Is there an identity crisis in Chinas film industry?
Han: You’ve asked a great question. There is currently a very sharp conflict in mainland China among “sixth generation” directors between those who favor art house movies and those who favor commercial filmmaking. Most still lean towards art house — and this will be a huge challenge when the WTO deal goes ahead. These directors will have to learn how to make more commercially viable movies. They will have to learn how to meld the artistic and commercial sides of filmmaking. This commercialization is the only way forward for the “sixth generation” directors. TIME: Bearing in mind the constraints and the censorship of Chinese film, is the industry able to get as commercial as it needs to get in order to compete? Han: While it’s true that Chinese traditional concepts as well as government censors do not allow sex or violence in Chinese film, the success of movies does not have to be reliant on this kind of material. Sex and violence is not the only way to have commercial success. There a
