'Flowers' goes for global appeal
Source: Xinhua |
December 23, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SINCE taking in US$24 million at the domestic box office on its opening weekend and getting a Best Foreign Film nomination from the Golden Globes, famed director Zhang Yimou's "The Flowers of War" seems to have come closer to international success than any other Chinese mainland film.
With a budget of US$100 million "The Flowers of War" is the most expensive Chinese film ever made. It featured a crew consisting of members from more than 20 countries and regions, including a British special effects team, a Japanese art director, a Hong Kong costume designer, a Turkish choir group. The cast includes Hollywood heartthrob Christian Bale.
Set in Nanjing when it was occupied by Japanese troops in 1937, the film tells the story of a group of prostitutes risking their lives to save 12 schoolgirls from being raped by the Japanese army.
A Film Journal International review said the movie, China's Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film, "offers powerfully realistic and inventive war scenes ... and will likely be remembered as a triumph of the genre."
Domestic media described the film as "having both strong sound and visual effects as well as humanity."
Due to political and cultural differences, many Chinese mainstream films have long been accused of over-glorifying patriotism and lacking humanity while independent works by emerging filmmakers have been criticized for amplifying harsh social realities to grab attention overseas.
While admitting that the moral judgement on the Nanjing Massacre is indisputable, Zhang said he tried to portray the Japanese invaders as complex characters in an attempt to distinguish the film from previous movies where they were portrayed as one-dimensional.
In one scene, a Japanese officer visits a church, the central location of the story, and apologizes after his subordinates killed a Chinese female student. Then he sits down in front of an organ and plays a Japanese folk song, at which point other Japanese officers join him in song.
Zhang said the film originally included a private talk between the officer and the priest that showed the officer's passion for painting and music, but the scene was cut due to concerns about running time.
"We wanted to give the audience something to imagine ... We didn't want to generalize," Zhang added.
However, some Western critics were less than impressed by Zhang's efforts.
A New York Times review criticized the film for failing to "take a point of view on one of the most gruesome chapters in Chinese history."
Rao Shuguang, vice president of the China Film Archive, said: "Whether making mainstream movies or independent works with strong individual expressions, Chinese filmmakers should stay true to themselves."
Zhang, 60, first surprised the global film industry in 1987 with his directorial debut "Red Sorghum," which earned China its first Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
However, at the turn of the century, Zhang, along with other directors including Chen Kaige, whose "Farewell My Concubine" won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1993, steered their focus from art house films to commercial blockbusters, garnering excellent box office records as well as public condemnation for choosing special effects over intrinsic quality.
In response, Zhang has said on many occasions that China needs its own commercial blockbusters and what he did was to help develop the Chinese film industry.
In 2010, China produced more than 520 films, up from less than 100 annually prior to 2003. Movies raked in 10 billion yuan (US$1.57 billion) at the box office in 2010, or 10 times more than in 2002.
Meanwhile, insiders have warned of quality issues amid the industry's exponential growth. Tong Gang, head of the film bureau under the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, has said that there are "far from enough" Chinese films that can "win critical acclaim and, at the same time, meet the cultural demands of viewers."
With a budget of US$100 million "The Flowers of War" is the most expensive Chinese film ever made. It featured a crew consisting of members from more than 20 countries and regions, including a British special effects team, a Japanese art director, a Hong Kong costume designer, a Turkish choir group. The cast includes Hollywood heartthrob Christian Bale.
Set in Nanjing when it was occupied by Japanese troops in 1937, the film tells the story of a group of prostitutes risking their lives to save 12 schoolgirls from being raped by the Japanese army.
A Film Journal International review said the movie, China's Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film, "offers powerfully realistic and inventive war scenes ... and will likely be remembered as a triumph of the genre."
Domestic media described the film as "having both strong sound and visual effects as well as humanity."
Due to political and cultural differences, many Chinese mainstream films have long been accused of over-glorifying patriotism and lacking humanity while independent works by emerging filmmakers have been criticized for amplifying harsh social realities to grab attention overseas.
While admitting that the moral judgement on the Nanjing Massacre is indisputable, Zhang said he tried to portray the Japanese invaders as complex characters in an attempt to distinguish the film from previous movies where they were portrayed as one-dimensional.
In one scene, a Japanese officer visits a church, the central location of the story, and apologizes after his subordinates killed a Chinese female student. Then he sits down in front of an organ and plays a Japanese folk song, at which point other Japanese officers join him in song.
Zhang said the film originally included a private talk between the officer and the priest that showed the officer's passion for painting and music, but the scene was cut due to concerns about running time.
"We wanted to give the audience something to imagine ... We didn't want to generalize," Zhang added.
However, some Western critics were less than impressed by Zhang's efforts.
A New York Times review criticized the film for failing to "take a point of view on one of the most gruesome chapters in Chinese history."
Rao Shuguang, vice president of the China Film Archive, said: "Whether making mainstream movies or independent works with strong individual expressions, Chinese filmmakers should stay true to themselves."
Zhang, 60, first surprised the global film industry in 1987 with his directorial debut "Red Sorghum," which earned China its first Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
However, at the turn of the century, Zhang, along with other directors including Chen Kaige, whose "Farewell My Concubine" won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1993, steered their focus from art house films to commercial blockbusters, garnering excellent box office records as well as public condemnation for choosing special effects over intrinsic quality.
In response, Zhang has said on many occasions that China needs its own commercial blockbusters and what he did was to help develop the Chinese film industry.
In 2010, China produced more than 520 films, up from less than 100 annually prior to 2003. Movies raked in 10 billion yuan (US$1.57 billion) at the box office in 2010, or 10 times more than in 2002.
Meanwhile, insiders have warned of quality issues amid the industry's exponential growth. Tong Gang, head of the film bureau under the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, has said that there are "far from enough" Chinese films that can "win critical acclaim and, at the same time, meet the cultural demands of viewers."
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