Wu Yigong (1938-2019)
In the history of Chinese film, as a movement and trend of thought, the so-called "fourth generation" director has the shortest existence. That year, they collectively published the "North Sea Declaration", announcing the beginning of a generation, which was confirmed by films such as "Troubled Smile", "Vibrato of Life", "Little Flower", and "Old Things in the South of the City". Five years later, under the impact of the "fifth generation" who broke into the Chinese screen, the "fourth generation" quickly collapsed and transformed into personal behavior. The "fourth generation" is the originator of the Chinese film modernization movement, but in the end it consciously defends.
However, in these five years—in such a short period of time, Wu Yigong has completed the image of a film director, leaving a graceful or strong or tragic page in the history of Chinese cinema, and was the first to be recognized by the world. Acceptance is also well-known in Chinese society.
Where is Wu Yigong's luck? Because in the Chinese film modernization movement, he has always been a forerunner, an elegant, wise and poetic forerunner image, long cast on the historical background of Chinese films. Wu Yigong pointed out that the development of realism must be compared with modernization, and there will be no progress without advancement. Each of his films has established aesthetic goals, full of avant-garde consciousness and rational consciousness. It may be abandoning the "existing aesthetic paradigm", it may also pay tribute to the "classical aesthetic paradigm" or create a "new aesthetic paradigm". .
In 1956, Wu Yigong was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy
. However, he was not blindly ahead, but a reasonable moderation or traditional perfection. He strives to find a balance between innovation and classics, although this balance is very difficult.
His films have great success and mediocre box office; some are mature and round, and some are jerky in span; some absorb Guangyuan and some stick to tradition. He is a specimen of the "fourth generation", which contains rich humanistic connotations of the "fourth generation", reflecting the historical progress and limitations of the "fourth generation"-they are reformists, not the "fifth generation" "The revolution of "; their films come like a spring breeze, which is more profound and meaningful than the "fifth generation". Wu Yigong is an aesthetic existence of the "fourth generation".
The three stages of formal aesthetics, documentary aesthetics and image aesthetics involved in the Chinese film modernization movement, Wu Yigong is a moderately advanced forerunner, or leads, deepens or adds charm, deeply embedding his personal aesthetic ideals.
"Our Little Cat" (1980)
His first short film is "Our Little Cat". At that time, the main cultural pattern was "scar literature", but he was "lowercase", writing about the relationship between the old man, child and a small cat, avoiding the "positive writing" of the "Cultural Revolution" scene, with a kind of sadness. Emotions reflect the wind and clouds of the times, and are wafting with light humanity. Compared with other directors of the same period, he is undoubtedly superior and reveals a personal style.
In "Bashan Night Rain" (1980), Zhang Yu
and Wu Yonggang co-directed "Bashan Night Rain", which is further deepened. First, the dramatic bridges that are prone to sensational effects are "fictionalized" and focused on inner changes. , Or the impact of the soul, regards people as the center of the film’s performance, with a strong humanistic spirit; second, unlike other films, the "theme is clear", good people and bad people are clear at a glance. The theme of the film is implicit and deep. The theme of a good work is not so easy to generalize in a few sentences." Third, the prose style gradually becomes more familiar, and you can already find the clues of "The Old Things in the South"; fourth, it absorbs some rhetorical techniques of formal aesthetics. In the historical coordinates of the time, "Bashan Night Rain" was a peak of aesthetics, with innovation, personality and development. At the stage of documentary aesthetics, Bazin and Krakauer’s documentary theories have produced more typical film texts such as "Sand Gull", "Neighbors" and "Practice Lawyer" in the relationship with Chinese directors' encounters, shelters and misunderstandings. Wu Yigong's "Old Things in the South", which was shocked by the heavens, is based on the initial stage of documentary aesthetics, seamlessly blending documentary aesthetics with traditional Chinese image aesthetics, using parting as the center of emotion and plot, a touch of sadness, Shen Shen's lovesickness has gone far away in childhood. It is a step further than the green and ambiguous documentary aesthetics. It is a model film of standard Chinese style, style and characteristics. If you want to talk about the Chinese film school, "Old Things in the South" is a classic sample.
"Old Things in the South" (1983) stills
Wu Yigong's "Sister" has been the earliest practice before Zhang Junzhao, Zhang Yimou, and Chen Kaige's video aesthetics thought. It should be said that Wu Yigong is the initiator of image aesthetics. "Sister" lightly narrates and emphasizes video, hoping to achieve the aesthetic effect of "image outside the image". He himself said: "In terms of time, it was 1983, and it was still ahead of the films "Yellow Earth" and "One and Eight". At that time, I wanted to innovate and innovate in my views on movies and how to make movies. To explore, so I took a farther approach", "Abandoned plot, abandoned the character of the characters, the characters have become symbols, and put emphasis on how to narrate to a quite prominent position." Although the film failed in distribution, it is academically precious.
Wu Yigong (first from left) at the shooting site of "Que Li Ren Jia" (1992)
New era cultural history has experienced three stages of development from human to psychology and then to culture. Wu Yi Gong's "Que Li Ren Jia" has explored its tentacles into China In the depths of culture, it is profound, subtle, and even more paradoxical. This is the entanglement and game between Chinese cultural families and modern and modern Chinese history for more than two thousand years. Wu Yigong likened it to an "open knot", inspiring the audience how to manage the balance between historical responsibility and moral responsibility.
thus established Wu Yigong's position and position in Chinese film history. He is a pioneer, a "national standard maker" of Chinese prose films, and a practitioner who practices the comprehensive functions of Chinese films.
In May of this year, Wu Yigong considered it for a long time when he accepted an exclusive interview with this newspaper. He wrote "Long Live Shanghai Movies" on the sickbed.
Here, there are personal abundant talents, as well as the open era environment, educational background and Chinese culture. Moisturize. Wu Yigong is fortunate to be able to spread his love and affection for art on the warm land of reform and opening up in China.
Wu Yigong’s film history is still a meaningful enlightenment for us today: First, the film should be a balance between innovation and tradition, and it must be ahead but not blindly ahead; Second, it is necessary to prevent superficial realism, and the film cannot avoid society. Attributes and contradictions; the third is that the process of industrialization is not a process of homogenization, it must be shining with individual aesthetics.
