Why do the fifth generation directors like to shoot the bottom of society?

The fifth generation directors usually refer to directors who graduated from Beijing Film Academy from 65438 to 0982, such as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang and Li.

Their main experiences:

1966-3354 1976 It was a turbulent decade and there was a talent gap.

1977 resume the college entrance examination.

1978 was admitted to Beijing film academy, and 1982 graduated.

With this historical background, we can roughly sort out their creative motives.

There is no doubt that the suppression of human nature by ten years of turmoil is enormous.

Although the ten-year turmoil is over, the trauma of the witnesses will not end immediately. Therefore, from the late 1970s to the late 1980s, a large number of "scar literature" appeared, mainly describing (accusing) the tragic life in that tragic era.

Nowadays, many people on the Internet criticize "scar literature" for being melodramatic. In fact, when scar literature first came out, it was suggested that it was meaningless to "accuse" and "melodramatic" only by literature, and it should be thoroughly reflected. Thus, in According to You, there appeared the "scar literature" after the "reflective literature". We should not only show and accuse this social tragedy, but also reflect and trace the causes of this series of social tragedies.

Therefore, the first few years of the fifth-generation directors' study and stepping into society are precisely the most prosperous periods of "scar literature" and "reflective literature" (root-seeking literature can be regarded as a kind of reflection). These literary works, which are rooted in their own experience of going to the countryside, close to the life of the bottom peasants and reflect the national inferiority, have become rare creative materials for the fifth generation directors.

For example, Zhang Yimou's works:

My Father and Mother is adapted from Bao Shi's Memorial.

Alive is adapted from Yu Hua's Alive.

Hanging the Red Lantern is adapted from Su Tong's Wives and Concubines.

Red Sorghum was adapted by Mo Yan according to Red Sorghum Family.

Shake, Shake, Shake to Waipo Bridge is adapted from Li Xiao's Door Rules.

Judou was adapted by Liu Heng from Fuxi Fuxi.

Chen Kaige's works:

Farewell My Concubine is adapted from Farewell My Concubine by Li Bihua.

The Yellow Land is adapted from Michelle's Echo of the Valley.

Singing while Walking was adapted by Shi Tiesheng according to Life is Like a String.

Huang Jianxin's works:

Back to Back and Face to Face were adapted from Liu Xinglong's Drunk Autumn Wind.

Black cannon incident is adapted from The Romantic Black Cannon by Zhang Xianliang.

He Ping's Works (Director: Knight of Shuangqi Town):

"Gun Beats Double Lights" is adapted from Feng Jicai's "Gun Beats Double Lights".

On the one hand, the works of the fifth generation directors have special connotations, because the outstanding literary works of the same period provide a solid internal foundation for the second creation of their films, and their main energy only needs to focus on the external expression forms that are highly unified with literary works.

On the other hand, the "ten-year turmoil" delayed the study career of the fifth-generation directors for ten years, allowing them to associate with the countryside, grassroots and coolies at the most youthful and sensitive age, which not only laid their sensitivity to social tragedies, but also made them increasingly eager for knowledge. With the implementation of the country's reform and opening-up policy, the influx of cultural thoughts and theories from all over the world has enabled the fifth-generation directors to fully contact and learn domestic and foreign film theories and philosophies, and observe a large number of excellent foreign films, such as Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, structuralism, post-structuralism, existentialism, phenomenology, semiotics, psychoanalysis, etc., which are not available to previous generations of directors.

After the fifth generation of directors graduated, they began to express their long-standing feelings with movies. The experience of the lower classes touched them too much. They want to vent, not only by filming the social tragedies at the bottom, but also by expressing their reflection and doubt about these social tragedies.

It may be that the experience of those years has had a great influence on them, filling their whole lives and preventing them from taking in more new nutrients and keeping pace with the times. The main audiences of "scar literature" and "reflective literature" are getting older and older, and they are no longer the mainstream groups for watching movies. The works hastily transformed by the fifth generation directors are also extremely "mixed" under the waving of the double-edged sword in the market.

Many films directed by the fifth generation show the "China landscape" which is consistent with the expectations of western audiences, and have won many awards. We can say that it was a happy ending, or that they seized power in the corner, because the fifth generation directors did set up China films, and they gained worldwide popularity, making attempts and contributions to the commercialization and market-oriented operation of the film industry in China, with more advantages than disadvantages.