Revisiting classic Peking Opera tales through cinematic remakes

Twelve years from the launch of the Peking Opera Film Project, a program teaming up prestigious artists and top troupes to produce cinematic remakes of repertoires has recently released its second batch of four new movies at the China National Film Museum.

The four films, titled Silang Visits His Mother, The Gathering of Heroes: Borrowing the Easterly, The You Sisters of the Red Chamber and Cai Wenji Returns to Her Homeland, have been added to the museum's collection.

Chen Ling, curator of the museum, said that the project, which has produced 21 Peking Opera movies in total, has left valuable artistic materials for the next generation through figuring out an innovative way to preserve and promote the centuries-old art form.

With a history spanning over 200 years, Peking Opera emerged during the late 18th century in the reign of Emperor Qianlong, but fully developed in the mid-19th century. Initially performed only for the royal court and aristocracy, it gradually gained popularity among the public and became one of China's most beloved forms of entertainment by the early 20th century.

Typically, Peking Opera relies on the skill of performers and the audience's imagination to portray grand scenes, such as intense battles. However, this is in contrast to film productions that require realistic settings or computer-generated imagery to capture epic shots.

Xia Gang, the director of Cai Wenji Returns to Her Homeland, a story set in the grasslands controlled by the Xiongnu nomads during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), revealed that he deliberately traveled to the northern grasslands in China to seek inspiration for filming the movie.