Mainly referring to Beijing
Film Academy graduates of the early 1980s, the fifth generation of
Chinese directors generally had some bumpy and uneasy experiences before
actually becoming directors, witnessing the dramatic changes of the
society. They accepted professional training in filming during the period
when China first initiated its epoch-making reform and opening-up policy.
After graduation, they worked with new passion and brought some new
momentum into the Chinese film industry.
They are very keen on new expressive ways and new thoughts, striving to
find a new angle for each of their movies. They have a fervent desire to
explore the history of China's culture as well as the structure of the
national psychology.
Compared with their predecessors, they are completely innovative in
terms of selecting suitable themes, employing narrative ways, portraying
figures, using cameras, and dealing with movie frames. Their works are
more subjective, individualistic, symbolic, and implicative.
Though there are not many members that belong to the group, they have
had a huge impact in the Chinese film circle since they first appeared as
a generation of Chinese directors.
Besides the most representative and best-known big names like Zhang
Yimou, Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Huang Jianxin, and Wu Ziniu, there
are also a number of talents like Zhang Junzhao, Li Shaohong, Hu Mei, Zhou
Xiaowen, Ning Ying, and Liu Miaomiao, who have demonstrated their unique
gifts with distinctively different works.
The movies of the fifth generation first appeared in the autumn of
1983, with Yellow Earth as the prelude. The other following
movies like King of the Children, Hunting Ground, and Horse
Thief declared the beginning of a great film movement. By the 1990s,
these directors were more mature, more varied in styles, and also more
acknowledged both at home and abroad.
It is this generation of directors that really brought Chinese films to
the world stage. The directors' personal struggles, the successes of their
movies, their popularity both in China and abroad, and even the process
for them to be recognized (criticized at the beginning, before gradually
being acknowledged and accepted) are also an epitome of the changes of
their time.
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