On New Century Chinese Cinema In The Context Of Consumer Culture

After nearly 20 years' developing,new century Chinese cinema enjoys a fast growth incomparable with its early days in the terms of production,income,infrastructure professionals,moviegoers and so on.However,at present,its reputation is at a crisis because of its falling quality which leads to viewers' losing interest.That's why it necessary and significant to sum up experiences in the course of Chinese cinema's development as well as to analyze today's film-making for the concerns of its future survival.This thesis is trying to explore the following aesthetic problems like narration,appreciation and audio-visual effects in a comprehensive way with the methods of consumer culture,narratology,typology,ideological criticism,documentary aesthetics and so on through combing the main vein of Chinese cinema's development based on collecting and sorting the related material.The first chapter starts from the analysis of the connotations of consumer culture,concluding that it,as the main force of cultural globalization,has been the dominant cultural context and one of the unclear values in China in the new century.And then this chapter carries a deep exploration to Chinese cinema's ecological environment,which is the film policy's implementation promoted the film's industrialization,attracting so much capitals into this industry that contributed much to its prosperity,while at the same time the younger-generation moviegoers and the context of consumer culture have a direct influence to the aesthetics that it turned to hedonism,materialism and nostalgia.In this chapter,the new century Chinese cinema's genres are defined as Commercial Film,Theme film and Art Film,and each's fundamental form is explored in a simple way.The second chapter focuses on the blockbuster of Chinese Commercial Film.Ancient costume martial arts films take the step to the exploring journey of Chinese blockbuster.The spectacle of dancing-like martial arts in these films conveys some elements in Chinese culture but the story and meaning are overshadowed by the visual effects that they can not win the viewers' hearts.The historical war films,devoting into visual spectacles of war scenes,question human's nature and rethink the history through exploring the entanglement of war and humanity,however,their heave themes and depressing story lead to less entertaining and inactive response from the audience.The fantasy films with the themes of true love,growing and freedom construct a surreal artistic world by using of high-tech skills such as CGI and some other genre elements like love,action and adventure.Therefore,they are well-received among their targeted audience—the young people,but their technical advances are not enough to compensate their naive in the arts.The third chapter deals with comedy film,chick flick and Teen film.Comedy film is popular in the market because of its entertaining advantages.Chick flick wins the hearts of female audience with leading fashion brands and the images of young and pretty female.Teen film is enjoyed whole-heartedly by the youth around 20 years old because it reaches their expectation and imagination about youth,love and dream.The above-mentioned genres all have some problems like stereotypical and homogenization.The fourth chapter pays attention to the Theme film,making interpretations to its symphony and variation.Facing the funding crisis and reception problem,Theme film,on the one hand,completed the rewriting in ideology in the new period through reshaping the nation's image,reconstructing collective memory and promoting contemporary heroes and models;on the other hand,it seeks social influence and box office through marketing and borrowing the narrative strategies from commercial film such as visual wonders,stardom and genre elements.After pointing to some problems like more commercial aesthetics involved during its development,this chapter gives suggestion about the Theme film's developing in the future.The fifth chapter discuses art film which insists on the nature of art and explores in genres.There are three tendencies in the making of art film:reproducing practical experience,describing individual emotion and using genres for reference,they respectively discusses the following aesthetic symptoms such as the attention and oblivion to the practical experience,digging and simplifying the life experience and the fusing and splitting of genres.In the end,a conclusion is given through the analysis of the narration,audio-visual effects and culture of the important texts in the new century Chinese cinema:The development of film art has a complex connection with times and society.A kind of interaction and mutual promotion exist between new century Chinese cinema's aesthetic and culture,creation and market(the audience),art and commerce.After more than ten years' fast development under the confluence of politics,economy,culture and art and so on,China's film industry shows such a tendency that its number will be reduced but quality improved.Therefore,the right attitude towards Chinese film industry should not neglect its shortcomings in narration and thought when approving its prosperity.