China Film Journal

Earlier this year, we prefaced our interview of a rising star in film with the provocative title, The World is Not Enough: Has Jia Zhangke Permanently Left the Art House?

I should hope not. From my view Stateside it seems that Jia Zhangke (贾樟柯) has just arrived. After all, I had been waiting since 2006 for the U.S. release of Still Life (Sanxia Haoren: literally, “The Good People of Three Gorges”). So I waited. And waited. And wouldn’t you know, I waited.

Still Life made its American premiere in January 2008 at New York’s IFC Center. It reached the West Coast in April, at the San Francisco International Film Festival, and a month later, showed for a week at one of the Lumiere Theatres in the Bay Area. In other words, an art house. So is Jia leaving the art house, just as he has entered it?

I think two different meanings of that phrase at play. One is subjective, about the film itself: serious, often experimental and avant-garde, produced independently, with a singular vision (i.e. that of an auteur). One is objective, the circumstances in which the film and by extension, the filmmaker, is received: where it plays and what audience.

The term “art house” or “art film” turns out to be a uniquely American one, due to the monopoly of commercially-oriented Hollywood films in American theaters (and abroad), leaving acknowledged serious films domestic and international limited to certain theaters. They could be specialty film centers such as the IFC in New York or Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, or repertory theaters that show classics for a day and new releases for a week, two on popular demand. In the suburbs, they could be the occasional chain-operated theater set aside for niche movies, or the single screen reserved at the 30-plex theater.

An independent film with strong prospects may open at several dozen screens. For example, a Jane Austen adaptation starring Emma Thompson (and a not-so-famous Kate Winslet). Sense and Sensibility opened at 70 screens in 1995. That sounds like a lot, but with nearly 300 million people and 400 metropolitan areas, it clearly did not show within driving distance of many Americans. In contrast, The Dark Knight opened at over 4000 screens in the US. The art film’s initial unqualified success did allow it to expand to several hundred screens, thus “leaving the art house”.

A more recent example is the phenomenon known as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Buoyed by the art house successes of Sense and Sensibility and The Ice Storm, Ang Lee’s film was able to open at . . . 16 screens!! Two reasons come to mind. Foreign language films have smaller potential audiences, and so they started smaller. Also, they opened smaller at the start of December to build up to Christmas season.

Well Christmas came and went, and a month later it was playing at close to 200 screens, so it was bumped to 700 screens for another three weeks. But wait, it wasn’t going away. In fact those 700 screens were packed. So well after the holiday season, Crouching Tiger played at 1200 screens, then 1700…until it reached an unheard-of 2000 screens for a foreign language film. The punctuated equilbrium of this theatrical progression is fascinating to chart. It appears the powers that be expected such a film only needed 173 screens when it opened those screens, and when it exceeded all expectations, took some time before it made non-art screens available to the wire-fu epic. Put another way, it was the Obama of the cinema world.

At its theatrical peak, in February 2008, Still Life played at two screens. The World, his previous international success, hit three screens in the US. Of course, none of these record film festival screenings, which are lovely feathers in the cap but do little for accessibility. Seattle on May 23 and Austin on October 12? No thanks. Given the 4000+ screens available in the US, it seems even the proliferation of international films can find their, um, niche in a physical art house. Perhaps Netflix and soon the Internet will render inconsequential the movie bottleneck in the theaters. But the reviews, the buzz, the “event-ness” of a film today accompany generally just its theatrical release.

There is another world, one that falls somewhere between the visibility of repertory theaters and the singularity of film festivals. That’s the art museum world. At some point art museums decided to show international films as part of its regular exhibitions. Perhaps it’s an extension of their experimental film and video showings, or as a long awaited acknowledgment of narrative film as art with a capital “A”. While each film shows for a day or two, the program (often focusing on one filmmaker) may last weeks, giving the curious time and opportunity to taste some of the oeuvre.

The San Francisco Bay Area is fortunate to have several such venues for film. This month, SF Museum of Modern Art is showing the film series Rediscovering the Fourth Generation as part of its exhibit on Chinese contemporary art. Films include Wu Tian Ming’s River Without Buoys, Xie Fei’s Black Snow, and Huang Shuqin’s Woman Demon Human.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts tends to focus on experimental and documentary type films. Next month it premieres Fengming: A Chinese Memoir by Wang Bing, which showed at last year’s Cannes. Here’s the Variety review. He Fengming survived “anti-rightist” persecutions for decades and lived to tell her three-hour tale.

Across the Bay, the Berkeley Art Museum’s Pacific Film Archive functions more like a stand-alone film center. Though nominally tied with the art museum’s contemporary Chinese art exhibit, the PFA had an extraordinary program this month. Unknown Pleasures: The Films of Jia Zhangke allowed Bay Area audiences to see for the first time “the quartet of beautifully constructed, profoundly astute examinations of a changing China”, as the Village Voice called Pickpocket (Xiao Wu), Platform, Unknown Pleasures, and The World.

That series has ended but is followed up this weekend with a four-day, five-film seriesI Love Beijing: The Films of Ning Ying , capped by a “master class” from Ning Ying (宁瀛) herself. But wait, there’s more! November features Mahjong: New Independent Chinese Cinema, a sample of 21st century visions from Beijing, Sanxia, and Anyang to an art house, I mean art museum, near you.

A quick post about some earthquake and film related news: first off, Jia Zhangke, at the Cannes Film Festival where his new film 24 City was recently screened, lead a moment of silence for the earthquake victims and dedicated the film to the memory of the victims. The film is actually set in Chengdu, Sichuan.

Jet Li donated one million yuan and his charitable foundation, the One Foundation, has collected 28.05 million yuan and is sending supplies to Sichuan.

And lastly, a 17 member team of filmmakers is making a documentary about the earthquake. The film is provisionally entitled “Wenchuan” and they started filming on May 14, two days after the earthquake happened.

According to the Chinese media, France’s MK2 has secured theatrical rights for the new Jia Zhangke (贾樟柯) film 24 City (24城记), which is going to screen soon at the Cannes Film Festival.

Think Rocky V, but during the Olympics. Jackie Chan, 54, will engage in some kind of fighting? boxing? kung fu? exhibition against Tszyu, 38, a welterweight boxer from Russia and former Olympian. However, as this is China’s Olympics, we suspect that, like in the movies, Chan will triumph over the white man in the final, climactic scene. If he’s in top form, he might be able to rescue some Ming vases and other priceless artifacts of Chinese culture at the same time! The exhibition has been agreed upon by both parties and would be set for August 22 or 23, depending on whether or not it gets final IOC approval.

Ang Lee’s next film is going to be a film adaptation of the book Taking Woodstock, a autobiography/memoir by Eliot Tiber, one of the guys that organized that world-shaking festival in the summer of 69. It’s also the story of a young, Jewish, and (then) closeted gay kid finding his way in the late 1960s gay scene of Greenwich Village, where he hobnobs with with artists and cultural icons. Lee said that Tiber walked up to him somewhere when he was promoting Lust, Caution in the US and handed him the book. He found it so moving that he decided it would become his next film project.

Last but not least, Jia Zhangke (贾樟柯）is the only Chinese film director to make it into the official competition at Cannes, with his new film The Story of 24 City (24城记）about the changes in the lives of factory women in the 1970s.

Do films with titles like “Feathers of Dongtan” and “Sounds. Breaths” give you a tingle in your special area? If not, fret not, there’s still some time to develop that acquired taste which is promotional films for really-big-Chinese-events. “Vision Shanghai”, like “Vision Beijing,” is going to feature documentary films by famous directors, thought the names of those directors have yet to be released. However, Shanghai Film Group has announced its next Expo film, a full-length doc by Jia Zhangke. We’ve been hearing about this intermittently for awhile, and whatever our reservations about promo films, we’re still curious to see what Jia’s up to with this film.The article says that trailers are being shown on TV soon, but we haven’t seen anything new on the video-sharing sites.

From Blogcritics.org we find a post about Orlando Bloom taking the lead role in the upcoming Hong Kong Phooey live-action movie. Toonzone links to a Variety article reports that Bretter Ratner’s Rat Entertainment is going to produce this film. Kirsten Dunst is reportedly playing the lead female character, telephone operator Rosemary. The movie is based on a short-lived Hanna-Barbara Saturday morning cartoon. Blogcritics says that Johnny To is going to direct – and then proceeds to call To the “Jerry Bruckheimer of Hong Kong,” which we would find insulting if we were To. But who knows, maybe he’d take it as a compliment.

Supporters of Tang Wei, the Lust, Caution that was recently banned by SARFT, has become a bit of a cause celebre – Danwei translates an open letter to Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao asking that she be allowed to work again.

Lastly, again from Variety, is news that some French films are going to screen in Shanghai as part of the fifth French Film Panorama： “Pics include “Asterix at the Olympic Games,” “Towards Zero,” “Hunting and Gathering,” “Dragon Hunters” and “Go West! A Lucky Luke Adventure.” We were just in Paris and some of these movies are still being advertised and still showing in the theaters. So they’re newish movies, yes, but tend to fall on the schlocky side of the spectrum. Not really the most representative slice of French film perhaps, but in case you’re interested, this is happening from April 15-19, though we don’t know which four Shanghai cinemas they are screening at.Technorati Tags: tang wei, lust, caution, ban, censorship, China, SARFT, hong kong phooey, orlando bloom, johnnie to, cartoons, comics, jia zhangke, documentary, Expo, worldexpo, 2010

“Sixth Generation” director Jia Zhangke has long been adored by art-house audiences, but in the past year his indie cred has taken a series of hits. Last June, Jia agreed to act as artistic director for a highly commercial, Visa-sponsored, state-approved Olympic film project. More recently, it was announced that he had cast pop star Jay Chow in his upcoming kung fu-themed The Age of Tattoo. Both these career decisions have drawn inevitable comparisons with fellow Venice Golden Lion-winning director Zhang Yimou, who has long since embraced the mainstream. Coincidentally, Zhang’s also heavily involced with the Olympics, and also cast Jay Chow for his glitzy costume melodrama Curse of the Golden Flower. Has Jia finally outgrown independent cinema? We sat down with him to find out.

Q: Your current projects appear to be a considerable departure from your previous work.

Jia Zhangke (JZK): Up to now, my work has been on contemporary life. But [The Story of 24 City] is set in the 50s and the 70s.

Q: There’s a lot of talk about your other project, The Age of Tattoo, including the casting of Jay Chow. It’s also been said that there will be some kung fu scenes.

ZJK: Actually, the film is based on Su Tong’s novel, about a violent teenager who symbolizes the violence during the cultural revolution. As far as Jay Chow goes, he is very proper for this role. He has a cool image, something like a young hooligan from the 1970s. In terms of budget, since the movie is set in the 1970s, we had to restore locations to look like the period. This is very expensive, and the only way we were going to get the money, which came from China and abroad, was if we were going to have a big star.

Q: Can you understand that some people feel that adapting a big novel and using a big star is very unusual for you…

JZK: I don’t mind. If Jay Chow is proper for this film, I will use him. Besides, I have my own way of using Jay Chow.

Q: Does the shift in time periods mean that you’ve done everything that you wanted with modern life?

JZK: It’s not that I’ve accomplished everything that I wanted to do in this period, but that I was able to find historical causes for the changes that are taking place now. Workers’ lives change a lot in the shift to urbanization. In The Story of 24 City, I will tell a story about three women in the 50s, the 70s, and the present day, as society makes the transition from collectivism to individualism.

Q: Given the nature of these people and their situation, how did you find this story in the first place?

JZK: Their factory in Chengdu was once very big, with more than 20,000 workers. When a real estate company purchased the site, the factory was demolished and all the workers lost their jobs. It was a typical case of urbanization in today’s China. I went there, saw the conditions, and it occurred to me that in five or ten years this story would be forgotten. So my aim is to use the medium of film to keep their story from disappearing..

Q: For the film, you collaborated with the poet Zhai Yongming instead of producing the script alone as you have done in the past.

JZK: We have a very good method of collaborating. I did the interviews and then wrote the first draft. Zhai, who’s from that area rewrote the script from a female point of view. She has a sophisticated understanding of the feelings of women during the time. For example, in those days women had very few possessions, and I wanted to know how society defined sexiness. Of course, she knows more about that than I do.

Q: Do you every think about your place in history as a member of china’s Sixth Generation of filmmakers? Does that mean anything to you?

JZK: No. (Laughs.) I don’t care how I am known, Sixth Generation or whatever. The moment I accept such labels, I lose my freedom. I am just doing what I love.

Q: What do you think about the films of Fifth Generation directors?

JZK: The golden period for Fifth Generation directors occurred when I was in middle school and later in university. I especially like their early works, including Chen Kaige’s Yellow Earth. Before Yellow Earth, I was just a moviegoer. After that, I knew I wanted to become a director.

Q: Did the Fifth Generation sell out? Did they go Hollywood?

JZK: Going to Hollywood isn’t bad. Hollywood produces fine films. There are many respected European directors, for example, who work in the US. The real difficulty for foreign directors [working in the US] is finding a way to retain their outlook and beliefs.

Q: Will you go to Hollywood?

JZK: I don’t know yet. I don’t like to plan too far in advance.

In the World 世界, actress Zhao Tao 赵涛 plays a dancer at an “international” theme park, which means that one day she performs in India and the next in Africa. That role is an apt metaphor for her career, moving from role to role and touring the globe in a whirlwind of costume changes. There is one aspect of her life however that is constant, however: the presence of Jia Zhangke  贾樟柯.

Zhao first met the legendary director of Unknown Pleasures, Still Life, and The Age of Tattoo, to be released later this year, in 1999 during Jia’s six month search for a leading lady for Platform. At the time, Zhao, a graduate of Beijing Dance College, was teaching dance at Taiyuan Normal College. Though they have since formed a strong professional bond, it was not “love at first sight.” In fact, Zhao thought Jia was trying to pick her up–and required a lot of convincing before she agreed to take part in the project. “I knew little about film then,” says Zhao, “and I didn’t know anything about him. He had to show me some proof before I believed he was a real director.” Eventually, Zhao came to appreciate both the opportunities Jia provided and his role as a mentor, though she has often suffered from what some critics describe as the director’s extraordinary intensity when it comes to his craft. During the filming of Still Life, for example, Jia asked the film crew to purposely alienate Zhao, a ploy he believed would result in a stronger performance. “People say that if you can work with Jia Zhangke, you can work with anyone,” says Zhao. “I’m a happy, cheerful person but [during the filming of Still Life] he told others on the set not to talk to me and I didn’t know why. I felt terribly alone and isolated from other people.”

Zhao gave a memorable performance as the tough and tender wife in search of her husand. In return, she has repaid Jia with loyalty.

Though she’s received offers from other directors, Zhao acts exclusively for Jia, in part, because he doesn’t shy away from life’s harsh realities. “[Jia's films] are a reflection of people’s lifes,” says Zhao, “not what is shown on TV. A person has to face life’s truths.” 

The 10th annual Deauville Asian Film Festival began a couple of days ago, but we hadn’t been keeping close tabs on it. But lo and behold, what pops up in Google reader other than the news that Chinese director Jia Zhangke won some kind of artistic achievement award at the festival. Intrigued by this we opened up the article, only to find that there wasn’t that much information at all. So we decided to find what we could in the English and/or French press. In English there was just about nothing. In French all we could find was this article, which tells us the various films that won awards (Feng Xiaogang’s Assembly 《集結號》 was one of them) and the directors that were offered some kind of “hommage” — but if you look at the bottom of that link you will see that Jia Zhangke was not alone in this category. There are other Japanese and Korean directors, as well as Chinese actor/director Jiang Wen. So why does the Chinese article only mention Jia? Was that some kind of oversight, or are there different subvisions or categories of “hommage”? In all truth, it probably doesn’t matter. Jia’s already the toast of the European film festival circuit, so no surprises here, but he is still young (38), and we’re still cheering him on, and eagerly awaiting his new movies, fiction and documentary alike. We don’t really read French, but maybe you do, in which case you can find out more here, or here.

In case you’re wondering, as we did, where the heck Deauville is, here’s Google to the rescue:View Larger Map