Huanghe News Network Jinzhong News (Reporter Li Hong) On October 11, the Pingyao International Film Festival held the Zhang Yimou Master Class "For Every Second of the Movie", hosted by Director Jia Zhangke. The lecture was originally held at 10:30, but there were fans waiting in line at four o'clock in the morning. Because of the large number of people, the event was temporarily changed from the cinema to the open-air theater. The 1500 seats were filled with spectators who came from Tiannanhaibei. . In the master class, Zhang Yimou spoke freely, so much so that no one left at 12:30. In a conversation with the film festival promoter Jia Zhangke, Zhang Yimou said that in order to have innovation in each work, he can not be afraid of criticizing and pretending not to be a master in order to keep his mentality young. He also called on young screenwriters, hoping that they would write more good scripts for himself.
Jia Zhangke: Director Zhang Yimou of won the Pingyao International Film Festival's East-West Exchange Achievement Award. There was a short film reviewing Director Zhang’s creative experience during the awards. There were two films that touched me very much, because it is shared with Shanxi. Relationship, one is a movie starring Zhang in the 1980s, called "Old Well", and the other is "Raise the Red Lantern". I admire Zhang Director for making a closed compound so visually rich. , What visual work did you do?
Zhang Yimou: " Raise the Red Lantern" is actually based on Su Tong's novel "Wife and Concubine Groups". The novel is actually very well written. It is written in the south, all with the atmosphere of the south, in a large house. Atmosphere. Because I have filmed "Old Well" in Shanxi, and I am familiar with Shanxi. Later, after seeing this Qiao family compound, I felt very shocked. If I said that if I didn't shoot, someone else would have done it later. At that time, I felt like I should shoot it quickly. It was a story from the south, and we changed it all the time. Later, I heard that Su Tong was a bit of a whisper to me. He was a writer from the South, and many of the flavors were from the South, so he changed it to the Qiao Family Courtyard. In fact,
was attracted by its beauty at that time. The ancient buildings in Shanxi were very characteristic, and its residential buildings were very characteristic. It was attracted by him. After the change, there were not too many tourists in the Qiao's compound at that time, so we reached an agreement with him not to close the courtyard. One day I was sitting on the second floor and looking down, I just wanted to shoot and how to make up the picture. Suddenly seeing that kind of square perspective line is particularly rigorous before your eyes. Later, "There is no rule, where is the radius", so the eight characters appeared. Then I thought, let's shoot this rule, and change the story completely, turn on the lights and shut down the lights, and ritualize it every night. And so on, it's all changed into a visual modeling style that is a symbol and metaphor of such a sense of atmosphere and ritual.
Today it looks a bit like the pros and cons of "Red Sorghum", that is, if "Red Sorghum" is a free, wild, and eclectic nature, this is a combination of rules, repression, and an immutable person. This kind of struggle is very different.
Jia Zhangke: critics believe that Zhang's "Hero" created a precedent for Chinese commercial blockbusters, but in fact, Zhang's commercial film attempt was very early. "Red Sorghum" was filmed shortly after the completion of "Red Sorghum". This movie is a hijacking story. It was still in the 1980s. As the first commercial film practice, how did you deal with this subject at the time?
Zhang Yimou: you have to say that, I think I am quite a pioneer now, and I am quite early. After the completion of "Red Sorghum", it was equivalent to the first cooperation with a private company at that time. I remember that a friend of Gu Changwei invested in making our next movie, so that one of our friends’ scripts would be shown to me. The hijacker also has Taiwan, and the background, commercial movies. At that time, there was no concept, so I was interested. It was a completely new attempt. Of course, the movie was not successful later, but it may be quite successful today. At that time, we had to think deeply, and no one talked about entertainment. Actually, when I think about it now, that movie is pretty good.
Ge You and Gong Li are performing big actors. Yu Rongguang and the movements are complicated, and they also involve the background of Taiwan, saying that the plane came from Taiwan. I was very impressed at the time and said that we wanted to have some Taiwanese lenses. We couldn't go to Taiwan at that time and there was no way to have Taiwanese lenses. What should I do? At that time, I remembered telling my friend that you would help me get some photos of the streets of Taiwan to make some background. Then one day you told me, Director Zhang, do you know? Now I heard that reporters from all over Taiwan are helping youTaking photos, so we later used a lot of street photos of Taiwan to illustrate this background. I also used a quick editing method, hand-held camera, photos, subtitles, and a lot of cooperation. In fact, it looks very fashionable now.
Jia Zhangke : I learned that it was a photo montage after I went to film school. There is such an academic saying. A few years later, in 1992, Director Zhang shot "Raise the Red Lantern" in the Qiao Family Courtyard. After filming "Hanging the Red Lantern", another year or two later, I filmed "Qiuju's Lawsuit". It is the first film that uses documentary methods to vividly show real life. Before opening up the atmosphere, what was the opportunity that made you make such a big change in aesthetics?
Zhang Yimou: The story of Qiuju is adapted from Chen Yuanbin's novel "Wan Jia Litigation", the script is actually very good. Because of my own personality, I feel that this is not the many similar works of the year. A few of our creators sat down, and the preparations have already begun. It is about to start filming, and I suddenly talked about the style of making a documentary. Well, it's completely like a documentary, and everyone is getting excited. Immediately, I thought a lot about how to shoot secretly, and everyone started to have various ideas based on the taste of the documentaries they saw in the past. Since then, there is no script, I go to sneak shots every day, and then there is an outline, a few sentences, to sneak shots. I think I should be a master of sneak shots in China at that time, much earlier than the paparazzi.
You have to know all kinds of hiding, in the fringe of China's urban and rural areas, in the rural areas of Baoji, hiding in all kinds of places where you can hide, and taking pictures in various places. We asked Gong Li to put on a fake belly in advance and go to the village to experience life and stay with the villagers. All the villagers didn't know that she was a fake. They thought she was pregnant, so they went around the village every day. I asked our two photographers to take two cameras, and we traveled in the village every day, aerial photography, no film, and traced everyone, every day, as if they were at work. About a week later, our two photographers came back to report. , How do I say, how is the effect? Said that no one is looking at the camera, no one is paying attention, and that even the dog is not paying attention. Watching the aesthetics of "A Lawsuit in Qiu Ju" today, of course, it can now be systematically summarized in the style of documentary records, which was very avant-garde back then.
Jia Zhangke: Zhang's commercial blockbuster "Hero" created the domestic box office record at the time, including our Chinese films in North America. What drove this change again and again?
Zhang Yimou: I myself have always liked martial arts novels. Later I thought that Hong Kong and Taiwan had filmed so many, and I filmed it several times. I made up a traditional allusion like Jing Ke assassinating King Qin. It’s almost done, and the script has taken shape. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is shocking. We are all frustrated. People have been so successful. No matter how we follow suit, I want to give up. At that time, our producer was Jiang Zhiqiang, who was very discerning, so he told me, director, shoot. He said that the market is very good now. In fact, in the strict sense, it was planned to shoot as a literary film. You see, we are like a structure of "Rashomon", four-stage and five-stage, and then we discuss a question that can never be said, should it be killed, the world is What, the hanging and big theme is entirely the direction of a literary film.
Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Jet Li... I felt very enjoyable at the time. I was able to have such a big production and there were so many big actors, so I shot it, and I did it in my own style. I also try to design some Chinese cultural things in the action, because I know that the first time I shoot an action, we shoot a lot of wind and snow, like a poem, a drop of water, a leaf, the high speed of an arrow, etc., and so on. The things that are beautiful, the things that have a sense of beauty, I just shoot them completely according to my hobbies and understanding. Unexpectedly, it became a big topic when it was performed later. The box office in China was more than 800 million that year, and we were 250 million. But it was criticism that swept through, and it was criticized decently. So "Hero" is actually unintentional.
Jia Zhangke: In recent years, I think your creative speed and rhythm are very frequent, almost every year. I think that after I have a longer creative career, I think I will understand Director Zhang better. You are in this film environment. The pressure, controversy, and his desire to move forward, his perseverance, the need to overcome the surrounding environment, and the realization of his own film ideas are very admirable. So in the future you still want to tryWhat kind of changes and types?
Zhang Yimou: I will have three movies from last year to this year. "One Second" is a youth memory of my own. Zhang translated well. I wrote a love letter to the movie. interesting story. After "One Second" is over, "Sturdy as a Rock" is now finished and it is being submitted for review. This is a police film, which I also like very much. It is a unique one. I have never tried it myself. I call it Hard The police and bandits are very urban and very modern. At the end of this year, I am going to shoot "Above the Cliff". I really hope to shoot the real ice and snow, the feeling of winter. This is also a new attempt, the actors are also very good, the story has a great sense of suspense. So I said, as long as I am in good health and time permits, I am a person who is willing to work hard, and I like to make movies.
