Zhang Yimou Films

The internationally acclaimed director Zhang Yimou is one of China's Fifth Generation filmmakers, a movement which brought a new kind of cinema to the PRC in the mid-1980s. It continued with the previous Generations' preoccupation with the Chinese nation but adamantly shunned the politicised isolationism of the first half of the 20th century and... show more >

The internationally acclaimed director Zhang Yimou is one of China's Fifth Generation filmmakers, a movement which brought a new kind of cinema to the PRC in the mid-1980s. It continued with the previous Generations' preoccupation with the Chinese nation but adamantly shunned the politicised isolationism of the first half of the 20th century and the austere socialist cinematic themes of the Mao Zedong era.

Zhang and his contemporaries dared to deconstruct China, ignoring the propaganda which shaped the approaches of others. Zhang's films rely heavily on visuals to tell their story and include strong roles for females. In defiance of Chinese filmmaking tradition, his spectacular work does not document China or its people. Zhang creates fantastical and unfamiliar worlds that shock, seduce, and subvert. These are films about desire and dreams, themes which were for so long unthinkable in Chinese cinema. < show less