The Images of Chinese Traditional Colors and Cultural Preferences -Focus on the Movie Costumes of <The Last Emperor>-

Abstract

An authentic national spirit in media (particularly films), traditional images, and color preferences is expressed through movies that are melted in local traditions. This study suggests a direction regarding the characteristics for historical costumes by examining traditional color images and cultural preference in the Chinese film <The Last Emperor> (1987), a representative film that deals with Chinese history and traditions. This movie can illustrate the correlation between the temporal backgrounds and the costumes in the movie with the criteria of Eastern color systems. The results of this research are summarized as follows. First, the image of Chinese traditional colors represented in many parts of <The last Emperor> and the cultural preferences that underlies their works through the expression of traditional colors. The scenes of traditional costumes and colors express the visual embodiments of the costumes that reflect a specific status, ceremony, or ritual. Second, the traditional colors used in the movie are based on the Yin-Yang theory. Particularly, Red, Yellow, Black is mostly used for ordinary clothing. Third, there are some differences in the use of color arrangements, that change regarding the use of traditional colors according to images and situations that follow the intention of the director. Planning the color arrangements is considered an engaging connectivity between traditions and images in the movie and it is extended or reduced based on cultural preferences. Fourth, the increase and decrease of color arrangements is distinctively represented as the story of the movie proceeds.