Biography

Born in 1951 in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, in north-central China, Zhang Yimou is, along with Chen Kaige, the most prominent of the Fifth Generation Chinese directors— and, by extension, one of the two most famous Chinese directors, period. Despite this renown, Zhang has long had a tense relationship with the Chinese government, and many of his early films were banned in China and/or funded by foreign production companies. He has been criticized by those who feel that his more recent work has been less adventurous and less challenging, and that he has therefore succumbed to official pressure. His direction of the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, in particular, were taken by many as an unacceptable level of collaboration with the communist regime.1

Zhang's family faced difficulties because his father had served in Chiang Kai Shek's army, and his uncle and older brother had followed the nationalists to Taiwan 2. He was pulled out of high school and sent to work as a farm laborer for several years, and then to a textile mill. During this time, he acquired a camera, earning the money by selling blood, and began making photographs. 3

The Beijing Film Academy, China's only film academy, had stopped taking new students during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, and most of its faculty had left. In 1978, the Academy began accepting new students, and Zhang applied; despite being over the age limit at 27, which led to an initial rejection, Zhang was admitted after lodging an appeal with the Ministry of Culture. 4 Zhang graduated in 1982—the same year as Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang, and Zhang Junzhao, all prominent directors of the Fifth Generation—and began working as a cinematographer.5 Perhaps the most well-known film for which Zhang served as cinematographer was Chen Kaige's Yellow Earth, released in 1985.

Zhang's directorial debut, Red Sorghum, was released in 1987, and won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival (that festival's highest award) in 1988. At the time, this was the first win for a Chinese film at a major international film festival.6

His film Ju Dou, released in 1990, was the first Chinese film to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film,7 while Raise the Red Lantern, released the following year, became the second.8 Both films were banned in China.

While these early films were characterized by a very formal, tightly controlled camera work and frequent use of montage coupled with lush, even stylized production design—Zhang was noted for his use of color, and the color red in particular—Zhang's next film, The Story of Qiu Ju, released in 1992, marked a significant departure. First and foremost, it was set in contemporary China, which made it significantly riskier (all of his previous films had been set prior to the civil war, in the 1920s and 30s). It was also shot in a much more realist style, with long takes and grim, weathered-looking sets and a far less vibrant color palette. Despite the risks associated with its setting and subject matter (a woman's quest to get justice for her husband, who has been beaten by a low-level government official), the film was not censored and even promoted the government to take Zhang's previous films off of the censored list— at least in part because the release of The Story of Qiu Ju coincided with a national anti-corruption campaign.9

This official goodwill was short-lived, however, as Zhang's next film, 1994's To Live was again banned, and he was prohibited from filmmaking for two years10 (though this ban was later rescinded). His next work, Shanghai Triad, was initially submitted for the New York International Film Festival in 1995, but was later retracted by the Chinese government when it was learned that the festival would feature a documentary critical of the Tiananmen massacre.11

Zhang's films continued to garner critical acclaim for the next several years, including major awards at the Venice Film Festival, Sundance, and the Berlin Film Festival.12 It was 2002's Hero, however, that brought him a new level of fame and financial success, both at home and abroad. The film, a historical martial arts epic, became the highest-grossing film in Chinese history and won seven awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards; despite an inexplicable delay in its US distribution, Hero was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at both the Oscars and the Golden Globes.13

Despite the success of Hero, some felt that in making films like this and 2004's House of Flying Daggers, Zhang was backing away from conflict with the government by making "safe" movies. His participation in securing the Olympic Games for Beijing, and his direction of the opening ceremonies, added fuel to that particular fire.14 In the midst of such criticism, however, Zhang continued to make a variety of different kinds of films, including Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, a low-key, character-driven story reminiscent of earlier woks, released in 2005, and Curse of the Golden Flower, a grand historical epic with vast armies of extras, reminiscent of the work of Cecil B. Demille, in 2006. The latter film also marked the first collaboration between Zhang and the actress Gong Li, who starred in his first several films.

Zhang's most recent film, 2011's The Flowers of War, is another ambitious, big-budget project which tells the story of the Japanese occupation of Nanking in 1937, during which tens of thousands of people were massacred. The movie stars Christian Bale, and was Zhang's most expensive film to date. Though it did well at the box office in China, the film received mediocre reviews from international critics.15 If nothing else, the film makes it clear that Zhang's ambition has not diminished, and there is every reason to hope that he will continue to make interesting work in the years to come.

Filmography

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/world/asia/filmmaker-zhang-yimou-walks-a-fine-line-in-china.html?ref=zhangyimou&pagewanted=all [Back]
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Yimou [Back]
3. http://www.notablebiographies.com/supp/Supplement-Sp-Z/Zhang-Yimou.html http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1861543_1865103_1865107,00.html [Back]
4. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1861543_1865103_1865107,00.html http://www.allmovie.com/artist/zhang-yimou-p117624 [Back]
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Yimou [Back]
6. http://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/25/opinion/china-and-the-oscars.html?pagewanted=all http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Bear [Back]
7. http://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/25/opinion/china-and-the-oscars.html?pagewanted=all [Back]
8. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1861543_1865103_1865107,00.html [Back]
9. http://www.allmovie.com/artist/zhang-yimou-p117624 [Back]
10. http://www.allmovie.com/movie/to-live-v134236 [Back]
11. http://www.allmovie.com/artist/zhang-yimou-p117624 [Back]
12. http://www.allmovie.com/artist/zhang-yimou-p117624 [Back]
13. http://www.allmovie.com/artist/zhang-yimou-p117624 [Back]
14. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/sports/olympics/08guru.html?pagewanted=all [Back]
15. http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/12/21/movies/flowers-of-war-zhang-yimou-on-nanjing-massacre-review.html?ref=zhangyimou&pagewanted=all [Back]