Zhang Junzhao
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Zhang Junzhao (; October 1952 – 9 June 2018) was a Chinese
film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...
and
screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...
who was mainly active in the 1980s. A graduate of the Beijing Film Academy and a contemporary of acclaimed directors Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, and Tian Zhuangzhuang, Zhang Junzhao was a prominent early member of China's Fifth Generation filmmakers.
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His 1984 film '' One and Eight'' is well known as the film that marked the advent of the Fifth Generation, while '' The Shining Arc'' (1988) was selected for competition for the Golden St. George award at the 1989 Moscow International Film Festival.


Early life and career

Zhang Junzhao was born in October 1952 in
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
, with ancestral roots in
Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...
province. He became involved in
propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...
plays put on by the Red Guards during the
Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...
, both as an actor and a director. In 1978 he entered the newly reopened Beijing Film Academy. After graduating in 1982, he and his classmates Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou were assigned to Guangxi Film Studio in
Nanning Nanning; is the capital of the Guangxi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in South China, southern China. It is known as the "Green City (绿城) " because of its abundance of lush subtropical foliage. Located in the South of Guangxi, Nanning ...
.


Filmography


''One and Eight''

In 1984, as an assistant director at Guangxi Film Studio, Zhang Junzhao teamed up with cinematographer Zhang Yimou and designer He Qun to make a war film called ''One and Eight'' (''Yige he bage''). Set in North China during the
Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...
, the film tells the story of eight criminals and a wrongly accused officer being held as prisoners by the Communist
Eighth Route Army The Eighth Route Army (), officially titled as the List of Army Groups of the National Revolutionary Army, 18th Group Army, was a Field army, group army nominally under the banner of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of Ch ...
. When almost all the regular soldiers are killed, most of the nine men make the choice to fight beside the remnants of the army and acquit themselves with honor and bravery. Although it was the first film production of Guangxi Studios, predating the internationally acclaimed '' Yellow Earth'' (1984), the release of ''One and Eight'' was stalled for three years by "official objections to portions of the storyline and consequent re-shooting and re-editing."
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Nonetheless it, along with ''Yellow Earth'', is widely considered to be one of the inaugural Fifth Generation films. Moreover, although wartime setting and the protagonists' overriding
patriotism Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and a sense of attachment to one's country or state. This attachment can be a combination of different feelings for things such as the language of one's homeland, and its ethnic, cultural, politic ...
were common elements of communist Chinese cinema, its emphasis on the individual over the group, its existential tone, and its beautiful and innovative
cinematography Cinematography () is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens (optics), lens to focus reflected light from objects into a real image that is transferred to some image sen ...
helped to set it apart as the herald of a new generation of Chinese filmmakers.


''The Shining Arc''

In 1989, after something of a dry spell, Zhan Junzhao reappeared on the Chinese film scene with ''The Shining Arc'' (). Its protagonist is a young woman, portrayed by Bai Ling, who convinces herself that she is a witch. Placed in a mental hospital, she is given over to the care of a probing female
psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...
. The film, like ''One and Eight'', "aims to pose existential questions" and also "capture a certain mood of oriental
mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute (philosophy), Absolute, but may refer to any kind of Religious ecstasy, ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or Spirituality, spiritual meani ...
." ''The Shining Arc'' (also translated as ''Arc Light'') was one of China's entries into the 16th Moscow International Film Festival in 1989. It was selected for competition for the Golden St. George award, but lost to the Italian film '' The Icicle Thief''.


Other works

In the period between ''One and Eight'' and ''The Shining Arc'', Zhang Junzhao also made two less remarkable films: ''Come on, China!'' (1985) and ''The Lonely Murderer'' (1986). The former was a sports film made in the wake of the four-year world championship of the Chinese national women's volleyball team. Neither garnered a great deal of attention, and both are often omitted in surveys of Zhang Junzhao's work.


Film and politics

Zhang Junzhao and his fellow Fifth Generation filmmakers "were famous for their participation...in making experimental art films that challenged the socialist realist tradition." However, Zhang was the first of them to turn away from such films for the sake of popular entertainment. Justifying his actions, he "suggested finding a middle ground between the elite and the popular taste, calling, somewhat naively, for compromise and harmony between audiences and artists." Still, Zhang also took into account what he believed to be political necessity when it came to the content and structure of his films, claiming that his conservative and conventional work was necessary to survive in the face of China's
censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...
policies: "'' Horse Thief'' and '' On the Hunting Ground'' lost tens of thousands of ''yuan'' between them, and no one went to them,” he said in one interview, talking about fellow director and Beijing Film Academy graduate Tian Zhuangzhuang. “Do you think the Xi'an Film Studio will dare to use him again?”


Later life and death

Because of health issues, Zhang made few films in his later life. His final work was the 2002 television drama ''Linglong Girl'' (). Zhang died on 9 June 2018 in
Dalian Dalian ( ) is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China (after Shenyang ...
,
Liaoning ) , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = Clockwise: Mukden Palace in Shenyang, Xinghai Square in Dalian, Dalian coast, Yalu River at Dandong , image_map = Liaoning in China (+all claims hatched).svg , ...
, at the age of 65.


References


External links

*
Zhang Junzhao
at the Chinese Movie Database {{DEFAULTSORT:Zhang, Junzhao 1952 births 2018 deaths Film directors from Beijing Beijing Film Academy alumni Screenwriters from Beijing 20th-century Chinese writers