Women and Movies

By Yuan Yuan

After reading the script of the film Spring Tide， Li Yaping， a fi lm investor， knew decisively she should not invest in the fi lm. Despite agreeing the script was very good， she knew that type of melodrama would not sell well in the current market.

The story is about three generations of one family， all female： grandmother， mother and daughter. The superficially harmonious family has many hidden conflicts， reflecting fraught relationships between mothers and daughters.

Founded in 2012， Lis fi lm investment company has invested in a number of successful TV series， and the major factor in its investment decisions is the profitability of the project. Melodramas like Spring Tide， which Li and her colleagues did not believe had strong market prospects， has never been on their list.

For reasons that were not yet clear to her， however， Li was touched by the Spring Tide story， and fi nally agreed to invest 1 million yuan（$153，000） into the fi lm as initial funding.

An outpouring of feelings

Together with the films director， Li attended events for fundraising at a number of fi lm festivals but was unable to nail down additional investment. During this process， Li continued to invest in the fi lm herself and fi nally became the fi lms sole investor.

“My company is a small one，” Li told a forum held on November 26 as part of the 33rd China Golden Rooster Awards， Chinas national film awards， which was held in Xiamen， Fujian Province， in southeast China. “Investing over 10 million yuan （$1.53 million） in a fi lm with uncertain marketability is a big decision.”

Li concluded her decision to invest in the fi lm may have been the result of “an impulsive outpouring of feelings as a woman.”

The production of Spring Tide has given Li very different experiences to the ones she had with projects in the past. As the sole investor， Li was not required to achieve balance among different parties and was therefore able to focus on creating a good fi lm.

Making good fi lms was Lis primary purpose when choosing literature as a major in college. She wanted to create great film scripts. However， when she graduated in 1998， the fi lm market in China was in somewhat of a gloomy situation， and so Li went to work at Chinas national broadcaster， China Central Television（CCTV）. Li worked at CCTV until 2012， when she quit her job to start her own business.

Although she was fi nally working in the fi lm industry as planned， Li didnt feel close to her original aspirations. “I worked more for the market， and dealt constantly with trivialities，” Li said.

Spring Tide became a hit after it premiered at the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2019， and has since scooped up a number of Chinese fi lm festival awards. The fi lm could not be released in cinemas this year due to the novel coronavirus disease， but has been released online.

Many Chinese video-sharing websites now feature live comments from viewers that fl ash across the screen in real time. Li said reading these comments， known in Chinese as bulletscreen comments， on her laptop as audiences watched her fi lm brought back memories of being on stage during her days at college. “I used to be able to see the facial expressions of the audience from the stage，” she said. “Watching the bullet-screen comments from audiences as they watch the fi lm online is like watching the viewers faces.”

The film proved to be a turning point for Li， even though her husband， who still couldnt understand why she would invest in the movie， put it down to “an impulsive outpouring of feelings.”

It was during the production of this film that Li fi nally felt she had been close to the fi lm creation process. She did， however， admit that its still too early to be optimistic about films with feminine themes. As audiences still favor young， slim female fi gures on screen， fi lms telling female stories still face many bottlenecks. Li intends to make a fi lm that tells the love story of a woman in her 50s， but has been unable to secure any support for its production. “Who would watch the love story of a woman in her 50s？”Lis co-workers asked her.

On the way to this years Golden Rooster Awards in Xiamen， Li fi gured out the title of her speech at the forum： Besides getting old， what else do women resist？ Primarily， she concluded， women “resist the stereotyped defi nition people place on women.”

Yang Lan， a famous host and producer who hosted the forum at which Li spoke， echoed Lis sentiments in her own address， saying she had created a series of documentaries on artificial intelligence over the past few years. “Some felt it strange that I am interested in artifi cial intelligence， saying ‘You are a woman. Are you truly interested in science？”

Yang， however， did disagree on one point raised by Li： resisting the triumph of feelings over sense， asking “Why do we assume that women are more emotional and men are more rational？”

Even when it comes to Lis point regarding resisting getting old， different voices are emerging from women engaged in Chinas fi lm industry. Yong Mei， winner of the Best Actress Award at last years Golden Rooster， complained that photographers always use photoshop to remove her wrinkles in photos. “Please dont do that next time，” Yong said. “It took me a long time to grow those wrinkles.”

Feminine vs. female

With a female producer， a female director， female protagonists and a story centering on women， Spring Tide is now regularly discussed as exemplifying feminine films. Along with it， another movie， Blush， made in the 1990s and telling the story of two prostitutes， is also included as an earlier example.

During the forum， Li Shaohong， the director of Blush， recalled the experience of making the fi lm and shared how her female consciousness has been awakened. As one of the earliest female Chinese directors to achieve international acclaim， Li Shaohong visited many Western countries to attend film festivals in the early 1990s. She felt strange when she was frequently asked， “How many female fi lm directors are there in China？”

“Why did they persist with this question instead of asking me about my fi lm？” she asked. At the time， she told those asking that there were many female fi lm directors in China， and that at Beijing Film Studio alone， there were over 20 active female fi lm directors.

Those in Western countries asking Li Shaohong these questions were shocked by her answer， as there were very few female fi lm directors in Western countries at the time. Born in the era of the slogan “Women hold up half the sky，” Li Shaohong had never considered the difference that her gender brought to her work.

Li Shaohong was a representative at the United Nations World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1996. The topics discussed by other representatives led her to further consider the topic： They talked a lot about the differences between women and men， and discussed whether these differences should be emphasized or diluted.

It was also in the 1990s that she watched some of the movies directed by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar. “As a male director， he created some great female characters，” Li Shaohong said. “I would say I couldnt create those characters as a woman.”

Consequently， she stressed that feminine fi lms shouldnt be limited to those with female crew or female stories， but should also include those stories that are told from a female point of view.

Dong Runnian， a male scriptwriter and fi lm director， approached this topic from another perspective. “Some would limit the stories of feminine movies to specific themes， such as the struggle or fight for rights in extreme or special times，” Dong said. “Actually almost every fi lm has female characters and the creation of such figures can also be categorized as being feminine in a way.”

He picked The Hours as the feminine movie that has impressed him most. “It is a story of three women living in different times in London， Los Angeles and New York City，” he said. “They are ordinary women with regular lives. But their stories display how ordinary women live and think in their routine lives. It might be more typical.”