Zhou Dongyu, Zhang Yimou's latest find, is a rare throw-back to the days when actresses like Siqin Gaowa (above) and Joan Chen (top) were popular. [Source: China Daily]

Chinese films have undergone theatrical changes that some say reflect the leapfrog progress in the country. Qin Zhongwei and Han Bingbin investigate the dramatic developments.

Director Zhang Yimou was having a hard time looking for his next lead. In the search for a suitable actress for his latest film Under The Hawthorn Tree, China's foremost director sat through countless casting calls and did the rounds of innumerable colleges and academies hoping to spot the face he wanted.

He was after "pretty but innocent", "clean and pure", qualities that seemed glaringly absent in the fresh pools of talent he was tapping into.

After months of frustration, he finally identified Zhou Dongyu, a high school student from Shijiazhuang in China's northern Hebei province.

Being hand-picked by Zhang Yimou is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that can become a springboard to fame and fortune, as his past prodigies Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi have proven. The day Zhang Yimou pointed a finger at her, the 18-year-old Zhou became part of the Chinese Cinderella dream.

But underlying the difficulties of his search, Zhang's long quest also brought into sharp focus the transformation in Chinese cinema - changes that mirror broader phases the country itself is going through.

He is not the only one having a tough time matching perfect talent to perfect script.

Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear award-winner Wang Quan'an also wants the face of innocence and purity for his new epic Bai Lu Yuan. Lu Chuan, a leader of the pack among sixth-generation directors, is still looking.

 

Zhang Ziyi took the lead in The Banquet (above), but her career was launched by Zhang Yimou (below), who first cast her as an innocent but determined village girl in The Road Home. [Source: China Daily/Zou Hong]

This is where the reality of life in China today conflicts with the nostalgia and the past from whence these directors draw inspiration.

It was a lot easier when the age of innocence prevailed two or three decades ago, when the market economy was just implemented and there were still pockets of the untouched.

It was a harder life in the '70s and earlier, but the choices were simpler.

Joan Chen, Siqin Gaowa and Liu Xiaoqing defined beauty of that age. They were buxom, doe-eyed and had long flowing locks. When Chen and Liu co-starred in the 1979 romantic classic Xiao Hua (Little Flower), they epitomized womanly perfection for a generation of fans.

Film director and critic Jiang Xiaoyu says it is a natural reflection of the times. In an economically infertile age when material hardship was widespread, audiences escaping into the cinema wanted the comfort of full-figured female images.

The acceptable acting style, too, was more exaggerated than realistic. Even now, Liu Xiaoqing is the acknowledged drama queen of daytime television.

Joan Chen chose a considerably lower profile after she left for Hollywood, producing her own films and documentaries with an occasional cameo playing the classic Chinese beauty in foreign films.

As the '80s settled and economic reforms became entrenched, acting styles and the faces in Chinese cinema began to reflect what was happening at home.

Zhang Yu updated the image of women in Chinese cinema with her role as a student just back from abroad. But, she still projected the plump and tender on-screen heroine, exposed to the world but still pure of heart.

About the same time, Gong Li appeared in several award-winning Zhang Yimou period productions where her bosom-heaving, fiery, feisty roles startled the mindsets of cinemagoers at home in the movie halls and abroad at film festivals. Her go-getting portrayals mirrored the first attempts at experimental entrepreneurship on the ground.