[2010.02.16] ZHANG YIMOU'S COMEDY GETS BERLIN RAVES

Zhang Yimou, Yan Ni, Sun Honglei

courtesy of singtao.com

The 60th Annual Berlin Film Festival continues its Eastern Storm. First the Wang Quan'an directed APART TOGETHER opened the event, two days ago Zhang Yimou's A SIMPLE NOODLE STORY held its premiere. The foreign media gave more positive than negative reviews to this dark comedy that was based on the Coen Brothers' BLOOD SIMPLE, in particular Xiao Shenyang and other actors performed a "noodle pull" scene that left a deep impression with foreigners. The Chinese humor successfully broke through the Western language barrier. To Zhang Yiou who won his first Golden Bear prize with RED SORGHUM 20 years ago he still was very excited. He even revealed his plan to remake LIAO CHAI.

At the press conference, Zhang Yimou said that promoting SIMPLE on the Lunar New Year Day felt great. Some reporters even deliberately wore red for the occasion as if they were wishing Director Zhang a Happy New Year. When asked why he adapted BLOOD SIMPLE, he explained, "When I first saw this film I already liked it a lot. It's too cool!" As for why he waited until now, he expressed that 20 years ago directors had many limitations in the Mainland and he could not as his wished. Luckily it was more open in recent years.

Although SIMPLE was based on BLOOD SIMPLE, Director Zhang revealed that he never met the Coen Brothers as they only exchanged emails. "After seeing SIMPLE they expressed that they liked this remake very much. I felt very touched." In addition, Director Zhang also revealed that his next film LOVE OF THE HAWTHRON TREE will take place in the Cultural Revolution. He also expressed interest in remaking the LIAO CHAI story for the first time.

Lead actress Yan Ni due to the CCTV Spring Evening program could not make the press conference. A reporter asked the position of Mainland actress. Lead actor Sun Honglei responded, "The international film scene position of actresses like Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li is something that the Mainland male stars cannot achieve. Thus actors must continue to work hard, participate in even more good films in hopes of through good movies creating good actors."