Abstract:

"What is a good movie" is the hardest question about motion picture arts. Based on the classification of "three movies" and a set of standards, the present paper discusses the movie history and movie criticism methods of contemporary China. "Popular movies"tend to entertain people, vent feelings, satisfy curiosity and examine morality; "social movies" aim to offer practical enlightenment, maintain social stability and consolidate collective consciousness; "exploratory movies" seek to conduct form experiments, observe life philosophy and reveal social problems. Facing the current Chinese movie pattern, which is composed of the coexistence, differentiation and interinfiltration of multiple movie categories, it is meaningless to make a general quality assessment of the movies. Only when the "consciousness of multiple labor division" is truly awakened, when standards for movie criticism are made clear, and when movies are analyzed with respect for their "focuses and features", can the pointless debate on them be effectively filtered and the vulgar abuse of them be rationally reduced.

Key words: "three movies", popular movies, social movies, exploratory movies