''One and Eight'' is a landmark

Chinese film The cinema of China is one of three distinct historical threads of Chinese-language cinema together with the cinema of Hong Kong and the cinema of Taiwan. Cinema was introduced in China in 1896 and the first Chinese film, '' Dingjun Mountain'' ...

from

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

. The film tells the story of eight criminals and a deserting Chinese officer in the communist Eighth Route Army caught in the midst of the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

. Directed by Zhang Junzhao, ''One and Eight'' also features cinematography by the soon-to-be-acclaimed

Zhang Yimou Zhang Yimou (; born 2 April 1950) is a Chinese film director, producer, writer, actor and former cinematographer.Tasker, Yvonne (2002). "Zhang Yimou" i''Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers'' Routledge Publishing, p. 412. . Google Book Search. Retriev ...

and stars Chen Daoming. It is based on an epic poem by Guo Xiaochuan.

Significance

''One and Eight'' constituted an early collaboration between the graduates of the 1982 class of the

Beijing Film Academy Beijing Film Academy (BFA; ) is a coeducational state-run higher education institution in Beijing, China. The film school is the largest institution specializing in the tertiary education for film and television production in Asia. The academy ...

, notably classmates Zhang Junzhao and Zhang Yimou. Both Zhang Yimou and Zhang Junzhao were members of the " Fifth Generation", or the first major group of filmmakers to graduate after the end of the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

. As such, ''One and Eight'' is often considered one of the first films to move towards the more artistic and experimental mentality that is the hallmark of Chinese cinema of the 1980s. In particular, the film's focus on humanism and personal conflicts signaled a paradigm shift away from the propagandistic films of the

Notes

External links

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''One and Eight''
at the Chinese Movie Database 1983 films Mandarin-language films Second Sino-Japanese War films Chinese war films {{China-film-stub