Attitudinal Resource Analysis of the Film Song of the Phoenix

Abstract

The film Song of the Phoenix is a piece of posthumous work of Wu Tianming, a Chinese famous film artist in the film industry. Since released in May, 2016, the film has attracted much attention from the critics. This paper analyzes the film Song of the Phoenix from the perspective of the attitudinal resources which is the core subsystem of the Appraisal System, the latest research findings of Systemic Functional Linguistics. On this account, this paper probes into the impact of the market economy as well as challenges of commercial civilization that traditional Chinese folk arts are faced with and delves into the inheritors’ struggle, perseverance and their emotions, appreciation and judgement, aiming to provide a new perspective for readers to interpret and appreciate the film.