'This Film Was My Boyhood Dream'

Source: Jan 2002, Time Asia

Critically acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou on the making of his star-studded martial-arts flick, Hero
By STEPHEN SHORT and SUSAN JAKES Hengdian

Zhang Yimou's martial-arts epic Hero has a boffo cast, a big budget, an award-winning crew—and the burden of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Responsible for such hits as Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern and The Road Home, the award-winning director spoke recently to TIME Asia entertainment correspondent Stephen Short and Senior Reporter Susan Jakes on the set of Hero in Hengdian, China.

Edited excerpts:

TIME: Watching you shoot this morning, you looked a little stressed. Are you worrying a lot about this film?

Zhang Yimou: I always worry about actors during the fight scenes. About 10 years ago I acted under action director Tony Ching. Gong Li was the female lead. And in the middle of a fight scene I broke my leg. It was a real drag. It took four months to heal. So I'm always fretting about the actors' safety.

TIME: When we last met in Beijing last year, you talked about making a kung-fu movie. You hadn't made one before, and you sounded a little trepidant. So how are you coping?

Zhang Yimou: I'm actually not doing too badly. I still have so much interest in the project. I still have so much affection for it. And I have an action director who's an old friend of more than a decade. That's made it a lot easier. And then there's the cast—Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi—four of the most talented actors in China. It's just a joy to work with them. It takes the pressure off to work with such skilled people.

TIME: What about the pressure of making this project on the back of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? It's a very boring question, very predictable and all, but what do you think?

Zhang Yimou: First of all, I have so much respect for Ang Lee for making the movie such a success. I loved it. And it sparked unprecedented international interest in Chinese films and in martial arts. But I also believe that just because someone's made such a successful film, it doesn't mean we have to feel intense pressure. Everyone's imagination is different. Each director has his own goals, his own aesthetic and dramatic aspirations. Like Ang Lee, I'm a huge fan of martial-arts cinema. I can't get enough of the stuff. I've been that way since I was a kid. I'm completely in agreement with something Lee once said on the subject: "Every male director's dream is to make a martial-arts flick." It's been my dream since I was little.

TIME: From what we've seen the visual palate in this film looks very lush, even sumptuous. Was that a choice that was made very early on? Or did it come about later as a result of discussions with people like cinematographer Chris Doyle?

Zhang Yimou: The aesthetics of this film are inextricably bound up with the plot. The idea of using colors to tell the story came about quite early in the process of conceptualizing the film. The look of the set, the costumes and so on was developed in concert with the script itself. I had an image in my head for a long time and then worked through the details of how to realize it through talking with the other people working on the film.

TIME: You must be learning a whole lot of new things as a director working in this genre. When Ang Lee started shooting Crouching Tiger he said he was completely at sea. How are you coping with the challenges of shooting an action film?

Zhang Yimou: I'm probably just as lost as Ang Lee, maybe more so. I love the story in this film, but there's so much to keep in your head once you start shooting. All these stars, all the complexities of the action scenes. I definitely have a lot to learn. I love this feeling, though, of trying difficult things for the first time. I love the challenge.

TIME: Is there any one shot that you wanted to shoot but weren't able to because it was too complicated, technically or otherwise?

Zhang Yimou: Yes, tons. Some we couldn't do because of the limitations of the actors' martial-arts ability. Others we couldn't because of safety. And then there were scenes that were just too complicated. We're using computer enhancement on many of the scenes. It can be a drag, because you don't know when you're shooting, or what the scene will actually look like. You can't see it. And then of course there were things we couldn't shoot because of environmental conditions, the weather for instance. This isn't unique to action films, it happens all the time.

TIME: From an aesthetic point of view, is the film going to be very surprising? Are people going to look at it the way they looked at your directorial debut, "Red Sorghum?" Is it going to have that kind of effect? Are people going to see something very new here?

Zhang Yimou: That's a possibility. It's certainly what I'm trying to achieve. I've been looking at some of the rushes and I'm confident that we'll be able to give the audience something completely new.

TIME: You told us that Zhang Ziyi feels a lot broader to you as an actress than she did when you were working on The Road Home with her. Does she now give you that same sense of being able to wrap a scene in one or two takes that you talked about with regard to Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung? Or does she still need a lot more cajoling to achieve the kind of performance you want?

Zhang Yimou: On this film, she's almost there. In the past, I had to spend a lot of time talking through each shot with her. Now she catches on much more quickly. Of course, she doesn't have the variety of experience of Tony or Maggie. She's still young. But she's got the ability.

TIME: Do you think that's a function of her increased familiarity with your demands on her as an actress? Is it that she simply has a better sense of what you want from her in a performance?

Zhang Yimou: Partially, yes. But it's just as much to do with the development of her craft as an actress. I'll give you an example. When we were making The Road Home, there were several times in the film when she needed to cry. And as far as I was concerned these were crucially important parts of the movie. I'd call for quiet on the set. There had to be total silence, because crying in front of so many people is not easy. I knew we could only do one take. The lights, the film, everything had to be perfect, because I was afraid that on the second or third takes the tears wouldn't come, or the acting wouldn't seem sincere. But on this film, she's been amazing. We have technical problems all time. There's always one reason or another to re-shoot the scene. We're doing five or six takes for every shot. And she cries on command. It only takes her a few seconds to get in and out of character. It has surprised and impressed me. This is real change in Ziyi's acting. Now if I have to shoot her crying, I'm not afraid of shooting multiple takes, because there's always a possibility that the last take will be the best one. Maggie's got the same talent. And I've caught Ziyi studying her performance very intently. It's a smart move. There's a lot Maggie can teach her.