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This landmark 1984 film signaled the emergence of China's “Fifth Generation,” the first wave of directors to graduate from film academies following the end of the Cultural Revolution. Made at a tiny provincial studio by Zhang Junzhao, it broke new ground in Chinese cinema with its remote locations, bravura visual style, and unsentimental tone. Ostensibly based on an epic poem extolling the bravery of Mao's army, it focuses on eight criminals and a turncoat officer imprisoned by Japanese invaders during World War II. Yet there's not much of a plot; Zhang is far more interested in creating a grimy claustrophobia amid the arid plains of central China and experimenting with theatrical touches such as characters addressing the camera in tight close-ups. The men are both existential animals and paragons of patriotic virtue—like Kurosawa's seven samurai but even more laconic. As progressive as One and Eight must have seemed in China, the soldiers? posing recalls the iconography of socialist paeans in the 60s, as figures set against a harsh landscape suffer gladly for the sake of the motherland.
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Sorry there are no showtimes for One and Eight on Saturday, November 21.
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