Abstract / Description of output
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.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 63-88 |
Number of pages | 26 |
Journal | British Journal of Chinese Studies (BJoCS) |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 2 |
Publication status | Published - 1 Aug 2018 |
Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)
- August First Film Studio
- post-Mao cinema
- mainstream filmmaking
- film language
- Four Modernisations
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Julian Ward
- School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures - UoE Honorary staff
Person: Affiliated Independent Researcher