지아장커의 영화로 본 중국문화사

Abstract

Last year (2006), Jiajangker attracted Chinese audience twice. Last September, 『Still Life』 was awarded with God Lion Award (Masterpiece Award). The other occasion was that he decided to screen 『Still Life』 at the same date that Jangimeowo's blockbuster 『Curse of the Golden Flower』. In the cinema preview in Beijing University for 『Still Life』he raised a question, “I am very curious. Who will have interest in good people in this times of mammonism”. He expressed that the decision to screen 『Still Life』 at the same date of 『Curse of the Golden Flower』 was made not by the commercial considerations but to show his will that he will not make movies for the profit or economic purposes. It has the meaning from the perspective of performance art. Good movie directors create his own world through his camera. What I would like to tell here is his unique understanding and thought on this world using original language, pattern and figures. The movie language of some director looks very special but his sense of history is too vulgar or secular. In this case his movies look delicate but he fails to show his own world. In Jiajangker's movies, we can see his own world. He contemplates the meaning of big changes in contemporary China and reconstructs the memory of history in his own way. From 『Xiao Wu』、『Platform』to 『Still Life』, these characteristics were shown. In this article, I would like to look into 5 full-length movies of Jiajangker, 『Little Dance』、『Platform』、『Ren Xiao Yao』、『World』 and 『Still Life』and how they describer the changes in life and culture of Chinese since 1978 when China open herself to the world. Jiajangker writes Chinese Cultural History not from the perspective of government but from the perspective of civil memory through his ‘detailed description’. This article tries to deal with the “detailed description” on the reality in China and the search and choice of Chinese in this big change through Jiajangker's movies.