Chinese Film Diaspora
I saw Flight of the Red Balloon the other day and came to the realization that Chinese film directors have really gone to explore other cultures and worlds. I mean, Hou Hsiao Hsien is the guy who made his name with a history of Taiwan, slow-moving and humanist films that captured the sensations of the early 20th Century. He made a decided shift into the modern world with Millenium Mambo, in the process turning Shu Qi (you may remember her from The Transporter) into a star. In Cafe Lumiere, he went to Japan for an homage to the great Japanese director Ozu. In Three Times, Hou revisited the past in combination with the present. And with Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge, he completely leaves Asia and comes to terms with Paris, France…perhaps his artistic home given his auteur film style.
Of course, he is present in the film, through his unique eye but also through his proxy, a Chinese woman character who speaks perfect French and is an au pair. As expected, she is a filmmaker enchanted with the original Red Balloon film and who takes care of Juliette Binoche’s child while seeing the world through his eyes. There’s a very telling moment near the end that reveals the essence of the film…that cinema is in a way the eye of child observing and giving perspective to a complex world.
The connection between French auteurism, namely the Nouvelle Vague or New Wave, and Chinese filmmaking had been made earlier by another Taiwanese director Tsai Ming Liang. His brilliant film What Time is it There? shows images of The 400 Blows, Traffaut’s first film that introduces us to another child’s perspective through the actor Jean-Pierre Leaud. The story is that a woman travels to Paris leaving behind a man in Taiwan who she may or may not have had a connection to. Later in the film, the Taiwanese woman sits on a bench in Paris and is greeted by a man, played by Jean-Pierre Leaud.
But France is hardly the only other focal point for Chinese filmmakers. A number of them have tackled the hegemonic American market with mixed success. As I write this, a top ten film in the country is Forbidden Kingdom, a sort of Americanized Chinese martial arts fantasy (wuxia pian as they are called). It stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li in their first film together, which is fitting given how they are the two Chinese actors who have transcended language to become American stars in their own right, even if not exactly leading men.
More importantly, Ang Lee won the Oscar for Best Director one year while the previous year making a big special effects summer blockbuster while before that making an immaculate Chinese costume drama while before that making a Civil War drama while before that making an English romantic comedy. John Woo’s brand of action travels well. Even Chen Kaige, the esteemed fifth generation Chinese filmmaker, did a film called Killing Me Softly with Joseph Fiennes and Heather Graham. Actress Joan Chen made an illustrious debut with the Chinese film Xiu Xiu and then followed it with the Richard Gere-Winona Ryder film Autumn in New York.
And in a final twist, many Chinese filmmakers are now exploring the mainland. For too long, Hong Kong and Taiwan were the hubs of Chinese cinema, but with the opening of capital and cultural ties, many more films are coming out, often starring Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese, and even mainland Chinese actors. I imagine after the Olympics the diaspora will only get wider. And I imagine it will bleed over the other way…such as Joss Whedon throwing Chinese phrases into his TV show Firefly and the movie Serenity.
(ADDED) And it’s happening already. The film Dark Matter had a limited release. It features a Chinese director (Chen Shi Zheng) and a Chinese star (Liu Ye) along with Aidan Quinn and that gold standard of American actors, Meryl Streep.
