For the past five years, Zhang Yimou has switched back and forth from action blockbusters with mass appeal to the more personal art-house film. His latest work falls in the latter category. Or does it? With a modest budget of RMB 56 million, this movie might best be described as an ‘art-house blockbuster’. It has been promoted and distributed like a blockbuster and has enough appeal to reach audiences across Asia and beyond. But at the same time, it’s the sort of work that will wow film-festival goers. The plot concerns a Japanese fisherman who travels thousands of miles to Yunnan province in search of a local opera performer who was supposed to sing for the fisherman’s terminally ill son. The story is an excuse to throw a taciturn Japanese guy - played by ‘Japanese Clint Eastwood’ Ken Takakura - into the Chinese countryside and see what happens. While the film has definite commercial potential (just ask the Yunnan tourism board), its also addresses father-son relationships and the culture gap in a thought-provoking manner. So is this hybrid a sign of what’s to come? Perhaps Zhang’s next flick, Autumn Remembrance, will be a ‘blockbuster art-house’ film.
Toho Company

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
March 2006 issue



(c)that's Guangzhou
Guanzhou Chief editor: Christopher Cottrell
March 2006 issue