The Fifth Generation Chinese Filmmakers: From Critique to Party-State Ideology - Case Study Example

The Fifth Generation Chinese Filmmakers: From Critique to Party-State Ideology Table of Contents Page No. I- Introduction 3 II- The Yellow Earth Story 3-5 III- Critics Impression of Yellow Earth 5 IV- Analysis of Yellow Earth 5-9 V- The Hero Story 9-11 VI- Critics Impression of Hero 11 VII- Analysis and Comparison of Yellow Earth and Hero 11-12 VIII- Conclusion 13 IX- Bibliography 14 I- Introduction When the communist took over China in 1949, atmosphere of indecisiveness and paranoia were pervasive in most part of the country. Rebellion among the people and tensions in the party leadership led to the deferment of numerous socialist inspired crusades like the Great Leap Forward in 1958, commonly remembered as a major economic disaster and the Cultural Revolution of 1966. As the entire country is suffering from cultural and political turmoil, the poignant and real-life tragedy of the people became a frequent story line in Chinese cinema. In 1984, the so-called Fifth Generation Chinese Filmmakers released Yellow Earth, a film depicting the life of the people in the twentieth century China. Although it leans on the dramatic side of the people’s struggle, Yellow Earth was highly praised in the Hong Kong International Film Festival in 1985.1 II- The Yellow Earth Story The story of Yellow Earth started in a small village, north of Shaanxi province in the spring of 1939. It is about a communist soldier designated to collect folk songs for the Eighth Route Army (formerly The Red Army), which they intend modify the lyrics for inspiration. The film begins with the wedding of a young girl and a middle-aged man and the arrival of soldier (Gu Qing) during the feast. The soldier, through his own request, stays with a poor family of three (the father, the 13 year old daughter named Cuiqiao and his brother Hanhan) in their cave home. He stayed their as a member of the family, helping them with household chores while he tries to 1Cheng Emily, 2004, Chinese Cinema in the 1980s and the 1990s, 21H.560 Smashing the Iron Rice Bowl, November 30, 2004, page 1. collect songs in the village. Sadly, his search seems pointless, as most of the songs in the village sound aggrieved. When the soldier asked the father about the songs, he replied that the villagers only sing when they are happy or bitter, and regrettably, they sing because of the latter most of the time2. After a long stay, the soldier became close to the family and he compassionately explains to Cuiqaio that women in the south are already free to choose their own spouse. He also added that the communist party is now allowing these women to join them. However, the father scoffs at the idea saying the parents are worthless if they allow such right to their daughters. The father knew the consequences of arranged marriage because he is aware of the sufferings of his elder daughter, how she is starving and beaten by her husband, but he cannot let her back. He simply cannot ignore the old customs and tradition, and the bows her daughter made to her husband. Furthermore, even though it is clear to him, he will continue arranging a marriage for Cuiqiao. Then it happen, when Cuiqiao’s formal engagement is done, she decided to persuade the soldier to take her with him to join the army but he refused. He explained to Cuiqao that she must apply first before she can become a member of the army. However, he promised to apply for her and he assured her that he would return next spring to fetch her.3 Cuiqiao patiently waits for him but after almost a year, there is still no sign of the soldier. Consequently, by her father’s wish, she got married in the early spring. Nevertheless, still persistent to join the army, she decided to go on her own to find the soldier in Yan’an. There she went, and tries to traverse the Yellow River (Huang He) while singing a song about being free, but suddenly her singing stopped and she vanished from the scene. The ending of the film shows 2-3 Cheng Emily, 2004, Chinese Cinema in the 1980s and the 1990s, 21H.560 Smashing the Iron Rice Bowl, November 30, 2004, pages 2-3. the village in drought and the Yellow River is utterly dry while the villagers are praying to the Dragon God for rain. Finally, there is a scene showing the soldier’s return. 4 III- Critics Impression of Yellow Earth The cultural and nationalistic value and historical accuracy of this Fifth Generation film ignite a number of debates among critics of the Chinese cinema. In China, the immediate reaction is mostly focus on the historical accuracy and integrity of the peasant’s imagery. On the contrary, the West seems to be more fascinated in the rhetorical facet of the film, which they feel, contains more veiled significance than it seems to be. Many believed that the film’s presentation of spaces, silence, music, and landscape represents the ideological rigidity of the Mao Zedong’ Cultural Revolution project in the countryside during that time. The soldier probably signifies that project and his presence in the village is symbol of political intervention in civilian life.5 IV- Analysis of Yellow Earth The film director Chen Kaige, who also spent his childhood in the countryside as a sent-down youth, admitted studying these peasants before making the actual film. Like the soldier, he ate and lived with them for a month to be more familiar with his film’s subjects. They both underwent the same challenging experience but unrealistic aspiration to dismantle the tackiness of one’s class origins through a drastic intellectual change. The same dilemma lingering the lives of many intellectuals as they grapple to live up to the demands of Mao’s Cultural Revolution.6 The film apparently criticizes the impracticality of such demand, and did not instantiate its realization, as the soldier failed to alter the perspective of Cuiqiao’s father on the development 4 Cheng Emily, 2004, Chinese Cinema in the 1980s and the 1990s, 21H.560 Smashing the Iron Rice Bowl, November 30, 2004, page 4. 5-6 Berry Chris, 2003, Chinese Films in Focus, Published in 2003 by the British Film Institute, British Library ISBN: 0851709850 (hh) ,ISBN: 0851709869 (pb), pages 191-192 of women’s rights in the south. It has also managed to portray the old culture as the burden of tradition that blocks the expansion modernity. The soldier’s mission is clearly a representation of Mao’s effort to fashion a revolutionary but nationalistic and modern culture. Although Mao was not calling for the eradication of all tradition, he still wants the people to absorb the democratic aspects of the traditional culture. He insists in the severance of the “fine old culture”7 from the profligacy of the old feudal ruling class. However, doing so would only privilege the indigenous folk songs from the imperial poetry, which is also indigenous in the region. These folk songs, which will be the defining ingredients of a national culture, are in fact cultivated by adversity and oppression. In the film, when the soldier candidly asks an old villager how it is possible to remember so many songs, the peasant explains that they can only remember these songs when “life is hard”.8 The principle behind the soldier’s mission to that village is believed to be the communist idea of “mass line”9, that came from the theory, that effective leaders are those who are prepared to give their life to the revolutionary cause regardless of class, training, or family background. Therefore, if the peasant can rise from poverty to leadership through struggle and self-education, traditional elite components could plunge and recognition of multiplicity roles could unite and lead the peasants. The soldier’s mission is therefore serving a dual purpose. The first is to assimilate the democratic essence (Women’s Right, Freedom of Expression and others) and to encourage ‘mass line’ through the collection of songs. Folk songs are significant to the party, since it can inspire individual consciousness among the peasants. 7-8-9 Berry Chris, 2003, Chinese Films in Focus, Published in 2003 by the British Film Institute, British Library ISBN: 0851709850 (hh) ,ISBN: 0851709869 (pb), pages 193 This approach is evident in the film whenever the soldier engages the peasants on matters concerning the revolution and women’s emancipation but hesitantly gets involved in Cuiqioa’s condition.10 His dedication to learn from the peasants and educate them in return, backfires as he learn something more than he expects. He actually realizes the flaws in the party’s elemental hypothesis of the peasants, since it maybe be possible that they are already subjectively conscious of their goals, but just not ready yet to follow the solutions prescribed by the party. It maybe also possible that the party’s solution does not at all times satisfies the masses needs, or maybe the party itself needs to renounce its own authority to represent the masses. There are several scenes in the film noticeably accentuates these questions. For instance, when the soldier eats with the peasants after ploughing the field, the answer he gets from his question is so different to what he expects. For the peasant, folk songs are just bitter tunes and it is not worth singing. The response indicates a different understanding of the relationship between consciousness and society. For them, these songs are not important part of the tradition or a useful revolutionary material. They are simply songs to be sung instinctively whenever a person is happy or sad, and only recall them when life is difficult. They exist solely within the immediate context of their impulsive production, and not a moment ahead, thus it makes any sense to collect them. In the near end of the film, worried that his officers will castigate the soldier for failing to collect a song, the peasants sing for him in the eve of his departure for the first and only time since he arrived.11 10-11 Berry Chris, 2003, Chinese Films in Focus, Published in 2003 by the British Film Institute, British Library ISBN: 0851709850 (hh) ,ISBN: 0851709869 (pb), pages 193-194 The peasant’s sympathetic presentation that night suggests that their understanding of the world go beyond the assumption of the soldier’s mission. The shot showing the song’s effects to the peasant’s bitter sympathy for his daughter and a indistinct image of Cuiqiao in the background listening. However, for the soldier, these people are just closed-minded patriarch who does not recognize his daughter’s coercion. He is not aware that this recital also functions as a lament for the peasant’s daughter whose future is likely to be heart-rending. It shows that, contrary to the soldier’s belief, the peasants is conscious and sympathetic to his daughter’s situation although it would not lead to any answer or change, The song’s awareness is not primarily from the tragic scenario envisioned, but for the discontinuity between subjective consciousness and objective change. The Cuiqiao’s arranged marriage is an objective change, since they the need the money for her mother’s funeral and enough dowry money for his little brother to get a better match. Consciously, the peasant apparently does not believe in the soldier’s mission and he even thinks it is not rational and will soon fail. However, out of compassion and objectiveness, he sings for him that he would have something to bring to his leaders. Cuiqiao songs also illustrate the state of her oppression, nonetheless also fails to clear up any prospect for change.12 Although only the significant hidden messages were discussed, the overall theme of the film is political criticism. It is obviously attacking the communist party’s policy and ideology over the indigenous customs and traditions of the north. The film clearly presented the flaws in the party’s fundamental hypothesis of the peasants. It also further point out the consequences of that policy to the success of the Cultural Revolution. The Fifth Generation Chinese Filmmakers 12 Berry Chris, 2003, Chinese Films in Focus, Published in 2003 by the British Film Institute, British Library ISBN: 0851709850 (hh) ,ISBN: 0851709869 (pb), pages 194-195 managed to oppose the revolutionary government silently in this film, since there is no direct line that will show you where the resistance is. In fact, the soldier’s line is so much encouraging as it only speaks of good and promising things about the communist party. However, the hidden messages in the landscape, sound, images, people, situation, and songs are actually the opposite of what it seems. Finally, the ending showing the soldier returning to village left us with a challenging question: Is the soldier going to pursue his party’s project? V- The Hero Story Hero is another product of the Fifth Generation Chinese Filmmakers released in China in 2002. Zhang Yimou, also a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy in 1982 directs the film.13 Similar to compatriot Chen Kaige’s Yellow Earth, which was released 18 years earlier, this film, is also marked as politically motivated. However, those audiences who are familiar with the film of the Fifth Generation Filmmaker before would be surprise to find this film’s theme so different from Yellow Earth. The story begins in Ancient China, sometime before the reign of the first emperor. China was then divided into seven warring kingdoms in which the Qin emerged as the most powerful of them. Consequently, there were attempts to eliminate the King of Qin, and the three most prominent of these assassins are Sky, Flying Snow, and Broken Sword. The film opens with Nameless (Jet Li), a low ranking Qin army official arriving at the Qin’s palace. The King by invited him as he defeated and killed the three known assassins. He was disarmed and undressed by the guards, and fitted with appropriate clothes before he meet the King. At the palace, he was 13 Lamont Ian, 2006, Fifth Generation Chinese Film And Use Of The Northwest Scenic Trope, History, Northwestern University, Harvard Summer School, Film And History, Postwar Japan and Post-Mao China, (History S-1855), page 1 ask by the King how he defeated such formidable foe. Nameless told the story (through a series of flashbacks) and the King is amazed.14 However, the King quickly unravels the story and accused Nameless of conspiracy to kill him. The King recalls the attempt made to his life by Flying Snow and Broken Sword three years ago, but the latter spare his life believing that killing the King is not important anymore. Broken Sword believed that “All under heaven”15 or under one rule. The King started to narrates a different version of Nameless story, since all of them according to him are lies. He reveals that Sky voluntary fell to Nameless’ sword because Sky acknowledged that the sacrifice would get Nameless 20 paces nearer to the King. He also discloses the arrangement made by Nameless with Flying Snow and Broken Sword that one of them should die (allegedly) from his sword, so Nameless can get closer to the throne. Flying Snow agrees, but Broken Sword insisted on his philosophy that killing the King would do no good. 16 From this point, the King concluded that Nameless must have a covert and lethal technique that is accurate within ten paces. Surprisingly, Nameless did not deny that he has such lethal technique and even admitted that his sword can pass harmlessly through a body while the wound appears to be from a fatal blow. Then the King asks Nameless how you are going to kill me without your sword? By you own sword he replied. Then the King threw his sword and landed on the table in front of Nameless, and the King turns his back. Nameless took the opportunity and attacked with one blow but he never let the sword pierce his body. Nameless eventually prefer not to kill him, instead he left the King’s Court and executed at the gate (with the King’s reluctant approval) by countless arrows. Nameless is then buried as a hero for his sacrifice.18 14-18 Hero, Director: Zhang Yimou, Performers: Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Film : Miramax Pictures, 2002 Meanwhile Flying Snow attacks Broken Sword while calling him a traitor but Broken Sword allowed her to kill him to prove his intentions. Confused and distressed, she pierces herself on the same blade while whispering, “I’ll take you home”19 before she died. The film’s closing text discloses that the King successfully unify the Middle Kingdom under one rule and became China’s first emperor. He is also responsible for the unification the Chinese language and completed the construction of the Great Wall of China.20 VI- Critics Impression of Hero As expected, the film it receives the full support of the People’s Republic of China received but also receives enormous criticisms from abroad because of its pro-totalitarian theme and pro-Chinese reunification subtext. Furthermore, the critic is saying that the central theme of the film is security and strength over independence and human rights. The concept of “all under heaven”21 or “our land”22 in English is also under attack as it justifies the inclusion of Tibet and Xinjiang to the mainland and encourages the return of Taiwan to China. Although Yimou insist that he had no political motive whatsoever, the film definitely put the Fifth Generation of Chinese Filmmakers into the centre of criticism and enormous disenchantment from their fans23. The question is how the group managed to abandon their reputation as a critique of the communist party, and suddenly jump to the other side of the fence. VII- Analysis and Comparison of Yellow Earth and Hero Yellow Earth is a film created in 1984 but the setting is 1939, long before the cultural revolution of the 1960’s. This is the reason why the initial reaction of the critics is its historical accuracy.24 However, since the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers started in the 1980’s 19-22 Hero, Director: Zhang Yimou, Performers: Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Film : Miramax Pictures, 2002 23 Robert Y. Eng, 2004, Is HERO a Paean to Authoritarianism?, University of Redlands, Media News Daily, online, date of access: 07/23/07, http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu /article.asp?parentid=14371, page 1 24 Berry Chris, 2003, Chinese Films in Focus, Published in 2003 by the British Film Institute, British Library ISBN: 0851709850 (hh) ,ISBN: 0851709869 (pb), page 1 when the communist party is already in power, they obviously have no choice but to conceal the real theme of their films to elude censorship. Yellow Earth is indeed a political criticism for the party’s cultural policy but it was intentionally set before the actual historical events. Hero is no different from the previous approach but the setting is way beyond the communist era to be a credible criticism. The words “all under heaven”25 by Broken Sword symbolizes unification in the country which is acceptable by any ideology. However, from a democratic point of view and for as long as China and the communist party is concern this symbol is politically offensive to the West. Director Yimou of the Fifth Generation group is denying any political inclination of his film, and this is quite true if the only political purpose of his film is to show the evolution of his nation from scattered kingdoms to a unified one. The plight of the peasants in Yellow Earth is cultural and politically correct, but the warring kingdoms in Hero are more of a magical tale than a true to life political struggle. In addition, the theme of Hero is so obvious, which is definitely not the filmmaking style of the Fifth Generation Group particularly when they want to criticise somebody on film. 25 Hero, Director: Zhang Yimou, Performers: Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Film : Miramax Pictures, 2002 VIII- Conclusion Hero is excessively diverse to be a Fifth Generation Film and there maybe some other motive why Zhang Yimou did it. According to Eng (2004),26 Cindy Fuch of the Philadelphia City Paper accused Yimou of deconstructing the very process of making history by fraud, egotism, and idealism. In a revealing statement by Charles Taylor of Salon according to Eng (2004)27, the Chinese government has barred Zhang Yimou’s films and he was also prevented from travelling to collect his awards, and consequently he is now obviously making it up to the Communist government. This paper is not in the position to judge Zhang Yimou, but the Fifth Generation of Chinese Filmmakers as a whole is apparently not responsible for the changes occurring in Yimou’s films. It is possible that the group did not move after all and still dedicated in making great films like Yellow Earth. 26-27 Robert Y. Eng, 2004, Is HERO a Paean to Authoritarianism?, University of Redlands, Media News Daily, online, date of access: 07/23/07, http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu /article.asp?parentid=14371, page 1 IX- Bibliography Berry Chris, 2003, Chinese Films in Focus, Published in 2003 by the British Film Institute, British Library ISBN: 0851709850 (hh) ,ISBN: 0851709869 (pb) Cheng Emily, 2004, Chinese Cinema in the 1980s and the 1990s, 21H.560 Smashing the Iron Rice Bowl, November 30, 2004 Hero, Director: Zhang Yimou, Performers: Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Film : Miramax Pictures, 2002 Lamont Ian, 2006, Fifth Generation Chinese Film And Use Of The Northwest Scenic Trope, History, Northwestern University, Harvard Summer School, Film And History, Postwar Japan and Post-Mao China, (History S-1855) Robert Y. Eng, 2004, Is HERO a Paean to Authoritarianism?, University of Redlands, Media News Daily, online, date of access: 07/23/07, http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu /article.asp?parentid=14371 Read More