Zhang Yimou

Eleven years of interviews with the acclaimed Chinese film director of such movies as Red Sorgham, Shanghai Triad, and Not One Less

In this first critical study of films by Zhang Yimou in English, Wendy Larson plumbs the larger field of debate to suggest thought-provoking ways of thinking about the films and their relationship to Chinese culture.

Zhang Yimou's first film, Red Sorghum, took the Golden Bear Award in 1988 at the Berlin International Film Festival. Since then Chinese films have continued to arrest worldwide attention and capture major film awards, winning an international following that continues to grow. Transnational Chinese Cinemas spans nearly the entire length of twentieth-century Chinese film history. The volume traces the evolution of Chinese national cinema, and demonstrates that gender identity has been central to its formation. Femininity, masculinity and sexuality have been an integral part of the filmic discourses of modernity, nationhood, and history. This volume represents the most comprehensive, wide-ranging, and up-to-date study of China's major cinematic traditions. It is an indispensable source book for modern Chinese and Asian history, politics, literature, and culture.

After graduating from the Beijing Film Academy in 1982, directors like Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou transformed Chinese cinema with Farewell My Concubine, Yellow Earth, Raise the Red Lantern, and other international successes. Memoirs from the Beijing Film Academy tells the riveting story of this class of 1982, China’s famous "Fifth Generation" of filmmakers. It is the first insider’s account of this renowned cohort to appear in English. Covering these directors’ formative experiences during China’s tumultuous Cultural Revolution and later at the Beijing Film Academy, Ni Zhen—who was both their screenwriter and teacher—provides unique insights into the origins of the Fifth Generation’s creativity. Drawing on his personal knowledge and interviews conducted especially for this volume, Ni Zhen demonstrates the diversity of the Fifth Generation. He comments on the breadth of styles and themes explored by its members and introduces a range of male and female directors, cinematographers, and production designers famous in China but less well-known internationally. The book contains vivid descriptions of the production processes of two pioneering films—One and Eight and Yellow Earth.

This pivot considers key transformations within the Chinese film industry since the country opened its doors to the outside world in the late 1970s, and moved from an ideologically-centred censorship system to one of contestation and cooperation between politics, art and market. Focusing on Zhang Yimou, arguably one of China’s most innovative and controversial filmmakers and directors, the author addresses the challenges faced by contemporary Chinese cinema in the face of Hollywood dominance, notably making genre films in an increasingly globalized context, and the necessary compromises between the local and global, the national and the international. Through a combination of textual analysis and context study, it examines action-oriented films Zhang made as responses to a rapidly changing film market and industry.

New Media for a New China is a timely introduction to thecurrent state of the mass media in China and it’s growingrole in the 21st Century global communication system Brings together an international cast of scholars to analyse thediverse roles of China’s media, covering all the majorindustries (advertising, newspapers, broadcasting, magazines, film,TV, PR) Considers the position of China’s media in the middle ofthe country’s tremendous social, economic and politicalchanges Explores the concept of the 21st century as “China’sCentury” because of the nation’s unprecedentedgrowth

Women and Gender in Chinese Martial Arts Films of the New Millennium, by Ya-chen Chen, examines underexposed gender issues in more recent films, focusing on the contradictory feminism in the film narratives. Through the lens of Chinese martial arts films, Chen delves into "Chinese cinematic martial arts feminism," highlighting the glass ceiling which marks the maximal exercise of feminism which the patriarchal order is willing to accept.

Sinascape: Contemporary Chinese Cinema is a comprehensive study of Chinese-language films at the turn of the millennium. Emphasizing the transnational nature of contemporary Chinese cinema, it provides close readings of most of the important films of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and explores the interactions and transactions among these films and between Chinese cinema and Hollywood. General readers, film enthusiasts, and critics will all benefit from Gary Xu's discussion of popular films like Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Kung Fu Hustle, Devils on the Doorstep, Suzhou River, Beijing Bicycle, Millennium Mambo, Goodbye Dragon Inn, and Hollywood Hong Kong.