Zhang Yimou Research Articles

A Critical Appreciation of the Commercial Blockbusters by Zhang Yimou

It is essential to note that for the past two decades the majority of the Fifth Generation directors have experienced an obvious shift of film-making from art cinema to the production of commercial blockbusters. By means of borrowing Hollywood’s “high concept” cinema, the local blockbusters featuring Chinese cultural elements are very emphatic about symbolism and visual effects of productions that are bringing to the audience new and stirring feel. And in the blockbusters of Chinese style, the stardom and renowned directors are the guaranteed success of box office. In terms of thematic subjects, the representative director Zhang Yimou has with certainty showcased his reflections on the unlimited power hierarchy and the impulse to deconstruct it in his works, which contain social and cultural allegories and morality problems of family. The so-called “commercial blockbusters” as <i>Hero</i> and <i>House of Flying Daggers</i> have utilized the unique on-site shooting and color effects to achieve the desired results. At the same time Zhang Yimou has in his art house works benefited from Akira Kurosawa, master of the genre, and some technicalities in gangster film. Zhang’s blockbusters of swordsman and Wuxia (martial art) have made an immense box value owing to their tactic violation of the mainstream ideologies. As a result, they are not regularly categorized as the most significant movie of the day. Being Zhang’s last blockbuster, <i>Curse of the Golden Flower </i>takes advantage of merging spectacular scenes and artificial staging for the purpose of authentic representation and imagination. This is also materialized by his cleverly adapting the original work of fame by Cao Yu, a contemporary playwright. Zhang Yimou’s blockbusters, with his special aesthetic, has largely succeeded in an economic sense, but failed ideologically to merge in the mainstream cinema of China.

A Comparative Study of Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige Main Melody Films

This paper delves into the contemporary landscape of Chinese "main melody" cinema, shedding light on its developmental trajectory and distinctive attributes. It particularly hones in on the creative contributions of two prominent directors in this genre: Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige. Through an exploration of their works, this paper aims to provide readers with a comprehensive grasp of their filmmaking styles and thematic innovations. Zhang Yimou, a celebrated filmmaker, is introduced with a focus on his melodramatic masterpiece, "Impasse." This paper goes on to scrutinize the thematic content of this film, offering readers an insight into its narrative depth and emotional resonance. In parallel, director Chen Kaige is introduced, with a detailed analysis of his "main melody" opus, "The Battle at Lake Changjin," revealing its narrative structure and character portrayals, thereby facilitating a comprehensive understanding of the film. Furthermore, this paper delves into the innovative elements, character development, and cinematographic techniques employed by Zhang Yimou in "Impasse," while also dissecting the narrative structure and characterizations found in Chen Kaige's "The Battle at Lake Changjin." In conclusion, the paper conducts a comparative analysis of Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige's distinct approaches to crafting "main melody" films, illuminating the unique characteristics that distinguish these two accomplished directors in the realm of Chinese cinema.

Multiphase and Multistakeholder English Translation Processes Behind Subtitling Chinese Auteur Films

The professional translation processes involved in subtitling Chinese auteur films are under-reported in audiovisual translation literature. The present study investigates the translation processes employed for Chinese films destined for an international audience with a focus on fifth- and sixth-generation directors’ films. These film auteurs depict China’s diverse cultural elements and contemporary social reality, for which English subtitles provide an essential bridge to connect to an international audience. Interview data collected from ten established Chinese-to-English translators/subtitlers, whose names are credited in the selected films, identify two remarkable features of subtitling these contemporary Chinese auteur films: Multiple phases of the translation processes employed across the filmmaking lifespan and multiple stakeholders involved in the wider translation processes beyond translators/subtitlers. Actor-Network Theory is used to elicit interwoven relationships among the various human and non-human actors connected to translating/subtitling activities across different stages of filmmaking. These findings confirm that translating/subtitling is not an isolated post-production task but rather permeates all filmmaking phases. This can be a key factor in contributing to overall quality, which is critical in disseminating subtitled films by some of China’s most celebrated auteurs. Lay summary The international film market has increasingly featured Chinese films, especially the works by established Chinese directors, such as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Jia Zhangke and Jia Zhangke. Their films reflect China’s cultural conventions and contemporary social reality. English subtitling is the most popular mode of translation to distribute Chinese films among the English-speaking audience. However, little is known about the agents involved in translating the Chinese high-profile films and the translation processes. To fill this knowledge gap, we interviewed ten translators or subtitlers contributing to the translation of the four aforementioned directors. The collected interview data inform us that many other stakeholders (e.g. directors, producers, screenwriters, distributors and subtitle editors) play a role in the shaping of the final English subtitles shown on the screen, and translation of Chinese films takes place throughout the whole filmmaking process (i.e. film development, pre-production, post-production, distribution and exhibition). A sociological framework is adopted to demonstrate the interwoven relationships among the various human (i.e. translators/subtitlers and other stakeholders) and non-human actors (i.e. accompanying materials and translation products) connected to translating/subtitling activities across different stages of filmmaking. It is argued that such a multiphase and multistakeholder process helps to improve the overall quality of Chinese film subtitling.

Analysis of the Direction of Female Survival in Raise the Red Lantern

The film Raise the Red Lantern, directed by Zhang Yimou, indicates the fate of women are under the control of men from the perspective of composition and tone, and the irony of the unfair social system and feudal thoughts. This paper mainly analyzes the direction of female survival in this film, and finds that China has a deep-rooted patriarchal ideology, which has not been completely eliminated in modern society. It is difficult for women to play their own rights, interests and roles in this society, and they are likely to be unable to be themselves under the coercion of the system or family. It is hoped that through the expression of the film and the analysis of this paper, people who still live under the controlled system can get out of the haze and find themselves, and at the same time, people who control others can realize their mistakes and cause human reflection, so as to change peoples living situation in the society.

Research on the Symbolic Expression of Film Visual Art Directed by Chinese Director Zhang Yimou

As the leader of the fifth generation of directors in China, Zhang Yimou leads Chinese films to the world in the new era. He is an outstanding representative of Asian films and a world-renowned film master. This paper takes visual art as the tool and mainly studies the symbolic expression of Zhang Yimous film. The research allow readers to access the Chinese classic film symbol and Zhang Yimous personal characteristic film symbol by analogy Zhangs several films. Through the online research on Douban and Zhihu, the author made a brief appreciation of the visual language features of Zhang Yimous two films To Live and Red Sorghum with the highest score and voice.The author makes some discussions on the composition characteristics, techniques and creation style of Zhang Yimou's films. On the one hand, the author believes that Zhang Yimou and his films are deeply influenced by the structure of traditional Chinese aesthetics. Zhangs film not only display grand Chinese aesthetics in the structure of the picture, but also intersperse many unique Chinese meanings in the film. From the creative technique, Zhang is good at using scenes to foil atmosphere and allude to the characters fate. On the other hand, Zhang Yimous typical male chauvinist creation style is reflected in many aspects of his film, such as female stereotypes, improper male gaze.

Audience reception of translated classic films: Zhang Yimou’s Hero in the digital English world

ABSTRACTAgainst the backdrop of cultural globalization, more and more Chinese films are being introduced to the Anglophone world, and Zhang Yimou’s Hero is a particularly informative case because of its huge success. The present study describes and analyzes the reception of Chinese films in the Anglophone world by conducting an in-depth case study of Hero. Drawing on sentiment analysis and corpus-based keyword analysis, we find that Hero received a positive response from both professional and general audiences in four aspects. For character, both groups preferred the complex political characters, love-hate relationships, and certain Chinese actors/actresses. For plot, both groups valued Chinese elements and the wuxia genre. Regarding the scene, both groups enjoyed the fight scenes, but the professional audiences highlighted the aesthetic value of each scene while the general audiences expressed their feelings about the beauty of the piece as a whole. Finally, in terms of translation, the professional audiences focused on the quality of subtitles, while the general audiences highlighted the modality, preferring dubbing to subtitles. This positive but differentiated reception between professional and general audiences can be attributed to cultural discounting, cultural hybridity, cultural memory, translation modalities and translation quality.

The Research on the Female Features in the Chinese Movie Raise the Red Lantern

Once, in many countries, the status of women was low. Nowadays, as the feminist movement has become a hot topic, more and more people are paying attention to the changes and progress of the status of women in the society. The movie Raise the Red Lantern from Zhang Yimou shows the life of women in the old society of China. This article will take this film as an example to analyze the oppression suffered by women and the awakening of women's consciousness under the feudal social system and then deeply analyze the problems caused by this phenomenon and make some advice to those countries which are trying to improve the social status of women. This article will observe the behaviors and characteristics of those actors in the film, and then find some common characteristics, at last we can compare different features to find the items of the film. The women shown in the film are greatly oppressed by feudalism and patriarchal societies. Therefore, by analyzing this film, this article hopes that all countries in the world could promote equality between men and women and avoid a recurrence of history.

Color as the meaning-forming concept of Zhang Yimou's film "Hero"

The subject of the study is the color meaning in the film of the famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou "Hero", the conceptual understanding of color as the main semantic element of the artistic solution. The object of research is the techniques of visual solutions in cinema. The perception of color in the culture of different peoples differs in certain nuances and depends on many factors, including national traditions and historically established stereotypes. Films by Chinese, Korean, and Japanese filmmakers are interesting from the point of view of color solutions, as they differ in artistic originality and often offer the Russian audience an extraordinary semantic solution of the idea not only at the level of comprehension of the content, but also at the level of a specific color palette. The author similarly examines the color symbolism of Zhang Yimou's film "Hero". The conceptual content of the visual-figurative series, the originality of the coloristic solution of the film is comprehended. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the study of the color symbolism of Zhang Yimou's film "Hero" in the aspect of the correlation between the perception of the coloristic solution of the visual series and the conceptual content of the film. The author comes to the conclusion that despite the ambivalence of perception of a particular color in visual art, the coloristic solution is predetermined by the conceptual content of each episode, so color becomes the leading semantic concept of Zhang Yimou's film "Hero".

A study on the Development of Chinese Film Title Typeface Design: Take Zhang Yimou's representative works as an example

A study on the Development of Chinese Film Title Typeface Design: Take Zhang Yimou's representative works as an example

Research on the Transformation of Director Zhang Yimou's Artistic Style

Research on the Transformation of Director Zhang Yimou's Artistic Style

<진링의 13소녀>의 영화와 소설의 시점 비교 연구

This paper compares Jin Ling Shi San Chai, a novel written by the Chinese American writer Yan Geling, and its film adaptation, The Flowers of War, directed by Zhang Yimou, to reveal the internal and external characteristics of each work by looking at the differences of point of view between them, which arose from the process of adaptation. Although there are not many studies on Yan Geling in Korea, there are over 100 studies by Chinese scholars on the novel and film adaptation of Jin Ling Shi San Chai, so many that it is difficult to list them all. This paper attempts to identify the characteristics of the novel by using the theory of narrative to show how the novel embodies its theme. It also investigates how the film embodies the theme of the story to reveal the characteristics of director Zhang Yimou. This study focuses on the fact that Jin Ling Shi San Chai is composed of a first-person observer perspective, narrated by the nephew of the protagonist, Meng Su-Juan. By narrating the story from the nephew’s first-person observer perspective, the author achieves intersubjectivity and freely goes back and forth the realms of subjectivity and objectivity. In this paper, it is analyzed that the intersubjectivity is realized through the point of view shots and voice-over narrations in the film.

Research on Chinese film industry under the background of globalization—Taking Zhang Yimou 's film as an example

Research on Chinese film industry under the background of globalization—Taking Zhang Yimou 's film as an example

영화 『홍등(大紅燈籠高高掛)』의 현대성 고찰 ― 루쉰의 작품과 비교를 중심으로

This paper examined the similarity between the appearance of a woman trapped in the Iron House in the movie Raise the Red Lantern and in Lu Xun"s work and analyzed the work’s modern significance. Unlike Su Tong"s original work, the film reproduced Lu Xun"s Iron House by firmly depicting a mansion that represents feudalism. In addition, through images of people who follow the old rules and women who desire red lanterns, a contrast was established between the people who fell asleep in the Iron House and the music that wakes them up in the movie. The deaths of the Songlian"s servant Yan"er and the third mistress Meishan contrast in the film. They desired internal and external systems that represent China"s desire for political and economic modernization in the early 1990s. Songlian became a madman as a witness and bore responsibility for those two deaths. However, by acting actively rather than remaining mad, she transformed herself into a spiritual warrior fighting on the lines of nothingness (無物之陳) to which Lu Xun aspired. She turned on her own red lantern and turned-on music, causing people to panic and fear. Songlian"s image that honors Meishan"s death represents director Zhang Yi-Mou speaking against Chinese society in the 1990s.

Neutralising Tendency in Subtitling Chinese Culture-Specific References into English

Culture-specific references (hereafter CSRs) feature prominently in films by Chinese fifth- and sixth-generation directors. Based on the observation of 25 English-subtitled Chinese films made by four directors between 1984 and 2017, this paper identifies that the CSRs in the original Chinese dialogue are neutralised in their English subtitles through various translation strategies. The CSRs examined in this study encompass CSRs of customs in Zhang Yimou’s films, CSRs of local arts in Chen Kaige’s films, slang in Jia Zhangke’s films, and humour in Feng Xiaogang’s films, respectively embodying the quintessence of each director’s filmmaking style. A textual analysis is conducted to demonstrate how and why the neutralising tendency emerges in subtitling these Chinese CSRs. It is revealed that the strategies of explicitation, substitution, transposition, compensation and omission are employed to neutralise the CSRs. From a linguistic perspective, such a neutralising tendency can be attributed to the lack of equivalence in English culture, the polysemy of the Chinese CSRs, the compactness of the Chinese language, and sometimes the mistaken intralingual Chinese subtitles. As a constrained translation activity, the subtitling itself aggravates the neutralisation of the CSRs due to technical constraints and target audience considerations. As these films are representative Chinese films, the neutralisation indicates a product norm on the best practice of subtitling high-profile Chinese films. Meanwhile, it is a linguistic explanation for the cultural discount in translating Chinese audiovisual productions (Díaz-Cintas & Zhang, 2022).

Review: Vulgar Beauty: Acting Chinese in the Global Sensorium, by Mila Zuo

Review: <i>Vulgar Beauty: Acting Chinese in the Global Sensorium</i>, by Mila Zuo

영화 &lt;국두(菊豆)&gt;에서 나타나는 욕망과 금기

Zhang Yimou(张艺谋)’s movie &lt;Judou&gt; is the one that was made by adapting Liu Heng’s novel 『Fuxi Fuxi』. This writing is aimed to inquire into the narrative structure of a movie through comparing two works. What examines &lt;Judou&gt;, which is positioned in the middle of the period that &lt;Red Sorghum(红高粱)&gt; and &lt;Raise The Red Lantern(大紅燈籠高高掛)&gt; were produced, is an important point available for checking an aesthetic flow in Zhang Yimou’s movie. With paying attention to this point, this study shed light on the cinematic value that Judou&gt; has. To this end, the thematic consciousness in the movie &lt;Judou&gt; was explored through the narrative comparison between original novel and movie, namely, through the setting of space-time backgrounds and characters, a variation of the narrative, and the cinematic techniques and devices. First, a character who leads a narrative in the novel is Tianqing, but is Judou in the movie. This movement of the central figure is associated with the thematic consciousness of the movie. It took a look at how Tianqing’s sexual awareness and sexual desire of being seen in the novel are changed in the movie. Second, it analyzed the closed space in a dyeing factory, Tianqing’s sneaking a look at Judou, and the meaning of sunlight and backlight. Third, a narrative on feudal violence was inspected. Through ancestral shrine(祠堂) and color, the image of feudalism was searched. Through dyeing cloth, ‘coloring’ was clarified to metaphorize the injection of feudalism. Especially through a few devices that appear in the movie, Tianbai was confirmed to be a successor of feudalism. Fourth, it dealt with the violation of taboos, namely, incest and killing father(殺父). It examined what the meaning of killing father is that was committed by Tianbai, along with a taboo violation by Judou and Tianqing.

On the "Return" and "No Return"

The movie "Return" is based on Yan Geling's novel "Lu Gang Yan Zhi" by director Zhang Yimou. It tells the love story between the hero and heroine in an ordinary family in the context of the "Cultural Revolution" period. Most of the colors used in the whole film are black, white and gray as the base, and the overall atmosphere is dark and depressing. The film is based on the heroine Feng Wanyu waiting for the return of her husband Lu Yanzhi without hindrance as a clue, but in the end, Jun Yi returns without knowing it, and until the end of the film, she is also in an infinite waiting to return. Throughout the film, director Zhang Yimou shows us the "return" of different people, but under the "return" of these characters, it is hidden that the "non-return" of the ordinary public's spiritual and spiritual trauma in the context of the times is hidden.

Pingyao Historic City and Qiao Family Courtyard

Historic cities all over the world are facing challenges on how to best preserve their architectural heritage. We need good examples to follow. This study explores the historic city of Pingyao in China’s Shanxi Province, and the Qiao Family Courtyard in Qiaojiapu Village of Qi County nearby. Pingyao is a representative of northern Chinese city planning and vernacular architecture during the Ming (1368‒1644) and Qing (1644‒1911) dynasties, and it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. Qiao Family Courtyard is famous not only because of its majestic architectural compound and exquisite craftsmanship, but also it embodies the unique style of Chinese residential architecture in the Qing dynasty. Zhang Yimou’s 1991 film “Raise the Red Lantern” was shot here. Hu Mei’s 2006 TV series “Qiao’s Grand Courtyard” based on the business history of the family have made the compound internationally acclaimed. From an architectural and urbanist perspective, this paper examines what has made Pingyao Historic City and the Qiao Family Courtyard resilient and responsible. The findings reveal, among other things that, Confucian ethics of honesty, trustworthiness, and righteousness were the backbone accounting for the robust success of Shanxi merchants who held deep-rooted cultural values, and who conducted their businesses accordingly.

Analysis of the Literary Language and Film and Television Language Expression of "Red Sorghum" from the Perspective of Semiotics

In "Red Sorghum", Mo Yan used beautiful brushstrokes to describe the language of characters and the environment, creating a shocking world of "Red Sorghum". "Red Sorghum" directed by Zhang Yimou uses picture symbols and sound symbols to accurately interpret literary works. Through semiotic theory, this paper compares and analyzes the expressions of the literary language and film and television language of "Red Sorghum", and explores how the words can be better transformed into pictures and sounds. The translation research of language and film and television language provides reference.

Драматический конфликт в контексте современного переводного кинодискурса России и Китая: лингвопрагматический аспект

The aim of the study is to reveal the linguo-pragmatic features of the dramatic conflict representation in the modern Chinese-Russian translated film discourse. The article deals with the specificity of the dramatic conflict representation in the linguo-pragmatic aspect of studying the modern translated film discourse; the linguo-pragmatic features of the dramatic conflict representation in the translated film discourse are studied using the example of the film “Hero” (China, Hong Kong, 2002, dir. Zhang Yimou). The scientific originality of this study lies in the first comparative analysis, which made it possible to identify the specifics of the dramatic conflict representation in the linguo-pragmatic aspect of studying the modern Chinese-Russian translated film discourse. As a result, it has been proved that the dramatic conflict in the translated context of the cultures of China and Russia is complicated not only by linguistic factors, but also by extralinguistic ones, due to the syncretic component of the film.