This is the first part of a three-part essay by Zhang Xianmin on the state of contemporary Chinese cinema. Parts two and three will be published later this week.
Translation by Yuqian Yan
Hail! Hail! Hail! The State of Chinese Cinema in 2009
I. Long Live the Motherland
The Founding of a Republic (dir. Han Sanping)
The Founding of the Republic reflects many demands of the film industry beyond film itself, and it has all but achieved these goals.
First of all, it reveals a reality that is shared by many other fields and industries. In the past several years, resources have been accumulated and controlled by several state-owned, monopolistic enterprises. This is a common phenomenon in the economy.
In the world of culture, different kinds of people collaborated on the one blockbuster film of 2009. For the 60th anniversary of the founding of People’s Republic of China, this blockbuster was eventually taken over from big-name directors by the presidents of state-owned enterprises. It’s almost like the chief director of China Central TV directing the Spring Festival Gala. The only distinction of this year is that in the past fifteen years, imported blockbusters were the nightmare of Chinese films every month; in the past five years, the domestic film market was dominated by three Chinese blockbusters every year. In 2007 and 2008, domestic blockbusters such as Lust, Caution, Assembly and Warlords all had difficulties in production or in passing the censors. Luckily, there is only one domestic blockbuster in 2009; others were small productions. Moreover, this film is very safe; the government wouldn’t give the film bureau officials any trouble.
