Jia Zhangke on Jia Zhangke is an extended dialogue between film scholar Michael Berry and the internationally acclaimed Chinese filmmaker. Drawing from extensive interviews and public talks, this volume offers a portrait of Jia's life, art, and approach to filmmaking. Jia and Berry's conversations range from Jia's childhood and formative years to extensive discussions of his major narrative films, including the classics Xiao Wu, Platform, The World, Still Life, and A Touch of Sin. Jia gives a firsthand account of his influences, analyzes the Chinese film industry, and offers his thoughts on subjects such as film music, working with actors, cinematography, and screenwriting. From industry and economics to art and politics, Jia Zhangke on Jia Zhangke represents the single most comprehensive document of the director's candid thoughts on the art and challenges of filmmaking.

Series Editor's Preface / Carlos Rojas  ix
Acknowledgments  xiii
Introduction. From Fenyang to the World  1
1. A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man  19
2. The Hometown Trilogy  46
3. Documenting Destruction and Building Worlds  87
4. Film as Social Justice  113
5. Return to Jianghu  133
6. Toward an Accented Cinema  157
Coda. To the Sea  182
Afterword / Dai Jinhua  193
Notes  197
Jia Zhangke Filmography  205
Bibliography  207
Index  211

Michael Berry is Director of the Center for Chinese Studies and Professor of Contemporary Chinese Cultural Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author, editor, and translator of several books, including Jia Zhangke’s Hometown Trilogy, A History of Pain: Trauma in Modern Chinese Literature and Film, and Speaking in Images: Interviews with Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers.