While battle movies are not as popular as they once were in China, August First
Film Studio is keeping the red flag flying and updating the genre. Sun Li reports.
War movies are no longer a popular category for jaded audiences, but August First FilmStudio, a unit of the Chinese military, has been enhancing the charisma of the genre.
Founded on Aug 1, 1952, to coincide with the anniversary of the founding of the People'sLiberation Army (PLA) in 1927, the studio has produced more than 2,200 films that range fromfeatures to documentaries. Many of them are considered to be timeless masterpieces and havewon prestigious awards.
As the studio is about to celebrate its 60th anniversary, a retrospective is underway onCCTV-6, showcasing a series of classic revolutionary films, which mostly premiered in the1950s and 1960s.
Feng Enhe, a veteran actor with the studio, says when August First is mentioned most peopleautomatically think of the studio's black-and-white movies.
Actress Yao Chen stars in My Long March, which narrates the story from a child soldier's angle. |
"In the past, people didn't have as much entertainment as today's folk do," the 62-year-oldsays, adding that watching films was a major pastime and patriotic revolution-themed films werethen in vogue.
"Blending intriguing plotline, intensive battle scenes and vivid portraits of characters played bymarquee idols of that time, many old war films of the studio have been seared into the collectiveconsciousness," Feng says.
"For people around and above the age of 40, August First's old films are still a hot topic."
Liu Jianwei, vice-president of the studio, acknowledges the studio is encountering a challengereplicating its erstwhile cinematic glory.
"The thing is, almost every monumental event of the various war periods in which the PLA wereinvolved, has been covered in previous decades," Liu says.
"Even though you know a film is a remake of a classic, it has to have some changes to avoidbeing a cheesy repetition and win over audiences.
"In the mid-1990s, Hollywood blockbusters marched into domestic cinemas and stole thespotlight," Liu continues.
"Foreign war movies that feature more realistic and grandiose combat scenes and often bring ahuman touch to the harshness of war have influenced audiences' taste for military movies."
Shenzhou II, which depicts astronauts on a manned space mission, broadens the boundary of war films. |
"The war film as a genre is not as popular as it used to be. Also competing for viewers'attention these days are other categories of films such as comedies and costume dramas," Liuadds.
As a PLA-backed studio, August First has advantages when it comes to shooting war films.
In the early 1990s, to chronicle the War of Liberation (1946-49), the studio produced a three-part film that is 25 hours and 10 minutes long, in total. More than 3 million PLA soldiersparticipated in the filming of the epic.
To shoot Sky Fighters (2011), a Top Gun-style film featuring a state-of-the-art jet battle, thestudio borrowed real J-10 fighters.
"But to revive war films, the essential thing is to make changes," Liu says, noting onestereotype of classic war films is that the heroes are always flawless, while the villains arestereotypes.
"If the studio does not abandon this outdated narrative and characterization, its films will beignored," Liu says.
Representing this change is Taihang Mountain (2005), a film about the first three years of theWar of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45).
Instead of centering on former chairman Mao Zedong, a common protagonist in films set duringthis period, the movie omitted Mao and focused on Zhu De, another army leader.
Another example is My Long March (2006), which depicts the famous military maneuver led bythe Communist Party of China, from 1934 to 1936, from a child soldier's perspective.
Song Yeming, a director with the studio, believes modern war movies need to cater to thepost-1980s audience.
In Song's The First of August (2007), a film about the birth and the rise of the PLA, Hong Kongactor Ray Lui plays the general Ye Ting.
Using Hong Kong stars, rather than "special-type" actors who have a strong physicalresemblance to political leaders, is a trend in today's war films as Hong Kong casts can enlargethe film's appeal to the mainland's young audience, Song observes.
Even if the changes work, war films are not likely to be as popular as they used to be, AugustFirst's Liu says.
"In peacetime, the army's mission has changed from attacking, to defending the country. So theangle and the subject of today's war films also require modification," Liu says.
Liu says war films should be broadly defined and points to two films on which he was ascreenwriter, namely Stands Still, the Last Great Wall (2009), about a group of soldiersrescuing victims of an earthquake; and Shenzhou11 (2011), about astronauts carrying out amanned space docking mission.
"Both the two films I wrote bear the core imprint of war movies," Liu says.
"The enemy now becomes the natural disaster and modern soldiers deal with space warfare.To complete a mission nowadays is like winning a war in the past. It requires collective effortsand it values people's courage, wisdom and fortitude."
Commenting on the studio's latest film about the CPC Central Commission for DisciplineInspection's anti-corruption campaign, Liu says the conception of the "war film" will continue toevolve.
The studio is also involved in film dubbing and produced the Chinese soundtrack for suchblockbusters as Saving Private Ryan and Pearl Harbor.
The studio is expected to conduct more dubbing missions for foreign war films in the future asthe annual quota for foreign films to China has increased from 20 to 34, Liu says."
Communist China purchased US owned AMC which was owned by a stock share holding spread. Which was purchased by a corporation known as Wang Corporation where the majority of controllers and directors on their board are PLA Generals and retired MSS espionage heads.
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