Zhang Yimou: Interviews

199 Pages·2001·5.331 MB·English

by  Yimou Zhang, Frances K. Gateward

Z H A N G Y I M O U
I N T E R V I E W S
CONVERSATIONS WITH FILMMAKERS SERIES
PETER BRUNETTE, GENERAL EDITOR
Courtesy of Photofest
Z H A N G
Y I M O U
I N T E R V I E W S
E DI T E D BY FRANCES GA T E WAR D
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI / JACKSON
www.upress.state.ms.us
Copyright © 2001 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 4 3 2 r
@
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zhang Yimou : interviews / edited by Frances Gateward.
p. cm.—(Conversations with filmmakers series)
Includes index.
ISBN 1-57806-261-6 (alk. paper)—ISBN 1-57806-262-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
i. Zhang, Yimou—Interviews. 2. Motion picture producers and
directors—China—Interviews. I. Gateward, Frances K. II. Series.
PN1998.3.Z49 A5 2001
79i.43'o233'o92—dc2t 00-068527
British Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
C O N T E N T S
Introduction vii
Chronology xiii
Filmography xvii
Discussing Red Sorghum 3
JIAO XIONGPING
Asking the Questions: Interview with Zhang Yimou 15
MICHEL CIMENT
Zhang Yimou's Black Comedy: The Story ofQiu Ju 25
LAW WA I - MI N G
Becoming a Part of Life: An Interview with Zhang Yimou 30
ROBERT SKLAR
Of Gender, State, Censorship, and Overseas Capital: An Interview with
Chinese Director Zhang Yimou 35
MAYFAIR MEI-HUI YANG
Ten Years of Suppressed Energy: The Creative Path of Zhang Yimou 50
CHUN CHUN *
Interview with Zhang Yimou 57
HUBERT NIOGRET
Zhang Still at the Heart of Chinese Filmmaking 63
RONE TEMPEST
The Extravagance and Simplicity of Zhang Yimou's Eye 67
CHOW SHUK-YIN
Zhang Yimou: Only Possible Work Environment Is China 71
RENEE SCHOOF
Paving Chinese Film's Road to the World 74
LI E R W E I
The Personal Is Political for a Chinese Director 99
DAVID STERRITT
Cinema and Zhang Yimou 103
KWOK-KAN TAM
Discussing Keep Cool: The Camera Lens Presents the Irrationality of Chinese
Society 119
JIAO XIONGPING
Not One Less 127
CYNTHIA WU
Zhang Yimou, Do You Have Any More Films 133
MUT YA
Zhang Yimou: No Going Back 147
YEUNG WA I - L A N
From the Fifth to the Sixth Generation: An Interview with Zhang Yimou 151
TAN YE
Index 167
I N T R O D U C T I O N
of film has a single director come to be
R a r e l y in t h e h i s t o r y
so thoroughly associated with an entire national output as Zhang Yimou1
has been with contemporary Chinese cinema. Though he was by no means
alone in introducing Chinese cinema to the world, Zhang's films have cap­
tured international attention, awards, and acclaim far in excess of his cohorts
in Chinese cinema today. Certainly, he has been the most prolific of today's
Chinese filmmakers, directing nine major films since his debut in 1987, and
he has been, arguably, the most controversial, both at home and abroad. His
seven films with actress Gong Li have led to comparisons with the likes of
Josef von Sternberg, Jean-Luc Godard, and Ingmar Bergman in their use of
Marlene Dietrich, Anna Karina, and Liv Ullmann, respectively, in numerous
films and a similar romantic linking off screen. His sometimes leisurely pac­
ing—the long-take-long-shot method—his pictorial compositions, and im­
pressionistic use of color have singled him out as one of the premiere film
directors not only of his day but in world cinema history.
Previously the province of only the most specialized scholars and ciné­
astes, Chinese cinema experienced an unprecedented rebirth and interna­
tional attention with the works of Zhang Yimou and his compatriots who
graduated from the Bçijing Film Academy in 1982. Quickly termed the "Fifth
Generation" of Chinese cinema (these new filmmakers comprising the fifth
graduating class of the Directing Department), these renaissance Chinese
filmmakers not only put Chinese cinema back on the track of world-class
film production, but also were instrumental in inaugurating a series of inter­
national co-productions and in generally bringing China to the attention of
a world eager to learn more of this nation, which contains almost one quar­
ter of the world's population. Zhang Yimou was singularly instrumental in
this rebirth, acting as cinematographer for the initial releases of the Fifth
Generation's films, including One and Eight (Yige he bage, Zhang Junzhao,
1983), Yellow Earth (Huang tudi, Chen Kaige, 1984) and The Big Parade (Da yue
bing, Chen Kaige, 1986). His maiden directorial effort, Red Sorghum (Honggao
Hang, 1987), took the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1988, validat­
ing the world-class status of Chinese cinema and putting Zhang on a path of
international award-winning efforts.
But Zhang's path to world-cinema acclaim was a far from easy one. Bom
near Xi'an in 1951, Zhang came from a problematic background according to
the Communist authorities.2 His mother was a professional woman, a derma­
tologist, his father was chronically under-employed and under suspicion as
a former officer in the Nationalist army (the Kuomintang or KMT) before the
Communist victory in 1949. Sent—as many urban or educated youth—to the
country during the Cultural Revolution, Zhang worked in agricultural and
industrial jobs, though he developed an interest in still photography that
later helped him gain entry to the Beijing Film Academy. Still lacking the
political bona fides of many of his classmates, upon graduation from the
academy Zhang was sent to the provincial film studio in Guangxi in far
southeastern China. This proved highly advantageous—for he was placed far
from the watchful eye of the authorities in Beijing and was not under the
thumb of already established directors (the forced hiatus of filmmaking dur­
ing the Cultural Revolution was, oddly, an important underpinning of the
immediate access to directing experienced by the Fifth Generation filmmak­
ers). Young filmmakers found the freedom to create small, but effective mov­
ies which would help revolutionize Chinese cinema. Zhang, as
cinematographer, teamed up with director Zhang Junzhao and production
designer He Qun to make One and Eight Though it ran into some post-pro­
duction scrutiny by the censorship authorities, it was eventually released to
great domestic acclaim. Following this success, Zhang Yimou persuaded his
friend and former classmate Chen Kaige to apply for reassignment from
Beijing to Guangxi. Along with He Qun, they soon made Yellow Earth, which
was an unqualified success at the 1985 Hong Kong International Film Festival
and a qualified and controversial success at home. Zhang quickly developed
a reputation as an innovative cinematographer based on the success of these
two films. At the request of director and Xi'an Studio head Wu Tianming,
INTRODUCTION I X
Zhang both starred in and shot Wu's Old Well, which furthered Zhang's bud­
ding reputation. He even won a Best Actor award at the Tokyo International
Film Festival for his work in 1987. But certainly it would be his work as a
director which would net Zhang the kind of international acclaim that no
Chinese director had ever experienced.
Wu Tianming, as head of the Xi'an Studio, had instituted a policy of giv­
ing opportunities to young directors.3 Thus it was that Zhang got his first
directorial opportunity at Xi'an, and the result of which. Red Sorghum, led to
Zhang's solidification as a director. It was also the first time he directed ac­
tress Gong Li. The film's considerable success in the domestic market and its
overseas acclaim led Zhang to feel a good deal of commercial pressure, and
his next film, an action-thriller entitled Code Name Puma (Daihao meizhou-
bao, 1988), was by all accounts a disaster. However, his next film, still at Xi'an
Studio and again with Gong Li, was the film that established his overseas
reputation as China's premier international director: Ju Dou (1990). Nomi­
nated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and winner of
the Golden Palm for Best Director at Cannes, Ju Dou was the first in a string
of critical, commercial, and controversial successes. Raise the Red Lantern (Da-
hong denglong gaogao gua, 1991) followed suit with the Academy Award for
Best Foreign Language Film and the Silver Lion for Best Film at the Venice
Film Festival. The Story ofQiu Ju (Qiu Ju da guan si, r992) again took the Silver
Lion at Venice.
Zhang's initial directorial efforts can be seen in conjunction with many of
the early films of the Fifth Generation directors. An intense self-examination
is clearly underway, and while many of the same themes and motifs of 1930s
and 1950s Chinese cinema are utilized, they are cast in a new light, a more
critical light to be sure. Films such as One and Eight, Yellow Earth, and Red
Sorghum continue the process of mythicizing the Chinese experience in
World War II fighting the Japanese begun in the 1930s. Another common
trend of his films, most based on works of Chinese literature, is the focus on
female protagonists, women who often embody the nation-state. Thus he is
often compared to the classical Japanese director Mizoguchi Kenji, who is
sometimes seen as a director with feminist concerns. In his early works, pre-
Revolutionary China is a favorite topic, especially the oppression of capital­
ist-patriarchy. While in the later half of his ongoing career, he has moved
toward critiquing bureaucracy and materialism in more contemporary con­
texts. His more recent films also reflect a change in style.
The films upon which he built his reputation, Red Sorghum, Ju Dou, and
Raise the Red Lantern were built upon stunning images with sumptuous color,
languid cinematography, and the use of the static long takes. The Story ofQiu
Ju (1993) was a major turning point for Zhang because it reflected a change in
both form and content. This film, which he describes as being, "about a
woman who comes to recognize her own self-worth" (see the interview with
Yang), was his first set in contemporary times, the first with multiple come­
dic moments, and the first to stray from his established visual style. Shot
entirely on location in the small village where Zhang grew up, in the prov­
ince of Shaanxi, the film features a documentary aesthetic. The stars of the
film were the only professional actors. They interacted with local villagers,
often in front of hidden cameras. The setting was a departure from the sym­
bolic claustrophobic and confining architecture of his early films, instead
using open spaces and vast landscapes. Several years later, he used a similar
approach in Not One Less (1999), using a cast of ordinary villagers and city
dwellers, most of whom play themselves. Though visually austere, the film
fits well in his oeuvre, for it is rich with character and emotion, focusing on
the heroism of a thirteen-year-old primary school graduate who must serve
as a substitute teacher.
Zhang Yimou, in only a little over a decade, has firmly established himself
as one of the most important directors in film history. Clearly a genius of
modem cinema, he has, as Sheldon Lu points out, "brought about a perma­
nent change in the pattern of Chinese national cinema. After Zhang Yimou,
the mechanisms of funding, production, marketing, distribution, and con­
sumption of Chinese cinema were forever changed."4 But his success has not
been without cost. As we see in these interviews, Zhang has had to contend
with a lack of creative freedom, hampered by government censors, fund­
raising difficulties, the inability to interact with international colleagues, and
criticism accusing him of exoticizing Chinese culture for the pleasure of
Westerners. Despite these obstacles Zhang Yimou remains a passionate and
committed filmmaker, a complex, multi-talented, and modest individual,
who seeks only to practice his art and to bring to the screen reflections of
humanity and life in an ever-changing China.
Special recognition must be given to Yiu Yan Ling and Leung Wai Yee of the
University of Hong Kong, without whom this book would not have been
possible. Thanks Verdy and Zero! To my translators Stephanie Deboer and