War Period Film Studies (1937-1945)

The time of War of Resistance against Japan is an important and special period when the whole country and our nation was in the Great Divide in the modern history of China."Culture is the carrier of truth"is always the excellent cultural tradition of the nation of China. So in the special period, painting, writing, film and song became the means of expressing the patriotic feeling of the people with lofty ideals, propagandizing the guidelines to resisting Japanese and denouncing the Japanese imperialistic force and quisling. The paintbrush, the camera lens, and the song became the important weapons to resist Japan. As one of the important artistic forms, film was charged with the important responsibility of propagandizing resisting Japan and inspiring the morale of hoi polloi.Compared with the other artistic forms, such as painting, poem and song, one of the important characteristics of film was that it has high requirement to its making environment and strong dependence to technological, material and social cultural atmosphere and the artistic thought of the creating personnel. So, when the War of Resistance against Japan broke out, the social environment changed greatly and the social cultural industry was struck and film stood in the breach. From another point of view, because of the reason mentioned above, the state of the existence of film industry can reflect the historical environment of one epoch most and it is a reduction of the development of the history of the society. The history of the War of Resistance against Japan in Shanghai is the important part of the history of the whole nation resisting Japan. The devious way of the development of the film industry of Shanghai reflects the change of the social environment in the time of resistance against Japan. So understanding the development of the film industry of Shanghai has very important historical significance.This thesis is divided into four chapters which are the basic comment and summary to the film of Shanghai. Chapter One summarizes the historical origin of Shanghai and film. And according to the tendency of the current political situation, the films of Shanghai in the time of War of Resistance against Japan are divided into the ones in the time of"Isolated Island"and the ones in the time of being occupied by enemy. Chapter Two discusses the films of Shanghai in the time of"Isolated Island"including the investigation to the existing environment of the film industry, the comment on the content, the characteristics of the films and the social influence and the critical analysis on the limitations of the films of Shanghai at that time. Chapter Three is the analysis and comment on the films of pseudo-Japan which were the reactive countercurrent of the film industry of Shanghai in the time of being occupied by enemy. And it points out the meaning of the investigation to the films of pseudo-Japan. Chapter Four finally concludes the historical and the practical meaning of the film of Shanghai in the time of War of Resistance against Japan.