To borrow a word:
"It is not that there is only one director left in China, but that there is only one Zhang Yimou in China."
Enough to prove his pivotal position in the film industry in China. At the age of 70, he still sticks to the front line of the film industry and walks in front of his own art.
Zhang Yimou's youth from a worker to a director also experienced ups and downs. Zhang Yimou's ancestors were a big family in Lintong, and his grandfather graduated from yenching university. He was a county magistrate in the early years of the Republic of China and his family was well-off. Zhang Yimou's father said after watching "Raise the Red Lantern": Your grandfather's yard is bigger than this.
My father Zhang Bingjun is an officer in Whampoa Military Academy, and my mother is a doctor in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi Jiaotong University. It can be called an intellectual family, including an uncle and uncle who graduated from Huangpu Military Academy, and an army chief of staff from the official to the national. This is a noble family in old China.
1950 Zhang Yimou caught up with the scenery at home for some time. However, everything ended in the Cultural Revolution of 1966, and he became the object of criticism overnight. In that age of being born and composing music, basically nothing could be done. After graduating from junior high school, he worked in the rural areas of Ganxian County, Shaanxi Province.
He practiced two unique skills: painting the chairman and writing the struggle slogan with a mop. Painted at the door of every household in the village. After entering the factory, he was named as "one of the four talents in the eighth cotton spinning factory" because of his accumulated talents and good paintings when he was young.
Drawing allowed him to be transferred to the craft workshop to do manuscript design, which exposed him to the camera. Once you start, you can't extricate yourself. After saving three years' salary, selling blood and his mother's sponsorship, he bought his first camera and started his fate with movies. 1978 when the college entrance examination just resumed, Zhang Yimou applied for the photography department of the Film Academy at the suggestion of his workmates. At that time, Zhang Yimou, who was 28 years old, was still far from meeting the enrollment requirements under 22 years old. Coupled with his family composition, he was discouraged. Fortunately, with the help of outstanding people, he barely entered the film academy, but faced with the exclusion of his classmates and was labeled as an admissions officer. After graduation, he was assigned to Guangxi Film Studio.
This is an epoch-making film in China's film history. With bold composition and unique lens design, he won the 1984 China film excellent photography award and was listed as the first work of the "fifth generation" filmmakers. As one of film photography, Zhang Yimou began to attract the attention of the film industry and began his long-term attachment to the film.
Zhang Yimou's first wife, Xiao Hua, met in junior high school. Junior high school students were just assigned to a place to jump the queue. Fate made them have feelings. Even if they are assigned to work in different factories, it can't stop Xiao Hua from washing and cooking for Zhang Yimou. Zhang Yimou also wrote more than 40 pages of love letters to express his determination and persuaded Xiaohua's father. 1978, two young people who have been in love for many years finally got married. That is, in this year, Zhang Yimou was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy, and Xiao Hua gave up the opportunity to go to college and took care of Zhang Yimou wholeheartedly. As we all know, Beijing Film Academy is the crossroads between them. 1983, his first daughter Zhang Mo was born in Zhang Yimou, Guangxi.
The emergence of this kind of life still failed to stop the disturbance of the real world. Zhang Yimou, who was already famous for making movies at that time, was looking for better works to show. He was deeply attracted by Mo Yan's Red Sorghum, won the copyright of Red Sorghum, and began to prepare wholeheartedly. At that time, he chose Gong Li between Shi Ke and Gong Li, which proved this point.
"Red Sorghum" has won numerous awards, and Gong Li has also shined in the international arena, becoming the representative of Oriental Beauty. That year, Zhang Yimou was 37 years old and Gong Li was 23 years old. Gong Li became the queen actress of Zhang Yimou and the person in his heart, but they all forgot, as well as Xiao Hua and his daughter Zhang Mo. Betrayal and responsibility come one after another. Everyone is deceiving themselves in the confusion of their own compilation. The breakthrough of the story comes from a letter discovered by Xiaohua, which was written by Zhang Yimou to Gong Li:
"I want to marry you, and the way you stay in my arms is so cute ...", "We always have endless words and things to do together ..."
All my wife's senses collapsed in an instant. When questioning her, she replied with two sad words: begging her not to say, frankly: "She wants to give birth to a son for me."
All disillusioned, Xiao Hua and Zhang Yimou divorced. Zhang Yimou, who experienced a failed marriage, didn't promise Gong to get married. Once this desperate eight-year relationship ended in a paper engagement.
Gong Li, who wanted to get married before the age of 30, met Zhang Yimou, who didn't want to get married. To outdo each other, they parted ways in their life choices. It was not until she met Chen Ting that Zhang Yimou re-entered the married life. 50-year-old Zhang Yimou met 19 Chen Ting. The age difference of 3 1 did not stop two people from falling in love. Chen Ting gave up college and gave birth to three children without getting married.
Get married on 20 1 1 year. It was not until he was bombed and fined more than 7 million yuan that people realized that for so many years, a woman named Chen Ting had been silently supporting him behind his back.
Zhang Yimou often appears in public with his family, and his daughter and son are both glowing in their passionate fields. As early as the age of ten, my youngest daughter, Zhang Yijiao, published a picture book called "Food Diary". She wrote pictures and essays herself. Her son, Zhang Yinan, is also a talented future director and has won the Best Film Award and the Best Photography Award at the International Youth Film Festival. On the cover of a magazine with my father, young and promising.
In daily life, no matter how busy he is, he never forgets to spend time with his family. Zhang Yimou not only plays chess with her second son, but also wears glasses to guide her little daughter to do her homework. At this moment, the dignified director on weekdays has become an ordinary loving father, and his life is as plain as ordinary people.
Conclusion Zhang Yimou is still struggling for his film career. At the moment when he shows his national temperament, he will feel at ease and look forward to hearing his name. Whether applause or obscurity, Zhang Yimou will always keep moving forward in anticipation.