Anniversary of the Greatest Chinese Director
Zhang Yimou celebrates his 70th birthday on November 14, 2021.
Zhang Yimou was born into a family of doctors in the city of Xi'an two years after the long-term civil war ended in China and the communist regime was established in the country. Yimou's father, his uncle and older brother served in the army of Chiang Kai-shek, and this affected the fate of the future director. During the Cultural Revolution, 16-year-old Zhang Yimou, as a member of a family of enemies of the people, was expelled from school and sentenced to labor re-education: first 3 years in agricultural work, and then 7 years in a cotton factory. Zhang Yimou reflected his teenage and youthful memories in his "realistic" pictures, in particular, "Huo zhe 活着 (To Live)" and "Wo de fu qin mu qin 我的父亲母亲 (The Road Home)".
Labor, as it was then customary to say, "forging" of a representative of the intelligentsia into a worker could not prevent the realization of Zhang Yimou's dream of cinema. Moreover, Zhang's road to the cinema was literally paid for with blood: for several years he regularly donated blood in order to eventually buy a camera. With this camera, he took pictures, thanks to which he was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy in 1978.
However, Zhang's admission to the film academy was far from simple. In 1978, the mistakes of the cultural revolution were recognized in China, because of which the road to creative work was closed to representatives of the intelligentsia. The doors of creative universities were open to representatives of all segments of the population, but Zhang was already 27 years old, and he was rather old to enter the film academy. Persistent Zhang wrote a letter to the Ministry of Culture and attached to it photographs taken with a camera paid for in blood. Thanks to the photographs, he was accepted into the film academy.
In 1983, Zhang Yimou, a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy with a diploma of cinematographer, was sent to a film studio in Guangxi. At this film studio, as a director of photography, he took part in the creation of 4 films, and in one of them - "Lao jing 老井 (Old Well)" (1986) - he played one of the main roles. Moreover, he played so that at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 1987 he was awarded the Best Actor award for this role.
By that time, another negative consequence of the cultural revolution for the economy and culture of China was revealed - the shortage of film directors. Many were either destroyed or permanently excommunicated from the profession. But this circumstance made it easier for Zhang Yimou to access the director's chair. In 1988, he, already as a director, shot his first full-length feature film "Hóng gāoliáng 紅高粱 (Red Sorghum)". This film literally blew up the cinematic world, brought its creator 18 film awards from different parts of the world, including the Golden Bear of the Berlin International Film Festival.
With the film "Red Sorghum" began the creative, and not only, collaboration of Zhang Yimou with the most beautiful Actress of Chinese cinema - Gong Li. During the period from 1988 to 1995, this couple created 6 films, including the masterpiece of Chinese cinema - "Da hong deng long gao gao gua 大红灯笼高高挎 (Raise the Red Lantern)". In 1995, the couple broke up, but after 11 years, the creative, but only creative, union reunited.
By his 70th birthday, Zhang Yimou has 23 self-made feature films in his filmography, one film created jointly with another director, and one short story for a movie almanac. 6 films created by Zhang Yimou are included in the Golden Thousand. Thanks to this indicator, Zhang Yimou is included in the list of the 100 greatest directors of world cinema compiled by FilmGourmand. There are only two Chinese filmmakers on this list, and Zhang Yimou tops this short list. It is this circumstance that makes it possible to call Zhang Yimou the greatest Chinese director.
On the anniversary of the great Master, we want to remind fans of his work of shots from his best films.
