The most well-known and productive director of Chinese cinema: Who is Zhang Yimou?

Zhang Yimou, who presents the transformation of the country, sometimes with short stories and sometimes with epic images from the imperial age, without falling into the trap of Orientalism, is a rare blessing for those who want to explore the geography of China in an aesthetic frame...

Zhang Yimou, the most well-known and productive director of Chinese cinema, is an original director who draws his motivation from China's rich past and presents his stories in unforgettable cinematography. After working in the field for three years and in the factory for seven years, he started university at the age of 27 to transform his social conditions. After graduating in 1982, he started directing in 1987 by making the movie 'Red Millet Fields', based on Mo Yang's novel of the same name. The film tells the story of a family living in the countryside during the Japanese occupation of China. Thus, he made his first foray into literary adaptations and Chinese history, which would constantly feed his filmography.

Zhang Yimou (born 14 November 1951) is a Chinese filmmaker. Considered a key figure of China's Fifth Generation filmmakers, he made his directorial debut in 1988 with Red Sorghum, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

After the film won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival, Zhang Yimou became a well-known name in international circles. The adjective Fifth Generation is used to describe those who grew up with cinema education, which restarted after the Cultural Revolution, which lasted from 1966 to 1976. Zhang Yimou, one of the Fifth Generation directors, also worked on many films as a cinematographer. It is possible to see this feature in the unforgettable cinematography of his later films.

THE DIRECTOR WHO STARTED HIS CAREER WITH HIS BLOOD

One of the things that makes Zhang Yimo unique is the story of buying his first camera. It is impossible not to be impressed by this anecdote that is so striking that it became the subject of a movie. "I didn't have much money at that time, I could only put aside 5 yen every month. But a camera cost 188 yen, which was a lot of money for me. I had to work for at least 2-3 years to buy a camera. I saved money for a year, but it didn't seem like it would happen. At that time "You could donate blood for money and that's what I did. I still remember it in November or December of 1974. I sold my blood and bought a new camera. I can say that this was my first contact with the film industry."

CINEMA EMBODIED WITH LITERATURE

Literature has an important place in Zhang Yimou's filmography. Zhang Yimou brought the works of important writers of Chinese literature to the big screen: For example, the works of Nobel Prize winners Mo Yang and Yu Hua, who are among the most well-known writers outside China. Geling Yan's novels are based on the Japanese Occupation and especially the Cultural Revolution.

The director's adaptation of Geling Yan's novels, 'Flowers of Evil', 'Back Home', and 'One Second', was a striking example of the impact of big social transformations on small human stories.

RETURN HOME: LOVE REQUIRES WORK

The film focuses on what happened when an academic who was captured during the Cultural Revolution returned home years later and his wife did not recognize him. The reason why the woman does not recognize her husband is the trauma caused by her captive husband's escape a few years ago and being caught again by state officials at the train station, where they had made an agreement to escape with him when he came to her. When the Cultural Revolution ends and academic Lu returns home, he encounters the harsh truth. His wife, whom he has been waiting for longingly as a prisoner, exhausted for years, and whose love he keeps alive with the letters she sends him, does not know him.

ONE SECOND: LOST IN THE MOVIE FRAME

In the 2020 movie 'One Second', this time the young man who was captured during the Cultural Revolution learns that his daughter appears in a promotional film frame and escapes from the camp, and sets out on the roads to reach that film. He makes plans to steal the reels for his daughter, who appears in one of the newsreels shown before the movies. When he finds the film reels, he learns that there is another person who is interested in movies. In the story set in rural China in 1974, we see a story that extends from deserts to towns, with an impressive visual narrative that has become Zhang Yimou's signature. Especially the movie screening scenes in the cinema hall present a very impressive picture. While we watch the man struggling to reach the film frame containing his daughter, we also watch the film culture of the period in rural China. The scenes where the scattered films are cleaned from the reel are so rare that they remind us of the Italian cinema classic 'Cinema Paradiso'.

DIRECTOR OF THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION

"During the ten years of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, I was between the ages of 16 and 26 and witnessed many chaotic situations and tragic events. Seeing the helplessness of human life and society was somehow beneficial to me. This situation affected my work, my way of thinking, and even my way of dealing with events. " Zhang Yimou summarizes the effects of the Cultural Revolution on him with his statements. The main source of inspiration for his films can be listed as social transformations, political events, and the reflections of these events on the lives of ordinary people in China.

Especially the Cultural Revolution and the Japanese occupation constitute Zhang Yimou's most important motivation. Zhang Yimou, who presents the transformation of the country sometimes with short stories and sometimes with epic images from the imperial age, without falling into the trap of orientalism, is a great blessing for those who want to explore the geography of China in an aesthetic frame.