HUACE GROUP
In his more than 40-year career as a filmmaker, Zhang Yimou has finally turned his eye to the spy genre.
从事电影创作40多年，张艺谋终于将目光投向谍战题材。
On April 30, Zhang’s first espionage film Cliff Walkers was released. The film features a star-studded cast of China’s leading talent, including Zhang Yi, Yu Hewei and Qin Hailu. Set in the Japan-occupied puppet state Manchukuo in the early 1930s, the story follows four Soviet Union-trained agents of the Communist Party of China sneaking into Harbin, Heilongjiang, to rescue a survivor escaping from a covert camp where the brutal Japanese take prisoners for human experiments.
4月30日，张艺谋首部谍战大片《悬崖之上》上映。该片群星云集，由张译、于和伟、秦海璐等国内实力派演员出演。故事讲述了20世纪30年代早期，在日本占领中国东北后扶植的傀儡伪政权“伪满洲国”地界，四位曾在苏联接受特训的中共谍报人员偷偷潜入黑龙江哈尔滨，营救从秘密基地逃出的幸存者。在那里，残暴的日本人进行了惨无人道的人体活体实验。
Like other spy films and TV shows, Zhang covers scenes of torture, secret codes, fights and chases in Cliff Walkers, but in his own style.
与其他谍战影视剧类似，《悬崖之上》也涉及了酷刑、秘密代码、搏斗追打场景，但是具有张艺谋独特的风格。
His iconic usage of colors creates atmosphere and develops characters. “Rather than the lush warmth and brilliant hues that characterized some of his previous works, here he surrounds the cold paranoia... with austere whites and grays,” the Los Angeles Times noted.
他极具代表性的色彩运用，既烘托氛围，又塑造出了人物性格。“没有一些早期作品特有的斑斓绚烂，这部影片他以朴素的白色与灰色凸显冷峻偏执，”《洛杉矶时报》点评道。
The film’s many snowy scenes, contrasting the white snow against the dark night, showcase an epic sense of conflict between the good and the evil, China Daily reported.
据《中国日报》报道，这部电影的许多雪景，通过白雪与黑夜的对比，呈现出善恶博弈的大片效果。
Cliff Walkers is different in other ways too. Instead of portraying the characters as heroes and villains, it clearly reveals positive and negative roles and focuses on how the agents accomplish their mission.
《悬崖之上》还有其他特别之处，它没有把英雄和反派脸谱化，而是清晰地展现了角色的正面与反面，聚焦谍报人员如何完成任务。
Additionally, the actors’ lines are relatively concise. In Zhang’s view, he wanted “actors to convey feelings through their eyes”, Yangcheng Evening News noted.
此外，演员的台词相对简洁。在张艺谋看来，他想“演员通过眼神交流情感，”《羊城晚报》报道称。
