| Username |
Post |
| ashu |
Posted
on 27-Oct-00 10:35 PM
Hi everyone,
Trailokya Aryal is an undergraduate from Nepal majoring in Chinese studies at California's prestigious Claremont College.
He is well aware of our establishing The
Kathmandu Film Archives.
Below is his very interesting article, which
appears on this Web site with his permission.
Enjoy,
oohi
ashu
*****************************
Trailokya Aryal
wrote:
Fifth Generation Chinese Films
By Trailokya Aryal
A few days ago, I read an announcement in a
Nepali discussion board on the web
(soc.culture.nepal) posted by Mr. Ashutosh
Tiwari regarding the establishment of
Kathmandu Film Archives (KFA)--a forum to
show quality movies to Nepali audience every other Saturday afternoon--and its kicking off with a “Fifth Generation” Chinese movie, “Red
Sorghum”.
According to Mr. Tiwari (the
founder of the archives), the archives aims
at making quality movies from all over the
world accessible to Nepali viewers. I can
only hope that more Chinese “Fifth
generation” movies get screened at KFA along
with great movies from around the world, and
help the Nepali audience learn more about
the realities of their next-door neighbor.
“Fifth Generation” Chinese movies not only
give their viewers an insight on Chinese
politics, society and new cultural traits
being developed as part of the economic
reforms perpetuated by Deng Xiaoping, but
also have a high degree of professionalism
in them, which make them the most sought
after movies in the west.
Movies produced in China after the end of
the Cultural Revolution (1976) are known as
fifth generation Chinese movies because they
represent a new school of film making than
that of the Mao era in which movies were
merely a state propaganda tool.
Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, 1982 graduates
of the prestigious Beijing Film Academy,
collaborated to produce the first fifth
generation movie, “Yellow Earth”, in 1984,
which is still revered by movie critics as a
milestone of Chinese movie. “Yellow Earth”
is a story of the revolutionary era China.
A soldier of the Eighth Route Army of the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in his
mission to collect folk songs arrives in a
village, which has been devastated by a
terrible draught. His arrival brings hopes
to the villagers--that he would help them
transform their village. A little girl who
has been married at an early age hopes that
the soldier would help her break that
marriage by taking her with him to join the
CCP.
Depressed by what he sees and
experiences, the soldier leaves the village
promising to come back later. He does come
back, but the village is still the same, and
the girl had already committed suicide by
drowning herself in a river. The movie’s
message was crystal-clear. By symbolizing
China with a barren village and the soldier
with the CCP, it implied that the CCP could
not free the Chinese population from their
sufferings.
And Chen had masterfully
recreated the Chinese past to depict the
present reality. Latter filmmakers to show
their dissatisfaction with the CCP and it’s
policies carried on this trend. “Yellow
Earth” became an instant hit in China and
the west. According to some Western movie
critics, “Yellow Earth” was responsible in
reviving interests in Chinese movies in the
West.
Then in 1987 came, “Red Sorghum” by Zhang
Yimou, who had worked as a cameraman for
Chen Kaige in “Yellow Earth”. “Red Sorghum”
is a movie about Chinese nationalism. The
movie had come out at a time when there was
a feeling of hopelessness among the Chinese
population regarding their country.
This movie was an effort to revive the Chinese
nationalism. The underlying message was, if
the Chinese people could unite and stand
against the Japanese invasion in the 30s,
they could do it again in the 80’s against
the “problems” they were facing. This movie
established Zhang as one of the most
talented filmmakers of China and also
presented the world, Gong Li, the most
famous Chinese actress in the West.
After the Chen-Zhang split in the early nineties,
Chen made “Farewell my Concubine”, which
some observers believe is his autobiography.
“Farewell my concubine” was a controversial
movie because it depicted the homoerotic
relationship between two male opera singers
and their relationship during the turning
points of Chinese history such as the
revolution of 1949, the Cultural Revolution
and the beginning of the reform era. Since,
this movie had dealt with a concept still a
taboo in Chinese society, the movie was
first banned in China but with its
international recognition (the movie won
awards in various film festivals including
the Cannes), a censored version of this
movie was allowed to be shown in China.
After the success of “Farewell my concubine”
Chen seems to be fascinated with big
projects. His last release, “The Emperor and
the assassin” is a story of the ambitious
Qin emperor Ying Zhen (3rd century BC) who
hoped to unify China and establish a
centralized government. More than 11 million
US dollars were spent in making this movie,
which make it the most expensive Asian movie
ever produced.
Zhang made movies like “Raise The Red
lantern” and “Judou” which dealt with the
feudal mode of the rural Chinese society.
“Raise the red lantern” dealt with polygamy,
which was popular in China well until the
establishment of the People’s Republic of
China in 1949.
Juduo dealt with female sexuality. This movie
was banned in China for it’s strong sexual
contents. The movie
shows how the suppressed female sexuality
can turn dangerous and also attacks the
traditional arranged marriage system of the
rural Chinese society in which, for the most
part, young girls get married to men twice
their age.
Another Zhang film is “The Story
of Qiu Jiu”, in which the protagonist of the
movie Qiu Jiu struggles to get justice for
her husband who has been kicked in groin by
the village chief. All she wants is a formal
apology from the village chief who is
adamant on not apologizing for his mischief.
She takes the matter to the district level
cadre, nothing happens, and then she goes to
the provincial capital and later to an even
higher authority.
Later, when the matter is
getting resolved within the village, the
police arrive and take the village chief
into custody. The underlying message of the
movie was that things get done in China but
not necessarily what one wants or the way
one wants. This movie too, like Zhang’s
other movies received wide acclaim in the
west for it’s story, cinematography and Gong
Li’s acting as Qiu Jiu. “Not One Less” is
yet another movie by Zhang Yimou to achieve
international recognition. In this movie
Zhang compares China to a growing up child
who needs support from everyone to achieve
success.
Tian Zhuanzhuang, another renowned Chinese
film personality directed “The Blue Kite” in
the early 90’s. “The Blue Kite” took the
political defiance of the fifth generation
Chinese movies to an even higher level. Tian
was bold in his presentation. Throughout the
movie, one can feel the presence of Chairman
Mao (even though he is not shown or
mentioned anywhere in the movie) and how his
policies such as the Anti-Rightists
Campaign, the Great Leap Forward and the
Cultural Revolution affected the lives of
the common Chinese people.
The central
character of this movie is Tietou whose
parents fall victims to the CCP policies
throughout the 50’s and 60s. This movie was
banned in China for its political content
and Tian was temporarily banned from making
movies. However, the print of this movie had
already crossed the Chinese boundaries and
was released in the US, where it received
wide acclaim from the US film critics. The
movie also received the best film award in
the Tokyo Film festival.
There are some fifth generation Chinese
moviemakers who make movies on the problems
of economic reforms perpetuated by Deng
Xiaoping. One such movie is Er’mo by Zhou
Xiaowen. The protagonist of this movie Er’mo
is a village woman who wants to buy an even
bigger television set than that of her
neighbor. To earn money to buy her dream TV
set; she goes to the town to sell noodles
where she is sexually exploited. The movie
shows the ugly aspect of consumerism and
materialism haunting Chinese society and the
female sexual exploitation that takes place
in the reform era.
The above-mentioned movies are just a few
examples of the Chinese fifth generation
movies. The Chinese fifth generation movies
cover an wide area of Chinese society, the
CCP policies, problems of the economic
reforms and depict concepts that are still
taboos in Chinese society.
For the most part
they recreate the past to depict the present
realities of the Chinese society. To sum up,
the fifth generation Chinese movie makers
use their creativity and artistic talents to
criticize the government and it’s policies
in a country where submission to the state
and it’s policies has been a tradition for
the last 2000 years.
Let’s hope that the
recently established Kathmandu Film Archives
will make these groundbreaking world-class
movies accessible to Nepali audience who are
looking for a refreshing alternative to
commercial junks being served to them
through satellite channels and Nepal
Television.
|
| Biswo |
Posted
on 28-Oct-00 01:53 AM
This is a good attempt to peek at Chinese cinema ,
especially of the post-cultural-revolution-cinema,
also known as fifth generation cinema.
However, Aryalji writes :
>>
Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, 1982 graduates
of the prestigious Beijing Film Academy,
collaborated to produce the first fifth
generation movie, ?Yellow Earth?, in 1984,
which is still revered by movie critics as a
milestone of Chinese movie. ?Yellow Earth?
is a story of the revolutionary era China.
As long as I know, The yellow earth , in which Zhang
Yimou the photographer teamed up with Chen Kaige the
director, was not the first fifth generation movie.
When the first post cultural revolution batch of
Beijing Film Acadamy graduated in 1982, Zhang, among
one of the graduates,
was assigned to Guanxi(pronounced kuansi) studio,where in
Youth Production Unit, he worked as a photographer in
director Zhang Junzhao(pronounced chang chunchaao)'s
"One and the eight"."One and the eight" was remarkable
because it also ran into trouble with the authority
and it was also successful movie.Especially, because
Zhang received a lot of kudos from the movie.
Another thing, I just can't concur with Aryalji is his
excessive political interpretation of influential
movies.Though people have problem with the government,
and a lot of people probably don't like the ruling
party there,communist party is there to stay for at
least a decade, I guess.They have done a good job.One
that I am most impressed is education: there were less
than 10% educated people in 1949, now there are almost
90%.Another thing is economy:India was richer than
China in 1949, now China is probably two times richer
than India.
People there in China are not as unhappy with their
government as Aryalji thinks, or tries to extrapolate
from the movies.The degree of disenchantment with
government may be higher in Nepalese populace.
Still,his article is really good.
|
| Trailokya Aryal |
Posted
on 28-Oct-00 12:33 PM
>Hi everyone,
>
>Trailokya Aryal is an undergraduate from
>Nepal majoring in Chinese studies at
>California's prestigious Claremont College.
namaste Ashu dai,
Just a little correction here--I already graduated from the Claremont colleges and now looking for a job in DC.
Thanks for posting it on the web. Biswo ji's comments were really helpful (though I found some of his points hard to digest as I myself spent some time in China as a study abroad student and was exposed to the realities of China) I also had discussions wiith the intellectuals at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and the students of Hua Dong Shi Da (East China Normal University), Johns Hopkins Nanjing Students and Beijing University Students--and most of them think very differently than Biswoji.
>He is well aware of our establishing The
>Kathmandu Film Archives.
I sure am. I think what you are doing is great and my best wishes are with you and KFA.
>Below is his very interesting article, which
>appears on this Web site with his permission.
>
>Enjoy,
>
>oohi
>ashu
>*****************************
>
>Trailokya Aryal
>
>wrote:
>
>Fifth Generation Chinese Films
>By Trailokya Aryal
>
>A few days ago, I read an announcement in a
>Nepali discussion board on the web
>(soc.culture.nepal) posted by Mr. Ashutosh
>Tiwari regarding the establishment of
>Kathmandu Film Archives (KFA)--a forum to
>show quality movies to Nepali audience every
>other Saturday afternoon--and its kicking
>off with a “Fifth Generation” Chinese movie,
>“Red
>Sorghum”.
>
>According to Mr. Tiwari (the
>founder of the archives), the archives aims
>at making quality movies from all over the
>world accessible to Nepali viewers. I can
>only hope that more Chinese “Fifth
>generation” movies get screened at KFA along
>with great movies from around the world, and
>help the Nepali audience learn more about
>the realities of their next-door neighbor.
>
>“Fifth Generation” Chinese movies not only
>give their viewers an insight on Chinese
>politics, society and new cultural traits
>being developed as part of the economic
>reforms perpetuated by Deng Xiaoping, but
>also have a high degree of professionalism
>in them, which make them the most sought
>after movies in the west.
>
>Movies produced in China after the end of
>the Cultural Revolution (1976) are known as
>fifth generation Chinese movies because they
>represent a new school of film making than
>that of the Mao era in which movies were
>merely a state propaganda tool.
>
>Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, 1982 graduates
>of the prestigious Beijing Film Academy,
>collaborated to produce the first fifth
>generation movie, “Yellow Earth”, in 1984,
>which is still revered by movie critics as a
>milestone of Chinese movie. “Yellow Earth”
>is a story of the revolutionary era China.
>
>A soldier of the Eighth Route Army of the
>Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in his
>mission to collect folk songs arrives in a
>village, which has been devastated by a
>terrible draught. His arrival brings hopes
>to the villagers--that he would help them
>transform their village. A little girl who
>has been married at an early age hopes that
>the soldier would help her break that
>marriage by taking her with him to join the
>CCP.
>
>Depressed by what he sees and
>experiences, the soldier leaves the village
>promising to come back later. He does come
>back, but the village is still the same, and
>the girl had already committed suicide by
>drowning herself in a river. The movie’s
>message was crystal-clear. By symbolizing
>China with a barren village and the soldier
>with the CCP, it implied that the CCP could
>not free the Chinese population from their
>sufferings.
>
>And Chen had masterfully
>recreated the Chinese past to depict the
>present reality. Latter filmmakers to show
>their dissatisfaction with the CCP and it’s
>policies carried on this trend. “Yellow
>Earth” became an instant hit in China and
>the west. According to some Western movie
>critics, “Yellow Earth” was responsible in
>reviving interests in Chinese movies in the
>West.
>
>Then in 1987 came, “Red Sorghum” by Zhang
>Yimou, who had worked as a cameraman for
>Chen Kaige in “Yellow Earth”. “Red Sorghum”
>is a movie about Chinese nationalism. The
>movie had come out at a time when there was
>a feeling of hopelessness among the Chinese
>population regarding their country.
>
>This movie was an effort to revive the
>Chinese
>nationalism. The underlying message was, if
>the Chinese people could unite and stand
>against the Japanese invasion in the 30s,
>they could do it again in the 80’s against
>the “problems” they were facing. This movie
>established Zhang as one of the most
>talented filmmakers of China and also
>presented the world, Gong Li, the most
>famous Chinese actress in the West.
>
>After the Chen-Zhang split in the early
>nineties,
>Chen made “Farewell my Concubine”, which
>some observers believe is his autobiography.
>“Farewell my concubine” was a controversial
>movie because it depicted the homoerotic
>relationship between two male opera singers
>and their relationship during the turning
>points of Chinese history such as the
>revolution of 1949, the Cultural Revolution
>and the beginning of the reform era. Since,
>this movie had dealt with a concept still a
>taboo in Chinese society, the movie was
>first banned in China but with its
>international recognition (the movie won
>awards in various film festivals including
>the Cannes), a censored version of this
>movie was allowed to be shown in China.
>
>After the success of “Farewell my concubine”
>Chen seems to be fascinated with big
>projects. His last release, “The Emperor and
>the assassin” is a story of the ambitious
>Qin emperor Ying Zhen (3rd century BC) who
>hoped to unify China and establish a
>centralized government. More than 11 million
>US dollars were spent in making this movie,
>which make it the most expensive Asian movie
>ever produced.
>
>Zhang made movies like “Raise The Red
>lantern” and “Judou” which dealt with the
>feudal mode of the rural Chinese society.
>“Raise the red lantern” dealt with polygamy,
>which was popular in China well until the
>establishment of the People’s Republic of
>China in 1949.
>
>Juduo dealt with female sexuality. This
>movie
>was banned in China for it’s strong sexual
>contents. The movie
>shows how the suppressed female sexuality
>can turn dangerous and also attacks the
>traditional arranged marriage system of the
>rural Chinese society in which, for the most
>part, young girls get married to men twice
>their age.
>
>Another Zhang film is “The Story
>of Qiu Jiu”, in which the protagonist of the
>movie Qiu Jiu struggles to get justice for
>her husband who has been kicked in groin by
>the village chief. All she wants is a formal
>apology from the village chief who is
>adamant on not apologizing for his mischief.
>She takes the matter to the district level
>cadre, nothing happens, and then she goes to
>the provincial capital and later to an even
>higher authority.
>
>Later, when the matter is
>getting resolved within the village, the
>police arrive and take the village chief
>into custody. The underlying message of the
>movie was that things get done in China but
>not necessarily what one wants or the way
>one wants. This movie too, like Zhang’s
>other movies received wide acclaim in the
>west for it’s story, cinematography and Gong
>Li’s acting as Qiu Jiu. “Not One Less” is
>yet another movie by Zhang Yimou to achieve
>international recognition. In this movie
>Zhang compares China to a growing up child
>who needs support from everyone to achieve
>success.
>
>Tian Zhuanzhuang, another renowned Chinese
>film personality directed “The Blue Kite” in
>the early 90’s. “The Blue Kite” took the
>political defiance of the fifth generation
>Chinese movies to an even higher level. Tian
>was bold in his presentation. Throughout the
>movie, one can feel the presence of Chairman
>Mao (even though he is not shown or
>mentioned anywhere in the movie) and how his
>policies such as the Anti-Rightists
>Campaign, the Great Leap Forward and the
>Cultural Revolution affected the lives of
>the common Chinese people.
>
>The central
>character of this movie is Tietou whose
>parents fall victims to the CCP policies
>throughout the 50’s and 60s. This movie was
>banned in China for its political content
>and Tian was temporarily banned from making
>movies. However, the print of this movie had
>already crossed the Chinese boundaries and
>was released in the US, where it received
>wide acclaim from the US film critics. The
>movie also received the best film award in
>the Tokyo Film festival.
>
>There are some fifth generation Chinese
>moviemakers who make movies on the problems
>of economic reforms perpetuated by Deng
>Xiaoping. One such movie is Er’mo by Zhou
>Xiaowen. The protagonist of this movie Er’mo
>is a village woman who wants to buy an even
>bigger television set than that of her
>neighbor. To earn money to buy her dream TV
>set; she goes to the town to sell noodles
>where she is sexually exploited. The movie
>shows the ugly aspect of consumerism and
>materialism haunting Chinese society and the
>female sexual exploitation that takes place
>in the reform era.
>
>The above-mentioned movies are just a few
>examples of the Chinese fifth generation
>movies. The Chinese fifth generation movies
>cover an wide area of Chinese society, the
>CCP policies, problems of the economic
>reforms and depict concepts that are still
>taboos in Chinese society.
>
>For the most part
>they recreate the past to depict the present
>realities of the Chinese society. To sum up,
>the fifth generation Chinese movie makers
>use their creativity and artistic talents to
>criticize the government and it’s policies
>in a country where submission to the state
>and it’s policies has been a tradition for
>the last 2000 years.
>
>Let’s hope that the
>recently established Kathmandu Film Archives
>will make these groundbreaking world-class
>movies accessible to Nepali audience who are
>looking for a refreshing alternative to
>commercial junks being served to them
>through satellite channels and Nepal
>Television.
|
| ashu |
Posted
on 28-Oct-00 01:05 PM
>namaste Ashu dai,
>Just a little correction here--I already
>graduated from the Claremont colleges and
>now looking for a job in DC.
Dear Trailokya,
Namaste!
Please accept my heartiest congratulations on
your graduation from Claremont. And my best
wishes on your landing the job that you want.
I envy you for mastering Chinese in these
times. I myself had a great chance to do so
at Harvard, but I "blew" it by overloading on
philosophy courses which, truth be told,
were damn exciting too!!
Anyway, it's not too late to learn this language
which is going to be very, very important for
China itself is becoming so big, powerful and
hard to ignore on the global stage.
On another note, I hear that the Chinese
government will soon be opening up a Chinese
Cultural Center in Kathmandu -- you know,
a place where they can teach Chinese
language to interested Nepalis, and so on.
On a yet another note, I am also looking forward
to reading your book review in the next
edition of The Kathmandu Post Review of Books.
BTW, do visit this Web site regularly, and
contribute, like Biswo and others, your thoughts
and ideas and opinions. The idea here is to take
a break from our other "oh-so-serious" works,
and have freewheeling discussions/debates/kura-kani
and so on . . . just like the SCN days of not-too-distant past.
Welcome to the fold!!
oohi
ashu
|
| Trailokya Aryal |
Posted
on 28-Oct-00 02:44 PM
>This is a good attempt to peek at Chinese
>cinema ,
>especially of the post-cultural-revolution-
>cinema,
>also known as fifth generation cinema.
Thank you very much for reading it.
>However, Aryalji writes :
>
>>
>Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, 1982 graduates
> of the prestigious Beijing
>Film Academy,
> collaborated to produce the
>first fifth
> generation movie, ?Yellow
>Earth?, in 1984,
> which is still revered by
>movie critics as a
> milestone of Chinese movie. ?
>Yellow Earth?
> is a story of the
>revolutionary era China.
>
>
>As long as I know, The yellow earth , in
>which Zhang
>Yimou the photographer teamed up with Chen
>Kaige the
>director, was not the first fifth generation
>movie.
>When the first post cultural revolution
>batch of
>Beijing Film Acadamy graduated in 1982,
>Zhang, among
>one of the graduates,
>was assigned to Guanxi(pronounced kuansi)
>studio,where in
>Youth Production Unit, he worked as a
>photographer in
>director Zhang Junzhao(pronounced chang
>chunchaao)'s
>"One and the eight"."One and the eight" was
>remarkable
>because it also ran into trouble with the
>authority
>and it was also successful movie.Especially,
>because
>Zhang received a lot of kudos from the movie.
You are right, however "One and the eight" didn;t make it big in the West. And as a student who studied Chinese films in the US, I tend to share the same view as China Scholars here reagarding the fifth generation movies. And they, for the most part agree "yellow Earth" as the first fifth generation movie. Thee's an interviw of Chen kaige in Asiaweek which I urge you to read.
>Another thing, I just can't concur with
>Aryalji is his
>excessive political interpretation of
>influential
>movies.Though people have problem with the
>government,
>and a lot of people probably don't like the
>ruling
>party there,communist party is there to stay
>for at
>least a decade, I guess.They have done a
>good job.One
>that I am most impressed is education: there
>were less
>than 10% educated people in 1949, now there
>are almost
>90%.Another thing is economy:India was
>richer than
>China in 1949, now China is probably two
>times richer
>than India.
>
>People there in China are not as unhappy
>with their
>government as Aryalji thinks, or tries to
>extrapolate
>from the movies.The degree of disenchantment
>with
>government may be higher in Nepalese
>populace.
Biswo ji, don;t get me wrong. I didn't say everyone in China or the local populace at large was against the Chinese governmnet. Having spent some time in China, met people who liked the CCP and the people who didn;t think highly of it , i.e, CCP. My point is, theree is a significant proportion in China, who think the CCP needs to think over its policies, and the fifth generation CHinese movie-makers more or less represent this group.
>Still,his article is really good.
Once again, thank you very much for reading it and taking your time to write comments.
Trailokya
|
| Biswo |
Posted
on 28-Oct-00 05:39 PM
Hi Trailokya:
While in Shanghai, I spent my time shuttling between
Fang Da, and Huashida, which I am sure you are quite
familiar with.I graduated from Fang Da.Writing this
just to remind you that we may have met somewhere there, probably in Galaxy ,or in Huashida natatorium..
Any way, nice to hear from you.We will welcome more
articles from you, on virtually every subject here.
In another note: One and the eight didn't get critical
acclaim for several reasons.It got involved into alot
beaurocratic bungles , but still ,I guess Zhang Yimou
shined from this movie for his beautiful photography.
Just because it didn't get wide recognition doesn't
take away its right to be called the first movie of
China's fifth generation moviemakers.
Have you watched the newer movies from Zhang Yimou? If
you have, please make some comments and recommendation.
I watched "you hua hao hao shuo"(Keep cool) with the
director himself in Fang Da theater.In September 1998,
he collaborated with Zubin Mehta in rendition of
Puccini's "Turandot".A $15 million performance amid
the golden roofs of China's former Imperial palace,
The forbidden city, it was the most expensive opera
ever staged.We couldn't afford the tickets for the
show, but we saw that in television.
It is good news that people enjoy Chinese Movies in
KTM.I think it is very much necessary because they
show us real life situation in our neighboring country.
|
| Trailokya Aryal |
Posted
on 28-Oct-00 09:16 PM
>Hi Trailokya:
>
> While in Shanghai, I spent my time
>shuttling between
>Fang Da, and Huashida, which I am sure you
>are quite
>familiar with.I graduated from Fang Da.
>Writing this
>just to remind you that we may have met
>somewhere there, probably in Galaxy ,or in
>Huashida natatorium..
Nin hao! Biswo Xiansheng,
Wow! great. I actually spent most of my time going to Er Shi si hao RuiJIn ErLu (Tequila Mama:-). But we could have met at some point, either there or somewhere. I was there in the fall of 1998. And was again there for a week in the spring 99.
> Any way, nice to hear from you.We will
>welcome more
>articles from you, on virtually every
>subject here.
Thanks. I will be coming here more often (I didn't know this site even existed).
> In another note: One and the eight didn't
>get critical
>acclaim for several reasons.It got involved
>into alot
>beaurocratic bungles , but still ,I guess
>Zhang Yimou
>shined from this movie for his beautiful
>photography.
>Just because it didn't get wide recognition
>doesn't
>take away its right to be called the first
>movie of
>China's fifth generation moviemakers.
I absolutely agree. Thanks for telling me about this. I'll definately try my best to acquire a copy of that movie and see for myself what the real first "fifth generation" Chinese movie dealt with.
>Have you watched the newer movies from Zhang
>Yimou? If you have, please make some comments and
>recommendation.
>I watched "you hua hao hao shuo"(Keep cool)
>with the
>director himself in Fang Da theater.In
>September 1998,
>he collaborated with Zubin Mehta in
>rendition of
>Puccini's "Turandot".A $15 million
>performance amid
>the golden roofs of China's former Imperial
>palace,
>The forbidden city, it was the most
>expensive opera
>ever staged.We couldn't afford the tickets
>for the
>show, but we saw that in television.
I have watched almost all of his movies. The recent one I saw was "Not One Less" (yi ge dou bu neng xia)--about a substitute teacher and her student Zhang Yike. A great movie, highly recommended. I was looking for "keep cool" last week, but the videostores here in DC don't carry that title. I'll definately be watching that when it gets released here. And I was there when Zubin mehta's opera team was performing at Gu Gong, but couldn't afford to go there myself. (see we have something in common-liang ge dou shi mei you qian de xue sheng!:-)
>It is good news that people enjoy Chinese
>Movies in
>KTM.I think it is very much necessary
>because they
>show us real life situation in our
>neighboring country.
Me too. This clearly shows Nepal is changing.
gan xie ni!
LuKai
|
| Biswo |
Posted
on 29-Oct-00 04:55 PM
Hi Trailokya::
>Nin hao! Biswo Xiansheng,
> Wow! great. I actually spent most of my
>time going to Er Shi si hao RuiJIn ErLu (
>Tequila Mama:-). But we could have met at
>some point, either there or somewhere. I was
>there in the fall of 1998. And was again
>there for a week in the spring 99.
>
Man, we should have seen each other then, man. Tequila
Mama was my great favorite for weekend party in both 98
and 99.Sometimes we used to spend the whole night
out there, Lukai.Nice place,hunh!
I was dropping the name of Galaxy,because it was
equally popular and I was more frequent visitor of
that place because of its proximity to our(and your)
school.
>I have watched almost all of his movies. The
>recent one I saw was "Not One Less" (yi ge
>dou bu neng xia)--about a substitute teacher
>and her student Zhang Yike. A great movie,
>highly recommended. I was looking for "keep
>cool" last week, but the videostores here in
>DC don't carry that title. I'll definately
>be watching that when it gets released here.
>And I was there when Zubin mehta's opera
>team was performing at Gu Gong, but couldn't
>afford to go there myself. (see we have
>something in common-liang ge dou shi mei you
>qian de xue sheng!:-)
Keep cool is pretty nice and funny movie.Not the
kind of art movie you will look for, but a very
interesting story of modern China.I don't want
to write the story,but I just want to recommend the
movie for you.
>Me too. This clearly shows Nepal is changing.
>gan xie ni!
>LuKai
bu xie.
bisuo.
|
