By Da Huo'er
Translator: Qin Tian
Proofreading: Easy two three
Source: Jump Cut (March 1989)
In 1981, the largest retrospective exhibition of Chinese cinema ever held in Turin, Italy, xie Jin was known as China's Anjay Vajda. Four years later, his films finally landed in North America, and the retrospective screened 10 of Xie Jin's more than 20 films over the past 32 years.
Born in Shaoxing in 1923, Xie Jin grew up during World War II, when Japan invaded China. As a teenager, he studied at the Jiang'an National Drama College in Sichuan, where he studied under the famous playwrights Cao Yu and Hong Shen, and began to read works by Ibsen, Shakespeare and Chekhov. Shortly before liberation in 1949, he found his first industry job at Datong Film Company, after which he went to Shanghai, where he directed his directorial debut, A Storm in 1953.
"A Storm"
His first popular success was Women's Basketball Five (1957), which was well received both domestically and in Moscow. He went on to show his interest in female characters in The Red Detachment of Women (1960), one of the films commissioned to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China: (Don't confuse the film with the boilerplate of the same name.) The Stage Sisters (1964) was later heavily criticised, receiving critical acclaim when it was released in the UK in 1980 and several times since then on British television.
Stage Sisters
During that decade, Xie Jin was ostracized and classified as a "cow, ghost, and snake god", which was a punishment for Xie Jin's generation. After reforming within five years, he restarted his filmmaking. However, The Legend of Tianyun Mountain (1981) and Wrangler (1982) still caused widespread controversy. Both films tell the story of people going through purges. Xie Jin's humanism, affirmative views, and his unwavering commitment to Chinese cultural identity have led some European commentators to compare him to Wajda.
The Wrangler
After he was very successful in filming A Garland Under the Mountain (1984), a patriotic film set against the backdrop of the 1979 war and about life in the Chinese army, Xie Jin went on to adapt Gu Hua's novel Furong Town about rural life in the 1960s and 1970s.
The following interview is an excerpt from several conversations I had with Xie Jin during his recent visit to New York.
Reporter (hereinafter): Your career as a director began after liberation. Over the past three decades, your country has gone through several important political phases, and how have these events affected your films?
Xie Jin: During that decade, Big Lee, Little Lee and Old Lee (a 1962 film about mass sports activities in the meat factory) was denounced for "vulgarizing and satirizing the working class." It's the only comedy I've ever made. Overall, comedies came under fire during that period. First of all, I don't particularly like directing comedies. In those days, it was difficult to deal with comedy, it was difficult to strike the right political balance in it. You see, if you're going to criticize bureaucrats, and if you go too far, you're going to get into trouble; if you're too conservative, you're going against your own ends.
"Big Lee, Little Lee and Old Lee"
During the filming of "Stage Sisters" (a 1964 sitcom about two opera actresses who went from crumbling to fame and finally taking different paths in Japanese-occupied Shanghai), criticism began. I was forced to change the script. Today I admit that the first part of "Stage Sisters" is not bad, but in my opinion, the second part is relatively weak. I couldn't finish it the way I wanted. If I could remake the second part now, it would improve the whole movie.
Released in 1981, The Legend of Tianyun Mountain, a film about a woman's heartbreak struggle with the bureaucracy in a purge of her former lover, who had betrayed. At that time, around the rehabilitation of the rightists, "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain" set off a magnificent debate.
While being criticized, I received thousands of letters thanking me for reflecting on the suffering of these people. Some of the letters really moved me to tears. However, the movie "Tianyun Mountain" did not cause me more trouble. Personally, except for those ten years, my artistic expression was quite free.
The Legend of Tianyun Mountain
Reporter: Who have influenced your work?
Xie Jin: Of course, those Chinese movies of the 30s, and the movies I watched when I was a child. Cai Chusheng, Sun Yu and Shen Xiling are all my favorite directors. But then I discovered other aesthetic sources beyond cinema, which were classical literature and traditional opera. What impressed me was the precise and vivid storytelling of Pingtan (telling stories and folk songs in Suzhou dialect), as well as the techniques of Sichuan opera and Yue opera in dealing with characters. [Both are local opera forms, both named after their birthplaces; Sichuan opera is known for its chorus and harlequins, while Yue opera is known for its traditional all-female cast and dazzling costumes.] ]
Chen Yanyan, Sun Yu, Li Lili
Reporter: Are there any foreign filmmakers?
Xie Jin: American cinema had an important influence on Chinese cinema in the 1930s. In fact, most of the foreign films released at that time were American films. The American directors I admire most are John Ford and Mauvin Leroy. Ford used a spectacular style of stage performance, and Leroy's depiction of the characters intrigued me.
John Ford (center)
However, the greatest influence of the post-liberation generation on directors of our generation was undoubtedly Soviet cinema. Among Soviet directors, I admire Mikhail Röhm, Sergei Gerasimov, Yuri Leizmann, Gregory Chukhlei and Sergei Eisenstein. In addition, all of Mikhail Röhm's films, from those from the silent period to Nine Days of the Year (1962), are my favorites. I think he was one of the masters who had a big impact on me. My creativity benefits from the nourishment of his work, which is so profound and so vivid.
Nine Days of the Year
Of course, Eisenstein is important to anyone interested in movies. However, his montage theory did not have a major impact on us. I was amazed that American film students knew so much about Eisenstein, but so little about other Soviet directors who carried forward Russia's great cultural heritage. Soviet cinema had a deep moral seriousness and depth.
But Italian cinema also has to be mentioned. During the dubbing and printing of the Chinese version, I personally watched "The Bike Thief" and "Roma Eleven" more than 70 times.
The Bike Thief
Reporter: Western theater made an important contribution to the development of Chinese film aesthetics in the 20s and 30s of the last century. Famous Peking opera actor Mei Lanfang and others are very interested in Western theater theory, and theorists such as Brecht and Eisenstein are also influenced by Mei Lanfang and traditional Chinese opera forms. How popular are Stanislavsky and Brecht now in China?
Sherkin: Most of Stanislavsky's works were translated in the '40s, and we studied him in the '50s. Brecht, by contrast, was less influential. Both Brecht and Stanislavsky were condemned during the Cultural Revolution. Now we teach their theories and works in Chinese theater and film studies courses.
Stanislavsky
Reporter: Overseas Chinese intellectuals often believe that the 1930s and 1940s were the golden age of Chinese cinema. Do you have any comment on this?
Xie Jin: I don't think this view is very accurate, and I'm afraid I can't agree with it. Since the 1930s and 1940s, the artistic value of Chinese cinema has been evident. But I think we've had a good time for more than two decades. In order to commemorate the tenth anniversary of liberation, our country has made many very good movies. (Press: For example, Shui Hua's "Lin Jia Puzi", Cui Song's "Song of Youth", and "Red Detachment of Women". ）
"Lin Jia Shop"
If we had grown from there, rather than been disrupted in the last two decades, we might have reached a huge point of difference. In fact, we must reinvigorate ourselves from where we are. Hopefully, we are moving towards a new era.
Many people wonder why the film made in 1960 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China showed such strong creativity and artistic freedom only two years ago, when the anti-rightist movement hit intellectuals so hard.
Xie Jin: Yes. However, the better commemorative films are historical dramas set in pre-liberation settings, but don't get me wrong with the intention of these films to try to interpret the present as the past. Our country also has films on the question of the peasantry and the working class, but artistically these films are not very successful.
Reporter: There are a lot of memorable female figures in your films. The first thing that people think of is Song Wei and Feng Qinglan in "The Legend of Tianyun Mountain", Chunhua and Yuehong in "Stage Sisters", and Li Xiuzhi in "Wrangler". Are you more concerned about the fate of modern Chinese women?
Xie Jin: First of all, in the script, I often find that my female characters are portrayed better than male characters. This naturally has to do with my interests and choices. My childhood memories are still filled with oppressed, victimized women. Under feudal oppression, men's suffering could not be compared with women's. To say the least, a man can marry several wives, while a widow can never remarry. It would bring too much shame to her family.
I have an aunt whose husband died when she was only 19 years old and she was told to adopt a child of an in-law as her son. Since then, she hasn't looked forward to life anymore. What can she do in a widow's life that lasts nearly 60 years? What can she do with her desires and natural needs? Every night, she counted a string of coins like a rosary to help her fall asleep. The engraving on the coin was gradually worn off. The whole rope became bright and sparkling. It was one of my saddest memories.
Reporter: What kind of obstacles do Chinese filmmakers face?
Xie Jin: As in other parts of the world, the biggest problem is our huge demand for good scripts. Many excellent Chinese films have adapted literary works. I have adapted many novels myself - "Legend of Tianyun Mountain", "Wrangler", "Garland Under the Mountain". Unlike the rest of the world, in today's China, screenwriters are more respected than directors. In terms of remuneration, screenwriters always get more. There's an imbalance here, and I think something needs to be done.
"Garland Under the Mountain"
Reporter: You recently joined the party. Compared to your non-party era, does your current membership have an artistic and political impact on you?
Xie Jin: If trouble comes, it will come regardless of your political status. I've always just wanted to do my job. After experiencing various political crises, I became more determined about what I wanted to do and what to say. People often complain that we wasted too much time and made too many mistakes during the Cultural Revolution. But what has been done is irreparable, and we are talking about more than just one person's pain. In my own films, I try to instill some optimism in our people, as the protagonist of "Wrangler" puts it: "The son is not ugly." Let us look back at our country's past and face it squarely.
Reporter: Today, a new generation of directors in China in the post-Cultural Revolution era is emerging. More recently, Chen Kaige's Yellow Land (1984) and Tian Zhuangzhuang's The Hunting Ground Zaza (1984) have caused a sensation among critics in Hong Kong and Europe. What do you think of them?
"The Hunting Ground Zaza"
Xie Jin: The new generation of filmmakers seems to be more open to new ideas. I want them to explore their own perspectives, write good scripts, and don't stay away from the masses. Obviously, they have formed a thriving force in the Chinese film industry.