Jun Zhuang is a professor from the School of Film and Television Arts at Liaoning Normal University and a visiting scholar at the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations of Harvard University.
庄君，辽宁师范大学影视艺术学院教授、哈佛大学东亚语言与文明系访问学者。
Meng Xu is a master of drama and film studies in Drama and Film Studies from the School of Film and Television Arts at Liaoning Normal University.
许萌，辽宁师范大学影视艺术学院2022级戏剧与影视学硕士研究生。
2 ABSTRACT AND KEYWORDSAbstract: As a representative of China's up-and-coming directors, Rao Xiaozhi’s films are characterized by theatrical narratives, genre strategies, and a sense of "community." He has found his career path within the development trends of the Chinese film industry, while also opening up new creative field. At the same time, he embodies the opportunities and responsibilities for the up-and-coming directors within the New Main Melody. This article focuses on Rao Xiaozhi’s creative path and cinematic texts, exploring the dramatic features, modernist imagery, genre fate, and the transformation of New Main Melody creation in his works, to discuss the relevance of his cinematic creations to contemporary times.
Keywords: Rao Xiaozhi; up-and-coming directors of China; dramatic; genre film; New Main Melody film
摘要：作为中国电影新势力导演，饶晓志的电影作品展现出戏剧化叙事、类型化策略以及“共同体”意识的典型特征。他既在中国电影产业发展的潮流中找到了自己的职业路径，且拓开创作领域，也在新主流书写中呈现出新势力导演的时代机遇与时代责任。文章聚焦饶晓志导演的创作路径和影像文本，从戏剧性特征、现代性图景、类型化命运以及新主流创作转型，探讨饶晓志导演电影创作的时代性。
关键词：饶晓志；中国电影新势力；戏剧化；类型电影；新主流电影
3 A GLIMPSE OF THE ARTICLEIn recent years, Chinese film industry has witnessed the rise of a cohort of young directors – collectively known as the “Y Generation” or “New Forces” of Chinese films – who have diverse intellectual backgrounds, creative capabilities, and rapidly accumulating creative experience and opportunities. Those directors include Guo Fan (Frant Gwo), who is passionate about industrial and sci-fi filmmaking; Lu Yang, skilled in constructing immersive visual worlds; Chen Sicheng, a master of narrative twists and visual pleasure; Da Peng (Dong Chengpeng), who navigates between genre comedies and grassroots stories; and Rao Xiaozhi, who is the focus of this article.
近年来，中国电影涌现出多位知识背景各异，具有影像创作能力，较多获得创作机会并快速积累创作经验的年轻导演，他们被称为中国电影“Y世代”“新力量”一代。比如，钟爱硬核工业和硬核科幻的郭帆，善于构建视觉时空的路阳，娴熟玩转叙事反转与视觉快感的陈思成，游走于类型喜剧与底层书写的大鹏以及本文所探讨的饶晓志等。
After four films, whether in terms of audience reception and critical acclaim or industry recognition through box office performance and awards, Rao Xiaozhi has successfully transitioned from being a “theatre director” to a “film director,” earning recognition as an up-and-coming director. Unlike the cohesive generational labels of the “Fifth” and “Sixth Generation” of Chinese filmmakers, contemporary Chinese film industry lacks strict generational demarcation, with cross-disciplinary talents emerging as directors (Chen 2019, 63–69). Rao’s career reflects the rapid development of China’s film industry, digital technology, and media environment. Like other young directors of his generation, he prioritizes market appeal, box office success, and audience engagement more intensely than that of the predecessors of earlier generations. His theatrical training and experience, however, profoundly shape his stylistic style and artistic sense.
经过四部作品，不论是面向观众的市场和口碑，还是对标业界认可的票房和奖项，饶晓志成功实现了“话剧导演”向“电影导演”的身份转型，成为被认可的新势力导演。“第五代”“第六代”之后，中国电影再没有相对严整的代际概念，因为“演而优则导”“写而优则导”“摄而优则导”。饶晓志的入行，是以中国电影产业、数字技术以及媒介环境高速发展为背景的。与同时代年轻导演相似，他对满足电影的市场效果、票房旨归、观众娱乐诉求的意愿要远强于“第五代”“第六代”；而他的戏剧学院学习背景以及戏剧导演经验又直接影响其创作风格和影像艺术观念。
1 Theater Roots: Dramatic Storytelling as an Initial Narrative Signature
戏剧出身，戏剧性作为最初的叙事标签
Rao’s directorial journey began in theater before transitioning into a director. Therefore, drama is a defining characteristic of his works. The Insanity, A Cool Fish, and End Game all maintain relatively consistent stage-like and theatrical qualities. Although the theme of Home Coming is large, it also reflects the noticeable dramatic characteristics.
饶晓志的导演工作是从话剧导演起步，继而成为电影导演。因此，戏剧性是其作品的底色。《你好，疯子！》《无名之辈》《人潮汹涌》三部作品都保持着相对统一的舞台式、话剧性特点，《万里归途》尽管题材体量更大，但也体现出较为明显的戏剧性特征。
The film The Insanity (Figure 1) is adapted from Rao Xiaozhi’s original drama of the same name. Seven characters of different identities are confined into a closed lunatic asylum strangely. This setting leads to dramatic conflicts in a fragmented and limited perspective, while the characters themselves are also broken. Take protagonist, An Xi, for example, she knows nothing about herself except her name. She is largely detached from the dramatic plots and does not engage in conversations with the other six characters. Her existence is almost like nonexistence. The others are either violent, ostentatious, hypocritical, vulnerable, clueless, or outwardly beautiful. All the personalities and relationships of characters present in the mental asylum. The “leader” keeps changing, and the “madman” is swapped into the cell. Under the binary opposition of“taking medicine or getting electro-shock treatment,” and “normal or mad,” An Xi’s personality gradually becomes clearer, while the other characters’ externalized personalities gradually blur. The entire story is an externalization of An Xi’s broken personality. Her climactic act of holding a gun lays bare the inner turmoil of the psychiatric patient, where madness and pain, brokenness and illness, hope and despair all point to the absurdity of the collective “mental patients,” showcasing the inner “lack,” external “illness,” and the absurdity that underscores these states.
电影《你好，疯子！》改编自饶晓志自编自导的同名话剧。七个身份不同的人物不明所以地被困在一个巨大的封闭空间——精神病院。这一设置使得人物在不完整和有限的视角中展开戏剧冲突，同时人物自身也破碎不堪。以女主角🎭️安希为例，除了名字，她对自己一无所知，自始至终游离于戏剧性情节结构之外，几乎不参与其他六人的对谈。这一人物的存在以不存在为存在。其他人，或暴力，或张扬，或虚伪，或软弱可欺，或愚钝不自知，或貌美艳丽……所有人物在精神病院这一假定性空间展开性格和人物关系。“领导者”不断易手，“疯子”交换进入牢笼。在“吃药还是电击”“正常人还是疯子”的二元对立下，安希作为主体人格渐次得以凸显，而其他角色作为外化的人格属性逐渐模糊。整个故事都是安希破碎人格的外化。当安希举枪，观众终于窥见这个精神病患者的内心世界，疯狂与痛苦、不堪与病态、希望与绝望……所有的一切以破碎个体的方式共同指向了群体“精神病患者”的特征：内心的“匮乏”、外表的“病态”以及刺中“匮乏”和“病态”的荒诞。
Figure 1: Still from the film The Insanity.
图1.电影《你好，疯子！》剧照
2 Spatial Exploration: The Transition and Extension of Modern Landscapes
空间探索：现代性景观的迁移与延伸
Rao Xiaozhi employs a highly theatrical approach to spatial narrative style, constructing isolated and closed spaces such as mental asylum, cages, small towns, rooms, rooftops, and bathhouses. At the same time, the external space of the film is also meaningful, where the dramatic space consciously extends into cinematic space.
饶晓志在单个文本内部充分运用了颇具戏剧特性的空间叙事方式，设置了隔绝的精神病院、牢笼、小城、房间、天台、澡堂等隔离性、割裂性、封闭性的空间。同时，电影的外部空间也深具意味，戏剧性向电影性有意识的延伸，正是从外部空间的建构展开的。
The transition from closed to openness marks the gradual expansion of spatial dynamics in Rao Xiaozhi’s films. His first film’s stage-like spatial narrative did not yield strong commercial success, prompting him to swiftly shifted his focus expanding the closed and fixed “stage” into a more fluid and dynamic city setting. This spatial expansion manifests in three key aspects: widening area, broadening visual scope, and diversifying scene transitions.
从封闭到开放是饶晓志电影空间逐步敞开的过程。首部电影戏剧“舞台式”的空间叙事思路并未给影片带来较好的商业效果，他迅速调整目光，将被“追光”聚拢的“舞台”扩大，从封闭、固定的精神病院走向流动的城市。这种空间的扩大具体体现为：扩展面积、开阔视野、变换场景。
3 Absurdity and the Noir-Fated Genre
荒诞与黑色的类型化命运
As a foreign concept within the Chinese context, absurdity inherently carries a sense of estrangement and alienation. Due to the distinct artistic forms of drama and film, the degree and effect of absurdity and humor they convey also differ. Rao Xiaozhi’s “artistic shift” naturally imbues his works with an absurdist quality. His stage play The Robber (Nihao Dajie, 2009) is a highly avant-garde piece that he directed, adapted from Dog Day Afternoon produced by Warner Bros, which was itself based on a reallife bank robbery. Premiering in 2009 amid the global financial crisis, Rao used foreign character names to satirize various social ills in a direct and intense manner. He broke through the comedic conventions, employing exaggerated stage performances to explore social and ethical dilemmas such as children manipulated by familial expectations and women controlled by romantic relationships. By focusing on the “individual,” the play raises fundamental existential questions: How does one exist in a materialistic society? Does survival hold any value? The frequent role reversals between the robbers and the hostages further provoke reflection – Who is robbing whom? And what, exactly, is being robbed?
“荒诞”作为中国语境下的舶来品，本身存在一定程度的陌生和间离感。由于戏剧与电影艺术形式的不同，它们所表现出的荒诞性、幽默感的程度与效果也存在一定的区别。饶晓志的“艺术转向”使其天然备有“荒诞”特质。话剧《你好，打劫》是他执导的一部极具先锋性的艺术作品，改编自美国华纳兄弟出品的电影《热天午后》——取材于真实的银行抢劫案。话剧首演于2009年，正值全球金融危机背景之下，饶晓志借用异国姓名对当时社会上存在的诸多弊端进行了直白、激烈的讽刺，打破喜剧外壳，通过夸张性的舞台表演试图探讨被亲情操纵的孩子、被爱情管控的女人以及诸如此类的社会伦理问题，将矛盾聚焦于“个体”，发出诘问：在物欲横流的社会，个体如何存在？生存有价值吗？劫匪和人质多次倒置身份，不禁引发思考：“打劫”谁？谁“被打劫”了什么？
From stage play to film, The Insanity retains its absurdist essence: an isolated, unknown space; characters of uncertain origins; a game with illogical rules; and prayers and monologues that seem nonsensical. Stripped of absurdity, each vividly distinct, even exaggerated, theatrical character is merely the personification of a subordinate personality. The subordinate personality attempts to usurp the dominant one, creating a concrete depiction of a “virtual”struggle where power circulates repeatedly – those who are wise ascend, brute force takes the stage, and intellectuals become subordinates. This serves as an allegory for the fragility of civilization in a “micro-society.” In the ending of the film, An Xi delivers a 5-minute monologue, embodying multiple fragmented personalities. She stares directly into the camera, drawing the audience beyond the screen into her pain and struggle, dissolving the boundaries of the previously confined space and softening the theatricality of the performance. This dual-layered impact – both visual and psychological – shifts the film’s theme from a critique of society to an introspective meditation on the loneliness within the human heart.
《你好，疯子！》从话剧到电影，荒诞底色不变，不知所处的隔绝空间、不知来处的荒诞人物、不知所谓的游戏逻辑、不知所云的祈祷和独白。褪去荒诞，每个个性鲜明甚至夸张的戏剧人物不过是附属人格的“拟人化”。附属人格妄图侵占主体人格，这样具象化的“虚拟”中，权力几经周转，智者上位，原始的武力者登台，知识分子只能作为从属者，侧面说明“微型社会”文明的脆弱。影片结尾安希长达五分钟的独白，以一人之身诠释诸多分裂人格。她直视镜头，将“镜框之外”的观众拉入痛苦挣扎的情绪，瓦解之前“封闭空间”的割裂，中和了戏剧式的舞台表演。观众在视觉上和心理上受到双重冲击。影片的主题在这一刻从对社会的批判转向对人心底孤独感的关照。
4 Up-and-Coming Director in New Main Melody Film: Home Coming Marks a Creative Transformation
成为新主流电影中的“新势力”：《万里归途》实现创作转型
Both Home Coming and Wolf Warrior 2 (Zhanlang 2, 2017) revolve around evacuation narratives and convey patriotic sentiment. However, with the advancement of New Main Melody Films and improvements in film production, their distinct approaches to the evacuation theme highlight the ideological differences between Wu Jing and Rao Xiaozhi. Wolf Warrior 2 constructs a heroic narrative, portraying a “Chinese tough guy” in the vein of American action heroes – defeating bandits, rescuing a cargo ship, shielding against bullets with barbed wire, and single-handedly saving Dr. Chen and multiple Chinese enterprise employees at the St. Francis Hospital. By contrast, Home Coming distances itself from grand narratives (Zhao 2022, 10). Its protagonist, Zong Dawei, is a diplomatic secretary who cannot shoot a gun and is even criticized for his perceived cowardice. His fear of death is exposed during the Russian roulette sequence, underscoring his vulnerable humanity. He is not a “superhero” but an evacuation diplomat who firmly believes in the principle that “no one should be left behind.” Bringing his people home is a simple yet profound act of national belief. While Wolf Warrior 2 focuses on heroism and the country, Home Coming emphasizes the collective will of ordinary people in shaping national identity. The number “326,713 steps” marks the precise distance covered in the evacuation, as counted by those stranded. Actually, the “homecoming” in Home Coming signifies the yearning of Chinese citizens abroad to return home. From Wolf Warrior 2 to Home Coming, the narrative expands from “evacuating Chinese nationals” to “evacuating everyone,” gradually embracing a broader vision and embodying the ethos of a “community with a shared future for mankind.”
《万里归途》（2022）与《战狼2》（2017）同为撤侨题材，同样表现家国情怀。随着新主流电影的发展，电影工业的进步，对撤侨题材的差异性呈现体现了吴京与饶晓志艺术观念的区别。《战狼2》着力渲染“英雄”形象，从制服强盗，解救货船，用铁丝网挡住红巾军子弹，到单枪匹马解救圣弗兰医院的陈博士和多位中资企业员工，塑造了类美国英雄式的“中国硬汉”形象。《万里归途》“远离了宏大叙事”，如宗大伟是外交部秘书身份，不会打枪，甚至被斥责“懦弱”，害怕死亡的脆弱人性在面对“轮盘游戏”时显露无疑。他不是“超级英雄”，只是一个抱着“一个都不能少”信念的撤侨外交官。把人民带回家是他朴素的国家信仰。影片落点不同于《战狼2》的英雄与国家，《万里归途》更强调普通人的信念之于国家形象的建构，326713步是撤离的具体步数，是由被困人员点出的。“万里归途”实则是站在异国他乡的中国人对回家的期盼。从《战狼2》到《万里归途》，从“撤离华人”到“撤离所有人”，逐渐打开视野，展现了人类命运共同体的胸怀。
Although Home Coming was not a project originally conceived by Rao Xiaozhi, his experience directing the film provided an opportunity for artistic and thematic exploration, solidifying his position as a “new force” within China’s New Main Melody film. He neither follows the artistic techniques of the Fifth Generation nor adopts the social realism of the Sixth Generation. While his approach aligns with contemporary directors in terms of production concepts and market awareness, his reflexive perspective hints at the possibility of a postmainstream film. Post main Melody Films do not seek to overthrow or abandon the New Main Melody entirely. Instead, it represents an evolved state that emerges as New Main Melody Films reach a high level of maturity. It stems from critical reflection on the homogenization of New Main Melody Films and serves as a corrective measure. As New Main Melody Films continue to be propelled by capital, state ideology, and audience enthusiasm, Postmain Melody Films introduce a rational analysis and presentation (Wan 2022, 34–41). It enriches the New Main Melody Films with a broader scope of subjectivity, regional perspectives, and cultural narratives, counteracting the tendency toward formulaic storytelling.
尽管《万里归途》不是饶晓志导演自发的选题，但在这个创作机会和创作经验中，他不断进行自我的艺术探索和时代话语的探索，作为新主流中的“新势力”。他没有追随“第五代”导演的艺术手法、“第六代”导演的社会视野，虽展现出同期导演的制作理念、市场意识，但以“自反”视野显现出“后主流性”的可能。后主流性并非对新主流的完全颠覆或抛弃，“它是‘新主流电影’发展至高端后衍生出的另一种状态，这种状态是基于对此前阶段新主流泛化现象的反思与剥离，是新主流电影在资本、国家意志、观影狂潮‘三驾马车’狂奔后的一种理性剖析和理性呈现”，以更为广泛的主体性、地域性、文化性反哺于新主流电影，纠正了其中所存在的泛化现象。
5 Conclusions
结语
To explore the “Chineseness” of Chinese cinema, one must return to the historical moments of early Chinese filmmaking, situating it within the tradition of indigenous theater and analyzing the dialectical relationship between “film” and “drama.” The interpretative approach of “explaining film through drama” establishes the ethical foundations, cultural roots, and aesthetic traditions of Chinese cinema. Rao Xiaozhi entered the film industry through theatricality. With his early accumulation of cinematic works and his creative transformation through Home Coming, he has emerged as a distinctive force within China’s new force of filmmakers. His creative method – whether in relation to his own artistic identity, choice of themes, relation with collaborators, engagement with audiences, negotiations with commercial imperatives, or his alignment with the broader landscape of Chinese cinema and industry development – epitomizes the method of up-and-coming directors of China.
探寻中国电影的“中国性”，必定要回到早期中国电影的历史时刻，将中国电影置于本土性戏剧传统中，分析“影”与“戏”的辩证关系，进而“以戏诠影”的“影戏说”确立了中国电影的民族伦理、文化根基和美学传统。饶晓志以“戏剧性”作为进入电影行业的入口，以一系列电影创作的初步积累以及《万里归途》的探索和创作转型成为中国电影新势力的独特力量。饶晓志的电影创作路径，不论与自我的关系、与选题的关系、与合作者的关系、与观众的关系、与商业的关系、与中国电影和电影产业发展现状的关系，还是与主流意识形态的关系，都是一条极为典型的中国电影新势力导演的从业路径。
New Main Melody Films are not a preexisting concept but rather an evolving movement shaped by a new era.
新主流电影并不是一种概念性的先验存在，是新时代笔墨书写下的新主流。
Journal of Chinese Film Studies
《中国电影研究》
主编：王海洲 金海娜
Journal of Chinese Film Studies立足中国，面向国际，旨在搭建一流国际学术平台，发表国内外高水平的中国电影研究成果，加强不同文化背景的研究者之间的对话和沟通，促进国内外电影研究界开展交流与合作，推动中国电影研究的全球发展。期刊由德古意特（De Gruyter）出版社出版，目前已进入Scopus索引。想与国内外知名学者一起探讨中国电影吗？赶快行动投稿吧！
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