| ZHANG YI MOU |
| The Famous Chinese Director |
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| “With every cinema screen awash with violence these days, how was I to handle the story of a powerful gang which dominated the city of Shanghai in the 1930s? Obviously, I could have taken the conventional approach and put the violence on the screen, but that was not what I was after. Instead, I took the opposite line. In the midst of the mortal struggle between the Shanghai Triad gang bosses, I wanted to bring out the generous nature of human beings. To my mind, this is what we need most in the World we’re living in.” |
| - ZHANG YI MOU (Director) |
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 Born in Xi’an in 1950, Zhang Yimou is the most internationally acclaimed filmmaker and former cinematographer in China, and one of the best known of the Fifth Generation of Chinese film directors. Two of his films have been nominated for Academy Awards (for "JU DOU" and "RAISE THE RED LANTERN"); his first film, "RED SORGHUM", was a prize-winner at the Berlin Film Festival in 1988; "RAISE THE RED LANTERN" won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1991; and "THE STORY OF QIU JU" won the Golden Lion in 1992; in 1994, "TO LIVE" shared the Grand Prix du Jury at Cannes and Ge You was named Best Actor in that film. One of Zhang’s recurrent themes is a celebration of the resilience, even the stubbornness, of the Chinese people in the face of hardships and adversities. This theme runs strong from "To Live", through to "Not One Less". His works are particularly noted for their usage of color, as can be seen in his early trilogy (like "Raise the Red Lantern") or in his Wuxia films such as "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers".
Zhang Yimou was in secondary school when the Cultural Revolution broke out in 1966. As the son of a former member of the Kuomintang (nationalist) army and a woman doctor, his background was considered politically questionable. He was forced to suspend his studies and like so many of his contemporaries, go to work in the countryside. For 10 years, between 1968 and 1978, he worked on farms in Shanxi province and subsequently as a laborer in a spinning mill. During this time he developed his talents as a designer, by drawing portraits of Chairman Mao and discovered an innate love of photography. He sold blood to earn enough money to purchase his first camera.
During the Cultural Revolution, the Beijing Film Academy, the prime teaching institution in China for anyone aspiring to a career in the cinema, remained closed. It reopened in 1978 in makeshift premises. Zhang took the nationwide exam for a place at the Academy and passed with honors. Initially, however, he was disqualified because he was already 27, over-aged and without the prerequisite academic qualifications. After two unsuccessful appeals against the decision, he wrote directly to the Ministry of Culture, pointing out that he was over-age because he had wasted 10 years during the Cultural Revolution. The strategy paid off and two months later, he was accepted into the Cinematography department, from which he graduated four years later.
 After graduation, these first post-Cultural Revolution students (who came to be known as the “fifth generation” of Chinese movie-makers) were posted to regional film studios including Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuangzhuang. Zhang Yimou was assigned to the Guangxi Studio, which was founded in 1974, towards the end of the Cultural Revolution. Though penciled in to work as directors' assistants, they soon learned there was a dearth of directors (owing to the Cultural Revolution), and appealed successfully to make their own films. Zhang’s first work, "One and Eight" was made in 1984 together with director Zhang Jun Zhao. Zhang Yimou’s input was telling: he shot from obscure angles, and positioned actors and actresses at the side, rather than center, to heighten dramatic effect, using a “unique and emphatic visual style, based on the asymmetrical and unbalanced composition of the shots and the shooting of color stock as though it were black and white".
Zhang’s next collaboration, under director and fellow graduate Chen Kaige, was to be one of the most defining Chinese films of the 1980s: "Yellow Earth". Today the film is widely considered the inaugural film of the Chinese Fifth Generation directors that were a part of an artistic reemergence in China after the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Along with his work in "One and Eight", Zhang’s contribution to "Yellow Earth" signaled a cinematic departure from the propagandist films of the Cultural Revolution. Local critics immediately sat up and took notice of this new cohort of daring artists, who were defying conventions of Chinese cinema.
 Zhang Yimou‘s first film as director, "RED SORGHUM" , won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival in 1988 and launched his international career. A rural drama of the war years, with the Japanese as the enemy, marked the acting debut of the young actress Gong Li, whom Zhang had discovered while she was a student. Since then she has appeared in all his films, winning the award as Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival in 1992 for "THE STORY OF QIU JU".
"THE STORY OF QIU JU" marked a conscious change of direction for Zhang Yi mou – away from the ornate style of his previous two films, towards a more realistic and even humorous manner. In particular, he made use in this film of hidden cameras to capture the gestures and reactions of real Chinese peasants, who were unaware they were being photographed. It was rewarded with the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Zhang was chosen to direct the Beijing portion of the closing Ceremonies of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, as well as the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, alongside co-director and choreographer Zhang Jigang. He directed the Closing Ceremony with Zhang Jigang as well. 
Zhang was a runner-up for Time Magazine Person of the Year 2008. Steven Spielberg, who withdrew as an adviser to the Olympic ceremonies, to pressure China to help with the conflict in Darfur, described Zhang’s work in the Olympic ceremony in the Time magazine, "States": “At the heart of Zhang’s Olympic ceremonies was the idea that the conflict of man foretells the desire for inner peace. This theme is one he’s explored and perfected in his films, whether they are about the lives of humble peasants or exalted royalty. This year he captured this prevalent theme of harmony and peace, which is the spirit of the Olympic Games. In one evening of visual and emotional splendor, he educated, enlightened and entertained us all.”
Zhang’s recent films and his involvement with the 2008 Olympics ceremony has not been without controversy; critics of Zhang claim that his recent works, contrary to his earlier films, have received approval from the government. However, Zhang in interviews has stated that he is not interested in politics, and it was an honor for him to direct the Olympics opening ceremony, because it was “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”.
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