"TV series taught me a lot of things, such as how to mobilize the most beautiful things in the actors to make them play the best in a longer length, how to use different narrative methods, how to control different narrative rhythms... The TV series gave me There are many opportunities to do these attempts and exercises.” When director
Li Jun first took office at the Guangxi Film Studio, he shot an amazing movie "There Are Lovers in the Sea" (1997). During the same period, he filmed an 8-episode TV series "Love in Shanghai" (both were shot on film). Due to the excellent production in various aspects, it was considered to be far ahead of the industry level at that time.
After the shooting of each TV series after "Love on the Beach"
, he will give himself a "research topic", such as:
"When I filmed "Zero Distance" (2004), I used Steadicam for the whole process, I dare say I may become the director who uses Steadicam the most in China. Because I use Steadicam with a length of 20 episodes to explore the relationship between the movement of the machine and the movement of the actors, which is the best rhythm. , Is the most effective, not technology for the sake of technology."
" When shooting "Chinese Marriage" (2005), I also tried not to use any moving lens, always in a fixed state, only Relying on the actor's internal scheduling, without any lens to assist the performance. In that way, the director is required to regulate all the internal rhythms of the actors like a rehearsal."
"In "Peace Hotel", I give myself In order to make the whole ten-day story happen in a closed space, the plot must be constantly reversed, and the logic must be closed."
The discussion on these topics also brought him a lot of feedback. , Let him gradually find a bridge to reach a better communication with the audience, so he wants to return to the movie to gradually "release these thoughts and test these thoughts."
His latest movie "Chang'an Road" is adapted from Hai Yan's novel of the same name, starring Fan Wei, Song Yang, Jiao Junyan and Chen Shu. It tells an emotional suspenseful story brought out by a national treasure theft. The film involves the emotional fission of the middle class, the inner contradictions of intellectuals, and the hidden inferiority, which obviously exceeds the limitations of a suspense genre film.
"I'm not saying that I particularly like making suspense films, but stories like this will bring the characters closer to a more extreme emotional world. What I prefer to see is the performance of human nature at the extreme moment." Li Jun said.
When the film was about to be released, Pmovie interviewed director Li Jun to learn about the behind-the-scenes story of the film.
From puzzle novels to character stories
Pmovie: Why did you choose to adapt Mr. Hai Yan's novel "Chang'an Road"? What is the focus of the adaptation work?
Li Jun: I first saw this novel in 2014. I felt that something moved me. At that time, I also communicated with Teacher Hai Yan. The copyright of the story of
has actually passed through the hands of three directors. Just after I finished filming "The Great Reversal", Mr. Liu from Hairun asked me if I was interested in filming "Chang'an Road". I said yes, so what happened? Up. Then I met with Mr. Hai Yan and asked him about his idea of the script, including the true background of the case. After that, I started to adapt.
Haiyan’s overall structure and character relationships are relatively TV dramatized, so how to present the relationship between characters with a long history in less than two hours, this may be part of our adaptation work Focus. This is technical, but in terms of direction, we actually made seven different versions of the adaptation.
We have also had a pure commercial film perspective, which is very Hollywood, purely crime-solving, police and criminal type films. After I tried it, I felt that there were some shortcomings in this route, as if the things that the novel itself had touched me were gone. I personally think that what touches me the most is the fact that a father will "kill" his own daughter, and what I want to do is to consider the authenticity of this character in a real situation.
So in the end we gave up the direction of pure commercial movies. This is a bit risky, but I still want to return to my original intentions. After all, the things that move me the most are still more important. What is presented now is such a very "story", or a film from the perspective of characters, it can also be said that it is a very author-oriented film, because here is my personal expression.
Li Jun丨The story of "Chang'an Road" script reading meeting
The original structure of this story determines that we cannot use a linear narrative method to shoot, because its climax actually ends in the middle of the linear development, and the climax is About the death of the daughter. So we must use a non-linear structure to narrate. In fact, I also understand that non-linear narrative has certain obstacles for ordinary audiences, so how can we make audiences understand more smoothly? So we decided to put all our power on the characters. In other words, we have given up more technical means of the film and focused on the expression of characters. This may be the most important point in our adaptation work.
Pmovie: Regarding the cause of your daughter’s death, do you worry that if the audience knows the answer to the mystery in advance, it will reduce their perception of this movie?
Li Jun: I don't think it is. In fact, this movie is not playing a suspense card. What we want to explore is an ordinary, real character, why did it come to this point.
Originally, Professor Wan, written by Teacher Hai Yan, was a habitual criminal and a heinous dark boss. We adapted him to be an ordinary professor in real life. All his starting point is love, and the difficulties he faces are also difficulties in real life. Human sin is something that is thought of in a flash, but behind this flash is the education system of the entire country and the intellectual's perception of self.
Zhao Hongyu played by Jiao Junyan in "Chang'an Road"
I don't care so much about the so-called spoiler. Although this story has a puzzle-solving process as the case unfolds, this is not the point. The focus is still on those characters.
Pmovie: In other words, in your adaptation of the original novel, the focus is on making the story more life-like, creating more realistic characters, and not relying on the pleasure that this "puzzle-solving narrative" brings to the audience?
Li Jun: Yes.
Reviewing the "self-first" of intellectuals
Pmovie: Wan Zhenggang, played by Teacher Fan Wei, presents the crisis of a middle-aged intellectual. Faced with a lot of sway or confusion, he has done a lot to speak his academic achievements in front of the public. Compromise and even become a "scumbag." Do you think the state of mind of this character is representative in the current society?
Li Jun: My own background used to be very similar to that of Wan Zhenggang. Our educational background is metaphysical, and the concepts accepted in the learning stage are like "money is not important" as Wan Zhenggang said.
When we were growing up, we had many dreams and even many passions. But when we enter marriage, become parents, and assume various social roles, we are living in a metaphysical environment. The changes in the overall social environment will inevitably bring about changes in people.
But the change of people is actually very torn, because there is one thing that can't be put down more or less. Why do intellectuals become intellectuals? In fact, the simplest statement is that when we give up a lot of time and energy that others use to obtain other social values, what do we gain? What is acquired is knowledge. So does knowledge really make sense in the real world? is that useful? In addition, we have to bear family and social responsibilities, so every day there will be soul torture in this area.
"Chang'an Road"
In fact, intellectuals always insist that the books I read, or the time and energy I spent, should be valuable. But don't forget that among all the values, what I was talking about just now was "I", and "I" came first. So Professor Wan finally chose to put "I" in the first place. At that moment, he couldn't escape. The education of intellectuals and the cultivation of elites in Chinese history have always been centered on how to become an "I". Our education has always been to cultivate a kind of "selfishness."
In fact, it is painful to review the mentality of intellectuals, but I think it is valuable. Not only intellectuals, but frankly speaking, they are reviewing the middle class, Chinese-styleThe same is true for the middle class when they cultivate a new generation. All of our families are telling our children that we can’t lose at the starting line and we should be better than others. What is the comparison? The last comparison is "selfish".
Pmovie: So your overall judgment is that the middle class or the intellectual group is hypocritical, but they don’t want to admit it, or they can’t face it, or like the role of Mr. Fan Wei’s Wan Zhenggang, he Maybe you have not been aware of your own problems in this area?
Li Jun: Yes, if a serious incident hadn't happened, he might never realize it. But such extreme events are not common in real life, so many of his things are buried in the deepest part of human nature, but they will eventually take root in the right soil.
People who live like a play are generally not good at acting.
Pmovie: Teacher Fan Wei has a sense of joy in the impression of many people. Would you have any concerns if you invite him to play a black-bellied role in such a suspenseful story? In terms of acting, how did you discuss with Teacher Fan Wei? How to show the characteristics of this role?
Li Jun: When watching Fan Wei's play from the perspective of a director, you can see that this is a very good actor and can feel his ability to shape roles. The difference between a professional director of
and an ordinary audience is that the audience may only accept the results of the already formed film roles, so everyone thinks that Fan Wei is a comedian, but for a director, he can understand the professional characteristics of an actor. Can see the plasticity of actors. In fact, the better actor
is, the more he hopes to try to play a role different from himself. Teacher Fan Wei is a very introverted person in life. His power is all in his character performance, not in life. Sometimes good actors are like this.
"Chang'an Road" set
and I think that people who live like a play generally do not perform well. This is what I discovered after cooperating with many excellent actors for so many years. People who live a life like a play are generally not good at acting. Those actors who look very plain in their lives just put their energy in character creation.
invited Teacher Fan Wei to play Professor Wan, first of all out of consideration of realism. Because the current university professors actually don't have the romantic and suave qualities of the literati bachelor of the past, such as the characteristics of Hu Shi's generation. Wan Zhenggang is a seemingly ordinary person in life, but when he is in his field of knowledge as a professor, you will see his brilliance at that moment. For the characteristics of this role, Teacher Fan Wei played very well. There is such a scene in the
movie. Wan Zhenggang, played by Teacher Fan Wei, said that when he was writing, he would imagine that he was a real emperor... When he was saying that word, I was sitting watching Behind the organ, there was an indescribable feeling. I think he really performed the pride, fantasy, and self-paralysis in the bones of real intellectuals. He is really a great actor.
Pmovie: Another actor's performance in the film is also very eye-catching, one of the heroine Jiao Junyan. In the film, she is actually "two roles", one is a degenerate girl, and the other is a criminal policeman. The performance is relatively difficult. How did you communicate with her in this role? What are her interesting creations on the set?
Li Jun: The same is true for Xiao Jiao. As I said just now, good actors rarely express anything in their lives, or tell the director a lot of their own ideas. At this point, she and Mr. Chen Shu are also very similar, they are not very good at telling me "Director, I think so..., I think so...", neither of them. When
was preparing, I told her some shot schedules and met with her. In that process, sometimes I don’t even know if she understands it or not, because she doesn’t have much feedback, but when she walks through the scene, once she enters the situation, she really makes people feel like, wow, acting well. That's true. I think it is possible, she is especially willing to mobilize her true feelings.
"Chang'an Road"
may not be the most mature technically for Xiao Jiao, and may not have reached the level of maturity like Teacher Fan, but the best thing is that she is so true. That kind of sincerity, that kind of faith, can help her complete the interpretation of these two characters.
Another interesting thing is that the two characters in her body actually have one thing in the same line, which is the girl’s.Honestly, whether it's a fallen girl or a policeman, that kind of hearty personality has always existed in his bones.
performance is like dancing. The director must first create a "scene"
Pmovie: the beginning of the film is very impressive, and several actors have a feeling of "playing". How can the director make multiple actors work together to achieve the best performance when filming such group dramas?
Li Jun: The performance is very interesting, because each actor has different performance characteristics, and sometimes you can see things that are not in harmony with each other as if everyone is not in the same field. How to put them in the same context in a scene is a question that the director needs to think about.
I think the director should create a "field", through scheduling and mastering the rhythm, to achieve the performance of the actors Harmony. Because performance is like dancing, very much like a kind of tango, that is, you advance and I retreat, and I advance and you retreat. It is very interesting to attack each other and give each other. The director must first imagine the overall rhythm, and then discuss the rhythm with your actors, so that they clearly understand what kind of rhythm you want, who is attacking and attacking, and then who is retreating and retreating. After retreating, and then who suddenly "pop", the rhythm is completely disrupted, and then who pulls it back...You need to design and schedule before a scene, and the rhythm is buried here.
"Changan Road" set
sometimes the rhythm is half a second, or a certain degree of difference, I feel that the balance is not right. The director is the actor's mirror at this moment, because the actor himself is not able to perceive it at that moment, and the director as a mirror must remind them that I'm sorry this place may be a little bit worse.
is like the dinner scene you just mentioned. What impressed me deeply was the scene of Lin Tao. He has always been a bystander, but he understands everyone’s careful thoughts. He is on the same front as Lin Baiyu, but he wants to please Wan Zhenggang. When Lin Baiyu will attack Wan Zhenggang’s small counterattack, he wants to To break this deadlock, we must break the original rhythm.
The performance of
in "Chang'an Road" was like this in my impression. I kept saying no, I will do it again and again. I said later that I must use that level, that is, the sound must instantly suppress all the conflicts that Lin Baiyu might have. To break the voice, it must feel a little bit out of control.
Lin Baiyu would definitely jump up and say, "What the hell did you say?" This feeling, theoretically, would have such a reaction. Director
must control the performance of the actors and complete the overall sense of rhythm. Something like this is very technical details.
Pmovie: This is the pre-shooting stage, so during the post-editing process, the actor's performance rhythm should also be adjusted a lot, right?
Li Jun: Of course, we joked that the play was not performed but cut. Editing is very important. This time the editor is also the editor of my last film "A Shocking Reversal". He is the top editor in Korea (Changju Kim, American in Korea), and he is the same as "Snow Country Train" (blockbuster movies). Cut it and won many awards.
Snow Country Train (2013)
7.4
2013 / South Korea, Czech Republic, United States, France / Story and Action Science Fiction / Bong Joon Ho / Chris Evans, Jamie Bell
The editing method we set this time is even a bit similar to TV drama style The editing method, the footage is relatively fragmented, and there is a lot of intervention in the performance. In other words, when we cut out a person's expression into three shots and separate out a little bit of detail, the process is amplifying the mental activity of the actor. In
movies, there is often a longer shot to let the audience feel it slowly, but I’m sorry, because I just said that all the power in this scene is in these characters. I hope the audience can feel this character more clearly. , Instead of guessing or not understanding.
Therefore, in the editing principle, we would rather be more detailed, but also to highlight all the actors' performance details, that is, to enlarge them so that the audience can see more clearly. The space design of
implies the relationship between the characters
Pmovie: The old house where the father and daughter lived in the film is very different from Lin Baiyu’s mansion. This spatial contrast and transformation seems to have played a role in promoting the plot and emotional development of the film. Aspect you areHow is it designed?
Li Jun: The contrast in this space itself reflects the discrimination of one person against another in terms of social status and material conditions. And if you pay attention, you will find that the overall layout of Lin Baiyu's house is actually feminine, with a white tone, and the floral wallpaper and other decorations in the bedroom are all elegant. Only Professor Wan's study is a bit messy, more like an intellectualized dark and heavy layout, which means that only this piece of land belongs to Professor Wan, and the whole house is actually controlled by Lin Baiyu.
"Changan Road"
And there is a scene in Professor Wan's study, Lin Baiyu is wearing pajamas. The bed is a single cot, which is actually implying that they are living separately. Professor Wan spends more time living in this study, and there may be no husband and wife life between them. The disparity in space like
means that although Professor Wan is a professor, there is a huge gap between his environment and the environment of a show host.
So in the life that Professor Wan abandoned back then, is there anything he misses? He has a line saying that sometimes he will clean the old house very clean and go there alone to write something. This is very interesting. On the one hand, as a professor, he has to maintain a certain inner independence or imagination; on the other hand, he will not abandon the better material life he has already obtained.
"Chang'an Road"
Pmovie: The interesting thing about the old house is that the two extreme parts of the film, the warmest and most cruel, take place there.
Li Jun: Yes, we deliberately put the scene of the last climax in the old house. So we see that the most tender and beautiful memories of childhood, and the hideous human nature at the last moment, all happened in this space.
re-examine the "truth" of history
Pmovie: The film involves a lot of history, archaeology, and cultural relics. It may face some professional problems. How do you prepare before shooting?
Li Jun: As a director, it is natural to have a full understanding of the historical background of this story.
First, we invited a historical consultant to the Shaanxi History Museum, who was the researcher Shi Xiaoqun who assisted in the detection of this real case. Then we collected all relevant materials in Shaanxi and did some investigation and research on all related fields. In order to restore the stone coffin of Concubine Wu Hui, we should make a 1:1 copy.
Everyone saw Wan Zhenggang's last speech about how Concubine Wu Hui died. In fact, when I wrote this, I read a lot of historical materials and found that each had its own opinions, but there were few positive comments on Concubine Wu Hui. In the process of research and adaptation, I came up with an interesting point of view, which is that Chinese history likes to put the blame on women. The last guilt in all history of
is basically blamed on women. The so-called "fashionable beauty" is very interesting. Men will never take responsibility, and women will be responsible for the men’s pot. In fact, all women’s guilt, whether true or false, actually comes from the man’s manipulation.
"Chang'an Road"
Concubine Wu Hui killed the prince, but in the end Tang Xuanzong canonized her as Queen Zhenshun, there must be hidden secrets in this. I don't believe that without the instigation, support and suggestion of a man behind, this woman will really be in politics and will kill the prince at that time.
Personally, the more stories I read, the more I feel that men are instigating them. Including Yang Yuhuan later, in fact, once again verified that no matter how much a man loves a woman, it is the woman who sacrifices in the end.
