ZHANG JIARUI IS on a mission. The mainland director thinks a good film should be about more than just telling a moving tale with the help of spectacular cinematography. He wants to convey a message through the language of sight and sound. And his award-winning big screen debut, When Ruoma was Seventeen, does just that.
It tells the story of a 17-year-old Hani village girl, Ruoma (Li Min), who longs to ride in elevators in the city. Although the film is a portrait of a teenage girl finally becoming strong and brave enough to face the reality of the adult world, Zhang says he hopes audiences will also give serious thought to the issue of cultural identity.
'Maybe this is the wishful thinking that comes with being a director,' he says. 'But I want to say that, although modernisation is a global trend, we should safeguard the dignity and the identity of our culture.
'The Hani people are not a big minority tribe, but I'm really worried that one day their culture will vanish because of modernisation,' says 45-year-old Zhang, who's in Yunnan province working on his next film, Bride with Flowers Around Her Waist.
'My experience with the Hani people has inspired me. Although the 20 years of modernisation in China has improved people's living standards, in general, we're losing our ancient culture at the same time. And through the tale of Ruoma, I hope people can become more aware of this problem facing the Chinese race.'
In When Ruoma was Seventeen, Li plays an adolescent living a simple life with her grandmother in their village. Every day, she walks along the winding and rugged roads, with a heavy basket on her back, to sell grilled corn at the local market.
