Jia Zhangke: Jianghu has love and righteous children
Our reporter Wang Jingjing
On August 22, there is still a full month left before Jia Zhangke's new work "Jianghu Children" is released. The small open space in front of his studio was already full of reporters waiting for interviews. Jia Zhangke has received more attention this time than when "The Old Man of Mountains and Rivers" was released three years ago. "Sharpness, tenderness, and quagmire, perhaps this is the best appearance of Jia Zhangke's film"-as early as May when the film participated in the Cannes Film Festival, the media and film critics who had seen it gave praise.
feels different from the new work. Jia Zhangke, sitting in front of the reporter of "Universal People", is restrained, rational and full of literary spirit. His arrogance is put in the movie.
You are already a person in the world without knowing it.
In 2009, when Jia Zhangke was shooting the documentary "Legend of the Sea", he interviewed the heroine Wei Wei in director Fei Mu's "Spring in a Small Town". She said that Director Fei was the last of his preparations in his later years. One movie is called "The Children of Jianghu". Jia Zhangke was attracted by this word at once: "Jianghu culture is a very important part of Chinese traditional culture. I think in our lives, Jianghu has an increasingly broader meaning.'Jianghu' can refer to the search for a life for home from all over the world. The possibility of "children" is deep affection and deep friendship." At the beginning of
, Jia Zhangke said that he was going to make "Children of Jianghu", and many people thought it was a costume film. A colleague suggested that he change the title, but he felt it was particularly suitable for the story to be told. "China, especially Shanxi, has a lot of ancient meanings." When he was young, Jia Zhangke learned Xingyiquan, and the master who taught him asked: "How does Guan Yu treat Cao Cao and Liu Bei?" Jia Zhangke didn't know how to answer, and he couldn't figure it out. the meaning of. The master said: "Guan Yu is affectionate and righteous to Liu Bei, and Guan Yu is righteous and ruthless to Cao Cao." Jia Zhangke suddenly realized that "love and righteousness" can be broken apart to see, "righteousness" is the bottom line of life, "love" is not-this is that The principle of arena. From being ignorant to middle-aged,
has drunk different wines, traveled different roads, and tasted life. "In the process of writing the script of "The Children of the Rivers and Lakes", there is a renewal of my life in the past ten years. Gaze. In this process of regazing, it is also an unprecedented kind of self-reflection." He put his nostalgia for traditional sentiments in "The Children of Jianghu". "We have always said that we have lost a lot of things, nostalgia for the past, what is the nostalgia? It may be love, the rivers and lakes are affection, and the children are righteous." The protagonist of the
movie is a social brother and his woman. When I was young, the men said that I was in the rivers and lakes, and the women said that I was not. In the past 17 years, their conversations are quite the opposite. "What kind of reason is that one person continues to uphold the morality and justice of the world, while the other person has been engulfed by the torrent of the times and turned into the face of right and wrong. What I want to tell is such a story."
Things are people but not Jia Zhangke's own eyes. When I was in elementary school, there was a year of floods, and the streets were full of torrents. Jia Zhangke's school was across the road. He opened the door and saw, standing in the street, not daring to go. A person passed by without saying anything. He picked Jia Zhangke with his arm and carried him to the opposite side. When Jia Zhangke reacted, he was already carrying other children across the road. Looking at the figure from afar, Jia Zhangke recognized him as the "big brother" in this film, but he was actually 18 or 9 years old and called Xiaodong. Later, he saw Xiaodong fighting and being besieged by dozens of people, but he didn't flee, didn't sue for mercy, and didn't have a trace of panic. Even if his head was covered with blood, he maintained a decent posture until his opponent dispersed, leaving him alone to wipe the wound. . After many years of trouble, Jia Zhangke can still think of the figure, "You can lose in a frame, you can lose in things, but you can't collapse. A man should look like a man."
However, once when he returned home, Jia Zhangke saw Xiaodong again: his eldest brother had become an uncle, with sparse hair and fat body. He squatted at the door and concentrated on eating a bowl of noodles. Thinking of the former figure, Jia Zhangke was in a trance. "Children of the Rivers and Lakes" not only talks about the blood on the street, but also about "time's sculpture for us". Jia Zhangke said that the rivers and lakes he filmed were "not the rivers and lakes in Hong Kong movies, nor the rivers and lakes in Italian movies, but the rivers and lakes in the living environment of the Chinese. You are already in the rivers and lakes without knowing it."
In "Children of the Rivers and Lakes", it turns out that the end of the script is that the heroine buys 9 kinds of wine and prepares to pour it into the washbasin and have another cup of "all around the world" with the hero, but the hero has already left. When it came time to shoot, Jia Zhangke had a different feeling. "Let’s take a picture of the male protagonist leaving first, and she will look for it. The worker has installed a new monitor at her home, and we want to take a picture of her aloneZero ground is waiting for the lens in the monitor. Looking at that picture, I suddenly felt that it should be the end. Because it is a blurry, visual, and digital lens. Just like us today, the vivid emotions experienced by every living person will eventually become some digital images, which will not even be opened in more than ten years. Such a kind of fragility, I think it is very sad. So let the picture freeze here. "The silent ending does not bother to explain to the audience why the male protagonist has to leave. Jia Zhangke's arena is so close to daily life. "Xiao Wu" made by
is a novella, and when he is in his 40s, he is in his 40s. In the column he wrote, Jia Zhangke wrote: "Actually, I am a'child of the rivers and lakes'... I particularly like this word because it is related to the sense of drifting in making movies. "When I was working on film at the beginning, Jia Zhangke's mother was worried, and after observing for a period of time, said: "I see, your job is a bit like a drilling crew. "They are all a group of people, carrying machines, to work in unfamiliar places, without a fixed place.
The story of "The Children of the Rivers and Lakes" set out from Shanxi, and in 17 years, moved to the Three Gorges, Xinjiang, and then back to Shanxi. Jia Zhangke wandered around. The film road of the rivers and lakes also started in Shanxi and then turned back to Shanxi, spanning more than 20 years.
Jia Zhangke was born in Fenyang, Shanxi, a small county seat in Jinzhong, backed by Luliang. There is only one road in the city. , Bending westward, leading to the Yellow River. In elementary school, adults had meetings all day long and did not go home. Unmanned children like Jia Zhangke and "unemployed youths" who had just returned from the countryside and forest farms wandered on the streets. Jia Zhangke became obsessed with going to the video room. Amidst the smell of tobacco and foot odor, Zhou Yunfa gritted his teeth and said: People are in the rivers and lakes, and they can’t help themselves. He also likes breakdancing. He learns to dance, but he dances very well. Well, follow the people who walked around the hole. The
failed the college entrance examination. When thinking about the future, Jia Zhangke was obsessed with literature, tried to write novels, and then fell in love with painting. In 1990, he was 20 years old for the first time. When I watched the movie "Yellow Earth" for almost 5 minutes, tears couldn't stop streaming down. He immediately decided that he would "just do movies" in this life. Others told him, "You can take the Beijing Film Academy", and Jia Zhangke took this test. , Is 3 years.
came to the Department of Literature of Beijing Film Academy to study in 1993. There are 12 people in the class, seven women and five men, known as "Seven Heroes and Five Righteousness." Among them, Jia Zhangke is the oldest, 5 years older than a normal high school graduate. He knows that he has no capital to waste the years. Others have youth as company. He only has the past to follow. The study room is the best place to go, carry a roll of 500-character green manuscript paper, light cigarettes, write pens, and sit for half the night. Every time
writes, his thoughts will go back to his hometown. Going home during the holidays, what he sees is the “great changes in the mountain and countryside.” When his parents told Jia Zhangke that the county seat was about to be demolished, he felt tight in his heart and suddenly realized: "The time he is in , Is full of unstoppable changes. Everyone has his own time, and every generation has their mission. Now, facing the county town that is about to be demolished, it may be my destiny to pick up a camera to film this subversive and collapsed change. "
In 1998, Jia Zhangke's first feature film "Xiao Wu" won the first prize of the Berlin International Film Festival Youth Forum, a blockbuster. American director Martin Scorsese thought "Xiao Wu" made him "want to make a movie again." "A moving and precise work". Although the protagonist Xiaowu is a low-level thief, he also wants to find dignity by his own "craftsmanship", but ultimately ended in failure. The filming style is as rough as a documentary, and he pays attention to marginalized people. In particular, the posture of fighting for personal expression with one's own strength has allowed people to undisputedly classify Jia Zhangke in the sequence of the "sixth generation" director. The subsequent story of
, people familiar with the film industry must know, from "Station" From "Ren Xiaoyao" and "The World" to "The Good Man in the Three Gorges" and "The Old Man in the Mountains and Rivers", from Beijing to frequent appearances at the Berlin, Venice, and Cannes Film Festivals, only Jia Zhangke knows how many twists and turns and twists and turns inside.
When he was 27 years old, he made "Xiao Wu" Jia Zhangke said that he was shooting a novella at that time, and he was in his 40s, from a novella to a long story. "The Old Man of Mountains and Rivers" uses a three-stage structure of past, present and future. "Children of the Rivers and Lakes" quoted images from six cameras. The material runs through 17 years. "Since "The Old Man of Mountains and Rivers", I have a big change in mentality. I think I should be in my 40s, when the combination of experience and physical strength is the best. Challenge the film produced. This is a bit like a writer entering the stage of long-form writing. It requires you to have enough creative experience to be able toEnough to control more character clues, and at the same time have ample physical strength to complete this kind of creation. I hope that in the past decade or so, I can face the times and humanity relatively broadly. "
, no matter how big the wrist is, the story is not far from life.
artist Chen Danqing mentioned an event in the past. He said that he had seen Jia Zhangke in an interview in a movie behind bars, saying that he was in a ruined small county. At that time, there are many opportunities to fall, become a bad boy, and ruin oneself. Chen Danqing commented: "This is an honest confession. "With that kind of background in life, Jia Zhangke understands personal loss and is willing to film personal loss in this magnificent era. He used to shoot a documentary on Liu Xiaodong, a painter of the Three Gorges Gang. When the camera was pointed at an elderly man, the old man showed a trace. The sly and disdainful smiles seemed to laugh at the group of people who came from afar carrying the camera: "What life do you know? "
Jia Zhangke was hit by such a smile. The smile turned into a different face and kept appearing in front of Jia Zhangke. One of his cousins, who was very close when he was young, had his own circumstances when he grew up, and he became a director. My cousin went to work in the coal mine and gradually distanced himself. Every time I saw him at home, the two talked very little. My cousin would look at him like that and occasionally smile. Jia Zhangke always felt deeply touched, and he was unwilling to do The camera was moved away from such faces. The same is true of "The Children of the Rivers and Lakes". No matter how big the wrist is, the story is not far from life.
"Children of the Rivers and Lakes" is called "Ash is Purest White" (" Ashes are the purest white"), "I think we are all cannon fodder, aren't all of my shots also cannon fodder? After time has passed, people who have disappeared without a trace, can't even keep their names. But this is the character in the movie. I love such people, so I always shoot such people. I think they are the closest to me. "
In recent years, Jia Zhangke has gotten closer to these people. He moved back to live in Shanxi. "In the film life of more than 20 years, I think life is a bit monotonous to some extent. Man cannot be an animal of a business, nor can he be an animal of some kind of art. There are still a lot of fresh content in life, such as being with family, being alone, and all kinds of human relationships. Everyone lives on a track they are familiar with. I wonder if you can change track. I changed track myself. "
is in Shanxi. There is a food street where Jia Zhangke lives, with more than 300 shops. It is very savoury of fireworks when going out, but you can also find a quiet place. It only takes 5 minutes to walk away from the world. "Life there is very regular." , I start working at around 9 o'clock every morning. In the morning, I mainly reply to letters and talk about things. After lunch, it is time for writing and reading. At night, I meet people and talk about things. Everyone may have different writing habits. My prime writing time is in the afternoon, and my thinking is most active from 2 to 6 o'clock. I don't like to write at night, nor stay up late. "
, with his own power, founded an art center named after him, planned the Pingyao International Film Festival, wrote books, and opened restaurants. The ideal of art is still there, and the atmosphere of commerce is also strong. Praise is accompanied by doubt, and it is still disturbing. As early as many years ago, Jia Zhangke wrote: I don’t believe, you can guess our ending. His Jianghu Road is still very long.
Jia Zhangke
director, producer and writer. Born in 1970, Shanxi Fenyang . In 1993, he studied at Beijing Film Academy. His main works include "Xiao Wu", "Platform", "Ren Xiaoyao", "The Good Man in Three Gorges", etc.
