Panned railway video not mine, top director insists
By Xiao Li |
July 3, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINESE celebrity director Zhang Yimou denied filming a pricey but widely panned promotional video for the Railway Ministry after he was criticized on the Internet as having put money ahead of fame.
Zhang became the center of the storm of criticism after the Railway Ministry claimed the five-minute video, "Chinese Railways," which cost 18.5 million yuan (US$2.9 million), was directed by Zhang.
The National Audit Office found in June that the ministry invested the huge amount of money in the video without a public bidding process.
Zhang's assistant released a statement yesterday, saying Zhang "just gave some advice" and demanded that the ministry "not show his name" on the video.
When Liu Zhijun, the former railways minister who was sacked and detained amid a graft probe, was still in charge in 2010, a company was entrusted to invite Zhang to direct the video. But Zhang agreed to just offer suggestions rather than film it by himself, his assistant said.
After several meetings, Liu was sacked from his post and the plan for the video was suspended. When the company started to film the video again, Zhang didn't participate in the progress, the statement said, adding that he had only commented on the first version.
Zhang didn't know the video included a credit for "Zhang Yimou Works" at the beginning of the video until one of his friends told him.
The video was played at the opening of the 7th World Congress on High Speed Rail in Beijing in December 2010 as well as in high-speed trains.
It showed China's railway development in past decades simply by showing running trains. Internet users called it boring and wondered how so much money could result in such a low-quality video. Some estimated its actual cost was probably about 100,000 yuan.
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