Zhang Yimou's work is most definately incredible. However while he himself is Chinese the work he has done, was produced in and Japan, many of the actors are also from Japan. China's own film industry is actually very much repressed and stilfed by the present government. It is interesting that these films while produced by people who are predominately Japanese, very skillfully capture the character of Chinese culture, or at least what I have come to identify as Chinses culture.

Visually Yimou's skills far surpass the majority of his western counterparts, when a Hollywood director wants to capture the emotions meant to present in a particular scene, he waters down the colors, forcing the viewer to focus on the characters present.When he does it however, the scene remains vibrant, and alive. All without subtracting from the actual drama and emotion of a given scene