holds hishorts at the end of 2023! During the Xiamen Short Film Week, a word-of-mouth hit appeared.
This short film called "Shanghai Joke" is 44 minutes long, starring all amateurs, and was shot at zero cost. Taiwanese director Cheng Weihao, who served as a judge this year, named it as his favorite work in his master class lecture. Curator Wang Xiaoman lamented that this was his "pride" after running the festival for many years.
In the packed theater, the audience laughed one after another as the young people on the big screen talked freely, and then fell silent after the final fuss.
"Shanghai Joke" poster
"Shanghai Joke" tells the story of a non-local girl, Yuki, who chose to move to Shanghai because she liked the movie " Love Myth ". She used young people's dating methods to start a series of social interactions in a strange city. Dating with various literary and artistic young people, traveling through the iconic streets of Shanghai, talking about "big talk" that has nothing to do with life but is closely related to it, full of serious jokes and absurdity.
The audience followed the director's documentary-style lens and observed a picture of the urban life of foreign youth in Shanghai.
"Shanghai Joke" director Ladi
"Shanghai Joke" director Ladi is a post-95 generation from Sichuan. He graduated from the United States and moved to Shanghai by chance. That year, he was surprised to find that many of his friends moved to the same city at the same time. After
worked in his favorite media for a while, he resigned and became a slash youth with multiple identities: advertising director, public account writer, podcast manager, study abroad agency tutor, and bartender. These identities filled the days and nights of the restless young man, and also gave him a perspective on the city from different angles.
Outsiders’ Shanghai
There are many languages in "Shanghai Joke". In the opening scene, the "director living in Japan and the United States" who Yuki is dating speaks Japanese with an accent mixed with English, talking about Woody Allen's movies and life in New York; When they were chatting about feminism on the West Coast with Jack, an illustrator who had returned from studying in the United States, they met a local girl who approached her and chatted up her. They mixed French with it to decorate her life and past; when they met a fellow villager who spoke Chengdu dialect, they switched to And let the film enter another down-to-earth reality space...
From "Myth of Love" to "Flowers", the description of Shanghai and the use of local dialects to open up the city is authentic, and "Shanghai Joke" is based on In the short film set in Shanghai, all languages are spoken, but there is not a word of Shanghai dialect, which actually accurately presents another Shanghai temperament.
Ladi said that the reason for such a result is that in his short two-year experience in Shanghai drifting, he really did not know any Shanghainese.
"I have no local friends in Shanghai, and no one speaks Shanghainese to me. For me, Shanghai is more of a Shanghai for outsiders." Different from the stereotype of "exclusion", because of the existence of a huge foreign group, Ladi, as a foreigner, felt full of excitement in Shanghai.
"Shanghai Joke" stills
"What attracted me to Shanghai is also its cultural diversity. Of course Shanghai has its own local culture, but it is not so explicit because the base of the foreign population is already too large and the number of various groups of people When it was big, there was no obvious 'mainstream culture' here." In Ladi's view, Shanghai is a "stage for outsiders". "Any niche hobby circle that comes here does not count. If you are a special niche, you will always have a large group of friends here."
In this city full of outsiders, the blending of languages once brought an impact to Ladi, who was new to the city. "When I was applying for a job, I found that knowing a foreign language is the basic requirement here. Basically, companies will require another language. When I go to a bar, I can hear many languages. This had a big impact on me at the time. I really want to portray this point."
Social interaction is the heroine's line of action throughout the film, and "bureau" is an important field in "Shanghai Joke".Ladi said that in addition to classmates, most of his friends in Shanghai met in clubs. “In some more themed club activities, people may get together because of movies, art or feminist issues. Friends bring friends, and it’s very easy to get together.” We met casually at some gatherings. The next time we meet at other events, we will find the same face again, and we will naturally say, 'This is my friend.'"
"Shanghai Joke" stills
It was too late to meet each other the day before. The "friend" you chat with all night long may suddenly disappear one day. Just like in the film, among the people chatting with wine glasses at the door of the bar, the young artist promised to buy cigarettes for everyone, or the fashion editor who was urged by his family to go home for a blind date and get married. Everyone would murmur, "I won't do it again." Come back." No one really cared.
The creators of these films have similar relationships in their lives. The heroine has now gone to the other side of the ocean to continue studying. The second male lead was selected from a Tinder chat. After filming a film with rap performance scenes, he has now become a real rapper and even started a "national tour."
Ladi recalled the people he met in Shanghai from 2021 to 2023, "It was like a big party, and suddenly everyone came. It was really lively for a while, and it felt like all my friends were here, but suddenly For a moment, I realized why everyone was slowly leaving again."
In the past two years, Ladi has become accustomed to the high mobility of this city. "The whole city, like the various 'games' that are staged here every day, comes and goes. Freedom. It's normal to leave, and then people keep coming." So when he decided to make this short film, he decided on a theme called "who doesn't care" and "It's only grand for myself." debut, but for Shanghai, you come and go, just like the air, not so important."
Stills of "Shanghai Joke"
But young people do not feel the loss of being ignored, but because of this carelessness , Jean Ladi now calls himself a "Shanghai lover" through and through, "All kinds of new things are happening every day, but it's like nothing happened, no one cares. This exciting and relaxing feeling is like Even if there are people swimming in the sky in this city, no one will make a fuss. All the freshest things happen so frequently that they seem ordinary. I feel like I have been dreaming of this kind of life for a long time."
Before coming to Shanghai, Ladi was very excited about this. He didn’t have much expectation or imagination about the city. His impression of Shanghai was “the Oriental Pearl Tower and a Gundam in Pudong.” He once vowed to his friends in Chengdu, “Shanghai will not mess with my heart, I will come back.” But now. , he was very honest, he was very upset by Shanghai.
domestic "whispering core"
"Shanghai Joke" is a work with extremely dense lines, and a large amount of information is intertwined in casual dialogue. Choosing this "talkative" narrative form is Latti's attempt to conduct a film shooting practice about "whispering core".
Mumblecore is an American independent film movement that originated after 2000. Its characteristics include low-cost budgets, non-professional actors and naturalistic performances, dense dialogue with a large number of modal particles, and aimless life-like plots. and themes focusing on young people’s difficulties in work and interpersonal relationships. The core term mumblecore and the representative works of this movie category, such as " hahahaha " and "Frances Ha", are mentioned many times by the characters in daily conversations in "Shanghai Joke".
Stills of "Shanghai Joke"
When Ladi was a graduate student at California University of the Arts, his tutor "Amway" told him about nuclear-style movies. At that time, he was rebellious and did not watch it for the first time until he accidentally dreamed of it one day a few years ago. After visiting the campus and meeting my former teachers, I opened the movie "Haha Laughter" with a rustic-looking title for the purpose of nostalgia, and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. After that, he teamed up with the film's screenwriter and heroine Wu Jiaxuan, and the director of photography Ma Xianshen to start a whisper-core short film for Shanghai's overseas young people.
In Shanghai, Ladi's living circle is very "Internet celebrity" - the scope of activities almost revolves around Nanjing West Road to Wutong District, which is "rich and prosperous"; although the rented apartment is troubled by neighborhood noise, water leakage, rats and cockroaches, it looks like Just like the "very beautiful and very Shanghai" old bungalow; the young lady who rents downstairs likes to tell people everywhere that she has "lived in France for 14 years"; drinking with friends until 12 o'clock and everyone starts speaking English on time; and recently The core issue of debate with friends who are also from out of town is "whether Yanping Road counts as Jing'an?"
Stills from "Shanghai Joke"
In Ladi's observation, most of the young friends around him have a good education background and have their own unique aesthetic tastes and pursuits. They like to live in the Wutong District in the "center of the universe", go clubbing at night, go to various niche exhibitions, and participate in various offline cultural salons together. Dressing, eating, drinking, having fun, and the spiritual world all need to be carefully considered and studied, but they come from reality. His embarrassment also followed him in the breaks between laughter and scolding.
These scenes are all recorded in "Shanghai Joke" in a subtle and playful way. While young people earnestly practice this lifestyle, they also show some sober contradictions and self-mockery. "The main core of mumblecore movies is to show some of the dilemmas and confusions of immature adults in a specific period." Ladi explained. Most of the dialogue content of
comes from Ladi's daily "eavesdropping" in restaurants, bars, and cafes. He likes to listen to the people at the table next to him in these public places and imagine their identities, relationships, and situations during the conversations. Many times it can be found that those people who are chatting with each other are just meeting for the first time. In the unfamiliar conversations, their fun, pride and troubles are hidden, as well as their vanity and selfish desires.
The highlight of the show takes place at the "Highway Store", an Internet-famous liquor store on Changle Road. This small store is inconspicuous during the day, but at night it becomes the "traffic center" of the neighborhood. The small indoor space is easily occupied. Since then, "standing on the street and drinking" has become a new fashion for young people. Sometimes they sit in rows on the curb and dance when they are happy. Now this model has become popular from Shanghai to all over the country.
Young people gathering for drinks in front of a highway store
As a gathering place for fashionistas, young people in Shanghai are keen on checking in and pursuing style. They must keep up with trends while maintaining their individuality. In Ladi's observation, young people in Shanghai have a "relaxation without losing anxiety." On the one hand, everyone shows enough tolerance and respect for things that have nothing to do with them. On the other hand, within the social circle of the same circle, every gesture will be "looked at with a magnifying glass." "If you say there are people swimming in the sky, others may not even look up, but if you say there is a 'Bazi' in the office, everyone will come and watch."
Ladi remembers that when he first came to Shanghai, he worked in a trendy youth culture media. I often feel inferior about my own style and outfit. Recently watching " ", he felt the same way that Mr. Bao had to put together an outfit before his debut, "You say something, do something, like something, and the feedback others give you, there is a kind of atmosphere in it." The smell of "Bazi" was so embarrassing that the air solidified. At that time, I realized that it was important to package yourself when talking and doing things in Shanghai."
Ladi and his friends call themselves "Yabi", a group of people who pursue hobby subculture The essence of this culture, which is sought after by young people of Generation Z, is to resist the mainstream system, mainstream aesthetics and commercialization. In Ladi's hometown of Chengdu, "being Asian" is something that has no threshold. Wearing clothes "magically modified" from the clothes of parents and elders, going to bars that don't require tickets, and the drinks are very affordable, these things can be very common.
"But in Shanghai, clothes that look like tatters are actually trendy brands with a saying. Tickets to clubs are getting more and more expensive and are almost unaffordable. If you go in with a bottle of wine, you will be kicked out." "Shanghai Jokes" , the screenwriter refined new creative and accurately satirical vocabulary such as "middle-class yabby" and "middle-class indulgence", which also resonated with young audiences at the screening.To sum up, Latti found that "whatever you do in Shanghai requires certain thresholds."
"Punk Director"
When he was studying, Latti wished he was a punk. His dream was to become a rock musician. Although his guitar skills were always in a state of decline, he began to practice a consistent "punk spirit" in his life from a very early age. From bright hair colors to shooting a series of short films related to rock music, Ladi, who calls himself a "victim of rock music," uses filming as another way to "play in a band."
Punk director Ladi
Ladi has some background in art. When he majored in digital art at Indiana University as an undergraduate, he was exposed to many visual arts categories. When it came time to submit his graduation project, he decided to make his first feature film. The teacher thought he was fooling around. Even he admitted that he did not have strict film training, which made his feature films appear "disorganized". However, he later discovered that without particularly rigorous film training, he would not be bound by many things. .
In addition to live-action short films, Ladi also makes animated films, with a rough style of painting that can be completed by one person. Being a musician who cannot play the piano and an animation director with poor drawing skills are also part of his practice of "punk spirit".
When Ladi's animated work
"Shanghai Joke" was screened at hishorts!, not only the content, but also the "zero-cost shooting" were talked about. From the beginning of filming, Ladi spent almost no money. The actors find friends, buy equipment from friends, rent venues at no cost, and do all the music and special effects themselves. It doesn't have to be elaborate, but it needs to be individual. At most, it's just a treat for everyone, and the food won't be too good. A 100-yuan maocai is a feast.
The screenwriter and director are also the male and female protagonists of the film
The script of the film was written by Ladi and his friend Wu Jiaxuan on the terrace of their favorite bar, imagining the appearance of their friends around them and laughing. Everyone has to go to work, so the filming is done every weekend. The dense lines may seem routine, but in fact they contain a huge amount of information and dramatic turns. The one-shot long shot requires rigorous rehearsal. Because almost every actor plays his or her true character, the script naturally adds a more life-like and character-friendly way of speaking.
Ladi has always liked directing and acting, so he plays an important role as "director". Jack, another American international student in the film, was "salvaged" by the heroine on social software. Arrived at hishort! During the screening, Ratti was surprised to discover that he was an actor in two other short films.
Movies do not have to correspond to sophisticated production. This is what Ladi was inspired by his "distinguished alumnus", the Korean director Hong Sang-soo, "His movies are also getting cheaper as they are made. I also like this kind of DIY quality, graduate student After studying film, I don’t understand why people regard ‘movies’ as such a great thing. There are many arguments in school that only feature films or movies are supreme, but I don’t really identify with that atmosphere.” Di does not believe that constraints of conditions can limit expression. "Whatever conditions exist, I will create what kind of creation. The most important thing is to have my expression."
"Shanghai Joke" won the Best Growth Award.
"Shanghai Joke" is in hishorts! Short Film Week won the Best Growth Award in the Growth Unit. The award speech mentioned, "Whether it is the movement and perspective of the camera, or the characters' vivid and humorous lines, they all allow us to get a glimpse into the characters' hearts, and they are filled with laughter. I feel a little bit sad."
Last weekend, "Shanghai Joke" returned to Shanghai and had a small-scale screening in a bar. There were more Shanghainese in the audience, and the laughter was denser than in Xiamen. During the post-screening exchange, Ladi picked up a lot of local "regional memes" from Shanghai, and he found these fresh jokes useful.
Ladi said that when he decided to make "Shanghai Joke", he could already foresee that it would be a resonant work. The feedback now has given him the ambition to continue to explore the stories of this city. "Just dig a little bit." , it’s already more than 40 minutes, so the next step is to be more serious and make a feature film, that’s not impossible.”
