Luminaries debate melodrama in film

A still photo from Zhang Yimou's "Hero." Photo provided to China Daily

New film brings Zhang home

Zhang Yimou and Gong Li on their 9th collaboration

Mo compares the film with Red Sorghum, the product of their first collaboration in 1987 and China's first winner of the Berlin Film Festival, which made both of them superstars.

"Red Sorghum is a film with flaws, but its intensity, energy and wildness are not seen in Coming Home," he says. "You can watch Red Sorghum with your legs on the coffee table, but Coming Home shows that still waters run deep."

Red Sorghum was adapted from Mo's novel, set in rural China during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45).

It was a romantic saga about Chinese farmers. Many filmmakers wanted to adapt the novel. But Zhang, then an ambitious cinematographer preparing his directorial debut, was the one who stood out.

"The passion at that time was so pure, like first love," recalls Zhang. "The making of Red Sorghum is a lifetime experience that cannot be repeated."

The two cooperated again in Zhang's 2002 drama Happy Times. After that, Zhang ushered in an era of so-called Chinese blockbusters by making Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flowers.