On January 20, 2020, Haiqing and his agent pulled their luggage to the filming location of " Hidden in the Dust ", Huaqiangzi Village, Zhangye City, Gansu Province. Due to the harsh environment in the village, the agent left after only three days, while Haiqing stayed for ten months. Before
came, many people didn't understand Haiqing's idea, and felt that it was not worth it for her to pick up a literary film that might not be released.
However, what people did not expect is that this drama has ushered in a "highlight moment" more than a month after its release. The box office has exceeded 80 million from hundreds of thousands at the time, and the Douban score has also risen to 8.5 points. Won the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival Golden Bear Award Best Film nomination.
Why is such a rural-themed literary film so "stamina"? What are the untold stories behind this?
Today, let's take a look at the hardships behind "Hidden in the Dust"...
In 1983, Li Ruijun was born in Huaqiangzi Village, Gaotai County, Zhangye City, Gansu Province. In that era, many people had to leave their hometowns and work in other places in order to earn money to support their families.
Li Ruijun moved from the village to the county town with his parents when he was in high school, and transferred his homestead to the villagers, gradually moving away from the village he was familiar with.
It wasn't until Li Ruijun went to college and made a few movies that he realized that there are still a large number of people in China living in rural areas.
At this time, Li Ruijun's hometown has changed a lot, and the old house has long been abandoned by the later owner. After my grandparents passed away, my uncle also bought a new house. The old house in the family has been demolished, and now it is a vacant lot.
A few years ago, for the sake of the village appearance, the village had a new policy: as long as the villagers were willing to demolish the abandoned houses, the government could subsidize them 15,000 yuan. Many villagers are willing to accept such good benefits.
"Hidden in the Dust" originated from Li Ruijun's thinking about land and life. He believes that there are still many people who cannot leave this land. They work on the land, and the life of sunrise and sunset is closely related to this land. Hence the story of Cao Guiying and Ma Youtie.
After finishing the script, Li Ruijun first thought of Haiqing , because the role matches the actor's age, and Li Ruijun is to "repay the kindness".
Where does the kindness come from?
In 2017, Li Ruijun and Haiqing were invited to participate in the Chongqing Youth Film Festival at the same time. At that time, Li Ruijun was on the way to the film exhibition when he learned that his wife was seriously ill and was admitted to the hospital, so he returned halfway.
Haiqing immediately recommended to Li Ruijun some medical experts he met during the filming of the drama, which allowed his wife to receive timely treatment. Haiqing's kindness, Li Ruijun has always kept in mind .
At a film festival a few years later, Haiqing directly shouted: I hope young directors can give middle-aged actresses more opportunities to perform. Li Ruijun was also present at that time, and he listened to this sentence.
Later, Li Ruijun sent an invitation to Haiqing, and sent the script of "Hidden in the Dust" with an uneasy mood. After reading the script, Haiqing liked the story very much and agreed without much thought, without mentioning the salary. This made Li Ruijun very moved.
Haiqing before is a clean and refreshing "national daughter-in-law" image in the eyes of the public, but in the movie "Hidden in the Dust", she plays a rural woman with incontinence, lame legs and a hunched body. It completely subverted her previous image, which made Haiqing feel very challenging.
In order to play this role well, she went to Huaqiangzi Village two months in advance to learn from them how to farm the land, learn the local dialect, and even specially study how the disabled walk.
As it turns out, her efforts were not in vain.
As the film's acclaim has risen, Haiqing's acting skills have also been unanimously appreciated by the audience. She completely integrates herself into the role, and she can hardly see her body as an actor, which is also a very high level of performance.
In "Hidden in the Dust", there is another character who can be called a surprise, , he is Wu Renlin, who plays the hero Ma Youtie and is regarded by Haiqing as a "performance teacher".
Before Haiqing joined the crew, Li Ruijun had already talked about a professional actor. But because of the epidemic, the actor has not been in place. This time even Haiqing was anxious, but Li Ruijun comforted her like a normal person: Isn't there an uncle here?
Haiqing didn't pay much attention to it after hearing it, and felt that Li Ruijun was just talking casually. But when the male lead really confirmed that it was her uncle Wu Renlin, she was still a little unacceptable.
Because a professional actor plays with a non-professional actor, it is not an easy task for Haiqing. But at that time, she could only choose to accept it.
Fortunately, Wu Renlin has also acted in Li Ruijun's movies, and Haiqing has always lived in his house and is familiar with him.
Wu Renlin himself is also a simple farmer. When filming, he doesn't need to act, as long as he shows his life. Many times, Haiqing would ask him for advice, or even follow him. In Haiqing's words: she is her uncle's "follower".
Of course, Wu Renlin also encountered difficulties in the play, such as the emotional scene with Haiqing, in one of them, Guiying had a medical diagnosis, Ma Youtie took her to take a bath in the river, and he had to replace him She takes a shower.
This stumped Wu Renlin. Although the two acted as a husband and wife, there was almost no scene of intimate contact.
Two days before the shooting of this scene, Wu Renlin started to restless and his scalp was numb. Later, his wife couldn't stand it any longer and said, "Mr. Haiqing agrees, let you rub it."
in With everyone's encouragement, Wu Renlin finally plucked up the courage to finish filming the scene. In later interviews, when he mentioned this topic, he would be a little shy.
It is precisely because of him, an amateur partner who has no acting skills, that he can express such a real rural lifecome out, not deduce it. Wu Renlin's truth perfectly interprets the phrase "the highest acting skills are no acting skills" .
In addition to these two protagonists, other actors were "caught" by Li Ruijun.
Li Ruijun's father plays the village chief, his mother is Guiying's sister-in-law, his wife becomes the proprietress, and his uncle's son is not only an assistant photographer, but also an actor. Even the donkey from my uncle's house became one of the most important actors.
also has Haiqing's makeup, which is also done by her uncle's daughter who specializes in artistic modeling, and other people's clothing styles are also made by her.
Their efforts were not in vain, and many audiences got to know them through this movie, which is a lot of gain.
After the actors are confirmed, the next step is the question of funding. Although this play is a low-budget production, other expenses are not small.
Li Ruijun was not very smooth when he was pulling investment. At that time, a company was willing to invest, but the company had a financial problem in the middle, so there was no following.
has no capital investment, which makes Li Ruijun in trouble. At the most difficult time, Li Ruijun had to advance the money by himself, and also invested in her daughter's tuition.
In the end, Li Ruijun took the train to Beijing to find investors with 2,000 yuan in his pockets. Fortunately, everything went smoothly, so this drama had the opportunity to continue filming.
"Hidden in the Dust" tells the story of a middle-aged man, a disabled woman, and a donkey raised by his family. In keeping with the natural laws of spring plowing and autumn harvesting of crops, had to take 10 months to complete filming. In
, there is a scene in which Guiying was weeding wheat seedlings , because her hands were shaking so badly, she accidentally removed a wheat seedling that had just sprouted two buds. When shooting wheat seedlings like this, there must be roots below, and the shape of wheat grains in the middle.
wheat seedlings can grow like this, it only takes a few days before and after. When the time is early, it has not yet germinated, and when the time is late, the husk in the middle falls off. So there is no rush, just wait. When
shoots chicks out of their shells, the cycle is usually 21 days, and this time should be just right. There are also small tadpoles. They are too small when they are shot too early, and they grow legs when they are shot late. They are not tadpoles.
There are also swallows, pay attention to when they come back, when they start to build their nests, and when they leave. These must be carefully arranged in advance.
Li Ruijun was born and raised in the countryside when he was a child. He is familiar with the natural solar terms and the growth laws of animals and plants, so the whole shooting process went smoothly.
In addition to these details, the dedication of the actors is also indispensable. The biggest estimate of "sacrifice" is Haiqing. Her image in the film this time is also difficult to recognize at a glance.
In order to make a few more wrinkles in the corners of his eyes, Haiqing wiped rice paste on his face. In order to have a lower pocket like Cao Guiying, she stuffed cotton into her mouth. Also because of the long-term use of the disabledShe walked in the same way, which caused her scoliosis, and it took several months of treatment to "break" it back.
is able to present such a real Cao Guiying to everyone because of Haiqing's efforts. So much so that at the premiere in Beijing, the audience under the stage called her directly: "Haiqing, you are my goddess", which is also the audience's highest evaluation of her acting skills.
director Li Ruijun also spent a lot of effort on this drama.
later interviewed, he told reporters: Many years ago, he wanted to make such a film, to film the relationship between people, nature, and the land. He spent a year writing the script, a year shooting, and a year finishing post-production. But the idea of wanting to make this movie has been rooted in his heart for at least five or six years .
From stories to characters, all inspiration comes from life itself. In fact, in every village there may be people like the fourth child or Guiying, who are not accepted or understood by the people around them, and even the world has prejudice against them.
This is also the that Li Ruijun wanted to criticize in "Hidden in the Dust". Therefore, this film has become an extremely rare film in the current domestic market. This is probably one of the reasons why it is so popular.
Conclusion:
"Hidden in the Dust" is a "dark horse" killed this summer.
In addition to the excellent performances of the actors, the key is that the story is easy to capture the hearts of the audience. It focuses on the marginalized characters of the society.
As an image worker, Li Ruijun wants to convey all the people and things he sees through images. Let these marginalized people receive more attention, and maybe their situation can be changed.
This is also the original intention of Li Ruijun to make this film.
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[Text | Yunzi ]
[Editor-in-charge | Yu Fei Nian ]
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