The rise of film criticism on Taiwan is a fairly recent phenomenon. Before the 1970's, film criticism carried little weight and there were no specialist film magazines to speak of. The founding of the China Film Critics Association by the first-generation film critics Huang Jen, Liu Ⅰ, Lu Chih-tzu, and Lao Sha marked a first step in the growth of film criticism on the island.

The second generation consists mostly of critics born on Taiwan after the war who have received a thorough academic training in film studies. They dislike the "dogmas and conservatism" of their elders, who experienced the sufferings of war and deprivation, but they too fail to understand the materially well-off "Japanified" generation that is now growing up.

The views of the second generation of critics first appeared in two magazines that came out in the early 1970's, Film Forum and Influence. These critics care about local Chinese films but are even more interested in foreign pictures, especially European.

In the late 1970's the local film scene acquired a new look. The Motion Picture Development Foundation film library, founded in 1978 with the support of the Government Information Office, began to systematically introduce famous European films and top-notch local works to its members. And starting in 1980, an international film festival has been held every year in conjunction with the Golden Horse Awards to show foreign art films (together with some high-standard commercial films) nominated for the awards.

Chinese filmgoers, given a chance to see the classic works of major foreign directors and even foreign avant-garde films completely uncut, were naturally excited, but not many fully understood what they were looking at. In response, the film library invited scholars and critics grounded in academic theory to put together a bimonthly magazine called Film Appreciation, which has broadened the public's understanding of the art form. In addition, during the annual international film festival, the major newspapers began to offer their readers full-length articles of film criticism and analysis. Film criticism on Taiwan had come of age.

A war of sorts broke out between film critics and the local film industry in the early 1980's. During the same week in 1982, the two major newspapers on the island each introduced regular film columns. One of the columns attacked poorly made local films so fiercely that the film companies collectively boycotted the paper until the column was eliminated six months later.

"This was the first time that film critics became a real force in the industry," free-lance author Chan Hung-chih notes. "And the vanguard figure was Chiao Hsiung-p'ing."

Chiao Hsiung-p'ing graduated in journalism from Taiwan's Chengchi University and earned a master's in film from the University of Texas. As much as to her academic training, her success was due to her bold and questioning spirit, which breathed fresh air into the stuffy atmosphere of local film criticism at the time.

Around the same time, young directors studying overseas returned to Taiwan with new concepts and new techniques and created the "new cinema." The new cinema broke up many of the stale formulas and cliches followed by the industry and was loudly hailed by local film critics.

Are film critics "subjective"?

Chiao Hsiung-p'ing believes that absolute objectivity, even in news reporting, is impossible. And Chan Hung-chih goes a step further. "We need subjectivity in film critics," he says. "The critic's aim is to express an individual viewpoint and give the public food for thought. The key is what the reader can get out of it."

"Audiences may not be very aware of their bad habits," the film critic Li You-hsin maintains. "They look down on a movie that they can understand completely, but they're afraid of a movie that's too difficult. The most popular movies are the ones that they can grasp about 80 percent of, with 20 percent thrown in as bluff."

Audiences need guidance and cultivation, and that is the role played by film critics.

Ch'i Lung-jen, a graduate of Tamkang University who has studied film at the University of Paris, was recently asked to take over as editor-in-chief of Long Take Film-Video Magazine in order to make a basic knowledge of film more accessible to the public.

And this April, the critics Chiao Hsiung-p'ing and Huang Chien-yeh established Film Forum, a film and theater research center designed to foster the public's appreciation of the two related art forms.

Besides spurring on the development of the "new cinema," film critics are also doing their best to encourage audiences to advance in their understanding and appreciation of the film medium. After all, good critics, good films, and good audiences do have something of a symbiotic relationship to each other.

[Picture Caption]

Which type of critic do you prefer? Consumer-oriented, critical, or academic?

By systematically introducing classic foreign films, the film library is making a great contribution toward fostering future film talent.

Film Forum, founded this April, offers classes in film appreciation and film analysis, and it rates the movies of the month.

By systematically introducing classic foreign films, the film library is making a great contribution toward fostering future film talent. Film Forum, founded this April, offers classes in film appreciation and film analysis, and it rates the movies of the month.

Film Forum, founded this April, offers classes in film appreciation and film analysis, and it rates the movies of the month.