INTRODUCTION Over the past twenty years, Sinophone cinema has changed dramatically, both as an industry and an art form. Dominated by Hong Kong film until the mid-1990s, the past two decades saw both the erosion of conditions protecting Hong Kong film from regional competition and the rise of other Asian cinemas that began to challenge its prominence. Indeed, the transformation of much of East Asia into modern, globalised, and capitalistic states has reflected in a cinematic output that is increasingly diverse and a film culture that is more pluralistic and multi-vocal. From Singapore to Hong Kong and to China, there has been a rise in the visibility of the struggles and predicaments of the proletariat on Sinophone screens in recent years, providing an alternative vision of these Asian societies. By exploring the aesthetic form and thematic content across a range of Sinophone films, this essay aims to demonstrate that the articulation of the working class through space, language and relationships were powerful means employed by filmmakers to interrogate the complex relation between proletariat identities and modernity in their societies. To that end, three films have been selected for discussion. Hong Kong filmmaker Fruit Chan’s 1997 film Made in Hong Kong, Singaporean filmmaker Royston Tan’s 2003 film 15, and Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke’s 2004 The World provide rich texts for discussions. Although vastly different in plot, the three films share many similarities in their portrayal of proletariat voices and class differences in their societies, providing descriptions of societies characterised by the vast disparity of its people. It is evident that the filmmakers are concerned with the proletariat's predicaments and hardships –... ... middle of paper ... ...on of young people who are caught in the mechanisms of global capitalistic intrusions. Therefore, by highlighting the struggles of the proletariat, the filmmakers bring to the fore the incommensurability of the working class in relation to the modern world. The characters in the films stand in for vast numbers who have been left out of the economic boom and are unable to reap the fruits of modernisation, and have been forced by their circumstances to live in the fringes of society. In their social commentaries of their social landscapes, the filmmakers have smartly used cinematic techniques by adjusting space, language and relationships to challenge their audiences’ conventional understandings of class and modern society, thereby bringing out the need to think of change not just in terms of individual class transcendence, but also social-structural rearrangement.
The purpose of The Last Train Home may seem identical to a typical documentary film, where the director sets out to raise awareness on a certain issue of importance. However, as the film progresses, the political subtext is revealed. The sincere intention of this film is to convey a message regarding the harmful effects that western consumerism has on the Chinese society. By doing so the director Lixin Fan, tries to make American viewers to sympathize with the problems of China’s industrial revolution, and feel partially responsible for supporting it through the products we
Schepelern, Peter. "Film according to Dogma: Ground Rules, Obstacles, and Liberations." Transnational Cinema in a Global North. Eds. Andrew Nestingen and Trevor G. Elkington. Detroit: Wayne State Press, 2005: 73-107
The 2006 film V for Vendetta, a cinematic remake of the classic graphic novel series by the same name, is the epitome of a Marxist fairy tale. The film is complete with a bourgeoisie government who spreads their ideology, via mass media, to a citizenry composed entirely of proletariats, and a hero who sets out to break said citizenry from the prison of false consciousness. If one examines the setting and environment of the film, and follows the main characters as they fight against, or break free from, false consciousness, evidence of Marxist themes are present throughout the film.
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.
Though contemporary media continues to create stereotypical images they can be contested and renegotiated through alternative and independent sources. In Renee Tajima’s essay “Moving the Image: Asian American Independent Filmmaking 1970-1990” she posits that artists of color will not sit in the center or margin of media but instead “as the links of a new cultural matrix” (MTI, 32). While traditional media continues to be constrained by dominant hegemonic representat...
Mimura, Glen M. "What Is Asian American Cinema." Introduction. Ghostlife of Third Cinema: Asian American Film and Video. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2009. N. pag. Pdf.
Modernization in the 1980s paved the way for the Hong Kong New Wave, as the studio system set up in the 1950s was dismantled, the film industry experienced more freedom. Since decolonization was heavily present 75% of Hong Kong’s box office revenue were home grown movies, while the meager 15% was left for the foreign market. As one can see the political context of Ho...
Mao’s Last Dancer, directed by Bruce Beresford, is driven by Li’s experiences in the clash between American and Chinese culture and the journey to discovering his own identity. Through Li’s eyes this film shows us his search for identity which can sometimes be helped or hindered by the difference in cultures. These themes are shown during the film through the use of Symbolic, Written, Audio and Technical conventions (SWAT).
...ts was very distinguishable. This film captures this class distinction without subduing the atmosphere through the use of a variety of cinematic devices, “ A good film is not a bag of cinematic devices but the embodiment, through devices, of a vision, an underlying theme” (Barnett, 274). The audience can see this theme of the realities of the oppression, poverty and despair of this time period through the use of the things mentioned, but also through the character development that is driven by the character’s hopelessness. Each of the characters associated with the lower class is motivated by the conditions, which are viewed through the cinematic devices mentioned above: color, spherical lenses, long shots, and high angle shots.
Cinema studies: the key concepts (3rd ed.). London: Routledge. 2007. Lacey, N. (2005). The 'Standard'. Film Language.
In the French film entitled Lumumba, director Raoul Peck recreates the revolutionary struggle of Patrice Lumumba, the newly elected Prime Minister of The Congolese Republic. In the movie, we do not see much of the independence struggle against the Belgian government, but we begin to see the reconstruction of the African state in African hands. While no one ever claimed that decolonization was easy, maybe this particular example can best be explained by Fanon’s simplified little quip “decolonization is always a violent phenomenon. ” In this paper, I will seek to locate where this post-colonial violence is located in discourses regarding race, class and gender. Particularly, I will look at the representations of race and class, and the lack of the representation of gender, in order to draw conclusions about the nature of representation and the effects this has on anti-colonial film.
Since the creation of films, their main goal was to appeal to mass audiences. However, once, the viewer looks past the appearance of films, the viewer realizes that the all-important purpose of films is to serve as a bridge connecting countries, cultures, and languages. This is because if you compare any two films that are from a foreign country or spoken in another language, there is the possibility of a connection between the two because of the fact that they have a universally understanding or interpretation. This is true for the French New Wave films; Contempt and Breathless directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and contemporary Indian films; Earth and Water directed by Deepa Mehta. All four films portray an individual’s role in society using sound and editing.
This raises a question about the viability of art cinema, independent feature films, short films, independent documentary, and other less profitable and commercial modes of filmmaking in South Korea. It may even lead some people to believe that those other modes of filmmaking are not an integral part of the new South Korean cinema success story. Yet, my third and final point will be to argue against this and for the importance of what I want to tentatively call “full service cinema,” including a full range of modes of production and consumption. In making this point, I want to challenge another very common assumption not only in South Korea but everywhere—the idea that art cinema and independent cinema are opposed to mainstream commercial cinema. While there may be an aesthetic opposition between them, it is a strategic mistake to translate this into an institutional opposition.
The Industrial Revolution brought with it a new form of class distinction; society did away with feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, and serfs to embrace that of the bourgeoisie proletariat relationship. The bourgeoisie class, consisting of the modern capitalists, are the employers of wage laborers and owners of the means of production. The proletariat class is the much less fortunate modern wage-laborer; they do not have their own means of production and therefore must sell their labor in order to survive. Karl Marx expresses these ideas in the “Communist Manifesto” along with the theory of proletariat redemption and across the board equality. Orestes Brownson and Henry Ward Beecher, also writers of the time, express views that coincide with Marx’s concepts and ideas. The Industrial Revolution, birth of new class distinction, and the consequential societal norms framed Rebecca Harding Davis’ short story “Life in the Iron-Mills”.
Throughout the three books which compose the series it is easy to see examples of class struggle, ruling class ideologies, and revolution. I intend to focus on these