Zhang Yimou

Blood, Sweat And Daggers
by Craig Reid

He sold his blood twice in one day to buy his first camera. After working night shifts for seven years in a fabric-making factory, he accidentally got into filmmaking. When he entered film school, his friends called him crazy, thinking that film school was about learning how to run a film projector. Yet through all the anemia of life, the struggles of the Cultural Revolution and chastisement by his friends, Communist China's Zhang Yimou is emerging as one of the top influential martial arts filmmakers in the third millennium. Not bad for a guy that didn't know about Bruce Lee until 1979 and has only seen 15 martial arts movies since then.

"It's not that I don't like the films," Zhang explains to me in Mandarin, "but growing up during the Cultural Revolution, we never saw these films; they weren't available, and it wasn't until film school that I learned about Bruce Lee movies, saw my first Bruce Lee film and thought, 'Oh...my...goodness.' It was also at that time that I saw my first wu xia film. It was wonderful. My favorites thus far are Tsui Hark's DRAGON INN and King Hu's TOUCH OF ZEN. I also liked CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. But actually, my films are really a nod to King Hu, and of course my wu xia films are also in homage to all the great wu xia films I've heard about over the years, but sadly haven't really had time to watch."

Recently my wife served as Zhang Yimou's translator for a day while he did the publicity run in Hollywood - which meant I got to hang out with him for eight hours. He shared tons of neat things with me about his life and his latest film HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS. And for those who think HERO contained a pro-communist message, then you are but a poor player, strutting and fretting your hour upon the stage, to be heard no more.

Earlier this year, Zhang broke into Hollywood with HERO, starring Jet Li, a film that earned $53.5 million in the US and $155.5 million in international box-offices. However, it is miles short of CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, which earned $128 million in the US and $213 million worldwide. Then again, Miramax did a pretty poor job of distributing HERO, an all too familiar tune with their way of handling Chinese films. So the producers of FLYING DAGGERS have opted to go with SONY Pictures Classics, the same company that handled CROUCHING TIGER.

Zhang made his directorial debut with RED SORGHUM (1987), received critical acclaim for RAISE THE RED LANTERN (1991), starring Gong Li, and introduced the world to Zhang Ziyi in the ROAD HOME (1999), all social drama and arty films. Why did it take him so long to get into making wu xia films?

Zhang says, "Well, first of all, Hong Kong has been making hundreds of them; and besides, when we started making films in China, we wanted to make films with depth, and put thought behind them, where wu xia films are basically for entertainment purposes and that wasn't our goal. In the old days, if you talked about these things a lot, people thought you were shallow. But now times have changed and the Chinese economy is better; more business and more people are interested in being entertained, and so we all talk about budgets, box-office numbers, how much money is earned.

"It also seems to me that every Chinese filmmaker has a sort of cultural obligation to make at least one martial arts movie during their career, and of course FLYING DAGGERS is my second. But although we all try to do these films, I think that we should all try to somehow re-invent the genre."

FLYING DAGGERS takes place in 859 CE during the waning years of the Tang Dynasty. An insurgent, underground rebel alliance known as The House of Flying Daggers is creating havoc amidst corrupt government leaders. Of note, Jet Li's first film, SHAOLIN TEMPLE, is about how the Shaolin monks give rise to Tang Dynasty by rescuing and abetting the rebel Li Shih-min, who becomes the first Tang emperor.

Zhang Ziyi (no relation to Yimou), who starred in CROUCHING TIGER and had a supporting role in HERO, stars in FLYING DAGGERS as a blind brothel dancer who, having ties to the insurgents, becomes the object of a trap by two deputies (played by Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro) trying to find the rebel base.

Oddly, Zhang Ziyi is much maligned by Chinese audiences. Of this, Zhang says, "It's sad that Ziyi isn't well-received by the Chinese audience. I don't think they understand how hard she works and what she puts into each film. I mean, for this film, she spent three months with a blind lady to learn how to be blind and what that entails physically and emotionally. In fact, it was the same blind lady that was in my film HAPPY TIMES."

When I first heard about this film - titled HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS in English, though its Chinese title is SHI MIAN MAI FU, meaning "Ambush from Ten Directions" - I thought it might be based on the Chinese wu xia xiao shuo kung-fu novel "The Flying Daggers of Xiao Lee" by Gu Long. It was first adapted to film by Chu Yuen in the Shaw Brothers classic, SENTIMENTAL SWORDSMAN (1977), starring Ti Lung, then later shot by co-director Ching Siu-tung as FLYING DAGGERS in 1993.

Zhang relates, "I know of this book and Gu Long, but the title was something that the distributors wanted to go with. I would share though that when I was 17, my friends and I secretly read one kung-fu novel, knowing that if we were caught, us and our families would be prosecuted, so we tore the book apart and secretly exchanged pages so none of us got to read it in order.

"Anyway, I actually started writing this script while I was shooting HERO," Zhang continues, "and at that time I was thinking we could make two movies at the same time, and that this would have been a sequel to HERO where Ziyi would be the assassin to next try to kill the Chin emperor, Andy would be the emperor's bodyguard, and Takeshi would be the emperor's son; and so the story was based on these three characters - it still is, but just a different movie. And that was important to me, because if the tone of FLYING DAGGERS was not in direct contrast to HERO, I would have given up the project and move on.

Zhang explains that they're both differing stories of sacrifice, saying that HERO is sacrificing for righteousness, for a bigger picture, and that it's more in line with the traditional thoughts of Chinese philosophy and culture.

"Yet in FLYING DAGGERS the characters are capable of extremes of love and hatred," he adds, "and are willing to sacrifice their traditional values in order to achieve their own individual ends; and so this moves it away from the traditional wu xia film."

But let's face it: to the die-hard kung fu film fans, whether they like or dislike this film depends on the martial arts fight choreography. To ensure that the action would be top-notch, Zhang bought in long-time friend and fight director from HERO, the father of "wire-fu" and director of such great films as A CHINESE GHOST STORY and SWORDSMAN trilogies, Ching Siu-tung (aka Chen Xiao-dong and Tony Ching).

Zhang says, "You know, I've known Siu-tung for many years; and in fact, when I was trying my hand at acting, I worked for him as an actor when he was shooting TERRA COTTA WARRIORS in 1988. And although he's known for having a short temper, I've always gotten on well with him, and he's known for working well with actresses. But as mentioned earlier, I didn't really know how great of a fight director he was until I did HERO.

"I remember when I was getting ready to do HERO, Jet Li told me that there are three current great fight directors around: Yuen Woo-ping, Yuen Kwei and Ching Siu-tung. What I really like about Ching is that he keeps with the storyline best, and all his fights tell a story beautifully and romantically. He's the best in Hong Kong for not only showing the romanticism in the story, which comes from his film-directing experience, but his wirework has a good sense of gravity and not have that "airy" feeling.

"Also, it's important for him that everything is ironed out and knows what needs to be done. He's done over 200 films and so he loves to take the camera and carry it around and shoot the fights. He can't do that in America, so having to tell the cameraman what he wants doesn't translate well. He just knows how to keep up with the action. But even though he has the free run of doing the action, he would always ask me if this is what I was looking for and make sure the shot was okay."

But as expected, Ching's signature style of fight directing, choreography and meticulous wire-work takes FLYING DAGGERS to grandiose heights, literally, with an interesting take on the use of flying daggers (a little bit similar to the flying daggers seen in SAVIOUR OF SOULS), the highly creative "echo drum" confrontation, and what is becoming almost standard - a bamboo-forest flying fight sequence - inspired by, of all things, American films.

"Since bamboo forest fights have been seen in many kung fu films like in TOUCH OF ZEN by King Hu (fights by Hang Ying-jie and Sammo Hung; also one of the best earliest fights is actually in Jimmy Wang Yu's RETURN OF THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN), so it was essential that the bamboo forest be unique, because of course there was one in CROUCHING TIGER as well. So Ching and I met for three days and then it hit me, when you watch those good chase scenes in American film where you have helicopters chasing the cars through the busy streets and they're firing at each other, I just took that concept and put it into the bamboo forest.

"My goal is to make the fights in my wu xia films beautiful and poetic. When you watch the final fights in American films, they're usually in a dark place, or dark warehouse, a garbage dump, car dumping ground - in other words, a dirty place where the actors are all sweaty and bloody, messy. There's an emphasis on realism. But when you watch wu xia films or read in kung fu novels, the last fight is with two heroes, always in a beautiful place, beautiful scenery and oftentimes a famous place in China, and they look tidy, clean, everything in its place, where even a slight imperfection in the clothing could make you lose the battle.

"So it's two ways of expressing the final fight. A fight in a restaurant can't have good kung fu; I like to have poetic and beautiful fights. So that is why I emphasize the color, the scenery, and I hope the audiences can understand this and like them."

With a budget of US $20 million and shot in the Ukraine and China, Zhang worked 18-hour days, seven days a week, for a solid four-and-a-half months, saying that ten days after wrapping, the first raw cut of FLYING DAGGERS was ready for viewing. What's so amazing is that for HERO, Zhang did the same thing, but it took five and a half months. Because it takes so much effort to make these films, reliable Chinese websites are reporting that Zhang has blatantly stated he will never make another wu xia film in his life. Well, it's time to see if that's true.

"Um, no," he calmly says. "It's true wu xia films are hard to make, take a long time and are expensive; so all I'd like to do for now is to take a break from doing them, and maybe if the right script comes along, I'll come back to them."

I close by asking if he has any interest in working in Hollywood. He laughs, saying, "I haven't really thought of it. The problem of doing that is I don't understand the culture or speak the language; and my films would have a Chinese flavor and style, and I don't think that would work in American films."

Written by Craig Reid for KUNGFUMAGAZINE.COM

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