Exploratory Films Usher in a New Era

In the early 1980s, a batch of young directors with the Class of 1982 graduates from the Beijing Film Academy as the main body found their way to distinction. Their maiden works amazed the literature circle and made a big stir home and abroad with the originality and new aesthetics. The films they directed were permeated with a strong subjective understanding and a mature visual consciousness. These young directors harmoniously combined conception, light, color, sound effects and rhythm and showed the themes with a strong audio-visual appeal. The original films they made were known as exploratory films.

One and Eight, directed by Zhang Junzhao, is based on a long poem by Guo Xiaochuan. It tells of how a company instructor of the Eighth Route Army, under a harsh situation, is maligned by a traitor and locked up in a cell with eight prisoners. He may be executed at any time. Regardless of his fate's hanging in the balance, the company instructor continues to publicize the stand of resisting Japanese aggression and saving the country. Finally, most of the eight prisoners change their mind and plunge themselves into the struggle against Japanese aggression. The screenwriter and director are unique in their treatment of the subject matter. They upgrade the eight prisoners from a supporting position to the position of the leading characters, striving to portray a group image. The battle scenes are used as a backdrop to give prominence to the people in the war, their contradictions at heart, and the change of their relations. The cameraman deliberately shot the scenes unevenly so as to achieve a tense atmosphere. Light with sharp contrast and colors similar to those of a woodblock print are often used to show the sculpture-like dynamics and provide a heavy perception of the characters.

A scene from Yellow Earth

Yellow Earth, directed by Chen Kaige, is about the trip made by Gu Qing, a literary worker of the Eighth Route Army, from Yan'an to a mountain area to collect materials for literary creation. Gu Qing stays with a poor peasant family. Cuiqiao, the daughter of the family, is engaged to marry a man much older than she and uses the engagement gifts of the bridegroom-to-be for her mother's funeral and her younger brother's means of livelihood. The arrival of Gu Qing and the new life she learns from Gu makes her decide to cherish a new dream. At the end, Cuiqiao runs away from her husband's house, crosses the Yellow River, and joins the Eighth Route Army.

The success of Yellow Earth lies in the director's using the story only as an Outer covering in his endeavor to express his sentiments for the land and the people through his description of the scenes that surpass the limit of the times. For instance, scenes of the boundless yellow earth; the mighty, spectacular Yellow River; and the folk custom and habits, such as the procession to greet the bride, the 150-person waist-drum-beating parade, and the people kneeling in the burning sun to beg the god of heaven for rain are closely related to the portrayal of the characters and form an important part of the film.

In addition, the film is unique in its cinematography, use of colors, and conception, and it has a profound meaning. The film achieves unity of the land, the folk custom, and the characters and unity of narration, implication, sentimental expression, and philosophy. It shows the time-honored, simple, and profound local custom and habits on the highland in Shaanxi Province as well as the consideration of the film creators for the national characteristics and their pondering over the fate of the peasants. In 1985, the film won the Best Cinematographic Prize at the Fifth Golden Rooster Awards and the Silver Leopard and five other prizes at the 38th Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland.

Other exploratory films produced during this period include The King of Children, directed Chen Kaige, Secret Decree, directed by Wu Ziniu, On the Hunting Ground and Horse Thief, directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang.