During the last two decades of the 20th century, Chinese-language film had unprecedented international success, both at the box office and as artfilms at festivals. This started with Hong Kong New Wave in the late 1970s and continued with New Taiwan Cinema and the Fifth Generation of Mainland directors in the 1980s. In the new millennium, the landscape has become much more diverse, some would say fragmented, but Chinese-language film is still worth paying attention to. This course will focus on the reading of such films from the past three to four decades. (We will also include one film in which the main language is not Chinese, but the Taiwan aboriginal language Seediq.)
“Reading” a film is not the same as reading a written text. Written signs play a minor role, and even spoken language is only one of many elements in the “grammar” of filmatic “language”. A film story is manipulated through the ways we are made to see it on a screen and hear it through loudspeakers, including visual and auditory effects as well as film music. Technology plays a central role, as do money and the market. Filmmaking is an industry, involving large collegial, commercial and political networks. Ultimately, however, the various signs and signals conveyed by a film are part of a cultural, humanistic and creative “syntax” used to communicate personal, social and existential content.
In the course, we will discuss two films in each class (except the first class), and students should watch at least one of them (preferably both) before class. In addition, there will be readings about the individual films and a little bit of film history and film theory. Group work and group presentations will be part of the course.