CONTEMPORARY CHINESE CINEMA
Chinese cinema remains an unknown land for most of Polish people. Many of us identify it with the Japanese cinema. It merges with the enormity of Asian cinematography (mostly martial arts movies) for even more of us. Though we do have a growing number of Chinese film festivals, we still find them exotic and unapproachable. We may remember works such as Chinese box or In the mood for love but we will probably never learn the names of their creators, not to mention their nationality. Those who will take the trouble, reach certain movies and go carefully into them, may not understand the different Chinese mentality. Those who will hold out, shall be stunned. The cinema of the Middle Kingdom offers new quality, both aesthetic and view-of-the-world.
Reaching the arts nowadays is often determined by promotion in which film criticism plays a considerable role. Critical texts, also those dealing with literature, are middlemen between the potential viewer and the work of art. Often we do use them before we reach for new books or films. When it comes to cinematography we do not find many studies, neither in foreign, nor in the Polish language. Therefore Chinese film lovers will surely appreciate the article Kino zza chińskiego muru. Filmy Jia Zhang-Ke / Cinema from behind the Chinese Wall. Films by Jia Zhang-Ke by Iwona Cegiełkówna ("Kino" no. 5/2008). It is devoted to the creation of Jia Zhang-Ke, the director of Still life recently present in our cinemas; two documentaries by this Chinese director were also screened at the last Planete Doc Review festival. The author, however, focuses on the artist's feature films.
Before discussing the issues of specific works, Cegiełkówna casts light on the director himself. She provides us with information about his family and childhood. She also places him against the whole Chinese cinematography. Important - Jia Zhang-Ke belongs to the so-called Sixth Generation. A viewer acquainted with Chinese cinema will notice, that his movies have some elements common with the movies of the earlier cinematographic Chinese generation like Zhang Yimu (Raise the Red Lantern) or Chen Kaige (Red Sorghum), who have popularized Chinese films outside China and are known to wider public.
Setting these two generations together is an important procedure in the text. They where at the bottom of the creation of modern Chinese cinema. Probably that is why the author ponders on the relations between them. The author extracts only the differences which, according to her, are expressed mainly in the issues undertaken and the way they are shown. The directors of the Fifth Generation would use historical costumes (though we have to remember The blue kite as a significant exception). Their successors were interested in the Chinese here and now. The author emphasizes that the price for interest in the present is high - one has to keep in a niche. The films cannot reach wider public because of the ever alive Chinese censorship, which has a key role as early as in the production phase. It's obvious that finding funds for illegal movies is difficult, therefore their costs are limited to a necessary minimum. That is the reason of the para-documentary atmosphere of the Sixth Generation movies - the production process extorts a documentary style. Cegiełkówna finds it in Jia Zhank-Ke's films.
The article from "Kino" lets us believe, that the author is especially interested in the Chinese society's real life shown in films by Jia Zhang-Ke. We can guess that this interest results from an awareness of the Sixth Generation's presumptions (Jia Zhang-Ke is part of this generation) – their focus on showing current issues. Cegiełkówna divides the director's work into three parts. At firs he deliberates the issue of tao philosophy, then he ponders on the situation of women. In the end he moves to economic changes. The question of tao philosophy which determines the local people's actions may intrigue Europeans. Still life is a good example. Cegiełkówna casts light on the basics of the thao philosophy, because of which the village people passively let for building a dam. As a result they are forced to leave their homes. This mentality, full of reluctance to change the course of things, can be seen in films by other Chinese film makers. Just think of The blue kite by Tiana Zhuangzhuang, where the communist ideology destroys interpersonal relations, and still, nobody criticizes it.
The second topic present in Jia Zhang-Ke's films, the dominant role of women in contemporary China, is interesting in the way that it can be compared with European feminism. Such a comparison, however, would be inappropriate. According to the writing of Cegiełkówka, women do not fight for their rights in Jia Zhang-Ke's films. Social changes forced them to be stronger than men. Men cannot adapt to the new roles. World where women practically provide for men shows this clearly.
Cegiełkówna gives most place to economic changes taking place in contemporary China and pictured in Jia Zhang-Ke's movies. The author discusses especially two documentaries: Dong and Superfluous beauty. She makes us aware of the importance of realism in the director's works. He does not judge his characters but restricts himself to observation. In this part of the article we are exposed at "China without embellishment", China that cannot deal with the civilization jump that started after Mao's death. These changes make China a county full of contrasts, where stratification into the rich and the poor is visible on every step.
Cegiełkówna introduces to us works new to the Europeans, works that deal with difficult problems, problems which we do not experience. She can encourage not only to take interest in films from behind the Chinese Wall, but also in Chinese culture and politics. The article is surely a valuable opinion in the criticism of the Middle Kingdom.
Marta Chmielewska
Translated by Agnieszka Wąsowska
Discussed journals: Kino