Chinese film

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The term Chinese film is used to summarize the art of film produced in China . The Chinese name diànyǐng ( 电影 ) literally means "electric shadow" and thus refers to the long tradition of Chinese shadow play that preceded cinema as a narrative medium.

Themes and genres

Chinese cinema turns to the issues of internal family relationships and food to a much greater extent than in European and American cinema . The former dominates throughout the first phase of Zhang Yimou's work with films like Red Lantern or Life! , in the films by Zhang Yang ( Shower ) or Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman , which is dedicated to both topics. Hong Kong, on the other hand, contributes comedies like God of Cookery by Stephen Chow .

In other respects, too, Hong Kong's strength lies clearly in genre cinema . Here was and is the center of the Chinese genres Kungfu and / or Wuxia film . Action cinema received strong impulses from directors and producers such as the Johnnies Woo and To , especially in the 80s and 90s , who created classics out of time with The Killer and Running .

The films from the People's Republic, on the other hand, generally have higher cinematic demands and find their way to the West primarily through international film festivals . These can be mysterious love films like Suzhou River or hard, realistic dramas like Blinder Schacht , which take up socially explosive issues.

In historical dramas with a Wuxia touch, such as Peking Opera Blues or classics like Farewell, My Concubine , the classic Peking Opera is played, which is also successfully integrated into the film dramaturgy in the ghost comedy Hocus Pocus .

Stars and actors

The Chinese cinema brought stars like Cheng Pei-pei , Gong Li , Zhang Ziyi , Brigitte Lin , Anita Mui or Maggie Cheung , the Chinese domain of martial artists like Bruce Lee , Jackie Chan , Sammo Hung , Michelle Yeoh , Jet Li and die Jack of all trades Andy Lau , Chow Yun-Fat , Leslie Cheung . While the stars used to be made in Hong Kong, there are now more and more internationally successful actors from the People's Republic, such as B. Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi or Liu Ye.

Film awards

The Golden Horse Awards , Taipei are definitely the most important film award, even if Beijing does not see it that way due to ideological and political reasons (see Taiwan conflict ). In 2004, the award went to Kekexili and for the first time to a mainland film. Because of the great commercial importance of the Hong Kong film industry, the Hong Kong Film Awards there are also a noted event.

History of Chinese Film

Qing Empire and Republic of China (1896–1949)

Main article: History of early Chinese cinema

Tan Xinpei in Mount Dingjun (1905)

The first film screening took place on August 11, 1896 in Shanghai. Films by the Lumière brothers were shown in the Xu amusement park of the French concession .

The story of genuinely Chinese film begins in 1905 in the Beijing Fengtai photo studio with the filming of the Peking opera Mount Dingjun with the then star of the Peking opera Tan Xinpei. Shanghai developed into the center of Chinese film , where a commercial entertainment cinema emerged in the 1920s, which was soon joined by an intellectual, socially committed cinema. The seizure of power across the country by the Kuomintang affected Chinese cinema from 1929 onwards with the first censorship measures. Nevertheless, in 1930, with the first Chinese sound film singer Rote Päonie , produced in collaboration with Pathé, at least the technical development continued. The outbreak of open warfare between Japan and China and the occupation of Shanghai by Japanese troops in November 1937 put an end to the history of the independent Shanghai studios. In the communist base of Yan'an, the Yan'an film group was formed in 1938 under the leadership of Yuan Muzhi , which produced propaganda for the communists' liberation struggle.

History of Cinema in the People's Republic of China

Main article: History of cinema in the People's Republic of China

• Maoist China (1949–1979)

The takeover of power by the CCP meant that Chinese films were committed to a government function. Thematically, many of the films were devoted to portraying the resistance against Japan and the heroic role of the party, as in Xie Jin's Red Women's Battalion (1961) . In addition to the clear political orientation, the recourse to popular art forms such as shadow play, paper cutting and ink painting for the animated film and later the Peking Opera for the propaganda ballets of the model lopers was a characteristic of Chinese film. The production, which was quite active between 603 and 1966, was discontinued during the Cultural Revolution . Films were not made again until 1972, but they ran the risk of becoming the target of political criticism.

• Present (since 1979)

The death of Mao and the loss of power of the Gang of Four also marked a turning point for cinema. Gradually, the political demands on the filmmakers were withdrawn and given the freedom to devote themselves to individual sensitivities. This flourished with the so-called fifth generation in the mid-1980s when films such as Yellow Earth by Chen Kaige and Red Cornfield by Zhang Yimou first met with a great response on an international level. The downside of the political loosening was the reduction of state subsidies for the art of film and accordingly, in addition to art cinema, purely commercial filmmaking has developed.

Hong Kong

Main article: Hong Kong cinema

The Hong Kong film industry was clearly overshadowed by Shanghai until the end of the Second World War and only played a role as an exile for directors persecuted by the KMT . These mostly left-wing filmmakers quickly lost their importance in the face of the aggressive policies of the People's Republic of China and anti-communist measures by the government of the crown colony. Instead, a commercial cinema established itself that was less interested in social avant-garde than in entertainment and returns. In the 1950s, Shaw Brothers, Cathay Film Productions and Golden Harvest were the companies that have dominated Hong Kong filmmaking to this day.

Hong Kong cinema gained worldwide influence in the 1970s when martial arts films found audiences in Europe and America. Reviled by movie buffs for simple plot structures, they offered their fans a show of body control that was previously unknown in the West. The most important actor in this first wave of kungfu films was Bruce Lee , who quickly became a world star. His legacy was taken on by Jackie Chan , one of the most prolific kungfu performers to this day. One of the most influential directors and producers is Tsui Hark , who, together with Ching Siu-Tung (程小东 / 程小東), is responsible for classics of the wuxia genre such as the Swordsman trilogy.

The HK action film genre has also received strong impulses since the 1990s . This is what directors like Johnnie To (杜琪峰) or John Woo , who was called to Hollywood to revive the genre, stand for. The influence of Hong Kong cinema on Hollywood can be seen not least in films such as Matrix , which are based on the acrobatics of the role model, or in people like Quentin Tarantino , who openly admit their preference for HK film.

Despite the dominance of pure entertainment cinema, some Hong Kong filmmakers have made a name for themselves with sophisticated content. These include Ann Hui (许鞍华 / 許鞍華), Wong Kar-wai , Stanley Kwan and Fruit Chan .

The film industry in Hong Kong is closely linked to the music industry. Many actors are also well-known singers, such as Faye Wong , Anita Mui , Andy Lau , Tony Leung Chiu Wai , Tony Leung Ka-Fai or Leslie Cheung . Many of these actor-singers often contribute film music to their films.

Retrospectives

In recent years there have been a number of retrospectives on Chinese film history, including at European festivals. The 62nd Venice Film Festival (2005) showed a whole series of Chinese classics, and in 2009 the New York Film Fest presented a retrospective on Chinese cinema from 1949 to 1949 under the title "(Re) Inventing China: A New Cinema for a New Society" 1966 (before the Cultural Revolution), 2013 the group The Canine Condition in the Berlin Arsenal shows under the title "Ein Lied um Mitternacht" the most comprehensive retrospective on Chinese cinema in Germany and in summer 2013 the Festival Cinema ritrovato in Bologna shows a retrospective Xie Jin . Since 2013 there has also been a festival of Chinese film in Munich, the Munich China Film Days.

Beijing Independent Film Festival

The Li Xianting Film Fund Foundation's festival started in 2006. The 11th edition was to run with 76 films on the program from August 23 to 31, 2014 in Songzhuang, a suburb of Beijing popular with artists. 2 of the 3 organizers were taken away by emergency services the day before the opening and had to sign to cancel the festival. It was announced that the electricity would be turned off. Public performances were canceled as early as 2013 and the electricity was cut off in 2012. The office of Li Xianting, film critic and founder of the foundation, was ransacked by police, and material collected from more than 10 years was confiscated. Artistic Director Wang Hongwei said, “In the past few years, when they forced us to cancel the festival, we just moved it to other places, or delayed the screenings,” he said. “But this year, we cannot carry on with the festival. It is completely forbidden. "

Documentaries about Chinese cinema

• My camera doesn't lie , 92 min, China, Germany, Austria 2003, directed by Solveig Klaßen , Katharina Schneider-Roos. - Film about the sixth generation and the gay movie scene. The films are shot without government approval and can only be seen underground.

• Yang + Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema , Hong Kong 1996, D: Stanley Kwan. - Documentary by the well-known Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan about the relationship between the sexes in Chinese cinema. Well-known directors from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the People's Republic of different ages have their say, such as Chen Kaige, Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Ang Lee, Xie Jin as well as the actor Leslie Cheung.

Web links

• goethe.de/china - Article on film in Germany and China on the website of the Goethe-Institut China (in German, Chinese, English)
• Beijing Independent Film Festival: Start where life begins (Goethe-Institut (China)) ( Memento from January 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
• The "Golden Era" of Chinese Film (Goethe-Institut (China)) ( Memento from January 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
• Teng Guoqiang, Tradition and Awakening: The Chinese Feature Film 1905–1995 , Dissertation, Hamburg 2000 (PDF document available there)
• Website on films and filmmakers of Chinese cinema
• Dianying - film database (Chinese / English)
• LoveHKfilm (English)

literature

• Margrit Frölich, Klaus Gronenborn, Karsten Visarius (eds.): Made in China. The current Chinese cinema in the context of social upheavals . Schüren Verlag, Marburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-89472-688-1 .
• Maik Burst, Qin Hu: Peking Express - Young China and its Films . Schüren Verlag, Marburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-89472-684-3 .
• Josef Schnelle, Rüdiger Suchsland: signs and wonders. Zhang Yimou and Wong Kar-Wai's cinema . Schüren Verlag, Marburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-89472-438-2 .
• Rey Chow : Sentimental Fabulations, Contemporary Chinese Films: Attachment in the Age of Global Visibility (= Film and Culture). Columbia University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-231-13333-3 .
• Martin Woesler: The filmmakers in China. (= Scripta Sinica 9). Bochum 2004, ISBN 3-89966-026-9 .
• Cornelius, Sheila m. Smith, Ian Haydn: New Chinese Cinema. Challenging Representations. (= Short Cuts 11). Wallflower, London 2002, ISBN 1-903364-13-2 .
• Hu-Chong Kramer, Stefan Kramer (ed.): Pictures from the realm of the dragon. Chinese film directors in conversation. In collaboration with Chou Meng-lin. Translated from the Chinese by Chou Meng-lin and Stefan Kramer. Horlemann, Bad Honnef, 2002, ISBN 3-89502-133-4 . (Published in cooperation with Arte Deutschland TV GmbH)
• Teng Guoqiang: Tradition and New beginnings: the Chinese feature film 1905–1995. Dissertation. Univ. Hamburg, 1999.
• Stefan Kramer : History of Chinese Film . Metzler, Stuttgart et al. 1997, ISBN 3-476-01509-2 .
• Lexicon of international film. Reinbek 1995.
• Rey Chow: Primitive Passions: Visuality, Sexuality, Ethnography, and Contemporary Chinese Cinema. (= Film and Culture). Columbia University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-231-07683-5 .
• Jay Leyda: Dianying - Electric Shadows. An Account of Films and the Film Audience in China. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England 1972.

Individual evidence

1. ^ (Re) Inventing China: A New Cinema for a New Society
2. ↑ A song at midnight ( memento of the original from March 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ A retrospective on Xie Jin
4. ↑ Munich China Film Festival. ( Memento from January 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ Beijing Independent Film Festival: Authorities in China ban film festival. on: spiegel.de , August 23, 2014, accessed October 6, 2015.
6. ↑ Beijing Independent Film Festival Shut Down by Authorities. from: dgeneratefilms.com , August 24, 2014, accessed October 6, 2015.