<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the analysis of the pattern of Taiwan's film industry and its development trend under the discussion of cultural economy</h1>
Wu Peici
(Department of Motion Picture Studies, National Taiwan University of the Arts, New Taipei City, Taiwan 22058)
Abstract: Recently, several landmark mass market effect films in Taiwan, such as "Cape Seven" (2008) and "Stern" (2010), have comprehensively driven the audience to support the trend of Taiwanese films and formed a new look of Taiwanese film recovery. Through the use of data pointers, we can summarize and depict the supply situation of Taiwan's film market, observe the current chain of Taiwan's film production and US distribution system, the practice of financial capital injection and cross-border co-production films, and thus clarify how the changes in the output value structure of Taiwan's films in the past decade have affected the development of production, distribution, screening and other industries. The resurgence of Taiwan's film industry is actually not far from the recent global trend of attaching importance to culture and economy. There are structural problems between art and industry, although Taiwan's film industry is dominated by a hidden force of cultural and economic discourse, but the economic value of film as a cultural commodity is based on cultural value. The urgency and importance of the inherent humanistic values and aesthetic speculation of Taiwanese films will become a topic that must be faced in the prospects and new trends of Taiwan's film industry.
Keywords: Taiwanese films; Film industry; Cinematic aesthetics; Cape Seven; "The Ship"
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > preface</h1>
In the era of the differentiation of the film market, Taiwan's good-looking and easy-to-understand popular films have always been in a state of long-term absence, which was once an indisputable fact. Looking back at Taiwan's new film directors and their successors, they have established a unique and distinctive image aesthetic imprint of Taiwanese cinema with works that are close to real life, rich in visual freedom, and works that focus on artistic innovation and historical retelling. However, the high artistic reputation that has won many film awards and has been recognized has formed a paradox with the decline of Taiwan's local market. In fact, the main reason for the loss of Taiwanese film audiences and the low share of the local market is the long-term extreme shortage of popular film products. However, the dualism of business/art, or at least this kind of view that having artistic aesthetics must lose the industrial structure, has existed in Taiwan for a long time, and the industry and the public opinion circles have been staged for more than twenty years from tit-for-tat confrontation in concepts, disputes and disturbances to silent helplessness, and have accompanied the development of Taiwanese films for more than 20 years.
This seemingly insoluble dualism, until the past three years, but a new turning point has dramatically emerged: "Cape Seven" (2008) unprecedentedly with four consecutive months of continuous screening, NT$530 million box office success, a long wave, set off a wave of Taiwan's film industry in recent times the most shocking trend, leading to make up for the empty window of nearly two decades in the field of mass film, comprehensively driving the enthusiasm of Taiwanese audiences to support local films. The audience's stereotype of the polarization of Taiwanese film artistry and marketability has finally been completely loosened. Soon, "Mengjia" (2010), which was staged in the Spring Festival slot of Taiwanese films for a long time, implemented a high-standard commercial boutique production model, and the plot smell was full of a new local orientation, full of sensationalism, and ignited the mood of the public in support of local films. Its commercial success of NT$260 million at the box office has once again unleashed the long-accumulated market energy and reaffirmed the possibility of local market construction.
In addition to commercial effects, on top of economic norms, works that adhere to humanistic views and image criticism, such as Chen Xinyi's "Wandering God Dog Man" (2008) that interprets the vitality of Taiwan's rural folklore, Dai Liren's portrayal of the tenacity and vitality of the bottom of society", "Can't Do Without You" (2009), especially Zhong Menghong's exquisite aesthetics and rich in strong social criticism of "The Fourth Painting" (2010), have also been launched, and the film industry has a new atmosphere, which is not in accordance with commercial conventions and is different from the classic paradigm. And films with distinct civic interests still maintain the artistic criticism attitude of Taiwanese films for many years, and insist that film creation should have social practice.
Indeed, looking back at the industrial context of Taiwanese films in the past three years, a flourishing and colorful cultural and economic space has gradually formed. For many years, a unique optimistic atmosphere has spread around, making the local film industry gradually emerge with a new look and momentum. However, this kinetic energy has shown a state that is still quite chaotic, sometimes vertical, and continuously changing, and behind the state of such a thing, behind such a grand situation, the meaning of the emergence of mass-market effect films and their production models in Taiwan is actually more worthy of further in-depth understanding and discussion.
Does the commercial success of several landmark films in Taiwan represent the emergence of a diverse and clichéd film era, or does it once again point out the unspoken rules of the dilemma between creation and business? Does the exuberant optimism and complex and diverse cultural and economic space also project a certain global localization imagination of Taiwanese films? Does the emergence of new talents mean that the current Taiwanese films are different from the classic paradigm? Is Taiwan's proud author still the main model of Taiwanese cinema? As a whole, can Taiwanese films continue to become a practice field for multiple humanistic views and historical discourses?
The above-mentioned series of interlocking issues deserves attention and in-depth analysis.
The focus of this paper is, on the one hand, to focus on the observation of several important links of the industrial chain such as Taiwanese film production, distribution, screening, audience, and market in order to clarify the current situation of the local market; On the other hand, it is also to examine the propositions of Taiwan's film industry and its development trend under the full-scale discussion of cultural economy. This article will point out that the re-take-off of Taiwan's film industry is not far from the recent global trend of attaching importance to cultural economy. As a cultural commodity, the economic value of film is based on cultural value, and the so-called cultural value here involves many meanings such as the lifestyle of a specific group, the social practice of meaning, the reproduction of value, and the discourse of knowledge and power. At the same time, it also tries to analyze the potential risks of stereotyping the cultural economy, and points out that how to more prudently consider "cultural values" in the discourse of "cultural economy" will become a topic that must be faced in the prospects and new trends of Taiwan's film industry.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > several observation indicators of Taiwan's film industry in the past decade</h1>
The emergence of a new form in the film ecology is by no means achieved overnight. All the development process of film and the important issues of the overall film industry cannot be decoupled from the culture and society on which it is nurtured; How the film industry today has emerged with obvious momentum, the observation and exploration of the overall industry should also be viewed in this context. This section must first explain that the so-called ten years in the text are by no means a limitless, still less fractured view of history. Of course, there is no reason why ten years can or may not be a duration. In the study of industrial technological evolution, the movement of capital, the commodification of culture, social structure, the fashion of the times, artistic creativity and historical context, and so on, which Christian Metz called the formation of many conditions, le fait cinématographique, the study of the film industry itself is like a risky task. In this task, the setting of such a delay after the millennium to the present is due to an inevitable need, and the demand is only to explore the relevance of cultural, economic and social development. Just as history cannot be cut in relation, taxonomy or chronological points in time is not a conclusion, but merely for the convenience of study.
Since the beginning of the new era, we can sketch a landscape map of Taiwan's film industry from the following patterns and several important indicators from the following patterns and several important indicators.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > (1) The output value structure and changes of Taiwanese films</h1>
The phenomenon and pomp brought about by "Cape Seven" in 2008, as well as the changes in the Taiwan film market it refers to, do have a significance that cannot be ignored in the history of contemporary Taiwan's film development, and at least it is necessary to examine it in the industrial chain and index system of Taiwan's film development in the past decade (1999-2010).
In the past ten years, the output value structure of Taiwan's films has been the most important in terms of the production, distribution and performance of the industrial structure, and has always been the first in terms of the output value of the film industry, followed by the development industry, and the production industry is the least (the film production industry often does not exceed 20% of the total output value), mainly because most of the screening and distribution in Taiwan are Hollywood movies. According to the results of the 2009 film and television industry survey report reviewed by the Taiwan Academy of Economic Research "Film and Television Industry Trend Survey Report - Television, Film and Popular Music" report, the total output value of Taiwan's film industry in 2009 was NT$10.79 billion, of which the film production industry (including the development and production of film films, documentaries, animation films, MVs, etc.) with the most important industrial profile was NT$1.43 billion, accounting for 13% of the total output value; Film post-production (including printing, editing, subtitling, post-production, animation, special effects post-production) NT$466 million, accounting for 4%; The film distribution industry (including film sales, leasing, licensing, agency and distribution) was NT$3.328 billion, accounting for 31%; The film industry was NT$5,566 million, accounting for 52%. ①
If we further compare the "Historical Statistics of the Number of Licensed Films in Taiwan" (1999-2011/3) (Table 1) and the "Historical Statistics of the Box Office of the First Round of Cinema Screenings in Taipei City" (1999-2011/3) (Table 2) to examine in detail the recent output value structure and changes in Taiwan's film industry, then we can indeed conclude that Taiwan's local films have indeed developed faster than they did ten years ago in terms of the number of productions per year and the market share of Taiwan's local films.
Taiwanese films have experienced a long downturn, with a market share of only 1%-2% compared to the past - such as 1.59% in 2005 and 1.62% in 2006 - and in recent years Taiwanese films have indeed begun to gradually recover. If
The highest-grossing Taiwanese films of all years from the millennium to the present (defined here as those with a box office of NT$10 million or more), from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Double Pupil (2002), Panoramic Image Season (2004), A Cloud in the Sky (2005), Silk (2006), Color Ring (2007), Cape Seven (2008), Hear and Hear (2009), Andyy (2010), Films such as "Chicken Steak Hero", which still topped the NT$14,000,000 at the box office in the spring of 2011, (1) can confirm that the market share of films produced in Taiwan in the three years before 2011 has shown a sharp upward trend.
Table 1 Historical statistics of the number of authorized performance licenses for Taiwanese films (1999-2011/3)
Source: Taiwan Movie Network / Industry Intelligence. ①
Table 2 Historical Statistics of the First Round of Cinema Screening Films and Box Office in Taipei (1999-2011/3)
If we further comprehensively sort out and analyze the above-mentioned statistics on the film pointers in Table 1 and Table 2 above, and look back at the phenomena and grand situations brought about by Taiwanese films in the past three years, then we can more clearly describe the contours of the output value structure and changes of Taiwanese films. In 2007, there were 22 films released in Taiwan, and the cumulative box office in Taipei was 198820828 NT$, and the output value of the performance was 7.38% (thanks to "Color Ring"); In 2008, there were 26 films released in Taiwan, and the cumulative box office in Taipei was 305426019 NT$, and the output value of the performance was 12.09% (benefiting from "Cape Seven"); In 2009, the number of films produced in Taiwan was 28, and the cumulative box office in Taipei 62492627 NT$NT, and the percentage of the output value of the show dropped to 2.14% (lack of mainstream or flagship films); In 2010, there were 38 films released in Taiwan, and the cumulative box office in Taipei was 225582606 NT$NT, and the output value of the performance was 7.13% (benefiting from "Ganggang"); According to the statistics of the beginning of 2011 until the end of March, there were 4 films released, and the cumulative box office in Taipei 54339040 NT$, and the output value of the performance was 7.61% (benefiting from "Chicken Steak Hero").
Such statistics mark a fact, but also confirm that starting from 2007's "Color Ring", especially after the iconic "Cape Seven" in 2008, Taiwanese audiences' interest, viewing and demand for local popular films are clearly there. Although Taiwan's screening market is still the world of Hollywood films accounting for more than 85% of the year in terms of total value, the pulsation and trend changes in it, the downturn of Taiwan's local films such as 0.4% in 1999, 0.2% in 2001, and 0.3% in 2003 has ended. The output value structure of Taiwanese films in the past decade and its changes indicate that the market share of films produced in Taiwan has increased, indicating that the potential strength of Taiwan's film market is considerable.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > (2) Variations of production development models and distribution networks</h1>
Continuing our observation of the content of the most popular movies from the millennium to the present, we can also see that except for the "Panorama Image Season" launched by the Panorama Communication Foundation in 2004, (2) it resonated with Taiwanese audiences because it deeply recorded the trauma of the "9.21" earthquake and its profound life care, and the rest of the films were films with business models. Although the marketability of these films has different conditions for success, if further examined, they do have the following commonalities with each other - the us business distribution system, star symbols, media effects and other marketing strategies defined by the commercial success factors.
Then, if we look at the qualitative changes in the output value structure and the amount of changes in Taiwan's films, it may be more obvious to observe that the key to the changes in Taiwan's local film industry in the past decade depends on the variation of film production and development models and distribution networks.
This article argues that these new production and development models and variations of distribution networks can be summarized from three aspects:
1. The link between the US distribution system and Taiwan-produced films
First of all, the scale of film copyright distribution in Taiwan has not changed much over the years, mainly based on cinema screening: film screenings can account for more than 80% of the total distribution, and the rest are 10% of television, 0.5% of discs, and the least network. The distributors of Taiwanese theaters are still far superior to the Hollywood distributors of traditional Chinese film theaters in terms of the number of theaters. Therefore, the example of "Cape Seven" refers to an important key here: "Cape Seven" produced by the "Fruit Film" company established by director Wei Desheng is entrusted to the local film company "Gude" for marketing, and the cinema line is operated by the American businessman Bowei Company. It is precisely because Bo Wei has a huge distribution network and scheduling advantages that it can quickly respond to the addition and scheduling of more than fifty copies in a very short period of time when "Cape Seven" is unexpectedly surging.
Of course, this is not a new phenomenon. Not only 2008's "Cape Seven", the previous "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (released by Columbia, 2000), "Double Pupil" (Bo Wei distribution, 2002) or "Color Ring" (Bo Wei distribution, 2007) and other films, as long as it is a commercial standard production, the pursuit of mass effect of the film, all combined with the US businessmen's taiwan-wide screening system. Therefore, in terms of distribution and performance system, "Cape Seven" (Bo Wei, 2008) and later "Stern" (Warner, 2010) and "Chicken Chop Hero" (Fox Release, 2011, box office 140 million), once again proved that the absolute advantage only existed in the hands of American businessmen who mastered the Taiwanese theater system.
It is worth noting that small productions are noted. The box office success of the fresh sketch film "囧 Boy" was also operated by Warner, thanks to its inherent publicity and marketing and theater distribution and other resources. In other words, looking back at the experience of many Taiwanese author-oriented films in the 1990s being squeezed out by the market, the trend of local films turning to Choose American businessmen is gradually becoming more obvious, and under the change of the model of seeking new marketing opportunities, the chain with the DISTRIBUTION system of American businessmen and its development trend are in fact urgently needing follow-up close observation.
2. The practice of financial capital injection and cross-domain joint venture film production in the film industry
In recent years, the variation of the production and development network model of Taiwan's film industry has become more and more in line with the market mechanism. Of course, the industry must be defined by the market, and the most important principle of market drive lies in whether the investment in the industry can be sustained and stable. From our general physical examination of the current situation of Taiwan's film industry in the previous article, we can see that more electronic industry entrepreneurs continue to invest in the production and development of the film industry, such as weisheng company under VIA Group, China Arts Company of Central Group, Deyi Film and Television Company of Myeongtai Group and Taiwan New Bank Venture Capital, Zhengwei Technology of Hon Hai Group, and china film company.
Overall, the cross-border involvement of non-industry funds, financial capital and electronics industry in the film industry chain and whether the funds are sustained and stable are extremely important to the ecology, quality and quantity of Taiwan's film industry. In particular, in addition to the support of public sector funds (such as film counseling funds), whether it can more effectively divert peer-to-peer investment to reduce the risk of industrial investment, or how the co-production model can diversify risks through the organization and integration of different funds and different cultures, and the multi-directional layout of the market survival channel, are the main keys affecting the current changes in the structure of Taiwan's film industry.
In terms of co-production films, the trend is so great that taiwan's film co-production has recently become more diversified in form. First of all, master directors such as Hou Xiaoxian and Cai Mingliang, co-produced films with world-class museums, zhuyu works in the artistic concept of another innovation, such as Hou Xiaoxian co-produced with Japan to commemorate Ozu's centennial birthday "Coffee Time" (2003), "Red Balloon" (2007) derived from the production concept due to cooperation with the Orsay Museum of Art in France, and Cai Mingming's "Face" co-produced with Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Taiwan and permanently stored in the Louvre (2009), These works have timeless film artistic value and aesthetic meaning, and their importance is self-evident. In addition, in addition to participating in the fund-raising cases of film festivals and market exhibitions around the world, some recent special cases of Taiwanese films, such as "One Page taipei" (2010) supervised by the german director Wenders, "Neon Heart" (2009), which gathered funds and talents from Sweden and Taiwan, also show the current globalization of globalization, transcending the concept of regional boundaries, and the concept of cross-border integration. In the Taiwanese film circle, it is also fermenting.
3. The global localization imagination, or a new localist trend in Taiwan's film industry
The term "localism" is not related to the narrow discourse of nationalism, but refers to the cultural phenomenon gradually formed after the transnational flow of entities such as ethnic groups, images, science and technology, finance and economics or elephant emblem capital in the context of Chen globalization. "Locality" is often used to dialectically the interpenetration or influence of "global" and "local." ①
The discourse on "globalization" ranges from the concept of "world-system" that was quite representative of early scholars such as Wallerstein and Kirsto, (2) to the emphasis on arjun Appadurai's five landscape systems of "globalization" and the concept of "grassroots globalization", (3) to Roland Robertson's "global localization" ( The concept of glocalization (4) has brought the topic of "locality" a lot of attention.
In essence, "locality" and "globalization" refer to each other, and in the context of cultural economy, different places are referred to as forces adapted to the development of foreign economies, thus developing expressions that highlight local cultural characteristics. In order to specifically deal with the domination of globalization and transnational consumption, production and reproduction, the thinking of "locality" has become a base point for resistance and re-starting, and in the important folk films in recent years, especially the two films "Cape Seven" and "Mengjia", the local imagination based on place is particularly obvious.
In addition to the commercial value of the above two landmark films "Cape Seven" and "Mengjia", in addition to the cultural review reading, they jointly reveal a certain sign of new localism, which is actually more interesting. The genre of folk dramas in Cape Seven and the local symbolism of "Mengjia" reflect a certain global localization imagination of Taiwanese films, suggesting the intervention of commodity consciousness in the context of globalization, making the operation of new local trends possible.
"Cape Seven" interprets the simple humor and cordial leisure of southern Taiwan with skillful joy scheduling and situational narrative skills, and the Hengchun Sea view and the Zhuang family wedding banquet in the film give the film a dramatic but very eye-catching folk style. In "Mengjia", the thick "Taiwan flavor" displayed by its art scenes shows the dragon and snake miscellaneous and bustling charms in the Wanhua PeelIng Liao area of Taipei in the 1980s, and its extremely dazzling visual scheduling constructs a unimpeded and coded Taiwanese guest style. In addition, both films focus quite heavily on the dialect "qikou" of the dialogue part, "I am a national treasure" ("Cape Seven"), "What is the meaning?" I only know the spirit!" ("Mengjia"), with its slang use and the memory points that constitute emotions, the population recitation, which is all the rage, is also the selling point of the film. It is shown here that the theme and style of mutually inclination of political correctness in the local history and imagination have not only become an option for an element of the times, but also a place of commercial value.
Truly in line with the logic of cultural commodities and exquisitely produced," "Mengjia" lays out the eternal conflict between growth and loss, love and righteousness, loyalty and rebellion, desire and law, the story logic is clear, the plot action is compact, and the sensationalism is full of intensity. Starting from the finalization of the Lunar New Year slot, "Mengjia" pushed back the production schedule, and the production system of the film also returned to the core system of producer co-ordination, appealing to the plot type and language model of the mainstream film in the three-act drama, from the theme creativity, script development, fund raising, release arrangement, marketing publicity to the development and authorization of peripheral goods, the commercial success of "Mengjia" is highly representative of its marketing strategy, at this point, it can be said that "Mengjia" The most complete definition of the logic and market principles of Taiwan's film culture commodities at this stage is defined. And this commodity logic and market principle, of course, are still developed in accordance with the Hollywood model that embodies the globalized universal commodity specifications.
The extreme commercial success of Cape Seven and Stern, although for different reasons, can be examined as a few points that cannot be ignored in the recent changes in the Taiwanese film market.
Cape Seven's voyage is illuminated by a beacon of unique network communication and media effects (1), as well as the film's unprecedented screen schedule and highest box office record (2).
As for the "Mengjia" Avenue, (3) is that in addition to writing many record-breaking firsts (4), "Mengjia" is, as mentioned above, the first recent Kangzhuang Avenue paved in accordance with the logic of cultural commodities, which truly marks and establishes the starting point for the conformity of local film commodity specifications with the market mechanism model.
The emergence of these flagship, index-based, and mass-effect films, and the hollywood marketing channels and mainstream models of market development that accompany them, reflect a global imagination of Taiwan's film industry. In the past two decades, the passive attitude of the Taiwan film market and the standard thinking of only hoping not to lose money at most, with the expansion of commercial interests and the emphasis on profits, suddenly leaping into the marketability in the context of globalization, we can observe that on the horizontal line commonly marked by the Avenue and Qihang, there are basic cultural and economic issues that deserve profound examination and cannot be ignored.
Looking at the above, in recent years, the variation of Taiwan's film industry in the production and development links and distribution network model has gradually conformed to the commercial operation mode of the market. From finding creative themes, script development, fund raising to matching with market mechanisms, the output value structure and changes of Taiwan's film industry, flagship films have led the industry to turn - Taiwanese films have turned to become films that clearly rely on an effective commodity specification, cultural and economic political correctness, a film defined by a business operation model and marketing strategy.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, the prospects of Taiwan's film industry under the discussion of cultural economy</h1>
Of course, at this stage, the economic physique and atmosphere presented in several links of Taiwan's film production, distribution, performance, audience, market and other industrial chains can be described as long-awaited and not easy to come by. This is a phenomenon worthy of attention, and any elements that contribute to the development of Taiwan's film industry should be strengthened. The direction of this article is not to question or even oppose economic discourse, but only at the level of academic and speculative, behind the current seemingly grand phenomenon, carefully study how Taiwanese films that have fully entered the economic discourse turn should be viewed.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > (1) The Structural Problem of Art and Industry: A Reflection on the Nature of Cultural Economy Problems</h1>
Whether cinema is commercial or artistic,(1) is a pseudo-question that is not a problem. However, the dualism of commercial/artistic, audience film/author film (2), with artistic originality (the "humanities" of film history, aesthetics, authors, texts, and civic discourses), will weaken the idea of industrial composition (the production, distribution, screening and industrial economy conducive to local film consumption in the three major links of the composition), which has been a stereotyped discourse on the market of Taiwanese film audiences for more than 20 years.
In fact, movies are originally a cultural commodity. The main problem is not the opposition between "art" or "business", because from the creator's point of view, mainstream mass films dominate the marketing network, which makes the ecology of the film commercially oriented; From the perspective of the marketing side, the survival of the industry depends on the feedback of the market, and it cannot bear the potential risks associated with free creation. That's the crux of the matter. In other words, what is really worth thinking about is not the contradiction between art and business, but the relevant debate on how economic methods should intervene in the field of literature and art.
Looking at the contradictions and conflicts of the cultural economy, there is a neglected but extremely important concept that needs to be clarified first, and as a cultural commodity, film has cultural value before it has economic value, that is, the economic value of commodities is based on cultural value.
Cinema is indeed a cultural commodity, but it is by no means just a commodity. Because every film has its own uniqueness, that is, singularity, it is completely different from other commodities. A film exudes countless meanings, including modeling, narrative, psychology, perception, etc., that is to say, the film not only involves symbol system, cultural heritage, interpretation structure, identity shaping, it is more explicitly involved in creation and artistic production. In short, film has an individual speciality that cannot be ignored, it first carries local value, symbolic value, artistic value, and finally, the exchange value of goods. This is the central thesis of this article.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > (2) From cultural economy to cultural value- humanistic values and the cultural shaping of Taiwanese films</h1>
Film activities in not a slice of the times can be viewed in equal amounts. If we explain the ups and downs of Taiwanese films in a neat and uniform way, we obviously over-ignore the complex and subtle film content.
The production and circulation of films, the autonomy of culture and their own principles must indeed face the threat of market logic. From the artistic aesthetic attitude of Taiwan's new films to the current sharp turn in the cultural economy of high-standard commodities, how to think about and how to be understood by placing Taiwanese films, a special cultural commodity, on the issue of art and market economy, is the key issue of Taiwan's film industry that has fully entered the cultural economy discourse and commodity operation mode in the past three years.
At the same time that the concept of Taiwanese cinema is gradually changing into a cultural and economic trend, Taiwan's independent film production is quietly testing and educating audiences. Between 1982 and 1986, a series of social, political, economic, aesthetic and other conditions converged to jointly spawn new Taiwanese films, from director Hou Hsiao-hsien to the successors of new films in the 1990s such as Zhang Zuoji, with unique and distinctive image aesthetic imprints and humanistic spirit, documentary photography, realistic style and long-lens aesthetic paradigm (Huang Jianye, 1990; Jiao Xiongping, screenwriter, 1990), together shaped the humanistic ideological context of Taiwanese films and the field of multiple humanistic viewpoints.
In the works of the young generation of cutting-edge directors, we can see that Taiwan's proud author model is still dynamic and has never given up writing social or historical discourse with film images. In the past three years, Taiwanese films have fully entered the discussion of culture and economy, and these works are particularly precious.
On the one hand, creativity and sincerity are still the values that have been guarded by mesozoic film directors who have been immersed for a long time. In particular, Zhang Zuoji's insistence on "Zhongzai" (1996), "Dark Light" (1999), "Beautiful Time" (2002), "Butterfly" (2008), and the recent important work "When Love Comes" (2010), his insistence on close to real life, untrained actors, marginal social themes, and scene scheduling rich in visual freedom reflects the inherent attitude of Taiwanese films to the humanistic level.
On the other hand, in the past three years, Taiwan's blockbuster debut films, Qianfan, have competed for success, such as Yang Yazhe's "囧 Boy" (2008), which is childlike and chic in the face of educational shortcomings, "Nine Descending Winds" (2008), which is engraved with youth and no regrets, Chen Xinyi's interpretation of "Stray God Dog Man" (2008), Chen Hongyi's "Flower Eating That Girl" (2008), which is supreme in image, "Can't Live Without You" (2009), which portrays the tenacity of the underlying social vitality, Wang Yulin's humorous and absurd "Seven Days after the Father" (2010), especially Zhong Menghong's exquisite and thought-provoking "Parking" (2009) and "The Fourth Painting" (2010) and other works, can indeed be seen that under the nourishment of the theater, television, literature, and advertising circles (1), the Mesozoic directors who have seen the rise and fall of Taiwan's film industry have sailed under a historical opportunity, and advertising directors and documentary directors have turned to the field of feature films. These many Mesozoic filmmakers, with a new attitude, set sail collectively after the Cape phenomenon, which has a unique situation and meaning.
Looking at its overall picture, it gradually releases a rich energy, and the film thinking hidden within the society gradually penetrates into the current film creation. In the aesthetic landscape presentation of Taiwanese films, there is not only the realistic context that has always been adhered to, but also the films that are completely different from the classic paradigm and emphasize visual refinement and narrative expression.
In addition, the change in the landscape of Taiwanese cinema has also shown a large number of documentaries and works by female film directors after the millennium. The "Wandering Island Film" (2000) series of documentaries challenges the expectation that record equals documentary, criticizes the mainstream documentary concept of true reproduction, and its dialectical and self-conscious spirit proves that the resilience of film creation in Taiwan continues to be adhered to. Important Taiwanese documentaries released in theaters since 2003, from "Life" (2004), "No Miller" (2005), "Roll It! Films such as Boy (2005) and "Summer of Miracles" (2006) to May this year, such as "Youth Cheerleaders" (2011), have touched people's hearts, have deep appeal and commercial potential, and formed one of Taiwan's most important documentary momentum. These new directors' documentary creations also provide opportunities for stepping into the feature film system, and Lin Yuxian has changed from "Roll Over! Boy (2005) to the feature film Exit Six (2007) and the new film Roll Over! Ah Xin (2011), Zeng Wenzhen from the documentary "Spring: The Story of Xu Jinyu" (2002) and then directed "Waiting for flying fish" (2005), presenting a state of diversified development.
The composition of the new forces of Taiwanese film is also reflected in the creation of feature films by female film directors. Female directors do not necessarily have to interpret female films, Zeng Wenzhen's "Waiting for flying fish" (2005) anthropological magnanimity, Chen Yingrong's "Guoshi Peerless" (2006) commercial comedy management ability, Zhou Meiling's continuous "Radiant Song and Dance Troupe" (2004), "Tattoo" (2007), "Drifting Youth" (2008) showed an unparalleled gay film discourse, Li Yunchan's "Mermaid Blossoms" (2005) wielding fairy tale dazzling vision, Chen Xinyi's touching "Wandering God Dog Man" (2008), Zheng Fenfen's elegant and smooth "Listening to" (2009), which was the leading box office in 2009, and other works are different from the difficult workplace ecology of the previous generation of female filmmakers. In just ten years, female directors have transcended the gender issues and structures of past women's films in terms of expression and content, and the phenomenon of pluralism and multi-harmony has become the most anticipated new force in the Taiwanese film industry.
The practice of these Taiwanese films shows that there are still many filmmakers who are alert to mainstream commercial competition and the crisis of mainstream general tendencies towards singularization and domination, and refuse to follow the economic model driven by mainstream demand. The spectrum formed by these films in the Taiwan film industry is of great significance: in the formation of a diversified and differentiated synergy, these films mean that the aesthetic discourse, historical discourse and social discourse in the context of Taiwanese films in recent years still exist, and the hidden power is strong and the local collective voice is heard.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >3</h1>
At this stage, the pomp and circumstance that Taiwanese cinema is gradually showing, and how it will change, may not be fully explored until it has stepped into the relatively wide time and space distance of the 2020s. At present, it is still quite difficult to truly obtain a depiction of a clear eyebrow show, but the observation and exploration of the overall industry of Taiwanese films at this stage, and how the emerging generation of Taiwanese films has emerged with obvious momentum in the current industry but is still quite chaotic, sometimes vertical and continuously changing, showing the phenomenon of pluralism and multi-harmony, which needs to be observed and explored.
Since the marketing strategies of "Cape Seven" and "Mengjia" have achieved extraordinary results, several flagship films, such as the huge production "Sedek Bale" released after the fall of 2011, are also expected to boost the annual output value of Taiwanese films in 2011. Film is regarded as a dynamic economic force in many fields, but it should be noted that as a composite of consumption, entertainment, poetics, audiovisual art, and the pulse and prospects of the overall industry, although it cannot lack an economic point of view, it cannot be considered in a state without cultural context.
The significance of the transformation of Taiwanese films, or the new situation of industrial revitalization brought about by the sudden rise of Taiwanese films in 2008 "Cape Seven", shows the importance of attaching importance to the differentiated value of the market in order to balance cultural needs and cultural economy in the clear trend of industrial development first and the concept of film "culture" constantly pushing towards cultural economy and market considerations. However, how to find a way to settle down between the boom of economic productivity and the doubling of cultural productivity may be the problem that Taiwanese films should face at present.
The Mode of the Taiwanese Film Industry and Its Development Tendency——From the Perspective of Cultural Economy
Isabelle Pey-Tsyr WU
(Department of Motion Picture，National Taiwan University of Arts，Taiwan 22058)
Abstract:This essay aims at a deep probe into recent sensation films in Taiwan such as Cape No.7(2008)and Monga(2010)，giving an analysis of how they guide audience＇s trend of favoring with Taiwan films，which brings out a new look on Taiwan films recovery. On the one hand，the author uses detailed data to sum up the market supply of Taiwan films，observes the chain knot of the Taiwanese film production and the A-merican business distribution，and depicts the practical mode of financial capital injects and cross-border cooperation films，all of which affect the development of the industry chain of production，distribution and projection. And on the other hand，the author points out that the re-takeoff of the film industry in Taiwan，as a matter of fact，has not broken away with the worldwide tide of stressing on cultural economy. Although great importance is attached to the discussion of the structural problem of art and industry，and to the analysis of the dominant cultural economy of the film industry in Taiwan，yet the film as cultural merchandise builds its economic values on cultural values. The humanistic values and aesthetic tastes，both of which are inherent in Taiwan films，will become urgent，important topics for the prospect and tendency of the Taiwanese film industry.
Key words:Taiwan film;film industry;cultural economy; Cape No.7; Monga
(Editor-in-Charge: Wei Qiong)
Medium figure classification number: J902
Literature flag code: A
Article ID: 1007-6522 (2011) 06-0036-13
doi:10.3969/j.issn 1007-6522.2011.06.003
Received:2011-06-25
About author:Isabelle Pey-Tsyr WU (1962-), female, from Changhua County, Taiwan. Associate Professor, Department of Film, National Taiwan University of the Arts, Ph.D. in Film, University of Paris I, France. His research interests include film theory and aesthetics, EU film and television industry and European film studies, Taiwanese film studies, cultural policy and film industry, film and gender discourse, etc. He once served as the head of the Department of Film Studies at National Taiwan University of the Arts, the deputy editor-in-chief of the Journal of Film Appreciation, and a judge at the 43rd Golden Horse Awards for Chinese Films.