Can Chinese movies take on the challenge of Hollywood productions at home, create a niche in overseas markets, triumph at international competitions and promote China's soft power?
Chen Gang
A perfect example of profit-making
Since June 15, many people have watched Beginning of the Great Revival, a film on the 10 years between the Revolution of 1911 and the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1921. The characters in the film, including Sun Yat-sen, Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Soong Ching Ling, are familiar names for any Chinese.
So why should people pay at least 35 yuan( $5) to watch a film that portrays characters they already know well? The reason is simple. The film belongs to a genre that originated in Hollywood under the studio system in the early 1900s. The audience has always loved this genre of films, for they emphasize star appeal, encourage business, and underline the plot and fluent space-time combination.
Although certain genres of films have similar themes, plots, figures, scenes and narrative style, people still pay to watch them, because they feel a sense of security and even get satisfaction watching a movie that reflects their emotional experiences.
From The Founding of a Republic (released in 2009) to Beginning of the Great Revival, directors Han Sanping and Huang Jianxin have tried to restructure traditional mainstream movies into a certain genre that uses the operational mode of commercial blockbusters. Inherent dominant ideology, an all-star cast, and a marketized operational mode in financing, filmmaking, distribution and publicity are the three principal elements that define this genre.
Mainstream Chinese movies, especially those with important historical themes, should spread the country's dominant ideology and cultural values. By watching such films, the audience should be able not only to recall history and understand the roots and development of our culture, morals and traditions, but also meet the need to ritualize the dominant national ideology.
But earlier mainstream films expounded these aspects mechanically. A large number of figures that they portrayed lacked individuality, they simplified the appreciation of beauty and had a stereotyped narrative mode, which left the audience aesthetically fatigued. Besides, quite a number of mainstream films were failures at the box office and couldn't effectively transmit the dominant ideology and cultural values to the audience.
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