A Study On The Narrative Strategies Of Mainland Chinese Youth Films With The Characteristic Of Nostalgia(2010-2018)

Having been fast developing on a large scale recent years,nostalgic youth films have aroused public attention and heated discussions.Those films base their contents mainly on pining for campus life and romantic love.While some films do not have a very good reputation among critics and cinema-goers,they have not bombed,rather have brought producers in considerable returns.These films therefore are called "commercial blockbusters" which act as the "mongers" for selling "youth and a sense of nostalgia".Nonetheless,it is conceded that those films have been characterized by a set of stereotypes over a couple of years,as well as have initiated an upsurge of interest in producing such genre which can definitely bring audiences a distinct aesthetic appreciation.It is thus necessary for researchers to investigate and analyse this genre in a comparatively objective and rational manner.Only by doing so will the researchers identify people's psychological agents for such cinema-going enthusiasm as well as complex modern social conditions that they have to face.The research object of this dissertation is based on 15 nostalgic youth films(2010-2018)such as Old Boys,So Young,Fleet of Time and My Old Classmate.The nostalgic youth films,due to the late start of related studies,has not been divided into an independent category,so that the first chapter of this dissertation attempts to initially provide a possible definition for the nostalgic youth film and subsequently review how it evolves in the Chinese film industry.It is not difficult to conclude that nostalgic contents are molded by the ascription of meaning to different stages of the times.This dissertation,by employing the theory of nostalgia as well as theoretical knowledge in relation to film narratology,analyses these selected films,thus making the conclusion that they have much in common with narrative strategies:narrative structure in double time and space,artfully-knitted plot and sui generis audio-visual language.The third chapter,this dissertation interprets these narrative strategies,therefore discovering cultural and psychological agents hidden behind the strategies.Accordingly,there is the bond between these agents and 1980s' reality and psychology,so this is the essential reason why such film genre has gained enormous popularity over recent years.Starting from the point quite distinct from other studies,this dissertation accentuates the essence of the nostalgic youth film genre,rather than researches the success of nostalgic youth films by considering external factors including commerce,market,successful development of IP resources,and such.