ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the cinematic works of Jia Zhangke and Zhang Yang, both belonging to the Sixth Generation mainland Chinese filmmakers. With the memory of Mao’s legacy still lingering, amidst much instability and uncertainty, the Sixth Generation film directors continued to face a brave new world (and cultures) under unpredictable circumstances. What we can safely deduce is that these younger directors also could not—and still cannot—totally break free from China’s traditions, both religious and artistic, as well as from the visible impact of Mao’s rule. In particular, the violence depicted in Jia Zhangke’s A Touch of Sin is a type of quasi-religion which holds religious dimension. In Zhang Yang’s film, Shower, we see the characters’ discernment of a transcendental existence in a Daoist cosmology.
