e-magazine
Quake Shocks Sichuan
Nation demonstrates progress in dealing with severe disaster
Current Issue
· Table of Contents
· Editor's Desk
· Previous Issues
· Subscribe to Mag
Subscribe Now >>
Expert's View
World
Nation
Business
Finance
Market Watch
Legal-Ease
North American Report
Forum
Government Documents
Expat's Eye
Health
Science/Technology
Lifestyle
Books
Movies
Backgrounders
Special
Photo Gallery
Blogs
Reader's Service
Learning with
'Beijing Review'
E-mail us
RSS Feeds
PDF Edition
Web-magazine
Reader's Letters
Make Beijing Review your homepage
Hot Links

cheap eyeglasses
Market Avenue
eBeijing

Lifestyle
Print Edition> Lifestyle
UPDATED: April 30, 2010 NO. 18 MAY 6, 2010
The Glory and the Dream
A Chinese director unveils the story of Shanghai at the 2010 World Expo
By TANG YUANKAI
Share

 

FILM DIRECTOR: Jia Zhangke wins the Director of the Decade award at the Toronto International Film Festival on January 22 (ZOU ZHENG) 

Shanghai is a city that has many stories, and Jia Zhangke, a celebrated film director, is about to tell some of them in his new film, I Wish I Knew. The documentary film is dedicated to the 2010 World Expo, and will be screened at the World Expo site. The Chinese director spent three years preparing for the movie and one year actually filming it.

Films have traditionally been an integral part of the world expos. In 1900, a film produced by the Lumière Brothers' was one of the highlights of the Paris World Expo. In 1963, Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll, starred in a film that was screened at the Seattle World Expo.

Jia's film is a narrative history of Shanghai. Through interviews with people about their memories of the city, Jia hopes to capture the history of the city's transformation.

"Few cities have witnessed as many significant historic events as Shanghai," Jia says. "We are not going to leave any important event out, so this means that we should do our best to find the persons involved, and their descendants or witnesses. Some of our interviewees are already in their 90s," Jia explains.

"In fact, it is a film on the collective memory of all Chinese people," says Jia. Rather than just telling the story of a city, the film depicts the story of the Chinese people, who have endured colonization, wars, revolutions, disasters and social movements. "It is not only about history—even more importantly, it is about the future," says Jia.

Jia grew up in Fenyang, a relatively isolated inland county in north China's Shanxi Province. For him, filming the history of a city as cosmopolitan as Shanghai was a challenge. "When I was asked to make the film, I was a little hesitant," he says. He recalls that his early memories about Shanghai were "materialistic"—they were all about Shanghai's famous products, such as the White Rabbit milk candies his mother often bought him, the cigarettes that his father smoked, and the travelling bags emblazoned with an image of the Bund.

"In the past Shanghai epitomized industrialization, modernity and stylishness in the eyes of inland Chinese," Jia says.

He has been interested in Shanghai's contemporary history since his university years, and since then has gathered a considerable amount of materials on the subject. He says that the film has given him an opportunity to study the city more closely, whereas his upbringing in an inland province would help him to see Shanghai from a more acute perspective. Jia is glad to have the opportunity to feel the city's pulse by reading about it and talking to related people, and to prove or disprove his earlier perceptions of the city.

For optimal quality, the film will be shot with both the latest Red One digital and traditional camcorders. The footage will not only be used in Jia's film, but also be stored in a video documentary archive about Shanghai.

Jia is noted for his ability to convey a big theme through minute details, and his films have been a unique channel for foreigners to understand the current China. As a director of the film dedicated to the Shanghai World Expo, Jia is expected to vividly portray Shanghai's present and past to a global audience.

"I admire his unique insights into society and life, and I think his films are very powerful," said Ren Zhonglun, President of Shanghai Film Group Corporation (SFG), the producer of I Wish I Knew.

Jia said that working with SFG has actually made things easier for him. "With a producer handling the communication work, I can not only express myself freely, but also can receive recognition from a larger group of audiences." Jia says.

Jia is adept at depicting the transformations in China in a realistic way. From a boy in an inland county in the 1970s to an established film director, Jia said the reform and opening-up policy that China has implemented in the past 30 years has given him the opportunity to realize his dream.

He said he is lucky to have witnessed the 30 years of reform so that he could draw upon his memories when documenting the impact of reform upon Chinese people in his films.

The climax of Jia's career was the Golden Lion Award to him at the 2006 Venice Film Festival for Still Life. The film is set in a small town that is about to be demolished to make way for the Three Gorges Dam, and portrays how local people cope with the sudden changes in their lives. The film was co-produced with SFG, and has been released in more than 70 countries and regions.

Another of Jia's films, 24 City, debuted at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and won favorable reviews from film critics. The film tells a story of a state-owned factory that was torn down and replaced with luxury commercial apartments.

To reward Jia's outstanding contribution to the film industry, SFG granted him an award and established the Jia Zhangke Film Studio in his name. The film group has invested some money in the studio, yet according to Jia the money is not a charitable donation but a real investment, and the studio also needs to raise its own money. He likes this arrangement, as he feels that a film director should not just be a plant in a green house, but should instead be able to withstand the test of the market.

The film group also expects him to provide guidance to young directors. Jia says that one of the studio's jobs is to introduce young talent to market, and create a suitable filmmaking environment for them. This year, his studio launched a program to train talented young directors. So far, 100 million yuan ($14.7 million) has been raised for the initiative.



 
Top Story
-Too Much Money?
-Special Coverage: Economic Shift Underway
-Quake Shocks Sichuan
-Special Coverage: 7.0-Magnitude Earthquake Hits Sichuan
-A New Crop of Farmers
Most Popular
在线翻译
About BEIJINGREVIEW | About beijingreview.com | Rss Feeds | Contact us | Advertising | Subscribe & Service | Make Beijing Review your homepage
Copyright Beijing Review All right reserved