- Those who strictly follow professional principles and exhaustively describe the marketing ability they possess have long lost their power of thought. They pay too much attention to wheter the film is good enough to reflect their professional competencies. For example, the picture should be as delicate as an oil-painting, or the mise-en-scené is supposed to match that of Antonioni's films; even the twinkling spotlight needs to be right on the face of the actor. They repeatedly fathom the professional mindset, cautioning themselves against any amateur act that breaks the established classic rules. Conscience and sincerity, which are crucial to filmmaking, are completely diluted by these facts.
- [on making A Touch of Sin (2013) and the state of China] I slowly began to see the problem of individual violence in society. There are many tragedies or societal problems in which people in the end rebel, resulting in a very big tragedy. So I began to pay more and more attention to this problem, because, frankly speaking, I feel like Chinese people do not really understand the problem of violence because society has never had a widespread discussion of the problem.
- Revolution is the cruelest of recollections for the Chinese people. The destructive effects of the previous revolution are still deeply felt. It wasn't that long ago that people were violent to each other in the name of communism. Now it's in the pursuit of capitalism.
- We have no language to express these new troubles. In the past there would have been systems to give people a sense of meaning. There was potential to find spiritual fulfillment through Buddhism, or a place and support through the family. These traditional sources of personal meaning are gone, and they have been replaced by money - and violence.
- We have a joke in China about why we don't have any legal dramas, and it's because no one believes in the legal system. It would be a fairy tale.
- [observation, 2013] There is an ideological shift taking place. Capitalist values were imported directly with capitalism, but how do they fit with Chinese society? It's very convoluted because we have no philosophical reference points. We can't really use the predetermined systems. You can see the youth are in limbo right now. The resources of the country are controlled by the few, and hope for survival and the future grows dimmer and dimmer every day.
- Before, in Chinese society, being selfless was a way of becoming self. The idea that you were sacrificing yourself for the greater social good gave one a sense of meaning and purpose. Now it's all about money.
- [press conference for Mountains May Depart (2015) at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival] The feelings that link people are something that never change, just like mountains. For the last three or four years, I've really wanted to make a film about feelings - maybe it's due to my age. I started to shoot films when I was in my 20s; now I'm 45. I've acquired a lot of experience in my life and I view things differently now, particularly when it comes to feelings. I have a better understanding of feelings between people. It's like a good wine which matures for many years - I think at one point in time the wine becomes sufficiently concentrated to taste it and enjoy it.
- [Cannes press conference, on the different time periods in Mountains May Depart (2015)] I think that one can't do without this idea of time - I couldn't have conveyed my message of time. You need time to show the complexity of life. You learn so much in the course of one's life, so once you're old it would be sad to have too many regrets, yet this is often what happens. When I wrote the script for each of the different periods in time, there were particular demands in my mind, for example what characterised the 90s was this effervescence amongst the young and then, if you talk about taste, you have something a bit sweeter when you reach 2014 and people are about 40; it's as though the taste then becomes bitter. Gradually, as the years go by, things become very frankly bitter - they go from sweet to bittersweet to bitter. And I wanted to depict all these changes in my film. Then we leap into the future in 2025 - for me, this is a way of changing angles. Once this time has gone by, what have we done with our lives? What have we gained in terms of understanding our past choices? As to space - space of course is there - and what characterises the destiny, the fate of Chinese is changes over time, the voyage - I wanted to talk about how one leaves one's homeland, changes cities, one may even go and move abroad, and these are changes which occur very naturally. This is all bound up with the fate, the destiny of people and hence I wanted to go to Australia - for me, this was a time to really become aware of this and, to become aware of things, you have to stop and view things, observe them. I have a long journey before me so I want to continue moving forward.
- [Cannes press conference for Mountains May Depart (2015), on why he chose Australia for the film's final section] I've travelled a lot - I've travelled around the world - and I've visited many friends who have migrated. I went to New York, to Washington, to Toronto, to Melbourne, for example, and in the end I chose Australia - it's not too far from China, only 7 to 8 hours by plane, and above all we're not in the same hemisphere - when it's summer in China it's winter in Australia and vice versa. It's not just that Australia is far from China geographically, I wanted to depict this distance in terms of feelings as well.
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