China And The United States The War Against Japan War Film Comparative Study

The Second World War not only took away people’s lives but also left the lasting mentalinjury for human beings. A popular topic of film in the world is to reveal and reflect the sinand disaster of the war by veritable image. China and America, as the winner of Anti-fascistAlliance, have a large resource for the films about the war against Japan. There is absolutely agreat break-through in this kind of movie in both two countries so far, no matter from theaspect of quality or quantity. In this thesis, the films of this kind in two countries will bediscussed and compared carefully. The key elements, such as narrative methods, historicalimagines and generation of meanings in the Anti-Japanese films will be included. During theprocess of the research on two countries’ Anti-Japanese film, different angles and researchmethods are applied. For example, three angles are combined—the research on history of film,the research on culture and the research on the art of image; different research methods areapplied—the type research, the comparative research, narratology, textuary case research andideological research. On the basis of the abundant historical materials, these different anglesand methods, the multiple view of the historical narration which is showed in theAnti-Japanese films in the two countries are inspected. The purpose is to provide a beneficialreference and guide for the creation of war film, especially Anti-Japanese War film in China.There are six chapters of the thesis. In the part of introduction, the reason, purpose,method of the thesis are been explained. The foreign research results and the research state indomestic are introduced briefly. The key of this part is the research methods of the thesis. Inthis part, the theoretical base of narratology, historical analysis, type research and ideologicalanalysis method which are applied in this thesis have been cleared.Chapter One illustrates and analyzes the Chinese and American film production historiesof Anti-Japanese Aars films. The main methods adopted are historical analysis and summaryof film history. The Chinese film of Anti-Japanese War has gone through3phases: War FilmPhase,"Seventeen Years" Phase and the New Phase. Content and form of films have beenmore diverse, characters more complex, scenarios closer to reality, design and audio-visualeffects more outstanding, and thus quality of films better and better. American Anti-JapaneseWar films have gone through Wartime Documentary Phase in the beginning, War Epic Phase in the1950s and1960s, the Silence Phase in the1970s and1980s, and CommercialBlockbusters around2000. Themes of these films are always antiwar, for example, from TheBig Parade and All Quiet on the Western Front to Schindler’s List and The Thin Red Line, allthese films show the history by describing the untold sufferings to mankind brought by war.Chapters Two and Three analyzes and evaluates the film texts of Chinese and AmericanAnti-Japanese War films. Film narratology is mainly adopted to compare and study thenarrative roles (actant) and narrative modes in relevant film tests. Chapter Two draws on theresearch methods of seven plot roles, proposed by the Russian formal literary theorists Propp.The comparative analysis of victimizer (the enemies), victims, protesters, and helpers showsthat there are both diachronic changes and distinct differences in narrative roles of Chinese andAmerican Anti-Japanese War film texts. Chapter Three departs from another importantaspect—narrative mode, and comments on various narrative modes in Chinese and AmericanAnti-Japanese War films, such as the “victory-of-the-war” mode,“growth-of-a-hero” mode,“love story” mode,“home-and-country” mode,“squad combat” mode and “group combat“mode, etc. With different forms of narrative construction, the films show their uniqueaesthetic styles and imply various themes and value demands to satisfy people at differentaesthetic levels. Both Chinese and American Anti-Japanese War films have adopted thesenarrative modes to construct stories and have embodied the deep dominion over narrativemodes by different political habits, cultural context, national consciousness and the individualspirit between different countries. The comparative analysis between those narrative modesmay show us the origins and laws behind them.In chapter four, Chinese and American Anti-Japanese War films are compared from theangle of genre film. There are two reasons to choose this angle and analytical method: on onehand, vivid typed tendency is presented in the same kind of film. On the other hand, the typedproduction of Hollywood films made a vital influence on American Anti-Japanese films, andthis kind of influence is a very important reason for the differences of this type of film in twocountries. During the process of typed comparative analysis, we will find an answer to solvethe problem of Chinese films objectively, that is, the severe lack of film charming,commerciality and recreational function. Simply, the answer is how Chinese film can learnfrom Hollywood from the aspects of typed characteristics and artistic mode. Chapter five is the comparative analysis of essence of Anti-Japanese War films betweenthe two countries from the aspect of image reproduction. It applies movie text interpretationwith the focus on three movies that are similar to each other in style. The first one is thevariety of war sceneries in anti-Japanese wars movies. The second on is the analysis on thefive elements that consist of scenery image----landscape, color, fireworks models and thesimilarities and the differences between the object and the subject point of view. Thus, it isconcluded that despite the fact that different war sceneries in movies are affected by thetechniques in filming, especially by the special effect, the concept of filming, the value of thewar and the purport of filming accounts for the distinction between the two countries.Chapter six uses the ideology as the analytical method. The production and spread of theAnti-Japanese film’s ideology have been analyzed and researched. The deeply culturalstructure, cultural context and social mind of Chinese and American Anti-Japanese War filmshave been quested. And at last, in the creation of Anti-Japanese films, the film makers in Chinashould find the balance of modern ideology and the public esthetic. And they should breakthrough the restriction of traditional ideology in making this kind of film, then they canachieve the interaction of the national war film’s creation and modern ideology’s spread.The last part is the conclusion of the thesis. On the basis of the research in the previoussix chapters, a conclusion has been made to demonstrate some creative experiences inAmerican Anti-Japanese War film. These creative experiences are about the understanding offilm’s nature, typed narrative role and narrative mode and the introduction and spread ofmodern ideology. Then some hopes for Chinese Anti-Japanese War film have been made.