A hundred flowers bloom in Chinese cinema

The lives we borrow from movies

By Zhang Ji

The world of films is vast enough to encompass grand historical stories and ordinary lives, tragedies and comedies, art films and blockbusters.

Some movies may fail at the box office only to be rediscovered years later, while others that once dominated public discussion might eventually disappear.

Time is an audience of its own, and sometimes the most patient one.

Cinema has the rare ability to blend reality and imagination. It can preserve the details of everyday life and capture the changes of an era, but can also transform reality into dreams, poetry and possibilities. A film can entertain one day and offer consolation or social reflection the next.

I realized this personally when I met a struggling entrepreneur who was inspired by American Dreams in China, a film I wrote.

I didn't reveal that I was its screenwriter, unsure if the film had helped or misled him. But the encounter made it clear that a film can change the way a person imagines his own future.

It can encourage someone who feels trapped to believe that another life is possible.

This is why I am optimistic about the future of cinema, even in the AI age. Technology will certainly change the tools, the processes and even the forms of cinema, but each step will also present new human choices, expressions and possibilities.

Cinema continues to change.

What doesn't is our need to see ourselves, understand others and imagine a life beyond the one we know.

That is why, after all these years, I still ask myself the same question: How could we not love cinema?

The author is a screenwriter, director and the vice chairman of the China Film Association. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.