavily packaged and calculated creative and production mode. • Film merchants tended to concentrate their investments on big productions of a few genres, film types tended to become homogeneous instead of multifarious. The audience tastes became typified. • The 'New Wave' films went into decline around 1984. it actually began when they joined the commercial currents, and their works started to show compromised standpoints.
Street Angel Theme
• The film captures the architecture of Shanghai modernity as literally upper and lower classes in its opening sequence. • The director utilizes song to convey messages as each song Xiaohong sings seems both to apply to the situation in the film while simultaneously hinting at the current crisis in China. E.g. The "Four Seasons Song" • The film is praised for its mix of melodrama and comedy showing the lives of lower classes e.g. prostitute (Xiao Yun), the drummer (Xiao Chen), the singer (Xiao Hong) etc. •The Realism in Street Angel is complemented by Soviet-style montage and by the original Hollywood melodrama of the same name. -The film is often considered one of the classics of the "Leftist" (左派) filmmaking period that reached its peak in the 1930s.
Street Angel Synopsis
• The film deals with two sisters, Xiao Hong (Zhou Xuan) and Xiao Yun (Zhao Huishen) who live under the brutal of their landlords. Xiao Yun has already been forced into prostitution while her sister serves as a teahouse singer. Soon the sisters realize that the landlords have decided to sell Xiao Hong to wealthy patron, whereupon they seek the aid of their neighbours, a street musician, Xiao Chen (Xhao Dan), and his misfit friends.
One and Eight Notes
• The film is set in the pre-revolutionary era (late 1930s) but use it as a metaphor to speak of the post-revolutionary era. • One and Eight prefigured many other fifth-generation films not simply in artistic terms, but in encountering problems with the censors. • The screen images in One and Eight reinforce its message: Close framing, sharp focus, visually striking and natural lighting enhance "terseness" (jianlian簡練) of the film. • The first major fifth-generation film relates the theme and impact of the film to the background of its makers. The theme that labels of criminality and honour matter less than a shared humanity has considerable post-Cultural Revolution (後文化大革命) relevance. • The film reflects the new irrelevance of the Communist Party. For young people in particular, the Cultural Revolution's denial of a human nature that transcended class differences (階級差別) was nonsense.
Farewell my Concubine Themes
• The film spans the decades from the 1920s to the 1970s, presenting the changing relationship between two Beijing opera performers: Cheng Dieyi (Douzi 豆子) and Duan Xiaolou Shitou • The film made for Beijing Film studio with finance from Hong Kong and starring Gong Li, dealt with sensitive issues: homosexuality, opium addiction, prostitution, Cultural Revolution. • The relationship between Cheng Dieyi and Duan Xiaolou makes the film a homosexual love story. But the main attraction is: Beijing Opera setting and the violence of the Cultural Revolution over its gay subtext. • The combination of the theatricality of the opera world (The suicide of the loyal concubine and the noble general王) and the gender confusion*, of the central character actualize the complicated relation between Drama and Reality.
The characteristics of 'New Wave' films in the 80s (Continued)
• The films could show the directors' "person vision and unique modes of expression." The styles of directors were the focus point of film discussion. • The new wave was rooted in Hong Kong and reflected Hong Kong culture. The New wave films also represented 'the aesthetics of a group of new middle-class Hong Kong intellectuals'. • Many of the directors had a broader vision than their older colleagues, having studied abroad and experienced other cultures in Europe or in the US. Some consciously looked for cross-cultural subjects and setting for their stories. e.g. Tsui Hark, Patrick Tam. • The 'New Wave' directors were the first to attach such importance to factors like art direction, composed music and sound quality. Occasionally emphasizing them over the actual story. e.g. Patrick Tam's 'Love Massacre'.
Dust in the Wind Theme
• The movie works for reality to transform it to beauty. • One can feel how to banality of everyday slowly fixates itself in eternity, one can see the evitable, the beauty in every small detail • Humanity is its true form in the movie, going around like lost and innocent children, and there's no evil. • The arrangements of scenes and reactions of characters suggest that whatever happens is unimportant in the cosmic order of things; life will go on anyway.
Red Sorghum Synopsis
• The story is told from the first person's points of view. • The film takes place in a rural village in China's eastern province of Shandong during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It is narrated from the point of view of the protagonist's grandson, who reminisces about his grandmother, Jiu'er 九兒.She was a poor girl who was sent by her parents into a pre-arranged marriage with an old man, Li Datou 李大 頭, who owns a distillery. • One of his crew in the sorghum winery Zhan'ao Yu 余占鰲, being bold, Stouthearted and brave, taken away Jiu'er's virginity in the broomcorn field when she came back to her parent's home. They finally became a couple and made out a well-known kind of wine. • Then the Japanese army came, Slaughtering and snatching the village, and provoked deep hatred among the people in the sorghum winery. • In the broomcorn field, they ambuscaded the Japanese army, Jiu'er
The characteristics of 'New Wave' films in the 80s
• The subjects, concepts even cinematic techniques of the 'New Wave' films all denoted a locally oriented development in Hong Kong films. • The director as an 'author' could be able to express his personal vision through his work, as opposed to those passive scene-organizers who usually merely turned the script into images. • The directors showed more confidence in cinematic form and better awareness of contemporary humour and the young audience. • A lot creative freedom and local culture reflected in the works of 'New Wave' directors. • All the new film makers shared the common experience of those formative years in television training.
The Goddess Theme
• The title conveys the sense of duplicity: "Divine Woman" "Streetwalking prostitute" • Double Life of the protagonist: - On her daytime as a virtuous mother in single-room dwelling (private region) - On her night time as prostitute in street corner, tight alleyway (public region) • The goddess's maternal virtue : sacrifices everything for her child's future - the ideal woman according to Confucian values. • The director condemns the paternity. (e.g. The crook), hypocrisies of neighbours, parents, children and the justice system. • The director allows us to understand The Goddess in 2 ways: - The narrative affirms the maternal aspirations of this sympathetic female protagonist and enacts a final punishment for the fallen woman. - Social convention is not always reliable or just.
Sandwich Man Synopsis
• The year 1983 marked the beginning of a new era for Taiwan cinema. It was in that year that Hou made a short feature, The Sandwich Man, about the hardships of life in the country as Taiwan was rapidly becoming industrialized. • This film and two other Segments (Vicky's Hat 小琪的那頂小帽 by Wan Jen 萬 仁 and The Taste of Apples 蘋果的滋味 by Tseng Chuang-Hsiang 曾壯祥) represented a significant breakthrough in Taiwan's film history, and launched a new wave of filmmaking that would later be called Taiwan's New Cinema 台灣新電影. • In The Sandwich Man, a young father has to take a humiliating job, wearing two advertising boards, like "a sandwich man.活動廣告人 " He has the job for so long that even his son fails to recognize him without his costume on.
The Rise of the 'New Wave' Films in the 80s: (Continued)
• These young filmmaker's efforts contributed to the modernization of Hong Kong cinema. Improved qualities, techniques and plots could be seen in many new films. • A group of cultured people and reviewers began to use the terms 'New Wave' borrowed from the French "Nouvelle Vague" of 1959, applying to works which were unconventional so as to differentiate them from Hong Kong films of the past. • Many film magazines included Film Biweekly/City Entertainment ( started from 1979) went to great lengths in reporting the new works of these local directors indirectly propagating the appearance in numbers of ' New Wave' films and the directors' popularity.
The influences of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan's Kung-fu films
• They can become an emblem of Hong Kong itself • They revived Chinese martial arts films as the dominant and admirable genre films in the world • Bruce and Jackie both created a charismatic image of Kung-fu fighters: one glowering menacingly, the other comically cute • Transforming the status of Chinese martial arts actor to a level of superstar • Promoting the superiority of Chinese Martial Arts • Lee and Chan epitomized energy and vitality of Hong Kong Cinema and its creativity.
Little Toys Theme
• This early film promotes nationalism and patriotism at a time when China faced the threat of economic, cultural and military imperialism. • Guns and soldiers toys Vs War Weapons Local toys Vs Foreign toys (An allegory on the war Chinese Vs Japan) •The characters themselves are mere toys in the hands of Fate • The spirit of the film in its frequent and undisguised nationalistic appeals.
A Time to Live and a Time to Die Synopsis
• This film is Hou Hsiao-Hsien's autobiography. The time is from the late 1950's to the 1960's. Ah Hao's entire family just moved to Taiwan, thinking about staying here for a while. • His grandmother thinks Ah Hao阿哮咕 is a special child and loves him very much. She says:" This boy will have a grand future." Ah Hao has one older brother, two younger brothers and a very beautiful older sister. • His father always dreamed returning to the Mainland, but he dies at the time Ah Hao finished grade school. When Ah Hao is in senior high, his sister gets married. He joins a gang. One day, while he is preparing weapons for the unusual fight with another gang, his mother dies. • As Ah Hao is growing up, with the deaths of his parents and grandmother, we see an end to the nostalgic era of the past and the beginning of a new one.
Horse Thief Themes
• Tian in fact regarded the Tibetan setting as incidental. The film as a portrait of the nation's backwardness, hardships, dignity and aspirations. • The images of Horse Thief direct us to consider themes beyond the immediate purview of ethnic minorities. Tian took a special interest in 3 relationships: humans and nature, humans and the goods, perhaps most important: humans and society. • Life and society before and or at least somewhat those distortions of civilizations (Confucianism, feudalism, Marxism, Leninism) are central concerns of Tian Zhuangzhuang. • Tian's preference is to rely on images be felt "strong" (qianglie) rather than dialogue is natural in settings where the characters lead relatively simple lives and speak a foreign language.
The influence of 'New Wave' films and directors
• To technicalize and modernize the visual images of Hong Kong films, the new directors absorbed modern Western film technique to construct the film stories. • Each director went his or her own way, building up directors as 'authors' and their individual styles. • Reforming traditional themes and genres, and transforming them into new films, interest and value systems. • The individual directors of the Hong Kong 'New Wave' particularly concerned the contemporary social reality of Hong Kong. e.g. Allen Fong, Ann Hui. • The films showed the bravery and creativity of the directors. They could work with diverse forces within the industry. The films emitted a strong sense of Hong Kong cultural belonging.
Economic and Political Background of Shanghai in the 1930s
• Upper class Vs unprivileged class: social inequality • China lost sovereignty/autonomy • Colonized by different countries( lots of concession areas • Unemployment problems, lost confidence of governmental policy, corruption •Invasion of Japanese economic and military forces •Modernized Capitalist economy>Traditional agricultural economy • "Non-resistence Policy" To resist foreign aggression, there must be internal stability • KMT(KuoMinTang)(Nationalparty) Vs CCP (Chinese Communist part) • Political satire indifferent media (films)
Main characteristics of Hou Hsaio-Hsien's Films and style
• Use nativist fiction writers or scriptwriters Chu Tien- Wen, Wu Nien-Chen to explore the island's social problems and local histories • Use long shots and static images to investigate Taiwan's rural and colonial past. • Stories are personal, autographical, centered on the 'everydayness" of Taiwanese( from rural 50s' changes to urban 80s') life. • Use of multiple dialects e.g. Min Nan (Southern Min \ Hokkien) • Pursue " normative realism "which focused on local histories and Taiwanese experiences. • Relatively non-commercial orientation
Main characteristics of Edward Yang films
• Yang's seven feature films, united by his particular visual style (deliberate pacing, long takes, fixed camera, few closeups, empty spaces, cityscapes) • Subject matter :the impact of the changes of Taiwanese society on the middle classes • Focused on the underside of urban life: alienation, loneliness , incommunicable relations
Raise the Red Lantern Notes
• Zhang Yimou explores the complexities of oppression in traditional Chinese family and marriage system. • The relations between the four women: The first wife, second wife, third wife and fourth wife: 頌蓮( 19-year-old college student) are fraught with jealousies, sensitivity to slights, and their perceptions of their own proper roles in the household of Chen Zuoqian 陳佐千. • The wives are collaborators (同謀者) in oppression of other and of themselves. • Chen mansion is more than the setting for the narrative. Its walls, doorways, courtyards and roofs are filmed with a formalism 形式主義 and stasis停滯 that reinforces their function of separating and confining the people within them. • The nightly raising of the red lanterns is carefully documented, punctuating the story with its rituals. • Raise the Red Lantern is as much about collaboration in oppression as about the whither何去何從 of the human spirit under an oppressive
Short Biography of Bruce Lee
•Bruce Lee was born on November 27, 1940, in San Francisco, California. He was a child actor in Hong Kong who later returned to the U.S. and taught martial arts. He starred in the TV series The Green Hornet (1966-67) and became a major box office draw in The Big Boss and Fists of Fury. •By the end of 1972, Lee was a major movie star in Asia. He had co-founded with Raymond Chow his own company, Concord Productions, and had released his first directorial feature, Way of the Dragon. •Shortly before the release of his film Enter the Dragon, he died at the age of 32 on July 20, 1973.
Raise the Red Lantern Synopsis
•China in the 1920s. After her father's death, nineteen year old Songlian is forced to marry Chen Zuoqian, the lord of a powerful family. Fifty year old Chen has already three wives(The First Mistress, Yuru, The Second Mistress, Zhuoyun, the Third Mistress, Meishan) each of them living in separated houses within the great castle. •The competition between the wives is tough, as their master's attention carries power, status and privileges. •The red lanterns, hung outside the suite of whichever wife is currently the object of the master's attentions, are an index of power; and Songlian, determined to wrest control from her rivals, feigns pregnancy. But the real power, of course, lies with the master, and the women's in-fighting yields tragic results.
Red Sorghum Themes
•Colour is a central, coded element of the film with symbolic meaning. • Red symbolizes: The passions of the heroes, The primitive vitality of their life, Their deaths in the struggle to defend their home. •The attractions of the films: Passionate love story between Jiu'er (Sorghum winery mistress), and Zhan'ao Yu (Sorghum winery crew). The stunning images ( e.g. Sorghum, wine ceremony). A series of joyful folk-style songs: " Northern Shaan'xi folk songs. •This story-telling drew upon a long cultural tradition of male chauvinism
Global influence of Kung Fu films
•The competing Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest studios entered Western markets in the 1970s by releasing dubbed kung fu films in the United States and Europe. Films like The Big Boss (Fists of Fury) and King Boxer (Five Fingers of Death) were box office successes in the West. •By the 1980s and 1990s, American cinema had absorbed the martial arts influences of Hong Kong cinema.The Matrix, directed by the Wachowskis, was choreographed by martial arts director Yuen-Wo Ping. •Martial arts stars like Jackie Chan and Jet Li left Hong Kong to star in American films.
The Black Cannon Incident Synopsis
•Zhao (Liu Zifeng) is a business translator who is demoted when a chess piece referred to as the "black cannon" in his letter is mistaken to be a weapon. He is pulled off an assignment that would send him to Germany, and an incompetent replacement kills the company's multi-million dollar deal. Although he proves the incident was a mistake due to another translator, Zhao becomes the victim of an unflinching bureaucracy and political ideology that hampers his once-promising career.
