In the Heat of the Sun

In the Heat of the Sun is a 1994 Chinese film directed and written by Jiang Wen. This was Jiang Wen's first foray into directing after years as a leading man. The film is based loosely on author Wang Shuo's novel Wild Beast.

In the Heat of the Sun
Traditional陽光燦爛的日子
Simplified阳光灿烂的日子
MandarinYángguāng Cànlàn De Rìzi
LiterallyDays of the Bright and Lush Sunshine
Directed byJiang Wen
Produced byGuo Youliang
Hsu An-chin
Po Ki
Written byJiang Wen
Based onWild Beast
by Wang Shuo
StarringXia Yu
Ning Jing
Geng Le
Tao Hong
Music byGuo Wenjing
CinematographyGu Changwei
Edited byZhou Ying
Release date
1994
Running time
134 minutes
CountryChina
LanguageMandarin

Synopsis

The film is set in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution. It is told from the perspective of Ma Xiaojun, nicknamed Monkey (played by Xia Yu; some of Monkey's experiences mimic director Jiang's during the Revolution),[1] who is a teenage boy at the time. Monkey and his friends are free to roam the streets of Beijing day and night because the Cultural Revolution has caused their parents and most adults to be either busy or away and the school system is extremely nonfunctional.

Most of the story happens during one summer, so the main characters are even more free because there is no school. The events of that summer revolve around Monkey's dalliances with his roguish male friends, and his subsequent angst-filled crush on one of the older female characters, Mi Lan (Ning Jing). Mi Lan falls instead for Monkey's friend, Liu Yiku.

The film reflects Monkey, reminiscing as an older man, and his struggle with remembering his youth. Framed by his adult life in 1990s Beijing, portrayed in black and white, and presented in snippets of memory in color, the viewer is asked to question the accuracy of Monkey's memory and wrestle with the truth of the time.

Production

The film was a co-production between three Chinese studios, and $2 million USD (about $3449932.64 when adjusted for inflation) of the budget was generated from Hong Kong. Derek Elley of Variety said that the film alters "some 70% of the original" novel and adds "a mass of personal memories."[2] Daniel Vukovich, author of China and Orientalism: Western Knowledge Production and the PRC, wrote that the film version makes its characters "a small group of male friends, plus one female "comrade"" instead of being "violent hooligans".[3]

The original title of film may be translated as "Bright Sunny Days". In the Heat of the Sun was chosen as its international English title during a film festival in Taiwan as a less politicized name, to avoid the original title's positive association with the Cultural Revolution.[4]

Before Jiangwen’s In the Heat of the Sun(1994), there are only 6 Cultural Revolution-themed movies, they are Chen Kaige‟s Baiwang bieji (Farewell My Concubine) (1993), Tian Zhuangzhuang‟s Lan fengzheng (The Blue Kite) (1992), Zhang Yimou‟s Huozhe (To Live) (1994). Xie jin’s Tianyun shan chuanqi (The Tale of Tianyun Mountain) (1980), Muma ren (The Horse Herder) (1982), and Furong zhen (Hibiscus Town) (1986). [5]

This film was shoot by the Gu Changwei “The No.1 photographer in Mainland” , this man was take charge of the main photographer in Red Sorghum, Ju dou, Bawang Bieji, has been awarded Gold Rooster Award in China, Academy Award in BFA, and Kodak Photographer in Award Hawaii International Film Festival”[6]

One of the two sponsors, a real estate company withdraw before the start of filming due to the economic recession, even several staff left during filming.[7]

The movie consumed a national record of 250,000 feet of film and it took nearly six months to shot.[7]

Liu Xiaoqing, the Executive producer had used his own money to pay the debts of the film crew.[8]

Jean Louis Piel offered to help Jiang Wen’s crew for the funds of mixing, light distribution, copy suppression after watching the initial cut of the film. [7]

Initially, Jiang Wen played the role of Ma Xiaojun during the character's 30s, the final film was cut out to be more than 4 hours. He wasn’t satisfied about his performance and due to time limits, he discarded his part.[7]

Release

The film approved domestic distribution after making five changes: mainly altering some of the dialogue, censoring passages where the protagonist is sexually aroused, and weaken the music L'Internationale during the alley fights with enhancing strong action sound effects.[7]


Rearrangements

Jiang Wen did some rearragements on role making to make this film close to his experience instead of Wild Beast, the orignal of this film.[9]

Jiang Wen explains (about rearragements) that in order to turn a novel into film, the principle of fidelity is suspectable, he did some changes but he had no intention to distinguish it from Wild Beast.[10]


Cast
  • Han Dong - Ma Xiaojun (S: 马小军, T:馬小軍, P: Mǎ Xiǎojūn, young boy)
  • Xia Yu - Ma Xiaojun (teenage Monkey). Wendy Larson, author of From Ah Q to Lei Feng: Freud and Revolutionary Spirit in 20th Century China, wrote that the selection of "an awkward-looking boy" who "contrasts with the more conventional tall good looks" of Liu Yiku was clever on part of Jiang Wen, and that Xia Yu "portrays [Ma Xiaojun] as charmingly shy and mischievous in social relationships yet forceful and engaging in his emotions."[11] The character has the nickname "Monkey" in the film version. "Monkey" was the nickname of director Jiang Wen.[2] Derek Elley of Variety says that Xia as Xiaojun has "both an uncanny resemblance to Jiang himself and a likable combination of insolence and innocence."[2]
  • Feng Xiaogang - Mr. Hu (S: 胡老师, T: 胡老師, Hú-lǎoshī), the teacher
  • Geng Le - Liu Yiku (S: 刘忆苦, T: 劉憶苦, P: Liú Yìkǔ, teenage)
  • Jiang Wen - Ma Xiaojun (adult; narrator)
  • Ning Jing - Mi Lan (S: 米 兰, T: 米 蘭, P: Mǐ Lán)
  • Tao Hong - Yu Beibei (于北蓓 Yú Běibèi). In the beginning Yu Beibei accompanies the boys and gives rise to sexual tension amongst them, but after Mi Lan is introduced, Yu Beibei does not appear with the group until the second telling of the birthday party. Larson states that Yu Beibei "is a significant character" in the first part of the film and that her disappearance is a "persistent clue that all is not as it seems".[12]
  • Shang Nan - Liu Sitian (S: 刘思甜, T:劉思甜, P: Liú Sītián)
  • Wang Hai - Big Ant
  • Liu Xiaoning - Liu Yiku (adult)
  • Siqin Gaowa - Zhai Ru (翟 茹 Zhái Rú - Xiaojun's mother)
  • Wang Xueqi - Ma Wenzhong (S: 马文中, T:馬文中, P: Mǎ Wénzhōng - Xiaojun's father)
  • Fang Hua - Old general
  • Dai Shaobo - Yang Gao (羊搞 Yáng Gǎo)
  • Zuo Xiaoqing – Zhang Xiaomei

Jiang Wen cast three youngsters with no acting experience but with notable athletic experiences: Xia Yu was the skateboarding champion in his hometown Qingdao, Tao Hong was a synchronized swimmer on the Chinese national team, while Zuo Xiaoqing was a rhythmic gymnast also on the Chinese national team. All three enrolled in professional acting schools within a year of the film's release (Xia and Tao went to Jiang's alma mater Central Academy of Drama, while Zuo was accepted to Beijing Film Academy) and became successful actors.

To make this film more realistic, the students in this film are most played by dropouts that under 14 years old.[13]


Trivia

Ma Xiaojun's character bears a strong likeness to Jiang Wen as well as to Wang Shuo, whose novella ‘Wild beasts’, provided the origin for Jiang's script. Xiaojun's family, like Jiang Wen's is from the city of Taishan; the novella's author and the film director are the same age as the fictional Xiaojun and, like him, grew up in Beijing in the idiosyncratic environment of military family housing.  [14]

Xia Yu was appointed by Jiang Wen's mother to play the role of Ma Xiaojun, since he looked similar to Jiang's teenager image.[7]

Director Jiang Wen asked the photographer not to be a spectator but to be a role in the film, which posed a great challenge to the choice of viewpoints. [15]

Music

The Chinese version of the Soviet song "Moscow Nights" features prominently in the film, as does Pietro Mascagni's music for his opera Cavalleria Rusticana.

Jiang wen utilities many revolutionary songs including 'Chairman Mao, Revolutionary Soldiers Wish you a Long Life” (Mao Zhuxi, geming zhanshi zhu nin wan shou wu jiang), 'Missing Chairman Mao — the Savior' (Xiangnian enren Mao Zhuxi), 'Ode to Beijing' (Beijing songge) and 'Sun Shining on the Jinggang Mountain' (Jinggangshan shang taiyang hong). [16]


Reception

Ranked number 98 non-English-speaking film in the critics' poll conducted by the BBC in 2018.

In contrast to the Cultural Revolution-set films of Chinese 5th-generation filmmakers (Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang) which put the era into a larger historical setting, In The Heat Of the Sun is mellow and dream-like, portraying memories of that era with somewhat positive and personal resonances. It also acknowledges, as the narrator recalls, that he might have misremembered parts of his adolescence as stated in the prologue: "Change has wiped out my memories. I can't tell what's imagined from what's real",[17] as the director offers alternative or imagined versions to some events as people seek to romanticize their youthful memories.The film was commercially successful in China. Critic Raymond Zhou talked about the ambiguity in Jiang Wen's movies: "Ambiguity is a major characteristic. Since two of his four features wax nostalgic about the 'Cultural Revolution' (1966-76), a period that evokes painful memories for many Chinese…"[18]

As a member of the liumang generation, too young to be sent to the countryside in the Culture Revolution yet old enough to have knowledge of life under Mao, Jiang has experienced the Maoist past, but has not been visibly scarred by it.[19]

Vukovich wrote that the film however did cause some controversy in China for its perceived "nostalgic" and "positive" portrayal of the Cultural Revolution.[20] According to Vukovich, the film "received much less attention than any fifth-generation classics" despite the "critical appreciation in festivals abroad".[20] Vukovich stated that in Western countries "the film has been subjected to an all too familiar coding as yet another secretly subversive, dissenting critique of Maoist and Cultural Revolution totalitarianism",[20] with the exceptions being the analyses of Chen Xiaoming from Mainland China and Wendy Larson.[20]

Reviews and critics

Immediately after the film’s release, major critics praised it as the most important work in Chinese cinema since Zhang Yimou's Hong gaoliang/ Red Sorghum (1987). In the Heat of the Sun resonates with Zhang's film not only in reinventing cinematic language but also in retelling a key moment in China’s history.[14]

Awards and recognition

Well received in China and the Chinese-speaking world but very obscure in the United States, the film won the 51st Venice Film Festival's Best Actor Award for its young lead actor Xia Yu (Xia was then the youngest recipient of the Best Actor award at Venice) as well as the Golden Horse Film Awards in Taiwan for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. American director Quentin Tarantino also gave high praises to the film, calling it "really great."[21]

It was the first People's Republic of China film to win Best Picture in the Golden Horse Film Awards, in the very year where Chinese-language films from the mainland were first allowed to participate.

The film was a domestic box office hit in 1995, beating the Hollywood blockbusters like The True Lies, Lion King and Forrest Gump.[22]

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References
  • Bao, Ying. Remembering the invisible: Soundscape and memory of 1989, Journal of Chinese Cinemas, 2013, 7:3, 207-224, DOI: 10.1386/jcc.7.3.207_1
  • Braester, Yomi. Memory at a standstill: 'Street-smart history' in Jiang Wen's In the Heat of the Sun. Screen, 2001. 42 (4): 350–362. doi:10.1093/screen/42.4.350. ISSN 0036-9543
  • Jiang, Wen. ‘Yangguang zhong de jiyi: yi bu dianying de dansheng’/ ‘Recollections in the sun: The birth of a film’, Yibu dianying de dansheng/The Birth of a Film, Beijing: Huayi chubanshe, 1997. pp. 1–71.
  • Larson, Wendy. From Ah Q to Lei Feng: Freud and Revolutionary Spirit in 20th Century China. Stanford University Press, 2009. ISBN 0804769826, 9780804769822.
  • Vukovich, Daniel. China and Orientalism: Western Knowledge Production and the PRC (Postcolonial Politics). Routledge, June 17, 2013. ISBN 113650592X, 9781136505928.
  • Zou, Hongyan, and Peter C Pugsley. “Chinese Films and the Sense of Place: Beijing as ‘Thirdspace’ from In the Heat of the Sun to Mr Six.” Making Publics, Making Places, edited by Mary Griffiths and Kim Barbour, University of Adelaide Press, South Australia, 2016, pp. 111–128. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.20851/j.ctt1t304qd.12. Accessed 13 June 2020.
  • Qian Gao, "HIDDEN IN THE HEAT OF THE SUN: MIMESIS, SACRILEGE AND APORIA—READING JIANG WEN’S FILMIC RECREATON OF THE CHINESE CULTURAL REVOLUTION", University of Redlands, April 30, 2014
  • Li Junwei, "Structure and Strategy Evolution of Narrative in Jiang Wen’s film - Focus on ‘In The Heat of the Sun’, ‘The Sun Also Rises’, and ‘Let the Bullets Fly’", doi: 10. 3969 / j. issn. 1002 - 2236. 2016. 06. 023
  • Xiao Shuang, "Jiang Wen Indulges in ‘The Heat of the Sun’", DOI：10.16583/j.cnki.52-1014/j.1994.09.046
  • Wang Honghong, "The Interpretation and Innovation in Soundscape and Image in ‘The Heat of the Sun’".

Notes
  1. "Interview with Jiang Wen." CNN. July 23, 2007. Retrieved on September 19, 2012.
  2. "In the Heat of the Sun." Variety. Sunday October 16, 1994. Retrieved on September 23, 2011.
  3. Vukovich, p. 149.
  4. Vukovich, page unstated (Google Books p. PT151).
  5. [Hidden in the heat of the sun: mimesis, sacrilege and aporia—reading jiang wen’s filmic recreaton of the chinese cultural revolution qian Gao University of Redlands(http://azrefs.org/hidden-in-the-heat-of-the-sun-mimesis-sacrilege-and-aporiaread.html)]
  6. [Jiang Wen Indulges in ‘The Heat of the Sun’, Xiao Shuang China Academy Journal Electronic Publishing House(https://kns.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx?dbcode=CJFQ&dbname=CJFD9495&filename=DYPJ199409007&v=MjYxODNMdXhZUzdEaDFUM3FUcldNMUZyQ1VSN3FmWWVkcUZpSG5WN3ZMSVRUYlpMS3hGOVhNcG85Rlk0UjhlWDE=)]
  7. Jiang, Wen (1997). Recollections in the sun: The birth of a film. Beijing: Huayi chubanshe. pp. 13, 24, 30, 43, 71.
  8. [Jiang Wen Indulges in ‘The Heat of the Sun’, Xiao Shuang China Academy Journal Electronic Publishing House(https://kns.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx?dbcode=CJFQ&dbname=CJFD9495&filename=DYPJ199409007&v=MjYxODNMdXhZUzdEaDFUM3FUcldNMUZyQ1VSN3FmWWVkcUZpSG5WN3ZMSVRUYlpMS3hGOVhNcG85Rlk0UjhlWDE=)]
  9. [Structure and Strategy Evolution of Narrative in Jiang Wen’s film - Focus on ‘In The Heat of the Sun’, ‘The Sun Also Rises’, and ‘Let the Bullets Fly’, Li Junwei (http://www.cnki.com.cn/Article/CJFDTotal-QLYY201606023.htm) ]
  10. [Structure and Strategy Evolution of Narrative in Jiang Wen’s film - Focus on ‘In The Heat of the Sun’, ‘The Sun Also Rises’, and ‘Let the Bullets Fly’, Li Junwei (http://www.cnki.com.cn/Article/CJFDTotal-QLYY201606023.htm) ]
  11. Larson, p. 174 (Google Books PT187).
  12. Larson, p. 177 (Google Books PT190).
  13. [Jiang Wen Indulges in ‘The Heat of the Sun’, Xiao Shuang China Academy Journal Electronic Publishing House( https://kns.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx?dbcode=CJFQ&dbname=CJFD9495&filename=DYPJ199409007&v=MjYxODNMdXhZUzdEaDFUM3FUcldNMUZyQ1VSN3FmWWVkcUZpSG5WN3ZMSVRUYlpMS3hGOVhNcG85Rlk0UjhlWDE=)]
  14. Braester, Yomi (2001-12-01). "Memory at a standstill: 'street-smart history' in Jiang Wen's In the Heat of the Sun". Screen. 42 (4): 350–362. doi:10.1093/screen/42.4.350. ISSN 0036-9543.
  15. [The Interpretation and Innovation in Soundscape and Image in ‘The Heat of the Sun’, Wang Honghong (https://m.xzbu.com/7/view-7665281.htm)]
  16. [Hidden in the heat of the sun: mimesis, sacrilege and aporia—reading jiang wen’s filmic recreaton of the chinese cultural revolution qian Gao University of Redlands(http://azrefs.org/hidden-in-the-heat-of-the-sun-mimesis-sacrilege-and-aporiaread.html)]
  17. "In the Heat of the Sun : review by Shelly Kraicer". www.chinesecinemas.org.
  18. "A truth that's stranger than fiction". usa.chinadaily.com.cn.
  19. Williams, Louise (2003). "Men in the Mirror: Questioning Masculine Identities in In the Heat of the Sun". China Information. 17 (1): 92–106. doi:10.1177/0920203x0301700104. ISSN 0920-203X.
  20. Vukovich, page unstated (Google Books PT148).
  21. Quentin Tarantino Interview - KILL BILL And Others by New Cinema Magazine.
  22. Bao, Ying (2013-01-01). "Remembering the invisible: Soundscape and memory of 1989". Journal of Chinese Cinemas. 7 (3): 207–224. doi:10.1386/jcc.7.3.207_1. ISSN 1750-8061.

Further reading
  • Qi Wang. "Writing Against Oblivion: Personal Filmmaking from the Forsaken Generation in Post-socialist China." (dissertation) ProQuest, 2008. ISBN 0549900683, 9780549900689. p. 149-152.
  • Silbergeld, Jerome (2008), Body in Question: Image and Illusion in Two Chinese Films by Director Jiang Wen (Princeton: Princeton University Press)
  • Su, Mu (Beijing Film Academy). Sunny Teenager: A Review of the Movie in the Heat of the Sun. Strategic Book Publishing, 2013. ISBN 1625165080, 9781625165084. See page at Google Books.
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