MCLC: interview with Jia Zhangke, parts 1 and 2

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Ian Johnson <iandjohnson at gmail.com>
Subject: interview with Jia Zhangke, parts 1 and 2
***********************************************************

Source: Sinosphere blog, NYT (10/18/13):
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/q-a-jia-zhangke-on-his-new-f
ilm-a-touch-of-sin

Q. and A.: Jia Zhangke on Violence, Censorship and His New Film “A Touch
of Sin”
By EDWARD WONG

One afternoon, as a late summer thunderstorm rolled into Beijing, a small
group of Chinese and foreign journalists sat in the Beijing office of Jia
Zhangke, the Chinese director, watching his latest film, “A Touch of Sin.”
Mr. Jia had finished one round of appearances at film festivals and was in
Beijing for a spell, before heading to festivals in the fall in Toronto;
New York; San Sebastián, Spain; and elsewhere. The film had made its world
premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where it won a best
screenplay award.

Mr. Jia’s office is in a gray apartment block in northwest Beijing, and it
is here that he writes scripts, talks to producers and edits his films.
Mr. Jia’s awards, including the Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival,
sit in a cheap trophy case in the main room. The walls of the rooms are
decorated with framed posters of Mr. Jia’s films from various countries.
The most striking is a French one for “Platform” that, in its original
form, showed Mao Zedong’s face upside down. Mr. Jia has reversed it so
that Mao is right-side up and has hung it in a back room above the
computer and monitors he uses for editing.

Dressed in a black T-shirt, Mr. Jia served us tea as we waited for
everyone to gather. There was some small talk about his home province of
Shanxi, a dusty coal region in northern China, and then he turned off the
lights. The opening scenes of “A Touch of Sin” began unfolding on a
wide-screen television. We could hear thunder outside, but that did not
distract from the viewing. Afterward, Mr. Jia sat down with us for
one-on-one interviews in Chinese.

I wrote a profile 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/14/world/asia/filmmaker-giving-voice-to-act
s-of-rage-in-todays-china.html> of Mr. Jia based on that visit, but could
only incorporate some of his comments because of space constraints. The
entire hourlong interview gives greater insight into Mr. Jia’s working
process and the challenges of filmmaking in China. The following is a
transcript of that interview, translated by my colleague Amy Qin, with a
few parenthetical notes for clarification. The second half will be posted
Monday.

Q. You’ve said before that “A Touch of Sin” is your take on a martial arts
film. Why did you decide to make a kind of martial arts film based on
contemporary news events?

A. Actually I had been preparing to make a martial arts film since 2007, a
real martial arts film. It doesn’t have an English title yet. In Chinese
it’s called “In the Qing Dynasty” (在清朝). It deals with the period from
1895 to 1905. The reason I wanted to film this period is because this is
when China’s transformation began. And that transformation has continued
up to now. It hasn’t stopped.

Last year, while I was still in the process of preparing for the film —
well, not just last year, more like two or three years ago — I started
using Weibo, and Chinese society also became more interested in using
Weibo, China’s Twitter. It’s had a big impact on the lives of Chinese
people.

The biggest impact I think is that now if something happens, no matter
where it is in China, it can be seen by people immediately. And I feel
that the way I understand China’s reality has also changed, because now I
can see these things that are happening all around China on Weibo.
Different kinds of things, not just these ones in the film. There are good
stories and there are bad stories. But for me, I slowly began to see the
problem of individual violence in society. There are many tragedies or
social problems in which people ultimately rebel, and this becomes a very
big tragedy. So I began to pay more and more attention to this problem
because, frankly speaking, I feel that the Chinese people really don’t
understand the problem of violence because society has never had a
widespread discussion of the problem.

Especially in films, violence used to be restricted. Of course, there are
two aspects of this. One is the censorship of films. In the past they
didn’t really allow too much violence in movies, especially when the
violence was closely interrelated with society. Then there is the cultural
convention in China where we are not very willing to look back on or
confront unpleasant events. Obviously, all of these violent events are
unpleasant. But for me, it is not enough for the news media to report on
these violent incidents. I think what films can do is provide an emotional
understanding, and in the one or two hours of a film we can try to
understand these incidents. From that time on, I really wanted to direct
this kind of movie.

But I didn’t immediately think of a good way to make this movie. Because
for a director, aside from the content, what is the most effective
cinematic language to use to tell the story? I didn’t know right away. But
it happened that one day, while I was preparing for the martial arts film,
I suddenly knew what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to make a movie about
these four stories. I thought these four stories were just like the
martial arts films made in the past except that they were set in
contemporary China. So I thought I could use a traditional martial arts
style to film the movie I wanted to make about today’s China. Once I
decided this, I began preparations for it in August last year. Production
took a very long time. Because starting in August, when we began
pre-production, to filming — first we were in Guangdong Province, in
Dongguan, for about three weeks. Then we went to Chongqing, and we were
there for about another three weeks. Then we went to Shennongjia in Hubei
to film the third story. And then we went to Shanxi Province, where we
finished filming. We began filming at the end of last October and
continued into March, so it was five months in all.

You could say this was the most complicated of my films to make. Often
when we were chatting, we’d say that it was like filming four separate
movies, because these four stories are very different from each other. For
each of them, the production and the pre-production had to be completely
redone. So really we used the energy for making four movies to finish this
one movie.

Q. Did you intend to make a film that was widely representative of China,
both geographically and in terms of characters?

A. Yes, I had thought why didn’t I just film one of these stories, since
each one could be made into a separate film? There were really two
reasons. The most important is that we don’t experience life by
encountering just one person or one event. Rather, we encounter lots of
information and many people at the same time. I wanted to convey this
experience through multiple stories, the experience of exchanging
information back and forth on the Internet. Another reason is that each
story is really a very extreme one, because violence is itself extreme. An
extreme story is not necessarily something that happens all the time. So
it often gives the impression of being an isolated case, and it might seem
like this person was simply in very particular circumstances that led to
this tragedy.

But what we see in China today is that these kind of events happen all the
time. They are no longer rare events. There are profound social reasons
why they occur. So I feel that by using multiple stories we are telling
people that this isn’t necessarily an exception, nor is this an isolated
and extreme story. That these kind of stories happen in China all the time.

For example, after I returned from Cannes, there was very unfortunate
news. There was an explosion in a bus in Fujian, then the gun rampage at a
Shanghai factory, and then the Beijing airport explosion. There have been
many commentaries that have said “A Touch of Sin” is a kind of prophetic
piece. But it’s not really prophetic. I wasn’t predicting anything.
Rather, I saw circumstances in present-day Chinese society that make us
feel rather uneasy. Through the film, I hope to raise people’s awareness
as well as present my own impression of these circumstances. So these four
characters don’t necessarily represent individual cases so much as
something we should recognize as a social problem.

Another thing is — there are so many stories out there, so why did I
choose these four? For this, I had to consider the language of my film. I
always knew I wanted to make a film that would sum up China’s condition.
It’s like what ancient Chinese painters said, “to depict all of China in
one painting” (万里河山图). I thought if I had a chance to make a film about
China, representing its circumstances from north to south, then I would do
it. It just so happened that the first story takes place in northern
China, in Shanxi. The second story is in the southwest, in Chongqing. The
third story is in central China, in Hubei. And the last story is in the
southern province of Guangdong, in Dongguan.

Aside from visual considerations, I feel it also addresses the mobility of
Chinese people, those looking for life opportunities by moving. This is
especially true of the young man from the interior going to Guangdong for
temporary work and trying to change his life. In the process of moving,
they are always hoping to find opportunities. But movement on this large a
scale also highlights a big issue, which is the enormous geographic
disparity of China. China’s resources are concentrated in the eastern
developed regions and in the big cities, so people move to Shanghai,
Beijing and Guangzhou. This has its own social problems. So I wanted to
make a film that wasn’t just about one person and wasn’t in just one
place. Rather, it would demonstrate China’s situation through this
movement.

Q. The protagonists in martial arts films are typically considered heroes.
Do you see the characters in your film as heroes?

A. From the perspective of individual dignity, I personally really admire
them. I particularly feel this about the third story, the story of the
woman. After she has been so abused, she chooses to fight back. I think,
from this point of view, it’s the same as with characters in traditional
martial arts films. But the circumstances of these four people are all
very different. They represent different kinds of violent problems.
Generally speaking, the conclusion of each story is tragic. To me,
violence is not necessarily the best response to violence. It’s not a
method I identify with. But it is a way out. So to a certain extent, I can
certainly understand them [the protagonists]. But that doesn’t necessarily
mean that I approve of their actions.

Q. In the United States, when this kind of film is released, there is
often a public discussion about whether violence in films might encourage
people to use violence in real life. Do you think this film will start the
same kind of discussion in China?

A. Actually, that is not one of my hopes for this movie. I don’t want this
film to inspire imitation or to convince people that violence is good. I
trust that the power of this film lies in its ability to encourage people
to think about violence, to reflect on it. I think the destructiveness of
violence is made clear in the film. Violence is extremely destructive. I
also hope that the audience will understand these characters as I do and
not identify with their methods.

Q. What are the reasons for these fundamental social problems?

A. I think the biggest problem is that [economic] reform has given rise to
many problems. These problems need to be solved as soon as possible. Chief
among them are the problem of social inequality and problems such as
distribution of income. I feel that inequality is the basis of all of
these. It includes the restrictions on young people as they are trying to
get ahead. I think we must use reform to solve these problems.

Q. Do you think that the people who go to Dongguan to work feel like they
can change their lives, or do you think that after they have been there
for a few months they want to give up?

A. I feel that most of the people I’ve met, such as the young people in
Dongguan, when they first go to the south, to Dongguan, they’re full of
hope and longing to change their lives. They have many dreams. But once
they start to do the repetitive work and they start to really see what
life is like, and as they become part of the manufacturing industry and
get to know the city, they slowly begin to feel more and more despair.
This despair is due to their income, their work, or maybe they feel
oppressed by all this movement, and so lose hope. This hopelessness
depresses their spirit. The reason so many of these kids jump off
buildings has a lot to do with losing hope.

Q. Do you think that your film is a sort of critique of capitalism?

A. I feel that China is not necessarily capitalist. I think the problem
has more to do with influential officials taking resources for themselves.
I remember [Prime Minister] Li Keqiang talking this year about what needs
to be done in order to end these interest-driven restraints on China’s
development. I feel Li Keqiang said it very clearly. So to me, it’s not
necessarily about communism versus capitalism, as much as it is a problem
of a monopoly by powerful officials.

Q. In the film, we see everything from the point of view of the workers.
Do you think there should be any sympathy for the other people in the
system?

A. Well, first, it’s not really possible to show too many different points
of view in a movie. For me, my own perspective is the perspective that I
have now, my own situation. Of course, the reason this film ends with the
faces of all these people is that I think it is very difficult to blame
China’s problems on a single class or a single group, even if it’s as
simple as blaming the system or blaming powerful officials. I feel that
the current social circumstances developed from everything together,
including cultural problems. So, for example, in the film we didn’t
describe these [wealthier] people too much. They might also have their own
pressures. I think it’s very difficult to place blame on one person or
class. I think everyone should take responsibility. That includes, I
think, being silent, not speaking out, taking the side of the evil-doer.

Q. Your first few films were about Shanxi, your home province, then you
began to film more about other parts of China. What brought about this
change?

A. I think it has to do with how I myself have changed. When I first began
to make movies, they dealt more directly with my life and my own feelings.
So I made a lot of movies about Shanxi in the beginning because I grew up
in Shanxi, I felt it was part of me. I used it as a very simple expression
of my feelings. The movie “Platform” is also an observation of the 1980s,
but I didn’t really do much from the perspective of history or economics
or society to understand life. But in the last few years, because of the
speed of China’s transformation, I have become very interested in history.
So I’ve started to acquire a historical perspective about certain things,
and I’ve also become interested in China’s social problems, its economic
problems, its political problems. So I feel now that with “A Touch of
Sin,” it’s not just an issue of individual emotions, but also an
expression of the state of the entire nation. I think in filming these
past few years, I’ve also looked at things from an aesthetic perspective,
because as a director, you have to have aesthetic considerations. But at
the same time, I feel I’ve acquired a social perspective and a historical
perspective.

Q. Both “Unknown Pleasures” and “A Touch of Sin” have scenes of bank
robberies, yet they feel very different, and they seem to me to represent
the contrasts between your older work and this film. Can you compare them?

A. In “Unknown Pleasures,” when the young man goes to rob the bank, it’s
quite amateurish. He’s acting on impulse, taking a sudden action because
he’s unhappy. In “A Touch of Sin,” it’s professional, the man is a
professional criminal. Being a professional criminal represents his
understanding of society. He might think that the stuff he steals should
be his. He has less of a sense of having committed a crime, less of a
negative feeling.

Q. Why didn’t the censors think this film was very sensitive?

A. First, I think the stories in my film are stories that can no longer be
suppressed. We might have seen these stories on Weibo, and then in
unofficial media, because we all see unofficial media. And even official
media are covering these stories. So these stories are a part of a record
that cannot be erased. It’s a record of reality. The news forms a backdrop
for film. Everyone knows about it, everyone in the media is talking about
it, so there is probably less pressure than before as to whether a film
can address these issues.

Q. How did you respond to the requests from the censors?

A. During the censorship process, they said they were more concerned about
certain bits of dialogue, which I felt didn’t have a huge impact on the
film. But they also made suggestions about taking out some of the more
violent scenes. They didn’t say I had to take it out; they were just
suggesting I do that. I didn’t want to change it, so I explained my own
view. I feel that in a film that’s intended to be a reflection on
violence, if we don’t see the destructiveness of violence, then I don’t
really know what I should be discussing.

For example, if our culture had permitted us to talk about violence and to
confront it over the past 30 years or even 20 years or 10 years, then,
given my personality, it would have been possible for me to make a very
measured, very restrained film, a film that doesn’t have these kinds of
scenes. But in the cultural environment of Chinese films, aside from
commercial films with violent scenes, there are no films that confront
violence as an issue. So when I made this film, I felt I had to depict the
violence. I shouldn’t avoid it.

To be continued in Part Two, in which Jia Zhangke discusses the evolution
of the censorship process, industry financing and the need for films to
reflect everyday life in China.


=================================================

From: Ian Johnson ()
Subject: Jia Zhangke interview 2

Source: Sinophere Blog, NYT (10/21/13):
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/q-a-jia-zhangke-on-his-new-f
ilm-a-touch-of-sin-part-2/

Q. and A.: Jia Zhangke on His New Film ‘A Touch of Sin,’ Part 2
By EDWARD WONG 

In the second part of my interview with the Chinese director Jia Zhangke,
he discusses censorship, industry financing and the need for films to
reflect everyday life in China.

Q. What kinds of changes to the censorship process have taken place in the
last 10 or 15 years?

A. The censorship process has changed a lot. I think the biggest change
happened in 2004. After 2004, from my own perspective, from the
perspective of someone who works in the film industry, there was more
discussion in the censorship process. In the past, no one came to talk to
us. They would just say “yes” or “no.” No one would listen to the
director, no one talked to the director about why he or she made the film
or why he or she dealt with the subject in this manner. After 2004,
directors began to have the opportunity to discuss and express their own
views. After 2004, the range of subjects that directors could make films
about also expanded. Of course, it’s not at the point we’d like. But I’ve
always believed that we must encourage progress of China’s system. If
China makes progress, then we must recognize it. The censorship process
has slowly become more relaxed.

At the same time, we can’t forget the power of China’s cultural
conservatism. It’s not official, it doesn’t come from the government. It
comes from the people. For example, “Django Unchained” by Quentin
Tarantino. “Django Unchained” was initially approved. It played for one
night and then it was halted because there’s a scene in the movie with a
naked man. Why did this happen? Because there were some conservative
people in the audience who wrote letters and made phone calls to report
it. So if we’re looking at what’s blocking the progress of Chinese
society, we can’t just look at official controls. It also has to do with
the Chinese people themselves.

Q. Why do you say these changes took place starting in 2004?

A. In 2004, there was a change in that China wanted to develop its film
industry. It became more commercialized. The change was very big, because
they began to look at films as an industry. Before, films were seen as
propaganda tools, just like CCTV or People’s Daily. After 2004, in order
to build up the Chinese film industry, officials began to see films not as
simply propaganda but as an industry. This change in thinking directly led
to the relaxation in policies that came about later.

Q. Are there political pressures put on you in certain aspects of your
work, such as what happened with the Melbourne International Film Festival
 [Mr. Jia withdrew a film of his from the festival because a documentary
about Rebiya Kadeer, the ethnic Uighur dissident living in the United
States, was also scheduled to be shown at the festival. In July 2009,
Uighurs rioted in the capital of the western Chinese region of Xinjiang,
resulting in many deaths. Mr. Jia’s friend Zhao Liang also withdrew a film
from the festival, and said in an interview with The New York Times in
2011 that Chinese film bureau officials had pressured him and Mr. Jia to
do so.]

A. I think this is a misunderstanding. In 2009, it was my own personal
decision. I made the decision because I felt that the film festival had
become a thing where directors were forced to express their opinions on
certain political systems. Whether you went or didn’t — either way you
were making a political statement. I didn’t like this feeling. I’m a
director. I don’t want to go to a film festival and have people think that
I’m trying to make a political statement. Furthermore, that year I saw the
violence in Xinjiang and I felt very sad about it. It was violence between
people, and between ethnic groups, between the Han people and the Uighurs.
I was very saddened by it.

Q. Were there any officials who said that you shouldn’t show your film at
the film festival?

A. No.

Q. So you’re saying officials didn’t pressure you and political
considerations didn’t influence your decision at all?

A. No, this sort of thing has never happened. The only time I come into
contact with the government is when a film is going through the review
process.

Q. Has the commercialization of the film industry in China had an impact
on the way you make films?

A. It hasn’t affected me very much, because I’m pretty clear about what
kind of films I like and the kinds of problems I’ll encounter in making
such films. For example, with these kinds of films — whenever the film is
passed on to the censors, I always feel anxious, whereas commercial films
usually don’t have a problem. I understand these circumstances. And these
kinds of films are usually not celebrated by the Chinese market. This I
know very well and I understand it. So it doesn’t have a big impact on me.

Q. If you want to continue to make these kinds of movies, how do you find
investment?

A. This is actually something I don’t really worry about because all of my
films have made money for the investors.

Q. I saw that “A Touch of Sin” has different investors. From China, there
are Shanghai Film Group and Shanxi Film & Television Group. And there’s
Office Kitano from Japan. Is most of the money from domestic groups?

A. Starting from 2004, it’s been mostly domestic and foreign money
combined. Sometimes there is Japan or France or South Korea.

Q. In the United States, growing commercialization has had a big impact on
the film industry. Is this the same in China?

A. In China, it’s pretty much the same. It’s had a big influence. On one
hand, you’re faced with the continuing decline in the average age of
filmgoers. This year, in China, the average age of moviegoers was 21, and
it continues to drop. So the market is starting to make movies aimed at
this younger age group.

At the same time, the cinema system in China is not very sophisticated.
The biggest impact has been on independent films or art-house films.
There’s less and less room for these films in theaters.

Q. So if a director in China wants to make an independent film, how does
he or she go about finding investment or people to back him?

A. The best thing is to find people to support you. Finding people to
support you depends on finding people who want to support this art, not
necessarily because they want to make a profit with this film. China’s
rapid economic development has in fact given rise to these kinds of
investors, these kinds of bosses, who might take this approach to make
this kind of movie.

Q. So do you think you might make a commercial film in the future?

A. I wouldn’t say no to the opportunity. Take this martial arts film that
I am preparing for now. For Chinese audiences, martial arts films are
commercial films. Maybe if I brought it to America it would be considered
an art-house film. But in China it’s a commercial film. I do have an
interest in making films that ordinary audiences want to watch, and at the
same time trying to communicate my own thinking and philosophy to the
21-year-old film-going audience.

This film is currently in pre-production. I hope to begin filming by next
year, after the Lunar New Year, because the pre-production is basically
finished. It’s just because we decided to film “A Touch of Sin” in the
middle that it was halted.

Q. Why did you want to make this kind of a martial arts film?

A. It has to do with my own study of history. I was born in 1970, and in
1979, when China began opening up, I was 9. So my entire childhood and
adolescence coincided with China’s reform and opening. So for a long time,
I had this idea that China’s transformation began in 1979.

But later, when I started reading a lot about history, I began to realize
that China’s biggest transformation actually started in 1895, or toward
the end of the Qing Dynasty. That transformation was actually a huge
change because before, China didn’t have science. All of a sudden,
mathematics, astronomy and geography were introduced. And China used to be
a central empire, and then all of a sudden you have America and France. So
China’s real efforts to become modern began back then — including how
people dressed, what they ate, their education.

So my story is about education. You know the civil service examination
system. In 1905 or so it was abolished because China wanted to catch up
with modern science. But many people had undergone this education [in the
Confucian classics in preparation for the examination], and all of a
sudden the system was abolished. They had no way to make a living. So I
saw what this transformation was for many people — a sort of passive
sacrifice. It was very passive. Because of the transformation, the
individual was sacrificed. I’m obsessed with this period, because it’s
just like ours. But I wanted to use martial arts to talk about this time.

Q. Are there other genre forms with which you want to work later?

A. I’m preparing to make a spy movie after this martial arts film. It’s
set from 1949 to 1966, the start of the Cultural Revolution. It’s a spy
story that takes place in Hong Kong. The history and the relationship
between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party is something that Chinese
people need to think about.

Q. Is it important to you to make an epic historical film? It seems to me
that all Chinese filmmakers want to make one.

A. I think that Chinese directors have a very strong interest in Chinese
history. This derives from the fact that so much of the truth about
Chinese history has been suppressed. A lot of directors want to film a
truthful version of Chinese history. Just as I want to make a 1949 spy
movie — because I want to portray what the relationship between the
Kuomintang and the Communist Party was really like. It’s an interest in
the truth.

For example, the history around the War of Resistance [against Japan] — in
the War of Resistance, during World War II, the Kuomintang actually played
a major role and made many sacrifices. But after 1949 — ever since I was
little, I have been taught that the Kuomintang forces didn’t actually
resist, that they tried to escape. Once we understand what really
happened, then we begin to want to express it. Because I find that the
history we were studying was problematic. From a professional perspective,
of course, we want to film it.

Q. You traveled to two film festivals with “A Touch of Sin”?

A. I went to Cannes and Melbourne.

Q. What was the reaction to the film among foreigners?

A. I think that, for the most part, at both Cannes and Melbourne,
foreigners could understand the stories in the film. They also had
questions, such as, well, the same here — is it necessary to have such
violent scenes? Many people asked this, and I just told them that I think
that if you want to understand violence, to understand the destructiveness
of violence, then I don’t know how else to do it. I also think that
foreigners have a general understanding of China, such as what’s going on
there politically or economically. Their sense as a whole is pretty good,
so they can understand the stories from afar, from the perspective of
China’s development. Normally Chinese viewers will understand the movie
through individual perspectives, from the perspectives of the characters.

Q. There are some people here who criticize the foreign media for paying
too much attention to the darker aspects of China. Have you gotten this
kind of criticism?

A. From my first film “Xiao Wu” to now, I’ve heard this kind of criticism.
In the past, I might have responded to it, but now I don’t really respond
because it’s very obvious. From my perspective, what I am most interested
in is individual destinies, and within individual destinies what I’m most
interested in is individual struggles. I think this is a general interest
that has existed among artists since the beginning of art and movies. We
will always be concerned with these struggles, we will always look at the
weaknesses, we will always feel a great impulse to understand these dark
situations. This is something that doesn’t need to be explained.

Through our portrayal of dark situations, through our description of
unfortunate events, what we get is a sort of life experience and an
affirmation of life. I remember there was an artist who said that on
reading Lu Xun’s short stories, he realized that Lu Xun’s short stories
are all very dark, but they are like a match that illuminates us. This is
art. Otherwise, what do we film? There is no shortage of these kinds of
films.

Q. What was the budget on “A Touch of Sin”?

A. The budget on the film was about $4 million. It was the most expensive
of all the films I’ve made. Two-thirds of the investment was from domestic
companies — from the film groups in Shanghai and Shanxi, as well as my own
production company, Xstream Pictures.

Q. Which Chinese filmmakers do you follow?

A. From Taiwan, I follow Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Tsai Ming-liang’s work. From
Hong Kong, Johnnie To and Wong Kar-wai. From the mainland, Lou Ye, Wang
Xiaoshuai — basically these are the directors who are the same age as I am.

Q. What about younger directors on the mainland?

A. Han Jie or Hao Jie and Wang Bing.

Q. You often edit your own films. Did you do that with “A Touch of Sin”?

A. I edited “A Touch of Sin” in Datong. Because work was too chaotic here,
I went to Datong and I stayed in a hotel. For seven or eight days I didn’t
go downstairs, I just kept to myself. To eat I would go down to the second
floor and then I would go back up and continue editing. I edit my films
myself. I also write the films myself. I handwrote this one. It’s faster
than using a computer. I edited all my films except “24 City.” That one I
wrote with Zhai Yongming. This time writing by hand was faster than
writing with a computer. This time I really wanted to write it by hand,
and I also wrote it really fast. And I have this colleague from school —
no matter how messy my handwriting was, he could read it and then would
type it out. This handwritten screenplay will be published in China, maybe
in one or two years, by a publishing house in Shandong.

Q. You’ll be at the New York Film Festival at the end of September. Are 
you looking forward to it?

A. It has a big Chinatown, and I’m looking forward to going there. The 
first thing is always to find a Chinatown. Then you can have a great 
Chinese meal. [laughs]

—–

After the screening of “A Touch of Sin” and before Jia Zhangke did 
one-on-one interviews, he engaged for about 20 minutes in a free-flowing 
conversation with the journalists he had invited to his office. Here are a 
few interesting comments he made during that discussion.

Q. What were some of the most interesting reactions to the film at 
festival showings?

A. The most interesting reaction was that the audience would applaud when 
people got killed. But when the horse was being beaten or being yelled at, 
people would feel the pain. A lot of people couldn’t stand watching the 
horse getting beaten or yelled at, but could tolerate the killing of 
people.

Q. At the international film festivals you attended [Cannes and Melbourne, 
at this point], what were the differences in reactions between overseas 
Chinese and foreigners?

A. Overseas Chinese understand the background of the film better. A lot of 
people know the stories you’re depicting. Overseas Chinese seem to be 
really concerned about whether or not this film can be released in China. 
Everyone has been asking me about it, and I keep telling everyone this 
film has already been approved. No one believes me.

After the film was submitted to the censors, we waited 20 days, and they 
came back with two pages of orders and suggestions. The screenplay had 
already been approved before that. There weren’t really any problems with 
the script. The two pages were for the finished film. I felt like it 
wasn’t too bad. They are trying to change as well.

They waited two to three weeks after the first edit was submitted to the 
censorship board, and then they came back with the two pages. And then we 
resubmitted the edited version. We waited for about a week, and it was 
approved. It was approved before the final list of films selected for the 
Cannes film festival was released, otherwise it wouldn’t have complied 
with regulations.

Regarding the violence, they asked me if I could take out some of the 
violent scenes, and I wrote back to them saying this is the point of the 
movie. If I take them out, then I don’t know what we’re discussing [in the 
film]. They had suggestions, and then they had things I had to do. Like in 
the scene where they have the welcome ceremony at the airport, there was a 
reference to something about harmony and they said I had to take this out. 
I thought this was no loss to my film, so it wasn’t a problem.

Q. You don’t know who these censors are.

A. I do know some of the censors, because some of them are professors or 
movie critics. Most I don’t know.

Q. A lot of people criticize [the writer] Yu Hua for being too close to 
reality and everyday events. If you were criticized in this way, how would 
you respond?

A. When I make a film, I have things I want to say. I think the way films 
in China reflect current reality is too slow. In writing, artists and not 
just journalists should record life. Contemporary people should film 
contemporary stories. Contemporary people should write about contemporary 
events. I think this is a very fundamental responsibility. Before, as we 
were preparing to make a Qing Dynasty martial arts film, these other 
stories moved me so much that I thought we should tell these stories 
first. I’ve always wanted to be a storyteller whose work parallels 
reality. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be very distant [in 
time] in order to tell the story.

There are several types of films. There are films with stories that are 
right in front of you, and you film them. And there is a type that is very 
removed from the subject. For example, if we were to make a movie about 
1949, we would be very removed from it. It’s also a good kind of movie. 
But what China lacks today is films about 1949 made in 1949, films made 
about the Cultural Revolution made during the Cultural Revolution, and 
films about June 4 [the suppression of demonstrations in Tiananmen Square 
in 1989] made during June 4. There needs to be an immediate reflection on 
the moment. This is what’s missing.