18 Thursday, May 31, 2018 LIFE CHINA DAILY HONG KONG EDITION
Actress Zhao Tao and actor Liao Fan star in Jia Zhangke’s latest film, Ash Is Purest White.
ver the past 16 years, Jia ing is rooted in martial arts, where it Zhangke has seen five of refers to the lifestyle that the protag his directorial movies onists choose to lead. They are a nominated for the Palme sidelined, lowclass minority who Od’Or, one of the movie world’s most pursue power or money, as well as prestigious awards. LATEST FILM maintain justice in a system built Again, his latest effort, Ash Is Pur more on human relations than law. est White, was nominated for the Chinese cinema has depicted a honor at the recently held 71st Can number of such roles, especially in nes Film Festival, as well as being Hong Kong’s triad movies, with selected to compete in a further six John Woo’s iconic 1986 movie, A Bet categories: best actress, best actor, IS PUREST JIA ter Tomorrow, as one of the most best director, best screenplay, the representative examples. Jury Prize and the Grand Prix. “Jianghu is a phrase very familiar However, while Jia’s film failed to With complex characters and a smalltown setting, to the domestic audience, but diffi topple Japanese rival Hirokazu cult to understand for their Western Koreeda’s Shoplifters for the top Jia Zhangke’s new gangland flick, Ash Is Purest White, is an epic, counterparts. After consulting with prize, the 48yearold auteur is opti some critics, we decided to keep the mistic about the future. nostalgic tale told over nearly two decades. Xu Fan reports. pinyin spelling in the subtitles to Recently, Jia, alongside his wife convey its uniqueness in Chinese,” and lead actress Zhao Tao, as well as says Jia. actor Liao Fan, presented at a Bei “For me, jianghu is a legendary jing event to announce the China world, and it’s also a distinctive way wide opening of Ash Is Purest White for the Chinese to socialize with on Sept 21. each other. I believe it will resonate While considering his past with Chinese audiences.” achievements — especially at the The script, in which Jia focuses Venice International Film Festival more on the characters than the — Jia remains pragmatic about the backdrop of an evershifting Chi Cannes defeat. “It’s fair to lose some nese society — a shared theme in thing when you have gained anoth most of his early films — took him er. I told my team, teasingly, that the three years to write. honor will belong to us one day.” “The entire process of creation is As a regular at international film very exciting. It reminds me of the festivals, Jia nabbed the coveted smalltown life, the romances there Golden Lion, the top honor at the and the historic moments we have Venice festival, for his film, Still Life, experienced,” observes the Feng in 2006. His features Platform and yangborn director. To pay homage to The World were also screened in Awards in 2015 for his starring role at the vast starry sky in Xinjiang. his youth, he shot twothirds of the competition at the Italian festival in in Mr Six — plays a Chinesemedi “I wanted to shoot a movie that movie on film, rather than digitally. 2000 and 2004, respectively. cine practitioner who is a master of was more like a novel, which covers His cast, most of whom are fellow However, it’s Zhao and Liao that acupuncture. a long time span and features com directors, were keen to pay tribute he feels sorry for, noting: “I think Xu, known for his roles in the plex characters,” says Jia, adding to Jia’s work. they both perform extraordinarily blockbusters Lost in Thailand and that time will help audiences to Zhang, known for directing com and, while they have won a lot of Lost in Hong Kong, plays a scifi nov understand the protagonists and ingofage movies like Fleet of Time, international acclaim, I really hope elist, a character loosely based on their struggles. recalls that despite the version he their effort will be rewarded.” Liu Cixin, the first Asian author to Set from 2001 until present day, watched in Cannes having a sound As Jia’s biggest budget movie to win the Hugo Award, according to the 141minute film follows a couple track in the Shanxi dialect and being date, Ash Is Purest White also stars Jia. of onetime lovers through the huge subtitled in French — both difficult Chinese cinematic heavyweights “In recent years, I’ve been spend transformation of China. Zhao’s for him to understand — he was Feng Xiaogang, Xu Zheng, Zhang ing most of the time in my home character, Qiao Qiao, is a good touched by the romance between Yibai and Diao Yinan. town (in Shanxi province) and scifi hearted woman who gets sentenced the protagonists. The crew traveled around 7,000 ideas have often come to mind,” to five years in jail for protecting her Directoractor Xu says he was kilometers to shoot sequences in explains Jia. boyfriend Bin, a hooligan with high privileged to walk into “Jia’s cine Shanxi province, the Three Gorges With an increasing interest to aspirations, played by Liao. matic world”, that he said for dec area and the Xinjiang Uygur auton explore the meaning of time and Any foreign viewer who wants to ades has provided a window into omous region. space, Jia writes Xu’s character as an get the core of the movie should China through which Western mov Despite being widely recognized eloquent novelist who is enthusias first understand the Chinese term iegoers could enjoy the country. as one of the country’s top directors, tic about outer space and he also Jia Zhangke (right), with director Zhang Yibai (left) and director/actor Xu jianghu, which literally translates Feng — who won the best actor created a sequence that features Zheng, announce the Chinawide opening of Jia’s new film, Ash Is Purest to “river and lake”. Contact the writer at award at the 52nd Golden Horse actress Zhao’s character marveling White, in September. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY In Jia’s movie, the phrase’s mean [email protected]
think matters more than the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games,” Han says. Chinese scifi enters Economically, China overtook Japan to become the world’s second largest economy in 2010. And, in the same year, China surpassed the Unit pivotal new phase ed States for the first time to have the biggest output value of any manufac turing country in the world. By YANG YANG Interstellar, 1968’s 2001: A Space And a year later, and for the first [email protected] Odyssey, or even this year’s Annihi Ash, starring Xu Feng in Li Xiaofeng’s time in China’s long history as an lation, which was adapted from the directorial feature in 2017. agricultural country, the urban pop Scifi writer Liu Cixin has said on 2015 Nebula Award winner that ulation exceeded that of rural areas. many occasions that he wanted to beat Liu’s ThreeBody Problem. “All these mark the huge progress see his bestselling novel to date, The For film director Li Xiaofeng, Chi his The ThreeBody Problem trilogy that China has made on its road to ThreeBody Problem, portrayed on nese scifi movies will only be able to in the periodical Science Fiction modernization,” Han says. the big screen, or, preferably, as a TV improve if the genre is more widely World and culminated in 2010 when Since 2010, a huge amount of drama adaptation. accepted by Chinese audiences and the trilogy was published in book money has been invested in the sci Work on the movie version of the enters the mainstream, rather than Film director Li Xiaofeng (right) and writer Han Song talk about the form, was not only a key turning encefiction industry, which has book — which is in fact the first vol attracting a relatively small number prospects of China’s scifi movies at a Beijing event. point. It also appeared to predict the now become prosperous. And Chi ume of Liu’s Remembrance of of followers as it does today. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY coming of the fourth wave of Chi nese people are more determined Earth’s Past trilogy, but better Li, the director of Ne Zha and Ash, nese scifi, which Han describes as than ever to make a really great scifi known to Chinese readers as the is now producing a movie adapted “unprecedented”. film like Interstellar, Han says. title of the trilogy — began in March from Han Song’s short story, Cold gy to achieve such high levels of make great scifi films, Han Song He connects this fever, Liu’s suc “Why? Because China is the coun 2015, and the film was initially War and Messenger. It is a scifi sto craftsmanship.” says. One of the most popular scifi cess as the first Asian author to win try that has the most complete man scheduled to be screened in 2016. ry about love and time shot against “According to my experience of writers in the country today, Han’s the Hugo Award with the economic, ufacturing chain in the world.” And But despite the high expectations of the backdrop of an interstellar Cold filming in recent years, the different works have won several major Chi social and scientific advancements scifi, the heavy industry of the film the Chinese moviegoing public, the War set in the near future. sections of China’s film industry are nese scifi awards including the Gal in China. genre, can be seen as a symbol of the release of the movie has been post “Scifi films are to cinema as so loosely organized that it is very axy Award and the Xingyun Award “Why did the books appear in development of science and technol poned several times since then, and heavy industries are to industry in difficult to achieve the texture of for Global Chinese Science Fiction. 2010? It was a special turning point ogy, especially in the cuttingedge is now not expected until 2019. general,” he says. “Because for me, ‘heavy industry’ in a movie,” he says. Mary Shelly completed the in China’s history. It was the year fields such as developing space sta Many people, however, remain half of it is about manufacturing, “We still lag far behind the Holly world’s first scifi novel, Franken when the first people born in the tions, car engines or microchips. pessimistic about the quality of the such as the making of the minia wood in terms of conceptual design stein, in 1818. And for China, the 1980s turned 30 years old. This gen “You can see why we want to make movie, largely because China has so tures in Blade Runner (1982) or the and adopting an efficient, wellorga three waves of scifi fever which eration is very different to all the pre a good scifi movie so much,” Han far never produced a successful sci outfits that the 1.9metertall Bolaji nized approach to production in our began at the end of the Qing Dynas vious ones. It was the year when says. fi movie to match the quality of Hol Badejo wears to play the alien in movie industry.” ty (16441911) and ran until 2006, Shanghai hosted the World Expo and “Like all literary genres, scifi lywood offerings such as 2014’s Alien (1979). It takes time and ener But Chinese people aspire to when Liu Cixin started serializing China was open to the world, which I reflects reality.”