Personal Revolutions from China's 5th Generation Filmmakers

History, Family and the Persecuted in Zhang Yimou's to Live, Tian Zhuangzhuang's the Blue Kite and Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine

Personal Revolutions
Cinema has the ability to inspire a nation's people into pride or resentment. The latter is found in three Chinese films once banned from release in their own country: To Live, The Blue Kite, and Farewell My Concubine. The realism portrayed in the lives of individuals and families grasps the negative effects brought about by Chairman Mao's socialist upheaval during China's Cultural Revolution. Parallels signifying persecution during the fall of national institutions mirror the dissent of artists during the Cultural Revolution and the films' directors, Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuangzhuang and Chen Kaige, being banned in China.

The directors, all from The Beijing Film Academy's 5th Generation of filmmakers, are part of an artistic reemergence in China after the end of the Cultural Revolution. Being the first graduates from the Academy after its' reopening, they redefined the impact of the Revolution with a perspective not readily welcomed by the Chinese government. Tian Zhuangzhuang, director of The Blue Kite was even barred from making any further films in China.

Interwoven Histories-
The Blue Kite and To Live particularly focus on the impact of China's history on family life. Zhang Yimou's To Live, similarly follows the survival of a husband and wife over many hardships from the early 1920s to the end of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s. Ge You and Gong Li's performances in To Live portray a husband and wife who endure the worst of life, but an element of their family life survives. Zhang's optimism nourishes a message that families stay united regardless of how the government reshapes society. The Blue Kite's less optimistic tone shows a family trying to manage together but in the end is torn apart. What The Blue Kite and To Live do share thematically implies that Motherhood endured the severest hardships through the Cultural Revolution.