ABSTRACT
Most of the films of internationally acclaimed director Zhang Yimou are adaptations of literary work, which he feels is the origin of his creativity: Without good literary works, it could be difficult to produce good films. Films are not constitutive of actions only. Motion without thoughts can only be dead actions. Screenwriter Lu Wei recalls how Yu Hua, the novelist of To Live, sought to write the adaptation himself: Zhang Yimou gave him a chance, but he had trouble leaving out his favorite aspect of the story. It is very difficult to ask him to kill his own baby. Yu Hua's inability to kill off the interior monologues led to Zhang Yimou giving Lu Wei the chance to write a second draft of the epic story of a once-rich gambler struggling to survive as a soldier through the Chinese Civil War and to regain the love of his family as a peasant during the Cultural Revolution.
