Having been involved in the production of martial arts movies for quite a long time, established Chinese director Zhang Yimou has decided to resume his earlier style with a new movie project titled Qian Li Zou Dan Ji which will begin shooting Friday in Lijiang, a famous tourist destination in Yunnan Province. 

The film, which marks a return to Zhang's earlier style focusing on human values and ordinary life, has gained more media attention than any of Zhang's previous films.
   
A grand ceremony will be held at 10 AM Friday in Lijiang to mark the start of the film, when the main cast will appear and the Naxi minority in Lijiang will perform. However, Zhang will not accept interviews at the ceremony.
   
The film has a budget of 60 million yuan (US$7 million), which is much smaller than his previous films.
   
The film will star 72-year-old Japanese actor Takakura Ken, while the screenwriter is Zou Jingzhi, one of China's most famous screenwriters, whose credits include popular TV series such as Eloquent Ji Xiaolan.
   
Zhang's choice of heroine was a surprise. Instead of his longtime working partner, Zhang Ziyi, Zhang chose a never-heard-of name, Jiang Wen, who is pursuing a master's degree in literature at Beijing Film Academy.
   
Jiang has little experience in performing. She is said to be pretty and extrovert. Her part in the film - a translator for a Japanese tour group - is not very big, but will involve several key scenes where Takakura Ken will also appear.
   
Jiang has been living in Yunan since mid-October to prepare herself for the film.
   
If Jiang Wen is still a new face to most people, Takakura Ken is a household name in China. He gained wide popularity in China with the screening of his films during the 1980s.
   
Qian Li Zou Dan Ji will probably become the last film of the veteran artist, who has not performed in any film for the past four years.
   
Takakura Ken said he always wanted to perform a good film in China to thank his Chinese audience who had flooded him with honors and applause.
   
Zhang, meanwhile, said the idea of directing a film with Takakura Ken occurred to him when he was filming Hero.
   
Set in the 1920s, Qian Li Zou Dan Ji tells the story of a Japanese man (Takakura Ken), who accompanies his dying son to learn the local opera in Yunnan Province. There they meet a girl (Jiang Wen), and the young man falls in love with the girl. Literally, Qian Li Zou Dan Ji means "lonely ride over a long distance." The title comes from a classic Chinese novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
   
(Shenzhen Daily November 19, 2004)