A group of middle-aged Chinese directors including Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, are gathering in the capital of northeastern Jilin Province for the premier of Town Spring during the country's Sixth Changchun Film Festival.
The film was directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang, one of China's noted fifth-generation film-makers who until now had not touched his cameras for 10 years.
The fifth-generation directors emerged after the end of turmoil of China's decade-long "cultural revolution" in the mid 1970s. Their films were innovative, introspective and retrospective, often digging deep into the Chinese culture and human nature.
They peaked during the 1990s and a number of their productions brought them international fame, which also marked a new era in Chinese film industry. Two of their acclaimed film works were Farewell, My Concubine and Raise the Red Lantern.
Like Tian, some young directors stopped making films for a while but they, imbued with new inspiration, have reappeared since July and August.
This inspiration could have come from Ang Lee's success in his Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the first Chinese film winning the Oscar award for the year 2000, according to Prof. Zheng Dongtian at Beijing Film Academy. He also attributed their coming back to increased investment from international producers.
Moreover, he expressed the hope that the return of the potential fifth generation of Chinese film directors will encourage film-goers across the country to support home-made films instead of Hollywood blockbusters.
(Xinhua News Agency August 26, 2002)
