All about reality – Zhang Yuan and his movies

Nothing really changed

It was not until he finished Seventeen Years in 1999 that Zhang started to build his reputation among the mainstream. Because it was his first movie that passed the test of the State Administration of Radio Film and Television, it was shown nationwide.

Before that, the director had earned recognition, including several international awards. But Zhang always felt it was a shame that his movie could not be shown inside his home country’s borders.

“My movies traveled around the world and some were sold tomore than 60 countries. But I was not satisfied and never thought the West really needed my stories,” Zhang says. “When preparing for Seventeen Years, I did a lot of difficult jobs, including visiting 17 prisons to learn the real life there. All these things pushed me to conform to the system.”

Communicating with authorities and finding a peaceful way of telling his story was the solution. Dada’s Danc passed the test successfully without a single cut, succeeding where another script, about young criminals, failed before.

“It doesn’t mean thaDada’s Danc is not heavy, no, the only difference between these two scripts is that I hoped to tell Dada’s story in a comparably quieter way,” Zhang says. “I don’t know whether the audience can understand me or not, but whatever the case, it’s still better that your own people can watch this movie in the ciand not from pirated DVDs.”

Does that mean, as some older fans suggest, he has given up his fighting spirit? Zhang’s answer is no. The 46-year-old director sees himself as unchanged during the past 20 years. He hot the first music video in China and even produced advertisements. In the old days, religion controlled art, dictating what gets produced and what doesn’t; then politicians had the reins; now there is commerce.

“But I hav my principles, such as never overestimate nor look down on yourself,” Zhang says. “The first thing a director should care about is t self-satisfaction of communicating with the world, then the feedback of the audience. Business is something you have to work with and fight against. But as for being a fighter … that was an icon made by the media. I have always done things the same way.”

Why continue making movies? The director says that because we are not gods, we do not know what will happen next but rather should constantly try to imagine the future.

Zhang asks for another whiskey and the topic finally turns to his drug use.

“I did it, it was a mistake and I gave it up,” he says. “That’s it. People thought that Zhang Yuan w_ _ked, but look at me now, I’m alive, continuing t do everything I used to, nothing changed. It may also have been a good lesson that taught me this: drugs don’t work.”