Director Chen Kaige is known for making films from the safe
vantage point of history, but he’s ready for a change.
“I used to believe there was no culture in China because
the old traditional cultural values were being destroyed by the
last 15 years under communism,” Chen said. “Now I feel
like I was wrong, and I should pay attention to the social change
in Chinese society.”
His latest film “Together” takes place in
contemporary Beijing, a metropolis bustling with cutthroat
competition and capitalist indulgence. The film opens Friday.
It’s a far cry from his last film, the historical epic
“The Emperor and the Assassin,” or his most well-known
film, the Oscar-nominated survey of 20th century China,
“Farewell My Concubine.” You can’t necessarily
blame Chen for receding to the past; films that blatantly criticize
the current regime are often too easily censored.
Now Chen has found a topic palatable to the Chinese government:
the soullessness of capitalism. This theme is also seen in the
recent film “Beijing Bicycle,” by Wang Xiaoshuai.
“In the past, people lived in fear because they were
afraid to be kicked out of their society,” Chen said.
“Now they’re still living in fear because they’re
afraid to be living in poverty.”
“Together” follows a violin prodigy and his father
from their provincial country home to the big city to seek a music
teacher. Reflecting the vogue of Western classical music among the
Chinese intelligentsia, Chen’s film also captures his love
for the music. Records were smashed during the Chinese Cultural
Revolution, but Chen and his friends hid copies of
Beethoven’s Pastoral symphony and Dvorak’s Symphony
from the New World.
“One day, we got together, locked the door in the dark,
and listened to the music,” Chen said. “That’s a
romantic moment in my life.”
You can see the love for music in the way the musical sequences
are shot with glowing light, briskly fluid camera work and, of
course, booming music. To prepare for the final sequence, Chen
listened to Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto over a hundred
times.
Chen himself appears in the film as a stern but successful
violin teacher. He keeps his students in greedy opposition for the
prized spot in a competition. Though the Chinese government wanted
the teacher to be nicer, Chen kept him an abusive, fame-oriented
man.
“Now, many use music and art in China as a key to success
only,” Chen said. “The star-maker professor
doesn’t understand music at all. How sad is that?”
But this attitude remains prevalent. When “Together”
was screened for young musicians and their parents, the parents
preferred the rough professor while the youth preferred the
gentler, spiritually holistic teacher in the film.
While “Together” criticizes contemporary attitudes,
Chen’s first film, “Yellow Earth,” was a call for
Chinese society to modernize. It’s just another way Chen has
changed.
“On the one hand I realized nobody can stop the process of
modernization. But on the other hand, we should try to avoid the
mistakes made by other cultures when they developed their own
societies,” Chen said.
“Now, through this film, I want to tell people how
important it is to keep our ties and contact with each
other,” Chen added. “We are losing something we used to
believe.”