Though it has premiered in four other Chinese cities and Venice,
the so-called official world premiere of The Banquet was
launched in Beijing on Saturday with stars lining up on the red
carpet.
Amid the camera flashes and cheers of the crowds, the movie's
cast and crew stepped up to the front gate of the Grand Hyatt
Beijing, where a celebration ceremony was held in the evening. In
attendance were famed Chinese director Feng Xiaogang and actor Ge
You, both of whom will also dedicate their voices to Sony Pictures'
cartoon Open Season (Chinese version), which is to be shown
at the end of this month in China. Leading lady Zhang Ziyi was
accompanied up the red carpet by fellow cast-members Zhou Xun,
America-born Hong Kong actor Daniel Wu, actors Huang Xiaoming and
Ma Jingwu. Hong Kong screenwriting legend Kang Chien Chiu,
playwright Sheng Heyu, Academy Award-winning composer Tan Dun,
action director Yuen Wo-ping and set designer Tim Yip attended the
publicity with Huayi Brothers Pictures' top executives.
Freshly returned from the 63rd Venice Film Festival where a
Chinese film Still Life (Sanxia Haoren) was awarded
the Golden Lion for Best Film, The Banquet did not receive
acclaim from Western critics though the creators initially chose a
movie script aimed at the global market. For instance,
Variety's Derek Elley has said nobody had standout
performance in the "visually opulent but stately and stygian
drama."
Much criticism has also emerged in China after several smaller
showings in the cities of Guangzhou, Xi'an, Hangzhou and Shenyang.
Interestingly enough, in recent years, Chinese audiences and
critics have followed the unofficial "routine" of trashing any
big-budget blockbusters by Chinese directors aiming to rival their
Hollywood fellows. Even Hero, directed by Zhang Yimou whose
Curse of the Yellow Flowers is due out this year, received a
great amount of negative publicity in China while being highly
praised in the rest of the world and topping the US' movie chart.
Chen Kaige's The Promise has also provoked much controversy,
even public anger from audiences, especially netizens.
The Banquet, reportedly costing about 150 million yuan
(US$18.9 million) to make, is expected to be longtime comedy
director Feng Xiaogang's directing transformation. The movie tells
a tragedy happening in a kingdom during the Period of Five
Dynasties and Ten States (907-979) in ancient China.
The storyline was inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet, which
has been admitted by the director from the very beginning, but has
several adaptations: Empress Wan (Zhang Ziyi), in love with Prince
Wu Luan (Daniel Wu) since their very young age, is crowned as the
Empress and becomes her beloved's step-mother by marrying his
father, who was later murdered by Emperor Li (Ge You), his
power-hungry brother who crowned Wan as the Empress once again.
Meanwhile, the prince Wu Luan is locked in a power-struggle with
Emperor Li, and loved by Qing Nu (Zhou Xun), an innocent minister's
daughter. In the end, all die for love, struggle, revenge and
desire.
Feng and his crew expressed their satisfaction over the movie at
a press conference held Saturday afternoon. Angered with those
critics wanting to undermine his movie before its wide release,
Feng said he would love to hear what audiences, rather than
critics, say, and remained convinced that The Banquet would
be loved.
He also punched back when asked about foreign criticism who said
the movie lacked Chinese characteristics. "I think it was their
biased conspiracy. They want to look down upon us from their
hegemony culture angle. When you have done a good job as they do,
they are not pleased. They will say it lacks so-called 'Chinese
characteristics' and 'hope' you go back to do those old colorful
stuff. They also feel that The Banquet is almost the same as
the House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon. As a matter of fact, I feel the Harry Potter and
Lord of the Rings are almost the same, too. But they are
definitely different. This only indicates that we have known very
little about each other."
The movie was shown twice on Saturday, a matinée for
general media, the other evening showing for selected media and
guests. China.org.cn, exclusively invited, was treated to the
morning viewing. With its depressive but magnificent music, short
but eye-catching action scenes and darkly beautiful set and costume
designs, The Banquet is far from a flop. The plots are well
organized, though a little sluggish. The cast works well,
especially Zhang Ziyi, at her best when demonstrating her
character's physical and mental crises.
For Chinese audiences, the biggest problem may be the movie's
Chinese dialogue, much of it drawn from literary language. The
amusement inherent to hearing characters speak in such a way
detracts from the tragic atmosphere the film tries to build. Feng
argued there should have been nothing to laugh at, blaming it on
journalists and unprofessional critics themselves who had not fully
understood the movie and the script. But some news outlets
previously guessed that one of the causes is Chinese audience's
long-standing impressions of comedian Ge You and Feng's former
comedies. No one laughed at the Venice premiere since most of the
audience did not know who Feng was.
At the evening's showing, most audience members gave warmer
responses than critics did. When Feng asked if the movie was good
as credits rolled, people cheered "good!" immediately. But fate
will determine if Feng will smile after The Banquet's
nationwide release on September 14. The movie is also
ready to compete for next year's Oscar nomination for Best Foreign
Language Film.
(China.org.cn by staff reporter Zhang Rui, September 11,
2006)
