Sorghum was partially funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Literature and professor at University of Colorado his translation of Red Translator Howard Goldblatt is editor of Modern Chinese Sorghum, in 1987, directed by Zhang Yimou.Īt the publisher’s request, Mo Yan added furtherĮpisodes and published the novel in its entirety in 1989. Was also made into a film, released under the English title Red “a family saga” in 1987, by the People’s Liberation Army Publishing So well received that it later was expanded into five chapters and published as This novel began as a short story published in 1986, Red Sorghum is scheduled to begin airing on Shandong TV, Zhejiang TV, Dragon TV, and Beijing TV on October 27. The director explained that for the movie, it was sufficient for “its spirit to be the same as that of the novel.” A television series, however, requires more substance from other areas.Īs a result, in addition to Jiu’er and the male lead Yu Zhan’ao ( Zhu Yawen 朱亞文), Red Sorghum will feature some newly added characters, such as Zhang Junjie ( Huang Xuan 黃軒), who is Jiu’er’s first love, and Shujian ( Qin Hailu秦海璐), a widow whose devotion to the Confucian code of ethics leads to strife between her and Jiu’er. The drama adaptation of Red Sorghum will focus more attention on the story’s details, as well as other groundbreaking facets of the original novel. “Zhou Xun is a very good actress who is exceptionally moldable.

“After watching the trailer, I was very excited,” said Mo Yan. Nevertheless, both director Zheng Xiaolong (鄭曉龍), best known for helming Legend of Zhen Huan, and author Mo Yan shared that they thought very highly of Zhou Xun because she possesses a tenacious character very similar to that of Jiu’er. However, her elegant pixie features have caused some people to doubt whether or not she can recreate Gong Li’s unadorned Shandong lady. Zhou Xun is well known for her depiction of classic characters, such as Huang Rong in Legend of the Condor Heroes and the young Princess Taiping in Palace of Desire. Since the movie adaptation of Red Sorghum was what launched Gong Li to fame, some critics wondered if Zhou Xun would be able to pull off the role of Jiu’er, a poor girl living during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The film, which starred Gong Li (鞏俐) and Jiang Wen (姜文), won the Golden Bear Award at the 1988 Berlin International Film Festival and was named one of the year’s ten best international films by Cahiers du Cinéma, a renowned French film magazine. Red Sorghum is adapted from the novel Red Sorghum Clan by Nobel Prize-winning author Mo Yan (莫言), which was previously turned into a movie directed by Zhang Yimou (張藝謀).

More than a decade after she starred in her last television drama, mainland Chinese actress Zhou Xun (周迅) will return to the small screen as the female lead in the highly anticipated series, Red Sorghum.

Author of red sorghum