ZhangYimou Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Yes, I have a knee-jerk negative reaction to remakes in general. Yes, I love Blood Simple, the Coen Brothers' debut feature, so much so that I wrote a long article about the film. Yes, I initially thought the prospect of a Chinese version set in a noodle shop was ridiculous.

On the other hand, we're talking Zhang Yimou, people! He's a world-class filmmaker who has demonstrated his artistry over many years, ranging from the delicate poetry of Raise the Red Lantern to the homespun humanity of Not One Less to the martial arts dramatics of House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower. Do I want to see that guy remake Blood Simple in Chinese? Heck yes!

The new version will indeed be set in a Chinese noodle shop, but rather than Texas, the background will be "a sand dune-specked desert." The premise remains the same -- a married man's plot to kill his adulterous wife and her lover quickly spins out of control -- with a slight twist: these characters are more accustomed to knives and swords than guns.Sony Pictures Classics will release the picture, which is currently untitled; Anne Thompson has the press release. The Coen Brothers really have no reason to complain, since they had no compunction about remaking Alexander Mackendrick's The Ladykillers.

If you have any doubts that Zhang can handle a thriller-comedy, may I refer you to Happy Times, which wrung deadpan laughs out of a dramatic situation that could have been smarmy and dreary. While he hasn't made a dark thriller before, he'd never made an action picture before Hero (the one with Jet Li) either, and that turned out pretty darn good. So I have every confidence that he'll make something distinctive, and definitely his own, out of Blood Simple.

If you've ever seen a film by Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien, you might not initially think of him to direct an action movie, even of the slower, more poetic wuxia genre that includes films like Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Zhang Yimou's Hero and other recent works. But the master director has long confessed in interviews that he'd like to make a martial arts picture, and even as far back as 2002, Hou was attached to helm an adaptation of Pei Xing's 9th century fantasy novel "Nie Yin Niang," about a female assassin, which was then reportedly titled Xia Nü.

Six years later, following his first non-Taiwanese film (the Ozu tribute Café Lumiere), the triptych Three Times and his first Western project (Flight of the Red Balloon), Hou seems to finally be on track to making his wuxia dreams come true. Variety reports that his adaptation of "Nie Yin Niang," now titled The Assassin (or maybe The Hidden Heroine, or simply Nie Yin Niang), has received funding from the Taiwanese government's National Development Fund and is therefore moving forward with a pre-production start date of October 1 and shooting expected to begin in early 2009.

Leave it to Roger Ebert to compare the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics to the Nazi propaganda doc Triumph of the Will. In a blog entry, Ebert wrote in part: "The closest sight I have seen to Friday night's spectacle, and I mean this objectively, not with disrespect, is the sight of all those Germans marching wave upon wave before Hitler in 'Triumph of the Will.'"

In context, Ebert was addressing the "astonishing" $300 million show featuring "thousands of painstakingly drilled performers" who had spent "four months in rehearsal. Eight hours a day." His fascinating article includes thoughts on the opening ceremony, the challenge for any nation to ever equal the ceremony, much less surpass it in spectacle, the individual vs. the collective, and China's capitalist leanings.

At heart, of course, Ebert is a film critic, and he notes the direction of Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern, House of Flying Daggers) and the costumes designed by Eiko Ishioka (Mishima, The Fall). Triumph of the Will may still be fresh in his mind as a point of comparison because he wrote extensively about it again in June as one of his "Great Movies."

I played sports before movies lured me to the dark side, so when I was younger I related to the Olympics as a budding athlete. That was a long time ago, but I did watch a little Olympic badminton * and cycling before heading out to see movies this weekend. Have the Olympics distracted you from movie watching?

* UPDATE: Spelling corrected and link added. Thanks to ML for the gently-worded comment.

Earlier this month, I posted about a secret film debuting at the Cannes Film Festival. All that was known at the time was that it would be a compilation of 30 shorts, each about three minutes long and directed by an internationally respected filmmaker, and that it wouldn't be shown to the public. Now, thanks to an official press release, we learn that there are in fact 33 shorts from 35 filmmakers (including two pairs of brothers) and that the film, titled To Each his Own Cinema, will air on French television on May 20 following its premiere at the festival. So now I don't have to wish I could attend Cannes; I have to wish I got Canal +.

Also revealed are the names of the 35 participants, all of whom were supposed to be kept secret until the film's unveiling, and a few details about the project. Each director was assigned the task of filming, "their current state of mind as inspired by the motion-picture theater." The only individual specifics mentioned in the press release, which was written by festival head Giles Jacob, are that Wim Wenders shot in the Congo, Tsai Ming Liang shot in Kuala Lumpur and David Cronenberg shot "in the ... toilet!" (probably meaning the bathroom, not the bowl). But anyone familiar with the directors involved can imagine the kind of diversity that will be seen in the film.

See the names of the 35 collaborators after the jump.

Because they just can't get enough Zhang Yimou, Sony Pictures Classics have picked up the North and Latin American rights to his latest project, Curse of the Golden Flower (you may have heard of it back when it was called The City of Golden Armor). Despite the distributor's history with Zhang (they've work with him on eight previous films, including House of Flying Daggers and Hero), in the face Hollywood's growing trepidation about the market strength of Chinese action-romance films, the fact that the buy has been made before the film is even finished shooting seems like a major vote of confidence, both for Zhang and the Chinese industry. That said, of course, the presence of stars Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li probably didn't hurt, either, since the pair of them are among the most recognizable stars in Asian cinema, at least to American eyes.

If you buy the press release blather about the film, it's apparently going to be the Best! Movie! Ever! "From Gong Li's stunning performance to Chow Yun Fat's commanding presence to opulence one has rarely ever seen on screen, this movie will have it all: Brilliantly executed action set pieces as well as compelling intimate drama against the most colorful historical canvas imaginable." Mmm ... hyperbole.

According to Asian film website MonkeyPeaches, a large group of American studio representatives were recently invited to the set of Zhang Yimou's latest epic, The City of Golden Armor (MP's extensive archive of stories on the film is here). In addition to representatives of eight American distributors, Zhang's guests included Oliver Stone and Steven Spielberg -- this, my friends, is a hard freaking sell.

Press reports in China suggest that sales of high-profile Chinese action-romance films for American distribution -- sales that had, in the wake of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, been fairly easy to broker -- are suffering because of the debacle surrounding Chen Kaige's The Promise. The experience of The Weinstein Company, which bought the rights the the movie based on its Cannes trailer only to decide the finished product wasn't strong enough for a wide release, has  apparently given American companies cold feet about the Chinese industry in general. In response, Zhang is opening his set up to those companies, in an effort to both sell his film and, one imagines, re-energize the market.

It seems as if Zhang is setting his film up as a sort of litmus test to see if Crouching Tiger and Hero-style films can still succeed here; it'll be fascinating to see if and when The City of Golden Armor sells, and how well it does in a possible American release.

In an announcement that only serves to remind us just how freaking weird the world is, it was revealed yesterday that Zhang Yimou will direct the opening and closing ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics (those are in 2008 if you, like me, haven't been paying any attention). And if it's not odd enough to think about the director of such masterpieces of subtlety as Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, and Not One Less masterminding the bizarre, nonsensical epics that open and close the Olympics, try this on for size: Steven Spielberg will serve as an "artistic advisor." Because, you know, Zhang's films are just missing that touch of loveliness that Spielberg brings to every project he touches. Uh huh.

Given Zhang's recent work, I'm counting on a gorgeous, stadium-sized action spectacular, featuring a special appearance by Takeshi Kaneshiro who will be involved in a doomed (Olympic) love affair. Oh, and with a touch of Moral Significance sprinkled on top by the great and powerful Spielberg.

So, check out this lineup for The Metropolitan Opera's upcoming production of The First Emperor: Score? Tan Dun. Director? Zhang Yimou. Costume design? Emi Wada, who's designed for the films of Zhang and Akira Kurosawa. Star? Some dude named Plácido Domingo. I mean, holy crap. I'm not even an opera fan, and even I am desperate for a ticket.

Zhang, who will become the first-ever Chinese director at the Met with this production, last directed opera in 1998 at the Forbidden City. Though their director confesses to liking but "not really understand[ing]" western opera, Met officials (who are taking Chinese lessons - Zhang apparently does not and will not speak English), noting Zhang's guidance of a Raise the Red Lantern ballet and the operatic qualities of his films, aren't worried. "Like his films, this opera is not going to be static. It's a real story with real characters. And it will look gorgeous."

The production will premiere in New York this December, after which it will tour the US.