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SCMP Reporter

Q: What is the story you're trying to tell with your award-winning film?

A: Passages  tells the story of a young couple  from a  town near the Yangtze River. They decide to escape the grim prospect of an aimless life after their failure in college entrance exams by running away from home and heading to the city to pursue  their dreams of wealth and freedom.

I wanted to express the repressed feeling every Chinese student  experiences at secondary school. I ran away from home for three days  when I was a teenager.

It's an autobiographical film and many European critics were mesmerised by it. The best thing about the film is the long shots. It's a 110-minute film and I used only 92 shots. I tried to give each shot the richest content and greatest detail. You'll find a lot of deep-focus landscapes and magic-hour lighting. I wanted to reveal a sense of time flowing before the camera.

Q: What did you do before going to Cannes?

A: I grew up in Henan . My father was a railway worker and my mother a teacher. I did not have  many hiccups growing up, except I failed twice before getting into the Beijing Film Academy in 1993.  I must have developed an obsession over the relationship between space and time from my younger days playing near the railway.

Q: What are the challenges for you as a director?

A:  I think the biggest obstacle I've encountered was to find the path of a real artist. Otherwise, my path was not that difficult.  In fact, I won an award at the Cinefondation in Cannes with my graduation film Run Away in 2001.

Q: How do you judge the relationship between skill and format?

A: I always think how I shoot is more important than what I shoot. I don't care what I shoot, but I am concerned about how I direct. It is the perspective and world view of a director that counts.

Cannes values the skills and filming ability much  more than what kind of a story a director tells.  I won because I have the talent to direct in a technically professional way and I have my own style - the Yang Chao style.

Q: What is your view of the Chinese film industry and its new generation of directors?

A: China has the richest sources of script ideas, but Chinese film directors don't care enough about their professional skills and capability.

They just want to bait western audiences with stories that are oriental, sensational and exotic.

If they win international film awards, it's not usually for the quality of their technique but because the stories are new to western audiences and most of the judges.

You can count the number of directors on the mainland who know how to shoot.

Q: With your long hair and passion for rock and roll music, do you consider yourself a cynical person?

A: I don't think long hair is symbolic of cynicism or of being highly critical of society. On the contrary, many rock and roll singers who have long hair and black leather jackets are the most vulnerable and innocent of babies inside.

They [rock and rollers] are weak not only socially, but also mentally, physically and in many other aspects when they face people. They are not respected by society and they live in a very small community. They dress themselves in weird shells because this is the only way they fight society and try not to be so lonely.

But I think I am not the same as them. On the contrary, I am strong in my heart although not in my personality.

Rock and roll people are very innocent, child-like and adorable. I hang out with them  to enjoy their music and nothing else.



Life's quest is to find the path of the real artist