China's Joan Chen games at Spanish film fest
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-09-18 09:11

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain (AFP) - Generational conflicts in China between father and son were on the agenda at the international film festival in the northern Spanish resort of San Sebastian in the shape of Zhang Yang's "Xian Ri Kui" (Sunflowers) starring Joan Chen.

Chinese film director Zhang Yang (L) and the cast of his latest work 'Xiang Ri Kui' (sunflower), Sun Hai Ying (R) and Joan Chen (C) pose during a photocall after screening their film during the 53rd San Sebastian International Film Festival.[AFP]

"I am a mother and my life has prepared me for this role," said the actress of the film which is just one of two Asian entries in this year's 19-strong crop vying for the "concha de oro", or golden shell, official section prize.

"It was easy for me," added Chen, renowned for her role in Oliver Stone's "Heaven and Earth," of her role in the cross-generational conflict between husband and son.

"Sunflowers" follows four decades of Chinese history from the birth of her character's son in the 1960s to the present day, a cinematic journey taking the viewer on a whistle-stop tour through the changes the Asian giant has undergone in that period since the Cultural Revolution.

Chen, born in 1961 and a mother of two daughters, reflected that she herself lived through these changes which are still ongoing and expressed surprise at the fact that "Some directors from my own generation are obsessed with the 1970s and the developments which went on then in China.

Zhang meanwhile explains his own rationale for the picture.

"Through the father and son relationship I want to represent relationship with my father and also the development of China over the past 30 years, but this is just a backdrop," said the director, whose "Shower" won him a best director award in 1999.

He returned to the festival in 2001 with "Quitting".

According to Zhang, "there will be more inter-generational confrontations" in China, He explains that he believes the generations who grew up before the period of great change of the 1970s "hold onto a series of principles whereas these do not signify that much for those of us who have grown up with change.

"That's why there will be these confrontations," he asserts.

This is a feeling which comes through starkly in his film where it is precisely the paternal, more traditional, way of thinking which comprises a key element behind the setting off of a "war" between's Chen's screen husband, played by Sun Haiying, and their son Xiangyang, played by Zhang Fan.

Tensions arise when the husband, Gengnian, returns after years in a labour camp where his hands suffered permanent damage.

As father and son barely know each other -- the latter resenting the sudden return of the head of the household -- their relationship is awkward and tense.

Zhang Yang makes a declaration of intent when he says that "I want people to know a more real society through my films."

"Sunflowers" will look to see off, among others, its fellow Asian entrant, "April snow" by South Korea's Hur Jin-ho, as it bids for concha de oro recognition.

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