Abstract:

The musical film genre in New China, starting with The White-Haired Girl, raised two fundamental issues. The first issue is about media. As stage and film belong to two different media, musical films gradually evolved into two distinct styles over the course of New China's film development: one inclined towards realistic depiction and the other towards stage representation. The second issue is about audience reception. Given the fact that the emotional engagement brought about by opera film singing is often in opposition to the contemplative nature of narrative expression, it is essential that the legendary nature of the narratives be compatible with the music to attract audiences, thus producing films with typified characteristics. However, in the ideological environment of the New China period, only a few works managed to achieve compatibility, while most failed to balance both aspects.

Key words: film, stage, musical film, genre film