dir. Jiang Wen
sc. Jiang Wen, Wang Shuo (the screenplay is based on his
novella, Dongwu xiongmeng [Wild Beasts])
cinematography: Gu Changwei (cinematographer for Red
Sorghum)
Hong Kong: Dragon Air (Ganglong) Film/Taiwan: Xiche
Film/China: China Film Co-Production Corporation, 1994.
principal cast:
| Xia Yu | Ma Xiaojun (“Monkey”) |
| Ning Jing | Mi Lan (“The girl in the
picture”) |
| Geng Le | Liu Yiku |
| Tao Hong | Yu Beipei |
| Siqin Gaowa | Monkey's Mom |
| Wang Xueying | Monkey's Dad |
| Jiang Wen | Monkey as an adult (credits sequence) |
Film Factoids:
- Jiang Wen, probably the most well-known (and well-liked) male actor in mainland China, attracted much critical attention and controversy with his directorial debut. While In the Heat of the Sun was a box-office success in China, many critics took him to task for his iconoclastic, almost jubilant view of the Cultural Revolution.
- Jiang raised the 1.2 million-dollar budget from private investors in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Mainland. 12 minutes of rushes were shown to Volker Schlöndorff, who then invited Jiang Wen to edit In the Heat of the Sun at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin.
- The director shut his actors up in a military barracks for a month of ‘basic training’ in the Cultural Revolution period. “I wanted him to read books about the period, dress, walk and talk like kids in the 1970s...Those kids believed they were changing the course of history; they had an ideal. Not like young people today who are a little tired.”
- Perhaps because of Jiang Wen's extensive contacts and reputation, In the Heat of the Sun is loaded with cameos from famous actors, writers, filmmakers. Just to name a few: Wang Xueying (the soldier Gu Qing in Yellow Earth) and Siqin Gaowa (one of the most famous Chinese actresses, her films include Stanley Kwan's Full Moon in New York and Xie Fei's Women From the Lake of Scented Souls) play minor roles here as Monkey's parents; Wang Shuo, the notorious punk novelist, plays the gangster being hoisted in the air by rival gangs at the Moscow Restaurant; and Feng Xiaogang, a noted 5th gen. director and screenwriter, plays the hapless teacher Mr. Hu. Jiang Wen, of course cameos more or less as himself in the black-and-white credits sequence.
- Xia Yu, who plays Monkey, won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival in 1994.