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Tian Zhuangzhuang Tian's father was an actor who had risen to become the head of the Beijing Film studio, while his mother was an actress who later took charge of the China's Children's Film Studio. So, it came to no surprise that Tian would have a deep interest in filmmaking. At age 14, the Cultural Revolution dawned, and he was sent, like the tens of thousands of other middle-class children, to the rural countryside to be re-educated in their beliefs. Tian spent several years working in Manchura, and like Zhang Yimou, he acquired a camera and took up photography. He returned to Beijing after the end of the Cultural Revolution, and became a cinematographer's assistant at the Beijing Agricultural Film Studio. Like Zhang and Chen Kaige, he enrolled into the Beijing Film Academy when it reopened, and spent some years learning the art of directing. However, unlike Zhang and Chen, Tian was not sent to the Guangxi Film Studio, but instead given television work, where he made a few children's films and documentaries. His first fictional feature work was "On the Hunting Ground", an exploration of modern Mongol tribal life. His next film, "The Horse Thief", incensed the government, but his name was being spoken of around the world. The film examined the lives of minorities living under Chinese rule, predominately those of Tibetans. It took eight months for the censors to examine the film before it was allowed for release, but even so, the film was withdrawn immediately afterwards. Tian had deeply offended the government, and he was barred from making his own films. Tian spent the next several years making films for the government, but his breakthrough came in 1993 when he was given permission to make a film he believed in - The Blue Kite, co-produced by Hong Kong's Longwick Production Company. Unlike his earlier work, which mainly focused on ethnic minorities in China, Kite was set in the mainland about the Chinese people, and it focused on the results of the systematic brutality of the Cultural Revolution on the people. The reaction was quick and severe. Officials saw the raw footage and accused Tian from deviating from his original script. He was suspended from continuing the project, but nevertheless, the footage was smuggled out of China into the hands of a Dutch company, Fortissimo Films, who edited the film according to his wishes. Tian forever denied smuggling the raw footage out of China himself, and luckily, there was no evidence for the government to prosecute. The Blue Kite played to an enthusiastic audience in
its premiere at Cannes, and was the main feature at the Tokyo International
Film Festival. Shortly after, Tian was banned from filmmaking in China,
but his sentence was withdrawn after pressure from abroad. To this day,
Tian continues to make films, but forever under the watchful eye of the
officials. |