Reassessment Of The 1930s Chinese Movie

Chinese cinema came to a critical period of its development in the 1930s when the Japanese imperialism fastened its aggression against China and nationalism of Chinese people was reaching an unprecedented point. Thus cinema was required to meet the new historical demands. Just then, the underground intellectuals led by CPC set up a film group and launched a New Film Movement(xin xing dian ying yun dong). They brought Marxism into filmmaking and film reviews and fought with the official ideology of KMT. In the result, they created a road of realism for Chinese film and achieved tremendously in film production. Led by the progressive left-wing filmmakers, Chinese film experienced many radical changes. It was also in the 1930s that Chinese film turned from silent movie to talkies. The silent movie reached its peak level and at the same time talkies matured itself rapidly with the efforts of those progressive filmmakers. With the ideology dispute as its focus, Chinese film was under the influence of other social-cultural backgrounds as well.Many important film artists appeared in the 1930. Film artists like Xia Yan, Tian Han, Yang Hansheng and Hong Shen made decisive contributions to screenplay writing. Two generations of film artists like Zheng Zhengqiu, Sun Yu, Cai Chusheng, Shen Xiling and Wu Yonggang presented many movies which are socially progressive and artistically refined. They gained very high artistic achievements and their movies had distinctive characteristics.Film critics and theory in this period of time should also be paid attention to. The left-wing film theorists accepted the Soviet proletariat film theory and introduced European film theories to China as well. At the same time, Hollywood movie continued to exert great influence on Chinese filmmaking and theory. The progressive film theory perfected itself in its debates with KMT official film theory on the one hand and the so-called "soft movie" theory on the other.The New Film had to survive the privately owned film production system then. Therefore, it had to meet the demands of commercial consideration of filmmaking. The running method and strategy of private film studios offered important historical experiences. Following the way of commercial film production, the New Film efficiently "infiltrate" its ideology and influenced the filmmakers and audience greatly. These movies were marketed excellently and at the same kept its ideological characteristics. Welcomed by audience, these movies shows that they stood in the forefront of the time.