Zhang Yuan, China
"Crazy English"
China 1999, 35mm, 90:00 min, col
Li Yang has been travelling through China for ten years and attempting to spread an original method of learning that only requires gestures and gesticulation. He acts in the Forbidden City, on the Great Wall, on the Marco Polo Bridge, in stadiums and on the campus of the university. Li Yang has gradually developed from a shy and introverted teacher to a charismatic speaker. His method, known as „Crazy English“, becomes an instrument of selfportrayal and learning, followed by an everincreasing audience: „What can you do for your country? Get ready for the 21st century, strengthen yourselves mentally and physically, learn English!“
Director Zhang Yuan sees in Li Yang the symbol of a China that is changing itself at a frightning pace, also as a symptom and metaphor for the „shattering result of the economic reform“. At the same time, it is also a „symptom of the democratic hopes that have one astray“.
Zhang Yuan
Geboren 1963 • gilt als „Enfant terrible“ der sechsten Generation chinesischer Filmemacher nach den Ereignissen von 1989 • wechselt in seinen Filmen zwischen Dokumentarischem und Fiction • Filme: „Mama“, 1990 • „Beijing Zashong“ (Beijing Bastards), 1992 • „Guangchang“ (Der Platz), 1994 • „Erzi“ (Töne), 1995 • „Donggong Xigong“ (East Palace, West Palace), 1996 • „Dingzihu“ (Demolition and Relocation), 1998 • „Shi Qi Nian“ (17 Jahre), 1999
