Year 1987 as a break point in the development of the chinese Fifth Essay

Year 1987 as a break point in the development of the chinese Fifth Generation filmmakers - Essay Example The decades also saw a rapid growth in the education of the people. A special group of people, studying the art of film making defied the norms for film making, questioning and scrutinizing every single act of their profession. They devised new methods of taking shots, and they were eager to showcase their talents and break the inherent rules of film making. The consequence of which is the birth of fifth generation filmmakers - Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Chen Kaige, etc. They revolutionized filmmaking and opened new markets for Chinese films in the West. The critically acclaimed western directors took notice of their talents and the films of these directors such as Yellow Earth, Red Sorghum, etc., won high accolades from the film ‘circle’. To analyze more about the development of fifth generation and its implications on the Chinese film industry, a critical review of the films released during that period can be taken into consideration. Xudong Zhang and Rey Chowâ₠¬â„¢s critical analysis of the films â€Å"King of the Children†, directed by Chen Kaige and â€Å"Red Sorghum† by Yimou Zhang can lead the right pathway to understand why 1987 is considered to be the breakpoint in the development of fifth generation filmmakers. ... It was the third film of Chen Kaige, revolving around a simple man, who goes out to a remote place, outside of his city to teach illiterate people. In the process, he finds out the troubles and suffering of the people with the lack of proper materials to educate themselves and the consequences of the socio economic changes. Chen tries to portray the lack of food, poverty, unemployment and lack of education prevalent in China during this period. In a period where martial arts and urban culture reigned supreme, Chen’s work proved to be an unthinkable one, defying the rules laid out by the censor boards of that time. Irrespective of all its critical appreciations, the film somehow failed to achieve commercial success both in international as well as domestic level. Xudong Zhang’s views According to Zhang, â€Å"King of the Children† released in 1987 needs to be appreciated for two major reasons – its aesthetic nature of film making and its bold way of storyte lling breaking all the norms of the social culture present in that era. Despite this and â€Å"Red Sorghum† being the only films with a more rural background of all the movies from the fifth generation film makers, they actually epitomized the significance of these people. What really impresses Zhang about the film is the ability and skill of the director to bring out his own personal experience combined with the social plundering happening across the country in a melancholic and subtle way, pushing the cinematic modernism to its peak. The thing that befuddles the author is the failure of the film which is considered to be the â€Å"ultimate emblem of China’s Fifth Generation Film† (Zhang 1997). Although the film maker considers it to be an expected occurrence from