Foreign Cinema: China

Movies were introduced to China in 1896 and for the early part of the twentieth century movies that were screened in the country were from overseas.

It wasn't until 1916 that movie making really began in China, mainly in Shanghai. There was a big grow over the twenty years from 1920 with production companies such as Mingxing Film Company andTianyi Film Company  began to emerge.

While there were film releases such as Laborer's Love and White Snake released it wasn't until the thirties that China began producing some of their most important.

In the thirties it was the left wing movement that was very prominent during the decade as they produced movies, such as The Big Road, that focused on everyday people and the struggle some of them faced.

But the movie industry was heavily hit at the end of the decade with the invasion by the Japanese with many of the production companies closing. But after 1945 filming returned to Shanghai and new studios began to emerge.

The late forties was to be a golden age for Chinese cinema as movies such as The Spring River Flows East and Spring in a Small Town were released. Spring in A Small Town was released in 1948, just before the revolution and is still regarded as one of the most important films in their history.

Movies were used as a propaganda tool in the fifties and sixties, the communist era, as Hollywood movies and films from Hong Kong were banned, but during this period cinema attendance was at an all time high.

But the film industry faced more issues from the mid sixties and the Cultural Revolution as it practically ground to a halt.

All previous movies were banned and very few new ones were made. the mostly associated with this period is The Red Detachment of Women in 1971.

But once again the industry bounced back at the end of the Cultural Revolution. For the last twenty years however Chinese cinema has been incredibly successful with filmmakers such as Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuangzhuang and Chen Kaige.

Throughout the eighties and nineties these filmmakers produced movies such as One and Eight, King of the Children and Farewell my Concubine, which were all critically acclaimed in China.

Farewell My Concubine was an international success as it won the Palme d'or in 1993 at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as receiving a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination.

Today the Chinese film industry is a real international power producing films such as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and The House of Flying Daggers, that were critically acclaimed all over the world.

The film grossed $128 million in the U.S alone and became the highest grossing foreign language in American history and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

FemaleFirst Helen Earns