There are still two full weeks before the official release of " Mr. Red Carpet " on New Year's Day, and Ning Hao's schedule is already full. The interview location was 10 kilometers outside the East Fifth Ring Road in Beijing. The Bad Monkey Pictures logo was hung on the exterior wall. Except for a few surrounding villages, not many people were visible. The company's other office is in Wangjing, where most people actually work. It's usually used for writing and talking about scripts because it's quiet enough.
After the last interview, Ning Hao had time to eat. He said that he was already very hungry. The lunch was placed downstairs, and it had already cooled down. My colleagues helped to heat it up. Two donkey meats were cooked on the fire and a bowl of soup. After eating quickly and without resting, the interview started again, otherwise the reporters behind would have waited even longer. He talked too much, holding a glass in his hand and drinking non-stop.
Picture/Photo provided by the interviewee
After being interviewed so intensively, Ning Hao said that he just hopes that audiences who like the film can watch it, because "art must be complete through communication, and the work is ultimately completed in the eyes of the audience." Inside and in the heart.” As for the so-called box office, he doesn't have any special expectations. In his words, "Mr. Red Carpet" is a Hunan dish, and it is difficult for all viewers to be satisfied with it.
He even thinks that before the audience actually sees the movie, perhaps what the publicity should do is not to call people who are interested, but to persuade people who are not interested: "If you make people who eat Cantonese food have to eat Hunan food, he It will be too spicy; if someone who eats Hunan food eats Cantonese food, he will also find it tasteless."
And just two days after the interview, the film released a new trailer poster with this line on it - "Let the audience choose? OK!"
Difficulties in Communication
"Mr. Red Carpet" is a Hunan dish with seasonings and side dishes, and so many ingredients that Ning Hao created several expressions to describe it, such as "elegant comedy" ”, such as “minimalist film”.
"I can only say this. I can't find a way to sum up this movie. It's not very specific. It's easy to describe a genre film, but it's hard to describe when it's biased towards the artistic direction. It's A feeling. If you generalize what happened here, it’s not accurate. That’s not what you want to say, right?”
This is not the first time that a similar situation has happened to Ning Hao. When he talked to the media about " no man's land ", he talked about "the existence and expansion of the universe, the rotation and self-reproduction of quarks, the connection between male pollen and men's philandering, and the relationship between two monkeys stealing peaches and the social attributes of human nature. metaphor"; later when talking about " golden robbery ", he also talked about "the four realms of life, the greatness of Steve Jobs, the various Buddhist methods, the practice of carpenters and chairs, and the moral corruption in the era of Internet Weibo" . But there are differences. Those are all about creative motivations, not the content of the movie itself.
The creative motivation of "Mr. Red Carpet" is not so mysterious and complicated. The external motivation was an agreement: in 2006, Andy Lau's company invested in " Crazy Stone " through the "Asian Rising Star Director Program", which made Ning Hao famous in one fell swoop. Since then, the two have been discussing a collaboration. Intrinsic motivation comes from real-life observations and feelings, which is also the core ingredient of this dish: "About the dilemma of difficult communication."
Picture/Photo provided by the interviewee
“I think the biggest change in these years is the awakening of self-awareness, which is a good thing on the whole, but sometimes there are some parts that are too self-centered, which have some side effects. Everyone is self-centered, and it is difficult to jump to other people's perspectives to understand others. This will lead to non-communication. When discussing issues, you will become emotional, and you will only speak from your own perspective, which will eventually become a personal attack. Internet Enhancement With this, everyone's self-awareness will find a community in the online environment and be indirectly affirmed, so it will lead to many conflicts between communities." Ning Hao told China News Weekly.
Of course, the so-called internal and external does not mean which of the two motives is more important or more important.In fact, the first thing in the conception of the whole script was the form. What Ning Hao wanted to film was the story of a Hong Kong movie star coming to the mainland to film. Therefore, from the perspective of the finished film, the two motives merge into one like two intersecting rivers. All conflicts caused by communication closely revolve around Andy Lau played by Andy Lau - with his wife, with his children, with the director, and With agents, with investors, with pig farm owners, with video bloggers, with online public opinion, with the public relations team...
However, when one after another out of control falls on such a character one after another , an inexplicable meaning emerged spontaneously. Liu Weichi's confusion and predicament are actually the confusion, discomfort, embarrassment, panic and embarrassment that people in middle age face when faced with the changing world. And does this come from Ning Hao's own situation? After all, he was born in 1977, so he is indeed 46 years old.
"I believe that for every director, especially an original director, every character he writes is more or less related to his understanding, opinions, and feelings. But it is not necessarily the case that it is what he depicts (himself). ." Ning Hao did not admit the existence of this kind of mapping. He believed that the final direction and effect of the story were natural results: "Once the story catches the gene, how it goes is its will. Unless you say goodbye to life, you will say goodbye to life. The logic breaks the narrative logic and allows you to understand that what I actually want to say is another thing. I often talk to screenwriters, and often a creator discovers a story, not creates a story."
According to this explanation, Ning Hao Believe in the story, believe in its independence and power. But he went on to say: "This is also where I often worry that the movie will be kidnapped by the story. Sometimes the movie will be kidnapped if it doesn't work well and become a smooth, natural and logical thing. This is also something to be careful about. Yes, otherwise the charm of the film itself will not come out. The biggest function of a film is to create a world, which must not be completed by the story. Many films are good films without stories. Godard and others clearly opposed the story, Kurosawa In the end, any story will do."
Powerless Life
Strictly speaking, spicy is not a taste, but a reaction of touch, heat and pain. A Hunan dish known for its spiciness is not only exciting and enjoyable to eat, but it may also make you shed tears. The dish "Mr. Red Carpet" has such staying power. The last scene of the movie is a spacious office with two floor-to-ceiling glass walls. Outside the window is a noisy world of sentient beings, and the inside of the window is empty. Liu Weichi rode the balance bike back and forth alone, cautiously at first, and then gradually opened his arms. The ending originally designed by
was not like this, and a version was filmed according to the script. Liu Weichi held a party at home, and many children were having a lot of fun together. But then Ning Hao found a scene and stayed in it for a long time, and a feeling suddenly grew in his heart: "The glass wall has vertical edges, which looks very transparent, but it is also like a prison. It has a sense of symbolism." So he A scene was added for Andy Lau to stand by the window and answer the phone. When I looked through the monitor, I felt that something was missing. "He should try something in this space. His manager has ridden the balance bike before. I think he should try to communicate with his manager and try other people's products."
Andy Lau is actually not very good at riding. That thing, the caution in the movie is real, but it shows a sense of difficulty in maintaining balance. After riding back and forth for a few times, Ning Hao asked him if he could add some movements, and he assumed a posture similar to flying. When seeing this scene, Ning Hao said that he felt very sad: "For me, a meaning suddenly appeared. In a world with nothing, we are quite lonely. You know that you need to communicate, but you need to communicate, but you need to communicate." When you are not around, you feel helpless. Just like I used to say that the monkey is shaking the tree, you are that thing and have no choice."
He has told the story of "the monkey shaking the tree" many times on many occasions. . When he was a child, there was a zoo not far from home, and he often climbed over the wall to wander in.There are lions, tigers, and a very old elephant in the garden. He doesn't like lions and tigers. They don't pay attention to people. They don't like elephants either. They always worry about when they will die. He likes to watch monkeys. They have emotions, bar their teeth at people, and pick up cages to scare people. After watching more, Ning Hao found that the monkey was always shaking the tree there, regardless of whether anyone was watching it or not. At first, he wondered why this guy did this. Then he thought about it, how could it do it without shaking the tree. The accidental discovery of
has since become his foundation of value. He feels that humans are just like monkeys. Living in this world and being busy is nothing more than shaking a tree, as if they are looking for meaning for themselves. In fact, it is just an illusion, but there is no other way. Later, when he opened a company, he named it after "Bad Monkey". A sculpture was placed at the door. It was Sun Wukong who became the victorious Buddha. He sat cross-legged, with the golden cudgel across his knees, his head bowed and his eyes closed.
"I am more sensitive to things like helplessness and powerlessness. In the final analysis, there is no way in life. You can't control anything. It seems like you are controlling something, but in fact it is nothing. You can only do this." Ning Hao said, Although his previous films did not focus on this kind of compassion and sadness for people, the characters basically played no role in them. They were just pawns, being dragged here and there. "Fate is bigger than you, you are nothing."
In this sense, he never thinks of himself as a person who does comedy. What he does is absurd drama, which is not only based on reality, but also very serious. Right question. It’s just the absurd parts that tend to make people laugh, because “when humans think, God laughs. When you look at the overall situation, the fate of the character becomes ridiculous. The harder he works, the more ridiculous he is, and everything he does is in vain.” ."
But he did not deny the meaning of laughter: "You can fight by telling jokes. When you can't control the fate and ending, you can choose your posture." Therefore, despite his pessimism, Ning Hao seems to remain in front of the public. Always a naughty smiling face.
"When I was very young, my mother always asked me to wash clothes. I hated washing clothes. I used a washboard to rub my hands until they were itchy. Every time I would have a sad face. Then an older brother told me that I had to wash my sad face to be happy. Your heart also needs to be washed, you can't escape this, but your attitude can be chosen and your mood can be adjusted."
Inner state
Ning Hao started writing the script for "Mr. Red Carpet" after "Crazy Alien" . That movie was released during the Spring Festival in 2019, with a cumulative box office of 1.448 billion in seven days, ranking second in the same period, and setting a record of his own. However, the Douban score was only 6.4, the lowest among all his feature films. At that time, he was interviewed by "Blog World" and said that this would be his last auteur film, and that in his next one he would try industrialization and make some ruthless films. When reporters asked him if he was joking or serious, he squinted his eyes and smiled at all the questions.
Looking at it now, "Mr. Red Carpet" is not ruthless, let alone industrial. The rhythm of only more than 380 shots is even a bit "anti-industrial". Ning Hao feels that this can be regarded as a self-return in a certain sense, because his two early works before becoming famous, "Incense" and "Green Grass", only had more than 400 shots. He misses the grammar of concise storytelling. . Of course, the capacity of "Mr. Red Carpet" is larger than those two movies, so it is also a challenge.
But what he said back then was not entirely a joke. Ning Hao told "China News Weekly" that at that time he did want to make a blockbuster, but in the end he didn't do it: "I used to think I could find something in the blockbuster, but then I found that it still didn't work. I couldn't write it. I I have to install something that I am particularly interested in. If I can’t find it, it will be very difficult.”
Picture/Photo provided by the interviewee
If you don’t count 2019’s “My Motherland and Me” and 2020’s “I Ning Hao has been away from the big screen for five years, from "Crazy Alien" to "Mr. Red Carpet". There was also a gap of five years between "Crazy Alien" and the previous film "心花路release".In the past ten years, he has only made three feature films, a full half less than the previous decade.
In the past ten years, Ning Hao seems to have played more roles, changing from a simple director to an all-round filmmaker. Starting from "Beautiful Heart", Bad Monkey Pictures has gradually expanded from production to the entire film production chain of production, distribution and marketing; in 2016, the "Bad Monkey 72 Movie Plan" was announced, and Ning Hao began to support Wen Muye and Lu Yang Yang, Shen Olympic and other young directors helped them complete their foundational works in the film industry.
Especially with the release of the two hit movies "I'm Not the God of Medicine" and "All or Nothing", coupled with the previous low-cost miracles created by "Crazy Stone" and the annual domestic box office champion of "Heart Blossoms", the facts seem to continue It proves that Ning Hao is always sharp in front of the market.
But Ning Hao said that everything was not intentional. "It starts out as a director's studio, but then you find that it's difficult to find more people for the next (shooting), so you want to fix the team. Once you have fixed the team, you have something to do, so you set up a company to contact others. Work. I have encountered some difficult problems in the past. Is it possible to raise funds with a company and have some say in issuance? Since we have companies, we have to work anyway, so let’s pick something valuable to work on. Being a young director is valuable, so I made '72 Changes.'" And in the final analysis, he left all the creative and management matters to his partners, so in the titles of many movies, his name is only the producer. .
As for the commercial success of several films, he attributed it to luck: "A lot of times it is good luck. When you were filming "Crazy Stone", the times chose you; the company also failed to make the right decisions, and young directors need someone like this platform, the market needs new things, and we have caught up. (Of course) products require an understanding of technology and tactics, and you still have to find a way to do the technical work well."
Ning Hao describes himself as a "medium student" , it is not a success based on box office alone, the audience is not that wide, and it has no artistic achievements. It has not won a single award from a category A film festival. "The most outstanding thing is the golden mean." After saying that, he himself laughed.
changes "the golden mean" into another word, which is "balance". For Ning Hao, balance is not the equality between the two ends of the lever, but the stability of a triangle, one corner is oneself, one corner is the work, and the other corner is the market. "The market cannot but respect it, right? The integrity of the work itself cannot but be discussed, as well as (that is) what one likes. A movie must have the look of a movie and must be balanced. If it is just a narrative tool, why? If you don't write novels, the cost is so low."
Although this balance can be called Ning Hao's way of survival in movies, or the tree-shaking posture he chooses as a monkey, it does not mean that he is completely happy with it. Counting the next new film that was completed last year, Ning Hao's resume has a total of ten films, but he feels that these ten films are just homework, not works. One day, maybe when I throw away my balance and play with it, that might be my work.
"Actually, I quite respect my inner state. I have to find the part I love, and the threshold may be raised. It's not that I am passionate about everything, but I still have things I like. Making movies is too difficult, If I don't love it, I won't be able to persevere," Ning Hao said.
Author: Xu Pengyuan
