Book reveals real drama in Chinese filmmaker's life

Zhou Xiaofeng's book, Fate: Zhang Yimou the Lonely. (Photo/China Daily)

A new book reveals iconic filmmaker Zhang Yimou as a victim of emotional blackmail by his longtime former producer.

Who would have thought that China's most prominent filmmaker has more drama in his real life than the typical plot of some of his movies?

For 16 years, Zhang Yimou was manipulated by his former producer who did not pay him on time, if at all, and wrecked his relations with family, friends and colleagues. The jaw-dropping expose has been penned by Zhou Xiaofeng, Zhang's script consultant since 2006.

Fate: Zhang Yimou the Lonely is obviously approved by the famed director, who has shown a remarkable degree of reticence when hit by hailstorms of mud thrown at him. It also goes against the original intention of Zhou, a well-established writer in her own right, who had previously vowed to eschew public association with the filmmaker.

The decision to give a tell-all account dawned on the day in early 2014, when Zhang was forced to pay 7,487,854 yuan ($1,098,185) in penalties for fathering three children in violation of China's family planning policy. In her book, Zhou confirms previous suspicion that producer Zhang Weiping (no relation to the director) was behind leaking the decadelong secret of the director's unregistered children.

If that accusation comes as no surprise, Zhou drops a real bomb when she discloses that Zhang Weiping and his wife were instrumental in breaking up the director's relationship with Gong Li, Zhang's muse and lover of many years.

They whispered rumors about the actress having dalliances with another man and sowed the initial seeds of distrust. Zhang Yimou, a person uncomfortable with non-work-related communication, never confronted Gong to clear things up. And it took Gong a long time to realize the cause of their breakup. In her renewed collaboration with him, the 2006 epic Curse of the Golden Flower, she put in her contract that under no circumstances should she be placed in the same room as Zhang Weiping or his wife.

Some of the most stinging barbs of Zhou's book are reserved for her employer. She argues that the director bore a major responsibility because of his antiquated people skills. He has a stubbornness, she writes, that when combined with credulousness, often leads to extreme vulnerabilities.

In episode after episode, Zhang Yimou would believe in someone without verifying their claims, which would have been as easy as picking up the phone and calling the person in question. Until very recently, he did not have an agent or lawyer and he would sign documents pushed his way without even reading the boldface or keeping an extra copy.

Zhou attributes this weakness to his personality, which is described as extremely tongue-tied when it comes to personal topics. Zhang Yimou never makes inquiries about his employees' families. He may not even know how to write the name of his longtime personal assistant. And when he talks about work, he is equally inconsiderate, launching into long-winded orations from afternoon to the wee hours of dawn.