In the 1980s and 1990s, China's literary and art circles experienced a period of "barbaric madness" that spanned more than a decade.
In terms of literature, at that time, everyone worshipped poets, and the poets Shu Ting, Gu Cheng and Haizi were equivalent to the current top stream.
On the film side, it goes down two very different forks.
The first path is an exploration of artistic depth.
With the rise of the fifth generation of directors, Directors Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuangzhuang and other directors have shot a number of literary and artistic films full of artistry and thought, such as "Red Sorghum" and "Yellow Land", which are still difficult to surpass.
The second way is to create your own commercial entertainment film.
Under the impact of Hong Kong's commercial entertainment films, the mainland also began to explore its own entertainment films, so in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the mainland made a large number of strange entertainment films.
Compared with Hong Kong's entertainment films, mainland entertainment films have two contradictory qualities.
The first is that most of the creators of these entertainment films came from the Cultural Revolution era, and when shooting entertainment films, they still wear the shackles of "literature to carry the tao", and many absurd stories are finally attached to heavy realist themes.
For example, in the front of a horror movie, pretending to be a ghost, and seeing the end only to find that it is the remnants of the special era that are doing it;
For example, science fiction films still express the dark side of human nature, so dancing in shackles makes it difficult for audiences to get real entertainment from these entertainment films.
The second is that the creators of these entertainment films want to learn the "overheated" and "crazy" of Hong Kong films, but because they have just started, they can only clumsily boil a pot of boiling water, pour crime, suspense, fantasy, horror, soft pornography and other condiments into it and stew it, and finally bring the audience a table of dark dishes with strange tastes.
Some films appear in underwear or even full nude shots, some movies directly appear a beautiful head, with a weird soundtrack, the audience is very uncomfortable to watch, and some movies directly scare the audience to death.
As a result, these two contradictory qualities are integrated, these entertainment films seem to be unremarkable, but there is an irresistible attraction, so in that era of entertainment and leisure by television, such movies have become the collective memory of a generation, and have also left an indelible childhood shadow for many post-80s and post-90s.
Now more than 20 years later, this kind of film has gone, but now watch these films, although they are savage, rough, or large-scale, whether in that era or the present are a bit "child-friendly", but from the content point of view, it has a strong avant-garde, full of CULT film color.
Today, we will review 10 films produced by the mainland that are "not suitable for children" according to the Douban score, which have been released in China, and many movies have been broadcast on the CCTV Movie Channel many times.
Today, let's take these movies as a trace and explore together what kind of development domestic films have experienced at the end of the last century.
—10—
The Price of Madness
In 1988, Douban scored 7.5 points
This "The Price of Madness" is the leader of domestic crime films in the last century, and it is also the first film in China to appear in full nudity, and the screenwriter of this film is the reed who wrote "Overlord Farewell" and "Alive".
At the beginning of the film, it is a bit shocking, under a halo, the sister and sister are bathing, and the two are naked for a long time.
The next scene is a shot of a lewd man peeking with a telescope, followed by the title "The Price of Madness."
After the film was broadcast, it sparked a heated discussion, and many people criticized: Is such a nude scene necessary?
If you watch the whole film, you will find it necessary.
The film tells the story of a pair of sisters who are trapped by sex.
Her sister is a nurse in the obstetrics and gynecology department of the hospital, responsible for delivering babies, she has witnessed the different situations of baby boys and girls in the hospital after birth, her colleagues are also talking about men's pregnancy and gender equality, her boyfriend is a peddler who sells colored CDs, and she herself grew up in a patriarchal environment, which makes her full of desire for sex.
However, her sister was sexually assaulted, her curiosity turned from curiosity to disgust in her search for a rapist, and her nervous relationship with her father made her completely lose interest in sex.
On the contrary, sexual assault has stimulated the sexual consciousness of the younger sister, who wears lipstick, reads obscene books and periodicals, and becomes a slave to sex step by step.
In the end, the sister kicked the rapist down the tower and kicked him to death, and his spirit was on the verge of collapse, while the sister, who had refused the chewing gum handed by the rapist, chewed the gum indifferently when the sister was in great pain, and the indifferent look was creepy.
Combined with the plot to watch this nude scene is interesting, the sister helped the sister wipe the filth of the body, but could not wipe away the shadow of the soul, the sister blackened, the sister collapsed, what a cruel youth story.
In addition to the nude scenes, there are also big scenes of drag racing and gun battles, which brought great shock to the audience 30 years ago, and later the Central Six radio replayed the drama many times in the middle of the night, but those large-scale shots were all deleted.
—9—
Murder of the Silver Snake
In 1988, Douban scored 6.5 points
Director Li Shaohong's debut work, Jia Hongsheng's masterpiece, a work full of rebellious consciousness and avant-garde consciousness.
This film seems to be about a murder case, the opening chapter explains the modus operandi, after taking off the shell of the crime film, the focus is on presenting a young figure who is struggling in Chinese and Western cultures and full of disappointment in society, which can be seen as Jia Hongsheng's semi-autobiographical film.
Jia Hongsheng listens to the Beatles' "Let It Be" in the film, combs his strange hairstyle, and he is also a strange man who puts silver snakes to bite people, and he has many similarities with him in reality.
Li Shaohong also showed her creative ambitions in her debut film, which includes a mixture of Hitchcock and Hong Kong comedies, as well as reflections on the catastrophe and collision with the French New Wave.
As a cult film, it also shows us a lot of visual wonders: the naked woman with her tongue spitting out on the mural, the body pressing the shutter, the old lady peeping, the elevator chuck and a series of shots, presenting a distorted and depressed world.
Not many years after the filming of this film, Jia Hongsheng stopped filming because of mental depression, lived the distorted life of the protagonist in the film, refused to watch his masterpiece after the illness, once broadcast this movie on TV, he directly smashed the TV, which shows the depth of the impact of this film on him.
—8—
"Murderous House Beauty Head"
In 1989, Douban scored 6.6 points
Remember when I was shopping online in 2004, Pigo was attracted by the poster of this movie.
In the picture, a naked back and a bloody beauty head at the corner of the mouth caused a great visual impact on the young me.
And the words "forbidden", "erotic", "carcass", "corpse" and other words in the copy also stirred my heart.
(Note: The following poster is too scary, And Pigo will not release it)
Later, on a dark and windy night in the middle of the month, I ran to the disc seller during the time when there were few people and spent 2 yuan to rent this disc, and then opened the movie in the middle of the night with a blushing heartbeat, and locked 3 doors inside and out.
The result was a big shout after watching.
The whole film is not a bit of a beautiful shot, telling a story full of science fiction, the medical professor discovers that there is a woman in the laboratory who can move, this woman was a dancer, who was brutally murdered. The professor equipped the woman's head with a complete body and helped her find out the real culprit of the crime.
This film is adapted from the novel "Professor Doyle's Head" by Soviet science fiction writer Belyaev, which is a story that is not much new, because of the gimmicks of "murderous house" and "beauty head", which attracted many audiences.
In fact, the "Murder House Beauty Head" movie is a public film, and the "forbidden screening" and other gimmicks are only commercial speculation.
At that time, many entertainment films in the mainland were "poster parties" such as "Murderous House Beauty Head", frantically playing some edge balls, and the result was that the content of the film had nothing to do with the cover.
Pigo was deceived by many such movies in the past, and now he thinks about it as a young and ignorant person.
—7—
Poison Kiss
In 1992, Douban scored 6.7 points
Do you believe that many schools organized students to go to the cinema to see this heavy domestic film.
It is ostensibly a sci-fi film that promotes environmental awareness, but in fact it is the first zombie movie in the history of Chinese mainland cinema.
The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Tetsuo, vice chairman of the Shanxi Writers Association, which tells the story of a zombie-like child from birth to exclusion, and finally chooses to commit suicide.
The protagonist Sansan's parents are workers in a chemical plant, because of the long-term work in the harsh environment, Sansan has been a "zombie monster" since birth, he contains severe poison in his body, and all people and animals who have come into contact with him will die violently in a short period of time.
The setting of this film is somewhat similar to that of another film, "Thunderbolt Babe", but the expression method is more brutal.
Sansan took a bath and died a pool of fish, lightning and thunder became bigger once at a time, where to go hurt, destroy the world, no less than Godzilla, many children were scared after reading it, afraid that they would become the unlucky egg who had been kissed and kissed by poison.
Whether such an overly forceful film can really awaken children's environmental awareness we have to put a big question mark, but it is indeed a shadow in the hearts of many people.
—6—
Crazy Rabbit
In 1997, Douban scored 6.7 points
This film is a shadow of Pigo's childhood.
Now that you close your eyes, you can still think of a scene in the film: a group of students are thrown up by rabbits, as if by the devil, rushing to the street, shouting "crazy rabbits", this slogan is like a virus spreading wildly in the city, the poisoned people instantly lose consciousness, like the walking dead to join the crazy team.
When I was a child, I only felt that this picture was very strange, how good people fell into madness one by one, and when they grew up, they watched it again, isn't this scene a metaphor for that movement?
A slogan is often a dagger that can wipe out a person from the spirit to the body. Let the masses become a ragtag crowd and get involved in a farce that destroys people's desires.
"Crazy Rabbit" is a typical mainland entertainment film at that time, the creators will definitely carry a little "private goods" behind the bustle, people who can't understand it feel inexplicable, and people who understand it have a sense of surprise at the code.
—5—
"The LoneLy Soul of the Black House"
In 1989, Douban scored 7.2 points
This is the legendary movie that scares people to death.
Released in 1989, the film was the first stereo film in Chinese mainland and the first "child-friendly" film deemed "inappropriate for children" after China's censorship system.
As soon as the film was released that year, in that era of 2 mao tickets, movie tickets were directly speculated to a 6 yuan coin, which can be described as a ticket is difficult to find.
The original version of the film was 100 minutes, because of the realistic sound effects and the horror atmosphere created in place, some people were scared to death in the movie theater, and then the relevant departments banned the film.
Later, in the version broadcast on television, many horror plots and era descriptions were deleted, but the 88-minute castrated version still made people creepy after watching.
The story of the film is simple, the sound recordist and the actress overhear a strange sound while recording special effects in the old building, and they go to the gloomy basement to solve a murder case that takes place in a special period.
The main creator of this film is a group of intellectuals, borrowing the shell of horror films to criticize the special era, the whole film in addition to the bizarre story, the picture is terrifying, the lines are also very bold, Pi Ge remembers the most explicit sentence is: "The country is crazy, let alone people? This sentence must not be able to pass the trial now.
The whole film is high-energy in the early stages, and the ending is also harmonious in order to avoid censorship, and I did not expect to accidentally open up the "mental illness genre" of domestic horror films.
In the early stage, the gods nagged for half a day, and finally found out that it was the imaginary world of a group of patients in a mental hospital.
After this film, mainland horror films have an unwritten rule: ghosts cannot appear.
As a result, the later domestic horror films have almost become a "mental illness genre": in the early stage, they pretend to be ghosts, all kinds of high-energy, and finally, without exception, the protagonists have mental illness.
In short, "The Lonely Soul of the Black Building" is a peak of domestic horror films.
—4—
Tomb of the Night Thief
This film is the first tomb robbery movie in the history of Chinese mainland film, as a 1989 film, large scale and heavy taste are its characteristics.
There are nudity shots, cannibalism shots, and close-ups of corpse transformations in the film, which looks very maddening.
Chen Baoguo was still a small fresh meat at the time, and also played the role of a tomb robber in the film, but his ending in the play was relatively tragic, and he was directly beheaded.
Although the burial chamber in the film is simple in set, but it is expensive in reality, giving people a spooky and terrifying feeling under the background of light and shadow and sound effects, which is like the current tomb robbery film, the set is exquisite, the mechanism is ingenious, but like a theme park, it can not give people a little shocking feeling.
However, the gimmick of the film can not hide the mediocrity of the story, the three-hour film is stunned that it did not tell a good story of a tomb robbery, which scared people into shock at that time, but after watching the film, there is really no aftertaste.
—3—
The Mystery of St. Paul's Hospital
In 1990, Douban scored 7.3 points
How did China's spy films come about, initially a horror thriller, then upgraded to a spy film, and finally a spy film with wits and courage.
And this film is the ancestor of spy movies - an anti-special film cloaked in the cloak of horror films.
The film is adapted from the novel "Scene Without a Perpetrator". The story takes place in Chengdu in the early days of liberation, the stubborn enemy planted a bomb in the power plant, and we sent a small team to the St. Paul's Hospital to investigate the truth of the incident, which you can also see as "Bomb Disposal Expert".
This is a typical domestic cult film.
The title of the retro font still seems to have a lot of feeling.
A blue light hits the actor's face, the actress makes an exaggerated expression, and the audience can be scared to the point of.
This trick is not uncommon in the domestic horror films of that year, and now the audience has long formed antibodies, there is not enough plasma and sudden fright, there will be no response at all.
The horror elements of this film are also in place: lightning and thunder night, lone shadow morgue, hospital white coat, weird madhouse, almost all the horror elements of the 90s are all in this film.
This film also scared a group of people back then, and it is difficult to have the taste of that year when watching it now.
—2—
"The House of Fog"
In 1994, Douban scored 6.3 points
Zhu Shimao, who has thick eyebrows and big eyes, and Chen Hong, who has fallen into the country, co-starred in a horror film, directed by Huang Jianzhong, who has filmed "New Year's Day" and "Dahong Rice Shop", and the producer of this film is director Hu Mei.
The story of the film is imitated in 1989's "Lonely Soul in the Black House", a foggy old house lives in a young couple, the woman's parents died in the decade of catastrophe, the woman is often awakened by the strange sound of the basement in the middle of the night, the couple is scared to move overnight, but the terrible scream turns into a dagger to find their new home.
The film is 92 minutes long, but it took too long to reveal the mystery, and while some of the images (such as the woman hanging from a tree) are really scary, they are generally not interested in seeing it a second time, and it is difficult to last.
It can also be seen from this film that at that time, the "buckle" of domestic horror films almost without exception fell on the special period of ten years, after all, this heart demon is the unspeakable pain of a generation.
The lineup of this film is strong, but the scene is very simple, look at the special effects of this fog house, now it is too dramatic, but when I watched it as a child, I already felt very powerful.
The highlight was Chen Hong's stunning beauty, when she was only 26 years old.
—1—
"Misplaced"
In 1986, Douban scored 8.1 points
This film is the second in Huang Jianxin's "Pioneer Trilogy", and it is also the one with the most CULT film spirit, and to some extent even the best soft science fiction film in China before "The Wandering Earth".
The story of the film is simple, the protagonist creates a robot exactly like a child himself to help him work and live, and soon the robot develops independent emotions, declares the personality sovereignty to the protagonist, and launches a retaliatory action.
Whether artificial intelligence will pose a threat to humanity, which has been discussed for all these years, Huang Jianxin told us the results in 1986.
These avant-garde shots and pictures, you say that Kubrick shot out I believe, it can be seen how avant-garde Huang Jianxin was back then.
Unfortunately, after that, Huang Jianxin also "misplaced" his positioning and gradually returned to the mainstream, and his later works no longer had the sharpness of the "pioneer trilogy".
Well, the above are the 10 domestic films of the last century that left us with childhood shadows.
These films are the product of a special era, with a clear brand of the times, douban scores are mostly concentrated between 6 and 7 points, leaving aside the gimmicks of the film, most of the quality of the film itself is lackluster, and the rapid decline of this trend is also an inevitability.
Before 2000, the mainland was developing in a boring way, we were not confident enough, and the demand for entertainment still carried a sense of guilt, so the commercial films made were all tangled and twisted.
After 2000, Zhang Yimou made "Hero", and the mainland really ushered in the era of commercial films, and our younger generation of filmmakers can finally take off the shackles, play music and dance to the fullest.
And these thrillers have also been put into the museum of history, becoming a testimony to that booming era.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: A Chicken
© Original 丨 Article Copyright: Ppdianying
Please do not reprint in any form without authorization