DOWNLOAD ~ From Red Sorghum to Devils on the Doorstep: Conceptual Evolution in Chinese Film Adaptations. " by Post Script ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free

eBook details

Title: From Red Sorghum to Devils on the Doorstep: Conceptual Evolution in Chinese Film Adaptations.
Author : Post Script
Release Date : January 22, 2004
Genre: Business & Personal Finance,Books,
Pages : * pages
Size : 262 KB

Description

Chinese films Red Sorghum (1987) and Devils on the Doorstep (2000) are both adapted from novels. Coincidentally, both novelists are from Shandong province, and both novels are based on true stories that took place in Shandong during China's Anti-Japanese War, part of World War II. Another coincidence is that Jiang Wen, the leading actor in Red Sorghum, is the director and the leading actor of Devils on the Doorstep. Both films are very different from previous anti-Japanese war films in which the protagonists are almost always larger-than-life heroes fighting the Japanese on behalf of the Chinese people. Red Sorghum still has a fighter as the leading man, yet his fighting takes place quite late in the film and his courage to fight for his love is at least as conspicuous as his courage to fight the Japanese. Compared to traditional Chinese film anti-Japanese heroes and the non-hero in Red Sorghum, the characters in Devils on the Doorstep are almost anti-heroes. In terms of their general approach to adaptation, both filmmakers used their respective novels as raw materials, keeping only elements that excited them in envisioning their films. Whereas Red Sorghum does much subtraction from the novel's heroic actions, Devils on the Doorstep adds a great deal to the novel to highlight the feature of anti-heroism. The most significant difference between the two films seems to be that China's filmmakers in 2000 no longer need to be so eager, as the creators of Red Sorghum were in 1987, to put on an extravaganza in order to show the world that we also have our own films. Devils on the Doorstep does not make up quasi-folklores, as Red Sorghum does, to attract Western viewers' gaze. Instead, it is a unique Chinese film about the anti-Japanese war that distinguishes itself from all others for its self-reflections on the Chinese national psyche. In other words, it explores the hidden follies of the Chinese character while portraying a tragedy ostensibly caused by the Japanese devils.