Zhang Yimou talks about how the pandemic has changed audiences ‘dramatically’, the lack of ‘good scripts’ and teases his next film ‘Article 20’ – Tokyo Film Festival

“The pandemic is finally over and movies have returned to normal, but people’s mindsets have changed dramatically,” concluded Chinese film producer Zhang Yimou, told Deadline during a brief discussion about films at the Tokyo Film Festival (TIFF). Covid 19 was asked. . ).

“This means,” he continued, “that people now place even greater value on a peaceful and healthy life.”

Yimou, one of China’s most enduring filmmakers, is in Tokyo to accept the festival’s honorary lifetime achievement award. He accepted the gong at the TIFF opening ceremony at the Takarazuka Theater in Tokyo on Monday.

“It’s like a new beginning for me,” Yimou said upon accepting the award. He added that he had traveled to the Tokyo Film Festival twice before, but that the Lifetime Achievement Award felt like the spark of a new chapter in his career. But has his approach to filmmaking changed because of what Yimou described as a dramatic shift in audience mindset?

“No particular change,” he told Deadline. “If there are enough scripts, I can maintain the pace of one film a year. However, this rhythm can be easily broken. There is a lack of good scripts so I have to write the script, but it takes at least three years to make a good script.”

Yimou added: “There is a saying in China that means: ‘Look ahead and live with moderation.'” My ideal situation is to make a film while there is still a good script waiting for me. This is my ideal rhythm.”

Perhaps best known in the West for crossover titles like 2016 The great wallSet in Imperial China and starring Matt Damon, Yimou made his directorial debut Red sorghum (1987) after graduating from the Beijing Film Academy in 1982. The film won the Golden Bear in Berlin. Since then, his work has spanned a wide variety of film genres The story of Qiu Ju (1992), Life (1994), The way home (1999), House of Flying Knives (2004) and Cliff Walker’s (2021). He won the Golden Lion of Venice twice. Outside of filmmaking, he directed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Games and the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

“For a filmmaker, every film is like his own child and he or she loves all of them, but of course there are good and bad films and it is a matter of luck to decide which one is good and which one. bad,” Yimou said of his extensive filmography. “There are also many problems that an individual cannot overcome. This makes me say that my next film will be the best film.”

Yimou’s latest work, Full river red, was released this year during Chinese New Year and is currently the highest rated Chinese film of 2023 in the country. The film was also selected as part of the gala selection in Tokyo.

The filmmaker told Deadline that he recently completed his next film. Section 20.

“It will be released in February 2024,” he said of the film. “When I have to think about the next film, the problem is to ‘think ahead and live in moderation’. Right now we don’t have an ideal script, so I think I’ll have to write it myself.”

The Tokyo Film Festival runs until November 1st.