The 74th Cannes International Film Festival has come to an end. Aside from the books, I was fortunate enough to interview director Chen Zheyi during the festival. Under the epidemic, we will meet again in Cannes. This time he not only brought his new work, but also a new life questionnaire.
Chen Zheyi, a Singaporean director, was once known as the "light of Singapore". He won the Cannes Golden Camera Award and the Taiwan Golden Horse Award in one fell swoop with the feature film debut " parents are not at home ". Representative works include "Tropical Rain", "Grandma" and so on.
This time, Chen Zheyi's short film collection " The Year of Eternal Storm ", which was co-produced with six other directors, was selected as the special screening unit of the 74th Cannes International Film Festival.
Interview: Laughing, Xavier
Editor: Chen Yang
Planning: Put aside the book editorial department
z12 The short film that we want to learn about you from the new year of the dragon storm. Can you describe to us from the initial formation of the project to the present formation?
Chen Zheyi: The short film was severely affected by the epidemic last year. Many cities around the world were closed, many movie theaters were closed, and everyone was forced to quarantine at home. Neon, a US distribution company, wanted to pass a film. The film was born with a little contribution to the revitalization of the global film industry.
So they found some writers and directors from all over the world, hoping that we would shoot a short film about the epidemic, and that's probably it.
"Year of the Eternal Storm" official poster
When I joined, I only knew that the Iranian master Jafar Panahi was one of the producers, and the inspiration for the whole film came from the reality that he was at home for many years and could not go out to film. Coupled with the restriction of isolation, there is no way to make a film, so the inspiration actually comes from many of his previous works.
Besides, he is also one of the producers, so when we started talking, although the producer didn't say which other directors there were, I still agreed with one mouthful. I remember that they emailed me at the time, and I had a brief chat with the company’s producers and bosses, and then agreed the next day.
Because I had a deep existential crisis last year, especially as a film creator, when I saw that many movie theaters around the world closed due to the epidemic, I saw many of my colleagues and friends shut down business and work...I really think everyone It's all so hard, and is worried about whether the movie will die. So At that time, I was worried about when the movie theater would open again. Will there be audiences to watch it when it opens?
Then count as the audience to see, will they only watch Hollywood blockbusters... So I am very anxious, especially for directors like me, if the works of this kind of movies I make, if the works are more delicate, there is no Too much emotional ups and downs and dramatic changes, do I still exist? Does my movie still exist? So I quickly accepted their invitation to shoot this work.
Frankly speaking, the budget of this short film collection is actually very low. Every director has many restrictions. Everyone’s budget is only more than 10,000 US dollars. This amount is very small. Compared with the time when I was shooting student short films, it really counts. rare. At the end of the day, we didn't even have a camera when we took the official shooting. We borrowed it from others. Of course, this is also a form of sponsorship.
We also have no lighting budget at all. The entire set only has two lights like tubes, so we actually created it entirely in a natural light manner. I think this short film is to a certain extent that has returned to a very primitive creative mode. It will make me very excited, but it will also make me extremely anxious.
Because I was in London, England, I didn't want to shoot a story from a European perspective. I am a Chinese, an Asian, and my wife is still a Chinese nationality. So I wanted to put the background of this film in China. Of course, we were also very worried at that time, because my wife and her family are basically in China, but we don't know what the situation in China is and how serious it is.
So this work also projects a lot of our own emotions into it. Although I can't enter China, I can't go to China to shoot, but I will think of various ways to shoot this thing.
Therefore, the whole film is basically in a remote way, from the preparation of the short film to the post-production period, it is guided remotely. In and even in the later stage, I used zoom to remotely let an American post-production company do the dimming and sound of the film. For this reason, they also bought a special earphone for me, which is convenient for chatting with the dimmer and the mixer.
So from the beginning of the creation to the final completion of the work, including scene viewing, actor selection, dialogue with actors, script reading, storytelling... all through Tencent conference , WeChat video, nails Ding and other remote software to complete. When shooting
, we basically connect the camera to the monitor at , and then transfer it to me in the form of live broadcast. But the time difference between Britain and China is almost 7 hours, so it is really difficult. Basically, my two months are reversed day and night, and basically work every day from 2 am to 2:00 pm.
"The Year of the Eternal Storm"-"Separate Love" stills
Put aside the books: So, will your work in the early morning every day affect your family life?
Chen Zheyi: I remember the 6 days when I officially started shooting, my wife basically took the child to her friend's house. Because the child is very young, only two years old, if I am at home, he will knock on the door, which may disturb me. So at that time my wife knew that I was going to shoot, so she took a week off, and then took the child to a friend's house.
Put aside the books: this is about a few months last year?
Chen Zheyi: We shot in October. The post-production cycle is relatively short.
Put aside the book: Did you cut this film yourself?
Chen Zheyi: No, is not. I am editing this film with my queen editor, that is, the editors of "Parents Are Not Home" and "Tropical Rain", and it will be cut in about a week or two. Because my film is actually not difficult to edit, I hope to keep improving in the early stage of the drama creation, shooting, scene scheduling, including the performance of the actors, light and shadow, etc. But at the same time, I am also very anxious, because I am not there, and this time I am working with a group of actors and staff who have never worked with them before, so I have to trust them completely.
Leave the book aside: You just talked about actors, so this time you chose Zhou Dongyu and Zhang Yu as the main actors. How do you measure it?
Chen Zheyi: because I am shooting remotely, so I think the actors must be good enough, that is my priorityConsider. As for Dong Yu, she and I met during the 2019 film festival in Macau. When I wrote this book, the role was set as a young couple, and it was a couple who might get married because they had children. I thought she was quite suitable for this age, and I had never seen Dong Yu play a mother. So such a role setting is a challenge for both of us.
Put aside the book: In the movie, we saw the story points you set during the quarantine period. How did you capture these points in the entire timeline?
Chen Zheyi: I wrote on the script. Because I remember I wrote a two-page outline with Neon (producer). summed up in one sentence: the story of marriage in isolation.
"The Year of the Eternal Storm"-"Love Separated" Stills
Putting aside the book: That is equivalent to the actors bursting out various emotional conflicts in a timeline?
Chen Zheyi: is right, and what I hope everyone sees is a kind of overtime and change. Although the film is only 21 minutes, I have very high requirements for all the crew. In fact, we filmed backwards. We filmed from the ending scene to the first day. Because you see how Zhang Yu can suddenly grow a beard in 6 days in the movie.
Although everyone can't see much change, if you look closely, you will find that the length of their hair, beard and other things are slightly different. Although I only have 6 days, I have very limited resources and budget. However, because there is a great work team and friends who are eager to help me complete this work, the final work is finished.
Put aside the book: So you think the expressions of the actors in the film are still more accurate.
Chen Zheyi: I think many limitations of are that I am not at the scene and lack the running-in part. Because I think it's very important to keep getting in touch with the director and the actors until they collide with the characters themselves. I basically don't let actors change the dialogue without authorization. Because even if it is a beat, a breath, a pause, or a dialogue in a movie, it actually has a melody and rhythm.
Put aside the book: In addition to the inconvenience caused by the long-distance problem in the process of contacting the actors, did you encounter any other difficulties?
Chen Zheyi: One of the biggest difficulties of is the problem of equipment connection. When we were shooting, it was 2k high-definition, but after the live broadcast, it has become SD, and the picture is almost completely blurred. Many times I even repeatedly ask the photographer if it is out of focus, because I can't see clearly.
When it comes to shooting a night scene, it is possible that the actor's face is very clear on the live monitor, but when it comes to me, it is blurry and dark. So I can only confirm that the emotion is right by what I hear and what I feel.
Then another one is the problem of connection delay. Because it is a live broadcast, there may be a 6-8 second delay when transmitting from Beijing to London. For example, I once told Dong Yu once: You go a little further to the left. When I felt that she was in the right position and I called to stop, because of the 8-second delay, she was already drawing.
So in fact, in these 6 days, we have been working on this thing for almost two days, and everyone is very painful. Including that sometimes the scene may have been filmed for several seconds before I call cut, and the performance has already been over there, and I still paylook in. So it's really painful.
"Year of the Eternal Storm"-"Love" stills
Of course, thanks to these sciences and technologies, we have the possibility of long-distance shooting. I remember that an associate director who used to work with me often said to me: you are too tough, you really have to grasp what you want. So I think if it is not for my toughness, I think it would be difficult for me to shoot this thing remotely.
Later I remembered that when we had basically finished the film and needed to send it to Neon to watch, they sighed at that time how the film was so good, and they couldn't see that it was shot with zoom at all. But I just said that you don’t know how painful it is. I think making a short film is actually more difficult than making a feature film. Besides, it is in such a very extreme environment.
But I will also think later that it is actually quite warm, because in the case of such a severe epidemic in London and the city has been closed for several times, you will actually be eager for a kind of communication, a kind of warm human communication. So I think this movie, to some extent, actually saved me.
and it happened to premiere in Cannes again, because like last year Cannes was closed due to the epidemic, which made me very anxious, because Cannes is a mecca of movies for me, it feels like the movie stopped when it was stopped. The same, so this time I came to the physical Cannes Film Festival which is still held under the epidemic because of the filming of epidemic-related films. To me, it is really touching, just like a pilgrimage.
Director Chen Zheyi at the 74th Cannes International Film Festival
Put aside the book: So do you think this Cannes Film Festival is different from the previous one?
Chen Zheyi: I think it’s easy to get tickets this time, hahaha...whatever you want to see, maybe because the number of filmmakers in the film festival industry is smaller than before because of the epidemic. When I walked into the hall to watch a competition movie, it felt like I had walked a long distance in my suit again. makes me feel that the movie is still there, so it means that maybe I still have room to exist, so this is what moved me the most.
and I was still living in London, England. Before that, there was a policy from London to Cannes that you need to be quarantined in Paris or at Nice and for 7 days before you can come. Of course, this policy was adjusted later. But even if it is necessary to isolate, I am still willing to come, because I have to witness a kind of restart of our entire film industry, and I really hope that through a ceremony or format like the Cannes Film Festival, the film will become more and more The better we come, the more we will love and defend it.
aside the books: Then we noticed that you actually went to the Shanghai Film Festival before Cannes. What do you think of the atmosphere there?
Chen Zheyi: I like ! I actually like the audience at the Chinese mainland film festivals. I feel that the tickets for these film festivals are selling very well. Then you go to every screening that is basically full. I will feel that the power is actually great. .
Because frankly speaking, when I was in the UK, I didn’t dare to go to the cinema before. The last time I went to the cinema was probably in September or October last year. I watched two movies, both of which went to a small one near my house. For that kind of art cinema, I also chose the afternoon show, and I think there are not many people going to see it. I watched two movies at the time, one was "Atlantic" and the other was " Yao" directed by Guanhu .
after that I never have the opportunity to go to the cinema again, because inAfter the Chinese New Year on January 3 last year, Britain once again closed the city for three months. There were basically 30,000 cases every day, which was really serious, so even if the cinema opened, I would not dare to go in. It was not until the opening of the Shanghai Film Festival in June this year that I returned to the cinema again and felt the feeling of the big screen again.
During this period, I actually also had a kind of anxiety, that is, people who like movies like me did not actively go to the cinema as soon as the door was opened, and watched 4 or 5 supplementary movies every day. What about ordinary viewers? So I really became anxious, and even started to worry about whether the movie world in the future can really only be spread by streaming media and network platforms like netflix.
and also worried that if everyone is working at home now, will they go to see some more entertaining things at home on weekdays, which will cause everyone's viewing level to quickly drop... so So far, I think I can come to these film festivals in Cannes.
Director Chen Zheyi at the 74th Cannes International Film Festival
Put aside the book: You had a small accident on the last day before you left Shanghai, right?
Chen Zheyi: I was in Beijing. At that time, I came to Beijing from Shanghai for a week of meetings. I had a small accident on the day I was leaving Beijing, which caused several stitches on my little toe. I couldn't put on my shoes until the day before I came to Cannes. I used to wear slippers.
Put aside the books: after "Parents Are Not Home" and "Tropical Rain", everyone is looking forward to the third part, so I want to ask you about the progress of the last part of the trilogy.
Chen Zheyi: yes, this is my growth trilogy, it should start shooting in the second half of 2022, and it will definitely be shot next year! In this year and a half, I often feel that life is too short, "life is too short".
So I hope I can "kill" a few more films before I reach 40 years old and before I reach middle age, because there is about 6 years between the first and second films, so I I hope I can create more good works in the future.
And it is precisely because there is no chance to make a film under the epidemic. During this period, I have been writing and creating, and several projects will develop relatively fast. So there is still a chance, can still shoot a few more before entering middle age.
aside the books: Has the cast also changed?
Chen Zheyi: right. Next year, the finale of my trilogy will star in Yang Yanyan , Xu Jiale . They worked so hard, because the second film didn't intend to invite them, but in the end they went around a lot, and finally invited them back. Then don't think too much about the third part, just finalize them directly.
"Tropical Rain" stills
Put aside the book: Finally, please recommend us some Singapore movies that you think are good in recent years.
Chen Zheyi: has several good directors in recent years. For example, director Wu Junfeng, he had two works in Cannes before. One was a debut at Critics Week called "Sand City", and the other was in a variety of films. The premiere of the attention unit is called "Prison School Police".
and then there is a peer guide that I have supervisedHe also attended the same film school as me in Singapore before, called Chen Jingyin. He made a work called "Dear Big Elephant", which was an award-winning film at Sundance in the United States. A road film about the midlife crisis and elephants. Then there is Yang Xiuhua, who is also my junior. He has a film called "Illusion Land" that won the award at the Locarno International Film Festival.
There is also a Singaporean Indian director who is also a very talented director. He is much older than me, but his Virgo also premiered in Critics Week, called "A Yellow Bird", which is on the streaming media There should be resources.
Book reporter smile vs Chen Zheyi
