Sure, I know, it took me too long enough, but I finally got around to seeing Jia’s The World last night and I’m still ruminating on how I should feel about it. I need a few more days.

In any event, today is a great opportunity to scribble a bit more about modern Mainland Chinese filmmaking styles, and why the art form is slow to make a decisive breakthrough into Western film-going markets.

Jia Zhang-ke/贾樟柯’s back story is an interesting one. His reputation as an indie Chinese filmmaker based in the PRC was fully cemented during his badboy days of shooting films outside of the State-approved film sector. Having shot three critically-acclaimed features before 2004 beyond the penetrating gaze of Chinese government censors, he finally came into his own during the middle of last decade when he caught a break with The World, which catapulted him into the Chinese moviemaking mainstream. The authorities sanctioned the shoot of this fourth feature of Jia’s, and a brief (1:45 minutes) clip immediately follows:

Still, the jury’s out on Chinese filmmaking.

On the one hand, you’ve got to applaud those brave – mostly male — auteurs who sally forth with reckless abandon into a hostile entertainment environment, rife with government censorship tripwires, hapless local stoolies itching for a snitch, and a domestic viewing population that’s been spoon-fed on mega-spend Hollywood blockbusters (to wit, the recent furor over Avatar or how Chinese cinema goers flocked in droves to Transformers, two relevant examples of the relative weakness of domestic Chinese cinema, especially in the budget-compromised indie sector). They carry on with a much small base of support. For a glimpse of the sorts of contemporary indie fare being shot in China today, I encourage you to hop on over to dGenerate Films’ website or their YouTube page for something of a Chinese indie trailer smorgasbord. I’ve already seen two of the following three films which follow – with particular emphasis on the excellence of Meishi Street (the first of three parts) – and am looking forward to Ghost Town over the coming weeks, which scored a grab bag of complimentary critical reviews in the mainstream film press.

Meishi Street – Clip 1

The Other Half – Clip 1

Ghost Town

On the other hand, you’ve got the PRC Central Committee’s chest-beating media censorship – for all noble or wrong reasons. I’ll fully skirt around the oft-cited post-Cultural Revolutionary survivalist justifications on the part of Chinese higher-ups for maintaining their Great Firewall (GFW), only to mention that it goes without saying that it undoubtedly cripples the Chinese filmmaking process and the otherwise magnetic appeal of Mainland Chinese film. Another negative aspect is connected with Mainland Chinese acting technique – given its comparative proliferation of amateurs relative to the more experienced Hong Kong and US filmmaking communities – a decidedly more reserved and subtle style in lieu of the more ostentatious Western “method” and vocal portrayals. As well, there is also a tendency on the part of Chinese directors to repeatedly opt for the ponderous long shot (The World was chock-full of them), instead of going for more intimate zooms, “dirty singles,” and other sorts of two-shots or over-the-shoulder fare. Admittedly, this takes a bit of getting used to, especially for critics and film enthusiasts who aren’t accustomed to these more Spartan styles. What Chinese filmmakers like Jia and company seem to be subliminally broadcasting to us is the seeming distant nature of Chinese society. A longing, of sorts, to adopt a more intimate existence, with all that such delving naturally entails, yet preserving the distance due to a fear of being a pioneer in true emotional expressionism. Whether this is indeed intentional is, again, debatable. But what The World and other films in its genre seem to be broadcasting to us is a clear avoidance of the authentic truth. Like most things in the PRC’s modern and highly-complex society, there’s one “face” for the external world, and another for the emotional world inside.

I recently mailed a bundle of Chinese films to a colleague who is a huge fan of global cinema, and he recently reported back his findings. I note that this is someone with more than three decades of film-viewing experience and his verdict was clear-cut: “I just couldn’t get into it.”

Indeed, this could have been a matter of his personal taste, and I likely think it was, yet it does speak to the artistic disconnect between West and East and emblematic of what ails the Chinese (not Hong Kong-ese) film community. Something is preventing Chinese filmmakers like Jia from making even greater inroads into more affluent Western media-consuming markets. The smaller revenues speak volumes.

I’d be curious, however, to know your opinions. After catching a few of the trailers above, do they entice you to want to go deeper? What do you think?

Contact Brent Hall at dGenerate’s New York offices about purchasing single copies for personal use from their extensive catalogue. I myself own at least a half-dozen titles, with more coming soon.

dGenerate Films

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