Yimou Zhang
 

I discovered Yimou Zhang (or Zhang Yimou)'s films about two years ago. My girlfriend told me to watch Hero instead of Crouching Tiger and I didn't regret it. It felt like a wuxia film done right (and also has Donnie Yen fight Jet Li). She also suggested To Live and Curse of the Golden Flower and I enjoyed both of them.
I don't love him more than Kurosawa (who is my favorite director) but I am really falling in love with this guy's movies. I love the characters, the cinematography, the stories, oh so much more about the films I have seen. Raise the Red Lantern, The Road Home, House of Flying Daggers, The Flowers of War, and The Bright Red Lanterns Hung High are all currently on my netflix queue. I'm just wondering if any other of you MoFos enjoy this director's films.

Re: Yimou Zhang
 

I've seen 5 movies made by Zhang. Hero, Curse of the Golden Flower, Raise the Red Lantern, The Road Home and The Flowers of War. Recently I've seen The Flowers of War and was astonished how good the film actually was. I loved Bale's performance (probably his most powerful one along with American Psycho and The Fighter), cinematography and plot. The Road Home is another one you ought to see. It's not as known as, say, Hero, but really worth watching. I'm not writing about Rise the Red Lanterns as it's an obvious choice for the ones that have yet to see Zhang film.
Personally, I'd like to see 4 more Zhang movies. House of Flying Daggers, Not One Less, To Live and Red Sorghum.

Re: Yimou Zhang
 

I just watched The Road Home and Raise The Red Lantern again. Completely different movies but I was shocked at how equally emotional The Road Home was being comparability simplistic to RTRL, and probably just as much subtext, which is even more bizarre in light of the simplicity.

The only one I've seen of his that I didn't like was House of Flying Daggers. That film and Crouching Tiger both felt like jokes.

Re: Yimou Zhang
 

I was going to put in my first post that I was expecting you to show up in here but felt it would be awkward if you didn't.

Re: Yimou Zhang
 

Who knows, if you did I may have just not commented on purpose! :shifty:

Re: Yimou Zhang
 

Yimou Zhang is great. Raise the Red Lantern is amazing, as everyone has already said. The Story of Qui Ju is also worth watching; it stars Gong Li as a pregnant woman in a rural community who needs to struggle through endless layers of Chinese bureaucracy because her husband got kicked in the balls. Seriously. It's probably the funniest of Zhang's films that I've seen, and it has some really good shots (it's been a while since I've seen it, so I can't really be more specific).

Re: Yimou Zhang
 

I've got The Story of Qui Ju and To Live in my queue but it's looking like all of his 90s films are going to be really good. I do find it odd, speaking of layers of Chinese bureaucracy, that Hsiao-Hsien Hou's films aren't as available as Zhang's. Granted Zhang got uber popular for a Chinese director with Hero, but still, similar dudes, what gives america?

Re: Yimou Zhang
 

Zhang's films are more accessible than Hou's, and so the opportunity for profit is more likely.

Re: Yimou Zhang
 

I like The road home and To live. Raise the red lantern is haunting, a great one. But overall, I find his style too imposing, colorful in a tasteless way.

Re: Yimou Zhang
 

I'm glad I found this thread, I love his films. I've seen a lot of them - Red Sorghum, Ju Dou, Raise The Red Lantern, The Story of Qiu Ju, To Live, Not One Less, The Road Home, Happy Times, Hero , House of Flying Daggers , Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles and Curse of the Golden Flower. I must catch up on his latest few.

I love the spectacle of his films and the dramatic storylines. Raise The Red Lantern is one of my favourite films, as is Hero. Hero was the first film I played on my surround sound and just sat there entranced at the first scenes in the rain.

Re: Yimou Zhang
 

Wow, I forgot all about this thread. I feel bad because it's been a year next month since I posted here and I haven't seen any more than To Live, Hero, and Curse of the Golden Flower. Man, I must be slipping in my old age or maybe it's the 350+ Netflix queue. Either way it's disheartening.

Anyway, Christine that sounds amazing! Now I wish I had surround sound just to watch Hero.

Aww don't be disheartened! Plenty of time to watch some more :)

Re: Yimou Zhang
 

I managed to watch two new Zhang Yimou movies since the last time I posted here. I saw House of Flying Daggers and Flowers of War. Flowers of War was pretty intense but would probably not be my favorite Zhang film. House of Flying Daggers was pretty good, most people tell me it's horrible but I enjoyed it for the most part. Like many of Zhang's wuxias it was absolutely gorgeous to look at.

Re: Yimou Zhang
 

I've seen "Hero", "House of the Flying Daggers", "Curse of the Golden Flower", "The Flowers of War", "Coming Home" and "A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shot".

Loved most of those, I think that "House [...]" is one of the most beautiful films ever made, besides that, I LOVE the final fight

Besides that, "A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shot" is sadly little known, but it is worth a watch. A remake of The Coen Brother's debut "Blood Simple", but made as a Kung-Fu movie :)

A lil' bit silly, but definitely worth a watch. Strangely faithful to the original :p

I added it to my Netflix queue and moved it to #1. Thanks for the suggestion.