Zhang Yimou, the acclaimed Chinese director behind Hero and the Olympics opening ceremony, was once an edgy filmmaker whose work was frowned upon – and sometimes banned – by authorities.
But now, as he helps to orchestrate the lavish festivities for communist China s 60th birthday, Zhang has become the government s director-of-choice in a stark turn-around that some have dubbed a sell-out.
He is getting more and more closely combined with authority, said fellow director Jia Zhangke, who is seen as a leader of the Sixth Generation, an independent film movement.
The success of his recent films on the market also lies in a certain rapport with power.
But it was not always so. Zhang, 57, grew up in the northern province of Shaanxi under the shadow of his family s politically unsavory past.
His father was in the Nationalist army, which was defeated by the Communists in 1949 after a protracted civil war, leading to the creation of the People s Republic, and two of his uncles were also closely linked with the losing side.
When he was just 17, Zhang was sent to work in the Shaanxi countryside as punishment for his background during the turbulent Cultural Revolution.
Some cadres children were also attacked during the Cultural Revolution, and they suffered a lot, but after… they were rehabilitated, Zhang is quoted as saying in the book Memoirs from the Beijing Film Academy.
It was different for people like us. They say you spend 30 years on the bad side of the river and then 30 years on the good side, meaning that your fate is always unpredictable, but I was always kept on one side of the river.
Then in 1978, after his labor detail and a long stint at a cotton mill in Shaanxi where he discovered photography, he was admitted to the illustrious Beijing Film Academy.
His whole childhood and upbringing were an exercise in learning how to live in an order that has already – even before you were born – decided you are a bad person, said Chris Berry, a film professor at London s Goldsmiths College and one of Zhang s acquaintances.
Both resentment and the desire for approval are evident in Zhang s films.
Some of the director s early movies were initially not released in China.
And he got into big trouble in 1994 with To Live, the story of a family s trials and tribulations from the 1940s until the Cultural Revolution, which sharply criticized the authorities.
The film – which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival – was banned in China, and Zhang was prohibited from directing for two years.
The harsh punishment, as well as attacks by some Chinese critics who accused him of pandering to foreigners in his films, proved a turning point for Zhang.
In 1999, he angrily pulled his film Not One Less from the Cannes festival over accusations that it was politically soft.
Since then, Zhang has felt insulted by the West and has not been interested in art house films, Berry said.
And so in 2002, Zhang released Hero – a grandiose, blockbuster martial arts movie that became the highest-grossing motion picture in Chinese history.
He followed it up with the sweeping House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower in 2004 and 2006.
Michael Berry, an expert on Chinese films at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said this shift to blockbusters was partly due to a need to produce Chinese films that could compete commercially with Hollywood fare.
These are almost national salvation films, not so much in terms of their content, but they are films that aim to bring Chinese audiences back to theatres to see Chinese-language films, he said.
Jia, however, said Zhang had surrendered his edge.
In these films, people give up their defense in the face of power, and totalitarianism is rationalized, he said.
It s very hard for me to accept the defense of totalitarianism – it lacks modern spirit and is a backward idea.
For the authorities, Zhang is now the perfect ambassador.
Zhang Yimou… is a major contributor to the development of Chinese culture, Culture Minister Cai Wu told reporters in the run-up to the National Day festivities.
Some say Zhang s about-face is a sell-out, but for Chinese film expert Luisa Prudentino, his recent projects are about him doing what he does best – spectacular performances and films.
It s not really a desire to suck up to the party, and as long as he is left alone to express his talent, he is happy, she said.
