History of Contemporary Chinese Cinema: Since 1977

Author: Lu Shaoyang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: This book uses vivid literary language to touch upon a recently occurred history; it analyzes the quality and form of works in each period through the mutual influence of film and its surrounding environment; it elevates these characteristics from specific details to quantifiable realities such as shooting backgrounds and box office statistics, as well as through a mix of narration and discussion, "artificially mystifying" diverse theoretical approaches. These features, along with the new academic methods they reflect, are very worth savoring. Film itself is a rather chaotic thing—a tool for ideology, a cultural entertainment commodity of industrial production, and an artistic labor that achieves individual intentions through collective creation via multiple processes.