Zhang Yuan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the Taiwanese writer Belinda Chang (also known as Zhang Yuan), see Belinda Chang.
Zhang Yuan
張元

Born 1963
Nanjing, China
Spouse(s) Ning Dai
Official website

Zhang Yuan (Traditional: 張元; Simplified: 张元; pinyin: Zhāng Yuán) (born 1963, Nanjing, China) is a Chinese film director. Zhang received a BA in Cinematography from the Beijing Film Academy in 1989.

He is a member of China's Sixth Generation of film directors.

Contents

[edit] Career

[edit] Feature films

Zhang first emerged onto the film scene shortly after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and as such is often seen as one of the pioneers of the loosely defined Sixth Generation. Much of his early films were shot in a documentary-style and Zhang himself referred to these early films (Mama, Sons, and Beijing Bastards) as "documentary feature-films."[1]

His debut, Mama, a semi-documentary account of a mother and her retarded son is still seen as one of the first films of the Sixth Generation movement and as China's "first independent film since 1949".[2] His next film, 1993's Beijing Bastards follows Beijing's disaffected youth subculture. His film, Sons meanwhile, like Mama, also blends the line between fiction and documentary film, as the actors are playing themselves, recreating the actual destruction of their family due to alcoholism and mental illness. In 1996 Zhang filmed China's first homosexual-themed movie, East Palace, West Palace.

After East Palace, West Palace, Zhang's style began to shift away from documentary-like neo-realist dramas to more conventionally filmed features. 1999's Seventeen Years, a family drama and also the first Chinese film with approval to shoot inside a Chinese prison,[2] nevertheless proved a significant international success winning the Best Director award at the Venice Film Festival. 2002-2003 continued to see Zhang approaching more commercially viable works as well as Zhang's most prolific period yet, directing three films in the course of a year. The cinematic version of the Communist opera Jiang Jie, the celebrity-helmed romantic-mystery Green Tea, and the romantic drama I Love You were successful, if a far cry from his earlier "underground" works.

In 2006, Zhang directed Little Red Flowers, based on writer Wang Shuo's semi-autobiographical novel It Could Be Beautiful. The film garnered a CICAE award at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival.

[edit] Documentaries

Between many of his feature film efforts, Zhang often makes long-form documentaries. 1994's The Square documents daily life in Tiananmen Square, several years after the events of the 1989 Democracy demonstrations. The film was shot surreptitiously under the guise of being a CCTV crew.

The late 1990s, meanwhile, saw Zhang indulging again in his interest in documentary form with Demolition and Relocation in 1998, an account of the destruction of Beijing's Hutongs and Crazy English, which followed Crazy English-founder and motivational speaker Li Yang.

2000's Miss Jin Xing, meanwhile, follows Zhang's interest society's marginalized with a touching portrait of China's most famed transsexual, Jin Xing, a man who in 1996 decided to become a woman. Jin's story is told through a series of interviews with those who know her as well as with Jin herself.

[edit] Filmography

Year English Title Chinese Title Pinyin Notes
1992 Mama 妈妈 Māma
1993 Beijing Bastards 北京杂种 Běijīng zhá zhǒng
1994 The Square 广场 Guǎng chǎng
1996 Sons 儿子 Érzi
1996 East Palace, West Palace 东宫西宫 Dōng gōng xī gōng
1996 Danish Girls Show Everything Comic anthology film
1998 Demolition and Relocation Ding zi hu
1999 Crazy English 疯狂英语 Fēng kuáng yīng yǔ
1999 Seventeen Years 过年回家 Guò nián huí jiā
2000 Miss Jin Xing 金星小姐 Jin xing xiaojie
2000 Hainan Hainan Hainan Hainan
2002 I Love You 我爱你 Wǒ ài nǐ
2003 Jiang Jie Jiang jie
2003 Green Tea 绿茶 Lǜ Chá
2006 Little Red Flowers 看上去很美 Kàn shàng qù hén měi

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Li Xiao (translator) (2003-09-19). Art of Regret: Talking Film with Zhang Yuan. China.org. Retrieved on 2007-09-08.
  2. ^ a b Zhang Yuan's films. Zhang-yuanfilms.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-08.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Films directed by Zhang Yuan

Feature films: Mama (1992) • Beijing Bastards (1993) • Sons (1996) • East Palace, West Palace (1996) • Seventeen Years (1999) • Hainan Hainan (2000) • I Love You (2002) • Jiang Jie (2003) • Green Tea (2003) • Little Red Flowers (2006) •
Documentaries: The Square (1996) • Demolition and Relocation (1998) • Crazy English (1999) • Miss Jing Xing (2000) •
v • d • e
Cinema of China