Jiang Wen is at the top of the world - the world of Chinese cinema, that is. His year-end release Let the Bullets Fly has just broken the box-office record for a domestic film with some 700 million yuan ($107 million) in gross receipts.
姜文登上了中国电影界的巅峰。2010年末上映的电影《让子弹飞》国内总票房收入高达7亿元（合1.07亿美元），缔造了中国电影史票房新纪录。

He does not need others to tell him how great he is - not any more.
他不再需要别人来告诉自己有多出色了。

That does not mean he is not proud of Bullets. It`s just that Bullets, for him, is fun. He is aware of all the political interpretations of his story that have sprung up across the Web and mainstream media.
但这并不意味着他不为《让子弹飞》而感到骄傲。对于他来说，创作这部电影是为了好玩。他明白，各种关于《让子弹飞》的政治解读已在网络和主流媒体上传得沸沸扬扬。

"No, I did not mean to embed political meanings into the story," he says straightforwardly.
他直截了当地说：“不，我没有刻意在电影里掺杂政治观点。”

The Goose Town, the central setting for the movie, has come to symbolize China for some film buffs with a political leaning. Yet, Jiang repeatedly uses the location as an outing to the murky world of genre-film making.
故事发生在“鹅城”，一些带有政治倾向的电影爱好者认为“鹅城”象征着中国。然而在电影里，姜文屡次地把这个地方比作深入险境。

The most brilliant touches in his movies all seem to traverse the stream of reality, for example, in Bullets opens with a train pulled by white horses.
电影中最出彩的片段似乎都与现实相关，比如电影开篇的白马拉火车。

"I did not invent this set-up. For 30 years in the early 20th century, there was a segment of rail line in Northeast China that was powered by horses," he explains, without getting into the symbolic significance of such devices. "You may conceive the most unlikely scenes, and you`ll find that fact is stranger than fiction."
他解释道：“这个场景不是我凭空想象的。20世纪头30年，中国东北有一段铁路就是靠马拉火车。”这些场景并没有暗指什么。“你设想出了最荒诞的场景，接着你会发现，事实比电影情节更不可思议。”

Jiang Wen was trained at the Central Drama Academy - as an actor. Yet he is known for his bold visualizations. He prefers scripts read to him by someone who can turn the words alive. His storyboards, as drafts for each shot, tend to be cursory. But his verbal description of each scene is so vivid the listener can quickly recreate each frame in his or her mind`s eye.
姜文曾就读于中央戏曲学院学习表演。他以大胆的表现力而闻名。他喜欢让能把台词说得活灵活现的人把剧本读给他听。每次拍摄选用的故事脚本往往很粗略，但是台词非常生动，让演员能够迅速在脑海中想象出故事场景。

The only filmmaker whose work Jiang admits as having an impact on him is Martin Scorsese. After watching a string of the American director`s movies, Jiang requested a meeting with him on a trip to the United States arranged by the US Embassy. Scorsese has acted like a mentor, sending him detailed materials from his production.
姜文坦言，美国导演马丁•斯科塞斯作品的对自己影响很大。在看了斯科塞斯的一系列电影后，姜文去了美国，请求美国大使馆安排与他见面。斯科塞斯就像一位导师，把作品里的“私货”传授给了姜文。

"When a director sees a story or a script he`s crazy about, he does not have any towering figures in front of him. He must feel he himself is the greatest. It is nonsense when people say they are paying respect to this or that predecessor." Jiang says.
姜文说：“当导演看到一个让他为之疯狂的故事或剧本时，他的前面不会有任何前辈导师。他必须要感觉到自己就是最棒的。有的导演说要像哪位前辈致敬，这简直是无稽之谈”。

What Jiang says
看看姜文都说了些什么

On political analogies
关于政治隐喻

No matter how you shoot it or cut it, you will bring something of yourself into your movies, just as the old saying goes about everything being imprinted with ideology. You do not necessarily intend it. I never meant to make In the Heat of the Sun or Devils at the Doorstep autobiographical. I`m an avid reader of history, but I don`t think history should be approached only in the way we were taught in school. Artists have their own interpretations. So, we make art with our worldviews, but by no means do we create everything in our own self-image.
不管你怎么拍怎么剪，你都会把你自己的一些东西带到影片中去。正如俗话所说，每件事情都会打上意识的烙印。绝非刻意。我从没想过要把《阳光灿烂的日子》和《鬼子来了》拍成自传电影。我很喜欢读历史，但我认为，历史不能只按照学校教的那样解读。艺术家们有自己的理解。我们依据自己的世界观来搞艺术，但是这并不表明我们都按照自己的形象创作。

On film critics
关于影评

Why should Chinese film critics be obsessed with box-office revenue? That`s the job of the investors and producers. What do you lose when you praise a good movie that does not sell? You should write what you believe in. Critics who are guided by money are pathetic.
为什么中国的影评人总要关注票房呢？票房是投资方和发行方的事。夸奖一部票房惨淡的好片子你又有什么损失呢？你应该写些自己坚信的东西。被钱牵着鼻子走的影评人真是悲哀。