By TANG YUANKAI

The second choreographed version of Zhang Yimou's transcendent film, Raise the Red Lantern performed by the Central Ballet Troup.

In 2001, director Zhang Yimou was asked to adapt his 1991 film Raise the Red Lantern into a ballet. The story, set in the courtyard of a 1920s feudal household, depicts the dysfunctional relationship between three wives and their lord and master. After his enormously successful adaptation of the Western opera Turandot, this ballet scored another hit with audiences. Within two years, the ballet was staged 50 times, creating a box office of over 9 million yuan (approximately US $1 million, a miraculous figure for the declining ballet market). Zhang Yimou the brand was reaffirmed.

The collaboration with the Central Ballet Troupe of China brought the company back into the media spotlight and Zhang made Hero, a film set in the era of Qinshihuang, the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty. Hero was another all-time hit, making more than 100 million yuan in its first week. Without pausing after the success of Hero, Zhang went back to the Central Ballet Troupe to help re-invigorate the Chinese ballet market, again with his magic weapon Raise the Red Lantern. This, the second choreographed version of the eponymous film, lit up the Chinese ballet stage last August 8, and is set to make a 20-performance tour of France, England and Italy. In November it will be featured at the Sino-French Year of Culture in Paris.

An Off-Kilter Style -- with Mixed Results

The story is set in a 1920 feudal courtyard, and depicts the dysfunctional relationship between a merchant and his three wives.

For ballet dancers and aficionados more familiar with classical ballets like Swan Lake, Zhang-style ballet is a real challenge. The 2001 Lantern incorporated traditional Chinese and modern dance, and even elements of Peking Opera. Some viewers considered Zhang's strong sensory approach to be distracting from the actual dancing. In this second version, Zhang made drastic changes by increasing the proportion of dancing so much that dancers complained that the intensity of labor was exhausting.

In the latest incarnation of Lantern, detailed characterization is sacrificed for audacious, grand stagecraft. Monotony and superficiality of choreographic language seems to deprive the ballet of innovation and depth, and constant repetitions drag out the performance. His clumsy handling of transitions between certain scenes hinders developmental links of the story line. Zhang failed to live up to his former glory. The staging again demonstrates the eclectic nature of the Zhang brand. This 2003 version is a patchwork of all things Chinese -- lanterns, cheongsam, mahjong, window lattices, Peking opera, terracotta warriors and horses. The red, yellow and green costumes designed by French designer Jerome Kaplan make the ballet gorgeous, and Zhang has excelled in stage splendor.

The 2003 ballet version makes the extra-marital affair between the third wife and a Peking opera actor the main story line.

Unfortunately, exterior brilliance cannot make up for dramatic weakness of the ballet. The 2003 ballet version makes the extra-marital affair between the third wife and a Peking opera actor the main story line, but the depiction and expression of emotions is diluted by portrayal of the relationship between the three wives and their conflicts. Without having given a substantial presentation of the inner world of the characters, the affair between the third wife and her lover fails to show the audience its human aspect and arouse sympathy.

Music, usually the soul of a ballet, has been rendered secondary. The first version's score was widely known, in part because it was an amalgamation of styles. Its composer Chen Qigang, a renowned Chinese musician in France, used 40 percent Western music, 50 percent Chinese theatrical and folk music, and 10 percent mixture of both, to "seek a balance amidst mingling, collision, decompounding, and compounding of Western ballet and Oriental drama." It is regrettable to see in the 2003 version that, apart from a plaintive and inflective theme, the music consists of fragments of voices and percussion instruments from folk Chinese operas.

Despite this flawed production, the Central Ballet Troupe is better off for collaborating with Zhang Yimou. The troupe leadership is aware that it needs technical, conceptual and systematic reform. It is only by breaking the old concepts through innovation, that Chinese ballet can win audiences and achieve commercial success. Zhang is the very person to do this.