Yang + Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema

The director of the film took an unusual and intriguing look at Chinese film history: from a psychoanalytical angle he examined several films from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. This approach, that probably results from his own history (the absence of a father, the 'female nature' of his own films), form the basis of a personal documentary, in which he confronts his interpretation of events on the silver screen with the thoughts that the makers and others involved had themselves at the time.The 'action films' of Zhang Cha, made in the late seventies and early eighties, are the most classic examples of 'male' cinema before the films of Bruce Lee started to have an effect on Kwan's adolescent imagination. What did these films mean for Kwan at the time? The relationship with the father figure is also a central theme in Chinese culture, and many film-makers are questioned on this topic. The closing chapter of Yang + Yin is dedicated totransvestites and transsexuality, and hence also harks back to traditional Chinese theatre.Several central figures in Chinese cinema are extensively interviewed. We see e.g. Chen Kaige (especially on Farewell to My Concubine), action film-maker John Woo, martial arts specialist Tsui Hark, actor Leslie Cheung and critic Peggy Chiao.