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As a Chinese, I hate Zhang Yimou
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roddy -

Well at least we can forgive the foreigners as they don't understand Chinese culture and are too
stupid to know better. But all those Chinese people going to see it . . .

As for the links:

Quote:

有两伙狐朋狗友赠票，我想了想，免费的看看也好，看完了回来还可以骂张�
��谋

. . . I'm not sure they were all going in with a completely open mind . . .



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fulgentius -

Because I never tire of repeating facts, especially when they are being ignored:

"Curse," which stars Gong Li, Chow Yun-fat and Taiwan pop sensation Jay Chow in a tale of an
imperial family's vicious decline, is on track to be China's most popular film ever, a title still
held by James Cameron's "Titanic," which set a B.O. record of $44 million in 1998.

Please note that this article is about the reception of the film in China.












Ian_Lee -

Actually Zhang Yimou's films have gradually lost the appeals to foreigners.

"House of Flying Daggers" did poor in U.S. Box Office. And "Curse" seems also so so. Unlike
"Hero", the other two both got only limited release in U.S.










trevelyan -

The big problem with Curse is that it is sophomoric. The plot is uninteresting and moves so slowly
the audience is always 20 minutes ahead of the action on screen. Dramatic tension is created by
the deus ex machina approach of finding new bad guys to stuff onscreen, however improbable the
required setup. And the overt political commentary (corruption behind a facade of unity) is only
significant for showing how facile political critique has to be to appear in contemporary mainland
cinema.

In contrast, I'd encourage anyone who has the opportunity to see Mexican director Guillermo del
Toro's new film Pan's Labyrinth. This opened early in Toronto for some reason and I got the chance
to catch it over the Christmas break. It is a brilliant film with beautiful cinematography that
never insults the intelligence of its audience. I look forward to the day I see a Chinese film
that can rival it, both in terms of its creative vision as well as in the dextrous handling of
complex allegory and symbolism to make a relatively simple point in a subtle and rewarding fashion.










Quest -



Quote:

On the other hand, if you make a 古装 movie (movie of ancient clothes with lots of colors), you
will have no problems with the censors whatsoever.

That is until you start to enunciate ancient conflicts between different ethnic groups.
蒙古鞑奴 censored, 满清鞑子 censored。Oddly, it's ok to use 南蛮子 or
鸟语花香。Who's in power, 一目了然。










chichi -

A good movie doesn't have to be political. Like the movie " Cell Phone". It just reflects modern
Chinese contradictory lives.

Many foreigners think Zhang's movies of acient times are good because of the pictures, the scale
of the production and maybe even all those boobs. But they don't know Chinese cultures anyway so
they wouldn't feel disgusted with the plots of affectation and all those kung fu staff like
everyone in the movie is good at kong fu.










skylee -



Quote:


Originally Posted by chichi

Many foreigners think Zhang's movies of acient times are good because of the pictures, the scale
of the production and maybe even all those boobs. But they don't know Chinese cultures anyway so
they wouldn't feel disgusted with the plots of affectation and all those kung fu staff like
everyone in the movie is good at kong fu.


What a remark. it hurts. it's like saying that all those who do not dislike Zhang's movies of
ancient times know nothing about chinese culture. 好傷心.

I don't claim "As a Chinese" when I express my views. Perhaps this shows that I don't know chinese
culture anyway. 好傷心.










roddy -

Chichi, you're not making yourself look any cleverer. Lets try again . . .

Zhang Yimou's Hero: raked in 250 million yuan in 2002 [in China] setting a record for a
Chinese-made movie.
House of Flying Daggers: Zhang Yimou's "House of Flying Daggers" topped Chinese box office records
this year, grossing 153 million yuan (18.5 million US dollars)
and now, as quoted above, twice, his new movie is on course to become the highest earning film in
China of all time. Beating Titanic. Titanic.

You want to tell me that foreigners like his film because of silly inconsequential things like
'the picture' - ok, I'll accept that. Sometimes I even like books because of 'the plot', I'm kind
of dumb. But please enlighten us - why do all those Chinese people like his films too?

Links for the above numbers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061219...g_061219110100
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english...ent_402756.htm

Incidentally any significant comment specific to particular movies would probably be better off in
the relevant movie-discussion topic, if there is one. If we wind up just discussing Curse we might
as well merge it with the current discussion on that movie.










chichi -

1. High Box office record doesn't mean that there are so many people actually going to the cinema.
After the production of a big commercial film, many corporations buy tickets and give them out to
their clients, employees. This is a typical Chinese phenoma. Have you been to the cinema to
acutally see how many people there are in the cinema to watch the movie? How many of them buy the
tickets by themselves? The tickets bought by companies and organization can be far more than you
imangine. Companies and organizations buy the tickets bec it's produced by a famous director. If
you give out tickets of a film produced by an unkown director, it indicates that you are penny
pinching because generally the tickets of big commercial films are more expensive.

2. Some people buy the tickets themselves bec after all it's produced by a famous director. And
the large dissemination of the film make people feel like finding how it looks like. Besides, with
all the cinemas densly playing the film again and again, you don't have many choices.

3. Going to movie doesn't mean that you like the movie. You may just be curious about how is the
famous director's product this time. You can't judge whether the film is popular according to the
box office record. Instead you should go to various forums to check out people's comments. After
you do that, you will find out what I say is true.










wushijiao -



Quote:

But still there are good movies having been made, such as Crazy Stone. It also shows how poor
people are here and how backward it is. But it's movie supported by the story itself, not the
scale of the production, not the colors.

I agree. I think the backbone of any movie is the script and the story. I haven't seen the Curse
yet, and so I am not talking about that film so much in particular, and skylee and Roddy have
pointed out that the film has been very popular here in China, so it's not quite fair to say that
the film is solely produced for foreigners.

Also, films don't need to be overtly political in order to get banned. There are other taboo areas
under a wide blanket of issues, including the mafia, sex, superstition, religion, things deemed to
be “anti-social”, if I am not mistaken. For example, Temptress Moon (a decent movie) by Chen
Kaige was banned for sex and drugs, although there was really no anti-CCP feeling as far as I
could tell.

http://www.answers.com/topic/temptress-moon



Quote:

That is until you start to enunciate ancient conflicts between different ethnic groups.
蒙古鞑奴 censored, 满清鞑子 censored。Oddly, it's ok to use 南蛮子 or
鸟语花香。Who's in power, 一目了然。

Very true. (What movie uses南蛮子, by the way?) But I don't think you really even need ethnic
conflict. The "Emperor's Shadow" (秦颂）was banned. Clearly, in this case, Qin Shihuang
represented Mao, and in a arguably negative light, and was therefore off limits. I have read that
this movie seriously distorts history, but nonetheless, I thought it was a great movie.

http://www.answers.com/topic/the-emperor-s-shadow

I guess my point is, if you make an ancient movie that is historical that involves military
conflict, you run a risk of modern people trying interpret it through modern political or social
lenses. After all, as the German military historian Clausewitz said, “war is a continuation of
politics by other means”. So if you can’t make things that are overtly political, then you
have to create some hypothetical states that have hypothetical enemies set in a hypothetical time.
Then you end up making a movie about the theoretical desire for power, war, love, lust…etc. And
whether for foreign audiences or to avoid the censors, you emphasize the universal nature of
emotions and conflict. As far as I can tell, this is the road that Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang
went on in their most recent movies.

Anyway, I would still defend Zhang Yimou. He gets criticized in China from all angles, many times
unfairly. Many people on the Mainland also seem to have the impression that his films are seen by
everyone in the West. At least in America, I think it is safe to say that very, very few
mainstream people are familiar with his movies.

I personally think that his good or great movies still far outweigh his bad movies.












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