The left-wing film movement in the 1930s in Shanghai was an integral part of the left-wing cultural movement brought a new look to China's film culture and caused great changes in the history of its development process.As a revolutionary art focusing on ideology and with an attitude of anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism, the left-wing films, shouldering the historical mission of enlightening and saving the people at that time, paid attention to the fate of the nation, the future of the society and the remolding of the reality. So Such a revolutionary discourse was greatly welcomed by the film capitalists and the citizens of Shanghai which was filled with intense capitalist commercialism. This peculiar social phenomenon will thoroughly analysed from three aspects, endeavoring to present its complex features.The first part deals with the generating context of the left wing films from the aspects of culture and history. Firstly, the movement in Shanghai in 1930s benefited itself from its unique cultural nature different from Chinese traditional culture. The open, diverse, compatible and modern cultural atmosphere, the public space constructed by the mass media and the initial formation of the civil society contributed to the large existing and developing room for the left-wing films. The commercial cultural quality in Shanghai and the commercial quality of the films decided the producing and spreading mode of the left-wing films. Secondly, the left-wing films took the lead in the advance of the culture and became the embodiment of the historical justice at the time when the two historical events ,which respectively happened on Sept.18, 1931 and Dec.8, 1932, and the Chinese people called for enlightening and saving the nation. Besides, the left-wing art campaign exerted great impact on both the inside and the outside. On the one hand, a favorite cultural atmosphere was formed under the influence the left-wing cultural movement in which the public went after a fashionable and popular discourse which exposed and criticized the darkness of the society. On the other hand, the founding of the Left-wing Playwrights Union, the Party`s Film Group and the Chinese Film Cultural Association prepared for and ensured its existence, strengthening and expansion. In a word, the combination of Shanghai's cultural traits, the advent of the historical moment and the left-wing cultural impact constitutes the generating discourse context for the left-wing films.The second part treats of the important role that the left-wing film criticism, as a commanding height of the public opinion controlled by the left-wing people, has played in safeguarding and promoting the development of the left-wing-films. Spiritually, it oriented the creation of the left-wing films mainly through changing the consciousness of the film by changing the consciousness of the film creator so that the film moved away from the morras in which film was for the only sake of commerce and entertainment so as to present an active and realistic style. On the other hand, it expanded the receptive space for the existence and development of the left-wing films through cultivating the intelligence, morality and emotions of the audience with progressive and profound ideas and shaping the audience's appreciation taste to construct a new film-watching psychology and expectation.The third part talks about the expressing strategy of the left-wing films as a kind of cultural goods. Commercial trait is one of its fundamental attributes. The mass of social class expected by the left-wing films in the atmosphere of mass culture in Shanghai had been incorporated into the mass of commercial industry. In order to meet the needs of capitalists` pursuing interests and the audience's consumption, the ideas in left-wing films were packed with commercial means and the spreading and acceptance of the left-wing awareness were realized in the choice of theme strategy, narration(mode) strategy and consumption strategy.The successful landing of the left-wing films in the commercial culture of Shanghai is the outcome of the game played by all the factors of politics, economics and ideology as well as the factors from inside and outside included, which represents the abundant and profound implications in the film as a cultural phenomenon, a kind of ideology, a commercial act and an overlapping form of different kinds of literary and art. It is such abundance and complexity of this phenomenon that is taken into consideration in this article. |