From "Author" To "Business": Zheng Baorui's Film Research

There is no doubt that Soi Cheang is an outstanding director of the new generation in Hong Kong moviedom,even Chinese-language moviedom.Since he became a director in 1999,he has directed 18 films now,which include 4 underground films made by DV before he is known to the public and 14 theatrical films created later.As for the study of Soi Cheang's films,this paper is based on his 14 theatrical films and involves personal experience of the director to summarize his exploration of film types in various periods,which is divided into 3 periods of independent characteristics finally.That are the horror film that forms its own unique style,the action film that makes himself become internationally famous and the fantasy comedy film of joy for the family.On the basis of that,this paper analyses the film features of the 3 periods to find the peculiarities of “Auteur” and “Commerce” in Soi Cheang's different creative periods.In the first stage of creation,Soi Cheang creates unique audio-visual language and narrative style through the horror films.What's more,he places the image of "home" in the film repeatedly,which makes the identity of auteur particularly obvious.In the second stage,Soi Cheang turns to the creation of the Hong Kong action film.He not only continues his nature of auteur,but also starts to consciously add commercial elements into the film.His style gradually shifts to the creation of commercialized film.In the third stage,the creation of Soi Cheang's film is dominated by commerce.He completes his creative transformation through fantasy comedy film,in that case,both audio-visual language and narrative,even the expression of the film theme are obviously commercialized.But it is rare that Soi Cheang remains the imprint of auteur in the commercial creation.Although the three stages distinguish Soi Cheang's way of creation from "Auteur" to "Commerce",he always expresses the philosophy of fatalism and the intrinsic emotion of human nature in his works,such as affection,love,friendship and so on.This is also the auteur's feature that he never abandons after turning to commercial creation.As a result,he is confined between art and commerce in the way of going from "Auteur" to "Commerce",which brings him both achievements and shortcomings.Based on this,this paper reflects the entanglement between "Auteur" and "Commerce" in the development of film,and then summarize the enlightenment of his film to the creation of Hong Kong film and mainland film.