Leading Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou has a tough guy exterior – leather jackets, black shirts and a square jaw that has earned him acting awards alongside his top-level credentials as cinematographer and director of “Hero,” “The Road Home” – but on a visit to the Tokyo International Film Festival this week he was all smiles and frank talk.
Zhang received a lifetime achievement award on Monday. On Tuesday the festival gave a gala screening to his historical blockbuster “Full River Red.” And at a Wednesday masterclass, Zhang was more gushed usable details about his process and frank advice for newcomers.
“To be a film director you need to be physically in good shape. No smoking and no drinking,” he advised.
“I generally adopt a two-stage process,” he explained. “As director I know that it is impossible to have a perfect screenplay. I often daydream of it, but reality always gets in the way. It has never happened. once it is written, the process of redefining it is continuous. It can take one year or ten. And I often doubt my writing abilities. But I’ve discovered that others struggle too,” said Zhang.
“Then I discuss everything, first with the writers, then with crew. Then with the actors. This is the most important stage for me. Their personalities are part of the story. Therefore, their input is valuable to a director. Actors give me lots of inspiration. In the case of ‘Full River Red,’ I stopped the preparations for a week [having listened to his cast] and went back to writing.”
once in production, Zhang expects his preparations of script, costumes and palette to carry him through in an unflustered way.
“On the set, I ask the crew not to discuss with me as I want to spend that time with the actors. I’ve worked with the same cameraman for 15 years, so there’s no need for us to speak. We will have spoken ahead of filming. It is like doing homework for the director,” he said.
Zhang said that having got a script into a workable shape, he then brings in the art director to determine color and how shades of color will be applied throughout. Locations, costume and make-up decisions flow from that.
Zhang is willing to mix things up stylistically, but tries to stick to the notion of being prepared whatever the genre. He described himself on Full River Red sitting quietly behind a bank of monitors. “I was like a security guard at an apartment complex,” he said.
Zhang claims to work at the rate of one film per year, though in 2023 he has already released two – February’s “Full River Red” and last month’s “Under the Light” – and has completed shooting of another which is set to release at Chinese New Year in 2024.
On the latest, which he describes as having an ensemble cast and a high degree of realism, Zhang’s prep involved finding enough skilled camera operators to be able to use natural light and film with up to eight 4K and 8K cameras simultaneously.
“We had a roster of top actors. I wanted to catch everything. Their improvisation, their every expression. Wits so many cameras, we were able to do with very few takes and work quite quickly,” Zhang said, before laughing at his own expense. “I’m probably the Chinese director who has the most monitors on set.”
Having been asked about using his son as an actor in “Full River Red,” Zhang also opened himself up on matters of family.
“I have four children. My daughter (Zhang Momo) is now established as a director and has a movie releasing next month. My oldest son wants to be an animation director and has studied at USC. My wife asked if all four children will be filmmakers and if I’m making a film dynasty,” he said.
The subject has not always been an easy one for Zhang. In 2014, he was fined over $1 million for breaching China’s one child policy. Two years later, the policy was watered down, and later scrapped, when Chinese authorities understood that the policy had helped create a Japanese-style aging population in China.
Zhang did not dwell on the fine or its timing. Instead, he joked about the Zhang dynasty: “I mean, which film set am I supposed to visit?”
