Chen's case was slightly different. His parents had both been involved in the film industry, but this didn't necessarily afford any protection. Chen, for example, had to attend mass criticism meetings denouncing his father and other leading members of the Beijing Film Studio. Clark sees this experience as lying behind the intense father-son relationships in many of the son's subsequent films.
The other filmmakers are less well-known, though enthusiasts will be familiar with several of them, especially Tian Zhuangzhuang, director of Horse Thief (1986) and The Blue Kite (1992), Wu Ziniu, director of Evening Bell (1988) and The Nanjing Massacre (1995), and Zhang Jianya, director of Ice River (1986) and Crash Landing (1999).
Taiwan appears here and there, notably in relation to two of Zhang's films. One of these, Codename Cougar (1989), featured the hi-jacking of a flight between Taipei and Seoul with the plane having to land in China and secret negotiations taking place between Taipei and Beijing. And the better-known Raise the Red Lantern of 1992 was a co-production with Taiwan -- its executive producer was the Taiwanese film director Hou Hsiao-hsien (
Reinventing China is a useful and meticulous book that has three major virtues. First, it offers an over-view of a crucial era of Chinese filmmaking, linking the social background, the filming activities and the personal biographies of the directors.
Second, it contains intelligent critiques of the films discussed, essentially all the important films of the time plus many others.
Lastly, it has the great advantage of personal contact with the 10 directors. All of them talked at length to Clark, not only about their adolescent experiences as re-located city youth, but also about the films they made as adults, what they intended to portray and occasionally how far they think they achieved their aims.
This is therefore both a handbook to consult before seeing the films of that era, and a work to read entire to put the individual films in their historical context. It may not represent a strikingly original approach, but it is cogent, intelligent and very well informed, and as such is definitely recommended.
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