Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Film
The moving image in the Middle Kingdom dates to 1896, when Spaniard
Galen Bocca unveiled a film projector and blew the socks off wide-eyed
crowds in a Shanghai teahouse. Shanghai opened its first cinema in 1908;
soon cinema owners would cannily run the film for a few minutes, stop it and
collect money from the audience before allowing the film to continue.
The golden age of Shanghai film-making came in the 1930s when the city
had more than 140 film companies, but China's film industry was stymied after
the Communist Revolution, which sent film-makers scurrying to Hong Kong
and Taiwan.
It wasn't until two years after the death of Mao Zedong that the Beijing Film
Academy, China's premier film school, reopened in September 1978. Its first
intake of students included Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuang-
zhuang - masterminds of the celebrated 'Fifth Generation'. Rich, seminal
works such as
Farewell My Concubine
(1993; Chen Kaige) and
Raise the Red
Lantern
(1991; Zhang Yimou) were garlanded with praise, winning standing
ovations and netting major film awards.
Sixth Generation film directors eschewed the luxurious beauty of their fore-
bears, and sought to capture the angst and grit of modern urban Chinese life.
Jia Zhangke has emerged as the most acclaimed of China's new film-
makers. His meditative and compassionate look at the social impact of the
construction of the Three Gorges Dam on local people,
Still Life
(2006),
scooped the Golden Lion at the 2006 Venice Film Festival.
Historical
wuxia
(martial arts) cinema is enduringly popular in China and typ-
ified much film-making in the noughties, with films like
Hero
(2002; Zhang
Yimou),
House of Flying Daggers
(2004; Zhang Yimou) and
The Banquet
(2006; Feng Xiaogang) leading the way. Epic historical war dramas such as
Red Cliff
(2008 & 2009; John Woo) and
The Warlords
(2007; Peter Chan) be-
long to a similar genre. The Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai is particularly
notable for seductively filmed classics such as
In the Mood for Love
(2000)
and
2046
(2004).
Zhang Yimou's
The Flowers of War
(2011) gained considerable acclaim for
its depiction of the horrific Rape of Nanking in 1937. Feng Xiaogang's popular
