Time Network feature The current China movies are called "golden opportunity period" by some people, which is quite accurate, but the unmistakable reality is that we are throwing this wonderful time with great energy.
As for the golden age of China films, in my opinion, there are two periods. The first film started with 1930, Sun Yu's pioneering work "Dream of the Old Capital", and ended with 1937, the pinnacle of China's early audio film "Street Angel". The second golden period is more complicated, but deeper.
Hong Kong is a new wave of Hong Kong films initiated by directors such as Yim Ho, Tsui Hark and Xu Anhua, while Taiwan Province Province is a new movement of Taiwan Province films founded by Hou Xiaoxian, Yang Dechang and wangtong.
On the mainland side, a whole set of film language exploration from the inside out was completed by the fourth and fifth generation directors, and the time was from 1979 to 1989. This is a collective explosion of China films at the end of the Cold War. Its most prominent feature is to give the world a new understanding of oriental films. Not only these young or not-so-young filmmakers, their audio-visual system has been highly bordered by the world cognitive field consciously or unconsciously. What's more, in these thoughtful and targeted Chinese films, we can get a glimpse of past lives, an ancient nation, whose attitude is often that the government and the people are not divided, and a macho man plunged into their dream of home and country that has been consistent so far.
Among them, Zhang Yimou's first experimental film "Red Sorghum" took the lead in reaching the peak of the international stage and won the Golden Bear Award, which was also known as the West Berlin International Film Festival at that time. That year, Zhang Yimou ushered in the third year of his life. Jiang Wen happens to be the second animal year. Gong Li was in her prime at the age of 22. Photography Gu Changwei is in his thirties, and the famous musician Zhao Jiping is in his early forties.
From now on, Red Sorghum is an extremely young and quite mature film. At that time, people were more willing to regard it as a "long face" movie for China people. Based on this, this art film has also been warmly welcomed by the market. This also applies to "The City of Sorrow", which won the Golden Lion Award in Venice and a high box office in Taiwan Province province. It is not difficult to see that people go to the movies not only to appreciate the ups and downs of people's hearts when light and shadow shake, but also to prove a potential national identity. Later, as China's films were frequently praised in the world film industry, people were not surprised and returned to the original viewing inertia.
It should be said that the biggest beneficiary of the great success of Red Sorghum is Zhang Yimou, an overage student of the 78 Photography Department of Beijing Film Academy. He can be said to be the first director in China who has a wide star effect (excluding super celebrities such as Shi Hui, Jinshan, Cui Wei, Jackie Chan, Stephen Chow and Jiang Wen). For a time, his experience and his scandal became a hot topic in people's street talk. And every film he directed or starred in later attracted much attention.
Even Zhang Yimou himself didn't expect that he became the first winner of Tokyo International Film Festival because of the role of Sun Mong Kok in Old Well. But at the same time, Zhang Yimou obtained the film adaptation right of Red Sorghum from Mo Yan with 800 yuan RMB. Chen Jianyu, then director of Fujian Film Studio, and Zhu Wei, later editor-in-chief of Sanlian Life Weekly, jointly wrote this book, and Mo Yan also participated in it for the sake of Shandong folk customs. It was with Mo Yan's help that the local county party committee approved five tons of chemical fertilizer, which made the withered sorghum field grow again. Gu Changwei's visual presentation of sorghum directly draws lessons from Caneto's Ghost Girl. That piece is full of imaginative restoration of women's bodies, so the straw swaying in the wind in Red Sorghum also shines with women's light.
Mo Yan also invited the crew to his hometown in Gaomi, Shandong Province for dinner during filming. At that time, Mo Yan was worried that Gong Li was not qualified to play the role of Jiu-Er. In Mo Yan's view, Gong Li is a business school, with no rusticity. After seeing the movie, Mo Yan admitted that his judgment was wrong.
I watched Gong Li's TV series Summer Story Before Red Sorghum in my early years. She plays a governess. At first glance, her European-style figure is very eye-catching. When she is not smiling, she is more moving than when she is clever. She has a cold and hard posture that is rare among domestic actresses. When Zhang Yimou was choosing actors in the Central Academy of Drama, he wandered between Gong Li and Shi Ke. Both of them have tall and straight, plump and impolite sentences that are rare among oriental women, and there is some murderous look in their brow. Rumor has it that when they were deadlocked, they decided who would appear on the screen by guessing coins, and finally decided Gong Li. Privately, Gong Li, a native of Shandong Province, gave her a narrow victory.
For a long time, no matter the main creator in Zhang Yimou's movies changed one after another, his former lover Gong Li remained firm. Gong Li also won the Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for her performance in The Story of Autumn Chrysanthemum. Regardless of her identity and appearance, Gong Li will always be a beautiful, stubborn, affectionate and ready to do whatever she wants in Zhang Yimou's films, but many times it will not end well. It is from the radiant characters in Gong Li that people seem to see the "fear" and "love" of this generation.
Red Sorghum is also permeated with such "fear" and "love". The original name of the film was 1999 to kill the mouth, and finally the original name was adopted. This is a murder movie, and many people died, including Jiu-Er's ex-husband, the shopkeeper who loved her, and the bandits suspected of having an affair with Jiu-Er. In such a film packed with anti-Japanese themes, the breath of hormones is shaken by waves of yellow sand.
In Zhang Yimou's view, this is a film full of Dionysian spirit and vitality. But in the eyes of others, those cotton crotch pants that don't need belts actually have a post-colonial tendency through the imaginary brewing process. This statement has been widely circulated in academic circles for a long time, and now, few people have mentioned it again. However, for the vigorous film movement inspired by the fifth generation directors, many people think that Red Sorghum is the end of a virtual fire.
If the fifth generation is keen on cultural reflection, root-seeking consciousness, and the resulting patricide complex, it can actually be found in Red Sorghum. Perhaps "Red Sorghum" is too exultant and lacks the sense of hardship of heavy self-cutting. Or red sorghum, white sun and other scenery are too bright and dazzling, dragging the fifth generation's most proud image aesthetics into a dead end.
Others were dissatisfied with the film Exploration on the Ivory Tower, which was supported by the broad audience. They think it is a kind of conformity, a kind of speed. When Jiang Wen's singing "Sister, Go Forward Boldly" soon spread all over the streets, some people were saddened and said that this was a decline in artistic character. It has even been pointed out that the film has gone from respecting the land to praising life. The strength of personality shown in the film is an ideal state divorced from reality and life, and it is difficult to see the other side. But perhaps because of this, the explosion and rise of life can only become a seemingly endless carnival in image.
Since then, Zhang Yimou has never made such a "Ode to Joy" film as Red Sorghum. His later films should be said to be more grounded and depressed. What remains unchanged is Zhang Yimou's fascination with vision. And in "Red Sorghum", the woman who is uneasy in the room and ready to have an affair. Matching her is a surly and incompetent husband, and another weak and tenacious man, Yu Zhanao (Jiang Wen), who has never been able to stage a heroic drama to save the United States.
This bloody love triangle is the ending of Jiu-Er's filming Red Sorghum, and Zhang Yimou's creation is a duet of derailment and assassination. Chrysanthemum beans, red lanterns hung high, shook, shook to Waipoqiao, the city was full of golden flowers, and three shots were taken by surprise. Even talking well and returning were so depressed and lost. In this way, Red Sorghum is like a dream of Zhang Yimou, and his later works are all influenced by his profound and powerful inquiry into the pervasive reality.