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As someone whose life was upended by the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese director Zhang Yimou, 60, has every reason to be wary of politics. But his new film, “The Flowers of War,” which opens Wednesday, is China’s submission for the Academy Award for best foreign-language film and has already picked up a Golden Globe nomination. (It’s the subject of an article in the Arts & Leisure section here.) It deals with one of the most horrific episodes in modern Chinese history: the Nanjing Massacre of December 1937, in which Japanese troops overran China’s capital, killing more than 200,000 people and raping as many as 80,000 women.

Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

“The Flowers of War,” which stars Christian Bale as an American drifter who tries to save the lives of a two groups of Chinese women, was itself thrust into a political controversy after Mr. Bale, in China for the film’s premiere, was roughed up last week by plainclothes security officials when he tried to visit a human rights activist, a dust-up that has continued to reverberate. Initial reviews of the film have been mostly negative, but last month, before the controversy, Mr. Zhang was in the United States to talk about the movie. He discussed the challenges and process of writing and filming in China with a multinational and multilingual cast. Here are edited excerpts from two hours of conversation with him.

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Q.

The Nanjing Massacre has been the subject of numerous books, feature films and documentaries, and is widely taught in Chinese schools. What made you want to address it again?

A.

I have seen so many television programs and documentary films about the Nanjing massacre, and every single project is so depressing. It’s all been very similar to me, so as a director that’s a challenge. I became interested: how would you make a movie a different way, under a different light?

Q.

The closing credits of the film make clear that you obtained official cooperation in the making of “The Flowers of War.” Was that difficult, given the fact that so many of your characters are outsiders — prostitutes, Catholic convent girls, Westerners — and your treatment of the subject diverges from the Communist Party’s line?

A.

Actually, because all of the locations are owned by the government, you have to have their approval in order to have access. So any Chinese movie will have this kind of support from the government. It is necessary, and there are regulations. The most difficult part is after the movie is made, when you have to get the approval of the government, through censorship. That is more difficult, but it’s a procedure you just have to go through. The Chinese government is changing, it’s actually less and less strict. But still, it’s at a very slow pace and in the end, I had to make some adjustments in terms of editing for this film to get it approved.

Q.

I would have thought that Mr. Bale’s character, a Western hero in the midst of a Chinese tragedy, would have been especially problematic. Did that create difficulties in getting the approval of censors?

A.

Of course it was definitely challenging, because this kind of character, a foreigner, a drifter, a thug almost, becomes a hero and saves the lives of Chinese people. That has never ever happened in Chinese filmmaking, and I think it will never happen again in the future.

That’s my biggest accomplishment in this film, to have created the character of John Miller. In the original script, the priest and the other foreigners, they were already like heroes, always so positive from the beginning to the end. I never liked that kind of direction. I always want to stick something in that is the opposite, like the bad person becoming the hero. So I purposely made that choice.

Movie Review A Shady American in the Nanjing Massacre In “The Flowers of War,” the director Zhang Yimou revisits the 1937 Nanjing massacre in a story narrated by a convent student taking refuge in a church. Read Mike Hale’s Review »

Q.

I find it interesting that you went in that direction, because the film Poland submitted for the Oscar, Agnieszka Holland’s “In Darkness,” also shows a drifter and criminal becoming a hero and risking his own life to save others in impossible circumstances in World War II. How is it that two moviemakers working independently on opposite sides of the globe ended up working with that idea at the same time?

A.

Maybe that’s because of our background that we grew up in, the education we received. When I grew up, black is always black, white is always white, bad guy is always bad guy, and good guy is always good guy. There is no gray area, and the heroes are hardly human, they are more like gods. They can never be defeated. Maybe this director has a similar background and she hated the stereotype so much that she wanted to change it.

Q.

In other words, you’re from the same generation, one which grew up under Stalinism.

A.

Yes, exactly.

Q.

Was the script of “The Flowers of War” written specifically for Mr. Bale or for someone like him, a recognizable Western movie star?

A.

The second case. I read the script hoping to find someone like Christian, and when he came along, of course we made alterations. We talked on the phone and he came to China and we fine-tuned this character. It’s almost like a piece of clothing. Christian tried it on to see if it fit, and you alter it to fit his body.

Q.

If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time you’ve directed a polyglot, international cast. Did you notice differences among the Chinese, Japanese and English-speaking actors?

A.

It’s interesting how Christian is different from the Japanese actors. Because Christian wants to change everything and make it a little bit better, fine-tuning every dialogue, every word. The Japanese actor who played Col. Hasegawa was the opposite. Because he respected the director so much that he just assumed nothing should be changed, and he memorized the lines months and months ahead of time and came on the set and never changed a thing. Even a slight change, he was like, ‘Oh, I need time to prepare it.’

Arts & Leisure An Epic Drawn From the Tears of Nanjing “The Flowers of War” is the most expensive Chinese film ever made and is China’s official submission for the Academy Award for best foreign-language film. Read More »

Q.

With many film directors, it takes two or even three years to make a movie. I’ve noticed that in your case, you make a movie almost every year. How do you manage to be so productive?

A.

This is based on my lifestyle. First of all, I love to make movies. I don’t love doing anything else; on a personal level, I don’t have any hobbies or distractions of my own. So I devote 100 percent of my time to filmmaking.

There’s one more thing. My upbringing and background are such that I went to film school very late. I was almost 10 years older than everybody else who was starting. So I felt like I was 10 years behind everyone else. To me, no time should be wasted. I’ve always been educated that way and shaped that way, so it’s become second nature to me to work like that.

Q.

Of course, the reason you were 10 years older than everyone else was that your education was interrupted by the Cultural Revolution. Does that sense of regret at lost time still drive you?

A.

Yes, there’s a sense of urgency, that you have to work harder than anyone else. Also, there are so many other movies that I want to make. For example, from the period when I grew up, with the Cultural Revolution as the background. Of course this is a very sensitive topic, but I am hoping that before I pass on I can actually make these movies. I really want to make such a movie that truly means something, that is meaningful and dear to my heart. I’m still waiting for that opportunity to arise.

Q.

What can you tell me about your personal experience of the Cultural Revolution? You were one of the millions of educated urban youth Mao Zedong “sent down to the countryside” to learn from the peasants. What did you actually do during that period?

A.

I was really just a farmer, like everyone else, feeding the livestock, tilling the land, plowing the fields. It was a very difficult time. All I can remember is that I never felt I had a full stomach. I was always hungry.

Q.

As I was watching “The Flowers of War,” I started wondering about your process of deciding how much violence to put on the screen. Show too much and you risk alienating or disgusting the audience. Show too little and you risk trivializing the horrors of what happened in Nanjing. How did you find what you considered to be a proper balance?

A.

That’s definitely the most challenging point, and I actually thought about it for three years, from the beginning of the script stage. Because in all of the movies in the past, everything is so big and massive, with so much violence and destruction. So even from the script stage, I cut and edited, when and where it should be shown. For me it was a constant struggle which way to go, too little or too much.

Even now, with this movie done, I still feel it’s not perfect. It’s not exactly what I wanted, but at least the tone is there. I like to use one element to show the whole scale of things. For example, one colored leaf to show autumn, one drop of water is the rain. It’s the same principle here. I love the art craft of making something small to show something big.

Q.

Let me end by asking about the Oscars. Are they important to Chinese audiences and filmmakers?

A.

For the ordinary folk in China, this is the biggest award, and so the expectation is there. They really want the movie to win. But for me, it’s already a big deal that it could even go into the Oscar as a selected film and potentially be nominated. I’ve been nominated before and didn’t win, so I know how the process works. Whatever is done is done, you’ve already done the best you can do, and now it is really up to them.