Keep Cool

While many things in China are changing at high speed, other things remain the same. An excellent example of this simple home truth is Zhang Yimou’s latest film Keep Cool. The planned international première in Cannes was stopped because the Chinese authorities were angry about the screening of another – controversial – Chinese film, East Palace, West Palace by Zhang Yuan (see elsewhere in this catalogue). In this respect, nothing changes. Zhang Yimou’s visual has however changed considerably. The brilliant framing in Raise the Red Lantern and Ju dou has been swapped for a style reminiscent of Wong Kar-wai: all shot by hand with dialogues in a colourful and coarse Mandarin. The subject of Keep Cool is also completely contemporary for a change. Filmed in the street, apartments, cafés and karaoke bars of today’s Peking, the film provides a nice picture of Chinese society that is changing rapidly but still remains very traditional.The story breaks down into two parts. In the first section, bookseller Xiao Shuai follows the sexy An Hong, who is so impressed by his perseverance than she proposes a quick one. The second part concentrates on researcher Lao Zhang, whose laptop computer falls and breaks when Xiao Shuai is molested by a friend of An Hong, a rich nightclub owner. In other words, in these times of fast economic growth, it is important to keep a cool head, we learn from Zhang’s allegory.