|
The second generation of Chinese directors
 Under this special historical condition, both commercial films that
shunned away from political topics and progressive films contributed to the
industry's unprecedented prosperity, making Shanghai
an oriental Hollywood. But the war interrupted this movie boom, and led to the
birth of the Sole Island Movies, referring to the movies made by an isolated
Shanghai following Japan's invasion. After the victory of the War of Resistance
against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945), Shanghai's movie industry began to
revive. The "Social Criticism Movies" represented by the works of the Kunlun
Company became a trend.
The task of advocating Chinese nationalism and modernism through films was
initially undertaken by the second generation of Chinese filmmakers around the
1930s. They also cultivated a tradition of looking into social problems in
filmmaking. Seeking change and progress by analyzing social problems, these
social-realist films explore the issues in relation to national and class
contradictions within the framework of struggle and emancipation.
 Cai Chusheng
 Born in Shanghai, Cai Chusheng (January 12, 1906 to July 15, 1968)
was a native of Chaoyang City in South China's Guangdong
Province . He became an apprentice in a grocery at the age of twelve. When
he was nineteen years old, he participated in the Workers' Union in Shantou
(also in Guangdong), where he became the playwright, director and actor.
Cai went to Shanghai again in 1927, and played some roles in a couple of
movies and wrote the playwright for a movie in the first two years. Cai became
an assistant director in 1929, and in 1931 he wrote the scripts and directed a
few influential movies including Dawn over the Metropolis, Song of the
Fishermen, and New Women, among which Song of the Fishermen
won a medal of honor at the 1935
Moscow International Film Exhibition, becoming the first Chinese movie to fetch
an international award and win international fame.
|
|
E-Mail
This Article 
Print
Friendly Format 
