Deviation and Restoration of Mundaneness and Mythological Nature in Chinese Cinema—Evolution of Chinese Directors of Different Generations over the Past Forty Years after the Reform and Opening-up Policy

ABSTRACT Film is mundane both as an art form and as a myth. It is even considered a mundane art with a mythological nature; however, its mundaneness overshadows the mythological aspect. Over forty years after the reform and opening-up policy, the film industry in China has gone through a series of changes from obedience to reflection, inheritance to criticism, as well as rebellion to restoration. In the cycle of cultural representations from gradual recovery to restoration and transformation, and to international fame and diversification, directors of different generations (i.e., the Third, the Fourth, the Fifth, the New) have been hovering in confusion between mundane life and mythology. They have been moving back and forth from explaining and glorifying mythologies to weakening and challenging them, thus they have been marked with different shades and colors by the transitional age in their repetitive explorations and attempts. The latest generation of directors in mainland China, i.e., the aggressive generation, have ultimately returned to the reality of the coexistence of the mundane and mythical natures, and are trying to break through boundaries and combine various genres. The aggressive generation is likely to indicate the right direction and the inevitable course of future film creation in mainland China.