Currently, Li Yu is one of the representative movie directors in China. Meanwhile she has created a sensation home and abroad, Korean interests in her movies are comparatively low, which triggered me to introduce her movies. In this article, I deal with six full-length movies that she directed as of early 2018. I designed my article in order for readers to have a chronological view on her movies from beginning up to now.
Li has a different career to other Chinese directors in that she made a debut without completing a regular course for becoming director. She used to be an announcer at a broadcasting station. Suppressed women appear in the six movies. The suppression is not the outcome of their own action or will but the sexual inequality caused by traditional values, patriarchy, lack of capital, etc..
For these reasons, her movies are classified as feminist movies. Especially, earlier three movies, i.e. “Fish and Elephant”, “Dam Street”, and “Lost in Beijing” have such features. She sometimes borrows genre movies familiar to the audience to unfold her own stories. Later three movies have such features: “Buddha Mountain” using the genre of making an alternative family (search or narrative), “Double Xposure” using that of mystery thriller, and Ever Since We Loved using that of adolescent romance. These movies rely on the form of genre move but do not imitate the construction of genre movies. Rather, she shows her own character by presenting conclusions different from those that people would expect. Her earlier movies deal with social taboos and socially sensitive issues. She directed first Chinese lesbian movie entitled “Fish and Elephant” and “Lost in Beijing” which is a tragic story between urban mingong and dagongmei. It was released before Beijing Olympic and was banned because of its description of the dismal Chinese society and extreme sexuality. After this movie, her movie shifted to a more indirect way, unlike her previous movies that were comparatively rough, realistic and direct. As of 2018, we are waiting for the release of her seventh movie. Her movies world is still developing.
