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Dec. 21 - Dec. 28, 2003 |
A Master's Farewell to His Father
Award-winning Chinese filmmaker Chen Kaige gets intimate and musical with Together
By Angela Baldassarre
Originally Published: 2003-06-22
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Director Chen Kaige
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At the age of 51, Chinese filmmaker Chen Kaige is a living master. Even before winning awards worldwide for his 1993 masterpiece Farewell, My Concubine, he was credited for changing the face of Chinese cinema with features Yellow Earth and Life on a String. With his latest film, Together, the director has foregone the sweeping period drama in favour of an intimate modern-day tale about father-son relationships.
Together tells the story of a violin prodigy named Xiaochun (Tang Yun) and his untutored, devoted father, Liu Cheng (Liu Peiqi). Together they move from a remote Chinese village to the busy modern commercial city of Beijing. There Xiaochun works with two teachers - the first an endearing, otherworldly artist, Professor Jiang (Wang Zhiwen), the second, Professor Yu, a practical man of the world (played by Chen himself) who owns many modern electrical appliances, understands the way the music business works, and knows how to create a star. Behind all of this lies an allegory about the old and the new China; the father and Jiang, represent the old ways; Professor Yu, the new. Xiaochun is caught between the two and must resolve his conflicted feelings about his father, his teachers, and music itself.
Tandem talked to Chen Kaige when he was in Toronto recently.
A beautiful film, very small in comparison to your latest movies. Did you feel the need to make something this intimate?
"I think so, maybe because I became a father and a husband and have a very happy family. That turned me into a different person and I realized the importance of intimate things. I think I've changed a lot."
When you were a child you had problems with your father. You actually had to denounce him to the Cultural Revolution authorities. Is this film a way, perhaps, of redeeming that relationship?
"There is no comparison between my father and myself, and the relationship in the film. But yes, I think there is a sort of connection particularly when I look back and think about what I said to the actor who plays my father. There's a big similarity in terms of what happened in the movie and what happened in my life. My father was a great guy, but very political and sad of what happened with the Cultural Revolution. It was very tough."
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