Introduction to World Cinema

Final Assignment

Proposal

I would like to do Zhang Yimou’s award winning film as my final assignment because he is China’s influential director. Zhang also directed the lavishly spectacular opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Zhang’s works, whether on film or on the live stage, reveal the director’s acute sensitivity for the powers of storytelling and an ability to evoke powerful responses through subtle manipulations of sound and colour. His film style innovation and involving a wide range of subjects, as each new release will cause the attention of public opinion. So, I will choose a few of the most famous movies of Zhang Yimou to analyse,  interpret and show how he improve himself.

Zhang Yimou's life

Zhang Yimou was born in November 14,1951. He is a Chinese film director, producer, writer, cinematographer and actor. Zhang Yimou is an internationally director working in China. After he graduated in the fifth class of the Beijing Film Academy in 1982, he was assigned photographer in the Guangxi film studio. His photography "Yellow Earth" in order to pursue perfection and symbolic picture, and received great acclaim. In 1981, Zhang entered another field of filmmaking, he independently directed "Red Sorghum". After that, he continuous director of "Ju Dou", "Raise the Red Lantern", "The Story of Qiu Ju", "Live", "Shanghai Triad", "I father and mother", "Hero", "House of Flying Daggers", "Curse of the Golden Flower" and other works. Most of his works nominated for internationally film festivals, and some of his works also received awards. Zhang's works are characterized by the deep understanding of the Chinese traditional feudal consciousness and the spirit of strong criticism. Zhang's works also has a sense of history and life consciousness. Zhang Yimou continuous exploration and innovation in the style and language of the film.

Zhang Yimou'films

Red Sorghum (1987)

Zhang Yimou's first directing effort begin with ''Red Sorghum''. ''Red Sorghum'' is a film about in 1930s China a young woman is sent by her father to marry the leprous owner of a winery. In the nearby red sorghum fields she falls for one of his servants. When the master dies she finds herself inheriting the isolated business. It is based on the novel Red Sorghum Clan by Nobel laureate Mo Yan. 

The visual style of ''Red Sorghum'' is one of resounding natural beauty wide-screen horizon shots, flowing sorghum fields, heavenly sunsets and the directorial style invokes myth and legend, the film does incorporate a certain level of realism. Shown in great detail are the distilling of the sorghum, the preparation of an ox-head meal at the butcher's, the trampling of the fields, and the bloody butchering of an ox during the Japanese attack. All of which contrast with the sense of fable Zhang Yimou creates. While the film essentially seems a sentimental ballad to the director's grandparents, ''Red Sorghum'' is also a documentary on the color red, the red of sorghum, wine, a bridal robe, blood, the Communist victory, solar eclipses, and camera filters. Some of ''Red Sorghum'' best moments come from the violent yoking together of moments of humor and pathos. The male bearers transporting the young bride-to-be, for example, sing a raucous, vulgar song and make her trip as bumpy as possible, while the poor Nine looks alternately sick and suicidal. When the men hear her terrible sobbing from inside and realize their mistake, though, they carry on ceremoniously. Gong Li's character is equally compelling, a powerful, independent woman who drinks and works like a man but who has a coy, girlish sexuality.

Ju Dou (1990)

The movie, which is set in the 1920s, tells the story of a wealthy old textile man who marries a juicy young bride and hires a desperate young nephew and enslaves both of them with his cruel will. Title "Ju Dou" is the role play's name by Gong Li. The film is named, giving a sense of roots of troubles. All the blame on a woman who is not fair, although the film let Ju Dou initiative the relationship with Tian Qing, but his cowardly and afraid to burden are the cause of the tragedy. From the beginning, saw the dyeing cloth with red and yellow then realize that Zhang Yimou was a good photographer before. From his color, lighting and the shadow can know that he had a good mastered. In the movie, the male and female sex shots, Zhang Yimou is still with symbolic metaphors. In "Red Sorghum", that wind moving sorghum and in "Ju Dou", the red cloth rapid fall down, these shots represent the sex. In the "Ju Dou," this is not incest, it can be said that the liberation of humanity, but in the end they despair of the things is because the traditional feudal morality. I admire Ju Dou because she dared to pursue her happiness. This process and the outcome is much better than her fate.

Raise the Red Lantern (1991)

This movie is about a young woman becomes the fourth wife of a wealthy lord, and must learn to live with the strict rules and tensions within the household. Zhang Yimou's ''Raise The Red Lantern'' is simply one of the most elegantly staged, perfectly lit and beautifully photographed films ever made. Every scene is meticulously framed and composed, with every single frame worthy of being hung in a picture gallery. But it is more than just a series of pretty pictures. Every image tells its own story, expressing mood, character and detail through the costumes, the set designs, the color and the lighting. Even though the film doesn't leave the confines of the household for a single scene, even the heat, rain and snow of the passing seasons each impress their own character onto the turbulent machinations and events that go on there. ''Raise the Red Lantern'' is one of those all-too-rare motion pictures capable of enthralling an audience while they're watching it, then haunting viewers for hours thereafter, with its simple story and complex themes and emotions. In ''Raise the Red Lantern'', we never see the ''Master''s' face. This is very symbolical, suggesting the audience that manipulate their fate is an invisible strength. 

From "Red Sorghum" to "Ju Dou" and then to "Raise the Red Lantern", Gong Li looks and the role of she played so fit. The three heroine is actually a "Trinity", they are a shadow of Gong Li. Whether the subject matter, or the atmosphere of the picture, the three film presents the trend is bogged down more tragic.

Hero (2002)

Zhang Yimou's films have changed considerably, moving to the action-packed martial-arts genre so appealing to Western audiences.  

''Hero'' is an action movie combining martial arts. The story of Hero and all the various interpretations thereof, are particularly serious and rather solidly acted. The action is methodical and deliberate, at a pace and angle that allows you to absorb every movement in its entirety. There will be a plot twist that most viewers will easily guess before the film reveals it, but the core plot is not what sustains the movie. ''Hero'' is a very artistic film, with nothing trite or comical to cheapen its merit, even the fight scenes were a martial art ballet that related the story in a physical vocabulary. One of my favorite scenes that makes crafty use of this method is Broken Sword using his calligraphy brush to script the word ''sword''. The other stunningly breathtaking scene was the battle between Flying Snow and Moon in a storm of swirling leaves that change color from orange-yellow to red. ''Hero'' incorporates elements of the American Western with the historical sweep of Akira Kurosawa's most celebrated epics. Some of that grandeur goes to waste on a diverting fable without any real gravity, but several set pieces are visual feasts, including a fight on a swarm of dancing yellow leaves and another that flits across the surface of a placid lake. As a technical achievement, ''Hero'' finds Zhang at the height of his powers, effortlessly expanding into complex genre filmmaking without losing his command.

Zhang Yimou Awards

Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
2004	Winner	National Society of Film Critics Award	Best Director For: House of Flying Daggers
2004	Co-Nominee	BAFTA Award	Film Not in the English Language For:House of Flying Daggers Co-Nominee with: Bill Kong
2004	Winner	National Society of Film Critics Award	Best Director For:Hero
2004	Winner	Boston Society of Film Critics Award	Best Director For:House of Flying Daggers
1994	Co-Winner	BAFTA Award	Film Not in the English Language For: To Live Co-Winner with:
1994	Tie	Cannes Film Festival	Jury's Grand Prix Ex-aequo For: To Live
1993	Nominee	Independent Spirit Award	Best Foreign Film For: Raise the Red Lantern
1992	Co-Winner	BAFTA Award	Film Not in the English Language For:Raise the Red Lantern Co-Winner with:
1992	Winner	National Society of Film Critics Award	Foreign-Language Film For:Raise the Red Lantern
1992	Tie	Vancouver International Film Festival	Air Canada Award for Most Popular Film For:The Story of Qiu Ju
1991	Tie	Venice International Film Festival	Silver Lion for Best Director For:Raise the Red Lantern
1990	Winner	Chicago International Film Festival	Gold Hugo For:Ju Dou

Conclusion

Movies, there are many ways to watch, which one of the most correct? What do you think is correct. As for the movie look good or not, is entirely a personal likes and dislikes, there is no standard.

Zhang Yimou used common themes and styles, which was understandable since he were born in the early 1950s, experienced similar hardships during the Cultural Revolution, entered the film academy as older students with ample social experiences, and felt an urgency to catch up. All felt a strong sense of history, which was reflected in the films his made. 

As a famous photographer Storaro said: "Color is a part of film language, we use color to express different emotions and feelings, just as the use of light and shadow as a symbol of the conflict between life and death." 















Weekly Task

“Raise the Red Lantern” is a 1991 film directed by Zhang Yimou. It is an adaption by Ni Zhen of the novel Wives and Concubines by Su Tong. “Raise the Red Lantern” received almost unanimous international acclaim. Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times noted its “voluptuous physical beauty” and sumptuous use of colours. It was nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 1992 Academy Awards, becoming the second Chinese film to earn this distinction (after Zhang's Ju Dou). It eventually lost out to Gabriele Salvatores's Mediterraneo. With “Raise the Red Lantern”, Zhang Yimou has created one of the most beautiful Chinese films, presenting a bold and frightening parable in which women are ruled and governed in a hierarchical society of long-established customs.

The film is set in 1920s China during the warlord era, years before the Chinese Civil War. Songlian is a 19 year old college student whose father recently died leaving the family bankrupt, and her step mother is unwilling to support her. She is forced to drop out of college and ultimately comes to the decision to marry into the wealthy Chen family, becoming the Fourth Mistress of the household. The first three mistresses live in uneasy balance when Songlian arrives, and she becomes a catalyst for trouble. Songlian realizes quickly that wives do not have any real power. Their relative power depends on whom the master chooses to spend a night with. This is done every evening through the tradition of raising a red lantern in front of the door of the chosen one, which gets her the attention of servants, her preferred meals and a foot massage. More and more she realizes the grim reality of her future, and starts playing the intrigue game herself. But that just brings more misery and tragedy.

Finally, I have to say that the film's ending, Master Chen married fifth wife it is still summer, not spring. When that day of marry his fifth wife, it began to snow, this is a metaphor, indicating a continuation of the tragedy but also a continuation of feudalism.

“Raise the Red Lantern” use of colour is very luxurious. As the different colour tone of the film makes the audience’s emotions fluctuated. A wide range of colourful costumes, make this movie look more excellent. In “Raise the Red Lantern”, the colour most commonly used red, white and black. First, the film's title is red lanterns, so no doubt will become the main colours in film. In traditional Chinese culture, red represents happiness, lust and hope. In the movie, the red lantern is the symbol of rivalry, if who has the red lantern, the same as having the honour and power. White is also the colour often appears in film. Songlian most scene are wearing a white dress. White in the film means lonely, suggesting that the tragic fate of women in feudal society has already been set. 

Zhang Yimou awareness to the importance of music, so he uses a variety of music in the film thereby increasing the shock effect of the film, but also enhance the cultural charm of the film. Chinese traditional music and fusion of both Zhang Yimou's film, not only makes the spread of Chinese traditional music, and the audience left a deep impression on the film.