In recent years, Chinese cinema has experienced a spectacular boom, as much by the artistic and commercial ambitions of its productions as by the number of its spectators moving in the rooms newly built big cities. At the same time, thanks to the openness and advances in new digital technologies like DVD and the Internet, ancient Chinese films can now be viewed. Many films long considered missing or inaccessible are available for both Chinese and foreign audiences.
This access to old movies, but also written sources like press articles, film posters, various texts, a widening favored the development of knowledge. From Shanghai cinema of the 1930s to Hong Kong cinema of the 1950s or 1960s, in passing through Taiwanese cinema, it is the whole history of Chinese cinema which opened up, widely modifying the Manichean vision prevalent. A visit to real-123movies.com makes things perfect.
Nourished by foreign sources
Heir to an art born outside borders where it flourishes itself, Chinese cinema is in the image of Chinese society itself. This, in turn, opens to the outside or folds in on itself. The cinema, incontestably, undergoes, during its history, various foreign influences often difficult to detect with sharpness, although at certain times those of the American and then Soviet cinemas are obvious. However, he is constantly looking for an identity of his own.
After having almost disappeared during the Cultural Revolution with the exception of a few revolutionary ballets, we are witnessing a production freeze, Chinese cinema was reborn in the mid-1980s, carried by a new generation of filmmakers revealed on the international scene by festivals (Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige). The star system, which was one of the aspects of Shanghai cinema in the 1930s, then came back in force, thanks in particular to Gong Li. If the tragic events of Tiananmen in 1989 broke this momentum of openness, they would allow a new generation of filmmakers, marked by this drama, to record the recent changes in social life in China, consequences of the opening of the world of work to the laws of the market. Jia Zhangke is the leader of this current which, in the wake of the elders, has helped to restore Chinese cinema to a central place within the Asian cinema.
The difficult penetration of an imported industry
Which country could have been better prepared to receive the cinematograph than that of the “Chinese shadows”? As well it is designated in China by coining the word denying, which means “electric shadows”. The first film screened in the country was in Shanghai on August 11, 1896. The large port, open to all foreign influences a determining factor was therefore hardly behind Paris.
It gave rise to the following proverb: Each person has his share of responsibility in the destiny of the country. By combining historical mission and artistic appeal, this film on family ethics has reached the status of an epic. This phenomenon reflects the influence of modern Chinese literature and that of the theatrical tradition in place. The narrative style, reminiscent of the tradition of Chinese storytellers, has been and is still appreciated by the Chinese public who attaches more importance to the description of human aspects of its historical heritage than to aesthetic imagery.
