HAPPY MOMENT: Jia Zhangke accepts Best Screenplay for A Touch of Sin at the conclusion of the 66th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France on May 26 (SINA.COM)

Chinese director/screenwriter Jia Zhangke won Best Screenplay for Tian Zhu Ding (A Touch of Sin) at the 66th Cannes Film Festival on May 26.

The film, with four intertwined stories, is written based on real events in China. It depicts a fast-changing country and social issues such as violence that result from economic development.

While accepting the prize, Jia, 43, explained his reason for writing and directing the film. "I wanted a story about real people. I would like this film to make people to think about the inner violence in our hearts."  

"China has changed so rapidly and I think those individuals, and normal people, are really making an effort with developments in the country. Not many people know about normal people's lives so I really wanted to show them in my film," Jia said.

The flesh and blood subject of the film has attracted great attention from the Chinese media as to whether or not it can be shown in theaters. "I am full of confidence in China's film environment and of China's social opening levels, as well as audience understanding and acceptance," Jia said. 

"We need to work together to create an accommodative space to say. This is our perception to contemporary China," he said. "We must have a consciousness to China's reality, which is a proper way to propel China's social and film development." 

"This film shows a visionary depiction of four different characters. We were all impressed by the structure and the screenplay," said Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, head of the jury at this year's Cannes.

Director Ang Lee, another member of the jury, commented that Jia's courage should be praised. Lee said he was not surprised after seeing the film, as violence exists everywhere in the world, but Chinese films seldom showed such subject matter in the past.  

More good news for Jia arrived on May 21, when yahoo.com reported A Touch of Sin would be released in the United States by Kino Lorber, a New York-based distributor who announced that it acquired all U.S. rights to the film.

Jia's interest in film began in the early 90s when he was an art student at Shanxi University in north China's Shanxi Province. On a whim he attended a screening of Chen Kaige's masterpiece Yellow Earth.

According to Jia, it was life-changing and inspired him to eventually pursue a career as a director.

Soon he began producing student films, but the film that eventually found him fame was Xiao Wu. In it, a pickpocket tries to seek respect from others. The authentic depiction of Chinese life has Jia's fingerprints all over it.

Some of his other films, including The World, bring audience a broad view of migrant workers living in the capital, influenced by his own encounter with the metropolis when he immigrated from a small town in north China's Shanxi Province in 1993.

"We were called the 'drifting generation.' The movie tells what the drifting generation is facing with the rapid economic development, the problems, pressure, hope and pain," said Jia.

Jia's works has been popular in major international film festivals. The most notable is Still Life which claimed the Venice Film Festival's top award, the Golden Lion, in 2006.

His other works, including Unknown Pleasures and 24 City, have also been screened at Cannes.

"We sixth-generation directors always choose a personal angle, a personal value to observe the society and observe the people. I think China needs personal experience and personal memories, which are very precious to art," Jia said.

(Source: Tianjin Daily)