Study On The Image Of The Elderlys In Mainland Movies Since 1978

Human beings come from the youth to the old age,getting old is a period of life that cannot be ignored.Film as a mirror,on the other side of the life,by focusing on the status of the elderly people in old age period for the audience to reveal different forms of life connection.And giving an different answer to the question:how to make infinite possibilities in our limited life time.This paper takes rapid population aging in China and the rest of the world as the background,the research objects are 27 films about the elderlys,it analyzes and summarizes the images of the elderly people in Chinese films through the methods of case study,literature and comprehensive analysis.These images can be divided into 3 categories which are the Helpless,the Guide and the Guardian.The Helpless refers to the elderly who are lost and lonely;The Guide sets an example for youngsters,provides emotional supports to help them grow mentally,encourages them to overcome difficulties and develop personality;The Guardian is related to the Chinese tradition,protecting traditional culture and implies the declining of Chinese traditional culture with the declining of the elderly’s life.The three images in the movies are not irrelevant,on the contrary,they are mutually connected.Through the analysis of the three images on how these characters are presented,what are the reasons and how are they affected by the progress of modernity,this paper analyzes the elderly’s condition and how it is interpreted and presented by the film language,and makes a deeper analysis on the films about elderlys since new era.The Helpless is a generalized concept,contains the psychology imagination of the elderlys,at the same time reveals the low status of the elderlys in modern society.The Guide and the Guardian emphasize the deep connotation of aged life,and make people thinking,what can we do to protect our tradition and have a good relationship with our old family.