In the book "Zhang Yimou's Homework", Zhang Yimou talked about two reasons for making commercial films.
First, commercial films are highly entertaining, which is also his personal preference.
Second, what China lacks is well-trained commercial film directors, which is needed by the general environment.
This is Zhang Yimou's clearest and most willing positioning since "Alive". Transforming a commercial film, although crossing the river by feeling the stones, is the rhythm of the times. Even though the domestic audience's evaluation of "House of Flying Daggers" shows two extremes, its influence abroad and its commercial exploration and breakthrough have never been ignored. On Rotten Tomatoes and iimdb, the score of "House of Flying Daggers" is also much higher than that in China.
The story background of the film itself is not complicated, and the opposition between Fei Daomen and the government completely serves the love triangle. Few lines are mostly love lyricism, and there is no cross-context understanding barrier. There are few lines, and the vacated information space is filled by the scene. The large-scale production of commercial films, coupled with the elements of martial arts, Chinese people like it, and outsiders are also willing to accept it. A scene in the bamboo forest, plus a scene in which the little girl takes a bath, makes people think of Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". It's just that Zhang Yimou has his new mind. Jin Chengwu tied the mouse to the knife and gradually approached the little sister; and the section where the bamboo was slanted on the ground, trapping the two, compared with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Zhang Yimou's cleverness can be seen. The domestic audience did not buy it, probably because the story was too thin. After excluding the scene, it is no surprise that the film has been criticized. And this, coupled with the impact of the picture after the translation, is not a big problem in foreign countries.
Everyone is wondering why the national teacher "degenerates", Zhang Yimou said that he wants to pursue shallowness. In the end, I don't know if the public's expectations were wrong, or if Zhang Yimou never changed.
When Zhang Yimou evaluated himself, he used one word: instrumentalization. He said: "Tools are not a bad word, usefulness is our generation's deep-rooted sense of value."
During the Cultural Revolution of this generation, Zhang Yimou made a blackboard newspaper, thinking about how to make his blackboard newspaper more conspicuous. Without anyone's request, he spontaneously "painted all the doors in the village on the portrait of the chairman". This has nothing to do with political consciousness, it is entirely a person's survival wisdom in the age of fanaticism. Zhang Yimou, who had a poor family background, also found his own living space in that era because of his usefulness. Later, he switched from photography to directing, also for survival reasons. Although Zhang Yimou has received a lot of recognition for photography, Zhang Yimou, who only went to college at the age of 28, has an urgent sense of age anxiety compared with people of the same period. If you are doing photography, it is too slow to get ahead step by step in the crew.
Therefore, Zhang Yimou will accept the graduation assignment obediently, which is his only way of survival; being assigned to a remote place like Guangxi, and making unconventional films like "One and Eight", is also his way to get ahead.
When a person is a teenager when his outlook on life is formed, he has always been on the edge, completely different from the special state of the people around him.
Then many foreign awards proved Zhang Yimou's usefulness. He caught the attention of the crowd and was alive.
In the new century, making commercial films has become a useful way for Zhang Yimou. Besides, he was the first person to eat crabs. With the transformation work "Hero", there is naturally the second "House of Flying Daggers".
With the idea of useful tools, Zhang Yimou does not know how to express himself in the film.
Several good films, such as "Alive", "Raise the Red Lantern", and "Red Sorghum", were all adapted from other people's novels. He just makes the movie look good.
Even now, he has not stopped contacting some writers.
Good books are hard to find, and the audience's aesthetics are becoming more and more diverse. Zhang Yimou doesn't know what to say.
And "House of Flying Daggers" has nothing to express, which is normal.
We saw the little sister die and live, live and die. Zhang Yimou ignored him. The logic of the story is put aside, first shoot the snow scene, shoot the flower sea, and shoot the two fighting.
Just look good.
Zhang Yimou has never changed.
It's just that this era has changed too fast, and the group of people walking in the front are doing what they want, that's all.
View more about House of Flying Daggers reviews
