The Low Class Images In Movies Since The New Period And The Problems Of Realism

This dissertation begins from the dispute between Curse of the Golden Flower and Still Life, which is a heat topic on the media. Through reviewing the change of the Low Class images on screen, we researches into the representation of realism in movies to find the key problem of Chinese movies and the way to solve. Comprehensively using the knowledge of sociology, economics, culture and aesthetics, following the category of the third, forth, fifth, and the new generation of film directors that is well accepted by the critics, taking the approaches of historic and logic, this dissertation has researched in movies since the New Period mostly. With the concrete analysis of movies, the paper has reviewed the developing process of movies since the New Period, and studied the film-makers'deepening or deviation of realism.Realism has fine tradition in Chinese film art. Many old excellent movies have manifested the fact of society bravely and molded touching images of the Low Class, for example, The Spring River Flows East. However, in 50s and 60s last century, under impulsion of the left-leaning of ideological trend, tradition of realism was destroyed again and again, and individual was ignored more and more. Till the Cultural Revolution, film had changed to the tool for suppressing humanity. In the age of taking class fighting as outline, the ordinary people led a miserable life. Because of the"three stresses principle", it was impossible for the movies to show the real life of the people.Since entering the New Period, realism trend has come back to film-making. The third and forth generation directors, who has experienced the Cultural Revolution and was impacted by Confucianism, poem and melodrama, rethought the foregone convulsion. Their movies always take intellectuals persecuted as heroes, depict dialogue between the intellectual in distress and the Low Class, and they are of high aesthetic value. However, the intellectuals in distress didn't take themselves as ones of the Low Class really, so the Low Class became"the others". On the other hand, because of being in adversity, the intellectuals appreciated the Low Class, and the Low Class has been become noble and beautiful. Among the Low Class images, women are the most impressive ones. Movies of the other type represent the Low Class in the country at the beginning of reform. They were fit for reality of the special age, but not good at art, so many of them have been forgotten till today. Xie Jin, as a deputy for the third and forth generation directors, has directed movies including The Legend of Tianyun Mountain,Hibiscus Town,The Herdsman and Garlands at the Foot of the Mountain. These movies set out an abundant Low Class world. In this world,there are men with high virtual like Guo Piezi and Liang Sanxi, women with dedication like Feng Qinglan, Hu Yuyin, and Han Yuxiu, and a unique gloomy man in the Low Class——Wang Qiushe.Movies directed by the fifth generation directors have spanned long time. They began in surge of"Literal Rush"in the mid 80s. With realism in mind, the directors made full use of modernistic measures. In the grand narration of the nation and the people, the Low Class individual on screen has been symbolized, which was far from the fact in society. The showing up of the post-fifth generation directors in 1990s has close relationship with the arising of the marketing economy in the main land of China. There're true-life and concrete Low Class images in their movies. For reasons of culture, economy and the film-makers'attitude, those movies haven't reflected the reality to the core. And they are not so critical. Director Zhang Yimou`s work is the model of those movies. His movies including Red Sorghum, Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, To Live, The Story of Qiu Ju, The Road Home, Not One Less, Happy Times, Qian Li Zou Dan Ji, which offer ample Low Class images to the audience, such as wanderers in legend, gloomy men and women in dark house of the"oriental allegories". In addition, some movies apparently using realism means, but they aren't"writing the reality".The new generation directors described the low class spontaneously at first, and then consciously. At the beginning, they're impacted by post-modernism and their movies are naturalistic. Then they came to represent the fact of the Low Class consciously. Let the Low Classes be themselves on screen, which is an important achievement of the new generation, and they have finished writing the image history of people in marginality and ordinary persons of the Low Class. Director Jia Zhangke is the representative for the new generation, whose work including Xiao Wu, Unknown Pleasure, Platform, The World. Jia Zhangke has insisted on the perspective of concerning reality and the Low Class. At present, he is a director that care the most about humanism and realism.In the New Period, images of the Low Class varied in different directors'movies. We can see realism has been deepened step by step. At the same time, some directors of the fifth generation who used to care for the Low Class and reality have changed their attitude. The dispute between Curse of the Golden Flower and Still Life showed that the fifth generation directors didn't insist on realism. The dispute brought on deeply research on the difference between the fifth generation and the new generation, and the right way for Chinese film with the globalization and consumerism, and how to confront the challenge from Hollywood. Blockbusters of Zhang Yimou and others didn't get high praise. Jia Zhangke's Still Life wasn't a box-office success. There's a long way for Chinese film-making to go. With the development of economy, consumerism's prevailing, and one dimensional society's outspread, art film-making like Jia Zhangke's will be more difficult. In today's China, film-making test of big blockbuster and small art film is doom to continue. Big or small, Chinese film-makers should adhere to the sole of realism and humanism, there's no shirking the responsibility.