TigerHawk

The stunning actress in the photo will be featured in Michael Mann's 'Miami Vice' with Jamie Foxx and Irishman Colin Farrell.Those new to China Cinema, meet Gong Li.US film audiences recently observed Gong Li in 'Memoirs of a Geisha'.Mr.Mann took advantage of Ms.Gong's L.A presence during principal photography of 'Memoirs' to close the deal for'Vice'.Mann an insightful observer of male bonding dynamics ('Heat','Collateral','Ali'), understands the balance of male/female, yin/yang.Ms.Gong represents the feminine to the fullest.

 

Personally, I felt at many levels 'Memoirs' was an unsuitable vehicle to bring Ms.Gong to the US market.The first obvious issue is she Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh (both of Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon fame)are all Chinese who play Japanese characters.We have a sense of deja vu, as we recall 'The Perez Family' project where Marisa Tomei and the non-Latino ensemble played Cuban emigre' characters.Many Japanese were offended.Predictably, Euro-American Director Rob Marshall defends the casting with the usual bromides of the 'best qualified' etc.Korean-American Margaret Cho suggests that as Britisher Ralph Fiennes(The English Patient) plays all European nationalities,Asian actors are likewise playing all Asian roles. I'll let the matter pass for now.

 

The second issue is the choice of role for Ms.Gong's US return(She played opposite Jeremy Irons in China Box years prior).China's Greta Garbo is a global super-star.Winner of numerous international cinematic awards and serious purse earnings.I've seen her in more heroic,sympathetc and endearing roles.I almost didn't recognize her on screen speaking English as the vicious courtesan.A decent acting performance, however somewhat uninspiring.

I really became a fan of Gong Li in 1994 when I saw 'Farewell My Concubine'.Chen Kaige was director.I didn't know Mandarin,Han,Schezuan or Cantonese .Subtitles were great for me. I just thought the Chinese sister an oustanding Beauty.High Cheeks,statuesque Northern Mongolian flava.No delicate China doll.Just Fine!It didn't help my hypnotic state that I had a keen sense of China culture and history.China Cinema granted me a window to peek at the complexity and enigmas of 'The Middle Kingdom'.

Chen Kiage andZhang Yimou, are two courageous film-makers who have given China and the globe a China narrative.Although we are dazzled, even bamboozled by beautiful women Gong Li and Ziyi Zhang, and martial artists like Jet Li, the message is profound,layered and timely.Let's take a peek behind the China Silver Screen.

 

Zhang Yimou fought to enter the Beijing Film Academy in 1978. At 27 years he was deemed too old.The Cultural Revolution(1966-1976) of the Great Chairman Mao had stolen precious years.Zhang, as many other 'bad influences' was re-educated in the country-side.They say the Chinese character for crisis is also the character for oppurtunity.He reportedly sold his blood(Red) to buy a camera.Zhang with his beautiful muse Gong Li gave China a sober mirror.Cinematographer by trade,Zhang's directorial debut was 'Red Sorghum' in 1987.The film is shot as a series of stills.Focused often on Gong Li's fine features, and the color Red.The power of red disquieted th Chinese censors as the ambiguous suggestion of blood,wine,communism,male energy,traditional prosperity, are all lingering.Is it an indictment of Communist China during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, even if the film's period is Japan-occupied China in the 1930s ?An artist indeed!Picasso would recognize.This feature made Gong Li an International Star.I've even seen it played on L.A's local PBS channel KCET.The Zhang/Gong team completed the trilogy with 'Judou'(1991) and' Raise the Red Lantern' (1992).These two movies consolidated Zhang's European support while the same work was banned by the Chinese Communist authorities.'Lantern' addresses class issues as Gong Li's character is the fourth wife of a 1920s Chinese Land-owner.Each wife was designated a colored lantern to signify her 'appointed evening' with the master. Of course Gong Li's lantern is Red.Revolutionary symbolism using a female as the hero and protagonist.Topping it off with a beautiful face where the camera lingers in silence.To further inflame Zhang Yimou's controversy is a scholarly realization. He broke the thousand year Chinese literary dominance when he deconstucted novels to film.Undoubtedly a visual subversive.

In 'Judou' Gong Li's character is the young wife of a dye-factory owner.Social and gender dynamics are again played out. Of course, what color of dyed sheets does Zhang  use as a cinematic tool?Your guess is correct.Red.That was the end of his Red period.The now classic Zhang Yimou trilogy.He realized the danger of being pidgeoned-in.We will return to his more recent works.

 

Chen's Farewell is only a Beginning.... 

Chen Kaige was a class-mate of Zhang Yimou at the Beijing Film Academy.They both became internationally acclaimed icons of China's Fifth Generation of film-makers.Both have encountered difficulties with the Chinese Communist government censors. Their 1984 collaboration 'Yellow Earth' was a ground-breaker of modern Chinese cinema.Zhang was cinematographer and Chen the director.A few years of projects passed until in 1993 'Farewell My Concubine' shook up the international cinema crowd.Beautiful Gong Li lent her power and visage to the twice-Oscar nominated movie.In a visually stunning narrative of a 50-plus year friendship of two men from the Peking Opera,'Farewell My Concubine' catapulted Chen Kaige in the category of Bertolucci and Kurosawa.Impressive costumes,Gong Li's captivating beauty ,and a layered story demanded the world recognize this China-Man's cinematic message.So did the Chinese authorities at home.The artist was skillfully connecting serious dots of China's society from the 1920s to the 1970s.Predictably,Chen's review of the 'Cultural Revolution'(1966-1976) incurred the wrath of The Chinese Communist Party and the Film censors.The European cinema elites showered him with accolades and awards.Time Madazine listed 'Farewell..' in it's All  Time Best 100 movies.

I,TigerHawk will wrap up this first of a series on China Cinema as I started-Gong Li the Beauty.I allow you my reader the space and oppurtunity to digest,reflect and research my ideas here.It is not my intention to overwhelm but to uplift awareness.The Hawk soars!

Ms.Gong has been touted in People Magazine's 50 most beautiful people.She has won the highest Awards of the French government.France's highest cultural honor, the Officier des Arts et des Lettres in 1988. L'Oreal Beauty Ambassador is another prestigious title bestowed. The daughter of an Economics Professor Gong aspired to be singer,but was declined. She then switched to acting at the Beijing Acting Academy.Ms.Gong never rested on her beauty.In fact, I suggest she has gone the extra mile to demonstrate her cultural,intellectual and even political power beyond the porcelain face and buxom figure.In many respects she is the spiritual sister of Italian Beauty Monica Bellucci.Monica relishes roles where her character gets her face dirty,humiliated and her character is earthy.See her in 'Malena', 'Tears of the Sun' .The Warchowski brothers gave her the beauty queen look of 'Malena' in The Matrix,but Monica sought out Mel Gibson to play Mary Magdalena in 'The Passion of the Christ'. I digress.Back to Gong Li.

Curiously after the termination of the business and personal relationship with Zhang Yimou,Gong worked with fellow Fifth Waver Chen Kaige.We already touched on 'Farewell My Concubine' in 1993.There is more.'Temptress Moon' in 1996 was their next collaboration.Again issues of gender and class in China in the 1920s are themes in this feature film. As Ruyi Pang,Gong Li portrays the exploitation of a young woman in an opium seduced household.Yet in the disturbing portrayal she and director Chen invoke the Inner China Mirror of matters which survived decades.Subversively, the idea of unchallenged patriarchy reflects on a senior ruling circle in contemporary China.Chen's female protagonist is the counterpoint to elder males who decide China's social order.Communist or Confucian.The same dynamic of gender and power.Gong Li and Chen rode the wave from 'Farewell' to push the social/artistic envelope.A risky proposition.Tiananmen Square was a mere seven years prior.Gong Li with her beauty had her pick of cute projects.She made a statement.The Power of her Beauty.

 

Beyond Last Emperor. 

There has been a intriguing interplay between Italians and Chinese going back to Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. In Oscar winner Michael Cimino's contoversial 1984 'The Year of the Dragon',Mickey Rourke's NYPD character Stan White informs ChinaTown Tong boss Joey(John Lone) 'I'm not Italian'.The China-Man had just offered the tough Pollock detective  a 'handsome retirement package' for accommodating 'business' in New York's ChinaTown.In 1987, Italian cinema maestro Bernardo Bertolucci paid homage to China in 'The Last Emperor'.Bertolucci and his partner cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, made history for the first authorized filming in China's Forbidden City.Of course Bernardo was no ordinary Italian film-maker.His politics was un-abashedly on the Left.'All movies are politics' is his credo.

I have recognized Bertolucci in my Brando blog posting.However I must pay a special respect to his brilliant and timeless chronicle of twentieth-century China in 'The Last Emperor'.I can say that in hindsight,Bernardo set us up for the visual majesty of Fifth Wave China film-makers Chen Kiage and Zhang Yimou.You must rent or buy this Oscar winner.Bernardo Bertolucci was Emperor of the 60th Academy Awards in April 1988.Nine Oscar nominations and nine Oscar statuettes!Best Picture.Best Director.Best Adapted Screen-Play.Best Original Score.Best Cinematography(Vittorio Storaro).Best Costume Design.Best Art/Set Decoration.Best Film Editing.Best Sound.

It is obvious the depth of respect and love the Italian duo Bertolucci-Storaro held for Chinese people and culture.Many Storaro  frames are stills of colorful and sweeping vistas.A foreshadow of Zhang's imagery and Chen's bold cinematic strokes.The sound-track by David Byrne won both Oscar and Grammy, and was obviously inspired by the spirit of this epic production.John Lone plays Emperor Pu Yi whose life reflects China from 1908 to circa 1966.From the end of the Qing dynasty and beginning of the Republic of Dr.Sun Yat-Sen, to Mao's Cultural Revolution.The latter event had deep impact on the life and expression of Fifth Generation film-makers Kiage and Yimou.Many artists and intellectuals were purged as they were deemed a threat to Mao's cult of personality.

My personal disappointment was the snubbing of Hong Kong born Lone.He was not even nominated for leading man.Michael Douglas won for 'Wall Street'.Oliver Stone had to step back for the Italian maestro Bertoluuci for Best Director.I was reminded of the Lone denial when Liam Neeson missed Oscar for Oskar Schindler, while the movie 'Schindler' swept Oscars that year.At least Liam was nominated.

In passing I must mention Joan Chen who played Pu Yi's wife.The China native was featured opposite Mickey Rourke and John Lone in Cimino's 'Year of the Dragon'.Maybe the maverick Italian-American gave his Italian cousin ideas on casting 'Emperor'.Ms.Chen was discovered while walking on the campus of Cal State University Northridge.Her Last Empress performance was a sympathetic and feminine counter-weight to Lone's moving and tortured Emperor Yi.Ms.Chen performed in a handful of 'passable' projects including Oliver Stone's 'Heaven and Earth'.However her proudest achievement is as Director of "Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl," which she co-wrote.The era featured is again the Cultural Revolution and Ms.Chen was accused of illegally filming in occupied Tibet, a sore spot for the People's Republic of China.The actress turned Director was threatened with being banned from her native China.

 

The Chinese lady above has become a surprise cinematic force.Bai Ling is a child of the infamously cruel 'Cultural Revolution'.Her parents were musicians and artists,thus targeted for punishment and 're-education'.The grand-parents raised Bai during her parents' tortured displacement .However, the fruit never falls far from the tree.While stationed with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Tibet,Ms.Ling sharpened her artistic talents.Szechwan became home for her stage and later movie career.A rebel against that authority which devastated her parents,Ms.Ling became active during the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989.Immediately after in 1991 she sought refuge in NYU's Film school and the Lee Strasberg Institute.The powers in Beijing were not in a reconciling mood.

 

Bai Ling is today the focus of her irreverent persona(recently on an MTV variety show),often revealing her lithe body under  risque garments.She landed roles in 'The Crow',Brandon Lee's tragic last work, and Oliver Stone's 'Nixon' as a Chinese translator.These were mere stepping stones for her un-apologetically anti-communist China movie 'Red Corner'.

Richard Gere has campaigned for decades to free Tibet from China occupation.A devotee of Buddhism and advocate of The Dalai Lama, Mr.Gere never misses an oppurtunity to expose Communist China.In 'Red Corner' he plays an American corporate attorney  framed for murder.Bai Ling brilliantly portrays his court-appointed defense lawyer Shen Yuelin.The movie was shot in Los Angeles,but the Production Designer covertly photographed Beijing for  reproduction effect. Ms.Ling is mesmerizing as she guides us through the maze of Communist China's political/legal corruption.Clearly no love was lost with her homeland and Beijing revoked her passport.Both China and North Korea banned the movie.Here we have a Chinese actor making a frontal assault on the wrongs in China.

 

Bai Ling went on to play opposite Will Smith as Ms.East in 'Wild Wild West',with Jody Foster and Chow Yun-Fat in 'Anna and the King'.She played a lesbian in Spike Lee's 'She Hate Me'.Mysteriously,her footage for Star Wars:Episode III was  cut after she posed for a Playboy magazine lay-out.Surely Gong Li has the Power of Beauty....However Bai Ling has the Spirit of Independence!!