Zhang Yi Mou 张艺谋

Zhang Yi Mou is one of the stars of the growing Chinese movie business. He is probably the most internationally known Chinese filmmaker (producer, director, writer, cinematographer).

Yi Mou was born in Xi'An (where the terracotta army is situated) in Shaanxi province on 14 November 1951. Because of the support his family gave the Kuomintang, he got a hard life during the reign of the Communist Party. During the Cultural Revolution he had to do forced labour on a farm and later in a textile mill. This period give him inspiration for later movies and already during his youth he was interested in painting and acting.

After Mao's death and the end of the Cultural Revolution, Zhang Yi Mou started to develop his talent. He graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1982 and started to handle some projects with his former classmates.

In 1987 he produces his first his directorial debut, Red Sorghum, starring Gong Li. Red Sorghum narrates the hard life of a young woman working on a distillery for sorghum liquor. His debut wins him the Golden Bear for Best Picture at the Berlin Film festival in 1988.

His next international recognition will earn him an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film with his movie Ju Dou. Ju Dou tells the story of a young girl, again played by Gong Li, sold to a dye merchant. Again a real life movie about the more hard rural life in earlier China.

Raise the Red Lantern is considered as his best work and is about the struggle of 4 woman, concubines and wives, in a rich family compound. The movie stars Gong Li and was internationally acclaimed and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Unfortunately it was banned from China, because politically not correct.

His next movies win him different awards on various International Film festivals. Still starring his best star Gong Li. His most recent movies still show different aspects of Chinese life and society but are more going on the Hollywood tour. Bigger, more budget and reaching a bigger audience. His 2002 movie Hero has an impressive line-up of Asian stars, the likes of Gong Li, Jet Li, Maggie Cheung and Zhang's new protegee Zhang Ziyi. Thanks to the help of Quentin Tarantino the Movie becomes a big international hit and gets a nominee for Best Foreign Language Movie.

House of Flying Daggers follows the line of Hero and brings a mixture of great cinematography and action scenes. Also starring Zhang Ziyi and Japanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro.

His latest movie Curse of the Golden flower, again with his favourite Gong Li was well received but not seen as his best. In China this movie has been titled "Curse of the big boobs", because of the intensive focus on Gong Li's pushed-up bosom.

Zhang Yi Mou not only produces movies he also has some Impression productions running in China. Impression are huge shows set on landscapes with artist performing with their environment in front of a stage being able to host about up to 600 people.

Momently there are three Impression shows. One in Yangshuo, one in Lijiang and one in Hangzhou. More info about Impression shows.

Zhang Yi Mou also directed a portion of the Closing Ceremonies of the 2004 Olympic Games Athens in Greece. For the Olympic Games of 2008 Beijing Zhang Yi Mou will direct the opening ceremony and that will be a stunner, so I highly recommend you not to miss this Opening Ceremony of Beijing 2008!

Zhang Yi Mou
Gong Li in Curse of the Golden Flower
Zhang Zi Yi in House of Flying Daggers


Filmography Zhang Yi Mou:


- 1987 Red Sorghum, 红高粱
- 1989 Codename Cougar, 代号美洲豹
- 1991 Ju Dou, 菊豆
- 1992 Raise the Red Lantern, 大红灯笼高高挂
- 1994 To Live, 活着
- 1995 Shanghai Triad, 摇啊摇
- 1995 Lumière and Company
- 1997 Keep Cool, 有话好好说
- 1999 Not One Less, 一个都不能少
- 1999 The Road Home, 我的父亲母亲
- 2000 Happy Times, 幸福时光
- 2002 Hero, 英雄
- 2004 House of Flying Daggers, 十面埋伏
- 2005 Riding Alone for Thousand of Miles, 千里走单骑
- 2006 Curse of the Golden Flower, 满城尽带黄金甲
- 2007 To Each His Cinema (in production)

Loy Krathong

This weekend on the full moon of 24 and 25 November the annual Thai festival of Loy Krathong was held. The festival is held 12Th month in the traditional lunar calendar.

Loy Krathong finds its origin in the Hindu festival to thank the deity of the Ganges. Nowadays the festival has been assimilated with the many Buddhist celebrations in Thailand. Loy Krathong is a festival to thank the goddess of the water for using the water for a whole year. All the sins and bad things will also be washed away on this festival.

Loy in Thai means "to float" and Krathong is a kind of self made little raft. The Krathong is made from banana leaves, or nowadays from foam) and holds a candle, three incense sticks and flowers or other decorations. For realising their Krathongs Thai people will go to the nearby river and if possible to a temple with access to the river. The candles and incense sticks will be lit and a wish will be made. A piece of your hair, symbolising the bad deeds and feelings, will be attached to the Krathong. After this ritual the Krathong is ready to go and float on.

This was a description of the more traditional festival, nowadays the releasing of the Krathong is still very important but a lot of different customs have been added to the festival.

Most Thai people get a holiday and anyway this year the festival took please in the weekend, so it is a festival for the whole family and a lot of food and especially drinks will be consumed.

In a lot of cities parades will be held. On the first day the parade will be more like a miss contest. The beauties of the city will be waving from their parade car. On the next day the government offices will decorate the parade cars with big Krathongs.

A more modern form of Kratong has also been introduced and is called khom fai. These are lantern or hot air balloons which are released to wash away the bad things and also a wish is granted when you release the lantern. These lantern are a lot of fun to do especially with a bunch of people it really creates a nice atmosphere. But be careful because the can be a bit dangerous if released when there is not enough hot air. The lantern will go down and can cause some damage. I witnessed it this year a lantern that came down on someone's balcony and burned all the plants.

Loy Krathong is sometimes referred as the festival of fire. The thing you will notice even more than the Krathongs and lanterns is the fireworks! I have never seen so much fireworks and so many different kinds. The disco firework, dinosaur eggs, garlic crackers, rockets in all sizes. I could get a bit of an idea how soldiers would have to live under constant threat of bombardment. Sleeping is a bit of a problem when all you hear is constant explosions and scared barking dogs. In Thailand there is no restriction on fireworks and no legal age to buy it. On the Thai TV news a lot accidents were shown. Especially children who had no experience lost a hand or some fingers.

So I apart from the sleepless nights and the constant state of vigilance I really enjoyed Loy Krathong for its tradition and fairy tale atmosphere.

New hotels in Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai also called the "Rose of the North" is the second biggest city of Thailand and the biggest city in the North of Thailand. The city itself including its suburbs hosts a population of a bit less than 1 million.


Chiang Mai is the capital of the province with the same name and is a province with still a lot of nature. The highest point of Thailand, Doi Inthanon 2565m, is also located in Chiang Mai province.


Chiang Mai city was founded in 1296 and became the capital of the Northern Lanna kingdom, now the Lanna culture is still very strong represented nowadays. A lot of olde Buddhist temples can still be found in the city center and Doi Suthep is seen as one of the most important temples of Thailand. Next to a well preserved cultural heritage Chiang Mai can be proud of its environment. The city is situated is surrounded by hills and mountains and is held in the valley of the Ping river. A lot of different fauna and flora can be found in the nature around Chiang Mai. All the big elephant camps of Thailand are also located in this province and can be found in the woods around the city.



Because of Chiang Mai's culture, nature and friendly people, a lot of foreigners have made Chiang Mai there second home. A lot of accommodations were build to satisfy guests from over the whole world and it is easy to find your favourite food, the newest clock buster movies, foreign supermarkets, bowling alleys, ... Each year a lot of tourist come to visit the Rose of the North. Some will prefer to visit temples, go mountain biking in the nature, take a stroll on the back of an elephant, go bungee-jumping or learn to cook real Thai food than to relax on a beach in the South of Thailand. And so visitors will certainly come back to Chiang Mai on their next trip to Thailand.

Internationally Chiang Mai gets more and more recognized. They held a European movies week at the local mall and this weekend the "Sumo world championship" was held at Chiang Mai's sport stadium.



The tourist business is hence booming in this marvelous city. On every corner of the street you will found a counter tour to book any information. Free maps from the city all sponsored by the many tailor shops and foreigners making the streets a dangerous place on their rented motorbikes.

The average tourist is not anymore the unshaven rasta backpacker. From the little baby to the old grandpa they are all represented in Chiang Mai. That means that a more demanding clientele have also found its way to the North. The Oriental hotel was the only five-star hotel in Chiang Mai.

Now two more five-star hotels are being build right in the city center, about 600m from each other. The new "Shangri-la" will be completed end of December, while "Le Meridien Chiang Mai" will start operating in January. Both hotels will have together about 800 rooms. That means a lot of work opportunities for the local people. But five-star hotels need experienced and good staff and nowadays a lot of other hotels are afraid their staff might grab this opportunity.



Nok has found work for one of these hotels! Her position will be "shift leader" at "Le Merdien". She will have to train her staff and help them to give a meticulous service to the clients. She is very excited about her new job and the salary isn't bad neither for Thai standards. To work for an international hotel chain can increase her chance of promotion or maybe an exchange project, haha who knows. Meanwhile I am relaxing a bit and I picked up my running habit again, every two days I will finish some rounds at the local sport stadium. I can assure you I sweat a lot in this tropical heat, during the day it's about 33 degrees nowadays and this is wintertime!

Le Meridien Chiang Mai

Apartment

Since begin November Nok and I have started to live together after exactly a relationship of 2 years.

Our home is situated in the city center of Chiang Mai, inside the old city walls near Thapae gate. The neighborhood is not lively at night and is a living area with some Buddhism temples very close. We have some convenience stores on walking distance and also a big market very near. Every Sunday there is the weekend market just outside our door and on this market you will find a lot of food and handmade stuff.

We rent a storey of a traditional Thai house. It is part of a little court complex. The 1 floor is the apartment while the ground floor is used as a storage room for the owner.
The apartment we rent has two rooms. One is the living and sleeping room and the other one is the bathroom. Luckily we have a big open balcony. As Thailand is a hot country a lot happens outside. We do all the cooking (but mostly we go eat out as it is so cheap) and relaxing outside. And those two sofa's the former renters left behind come in very handy for relaxation.
Outside the house but landing on our balcony we have a starfruit tree and a mango tree. Starfruit is growing now but the mango's will come in a few months, mmmm.

This morning the Internet company came to install the line. So the world is at our feet now. The room also includes hot water, air conditioning, TV and fridge (which we put outside to win some space). On some evenings we get a lot of company of the cats living at the court complex.

We are still decorating a bit and buying some furniture. But everything is ready for living. Before moving in we went looking for different apartments and some were really nice, huge or included a swimming pool for the renters. But we chose this apartment because of it's cosy atmosphere, the lower price, the good location and the fact that it is next to Nok's family.


Seen from outside, don't watch all the electricity wires.




Our first meal at home. Hmmm good sofa.
The technicians installing the Internet. Under them the spirit house of the court complex.

Intermezzo 1

Back, alive and still kicking!

The whole of October no posts on this blog. During the whole month I worked in China and during that period I had not a lot of time to produce some interesting reading materials. The land of Confucius, although opening up to the world, still keeps a firm grip on media. Blogspot is not always accessible and other informative websites such as Wikipedia and BBC have been banned.

Now Nok and I moved in our little and cosy apartment and the technicians finally came to install our Internet line. So from now on this site will be active again. Soon I will post some pictures of the place which we call home now.