Buddha Mountain: Mountain's peak
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Having triumphed in last year's Tokyo International Film Festival, winning Best Artistic Contribution and Best Actress for star Fan Bingbing, Li Yu's youth film Buddha Mountain begins showing nationwide Friday.
With a cost of 25 million yuan ($3.80 million), Fang Li, producer of Buddha Mountain, defined it as a low-budget mainstream movie. "It is a commercial film, but not like other mainstream blockbusters which are mainly low aesthetics and are overall unbearable…Buddha Mountain is a sincere film," Fang told the Global Times.
"The film came from a Hollywood short film competition several years ago. We made a script called Affair, which was roughly the beginning of Buddha Mountain," recalled Fang, who also co-wrote the film's script.
"It was a outrageous story that could never pass the censor. When we almost gave up the project, the [2008] Sichuan earthquake happened, a true story which inspired us to write about life and death. We then picked up the story and finished it," Fang added.
Three youngsters with no interest in school, Ding Bo (Berlin Chan), Nan Feng (Fan Bingbing) and Fatso (Fei Long) wander the city, looking for a new place to live, and meet a retired Peking Opera singer, Chang Yueqin (Sylvia Chang), grieving for her dead son. The unlikely quartet form a fractious relationship based on mutual loss but resolve their differences through a trip to rebuild a destroyed temple – the Buddha Mountain of the title.
"If there has to be a theme for the film, it would be about two generations: three young characters who are lost and aimless. On the other hand, getting old and aging is a different experience; elderly people are sometimes lonely and forgotten as well," said director Li.
"The railway is a metaphor for youth and loss. The three walking past it everyday, feel dazed for the future and also find it hard to hold on to the present," Li explained.
The female Li is known for previous artistic works including Fish and Elephant (2001), known as China's first lesbian film, and won awards in the Berlin and Venice film festivals. Her Dam Street (2005) also received international acclaim as did Lost in Beijing (2006), the graphic sexual content of which led to a long and unsuccessful battle with domestic censors. Indeed, none of Li's films have enjoyed a cinematic release in her own country.
But her fourth feature film, Buddha Mountain lacks sexual, violent or political content and is, in fact, a relatively mild story. "It [the banning of Lost in Beijing] got on my nerves and I couldn't sleep at nights. I was too stubborn at that time. I have now formed a better relationship with the censorship people, and found a win-win solution: a good film for me that also caused no problem for them," Li told the Global Times.
Although set in Chengdu, there are none of the mahjong or teahouse scenes that typify films based there. "Marco Muller, the Venice Film Festival chairman, told me my film showed him a different Chengdu. I just thought every city in China is becoming identical. Chengdu is not so special anymore, therefore there is no trademark Chengdu," said Li.
Pop star Fan Bingbing is the last name that one might come up with for an artistic film like Buddha Mountain and despite her receiving the Tokyo award, in the domestic media she is best known for her mainstream blockbuster roles and gossip headlines. However, 29-year-old Fan has proven she is also capable of the highly demanding role of a lower-class hardcore young woman."I went into the entertainment business at the age of 16, and I have sacrificed a lot of my youth for an acting career. Nan Feng [her role] reminds me of my younger time," Fan said at last week's premier in Beijing.
"The film is one made with the most love and affection that I have ever acted in. As we are both women, Li Yu understands me the most and gave me trust. Even if the film has no awards or fails in box office, I would not regret being part of it," Fan added.
She needs to hardly worry. After the advanced screening, the film was received rapturously both audiences and critics. "It is such a rarely great film. So many rubbish films have harvested over 100 million yuan ($15.20 million)," said Esquire's chief editor, Dou Jiangming. "If a good film like Buddha Mountain can't gain 100 million yuan, it would be such a shame and tragedy for the filmmakers and filmgoers of our time."
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