‘To Live’: A Sweeping Sage of Modern China : Politics: Beijing’s decision to ban the film and limit media access to its principals has created problems for the movie’s U.S. releasing company.

Zhang Yimou’s new film, “To Live,” which opens today, has been banned in Zhang’s native China, a situation that’s become a thorn in the side of the Samuel Goldwyn Co., which is releasing the film.

Goldwyn bought the rights to release “To Live” in the United States when it was still in script form. Company Chairman Samuel Goldwyn Jr. had been impressed by Zhang’s previous films such as “Ju Dou” and “Raise the Red Lantern,” both of which were nominated for best foreign-language film.

An intimate epic about a family’s survival, during and after the Chinese revolution, the film reminded Goldwyn of “Gone With the Wind”; to him, “To Live” was “positive” and life-affirming.

The Chinese government came to a different conclusion, however. Initially Zhang and the film’s stars, Gong Li and Ge You, were allowed to leave the country to attend last May’s Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and the best actor award. When it came time for Zhang to speak about the film in Paris, though, he was told he was not allowed to do so, nor to attend the festival. Zhang returned home.

Why the about-face? “I think they did it to humiliate him,” Goldwyn says.

Goldwyn says he’s never been clear as to what exactly the Chinese government objects to in “To Live”: “It had to have approval when it was filmed. Half the Chinese army is in this film.” Also, he says, there is no criticism of the current regime and such past events as the Cultural Revolution have already been publicly discredited in China.

For five months Goldwyn has been trying to get Zhang as well as Gong Li and Ge You to the United States to help promote the film. “But every time I try to talk to someone, this curtain descends.” The Chinese Film & Export Committee would not return The Times’ repeated requests for comment.

The popular Gong Li--who according to a recent profile in the New Yorker is the seventh most recognized person in China (Zhang, with whom she lives, is sixth)--had tentatively agreed to answer questions about the film by telephone but has since declined, citing her nervousness about the political situation, according to a Goldwyn spokeswoman.

It’s not surprising, says Goldwyn. Even though she was allowed to attend the Cannes Festival, after Zhang was called home, Gong Li became very circumspect about media inquiries.

The situation since then has worsened. “To Live” has been barred from release in China and production on Zhang’s “Triads,” a gangster film, was recently shut down, says Goldwyn. The director was reportedly asked to make changes in the script, which is being financed by mainland Chinese sources.

Further complications arose when the Chinese government declined to submit “To Live” to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in the best foreign-language-film category. To be eligible, a film must officially be submitted by the country of origin. China had previously submitted “Raise the Red Lantern” and then withdrawn its support. But once it was submitted, the academy stood firm and the film was nominated. (In a similar incident, Poland withdrew Andrzej Wajda’s “Man of Iron” in 1981, but the academy nominated it anyway.)

Oddly, “Strawberry and Chocolate,” which is critical of the Cuban Communist government, has been submitted by that country as its official Oscar entry.

“The Chinese are pretending the film isn’t there,” says the academy’s executive director, Bruce Davis. “It’s caused some hand-wringing here,” he admits. “There’s not much we can do if a country clamps down on a film and refuses to submit it.”

Because there is some Hong Kong money in the film, Goldwyn had been hoping to persuade Hong Kong to officially submit the film, as it had done last year with another banned Chinese film, Chen Kaige’s “Farewell My Concubine.” At first they agreed. “Then they backed down,” says Goldwyn. “The pressure on them is enormous.”

Goldwyn’s only alternative is to submit the film in the general categories (best picture, etc.) “which would put us up against ‘Forrest Gump,’ ” he says.

While Davis agrees that few foreign-language films ever make the cut for best picture (Ingmar Bergman’s “Cries and Whispers” in 1973 was the last), nominations in other categories (acting, directing, writing, technical awards) are less rare.

Goldwyn hasn’t given up hope on the academy entirely. “I just wish they’d let me show it to their foreign film committee. They have no provision for films that are not submitted by a totalitarian government.”

But to reverse itself, Davis says, the academy itself would have to draft the movie. “And to draft the movie would imply that we’d seen all the films made in China for the year and decided this was the best,” he says.

And Goldwyn hasn’t given up on getting Zhang to the United States to talk about “To Live” and perhaps even to make a movie here. “The man is in a class with other world-class filmmakers, Bergman and Fellini. He is a genuine voice.”

But, for now, a muffled one.