Zhang Yimou - The Greatest Chinese Director #2 Quiz

Answer: the fifth generation

"The fifth generation" refers to those directors who graduated from Beijing Academy of Film in the 1980s. They experienced the Great Cultural Revolution, and suffered much hardship. After graduating, they devoted themselves to film-making with much passion. Their works involved a lot of subjectivity, symbolism and allegory, giving a strong influence to later Chinese films.

Answer: Ju Dou

Zhang is not only a good director, but a good actor. He was given the Best Actor award at the Tokyo International Film Festival for his performance in "Old Well" (1986).

Answer: Red Sorghum

Zhang majored in photography while in college. His first photographic work was "One and Eight", directed by Zhang Junzhao in 1983. His photography features innovative composition and peculiar perspective.

Answer: Impression Beijing

Zhang's "Impression" series includes five productions. In addition to the three listed, there are "Impression West Lake" (2007) and "Impression, Liu Sanjie" (2003). In these productions, he combined song and dance shows with natural scenery. They were put on at these places of interest all year round.

Answer: Hero

Generally speaking, 2002 was considered a turning point in Zhang's career, when he made "Hero". After that, many suggested that he outweighed commercialism over artistic value, which was criticized in China.

Answer: The Road Home

In a 2002 interview with "Time Asia", Zhang said, "Every male director's dream is to make a martial-arts flick". "Hero" was his first martial arts movie; it was released in 2002.

Personally I don't like those zero-gravity fights.

Answer: Red

Many of Zhang's movies are characterized by the use of the colour red, including "Red Sorghum" (1987), "Ju Dou" (1990), "Raise the Red Lantern" (1991), "The Story of Qiu Ju" (1992), "Shanghai Triad" (1995) and "The Road Home" (1999). In China, red traditionally denotes vitality.

Answer: Keep Cool

In China, there is a saying that Zhang is only good at portraying the Chinese village. His first two city movies were "Keep Cool" (1997) and "Happy Times" (2000).

Answer: Best Foreign Film at the American Academy Awards

He won the Golden Bear for "Red Sorghum" in 1987. He won the Golden Lion for "The Story of Qiu Ju" in 1992 and for "Not One Less" in 1999. He won the Grand Jury Prize for "To Live" at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994.

Answer: Cannes Film Festival

In 1999, Gilles Jacob, the then president of the Cannes Film Festival, said that Zhang's film "Not One Less" tried hard to prettify the Chinese government. Zhang felt offended and decided to withdraw from the festival. Later he entered this film to the Venice Film Festival.

Source: "The Seattle Times" (May 11, 1999)