 Because the people and locations used in the film are real but are carefully selected and edited , the film creates a " friction " between documentary reality and narrative fiction . This balancing act between the real and the imaginary has drawn comparisons to neorealist works such as those of Iranian directors Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf , and Zhang has openly acknowledged the influence of Kiarostami in this film . Zhang Xiaoling of the University of Nottingham argues that Zhang Yimou used the documentary perspective in order to suggest that the story is an accurate reflection of most rural areas in China , while Shelly Kraicer believes that his " simultaneous presentation of seemingly opposing messages " is a powerful artistic method in of itself , and that it allows Zhang to circumvent censors by guaranteeing that the movie will include at least one message that they like . Jean @-@ Michel Frodon of Le Monde maintains that the film was produced " in the shadow of two superpowers " and needed to make compromises with each . 
