Acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke wins the excellence in cinema (international) award at Jio MAMI 18th Mumbai Film Festival With Star. One of his recent films, A Touch of Sin, about four working class people in four different provinces of China, will be screened at the festival. He will be conducting a masterclass and will also be in conversation with Court director Chaitanya Tamhane. For those unaware of the Sixth Generation Chinese Cinema, of which he is a foremost member, here is a quick run through the Chinese cinematic history.
Chinese filmmaking history has been traditionally divided into generations, each of which has contributed to the country’s rich and unique cinematic culture. Each has used specific cinematic modes, developed distinctive artistic styles in response to the social and political crises of the times and gone on to produce some of the world’s most acclaimed films.
The leftist filmmakers of the First and Second Generations focused on social realism in their films. While communist cinema flourished in the Third Generation, those belonging to the Fourth were notable for bringing in a documentary realism in opposition to the revolutionary melodramatic mode of the previous phase.
Gaining recognition
But it was with the Fifth Generation of filmmakers led by figures like Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou in the aftermath of Chairman Mao’s repressive Cultural Revolution that Chinese cinema started getting applauded in international circuits with recognition pouring in for films like Yellow Earth (1985), Red Sorghum (1987) and others.
Films of this period paid attention to scenic rural landscapes, lush cinematography and history. Frequently presenting allegories of the past, they highlighted the ideals of community and tradition. A sense of spectacle and an exotic epic-like quality characterised them: a fact which has led critics to believe that they were in fact being packaged to appeal specifically to international audiences.
Radical change
As many began to feel that the Fifth Generation was losing its innovative quality, there emerged in the early to mid-1990s, following the Tiananmen Square Massacre, a group of young filmmakers who radically broke away from the established modes of filmmaking of the previous generations and attempted to forge a distinctly different aesthetic. They turned away from remote rural settings and began to explore the gritty urbanscape through a modern lens and sensibility. Rejecting elaborate allegories and historical frameworks, they looked to the immediate present and its various preoccupations: youth culture, rapid cultural changes, modern alienation, city life, alternative lifestyles, and an engagement with the social and political conditions of contemporary China.
Individualistic in focus
Zhang Yuan’s Beijing Bastards (1993), considered by many to be the first important Sixth Generation film, dealt with the grim idea of a decaying and desperate youth culture with an honesty unseen before. Many of the films of this period were individualistic in their focus, leaning towards personal struggles and crises. Yuan’s Sons and EastPalace, West Palace , both of which came out in 1996, engaged with bold subjects like alcoholism and homosexuality with a brutal frankness. Jianjun’s Red Beads (1993), and Wang Xiaoshuai’s The Days (1993) and Frozen (1997) threw up similar concerns.
These films returned to the documentary aesthetics only briefly explored in the earlier decades and notions of truth and objectivity became central. The frequent use of non-actors, real locations and hand-held cameras added to the documentary feel of these films. They also emerged around the same time as the Chinese New Documentary Movement, which was significant as the two groups shared common concerns about social inequalities and employed similar shooting methods. Zhang Yuan’s Mother (1990) intersperses the narrative about a mother raising her mentally challenged son with actual footage of women facing such struggles in their daily lives.
A graduate of Beijing Film Academy with 13 films behind him, Jia Zhangke has added to the sense of realism and the documentary aesthetic that these films were aspiring to. His tools have been the signature long takes and experimentations with digital film. Zhangke’s films have featured marginal figures lurking on the fringes of society as in his directorial debut The Pickpocket (1997) and Platform (2000), which reflect upon the collapse of relationships and older modes and a discomfort with the new ones creeping in.
Finally, in keeping with the idea of a bold, politically-charged artistic movement, the Sixth Generation came to represent ‘underground’ independent film in China. Many of these films on account of their gritty subject matter were made without permission and were not officially distributed in China.
The rebellious artist
These filmmakers were making films outside of the state studio system, which in turn led to clashes with the state and the resultant banning of films. However, ironically this led to an increased sympathy for their struggles and their acceptance by western audiences who were greatly impressed and taken with the idea of the rebellious artist.
The author is a Mumbai-based freelance writer
Zhangke’s films
have featured marginal figures lurking on the
fringes of society
