Chinese 879 Weekly Assignments: Movie

Case: Yangguang Canlan de Rizi 阳光灿烂的日子/ In the Heat of the Sun

Wei Wang

                                                                                                            The poster of the film

Production

In the heat of the sun (1995)

China/Hong Kong

Color

128 min

Director Jiang Wen 姜文

Screenplay Jiang Wen姜文

Cinematography: Gu Changwei 顾长卫

Cast: Xia Yu 夏雨, Ning Jing 宁静, Geng Le 耿乐, Tao Hong 陶虹

Film Presentation: Ji Bao 纪宝, Xu Anjin 许安进, Guo Youliang 郭友亮

Producer: Wen Juan 文隽, Liu Xiaoqing 刘晓庆

Art Director: Chen Haozhong 陈浩忠, Li Yongxin 李勇新[1]

The 51^st Venice Film Festival, Best Actor: Xia Yu夏雨

The 1^st Hong Kong Golden Bauhinia Awards, The Top Ten Chinese Films

The 1^st Hong Kong Golden Bauhinia Awards, Best Film

The 1^st Hong Kong Golden Bauhinia Awards, Best Director: Jiang Wen姜文

The 1^st Hong Kong Golden Bauhinia Awards, Best Actor: Xia Yu夏雨

The 33^rd Taiwan Golden Horse Awards, Best Original Screenplay: Jiang Wen姜文

The 33^rd Taiwan Golden Horse Awards, Best Cinematography: Gu Changwei 顾长卫

As for the source of funding, as Prof. Dai Jinhua says in her book, “the major funding of In the Heat of the sun was from a Hong Kong company, which was almost 2, 000, 000 US dollars.  Then, the director Jiang Wen got the right to publish in the domestic market because he paid for the supplemental 1, 000, 000 Yuan.”[2]  So, this film has a total cost of more than 10, 000, 000 Yuan; compared to the average cost of Chinese domestic films at that time, which was around 2, 000, 000 Yuan, this film did benefit immensely from the funding from the Hong Kong company.

Popularity

To the best of my knowledge, this film topped the box office when it showed in the theaters, which proved its popularity in the domestic market.  Moreover, it won several awards in international film festivals, including some important awards in the Venice Film Festival, Taiwan Golden Horse Awards, and so on, which demonstrated its popularity in another level.  The interesting thing is that we have many award-winning films that have poor box office performance, which are sarcastically called jiaohao bu jiaozuo 叫好不叫座 that basically means the films are applauded, especially by some professionals, but can not draw a large audience because these two fields have different criterias.  However, In the Heat of the Sun won both sides.  Additionally, this film also draws academic attention, both because of its popularity and the film itself.

Star Power

Many factors contributed to the popularity of this film, among which the star power is a foremost one, especially when we are talking about its performance in the domestic market.  1993, the TV play Beijingren Zai Niuyue 北京人在纽约 (Beijing people in New York), acted the leading role by Jiang Wen, was extremely popular among Chinese audience that year.  We can safely say that Jiang Wen was having his moment that year.  This definitely had a positive effect on the box office performance of his new film, In the Heat of the Sun.  Furthermore, the audiences also paid great attention when Jiang Wen was selecting the actor for his new film, because his standard is not only acting, but more importantly, this person looks really like him.  Also, the audiences know very well about Wang Shuo 王朔 and his original story Dongwu Xiongmeng 动物凶猛 (The animal is ferocious).  In addition, Wang Shuo did guest act in the film, so did another culture star, Wang Shuo’s good partner in a sense, Feng Xiaogang 冯小刚.  Besides, the most controversial actress Liu Xiaoqing 刘晓庆 is one of the producers of the film.  This cast is really attractive.

Genre

       This film may not belong to an established film genre.  It’s more complicated.  More people would agree this is more of an “auteur” film, but the word “auteur” here may not just refer to the director Jiang Wen.  The reasons are obvious; the most important one is that the original story by Wang Shuo already established the keynote of the film.  This even can be called a Wang Shuo - Feng Xiaogang school production.  Another “genre” it could belong to is the “banned film” genre.  This film was not actually banned, but because of its background of Cultural Revolution, it did encounter some trouble when going through the censorship.  This gave the film another selling point because the complex of the “banned film” of the audiences.

Ideology

        The film does not represent the so-called mainstream ideology, nor does it support the conventional cultural values.  It’s more like a biography, of Wang Shuo, Jiang Wen, or their generation.  In his novel, Wang Shuo is using the first person to narrate the story.  In the film, the protagonist is named Ma Xiaojun 马小军; Jiang Wen has used the name Jiang Xiaojun 姜小军, which two share the same first name.  Besides, Xia Yu was chosen because he looked like Jiang Wen.  Jiang Wen is also doing the aside narration in the film as first person.  All the above information is conveying one clear idea: the director is trying to connect the story with himself, if this is not completely “his” story.  We could also get this point from the film itself.  This is not a melodrama, which will show the audiences clearly what is good, what is evil.  Contrarily, this film will leave the audiences in more confusion.  Jiang Wen’s voice in the film is always saying that he cannot tell the difference between the imagination and the fact.  There is no clear answer to many things.  The film is also not trying to resolve some problems of the Cultural Revolution Period.

Gender

The original novel and the whole film are all about some adolescent years in that special time period, which inevitably includes some representation of the gender issue.  There are only two female characters, if we do not include Ma Xiaojun’s mother, Yu Beipei 于北蓓 (It was explained in the film that the pronunciation of the character 蓓 should be bei, but everyone just calls her Yu Beipei.) and Mi Lan 米兰.  They two are friends of Ma Xiaojun and his buddies, but the relations are much more subtle and complicated.  Sometimes Ma Xiaojun would have the illusion that Yu Beipei and Mi Lan are actually one person.  Furthermore, he will doubt his contacts with Mi Lan in fact just happened in his imagination.  As for the “gaze,” maybe the film has a different kind of “gaze” from the concept of Mulvey’s.   There are definitely several features on Mi Lan’s body, and Ma Xiaojun and his fellows are undeniably gazing at it, but this may not be “subjecting them to a controlling gaze.”  The male characters’ obvious longing for the female character seems not causing any visual pleasure.

What happened in 1995?

1995, this is the year when the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television (now it is the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television) decided to import ten “good” movies, which can “on the whole represent the excellent fruitions and the achievement on both art and technology of contemporary filmdom.”[3]  According to my memory, the first one showed was The Fugitive.  In that year, several domestic made films, including In the Heat of the Sun and Yao A Yao, Yaodao Waipoqiao 摇啊摇，摇到外婆桥 (Shanghai triad), were considered as the ones that represent the home side to compete with those imported films, and considered to be the winners.  However, the producing procedures of these films are not totally “domestic.”  Who is the real winner is something deserves further thinking.