A Study Of The Postmodernity Of Jiang Wen’s Films

Postmodernism originated in 1960 s and was first performed in architecture,then in philosophy,art,sociology and the like.As an ideological trend,it deconstructed,revolted and went beyond the expression,thinking pattern and values of modernism.When introduced to China in 1980 s,postmodernism had a vital impact on China’s history,culture,art and architecture.There appeared a vast number of movies with characteristics of postmodernism.Many directors around the nation,ranging from Hong Kong to Chinese mainland,were fascinated by it and Jiang Wen was the very example,especially with personal characteristics.Jiang has produced five films since 1993 and each one of them,from In the Heat of the Sun to Gone with the Bullets,has ever aroused heated debate in academic circles.The features of postmodernism are so obvious in those movies that no one can ignore them when talking about Jiang’s works.Those features can be found in visual style,narration and dialogues.When it comes to the subject,Jiang goes beyond the traditional grandiose narration by telling a series of fantastic and sarcastic stories.From the perspective of personalized narration of history,Jiang’s films focus on everyday things in order to portray ordinary people.Make a general survey of Jiang’s works,and it turns out that he is successful in characterization—depicting someone with innate weaknesses of a nation from a critical perspective or someone insane,unreasonable and rebellious by deconstruction and sarcasm.Meanwhile,narration in Jiang’s films also embodies some other postmodern features like fragmented narration,dramatized plot and ambiguous subject.Visual style serves as a very direct and intrinsic way of film narration.So,almost all the elements of postmodernism,like the application of small field of view,layouts of symbolic colors,diverse camera motion,dramatized editing,direct sound effects and concise and explicit dialogues,are well deployed in Jiang’s films altogether.And also,Jiang’s films successfully avoid both political and commercial obstacles,which makes them harvest commercial and artistic achievements at the same time.Each of Jiang’s five works mixes diverse genres together,which characterize modernism.That reveals the nature of films—commodity.Besides,films are a pop art,an entertainment,which is common and dependent on mass media.As a result,they find the balance between minority and mass;help boost the development of aesthetic standards of movies and aesthetic taste of the audience;offer the audience diverse choices with a more open way of creation;and they also serve as the reference for domestic movie industry’s exploration and improvement in art and commerce.