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台灣黑電影 (Taiwan Black Movies). Dir. 侯季然 (Hou Chi-jan). 2005.
Taiwanese cinema's period of "black movies" is a nearly-forgotten, brief era in the late 70's to early 80's (approximately 1978 to 1982?), when gangsters and underground society members started heavily funding and thus influencing the content of Taiwanese movies. These films were filled with gratuitous violence, sensationalized depictions of sex, gambling, and all the corruptive elements your average movie-goer could desire. Thus, they easily became box office hits, and tons of copycats were churned out in this short period of time.
However, the main reason that this period of Taiwanese cinema history met such an abrupt end was government restrictions. These films would be heavily censored when shown in Taiwan, but luckily for the producers and distributors, unedited films were usually allowed to be shown and distributed in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and other Chinese emigre communities overseas. Consequently, audiences outside of Taiwan became the primary targets, so overt references to Taiwan were often erased or minimized. This resulted in some local criticism, which would eventually spawn the native film movement of New Taiwan Cinema.
Hou does a good job contextualizing these movies, however, suggesting that the violence of political affairs at the time might have influenced the moral nihilism and thematic trends in these films.
Another reason Black Movies were criticized was for being too lowbrow, needlessly graphic and appealing to the lowest common denominator. Mass media is so often positioned at the other end of scholarly criticism... what's appealing to too many people must be bad, in some way, and therefore must be ruthlessly attacked or ignored. But in retrospect, what a stark contrast long-lost commercial films like 1981's 女王蜂 (Queen Bee) are to the fluffy romantic dramas I've been plugging through from the same period, or even to Tsai Ming-liang's latest films. This documentary is really going to change the way that I look at those "Classics" of Chinese film (as they are titled by the distribution company re-releasing them), as opposed to the commercially successful films of the past.
The "what if..." question that haunts the directors' minds is... what if those kind of films hadn't been censored? Sure, they were formulaic, sure, they were sensationalized and reliant on fantasy and cheap thrills to make a quick buck. But that's the same way that Hong Kong built its movie industry, and despite some of the generic schlock that Hong Kong still produces, it is now an internationally-recognized, locally dominant, self-sustaining industry that garners respect and even produces true artistry. If Taiwan had been allowed to continue without such severe government restrictions, and the industry had been allowed to flourish according to its own commercial standards, would Taiwan have a mature movie industry by now, instead of a handful of directors that only appeal to art critics?
Taiwanese cinema's period of "black movies" is a nearly-forgotten, brief era in the late 70's to early 80's (approximately 1978 to 1982?), when gangsters and underground society members started heavily funding and thus influencing the content of Taiwanese movies. These films were filled with gratuitous violence, sensationalized depictions of sex, gambling, and all the corruptive elements your average movie-goer could desire. Thus, they easily became box office hits, and tons of copycats were churned out in this short period of time.
However, the main reason that this period of Taiwanese cinema history met such an abrupt end was government restrictions. These films would be heavily censored when shown in Taiwan, but luckily for the producers and distributors, unedited films were usually allowed to be shown and distributed in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and other Chinese emigre communities overseas. Consequently, audiences outside of Taiwan became the primary targets, so overt references to Taiwan were often erased or minimized. This resulted in some local criticism, which would eventually spawn the native film movement of New Taiwan Cinema.
Hou does a good job contextualizing these movies, however, suggesting that the violence of political affairs at the time might have influenced the moral nihilism and thematic trends in these films.
Another reason Black Movies were criticized was for being too lowbrow, needlessly graphic and appealing to the lowest common denominator. Mass media is so often positioned at the other end of scholarly criticism... what's appealing to too many people must be bad, in some way, and therefore must be ruthlessly attacked or ignored. But in retrospect, what a stark contrast long-lost commercial films like 1981's 女王蜂 (Queen Bee) are to the fluffy romantic dramas I've been plugging through from the same period, or even to Tsai Ming-liang's latest films. This documentary is really going to change the way that I look at those "Classics" of Chinese film (as they are titled by the distribution company re-releasing them), as opposed to the commercially successful films of the past.
The "what if..." question that haunts the directors' minds is... what if those kind of films hadn't been censored? Sure, they were formulaic, sure, they were sensationalized and reliant on fantasy and cheap thrills to make a quick buck. But that's the same way that Hong Kong built its movie industry, and despite some of the generic schlock that Hong Kong still produces, it is now an internationally-recognized, locally dominant, self-sustaining industry that garners respect and even produces true artistry. If Taiwan had been allowed to continue without such severe government restrictions, and the industry had been allowed to flourish according to its own commercial standards, would Taiwan have a mature movie industry by now, instead of a handful of directors that only appeal to art critics?
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