`The World' of a `vagrant generation'
7/4/2005 8:45
Shanghai Daily news
The first three movies of internationally acclaimed director Jia Zhangke were
not screened in Chinese cinemas because he failed to apply for government
approval to make them. Xu Wei talks to the director about his fourth movie, one
he did seek approval to shoot Jia Zhangke, a ``sixth-generation'' Chinese movie
director, is in Shanghai earlier this week to promote his fourth feature film
but the first to achieve public release in China. ``This is the first time
I've attended such a big press conference in China to talk about a movie I have
made since 1998 when I began filmmaking,'' the 35-year-old director says with a
grin. Before its first public screening in the country which starts tomorrow,
Jia's latest movie, ``The World,'' has already garnered several international
prizes including Best Screenplay at the Deauville International Film Festival in
France last September, the Grand Prix at the Vesoul International Film Festival,
also in France, and Best Feature Film and Best Cinematography at the Las Palmas
International Film Festival in Spain last month. Critics say ``The World'' looks
at the problems of globalization and individual daily lives and touches people's
interior world. Although ``The World'' is only the first of Jia's movies to be
screened in Chinese cinemas, he has never been considered a ``small potato'' in
the domestic film industry. Eight years ago, his first film, ``Xiao Wu,'' won
awards at the Vancouver International Film Festival, the Berlin International
Film Festival and the San Francisco International Film Festival. His next two
movies, ``Platform'' (2000) and ``Unknown Pleasures'' (2002) -- which completed
the ``Hometown'' trilogy Jia had started with ``Xiao Wu'' -- also won critical
acclaim overseas. The quietly spoken Jia says his first three movies missed
public screening in China because ``the approval system is too complicated'' and
he simply decided he didn't want to apply for approval. ``Public screenings are
the wish of any film artist who intends to reach the widest audience and have
his work shared and enjoyed by others,'' Jia says. ``In those gloomy days when
people could only see my movies in movie clubs or even on pirated DVDs, I felt
like a loitering guy who was making little contribution to Chinese culture and
film. Luckily, the fate of `The World' will be different.'' Yes, it's now a
different ``world'' for Jia and his loyal fans. His ``Hometown'' trilogy
revolved around the lives of young people who live in the countryside of Fenyang
County in Shanxi Province. ``The World'' leaves the countryside to give an
insight into the lives of migrants who have moved to the city and a lot of the
action is set against a background of bustling urban life. ``I've wanted to make
this film for a long time, ever since I left my hometown to study at the Beijing
Film Academy in 1993,'' Jia says. ``I wanted to make a film that reflects the
influence high-paced urban life has on individuals.'' The story is set in
Beijing's World Park where artificial landmarks from all over the world -- an
Egyptian pyramid, the Eiffel Tower and the White House -- combine to create an
imaginary world. The migrants in the movie have come to Beijing to find work.
Zhao Xiaotao (Zhao Tao) is a girl from Shanxi Province who puts on dance shows
in World Park every day. Her boyfriend Tai Sheng (Cheng Taishen), another
migrant, works as a security guard in the sealed-off environment of the park.
Day after day, the two are either performing in or patrolling around the park.
Feelings of depression, emptiness and anxiety seem to be the common condition
among all the migrants in the movie -- from the young couple who work in the
park to a shrewd tailor from Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province to the hardworking
construction workers. ``The character I played is proud and decisive in the park
but outside he would be despised by others as a migrant,'' says actor Cheng
Taishen, a graduate of the Central Academy of Drama. ``When night falls, he
wanders around the park with a white horse. His deep loneliness and helplessness
in trying to live in a big city life bubble over in this hyper-realistic
scene.'' The migrant workers are all typical members of ``a vagrant
generation,'' explains Jia. ``They are floating like leaves and have no place to
take root. They are working hard on the bottom rung of urban life but feel it
will be impossible to fit into urban culture. The movie tries to show what could
happen if migrants' psychological condition can't keep up with the rapid pace of
urbanization.'' As with his previous movies, Jia doesn't offer a definite
explanation of the meaning of ``The World.'' ``What I am able to do is to put
forward a question to the audience and arouse their awareness about the living
conditions of others, about life and the real world,'' Jia says. Jia continues
his documentary style of filmmaking in ``The World'' with frequent use of long
shots, pop music, natural sound effects and local dialects. And the cast once
again features amateur actors. Zhao Tao, who plays the heroine, is a dancing
teacher at Taiyuan Normal University in Shanxi Province. ``It makes his works
more true to life,'' says Steven Qian, one of Jia's local fans. ``The farmers
with their strong accents act themselves naturally in the movie. However, behind
the gritty realism there is also high artistry.'' Jia is adept at controlling
the rhythms of the story. He abandons the use of dramatic narrative plots,
commonly part of Hollywood blockbusters, and he attaches great importance to
details. Some new elements have been added to ``The World.'' For the first time
Jia employed a fully professional crew and he also enlisted Taiwanese composer
Lim Giong, who composed the scores for many of Hou Hsiao-hsien's (a famous
Taiwanese filmmaker) movies. And Jia himself wrote the lyrics for ``Ulan Bator
Night'' which features in the movie. The floating music of the tune perfectly
matches the living conditions of the characters. The use of flashes as
interludes is another creative highlight of the movie. ``This can better
emphasize people's confusion about modernity and the rapidity of change caused
by the opening up of the economy,'' Jia says. ``Plus, this fashionable Internet
language will make the movie more digital, stylish and young.'' Growing up in
the countryside -- his father was a school teacher and his mother a shop
assistant -- Jia saw in his childhood the poverty that used to be pervasive in
rural areas. He helped his family bring in the wheat harvest and one year had
the experience of living on a diet of sweet potato for a whole winter. After
graduating from the Beijing Film Academy in 1997, Jia raised some 200,000 yuan
(US$24,000) for his first film ``Xiao Wu,'' a story about a pickpocket.
``Platform'' focuses on the years 1979 to 1992 and ``Unknown Pleasures'' is a
story about teenager bank robbers. All three movies enjoyed international
success but none of them had been approved for shooting by the Chinese
government simply because Jia didn't want to follow the procedures necessary to
gain approval. ``When I shot `The World,' the pressure I was under in production
was greatly reduced as I didn't have to worry that something would interrupt the
shooting because this time the movie had been approved,'' Jia says. ``Another
good change was that we had a much bigger budget (about 12 million yuan) and
could shoot in more sensitive places -- like public spaces, train stations, bus
stations.'' Now Jia is busy making a documentary entitled ``Still Object'' and
is planning to write a sequel to ``Xiao Wu'' in which the pickpocket has become
a middle-aged man. ``A director cannot count on miracles,'' Jia says. ``The
process of accumulating and learning knowledge is the most essential and
important thing and that is the way I take and follow.'' And perhaps Chinese
movie fans should cross their fingers for Jia in the future because as long as
he follows the rules, there will be more public screenings of his films.
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