Author(s): Mi Shanyun

Abstract: From the perspective of New Historicism and in combination with multimodal discourse analysis theory, this paper explores the historical narration and discourse representation in the film To Live, directed by Zhang Yimou. By analyzing the interaction among three modalities in the film—dialogue, image, and sound—the study reveals how the film reflects the core ideas of New Historicism. These ideas mainly include the marginalization of historical narration, the localization of history in everyday life, and the transformation of inevitable history into accidental history. This study provides a new perspective for understanding the film To Live. It also offers theoretical support for the application of multimodal discourse analysis in film and television texts.

Keywords: New Historicism; the film To Live; multimodal discourse analysis

Article Info: Received: 30 Apr 2026; Received in revised form: 25 May 2026; Accepted: 29 May 2026; Available online: 01 Jun 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.113.40