THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ‘’I’m looking forward to watching fresh talent; We need to identify new stories, creative people and innovative interpretations of culture; That’s what I hope to see here,” says veteran Chinese filmmaker Xie Fei, jury chairman of IFFK 2014, who arrived in the city on Thursday.
In an exclusive interaction with ‘Express’, Xie Fei revealed his love for Indian cinema, censorship issues in China and popular Western and Asian TV dramas that are winning the hearts of the masses in China.
“It used to be a different scenario earlier. But after Hollywood’s entry into the Chinese film mart, things have changed a lot. Another major concern is film piracy. The number of film viewers have come down to about half-a-billion from about 20 billion three decades back. Piracy has taken its toll on cinemas; Even world movies are available for viewing at cheap rates,” he rues.
Xie Fei hasn’t done a single movie in the last 10 years. Why? “There are many reasons; and of course severe censorship is one. It’s actually destroying the art. When I made my last movie ‘Song of Tibet’ , censorship issues cropped in right from the beginning, interfering at different levels . First I showed the script to the government officials dealing with Tibet, then to the Beijing Film Academy. The movie went under the scissor many a time. Finally, what came out has not been screened at many places. These days youngsters are looking for action thrillers. I’m 70, and may not be able to keep up with the tastes of the 20-year old generation,” he adds.
Once Bollywood used to be very popular in China, But nowadays very few films are available. “We get some films from the internet. Other than that, Indian cinema is not viewed by many these days. A majority of the population are glued to their TV screens for dramas from Korea, Japan, US and the UK. These are very popular. Many of these are available in dubbed versions also,” he reasons. An admirer of Satyajit Ray, Xie Fei says he hasn’t been very familiar with other art-house filmmakers from India. He is a self-confessed ignoramus when it comes to Indian regional cinema.
“I have been focusing on Asian movies for a long time. At IFFK, we have got 14 films coming from Latin America, Africa and Asia. I’m really keen to know what’s in store,” he avers.