movie "Spring River Plumbing" won two nominations for Best Medium and Small Cost Feature Film and Best Music at the 28th Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival that just ended. Director Gu Xiaogang took the stage to receive the trophy and expressed his gratitude to the organizing committee and crew on behalf of the film's music director Dou Wei. Although the film unfortunately did not win any awards in the end, it is still one of the most unique author movies among Chinese-language movies this year.
"Chunjiang Plumbing" takes the Fuchun River bank in Hangzhou as the background and tells the human feelings experienced by an ordinary three-generation family in daily life. In the film, the mother in his early years suffers from an accidental stroke and becomes demented at a birthday banquet. The four sons take turns to take care of her, and their respective families are also facing the test of reality. In the changing of the four seasons, contemporary China's cultural landscape and city style are revealed as the story unfolds. The director
himself prefers to call this film a local customs. The reason why I want to shoot such a story is due to the various changes in my hometown in recent years. Following the holding of the G20 Summit and the landing of the 2020 Asian Games, the entire urban area of Hangzhou is rapidly undergoing organic renewal, and Gu Xiaogang's hometown Fuyang County has also become a district under the jurisdiction of Hangzhou. Based on this, he set out to construct a family story living by the Fuchun River, hoping to show the audience the changing social landscape he perceives. And this "Spring River Plumbing" is only the first volume of a trilogy.
In terms of visual presentation, "Chunjiang Plumbing" draws inspiration from the masterpiece "Living in Fuchun Mountains" by Yuan Dynasty painter Huang Gongwang 600 years ago. According to the director's own words: "We really sneak into the creative process. Chunjiang, Golden Wanliang, we see that Chinese culture can feed back into my own film creation, so we hope that through the three films, my team and I can focus on this system for more in-depth research and exploration. Is it for aesthetics or for the film itself." When director Gu Xiaogang attended the directors forum at the Xiamen Golden Rooster Awards, the host shared with Gu Xiaogang the feelings of four friends who had watched "Spring River Plumbing", saying that this is a particularly worth watching movie. Everyone cried after watching the movie. While expressing his gratitude, the director emphasized that this film is not a sad literary film, but a genre of family themes. The implication is that he hopes that more ordinary audiences can walk into the theater to feel the touch and love contained in this film.
Since the film premiered in Cannes in May this year, it has been screened at FIRST Youth Film Festival, Zhejiang Youth Film Festival, Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, 32nd Golden Rooster Award, and Haishang Film Festival. I met with more audience that day.
The following is a transcript of the interview
reporter: Zijiu
sees the big from the small, and the Gu family reflects the current social picture.
Gu Xiaogang: I was originally myself. I was shooting a documentary related to traditional culture in Beijing. So I also started to understand traditional culture. Then I went home and started creating. The most important thing is that there is a masterpiece "Living in the Fuchun Mountains" in my hometown. The place and scene of our story is also by the Fuchun River, so naturally I will think about how to tell in one language and how to The possibility of combining traditional Chinese painting and film.
vote god: when did you first start writing scripts?
Gu Xiaogang: It was 16 years at the earliest, and then a one-year script from 16 to 17 years, and then filming began in the summer of 17. It will be completed until the spring of 2019.
vote god: because the film spanned four quarters, from summer to spring of the next year, but what I didn’t expect was that it might only be completed in one year, but I saw the end of the film and the subtitles were finally in the spring of 19 Shooting.
Gu Xiaogang: It was taken for two years.
vote god: So are there any difficulties encountered?
Gu Xiaogang: The reason for shooting for two years, frankly, is also because we did not find investment in this movie in the early stage. Because this movie has a lot of so-called exploratory nature. On the one hand, it needs to shoot very concrete changes in the four seasons of the year. It also employs a large number of non-professional actors, and then explores China, traditional aesthetics and painting. In fact, we have also won many awards in venture capital. But when everyone really wants to invest in this movie, they may all have their own ideas. They will worry that this aspect of the actor may need a professional, and then it will take such a long time.This resulted in such a two-year shooting.
Because of this movie, it is special because it is a picture of the market of the times. It's that its era is changing. At that time, I thought that I started making this movie without finding any investment. It was also based on the changes in Hangzhou over the past few years. That is to say, from G20 to 2022, because I want to undertake the Asian Games, my hometown will also build three Asian Games venues, and the entire city is undergoing a very large organic renewal. In fact, I want to show the changes in the city through a story. It is this city that is changing. I don't think I can wait. So I really need to start this shooting first. There are actors. They are the most important part of the movie. It is the texture of this market and the aesthetic exploration of this picture scroller. So at the time, the most important thing was to start shooting first based on the changes in this reality. So the most important thing in the first year is to film these plots related to the city. Then in the second year, we found the current producer, the factory gate film industry, including iQiyi and Dadi, which later joined, and worked together to complete the subsequent shooting of the film.
Piao Shen: You just talked about the changes that have taken place in Hangzhou in the past few years. How do you understand the relationship between people and space?
Gu Xiaogang: Just like I just talked about filming this story, the biggest origin is to think that the changes in Hangzhou in recent years, that is, the dramatic changes that are happening now, want to be presented through stories, so I thought about four professions, such as Saying that the boss runs a restaurant, he is contrasted with the feeling of being a human being. Then the second child is a fisherman, so he prefers a space suitable for distant places. Then the third child is a gambler. He may be more marginalized and invisible to some latitudes. Then the fourth child is a construction worker, he is a participant of the era. In fact, I thought about building a family through four occupations, and through the very real story of a family, the picture of a society can be displayed.
vote god: The camera movement in the film has a special style, how do you think about it?
Gu Xiaogang: Yes, in the movie "Spring River Plumbing", apart from the difficulties in production, the most difficult thing is actually the exploration of aesthetics, that is, we are also shooting while improving the exploration system. It is how to present this sense of painting and ancient meaning. It's not a retro style in form, it's not about form for the sake of form, how does it satisfy narrative and story.
The most intuitive thing you can see in the film is the long scroll shots that everyone often talks about. These shots are actually relatively clear when writing the script. We hope that the movie will be very clear to the audience. Intuitively seeing this reading sense of a Chinese scroll painting, it is slowly unfolding. But how to present this kind of painting feeling in the whole movie, we did do a lot of exploration.
is mainly transformed from the many principles of Chinese painting. For example, the scheduling and conversion of many characters like you just talked about. In fact, it comes from a concept and principle in our traditional Chinese painting-character sharing space. We call it "character sharing narrative space". Because it is like a landscape painting, its foreground, mid-range and distant view may be carrying out different stories and narratives at the same time. For example, in the foreground, we see a cottage, and then the host and guests chat. Then there was another boy waiting at the door, and there might be another caravan walking in the distance. There may be a feeling of smoke in the distance. So we apply this concept and principle to the movie, which is the "parallel montage" often mentioned in movies, to complete the relationship between multiple groups of characters in a concise way, and the traditional way of connecting multiple stories. Its advantage is that it not only completes the expression of aesthetics, but also completes the narrative.
"Spring River Plumbing" is the first volume, the whole picture creates unlimited time and space
Piao Shen: I heard that you are studying art-related majors, then when did you first come into contact with "Fuchun Mountain Residence"?
Gu Xiaogang: Frankly speaking, because it is an IP in your hometown, it may actually be a bus stop or where it is, but you won’t be particularly impressed to remember this, including the "Fuchun Mountain Living Picture" and the Chinese traditional culture , It has always been a rather dull feeling, compared to the games and activities played by the elderly, maybe projects, etc., I haven't paid much attention to it. In fact, it is also based on the filming of this movie, which is a good example of "Living in the Fuchun Mountains"Fortunately, or a whole Chinese traditional painting with "Fuchun Mountain Residence" as the entrance, I have gained a new understanding. It turns out that it was because of my ignorance that caused misunderstandings, including misunderstandings in viewing, so I didn't know how to appreciate these paintings.
vote god: what do you think of the beginning and the end of the film?
Gu Xiaogang: Because "Spring River Plumbing" is a textual aesthetic design that is quite traditional Chinese literature. The four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter just represent the four brothers, and we also narrate in this chapter. Including to the end, you actually see an Easter egg at the end of the film. From this perspective, "Spring River Plumbing" is actually presenting a very important aesthetic concept of Chinese painting-"infinite time and space". It is that it circulates there, and we set it in this movie itself, it is the concept of a so-called trilogy. In fact, we can also see in the film, our entire name is "A Thousand Miles of Jiangdong Map". We hope that the audience will have a feeling of infinite continuity after watching this movie. In fact, I will tell you that there is a new story that flows and connects.
vote god: So what stage is the creation of the second part below?
Gu Xiaogang: We are also writing an outline for the next one, but it is a new story, and Qiantang is in Hangzhou.
vote god: Let’s talk about music. You just won the prize. How did you first think of looking for Teacher Dou Wei?
Gu Xiaogang: First of all, when we are doing the so-called aesthetic style of this film, we will actually find some basic points. For example, there is Taiwan New Wave in the film, this kind of literati style, etc., and of course there is also "Spring in a Small Town" ". But in terms of music, when I heard Teacher Dou's music, I felt it was the closest. Although it is not a movie, we feel that it has at least completed the artistic growth of the past for the present in the field of music. It is from Chinese classics, but it is completely present. In fact, the movie "Spring River Plumbing" took 150 minutes to tell a story of a contemporary family that is of great time significance. How to put tradition in the present is to fit the present. In fact, you find that there is a connection, instead of the just mentioned, when I think that tradition and Chinese painting have nothing to do with us. It seems to be a state of being there. In fact, "Living in the Fuchun Mountains" is an inspiration to everyone. How to connect with the ancients is really meaningful for the present. The specific implementation of
really depends on the efforts of our entire production team, because at the beginning I wrote him an email, but in fact, I waited a long time and there was no news, and then the production team was mobilized to let him Look at the mail like this. Then I finally saw it, because when he saw the email, most of our filming was done, and only the end of the spring part was left. Then the music was also added, because from the beginning he was shooting according to his previous music style. So at that time, I myself was more confident that if only Teacher Dou was willing to watch our film, we felt that it should be able to move him and fit.
Piao Shen: What do you think of the current Fuyang and the living conditions of the people in Fuyang described by Huang Gongwang more than 600 years ago?
Gu Xiaogang: My hometown is a little special, it is now called Fuyang District, Hangzhou. Before the G20, it still belonged to a county-level city, and it became a district after the G20, which led to a huge change in the past few years. If only from Hangzhou, I think there are still quite big changes. The vitality of this city and the number of foreigners make it more open and international, and it is in a state of keeping pace with the world. But it's better in my hometown, Fuyang, because it hasn't been connected to the Hangzhou Metro, so it actually retains a relatively good atmosphere of the city, or some simple texture. Although there are changes in urban construction, based on the fact that most people in this city still maintain this existing humanity, or their way of doing style and life concept, this actually determines this. The texture of this city.
does not use form for the sake of form. I hope that ordinary audiences can also understand
. God: What do you want the audience to feel after watching the movie?
Gu Xiaogang: Actually, what we are most looking forward to is the general audience. Because our film has run many film festivals from Cannes in May to now. One of them is the most special one in Emperor QinIn Anaya on the island, One-way Space did a literary festival and a screening there. Because most of the film festival screenings are fans or colleagues who come to watch the film. But at that literary festival, most of them were actually local residents, or some friends who came here admiringly. In the discussion after the screening, no one actually talked about the aesthetics of the film or the so-called concept. Everyone talked about the story of the movie, which was the emotions very similar to them. Especially an uncle is about 60 years old, he keeps asking me how old I am and so on. He said that your movie really comes from life and is higher than life. In fact, it gave us a lot of confidence all at once. Because of the original intention of making the movie "Spring River Plumbing", I wanted to make a story that we and even our parents can understand. As for the literature and art and the literature and art we said, I hope that when they read this story, they will have at least some aesthetic inspiration for the national culture of our country, especially the aesthetics of thousands of years. And comfortable feeling.
Piao Shen: What do you think of Taiwan’s New Wave and Japan’s Shie Hiro and some of their family themes?
Gu Xiaogang: Because no art is a rootless source, we will stand on the shoulders of our predecessors and explore before making this film. We hope to use their strength or achievements to see if we can continue to develop. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to absorb all the nutrients. For example, director Hou Xiaoxian has influenced countless creators. For example, there are Japanese directors such as Yuhe Zhi and Jia Zhangke. But everyone will inherit and develop their own style and system from his influence, but Hou Xiaoxian is like a context. Every author develops and grows on the basis of his predecessors. This is a natural law.
Piao Shen: In the past two years, there have been several movies "Roaming", "Birds in the Suburbs", etc., created in the background of Zhejiang. Have you communicated with the creators in your hometown? And what do you think about the so-called "Zhejiang New Wave"?
Gu Xiaogang: We definitely have an exchange. They have all watched my film, but I haven't watched either of them for various reasons. In fact,
is mainly because the chances are relatively rare. It just happens that everyone is not the same age, and they all finished their feature film debuts at the same time, and they have not yet been released, so it is very rare to be in such a state. It really seems to be a topic all at once, and we will also feel that even you will find that you are not alone. Everyone is in Beijing. In fact, you will find that many people around you are filming. As far as I know, not only the three of us, but also many of us who have just finished filming and haven't been screened. This is the state. Maybe the past few years have been a good creative era for young authors. It's pretty good.
