Pure Heart Lasts For Ever-the Films World Of Wu Yonggang

During the 100-year history of Chinese cinema, there has been a city where Chinese cinema burgeoned and boomed; there has been a fabulous number of movie artists purely interested in and thus wholly dedicated to cinema, and hence created by them, there has been numerous classic films, contributing to establish a great cinema tradition.... All of them, however, are all related to Shanghai city to such a degree that they can be entitled under it. Maybe today only those veteran movie fans can speak out their names one by one as if enumerating their family valuables. Glorious as they were, they have become silent history now and we can only resort to those scattering words and films fortunately existed to listen to their heartbeat of passion, to feel the eternal glamour of their works, and humbly, to cherish this heritage.Wu Yonggang has stayed in this city for nearly 6 decades, created 35 movies, and therefore established for himself a vital role in that great cinema tradition as one of its key representatives. He, traversing different times and experiencing dramatic social changes, finally matured to be a publicly respected movie artist with exceptional works and unique style.As his words, "dedicating my whole life to cinema", he went to Shanghai in 1925 to strive for a career of movie till 1982, the year of his death. His life is just like a dream, a movie and a Peking Opera:playing a small role, getting stage pose, turning, running in circle, being out of tune, giving monologue, performing the most important part, which are indirect, engaging, attractive and inspiring.28 years has past since his death, some memories have been blurred, some forgotten, some facts veiled, some ideas twisted and misunderstood. Chapter 1 of the thesis is a reread of his works and a relisting his proverbs according to time sequence, a recalling of that history full of tremendous hardships and enormous fluctuation via interpreting the close relationship between his life and his works. Not only is Wu Yonggang an excellent movie artist, he is also a complete and great person. Chapter 2,3, and 4 of the thesis are separately distributed to conduct an analysis on his artistic style, artistic view and vision, life aspiration and ambition. Referring to his artistic style, he is always capable of, via image, narration, emotion expression, achieving the most admirable level that "hardness and softness are balanced". As for his artistic view and vision, even though he is not necessarily more profound than some theorists, he is definitely opener, soberer, and more practical. For instance, he advocates "take-in principle", holds that political argument can not substitute for arts and that artistic works as product of commodity should neither be exaggerated nor completely rejected, etc, all of which testifies his open-mindedness to artistic difference. Wu Yonggang grows up in the era when the New Culture Movement was vigorous. However, he is still a complete traditional Chinese. For him, "tradition" and "new ideas" are well-balanced combination rather than conflicting paradox. He, both for himself as an individual and for the society as a whole, permanently holds and protects the dream of "harmony but not conformity".The thesis is far from a deep probe into Mr. Wu and his works, not to mention to glorify him by singing his praises (Even though he deserves it and I have this ambition). Pure heart lasts for ever! The writer of the thesis, with honesty, great respect and admire, just aims at establishing a heart-to-heart communication with Mr. Wu that traverses space and time.