A drop of water can be the difference between the ridiculous and the sublime in a kung fu movie, especially if the film’s backers are counting on overseas interest.
Li Feng, screenwriter of the blockbuster, Hero, says this prospect weighed on the mind of director Zhang Yimou as he tried to piece together an elaborate duel on a lake between Nameless and Broken Sword. In the scene, the two adversaries volley a drop of water between them before the droplet falls on the face of an inert Flying Snow, Broken Sword’s lover. Broken Sword stops to wipe away the drop and Nameless is so moved by the gesture, he calls off his attack. It’s the kind of moment that can provoke sentiment or sentimentality, or worse still, ambivalence.
“[So] a lot of effort went into filming that drop of water,” Li says.
“The object of the scene is not to show who wins but to portray the beauty in the fight. Chinese artists try to find beauty in an apparently fierce fight.
“The water scene (ended up) short. Zhang Yimou said westerners might find water travelling between two swords ridiculous. He wanted to convey the correct sense of the drop of water so he made the scene shorter. A westerner might feel that moves against physical laws but I didn’t think that mattered. You can see it as a Chinese Star Wars. A lot of Chinese were moved by this scene and forgot it was a kung fu film.
Li Feng interview continued at http://diggingtochina.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/field-of-dreams/
