The development of Chinese films under the influence of antagonism between long take and montage theory

【Abstract】These elements form a complicated with creative montage system and the combination of long take practices and montage system achieving a notable effect. Montage has changed gradually as the development of the practice of film. Meanwhile, although completing a good shooting sequence or a good film is influenced by the film theories and style of shooting, these also are influenced by cultural and political background and history of different countries. In addition, according to the analyses and discussions of shooting techniques, reading the practices of montage and long take in details, we can find that the antithesis between the formalistic and the realistic are not obvious in—Chinese cinema of the last thirty years. Chinese commercial films of this period have demonstrated a strong inclination towards montage techniques while resorting to long-take visual strategies in some cases.

【關键词】Chinese films; antagonism; long take and montage

【作者简介】Lin Ya, University of Melbourne.

Introduction

The Dead End is a 2015 Chinese crime drama film based on Xu Yigua’s novel Sunspot (YouTube, 2018). The film is directed by Cao Baoping. There are the two main reasons which I choose this film as a case analysis in my research essay. Firstly, the plot become more in-depth step by step (IMDb, 2018). In the beginning, the director gives the background of the whole story, but in the end, many reversions appear. Two main lines are presented clearly, one is the sheriff has been tracking down the truth, another is the three previous perpetrators have been hidden in various ways (IMDb, 2018). The two lines intersect, resulting in the intense collision and the reversal appear in the ending, giving the audience an impressive experience. secondly, the technique of montage and long take both have play a strong role in The Dead End (2015) which are representatives of the sort of tendencies in contemporary Chinese cinema that I am describing.

I will use the beginning of The Dead End (2015) as the main case to concentrate on the application of montage because this film is a typical representative which can show the montage practice of Chinese film. Although the four-minute from the beginning pictures are all montage applications, the types of these montages are different. I divide the four minutes into three different montage parts and will analyze them specifically. There are three main montages applied in the first four-minute, sound montage, editing montage and the hue style of montage. Meanwhile, the montage through all the four minutes in different aspects, it involves the transformation of takes, the connection of takes, sound, and speed of takes. These different practices of montage applied in some takes at the same time. Moreover, we can find that the starting four minutes (from the 1’43s to 5’53s) presents the background of the storyline and leave much suspense to attract audience keeping watch this film. The director used these montages at the beginning to take audiences into the direction of the plot set by the director, although the truth of ending is an inversion and has shocked many audiences. The purpose of the director is achieved to a large extent by means of these montages. Finally,  I will summarize three main points and analyze how the montages are practiced at the beginning of this film with several breakdown examples in details.

Firstly, in the seconds of 1’43s to 3’12s, the director and editor use different editing ways and taking speed for different shots and scenes to reveal the three timelines of the plot. The three-time lines are the process of being beaten before the victim died, the posthumous status of victim and the process of three protagonists running away. Then, the directors edit the three parts together and let the takes of three timelines appear alternately. At the beginning of the film, the first four minutes, it shows the three storylines as the background of this film by using the shots at different speed. Due to the hand-held camera shooting, the pictures are slightly shaken when it shows the five corpses respectively. This shooting way increase the nervous and as if it leads all the audience to see the silent pictures after the tragedy (107cine.com, 2018)

For example, the director of photography Luo uses the low-angle shot at the beginning and gave the audience a bottom view via a shot which is from bottom to top with normal speed (107cine.com, 2018). It is showed that the two victims lay near the main door. At that time, the director linked a fast shot which is the picture of the third victim being hit by the head (107cine.com, 2018). Then, the picture goes back to the two victims at the beginning and give them two close-up respectively. It keeps going and shows the scene of the other two corpses. In 2’07s, the picture shows that the three protagonists were running away in the woods after committing the crime. The montage clip here is very obvious because the shaken running take of the full shot, the tracking shot of running and the close-up of their panting face are edited together respectively. In 2’18s, the following shot lasted about 10 seconds which present the other victims has died on the floor. This following shot goes upstairs slowly and leads the audience closed to the two corpses gradually. They can feel the slightly shaken picture among these seconds.

In 2’46s, a high-angle shot displayed that the female corpse was bent over the ground. Then, the picture linked the three takes which are the process of how she resisted the rape of Xiafeng Xin. After these pictures, one of the protagonists, Xiaofeng Xin stopped to run in the woods and try to go back to the crime scene. He also has been emotionally depressed and he was very painful lying on the ground. the picture linked the take of his memory which was he try to rape the beautiful naked woman (one of the victims). In 3’06s, the picture transform to the woman have bathed and was wiping her hair before she died, then, the picture transforms into Xin again. The different angles of their fast escape, the flashback of the Xin’s memories and the images of other victims being injured are edited together forming a sense of disordered time and space. This is a typical and good montage practice which interlaces the plots of three timelines. Meanwhile, in the whole injured process, the audience only can see the victims are beaten, they can not know who are murderers. The viewing angle is subjective. However, this way of the montage of the beginning still has a little problem. The scene of the escape part may be too fast, some clips here may be not clearly seen. This presents a complicated polt order for the audience, although this fast and shaken tracking shot could give prominence to a strong panic in the heart of the characters.

Secondly, the montage of sound is applied at the beginning and play an important role in this part, especially the clip from 4’17s to 5’53s. Director uses many different kinds of sound to coordinate the film editing, such as sound effect, simple music and Chinese traditional storytelling. For instance, the first picture frame is the blank screen with a traditional sound which is the sound of Chinese gavel slap the table with a splat in order to attract the audience and let them concentrate on the beginning. The other example of the sound montage, the director arranges the way of Chinese traditional storytelling as the voice-over to introduce and explain further information which cannot through the film takes. This voice-over plays the role of knowing the ending of this story, the accent of this voice-over can show some feeling of vicissitude and desolate. Director uses this voice who has known everything about this story from a god perspective. Some clips of the victims were attacked with a sudden thump can show the sense of ruthless, and that there are no music and other sounds in these clips except the thump of attack. Furthermore, in 4’17s to 5’53s of the beginning, the voice-over use a traditional Chinese proverb to satirize the three criminals. This proverb said that ‘justice is blind’, expressing the sigh of the writer. In Chinese, the old saying ‘justice is blind’ is very different from English. It uses people and tortoises to be a metaphor here.

Thirdly, in terms of the montage of hue, the black and white toning also add some horror artistic conception, especially the example of the slow motion from the very beginning was shot via from bottom view, which shows the old three-story villa seven years ago. That is, where the murder occurred. This combination of monochrome takes and slow motion is a good montage practice. There is a part we can not ignore which is the hue of the first six minutes and the good practice of montage also reflect obvious in the hue of these pictures.

For example, the front four-minute use approximative white and black picture to show the background, although these pictures are not black and white totally. We still can find that some dark green leaves in the forest when the three main run away from the crime scene. After this, in 4’17s, the picture transforms into the coloured picture and begin to narrate the main storyline which is happened after 7 years of the background. This way gives the audience a strong image contrast and they can distinguish the occurrence time of the background and the main plot. They also can find the contrast of the crime before seven years and the normal life of the three perpetrators after seven years. In fact, the three kinds of montages have interacted with each other and achieve a successful audience involvement in this film.

In addition, this film not only has a wonderful montage application at the beginning but also has a very good long take the application in the end. From the interviews of director Baoping Cao and related news of this film in 2006, Cao indicated that the cinematographer Luo and he specially designed the shooting way of long take for the ending of this film (the death penalty of the Zidao Yang and Xiaofeng Xin) (107cine.com, 2018). This plot is a particular part of this film for the audience, film researchers and film critics. And the cinematographer still chooses the hand-held camera to shoot this long take (107cine.com, 2018). Why this ending plot is special? The reason is that director has left hints as of the background at the first four minutes, it shows the nervous running of three protagonists and the five victims were beaten in the crime scene, mentioned at the beginning of the analysis of the montage. So many audiences would think that the three protagonists are murderers. In fact, the ending of this film gives us a rollback, they are not the murderers. But they still do the wrong things during this massacre, intermittently killed five victims. Then, the long take of death penalty reflects the complex feeling of the audience who know the truth in the end. The director of photography creates the warm light in this long take. In the last three minutes, we can find that the detailed face of Xin, the ostensible calm of Xin during the death penalty, the needle inject his the arm, the starting of the machine of the death penalty, the shaken hands and body of Xin, the eyes of fulling of relief are shot respectively. These pictures are around-the-clock, the audience can feel the death penalty as if it is real. However, it was a pity that the long take of the ending was edited when the film was officially released (107cine.com, 2018), as a result of the content of death penalty may be sensitive in China. We just can find the initial version on the Youtube (2016).

To conclude, this notable film is a representative of Chinese crime drama films. The director and cinematography use the complicated montage technique to present the sound effect, music, plot and the crime scene. Moreover, except for some little problems, the shooting part applied the combination of montage and long take technique which shows the shooting and editing quality of Chinese films (Bowen and Thompson 2009, p. 185). The black and white pictures of the beginning as the colour montage application is not ignored in the development of Chinese commercial films.

Conclusion

The western film theories spread to China as the rise and development of directors of the fifth generation in China (Semsel 1987, p. 37), these directors attempt to produce many film productions with some montage and long take practices and applications. Although the western film theories have a deep impact on the Chinese commercial films development, the film theories and commercial film of China still have their own characteristics and are influenced by some backgrounds and elements of cultural and political.

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