East Asian cinema
Cinema of China Cinema of Hong Kong Cinema of Taiwan Cinema of Japan Cinema of Korea Cinema of Mongolia

The Chinese-language cinema has three distinct historical threads: Cinema of Hong Kong, Cinema of China, and Cinema of Taiwan. East Asian cinema is a term used to refer to the Film industry and films produced in and/or by natives of East Asia. The cinema of Hong Kong is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the Cinema of China The history of Chinese-language cinema has three separate threads of development Cinema of Hong Kong, Cinema of China and Cinema of Taiwan. The cinema of Japan (日本映画 Korean cinema encompasses the motion picture industries of North Korea and South Korea. The Cinema of Mongolia has been strongly influenced by the Cinema of Russia, which differentiates it from cinematic developments in the rest of Asia The cinema of Hong Kong is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the Cinema of China The history of Chinese-language cinema has three separate threads of development Cinema of Hong Kong, Cinema of China and Cinema of Taiwan. After 1949 and until recent times, the cinema of mainland China operated under restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of China. Year 1949 ( MCMXLIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Mainland China, Continental China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term synonymous with the area that is under the jurisdiction The Communist Party of China ( CPC) ( also known as the Chinese Communist Party ( CCP) is the founding and ruling political party of the Some films with political overtones are still censored or banned in China itself. However, most of these films are allowed to be shown abroad in commercially distributed theaters or in film festivals. Theatre (or theater, see spelling differences) is the branch of the Performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one A film festival is the presentation or showcasing of Films in one or more Movie theaters or screening venues

The vast majority of the Mainland-produced movies are Mandarin-based, unlike those from contemporary Hong Kong, which are almost exclusively made in Cantonese. Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders Standard Cantonese is the standard variant of the Cantonese (Yuet language Mainland films are often dubbed when exported to Hong Kong for theatrical runs, though Taiwan, like the PRC is predominantly Mandarin-speaking, and offers ready alternative commercial outlets for export.

Contents 1 The Beginnings: Shanghai as the centre, 1896-1945 1.1 The Leftist movement 1.2 Shanghai, the Solitary Island 2 The Second Golden Age, the late 1940s 3 The Communist era, 1950s-1960s 4 The Cultural Revolution and its aftermath, 1960s-1980s 5 The rise of the Fifth Generation, 1980s-1990s 6 The Sixth Generation and beyond, 1990s - present 6.1 New Documentary Movement 7 New Chinese international cinema 8 Sources 9 See also 9.1 Related cinema 9.2 Lists 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External links

The Beginnings: Shanghai as the centre, 1896-1945

Motion pictures were introduced to China in 1896. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National The first recorded screening of a motion picture in China occurred in Shanghai on August 11, 1896, as an "act" on a variety bill. Shanghai ( 上[[wikt 海|海]] is the largest city in China in terms of population and one of the largest urban areas in the world with over 20 million The first Chinese film, a recording of the Beijing Opera, The Battle of Dingjunshan, was made in November 1905. Beijing opera or Peking opera ( is a form of traditional Chinese theatre which combines music vocal performance mime dance and acrobatics ^[1] For the next decade the production companies were mainly foreign-owned, and the domestic film industry did not start in earnest until 1916, centering around Shanghai, a thriving entrepot center and the largest city in the Far East. Shanghai ( 上[[wikt 海|海]] is the largest city in China in terms of population and one of the largest urban areas in the world with over 20 million The Far East is a term often used by people in the Western world to refer to the countries of East Asia. During the 1920s film technicians from the United States trained Chinese technicians in Shanghai, and American influence continued to be felt there for the next two decades. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the It was during this period that some of the more important production companies first came into being, notably Mingxing Film Company ("Bright Star" Pictures) and the Shaw Brothers' Tianyi Film Company ("Unique"). Mingxing Film Company ( was one of the largest Chinese production companies during the 1920s and 1930s in Shanghai and Hong Kong. The Shaw Brothers Studio ( Chinese 邵氏片場 owned by Shaw Brothers (HK Ltd Mingxing, founded by Zheng Zhengqiu and Zhang Shichuan initially focused on comic shorts, including the oldest surviving Chinese film, Laborer's Love (1922). Laborer's Love ( is a 1922 Short film produced in China It is also known as Romance of a Fruit Peddler ( ^[2][3] This soon shifted, however, to feature length films and family dramas including Orphan Rescues Grandfather (1923). ^[2] Meanwhile, Tianyi shifted their model towards folklore dramas, and also pushed into foreign markets; their film White Snake (1926) proved a typical example of their success in the Chinese communities of Southeast Asia. ^[2]

The Leftist movement

However, the first truly important Chinese films were produced beginning in the 1930s, with the advent of the "progressive" or "left-wing" movement, like Cheng Bugao's Spring Silkworms (1933), Sun Yu's The Big Road (1935), and Wu Yonggang's The Goddess (1934). Spring Silkworms ( is a 1933 Silent film from China It was directed by Cheng Bugao and was adapted by Cai Chusheng and Xia Sun Yu ( ( March 21, 1900 - July 11, 1990) was a major leftist Film director active in the 1930s in Shanghai. The Big Road ( also known as The Highway is a 1934 Chinese Silent film directed by Sun Yu and starring Jin Yan Wu Yonggang ( ( November 1, 1907 - December 18, 1982) was a prominent Chinese Film director during the 1930s The Goddess ( was a Chinese Silent film released in 1934 by the United Photoplay Service. These progressive films were noted for their emphasis on class struggle and external threats (i. e. Japanese aggression), as well as on their focus on common people, such as a family of silk farmers in Spring Silkworms and a prostitute in The Goddess. ^[1] In part due to the success of these kinds of films, this post-1930 era is now often referred to as the first "golden period" of Chinese cinema. ^[1]

Three production companies dominated the market in the early to mid- 1930s: the newly formed Lianhua ("United China"),^[4] the older and larger Mingxing and Tianyi. Production company refers to a company responsible for the development and physical production of Performing arts, Film, Radio or a Television program The Lianhua Film Company ( was one of two major production companies based in Shanghai, China during the 1930s the other being the Mingxing Film ^[5] Both Mingxing and Lianhua leaned left (Lianhua's management perhaps more so),^[1] while Tianyi continued to make less socially conscious fare.

The period also produced the first big Chinese movie stars, namely Hu Die, Ruan Lingyu, Zhou Xuan, Zhao Dan and Jin Yan. For other uses including various songs titled "Movie Star" see Movie star (disambiguation. Ruan Lingyu ( April 26, 1910 – March 8, 1935) born as Ruan Fenggen (zh-hans 阮凤根 was a Chinese Silent Zhou Xuan ( -) was a popular Chinese singer and Film actress By the 1940s she had become one of the Seven great singing stars. Zhao Dan ( ( June 27, 1915 - October 10, 1980) was a Chinese Actor popular in the golden age of Chinese Cinema Other major films of the period include New Women (1934), Song of the Fishermen (1934), Crossroads (1937), and Street Angel (1937). Song of the Fishermen is an early Chinese Silent film directed by Cai Chusheng in 1934, and produced by the Lianhua Film Crossroads is a 1937 Chinese tragicomic film directed by Shen Xiling and starring Bai Yang and Zhao Dan. Street Angel ( is a Chinese black-and-white film released in 1937. Throughout the 1930s, the Nationalists and the Communists struggled for power and control over the major studios; their influence can be seen in the films the studios produced during this period. The Communist Party of China ( CPC) ( also known as the Chinese Communist Party ( CCP) is the founding and ruling political party of the

Shanghai, the Solitary Island

The Japanese invasion of China, in particular their occupation of Shanghai, ended this golden run in Chinese cinema. The Second Sino-Japanese War ( July 7, 1937 to September 9, 1945) was a major war fought between the Republic of China and the All production companies except Xinhua Film Company ("New China") closed shop, and many of the filmmakers fled Shanghai, relocating to Hong Kong, the wartime Nationalist capital Chongqing, and elsewhere. The Xinhua Film Company ( was one of the film companies to capitalize on the popularity of the leftist film movement in 1930s Shanghai that had begun with the Mingxing Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders Chongqing ( Postal map spelling: Chungking; Wade-Giles: Ch'ung-ch'ing) is the largest and most populous of the People's Republic of China The Shanghai film industry, though severely curtailed, did not stop however, thus leading to the so-called "Solitary Island" period (also known as the "Sole Island", "Isolated Island", or "Orphan Island"), with Shanghai's foreign concessions serving as an "island" of production in the "sea" of Japanese occupied territory. It was during this period that artists and directors (who remained in the city) had to walk a fine line between staying true to their leftist and nationalist beliefs and Japanese pressures. Director Bu Wancang's Mulan Joins the Army (1939), with its story of a young Chinese peasant fighting against a foreign invasion, was a particularly good example of Shanghai's continued film-production in the midst of war. Bu Wancang ( (1903 — 1974 was a prolific Chinese Film director and Screenwriter active between the 1920s and the 1960s Mulan Joins the Army is a 1939 Chinese historical war film It is one of several film adaptations of the Hua Mulan legend which have included ^[6][2] Following declared war with the Western allies in the aftermath of December 7th, 1941, this period largely ended; the solitary island finally being engulfed by the rest of the Japanese occupation. With the Shanghai industry firmly in Japanese control, films like the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere-promoting Eternity (1943) were produced. The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere ( Kyūjitai: 大東亞共榮圈 Shinjitai: ja 大東亜共栄圏 Dai-tō-a Kyōeiken) was a concept ^[2] By the end of World War II one of the most controversial Japanese-authorized company, Manchukuo Film Association, would be separated and integrated into Chinese cinema. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including (Chinese 株式會社滿洲映畫協會 also known as the " Manchuria Film Production", was a Japanese film production company in Manchukuo

The Second Golden Age, the late 1940s

The film industry continued to develop after 1945. Production in Shanghai once again resumed as a new crop of studios took the place that Lianhua and Mingxing had occupied in the previous decade. In 1946, Cai Chusheng returned to Shanghai to revive the Lianhua name as the "Lianhua Film Society. "^[7] This in turn became Kunlun Studios which would go on to become one of the most important studios of the era, putting out the classics, Myriads of Lights (1948), The Spring River Flows East (1947), and Crows and Sparrows (1949). The Spring River Flows East ( was a 1947 Chinese film directed by Cai Chusheng and Zheng Junli and is generally considered one of Crows and Sparrows ( was a 1949 Chinese film made by Kunlun Studios on the eve of the Communist victory and directed by Zheng Junli. ^[8] Many of these films showed the disillusionment with the oppressive rule of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Party. Chiang Kai-shek ( POJ: Chiúⁿ Kài-se̍k Jyutping: zoeng2gaai3sek6 GCB ( October 31, 1887 &ndash The Spring River Flows East, a three-hour-long two-parter directed by Cai Chusheng and Zheng Junli, was a particularly strong success. Zheng Junli ( ( December 6, 1911 - April 23, 1969) was a Chinese actor and director born in Shanghai and who rose to prominence in Its depiction of the struggles of ordinary Chinese during the Sino-Japanese war, replete with biting social and political commentary struck a chord with audiences of the time.

Meanwhile, companies like the Wenhua Film Company ("Culture Films"), moved away from the leftist tradition and explored the evolution and development of other dramatic genres. Wenhua's romantic drama Spring in a Small Town (1948), a film by director Fei Mu shortly prior to the revolution, is often regarded by Chinese film critics as one of the most important films in the history of Chinese cinema, with it being named by the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2004 as the greatest Chinese-language film ever made. Spring in a Small Town ( was a Chinese Film released in 1948 and directed by Fei Mu ( Fei Mu ( (1906 - 1951 was a major Chinese Film director from the pre-Communist era The Hong Kong Film Awards ( HKFA;) founded in 1982, are the most prestigious film awards in Hong Kong and among the most respected in China ^[9] Ironically, it was precisely its artistic quality and apparent lack of "political grounding" that led to its labeling by the Communists as rightist or reactionary, and the film was quickly forgotten by those on the mainland following the Communist victory in China in 1949. The Communist Party of China ( CPC) ( also known as the Chinese Communist Party ( CCP) is the founding and ruling political party of the ^[10] However, with the China Film Archive's re-opening after the Cultural Revolution, a new print was made from the original negative, allowing Spring of the Small Town to find a new and admiring audience and to influence an entire new generation of filmmakers. Indeed, an acclaimed remake was made in 2002 by Tian Zhuangzhuang. Springtime in a Small Town ( is a 2002 Chinese Film directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang. Tian Zhuangzhuang ( (born 1952, Beijing, China) is a Chinese Film director and producer.

The Communist era, 1950s-1960s

With the Communist takeover in 1949, the government saw motion pictures as an important mass production art form and tool for propaganda. Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people Starting from 1951, pre-1949 Chinese films and Hollywood and Hong Kong productions were banned as the Communist Party of China sought to tighten control over mass media, producing instead movies centering around peasants, soldiers and workers such as Bridge (1949) and The White Haired Girl (1950). The Communist Party of China ( CPC) ( also known as the Chinese Communist Party ( CCP) is the founding and ruling political party of the One of the production bases in the middle of all the transition was the Changchun Film Studio. Changchun Film Group Corporation (Chinese 长春电影集团公司 is a Chinese Film Production company in Changchun, China

The number of movie-viewers increased sharply, from 47 million in 1949 to 415 million in 1959. Movie attendance reached an all-time high of 4. 17 billion entries in that same year. In the 17 years between the founding of the People's Republic of China and the Cultural Revolution, 603 feature films and 8,342 reels of documentaries and newsreels were produced, sponsored mostly as Communist propaganda by the government. Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in the People’s Republic of China was a struggle for power within the Communist Party of China that manifested into A newsreel is a Documentary film that is regularly released in a public presentation place containing filmed News stories The Communist Party of China ( CPC) ( also known as the Chinese Communist Party ( CCP) is the founding and ruling political party of the Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people ^[11] Chinese filmmakers were sent to Moscow to study Soviet filmmaking. Moscow (Москва́ romanised: Moskvá, IPA: see also other names) is the Capital and the largest city of A soviet (сове́т, "council" originally was a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia. In 1956, the Beijing Film Academy was opened. Beijing Film Academy ( abbreviated BFA is a Coeducational state-run higher education institution in Beijing, China. The first wide-screen Chinese film was produced in 1960. Animated films using a variety of folk arts, such as papercuts, shadow plays, puppetry, and traditional paintings, also were very popular for entertaining and educating children. The bouncing ball animation (below consists of these 6 frames Chinese folk art are artistic forms inherited from a regional or ethnic scene in China. Chinese Paper Cutting or Jianzhi (Chinese 剪纸 jiǎn zhǐ is the first type of Papercutting design since Paper was invented by Cai Lun Shadow play (Chinese 皮影戏 pi ying xi or shadow puppetry is an ancient form of Storytelling and Entertainment using opaque often articulated figures Glove puppetry ( POJ: pò͘-tē-hì) also known as budai mu'ouxi, shoucao kuileixi, shoudai kuileixi, chang-chung hsi ( Pinyin Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world The most famous of these, the classic Havoc in Heaven (two parts, 1961, 4), was made by Wan Laiming of the Wan Brothers and won Best Film award at the London International Film Festival. Havoc in Heaven ( also known as Uproar in Heaven, is a Chinese animated Feature film directed by Wan Laiming and produced Wan Lai-Ming ( January 18, 1900 - October 7, 1997) was born in Nanjing, China. The Wan Brothers ( were born in the early 20th century in Nanjing, China. The Times BFI London Film Festival is the UK 's largest public film event screening over 300 films from 60 countries

The thawing of censorship in 1956-7 and the early 1960s led to more indigenous Chinese films being made which were less reliant on their Soviet counterparts. The most prominent filmmaker of this era is Xie Jin, whose two films in particular, The Red Detachment of Women (1961) and Two Stage Sisters (1965), exemplify the growing expertise China has in the craft of motion pictures. Xie Jin ( Chinese 谢晋 born 21 November, 1923 in Zhejiang, China) is a Chinese Film director.

The Cultural Revolution and its aftermath, 1960s-1980s

During the Cultural Revolution, the film industry was severely restricted. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in the People’s Republic of China was a struggle for power within the Communist Party of China that manifested into Almost all previous films were banned, and only a few new ones were produced, the most notable being a ballet version of the revolutionary opera The Red Detachment of Women (1971). The Red Detachment of Women is the title of a Novel as well as a Film and a Ballet, both of the latter are based on the novel Feature film production came almost to a standstill in the early years from 1967 to 1972. Movie production revived after 1972 under the strict jurisdiction of the Gang of Four until 1976, when they were overthrown. The Gang of Four ( was the name given to a leftist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist party officials

In the years immediately following the Cultural Revolution, the film industry again flourished as a medium of popular entertainment. Domestically produced films played to large audiences, and tickets for foreign film festivals sold quickly. A film festival is the presentation or showcasing of Films in one or more Movie theaters or screening venues The industry tried to revive crowds by making more innovative and "exploratory" films like their counterparts in the West.

In the 1980s the film industry fell on hard times, faced with the dual problems of competition from other forms of entertainment and concern on the part of the authorities that many of the popular thriller and martial arts films were socially unacceptable. The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. Martial arts are systems of codified practices and traditions of training for Combat. In January 1986 the film industry was transferred from the Ministry of Culture to the newly formed Ministry of Radio, Cinema, and Television to bring it under "stricter control and management" and to "strengthen supervision over production. The Ministry of Culture ( Chinese: 文化部 is a ministry of the Government of the People's Republic of China which is responsible for Culture "

The end of the Cultural Revolution brought the release of "scar dramas", which depicted the emotional traumas left by this period. Evening Rain (Wu Yonggang, Wu Yigong, 1980) and Legend of the Tianyun Mountains (Xie Jin, 1980) both won the first Golden Rooster Award in 1981. Wu Yonggang ( ( November 1, 1907 - December 18, 1982) was a prominent Chinese Film director during the 1930s Xie Jin ( Chinese 谢晋 born 21 November, 1923 in Zhejiang, China) is a Chinese Film director. The Golden Rooster Awards ( are the most prestigious awards in Film given in Mainland China. The best-known of these is probably Xie Jin's Hibiscus Town (1986), although they could be seen as late as the 1990s with Tian Zhuangzhuang's The Blue Kite (1993). Hibiscus Town is a 1986 Chinese film directed by Xie Jin, based on a novel by the same name written by Gu Hua. Tian Zhuangzhuang ( (born 1952, Beijing, China) is a Chinese Film director and producer. The Blue Kite is a film directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang in 1993

The rise of the Fifth Generation, 1980s-1990s

Beginning in the mid-late 1980s, the rise of the so-called Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers brought increased popularity of Chinese cinema abroad. Most of the filmmakers who constitute the Fifth Generation had graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1982 and included Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Chen Kaige, Zhang Junzhao and others. Beijing Film Academy ( abbreviated BFA is a Coeducational state-run higher education institution in Beijing, China. Zhang Yimou (born November 14 1951 is an internationally acclaimed Chinese Filmmaker and former Cinematographer. Tian Zhuangzhuang ( (born 1952, Beijing, China) is a Chinese Film director and producer. Chen Kaige ( (born August 12, 1952) is a Chinese Film director and a leading figure of the fifth generation of Chinese cinema. These graduates constituted the first group of filmmakers to graduate since the Cultural Revolution and they soon jettisoned traditional methods of storytelling and opted for a more free and unorthodox approach. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in the People’s Republic of China was a struggle for power within the Communist Party of China that manifested into ^[12] Zhang Junzhao's One and Eight (1983) and Chen Kaige's Yellow Earth (1984) in particular were taken to mark the beginnings of the Fifth Generation. One and Eight is a landmark Chinese film from 1983. The film tells the story of eight criminals and a deserting Chinese officer in the communist Eighth Yellow Earth ( is a 1984 Chinese Drama film. It was the directorial debut for Chen Kaige. ^[13] The most famous of the Fifth Generation directors, Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, went on to produce celebrated works such as King of Children (1987), Ju Dou (1989), Farewell My Concubine (1993) and Raise the Red Lantern (1991), which were not only acclaimed by Chinese cinema-goers but by the Western arthouse audience. Ju Dou ( is a 1990 Chinese film directed by Zhang Yimou and Yang Fengliang (though it is almost universally considered to be a product This article is about the film for other media with the same title see Farewell My Concubine. Raise the Red Lantern ( Simplified Chinese: 大红灯笼高高挂 Traditional Chinese: 大紅燈籠高高掛 pinyin Dà Hóng Dēnglóng Gāogāo An Art film (also called an “art cinema” “art movie” or in the U Tian Zhuangzhuang's films, though less well-known by Western viewers, were well noted by directors such as Martin Scorsese. Tian Zhuangzhuang ( (born 1952, Beijing, China) is a Chinese Film director and producer. It was during this period that Chinese cinema began reaping the rewards of international attention, including the 1988 Golden Bear for Red Sorghum, the 1992 Golden Lion for Zhang Yimou's The Story of Qiu Ju, the 1993 Palme d'Or for Farewell My Concubine, and three Best Foreign Language Film nominations from the Academy Awards. The Berlin International Film Festival, also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading Film festivals and most reputable media events held in Berlin Red Sorghum ( is a 1987 Chinese film about a young woman's life working on a Distillery for sorghum liquor. The Leone d’Oro ('Golden Lion' is the highest prize given to a film at the Biennale Venice Film Festival. The Story of Qiu Ju ( is a 1992 Chinese Comedy-drama film The film was directed by Zhang Yimou and as in many of his films stars The Palme d'Or ( English: Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded to competing films at the Cannes Film Festival. This article is about the film for other media with the same title see Farewell My Concubine. The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars handed out annually by the U ^[14]

Extremely diverse in style and subject, the Fifth Generation directors' films ranged from black comedy (Huang Jianxin's The Black Cannon Incident, 1985) to the esoteric (Chen Kaige's Life on a String, 1991), but they share a common rejection of the socialist-realist tradition worked by earlier Chinese filmmakers in the Communist era. Life on a String ( is a 1991 Chinese film by acclaimed Film director Chen Kaige. Other notable Fifth Generation directors include Wu Ziniu, Hu Mei, and Zhou Xiaowen. Zhou Xiaowen ( (b Beijing, 1954) is a Chinese filmmaker He graduated from the Cinematography Department of the Beijing Film Academy in Some of their bolder works with political overtones were banned by Chinese authorities.

The Fourth Generation also returned to prominence. Given their label after the rise of the Fifth Generation, these were directors whose careers were stalled by the Cultural Revolution and who were professionally trained prior to 1966. Wu Tianming, in particular, made outstanding contributions by helping to finance major Fifth Generation directors under the auspices of the Xi'an Film Studio, while continuing to make films like Old Well (1986) and The King of Masks (1996). Wu Tianming ( (born October 19, 1939) is a Chinese Film director. The King of Masks ( is a 1996 Chinese film directed by Wu Tianming.

The Fifth Generation movement effectively ended in the 1989 Tiananmen Incident, although its major directors continued to produce notable works, such as The Emperor's Shadow (1996) by Zhou Xiaowen. The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 culminating in the Tiananmen Square Massacre (referred to in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident, to avoid confusion with two The Emperor's Shadow ( is a 1996 film made in the People's Republic of China by the Xi'an Film Studio. Several of its filmmakers went into self-imposed exile: Wu Tianming moved to the United States (but has since returned), Huang Jianxin left for Australia, while many others went into television-related works. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics.

The Sixth Generation and beyond, 1990s - present

The recent era has seen the "return of the amateur filmmaker" as state censorship policies have produced an edgy underground film movement loosely referred to as the Sixth Generation. Censorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable harmful or sensitive as determined by a censor These films are shot quickly and cheaply, which produces a documentary feel, with long takes, hand-held cameras, ambient sound; more akin to Italian neorealism and cinéma vérité than the often lush productions of the Fifth Generation. Italian neorealism is a style of film characterized by stories set amongst the poor and Working class, filmed on location frequently using nonprofessional Actors Cinéma Vérité is the first Album by an Alternative rock group Dramarama, released in November 1985 ^[14] Many films are joint ventures and projects with international investment. Some important Sixth Generation directors to have emerged are Wang Xiaoshuai (The Days, Beijing Bicycle), Zhang Yuan (Beijing Bastards, East Palace West Palace), Jia Zhangke (Xiao Wu, Unknown Pleasures, Platform, The World) and Lou Ye (Suzhou River, Summer Palace). Wang Xiaoshuai ( (born May 22 1966 is a Chinese Film director, Screenwriter and occasional Actor. The Days ( is filmmaker Wang Xiaoshuai 's 1993 Directorial debut. Beijing Bicycle ( is a 2001 Chinese drama Film by Sixth Generation Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai Zhang Yuan ( Traditional: 張[[wikt 元|元]] Simplified: 张[[wikt 元|元]] Pinyin: Zhāng Yuán (born 1963 Beijing Bastards ( is a 1993 drama film by sixth generation director Zhang Yuan, and is one of the first independently produced Chinese films East Palace West Palace is a 1996 Chinese film directed by Zhang Yuan starring Hu Jun, Si Han and Zhao Wei. Jia Zhangke ( (born 1970 in Fenyang, China is a Chinese Film director. Xiao Wu ( also known as The Pickpocket is a 1997 Chinese movie directed by Jia Zhangke. Unknown Pleasures ( is a 2002 Chinese movie directed by Jia Zhangke, starring Wu Qiong, Zhao Weiwei and Zhao Platform ( is a 2000 Film written and directed by Jia Zhangke. The World ( is a 2004 Film written and directed by Jia Zhangke. Lou Ye ( born 1965 is a two-time Palme d'Or nominated Chinese writer - director who is commonly grouped with the " Sixth Generation " Summer Palace ( is a 2006 film and the fourth feature film by director Lou Ye.

Unlike the Fifth Generation, the Sixth Generation brings a more individualistic, anti-romantic life-view and pays more attention to contemporary urban life, especially those affected by disorientation. Many of their films have highlighted the negative attributes of China's entry into the modern capitalist market. Li Yang's Blind Shaft for example, is a chilling account of two murderous con-men in the unregulated and notoriously dangerous mining industry of northern China. Li Yang ( (b 1959 is a Chinese writer - director. Though often grouped with the so-called Sixth Generation of Chinese filmmakers he is in fact Blind Shaft ( is a 2003 Film about a pair of brutal Con artists operating in the illegal Coal mines of present-day northern ^[15] While Jia Zhangke's The World emphasizes the emptiness of globalization in the backdrop of an internationally-themed amusement park. The World ( is a 2004 Film written and directed by Jia Zhangke. Globalization (or globalisation) in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones ^[16][17]

New Documentary Movement

Two decades of reform and commercialization have brought dramatic social changes in mainland China, reflected not only in fiction film but in a growing documentary movement. Wu Wenguang's Bumming in Beijing: The Last Dreamers (1990) is now seen as one of the first work of this "New Documentary Movement" (NDM) in China of China's New Documentary. Wu Wenguang is a Chinese independent documentary filmmaker He is known internationally as one of the founding figures of Chinese independent documentary ^[18] Another internationally acclaimed documentary is Wang Bing's epic nine hour tale of deindustrialization Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2003). Wang Bing ( (born 1967 in Shaanxi) is a Chinese director often referred to as one of the foremost figures in documentary film-making Tie Xi Qu West of the Tracks ( is a Chinese Documentary film by Wang Bing. Li Hong, the first women in the NDM, in Out of Phoenix Bridge (1997) relates the story of four young women, who moving from rural areas to the big cities like millions of other men and women, have come to Beijing to make a living.

New Chinese international cinema

Chinese films have enjoyed box office success abroad. Films such as Farewell My Concubine, 2046, Hero, Suzhou River, The Road Home and House of Flying Daggers have been critically acclaimed around the world. This article is about the film for other media with the same title see Farewell My Concubine. 2046 is a 2004 Hong Kong film (filmed in Shanghai) written and directed by Wong Kar-wai. Hero ( is a 2002 Chinese Martial arts film, directed by Zhang Yimou with music by Tan Dun. House of Flying Daggers ( is a 2004 Chinese action / Romance film directed by Zhang Yimou. The Hengdian World Studios can be seen as the "Chinese Hollywood", with a total area of up to 330 ha. Hengdian World Studios is the largest film studio in the world and 13 shooting bases, including a 1:1 copy of the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial Palace from the mid- Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty.

In 2000, the multi-national production Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon achieved massive success at the Western box office despite being dismissed by some Chinese cinema-goers for pandering to Western tastes. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon ( is a Chinese-language Film in the Wuxia ( chivalric and martial arts) style Nevertheless, it provided an introduction to Chinese cinema (and especially the Wuxia genre) for many and increased the popularity of many Chinese films which may have otherwise been relatively unknown to Westerners. Wuxia or Wǔxiá ( Mandarin ùɕiɑ̌ Hanyu Pinyin: Wǔxiá, Cantonese Pinyin: mou5 hap6 Taiwanese/Hokkien bu hiap

In 2002, Hero was made as a second attempt to produce a Chinese film with the international appeal of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Hero ( is a 2002 Chinese Martial arts film, directed by Zhang Yimou with music by Tan Dun. The cast and crew featured many of the most famous Chinese actors who were also known to some extent in the West, including Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, directed by Zhang Yimou. Li Lianjie (born April 26 1963 better known by his stage name Jet Li, is a Chinese martial artist (Kung fu Actor, Wushu champion Zhang Ziyi (born February 9, 1979, in Beijing) is one of the best-known Golden Globe -nominated Chinese Film Actresses Maggie Cheung ( born September 20, 1964) is a Cannes Best Actress, Berlin Best Actress, six-time Hong Kong Film Award Tony Leung Chiu-Wai ( born June 27, 1962) is a Cannes Film Festival and 5 times Hong Kong Film Award -winning Hong Kong Zhang Yimou (born November 14 1951 is an internationally acclaimed Chinese Filmmaker and former Cinematographer. The film was a phenomenal success in most of Asia and topped the U. S. box office for two weeks, making enough in the U. S. alone to cover the production costs.

The successes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero blur what may be called the boundary between Mainland Chinese cinema and a more international-based "Chinese-language cinema". Crouching Tiger, for example, was directed by a Taiwanese director (Ang Lee), but its leads include Mainland Chinese, Hong Kong, and Taiwan actors and actresses while the film was co-produced by an array of Chinese, American, Hong Kong, Taiwanese film companies. Taiwan ( Taiwanese: Tâi-oân/Tāi-oân (historically 大灣/台員/大員/台圓/大圓/台窩灣 is an Island in East Asia. Ang Lee ( (born October 23, 1954) is an Academy Award -winning Film director from Taiwan. Mainland China, Continental China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term synonymous with the area that is under the jurisdiction Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders Taiwan ( Taiwanese: Tâi-oân/Tāi-oân (historically 大灣/台員/大員/台圓/大圓/台窩灣 is an Island in East Asia. This merging of people, resources, and expertise from three regions (China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) seemed to imply big-budgeted Chinese-language cinema is moving toward a more international-based arena looking to compete with the best Hollywood films. Further examples of films in this mould would include House of Flying Daggers (2004), The Promise (2005) and The Banquet (2006). House of Flying Daggers ( is a 2004 Chinese action / Romance film directed by Zhang Yimou. The Promise ( is a 2005 Chinese epic Fantasy film directed by Chen Kaige and starring Jang Dong-gun, Hiroyuki The Banquet (released on DVD in the US as Legend of the Black Scorpion) is a 2006 Chinese Wuxia - Drama film Tighter-financed Chinese-language cinema are still relatively localized in content, as seen in those from Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan, especially in the latter two where many films have not yet found international distributors abroad.

Sources

• Film History: An Introduction. Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell. Second edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002.
• The Oxford History of World Cinema. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (ed). Oxford University Press, 1999.

See also

• East Asian cinema
• Chinese animation
• Chinese art

Related cinema

• Cinema of Hong Kong
  • Hong Kong action cinema
• Cinema of Taiwan

Lists

• List of Chinese actors
• List of Chinese actresses
• List of Chinese directors
• List of Chinese films
• List of Chinese film production companies (pre-PRC)

References

Further reading

• Rey Chow, Primitive Passions: Visuality, Sexuality, Ethnography, and Contemporary Chinese Cinema, Columbia University Pres 1995.
• Shuqin Cui, Women Through the Lens: Gender and Nation in a Century of Chinese Cinema, University of Hawaii Press 2003.
• Dai Jinhua, Cinema and Desire: Feminist Marxism and Cultural Politics in the Work of Dai Jinhua, eds. Jing Wang and Tani E. Barlow. London: Verso 2002.
• Laikwan Pang, Building a New China in Cinema: The Chinese Left-Wing Cinema Movement, 1932-1937, Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc 2002.
• Jay Leyda, Dianying, MIT Press, 1972. Jay Leyda (1910 - February 15, 1988 was an American avant-garde filmmaker and film historian noted for his work on U
• Harry H. Kuoshu, Celluloid China: Cinematic Encounters with Culture and Society, Southern Illinois University Press 2002 - introduction, discusses 15 films at length.
• Gary G. Xu, Sinascape: Contemporary Chinese Cinema, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.
• Yingjin Zhang, Chinese National Cinema (National Cinemas Series. ), Routledge 2004 - general introduction.
• Yingjin Zhang (Author), Zhiwei Xiao (Author, Editor), Encyclopedia of Chinese Film, Routledge, 1998.
• Cheng, Jim, Annotated Bibliography For Chinese Film Studies, Hong Kong University Press 2004.

External links

• Chinese Cinema at the Open Directory Project
• Journal of Chinese Cinema

The Open Directory Project ( ODP) also known as dmoz (from directory

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