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.