Chronicle of a Changing World

“A Mongolian Tale,” an exquisitely told story of love, pride and loss, which opens Friday at the Nuart, is the first of director Xie Fei’s eight features to receive a theatrical release, but both “A Girl From Hunan” (1986) and “Women From the Lake of Scented Souls” (1992) have been shown in local film festivals. All three are remarkably beautiful and perceptive expressions of compassion for the hard lives of Asian women.

In February, Xie--during a quick stopover in Los Angeles, where he spent a year in 1987--talked about making “A Mongolian Tale” and the current state of the Chinese film industry, which he considers at its lowest ebb.

Xie is a slim, affable man of 54 with a keen sense of humor in regard to the vicissitudes of filmmaking. He speaks English better than he perhaps realizes but likes to rely on an interpreter when he gets stuck.

First a popular novel, published in 1982 and then adapted to the stage and even to a comic book format, “A Mongolian Tale” attracted the interest of many filmmakers, according to Xie, but none was able to get it off the ground until he succeeded in 1994.

“I took the novel to a couple of producers in Hong Kong and Taiwan and convinced them I wanted to do it on a low budget. I wanted the film to be very Mongolian, very local. I wanted to use Mongolian actors rather than actors from Beijing.”

“A Mongolian Tale” evokes the harsh yet idyllic existence of a kindly elderly woman, a shepherd who raises a foster grandson along with her own granddaughter. Her dream is for the two to marry and stay with her, but when the boy, now grown, goes to a distant city to study to become a veterinarian, he undergoes a change of values that has drastic consequences.

“I was inspired to make the film after I saw Nikita Mikhalkov’s ‘Close to Eden,’ which I liked very much,” Xie said.

Mikhalkov’s film is a lament for the loss of an ancient pastoral way of life in Inner Mongolia. Xie explained that such a way of life itself is not so threatened by urbanization and industrialization in Outer Mongolia, which has a population of 2 million in contrast to Inner (or Chinese) Mongolia’s 6 million. What concerned him was the impact of exposure to contemporary urban life and education upon ancient rural wisdom. Xie admitted that some have praised his picture more than Mikhalkov’s because they felt he represented an Asian’s point of view rather than that of a Westerner.

To play the couple as adults, he chose two Chinese Mongolians, Tengger, a pop star famous throughout China, and Naranhuar, who had the title role in “A Girl From Hunan.” He summoned Naranhuar from London, where she has completed her studies in filmmaking, and decided to shoot in Outer Mongolia expressly so that he could cast a superb 74-year-old actress, Dalarsurong, whose stage and screen career reaches back to the late ‘30s, as the grandmother.

Xie said that production went smoothly, despite a mix of languages and increasingly wintry weather, but Dalarsurong, just after shooting was completed, suffered a near fatal heart attack. “She has recovered,” Xie said. “She even sent me a card for Chinese New Year and is thrilled that the film is being shown all over the world.

“Only intellectuals, students and people interested in literature saw the film in China,” Xie said ruefully. “It is a bad situation for cinema in China. After 1995, the big Hollywood productions started coming--’True Lies,’ ‘Twister’--and there was no space for Chinese movies. Then, since last year, the government policy has changed. They want more and more propaganda films, so the government is funding only propaganda. The government thought my film was OK, but it’s not the kind of film they want to support. Last year, there were only 100 feature films made in China, and there will be even less in 1997.

“In the future, it will be very difficult to make films like mine. [Xie has not been able to launch a project since “A Mongolian Tale.”] Maybe financing will come from television. The Star TV station in Hong Kong put up two-thirds of my budget. There may be changes after June 30, but not big ones. I think we will still be able to get financing from Hong Kong.”

Xie, who teaches directing at the Beijing Film Academy, looks back with pleasure and gratitude on the year he spent in the United States, based at USC, researching the way filmmaking is taught in America and visiting 20 universities all over the country.

“It was a very great year,” said Xie, relishing the memories. “Relations between our countries were very good--it was before Tiananmen. It opened my mind, expanded my vision--and I was able to take 300 videocassettes of films unavailable in China back with me. I think that some parts are right about the way we teach filmmaking, but it is not complete enough. We need to look at problems from different directions in order to make better films.”

Xie’s wife makes documentaries for China Central Television, and their 23-year-old son is studying medicine. He does not regret he’s not following in his parents’ footsteps. “He will have a very good job,” Xie said with a laugh, “much better than mine.”