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Early in 1984, a film One and Eight (1984) made mainly by the graduates of the Beijing Film Academy shocked China's film industry. The film, together with Chen Kaige's Yellow Earth (1984) made people experience the magic of the fifth generation of filmmakers, including Wu Ziniu, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Huang Jianxin and He Ping. Amongst this group Zhang Yimou first won an international prize with Red Sorghum (1987). Unlike the middle-aged fourth generation directors, they broke with traditional filmmaking, in screenplay and film structure as well as narrative. In January 1986 the film industry was transferred from the Ministry of Culture to the newly formed Ministry of Radio, Film and Television to bring it under "stricter control and management" and to "strengthen supervision over production."
In the 1990s, China experienced prosperity in its film industry. At the same time the government allowed the showing of foreign movies from 1995. More of China's films won awards at international film festivals, such as Ju Dou (1990) and To Live (1994) by Zhang Yimou, Farewell My Concubine (1993) by Chen Kaige, Blush (1994) by Li Shaohong, and Red Firecracker Green Firecracker (1993) by He Ping. However, these films encountered more and more criticism, in particular for their stylized form and neglect of audience response and absence of representation of the spiritual bewilderment of the people during the transformation of Chinese society.
In the mean time, a group of spirited young filmmakers began throwing away the fashionable cinematic veneer and facing reality. They were the sixth generation: Zhang Yuan, East Palace West Palace (1996), Wang Xiaoshuai, Beijing Bicycle (2000), Jia Zhangke, Unknown Pleasure (2002), Jiang Wen, Devils on the Doorstep (1999), Lu Xuechang, The Making of Steel (1996) and many others. Their serious attitude toward the art of film and life was to create youthful vigor in China's film industry for the start of the new millennium.
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