The Adaptation Of Literary Works In Chen Kaige’s Movies

The comparative study between literature and movie has always been the focus of the academic community, the exploration of film adaptation theory has never stopped. Chen Kaige is one representative of "the Fifth Generation" as well as a leader among Chinese directors. His films adapted from literature won outstanding artistic achievements. However, at present, it seems that the study outcome of Chen Kaige’s film adaptation is not so much. This thesis attempts to apply theories related to the research and analysis of Chen’s film adaptation, summarizes the methods and characters of his trial, and provides new ideas for film adaptation. That also explains the original intention of why choosing this topic.Creative works from "the Fifth Generation" promote the innovation of film language greatly. Being a member of the group, Chen without exceptional pays attention to national culture and historical reflection. In addition, Chen keeps his personal characteristics in his film works. Chapter One tells group identity of "the Fifth Generation" Chen belongs to and his personal characteristics, gives an overview of Chen Kaige’s film adaptation practice.Chapter Two is an internal comparative analysis of Chen Kaige’s five adapted movies with their original literary works. The analysis of every work is based on the unique adaptation characteristics. It is divided into three sections according to creative time and literary style. Adapted from an essay, Yellow Earth is focused on aesthetic conversion. For the adaption of short stories, King of the Children and Life on a String, narrative analysis is been focused on. While lengthy works as Farewell, My Concubine and Temptress Moon, the comparative studies on the theme is under discussion.Chapter Three turns to external research between movie and literature. This part pays more attention to lyrical study and cultural study, and explores the common features of adaptation methods in Chen’s works. The key for Chen dealing with different literary styles is to grasp the common narrative qualities in them. He adheres to keeping narration and lyricism in his adapted works. With the help of multi-means of film language as Montage of clips、close-up、sound etc. he achieves lyrical conversion. For the cultural adaptation, Chen mainly focuses on two aspects on history and nationality. Development of art film has been facing difficulties since1990s due to Chinese film returns to its essence of popular culture, which values commercial and entertainment most. Despite this change, Chen’s works still try to keep elite consciousness as literature does and explore the methods for combining literature with film commercial.Conclusion part summarizes the inspiration of Chen Kaige’s film adaptation practice, namely, adhering to the aesthetic conversion as well as personal cognitive and contemporary significance in text reinterpretation.