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As a Chinese, I hate Zhang Yimou
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chichi -

I don't know what's about his movies that appeals foreigners. But for me, his recent movies are
all trashes. All he knows is about breast and colors. What he wants to express is highly
exaggerated and unrealistic and of nuts. In "curse of gold flowers", are those soldiers nuts to
say a word at the same time when the Jay Chou is confroting Fat? That's ridiculous.

I really don't like those so called "大片”(big movie).

I think it's more interesting to watch some TV series produced by TVB, such as Dicey Business,
Into Thin Air, CIB Files, Forensic Heros and so on. They are more closed to life yet the plots are
really intriguing. Those series reflect Chinese thought of modern times in a realistics way.

As for 大片,it's just a place where directors like Zhang yimou and Chen Kaige manipulate color
and show how many people there are in the movie. Pervert!



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roddy -

Exaggerated, unrealistic movies. Shocking. Have you reported this to SARFT?

I don't see what the fuss is about. His movies seem to do well domestically as well as
internationally - Curse had a strong box office showing. Seems somewhat childish to start saying
you hate a director just because you don't like his more recent movies. Perhaps you could watch
something else?










md1101 -

of his movies i've only seen Raise the Red Lantern, Hero and House of flying daggers. I thought
they were all really good. Particularly Hero because of the beautiful scenery. there really was
some beautiful imagery in that movie.










skylee -

chichi, I don't share your view. The film is not that bad IMHO. Actually I find it quite
interesting. And it is not easy to make a 大片. Think all the funding, logistics, casting,
script, acting, shooting and guanxi issues. And I think there is more to the story than breasts
and exaggerated costume.

Zhang is no doubt a very talented director who is especially good at manupulating colours. Chen is
(or used to be) a good director who has made good films like "farewell to my concubine". And
talented people also make mistakes (but I am not saying that golden flower is a mistake, instead
it is very precise and accurate in its way).

And hate is a strong feeling.










chichi -

I hate him because he makes movies to appeal foreigners and make people from other countries
misunderstand Chinese.

OK, I　ｄｏｎ＇ｔｈａｔｅ　ｈｉｍ．　Ｉ　ｔｈｉｎｋ　Ｉ'm just disgusted
with him.

It's weird though that him movies can always be appreciated by foreigners but Chinese, especially
college students seldom like them










roddy -

Sorry, but the man is on course to take the title of China's most popular film away from Titanic.


Quote:

"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.

Surely this demonstrates:
1) Zhang Yimou is a patriot of the highest order and deserves any and all honors available
2) Chinese people like his movies.
You might not like his movies, Chichi, but you aren't doing it 'as a Chinese'. You are doing it as
you.

I was going to say you were being particularly mean to Chen Kaige, who has only made one 大片 .
Then I remembered Killing Me Softly, and decided you can be as mean to him as you want.

As for him making 'people from other countries misunderstand Chinese' - apart from three movies -
Hero, Curse, House of Flying Daggers - I'd say his movies have actually been fairly good
depictions of what China was actually like at certain times in history. And anyone who tries to
gain an understanding of China from the likes of Curse of the Golden Flower needs their head fixed
anyway, no?










zhwj -



Quote:

I hate him because he makes movies to appeal foreigners and make people from other countries
misunderstand Chinese.

This is basically the same thing people used to tell me even before Hero came out - lots of people
said they hated Zhang Yimou because his early movies gave foreigners a bad impression of China as
backward and dirty. The guy just can't win.










wushijiao -

There was an interesting interview with the Chinese director冯小刚, in 南方周末 which he
was talking about making so-called 大片 (blockbusters). He mentioned, midway through the
interview, that if you want to make a大片 about contemporary life, a movie that is meaningful
and analytical, you will almost certainly run into problems with the censors. 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.

So what does that mean? If you are able to get together the huge sum of money necessary to make
a大片, and you make one about regular life and contemporary China, you run a huge financial risk
of getting hit by the government censors. In other words, it is the government that has made it
risky and expensive to make good movies. It is expensive to re-film scenes, film two endings, or
the movie may be banned altogether.

The best example is 鬼子来了, a movie that is funny, entertaining, and yet psychologically
complex and depressingly moving, which was banned. And because of the government, people might
think twice before spending the millions it takes to make something like that.

So, it is only logical that Chinese directors might care about ensuring that their movies stay
profitable (especially since the Mainland market mainly buys pirated DVD’s anyway). So, I think
many Chinese directors are in a pretty dire dilemma. How do you make a challenging film for
Chinese young people and college students without stepping on one of the millions of
“sensitive” areas while not losing money? I have no idea.

Chichi, although I love Zhang Yimou’s earlier stuff, I certainly know what you mean, but as an
American. Some people think that Hollywood movies have become even more dumbed down now that
foreign revenues make up an increasingly large part of the total revenues. Complicated witty
dialogue doesn’t come out very well in subtitles, but shooting scenes and T&A are universally
understood. So for every bad, cookie-cutter Hollywood blockbuster out there, I blame the moronic
non-American world! (Semi-joking, the American audience has its fair share of blame too).










miss_China_so_much -



Quote:

Don’t blame Zhang Yimou: blame the government!

I agree with wushijiao. Blame the GCD first,

I do like Zhao Yimou's early stuff, especially <红高粱> , even <秋菊打官司> and
<一个都不能少>, but not that red lantern and all his things in recent 5 years.










chichi -

Maybe it is bec of the gov't that those great directors can't produce some really good stuff.

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.

Zhang Yimou is just good at using beautiful screenplay to please foreigners 'cause they don't
understand the story and can't realize how empty the meaningless the story is

Look at what young Chinese people think of the movie
http://post.baidu.com/f?kz=157059581. ( think the comment made by this person is really good!)


http://www.douban.com/subject/1499008












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