Professor Michael Berry (Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA) joins PhD candidate Wesley Jacks (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening conversation about Zhang Yimou's 1987 film adaptation of Mo Yan's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Red Sorghum. Berry explains the legacy of the so-called "Fifth Generation" of Chinese filmmakers including Yimou, and how Red Sorghum's production during the era following Deng Xiaoping's 1978 shift to an open door policy resulted in a film that was both uniquely a product of its own time, and subject to less censorship and thematic restriction than other eras of Chinese filmmaking. A milestone adaptation of an important literary text, Berry describes some of the history of Yimou's work on the project, and how many of the cast and crew involved in Red Sorghum have since gone on to have celebrated careers. Recorded on 05/18/2019. (#34884)