Buckland-Warren-Puzzle-Films-Complex-Storytelling-Contemporary-Cinema

9Revitalizing the Thriller Genre:Lou Ye’s Suzhou River andPurple ButterflyYunda Eddie FengAng Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) introduced Chineselanguagecinema to millions of movie viewers. However, Crouching Tiger’sfinancial success and Oscar wins have narrowed the scope of Chineselanguagefare in today’s international circuit. Seeking huge profits and awards,Chinese directors have made wave after wave of mega-production swordsmanmovies such as Warriors of Heaven and Earth (He Ping 2003), ThePromise (Chen Kaige, 2005), and The Banquet (Feng Xiaogang 2006). ZhangYimou, once known for intimate dramas in rural settings, helmed threeentries in the martial-arts derby – Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers(2004), and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006). Regardless of the quality ofthese features, this trend skews general perceptions of Chinese cinema andleads major talents to participate in projects that feel routine and formulaic.The martial-arts genre has the potential to overshadow Chinese cinemathe way that the samurai genre has overshadowed Japanese cinema.Lou Ye, the writer-director of Suzhou River (2000) and Purple Butterfly(2003), 1 has not succumbed to the lure of the martial-arts genre. Instead,he tries to court Western audiences through the deployment of complexstorytelling techniques within the thriller genre. Specifically, Lou is indirect dialogue with Alfred Hitchcock, whose name is essentially synonymouswith thrillers. Lou subverts viewer expectations derived from collectiveexposure to Hitchcock’s movies such as The 39 Steps (1935), Secret Agent(1936), Rear Window (1954), and Vertigo (1958). Through complex storytelling,Lou revitalizes the thriller genre by creating viewer ambivalence towardthe subjective nature of narrative reality.Lou Ye was born in Shanghai, China in 1965. He was a student in Beijingin 1989, so he witnessed the Tiananmen Square demonstrations first-hand.