text | Linghu Boguang
Are Chinese movies always in decline?
The answer is on the contrary, it is going uphill.
To put it simply: Chinese films have never solved the problem of balancing literary and artistic films and commercial films, and the forces caused by the history behind them are also very complicated.
8 The peak of Chinese-language films in the 1990s (even stronger than Hong Kong's in the 1970s): Hong Kong films were strong in commercial films. Except for animation and certain themes, they were not as good as Japanese films. To some extent, they were number one in Asia and second in the world, only inferior to Hollywood commercial films. At that time, mainland China was strong in literary and artistic films. Although Taiwan is also market-oriented, it is also strong in artistic films and commercial films are average.
After the wto in 2001: the local markets of Hong Kong and Taiwan declined simultaneously, and all the mainland markets were in a state of convergence. This was a transitional period. Hong Kong and Taiwanese films are no longer at their peak, but they still have Galaxy images, with strong films such as "Infernal Affairs" and "Kung Fu". Taiwanese films are weak, but youth films and romance films are still strong. Mainland art films have transitioned to sixth-generation directors (international award-winning) , the fifth generation of directors represented by Zhang Yimou leads the era in shooting commercial blockbusters.
After 2012: The darkest era for Chinese-language films. From the perspective of power alone, they are very fragmented. To what extent?
Regarding commercial films, Taiwan has made a lot of goofy youth films and romance films, while Hong Kong has made a lot of bad police and gangster films and costumed fantasy films. In comparison, Zhang Yimou and other major mainland directors are pretty good (the bottom line is high) point), the most important thing is that the entry of financial capital into the cultural industry has given rise to the freak economy of traffic. The three old forces are converging on this point.
Tsui Hark and Stephen Chow used Fanfan in "Journey to the West", Feng Xiaogang used Fengfeng Fanfan in "Old Paoer", etc. Zhang Yimou has always been market-oriented. Behind "Tiny Times" are Taiwanese capital and producers.
The most important thing is that in this era, even literary and artistic films are not good. If you don’t believe me, can you recall whether there are any seventh-generation mainland directors? Who is the leader of mainland art films in this decade? What contributions have they made (Diao Yinan, Cao Baoping, and Cheng Er are generally considered to be the sixth generation, or the latter half of the generation).
After 2019: New forces of young people in the mainland have risen in an all-round way and have begun to replace the great directors represented by RTHK and Zhang Yimou.
commercial blockbuster Wu Jing, Guo Fan, Xu Zheng, Dapeng, Chen Sicheng, Han Han and others are represented (regardless of good or bad). Literary film Bi Gan, Wei Shujun, Gu Xiaogang and the front team supported a vote of newcomers as representatives. Although Hong Kong and Taiwan directors are still there in this era, just like Zhang Yimou and other older generation mainland directors.
However, it is becoming more and more obvious that the three new forces of young people in the mainland are converging, such as Ning Hao, Xu Zheng supporting Wen Muye, needless to say young directors such as "All or Nothing". Although Chen Sicheng himself is controversial, he has basically supported all the newcomers in domestic suspense and mystery commercial films. Han Yan, the director of "Shaking the Sun", supported the director of "Life Events", Guo Fan supported the director of "Space Exploration Editorial Department", etc.
Even Han Han supported Liu Xunzimo in "Famous".
There are many other examples. In this era, the rise of young directors in mainland China is very obvious.
Of course, the shortcomings are also very obvious. Commercial blockbusters have obviously not reached the glory of Hong Kong commercial films, and the art of literary films does not have the achievements of the fifth and sixth generations in Chinese film art. If calculated from the era, The two films "Wolf Warrior" and "The Wandering Earth" are largely the same as "Police Story" and "The True Colors of a Hero" from Hong Kong movies in the 1980s. In fact,
has gone much further from an industrial perspective, but from a film history perspective, the latter is still representative to a certain extent, but it is not mature yet. Overall, it feels like something is missing.
In general, if you recommend the domestic dramas " The Long Season ", "The Ming Dynasty under the Microscope", "Hurry", " Three Body ", "Moses on the Plain", etc.; the animations "Spirit Cage" and "Mortal" " Chang'an Thirty Thousand Miles ", etc., games such as "Genshin Impact", "Black Myth", etc. The rise of young mainland creators in the new era is obvious and seems unstoppable.
But at present, the overall situation is still a bit unable to go up or down.
While the box office is high, the audience is ridiculing? When will Chinese-language films be able to "export culture"
In fact, when Hong Kong film and television culture was able to go international, in addition to self-efforts and excellence (this cannot be denied), it also opened up Sino-US cooperation, and in 2001 signed the WTO and entered the World Expo (U.S. anti-terrorism ) The overall background of this Sino-US alliance is. The context is different now.
China is supporting Douyin, and Aiyouteng’s own platform has gone global (currently Southeast Asia is good). Other regions are still dominated by the United States, and the United States mainly suppresses Chinese platforms and culture.
Speaking of mainland pop culture itself, Hong Kong and Taiwan collectively moved northward after 2001. In 2012, "囧囧" ushered in an era of box office boom, but it also fell into the quagmire of the flow economy of the Internet and financial capital under neoliberalism. The film and television works of those years Nope. Strictly speaking, 2017 " Wolf Warrior 2" became a clear watershed. 2019 "Wandering Earth" almost marked the official end, and then encountered the epidemic for three years.
No matter how you calculate it, it only took 6 years from 2017 to 23, and only 4 years from 19 to 23, which is not as long as imagined.
In terms of mainland pop culture, 2023 is a great year. There are literary films such as "Universe Exploration Editorial Department" and "The Mistake on the River", commercial blockbusters "The Wandering Earth 2", "Fengshen" and "Chang'an 30,000 Miles", and there are also some outstanding ones. Commercial films such as "Keep You Safe", "Hot", "The Third Brigade", etc. This is just like domestic dramas, not to mention the unfinished "Kurst", but also "The Three-Body Problem", "The Long Season", "The Ming Dynasty under the Microscope", "Under the City" and so on.
said so much, you don’t have to like it, there are definitely many works that you can’t get. Even strictly speaking, if we copy the GDP era, Hong Kong’s per capita average of US$10,000 was probably between 1976 and 1980. The work is "Police" "Story", "A Better Tomorrow" and "A Chinese Ghost Story".
You may also think that "Wolf Warrior 2" and "The Wandering Earth" are not comparable. The main problem is that development is linear. According to the mainland audience voting with their feet this year, in the future, as long as they can contribute works such as "The Wandering Earth" every year, they will be like next year's game "Black Myth Wukong", the animation "Nezha 2", what foreign countries Whether it's a hit or not, the Chinese audience probably doesn't care.
40 years of open cooperation, the accumulation of trial and error, such a huge trial and error experience, no country and market can compare with China. At present, the West is declining, Hong Kong and Taiwan are declining, and Japan and South Korea are also declining (the last highlight of the Japanese drama around 2010) , only China is still full of vitality, emerging from the cocoon, and has more room for trial and error, but the price is gradually not being paid by a relevant state department.
In the past three years, every time central-level policies and guidelines on literature and art are promulgated, local and individual film and television productions will "consciously" bury countless works. Three years ago, many bigwigs from Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan clamored that if it were not for the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television of the Communist Party of China, With my own skills, I can make as many billions as I want in mainland China.
can only train mainland rookies now. After their training, these mainland rookies can earn hundreds of millions of points through the video network. Are there still people clamoring for it now?
From the quality of film and television works to whether they are loved by the audience, the most important thing is the film and television works themselves! The audience's aesthetics are not deteriorating, but they are just helplessly "degenerated" by being passively degraded by film and television dramas. There is a basic logical problem here. The audience is the audience, and there is no choice in what film and television works to watch.
On TV, on the Internet, in self-media and even on mobile phones, what can be seen is what is seen. It is not what I want to see, the connotation, level, plot, etc., unless I can see it in the AI era. I write, direct, act and watch on my own machine. Therefore, the audience’s aesthetics are not deteriorating, but the general public seems to be deteriorating from the perspective of degraded film and television dramas.
Compared with "cultural export", Chinese movies have more important things
In fact, I have always felt why we should talk about cultural export, and why should we think so highly of people in the entertainment industry? How many people really pursue their dreams and ideological heights? Most of them just think about gaining fame and wealth, and now they can't even "serve the public".
Directors change. Zhang Yimou, who was once unknown, may have really wanted to realize his dream of being a director and let the world remember him through his works. However, as he grows older, gets immersed in the entertainment industry, and the voices around him change, Due to changes and threats from rising stars, it is normal for him to change his original intention.
I don’t understand why there are so many Chinese directors and Chinese audiences are so obsessed with foreign awards. Foreign film festivals such as Oscars, Cannes, Berlin, and Venice are, after all, the home ground of foreigners. Actors who want to become best actors and actresses still have to To put it simply, after all, the evaluation standards for acting skills are similar all over the world, but it is too difficult to win awards in the director category or even the work category.
After all, the culture of each country is different. It is impossible for every judge to understand our culture and thoughts, which will inevitably lead to disadvantages in chasing awards. Ang Lee is different from Zhang Yimou. Ang Lee has lived abroad all year round and has in-depth cooperation with foreign countries. He naturally has a better understanding of foreigners' preferences, so it is naturally easier to make films that appeal to foreigners.
Don’t Zhang Yimou understand this? Of course he understood, but for the sake of fame and fortune, he did not hesitate to change the core idea of the film and tried hard to get closer to the West, but he did not completely abandon our own ideas. In the end, the film became completely different, Westerners looked down upon it, and it was also criticized in China.
Many Chinese directors' movies are like this, commercial movies like Jia Ling, Chen Sicheng, Happy Twist, needless to say.
I have always believed that culture has national boundaries. The culture and collective thinking of each country are different. The typical relationship between individuals and collectives is the difference between us and others. If you want others to recognize you, you must Abandoning our ideas is dangerous and will make their cultural invasion even more intense.
If you don’t change this core idea, it will be difficult to win awards; if you have no artistic pursuits, it will be easy to win box office, but it will be difficult to win reputation. How to balance is the key, but it is obvious that many Chinese directors do not have that ability.
Looking at the current situation of Chinese films, it is true that Guo Fan’s generation of down-to-earth, hard-working, hard-working and humble directors are the future. When we are all directors like Guo Fan, Zhang Yimou and Hong Kong and Taiwan directors completely retire and support more outstanding young actors such as Zhu Yilong (Wu Jing’s generation is not young anymore).
By then, Jia Ling, Chen Sicheng and Kaixin Mahua will be the same, and they will make good movies even if they can’t survive.
When the time comes, Chinese movies will still talk about cultural export. If the Chinese audience is well served and the artistic level is in place, it will be fine.
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