Abstract: Chinese films have been the tool of national ideology to propagandize and to discipline, and film criticism, as "the tool of the tool", has oppressed films forcefully and heartlessly. When Chinese films return to market economy and become the tool of entertainment, film criticism not only obeys administrative decrees but also responds to the demand of market, so the situation of "one servant serves two masters" comes into being. The absence of independent film criticism is the greatest dilemma which professional film criticism encounters.

Key words: historic absence, propaganda tool, independent film criticism