British Journal of Chinese Studies

dragon mural beijing 2018 copyright Gerda Wielander
Vol 8 No 2 (2018)
Articles

Mainstream Film Production in a Country on the Cusp of Change: An Army Officer’s View of Three Chinese Films of the Early 1980s Produced by the August First Film Studio

Julian Ward
University of Edinburgh
Published March 13, 2019
How to Cite
Ward, J. (2019). Mainstream Film Production in a Country on the Cusp of Change. British Journal of Chinese Studies, 8(2), 63-88. https://doi.org/10.51661/bjocs.v8i2.7

Abstract

In June 1984, the journal Dianying pingjie (Film Criticism) published a short article titled “An Open letter to the August First Film Studio”, written by an army officer called Xu Gewei, in which he described The Colourful Night, The Last Military Salute and Star of the Battleground, three of the studio’s recent productions, as mediocre, inept and crudely made. This paper will look at the three films in the context of the early 1980s, a period in the history of filmmaking in Communist China, which, in spite of being critical for the subsequent development of the Chinese film industry, still receives comparatively little attention. The paper will show how, although the films rely for the most part on out-moded techniques and narrative forms, there are moments that display an interest in new film techniques and reveal an understanding of the evolving world of China in the early 1980s.

At time of publication of this article, the journal operated under the old name. When quoting please refer to the citation on the left using British Journal of Chinese Studies. The pdf of the article still reflects the old journal name; issue number and page range are consistent.

Keywords
  • August Film Studio,
  • post-Mao cinema,
  • mainstream filmmaking,
  • film language,
  • Four Modernisations,
  • zoom
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