Upward, good, beautiful: realistic themes attract attention of Chinese filmmakers
2024-08-07
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original title:
Upward, good, beautiful: realistic themes attract attention of Chinese filmmakers
Xinhua News Agency, Chengdu, August 7
Xinhua News Agency reporters Zhang Hailei, Li Qianwei and Tang Wenhao
Recently, the closing ceremony of the 37th Popular Film Hundred Flowers Awards came to an end. Films focusing on realistic themes such as "Article 20", "Life Events", and "Annual Meetings Cannot Stop" won different awards, and "Octagon Cage" and "All or Nothing" were also nominated for different awards. In recent years, realistic films that express the basic direction and style of upward, good, and beautiful have become a major feature of Chinese films.
Among these realistic films, Article 20 tells the story of prosecutors and ordinary people jointly defending social fairness and justice; Annual Meetings Cannot Stop tells workplace stories in a dramatic form; Life Events tells the growth of ordinary people with warmth; Octagon Cage portrays a group of young people who do not succumb to fate and dare to pursue their dreams; All or Nothing focuses on real cross-border fraud cases. The film artistically expresses the care for reality and resonates with the audience.
On August 4, the winners of the 37th Popular Film Hundred Flowers Awards and the public judges took a group photo on the stage. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Tang Wenhao
Yin Hong, vice chairman of the China Film Association and professor at Tsinghua University, believes that the artistic level and aesthetic ability of realistic films that express positive style, moral goodness, social progress and artistic beauty have been greatly improved, and have become a trend in Chinese film creation.
In 2023, the Chinese film market recovered strongly, and a large number of commercial, popular and artistic films were released. The total box office of the year ended at 54.915 billion yuan. Among the top 20 box office, there are 11 realistic films, mainly in the genres of suspense, crime, comedy, etc.
Director Huang Jianxin believes that the greatest charm of realistic films is that they are closely related to people's living conditions and mental states, and can establish a close relationship with the audience in the broadest scope. The audience will bring in existing cognition and invest more emotions in the process of watching the film.
"There is nothing more important than death in life." This classic line comes from the movie "Life Events" released in 2022. After the movie was released, it triggered a discussion about "life and death" on social platforms. Many netizens lamented "live in the present, live every day well" and "cherish the people around you". This film won the fourth place in the box office rankings that year, and it also won the recognition of the audience again at the Hundred Flowers Awards ceremony a few days ago.
"What the audience sees are not unfamiliar stories, but stories that are closely related to themselves. This is the people-centered creative concept that we have always advocated," said Chen Gang, vice dean and professor of the School of Art and Media at Beijing Normal University.
Yin Li, the 10th vice chairman of the China Film Association, also believes that Chinese films have always paid great attention to realistic themes. From "Lush Mountain Love", "Garland under the Mountain", "Red Sorghum", to "Operation Red Sea", "Dying to Survive", "Better Days"... Open the winning films of the Hundred Flowers Awards for Popular Films, and you will find that they all have the shadow of the times.
Of course, whether a work based on reality can achieve good results in the film market depends on whether the film has the ability to tell a good story and the artistic charm to infect the audience, which places higher demands on filmmakers.
The 2023 film "The Third Brigade" is adapted from a true story. It tells the story of a criminal investigation team that accidentally caused the death of a suspect while handling a rape and murder case and was sentenced to prison. After being released from prison, several people traveled around the country as ordinary people to pursue the murderer, and in the end only one person insisted on completing the task.
Screenwriter Zhang Ji mentioned that although imagination and fictional ability are one of the basic abilities of creators, all of this is based on field research. When creating "The Third Brigade", he found that the direct actions and language of each policeman in life, as well as their relationship with their families, are important components of the character image. "We must always learn from the people with an open mind and deeply contact and study our creative subjects."
In this regard, Mao Yu, executive deputy director of the Film Bureau of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, believes that Chinese films must grasp the mainstream spirit of the times, draw inspiration, refine themes, and extract subject matter from the changes of the times, China's progress, and the people's call, and through in-depth research and careful observation, explore the hot issues, contradictions and conflicts in social life, and the brilliance of human nature.
Industry insiders believe that young Chinese audiences have higher and higher requirements for the level of film art creation and the diversification of film themes. "Especially since the reform and opening up, good themes have blossomed everywhere. Chinese filmmakers should continue to broaden their horizons, calm down and observe more, and think more," said Li Zhenlin, dean of the Film School of Shanghai Theatre Academy.
Source: Xinhuanet
