The seriously ill grandmother came to the end of her life, and her two sons and daughters returned to their hometown to take care of her. The siblings each have different life circumstances, coupled with the writing and perspective of grandchildren and contemporaries, the lives of the three generations are intertwined in the long and tense precious time in the Jiangnan water town, creating a feeling of nostalgia and indifferent detachment. .
"Leaving on a Boat" poster
The story of the movie "Leaving on a Boat" takes place in Deqing County, Zhejiang Province, the hometown of director Chen Xiaoyu. It is different from the creators' narratives about rural poverty, isolation and backwardness in most Chinese literary and artistic films. This prosperous land of fish and rice has a harmony and conflict that blends tradition and modernity. In the past, every household had a unique picture of life on a boat. In the evolution of modernization, with the disappearance of old houses and the departure of young people, a variety of new possibilities have expanded.
Trailer for "Away in a Boat". (02:15)
The life that cannot be kept, the hometown that cannot be returned. This sad and healing farewell happened in the imagination of director Chen Xiaoyu, and also exists in thousands of modern Chinese families who have left their hometowns.
The starting point of the story is a conversation about death between Chen Xiaoyu and her grandmother in 2015. Grandma thought about what she would be like after death, and her detached attitude brought inspiration and thinking to Chen Xiaoyu.
The grandchildren in the film have the shadow of Chen Xiaoyu himself. His parents are divorced, his family is in trouble, and he has left his hometown. The characters' situations hide the hidden pain of the creator's own growth and the observations brought about by this perspective. "You have grown up now, and your parents' home is not your home." Chen Xiaoyu knew that as a director, he should "restrain, restrain, and restrain again," but he still couldn't help but let A Tao say this for him.
Chen Xiaoyu, who has a background in documentaries, is accustomed to observing and recording life at all times. In many scenes, based on his own feelings, he evolved into thought-provoking prescribed situations. He is also happy to leave the scene to professional actors with more life experience and let them perform according to their heart. And he and the camera returned to the position of recorders, recording the real reactions and sudden inspirations at the scene.
陈小雨
"Leaving on a Boat" has gained a lot of good reputation since its debut in the Asia New Section of the Shanghai International Film Festival last year. After the film won the Best Screenplay Award, it gained great popularity at the First Youth Film Festival in Xining. Chen Xiaoyu also won the "Best New Director Award" at the 10th Silk Road International Film Festival.
html On April 12, the film was officially released nationwide and landed in the National Art Film Screening Alliance theaters. The small-cost film with less than 2 million has completed communication and empathy with more and more audiences. Although the box office of niche literary films has just Over one million, but the Douban score soared from 8.0 at the beginning to 8.3. The audience who watched it almost cried, but after the emotional catharsis, there was also a sense of relief in the aftertaste.
As of press time, "Leaving on a Boat" had a Douban score of 8.3.
"Grandma didn't have a home before. She found her lover and home after a lot of hardships. She will also miss the days when the whole family was together. Everyone has to go their own way after all. If cars are convenient, boats will no longer be used. "Home can be right here, or it can be far away, but you have to find your home."
This is a narration in the movie, and it is also what director Chen Xiaoyu said to himself. "I want to make a movie to remember my hometown, remember my grandma, remember every tired soul looking for home on the road, remember their courage, and the relief we need." During the release of the
film, director Chen Xiaoyu accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from The Paper.
"Leaving on a Boat" ending song "Rock the Boat" mv. (03:16)
[Dialogue]
A more modern rural narrative
The Paper News : The hometowns of many literary and artistic films are relatively poor and backward, but the movies present a picture of life in a prosperous land of plenty.What kind of hometown do you want to present?
陈小雨: I remember when I was in Dublin about this film, I met an American film critic. He asked me if this film was an illusion, because the Chinese rural areas he had seen in movies in the past were all very poor. , when he sees such a rural area that is not so poor and backward, or even relatively comfortable, he will wonder if this is fake.
But this is not only not an illusion, but we have pulled back the rural conditions a little bit in order to visually synchronize with the memory. Just like the old houses in the film, there may be less than 10% of them in the village now. , there are more small bungalows with better conditions. The reality is that the conditions in many rural areas in Zhejiang are even better than what is shown in the movie.
I also stayed in Yunnan for three years, making documentaries about Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, and visited many mountain villages for field research. At that time, I realized that the development gap in our country was particularly large. The main reason was transportation. Some places required several hours of walking on mountain roads. The infrastructure had not yet been fully built, but Zhejiang had been relatively complete for a long time. Including the fact that the canal has created opportunities for Jiangnan people to go to Beijing to take exams and do business in distant places since ancient times, not to mention the current two-hour economic circle.
It is true that the rural areas we presented in the past are more of the same type of rural areas. In fact, China is so big, the development levels of different regions are completely different, and the cultural customs are also completely different. It is diverse, so I think it should Let the world see all kinds of Chinese rural areas instead of being limited to a certain kind of imagination.
Another Chinese rural scene
The Paper News : The family structure in the movie is quite complicated. Not only does it involve leaving the hometown to go to a big city, but it also involves foreign-related marriages and reorganizing the family. It is a projection of your individual experience, and it is still the same. Is there some kind of typical family in your imagination?
Chen Xiaoyu: Compared with the rural areas of Guangdong, the concept of clan in rural areas of Zhejiang is no longer so strong. Especially after the reform and opening up, Zhejiang people are more open to business and develop rapidly, causing many families to break away from their original The clan system of each clan develops in a smaller unit. This means that rural areas in Zhejiang were exposed to modernity earlier, which also has a lot to do with transportation.
For example, our village only takes 40 minutes to drive to Hangzhou and 13 minutes to take the high-speed rail. It is very close to Shanghai. People in the village will travel more frequently between the city and the countryside. Some people even live in Deqing. Yes, I go to Hangzhou for work.
So it seems that everyone has two worlds. On the one hand, you are exposed to modernity, and on the other hand, you keep returning to your hometown. The "leaving home" of young people does not mean that you have to go to a particularly far away place. , a kind of response can be formed.
This kind of contrast occurs frequently in daily life, and one of the main characteristics of modernity is actually change, the change of values and fields, which will inevitably lead to reorganization.
Stills from "Leaving on a Boat"
For example, when A-Zhen was in Shanghai, her ex-husband Lao Song, who was A-Tao's father, may have been together because they both went to college in Shanghai. As people who came to Shanghai from rural areas, they shared They understood each other for a period of time, so for a period of time, they were on the same frequency and fell in love.
But at the next crossroads in life, A-Zhen still wants to move on to a bigger world, and Dr. Song can get more benefits from returning to his hometown in order to have a more stable life. At this time, values have shifted.
For Zhen, it might not be that hard to accept being a housewife at first, but when she saw more possibilities, she knew she was not willing to be such a woman, so she reorganized , it inevitably arises. When she touches another language, it broadens her reach, and the range her feet can reach becomes further.
Chen Xiaoyu and the two grandmothers in and out of the movie
The Paper News : Do the two grandchildren in the movie have your own shadow? Tell us about the impact your hometown and family had on your growth and life choices?
Chen Xiaoyu : I left my hometown relatively early. Since my parents were doing business, I was placed in a boarding school in Hangzhou. Since I was a child, I rarely return to my hometown. I only return to the village during summer vacation. I usually spend weekends at home in Hangzhou. At that time, my family was not bankrupt.
Every time I go back to my hometown, I feel a sense of simplicity and freedom. There are many people and cars in the city, so you can't run around blindly. People will be afraid that you will be cheated by bad people or that you will be hit by a car. But when I was in my hometown, I could run around without any scruples. Everywhere I went, there were villages where everyone knew each other. There were many rivers, fish ponds, and shrimp ponds where you could have picnics, pick lotus leaves, and fish for frogs. Crayfish fishing, those times seem more like life itself.
When I was in the fourth grade of elementary school, my grandfather passed away. It was the first time I saw the impermanence of life. When I was in junior high school, due to family changes, I went to the United Arab Emirates for four years. At that time, my sister and father were doing business there, so I went to study. During the summer vacation, every time I return to my hometown, I will find that the old houses have become fewer and fewer.
So I have experienced the connection with my hometown, or the disappearance and changes of my hometown in my memory, since I was a teenager. Maybe I feel that if I had been in my hometown, this process would have been more boiling. It's just that there is one less old house today and another one less next month. But when I go back after a few years away from my hometown, I witness its staged changes again and again, which are very obvious. You can be sure that one day it will completely transform into another form.
The Paper : Boats seem to be a very important image in the movie. There are many different kinds of boats in the film. What considerations went into the selection and filming of these boats?
陈小雨: Sometimes it’s a matter of shooting intuition. Many viewers feel that the image of the boat is used well, and many viewers feel that the image of the boat is used deliberately. Regarding the boat, I find it difficult to analyze it. Of course, it will have some fusion of traditional and modern symbols, but at this intuitive level, there is no way to draw equal signs one by one and tell you what the wooden boat represents. , what do big ships represent, and what do speedboats represent, we don’t think about it this way, mainly because this kind of life is so common in our hometown. In grandma’s words, in the bedtime stories from childhood to adulthood, in our field of vision, various ships have maintained a high appearance rate.
Old photos of Chen Xiaoyu’s home. Boats are an important means of transportation and life in this village.
Everyone carries a world
The Paper News : There are three generations in this family. There is a modern part, but it is also influenced by many traditions. How do you feel and design the collision of the two parts?
Chen Xiaoyu : I think this kind of collision happens all the time in life. It is an intergenerational relationship. What I'm more interested in in the movie is the collision of different worlds, because I think everyone carries a world with them, and their world will be surrounded by people with similar values to them, living in their own way of life.
So Grandma’s world, Azhen’s world and Ah Qing’s world are all completely different. In Azhen's world, there will be more people who are working hard for their careers, and everyone will work harder, but in Azhen's world, they will come into contact with more people who are as free and casual as him, the kind of people who are particularly curly. They are different in their group. For grandma, it is a simpler rural world, and these three worlds actually coexist in one family.
When such a family faces life choices, the collision of concepts, the collision of modernity and tradition, will inevitably occur. For example, whether to continue to treat terminal illnesses, or how to deal with posthumous affairs after death, everyone's decisions will diverge. , different concepts need to make some decisions together at this time.
The situation and choices of the siblings are different.
The Paper News : In the last days of my grandmother’s life, the two generations made different choices. When my mother returned, my grandson believed that his grandmother would understand his choice, which reflected the two generations. Do people have different outlooks on life?
Chen Xiaoyu : I think there are two versions of interpretation. Most people's understanding is that A Tao did not return physically, and that he and his grandmother met spiritually, seeing each other in dreams. At this level, between the two of them, this is also a reality, a reality that others cannot see.
But some viewers feel that A Tao has actually gone back, and this proportion is very small. They felt that A Tao had gone back, saw his grandmother at night, and then left secretly. Because he didn’t want to attend the funeral, didn’t want to face so many relatives, and continued to walk alone on the path of pursuing his dream that was not understood.
The endings of both versions are OK. I prefer movies with two endings, such as "The Terrorist" directed by Edward Yang. I am willing to give the audience a choice and not to be so rigid.
I think that in a family, there must be people who are close to each other and people who are further away. Some people have fulfilled their obligations, and some people have cherished their regrets. If all the descendants came back to me, it would seem like it would not be the world I know. The world I know would not be so perfect.
However, I also did a small test after the screening. I asked the audience after the two screenings if they could understand A Tao's final decision, please raise their hands. I found that most of the people who raised their hands were young people, and older people had a harder time understanding A Tao, and even thought that A Tao was a white-eyed wolf.
Grandson A Tao received a call from his grandmother who was dying
The Paper News : Many viewers can feel a deep resonance after watching the movie, because they are all young people who have left their hometowns. Maybe because of the death of the old man, they have lost someone from their hometown. kind of connection.
Chen Xiaoyu : Now the only elderly person in my family is my grandma. I would also like to say that after grandma is gone, will anyone go back? It seems that there is no need to forcefully go back, but it would be a pity not to go back.
For me, a good format is to make it into a movie. Maybe people who don’t make movies can take some photos, maybe write a diary, but I think it has to become something, this memory, it has to have a place to put it, and the place to put it doesn’t have to be a physical space. , but in your heart, I think it is necessary to clear out a place for your past.
The Paper : What opinions does grandma have on you shooting this subject? Many elderly people think it is unlucky to discuss death. How did you discuss death with her?
Chen Xiaoyu: When I talk about death to my grandma, she is very open-minded. On the contrary, the middle-aged people in the family feel "bah" when talking about death, which is unlucky. It's like an elephant in the room. Everyone knows that such a day will come, but they are unwilling to face it head-on.
My grandma always said that after I die, I will do whatever I want. If you take a beautiful photo of her, she will say that she will use this photo as a portrait when she dies. She will also take me to see the shroud she prepared for herself and tell me how to organize and distribute it after she dies. . Other adults think that grandma always talks about which pot she does not open or lift, but I feel that by saying this often, it eliminates the fear of death and brings us closer to each other when we are alive. distance.
I remember that in the movie, there was a very interesting funeral scene.When I said that I wanted to film this scene, I could feel the air among the relatives and fellow villagers in the room became stagnant. It was a very subtle feeling. Everyone knew that they should support the children at home, but this matter was their most taboo. of.
was silent for a while, and suddenly my uncle said, "Movies are reverse, just like dreams." Then everyone started to echo, "Yes, yes, movies are reverse," as if they had found a fulcrum. We need an explanation to dispel the unpleasantness caused by that kind of "bad luck".
Afterwards, my grandma proudly told me that it was better for grandma to be kind to you, otherwise no one would be willing to let you hold a memorial service at home.
The director's grandmother took a photo with the funeral scene in the film. She said: "It looks good. When I leave, do it for me too."
The Paper When did you acquire the experience and feeling of observing the subtle details?
Chen Xiaoyu : I returned to my hometown in about 2015. During that time, I found one thing that was quite different. You often have to attend a series of events such as weddings and funerals. During the banquet activities, many people who usually don't appear appear one after another. It seems that this kind of activity is a link to maintain the relationship between the village. Everyone reminisces about the past and revolves around topics such as weddings and deaths. Talking about their respective life circumstances and family status, the various conversations I heard during weddings and funerals formed this material.
Villagers discuss grandma’s funeral
The Paper : Many scenes in the movie are very real, and the actors are all very experienced professional actors, so was there more improvisation on set, or was the script more rigorously written?
陈小雨: The scene of the quarrel in the hospital had the most freedom of expression. We shot about seven or eight scenes. The performance method, line order and final ending of each scene were completely different. Even the actors later joined in A state of "I don't know how to act". To this day, I still can't explain why I needed them to improvise in that section. Maybe it's because I think that conflict is an important "drama" in the film.
is more often a wording modification. For example, in the scene where the old lady is forcibly discharged from the hospital, the script says "Why don't you let me go?" Teacher Ge feels that "why" is more of a question than an inquiry. I changed it to "Why won't you let me go?" I think it's great to make changes like this.
What the screenwriter and director can do is to think of all aspects as much as possible in the early stage. When it comes to that moment, the key point is the actor's own emotions and body. They still have to rely on them as much as possible. Most of them When, they themselves are right.
The Paper : In the scene at night when grandma took off the oxygen mask, Nian Qing hesitated and paused. What was he thinking?
Chen Xiaoyu: I think this is not a struggle at the level of thinking, but a stalemate between rationality and sensibility. It is a kind of concept where I want to support you and respect your wishes, but my hand It’s this conflict of not being in control, of being physically driven by my emotions and not being able to do it.
Stills from "Leaving on a Boat"
The Paper News : Did you discuss the handling of the pause time with the actors during the performance? That physical time is quite subtle.
陈小雨: Yes, when we were filming, I knew that the length of the pause would greatly affect the presentation of the scene. However, with this length of time, it may not be possible to make an accurate prediction in one scene alone. It depends more on making adjustments in the later stage based on the context and the rhythm of the entire film after filming. In order to ensure the editing space, we shot two shots of the hands and the face separately. This kind of rhythm still needs to be set off before and after. When editing later, we just rely on some intuition.
Use your own feelings as seeds
The Paper : Tell us about your experience of returning to your hometown to create from overseas?
Chen Xiaoyu : I went to school relatively early and skipped a grade in the middle, so I was already in my freshman year at the age of 17. I knew very early that I wanted to do something related to creation. I started writing novels in elementary school and making short films in middle school. Therefore, there were many basic courses in my undergraduate degree that had nothing to do with my major. I was a little impatient and couldn't wait. In addition, the relationship with my family was very bad at the time, so in 2011, I dropped out of school to make documentaries.
After returning to China, I rented a house in the suburbs of Hangzhou. I met students from the School of Communication through some performances. We went to interview various people, including some independent musicians, and we all got in touch with them through some side stories. That was A very wild stage, shooting documentaries in a very wild way. You can shoot whatever you can. There is no need to build a scene or have a script.
At that time, I had been away from China for more than 4 years, and I needed to re-establish a new understanding of my hometown. By the end of 2016, I felt that I still needed systematic study, so I went to Toronto to study for 18 months and completed a complete set of film production courses.
Chen Xiaoyu’s documentary work was shortlisted for the top ten documentaries of the 10th China Independent Film Festival.
The Paper : During the period when you were making the documentary, what kind of people or topics do you think are naturally attracted to you? What kind of habits and ideas did you benefit from later?
Chen Xiaoyu : At the beginning, the theme I often paid attention to was the issue between ideals and reality. Later, I still regarded reality as a relatively main element, that is, how can we build our own in this wave of reality? spiritual world. My creative habit is to shoot a lot of material and minimize human judgment as much as possible. Later, I made less documentaries, and I felt that even if I retreated to a person or a camera, it would not be enough to achieve a state of invisibility. But later in life, I have always maintained the sensitivity of a documentary photographer, watching with my own eyes at all times, recording it as material in my mind, and thinking about reconstructing it one day.
The Paper : One interesting point I noticed is that you gave everyone a lot of freedom in terms of actors’ performances, but when it came to choices about camera position and composition, you chose to use 3D modeling to put these things Thinking about it all, it seems like the creative habits of these two different directors.
3D modeling was done to prepare for each scene.
Chen Xiaoyu : The purpose of making complete preparations is to leave room for freedom. If the preparations are not sufficient, a lot of time will be wasted on set. In fact, the biggest difficulty for you to go to the scene is the lack of time. If you give me an extra week, the quality of this film will definitely be much better than it is now. So every minute you can save is a minute, and this is still very effective.
I started learning 3D modeling when I was at Toronto Film School. It can be very efficient in aligning various departments. What kind of scene are we going to shoot? What is the composition of each shot, lighting, art Everyone can know their boundaries, and every department can join in the creation in the early stage.
I asked the director of photography, art director, and costume director to come in, not to let them do a job for me, but to let their vision come in and let their life experience, aesthetics, and vision enrich the presentation of the film. But there will inevitably be disagreements among us, and disagreements are the only way for us to realize and surpass each other's ideas. If this kind of disagreement is not digested in the early stage, it will occur on the spot, occupying a lot of time and eating up the performance time.
Only by doing some basic technical work well and knowing that we have a guaranteed version can we have the confidence to make adjustments when the inspiration comes out on site. The basic work is to sharpen the knife and chop wood. When it comes time to chop wood, you still have to chop it how you want.
The crew of "Leaving on a Boat"
The Paper News : There are many imagery techniques in "Leaving on a Boat", which is quite authorial and literary. That is something that documentaries cannot provide. This is what attracts you to Are you interested in creating feature films?
Chen Xiaoyu : When I was 14 years old, I made short films and dramas, including the novels I wrote. They were all fiction at the beginning. When I was in junior high school, I also serialized fantasy online articles on the Internet. In fact, literature A big difference between it and movies is that it can have psychological depictions. Movies do not directly depict people's spiritual world, but have to reflect it by depicting the physical world.
But I also think that dreams themselves are also a real life experience. Although this experience is not shared with others, it is very real to the person who has or experiences the dream. I have always firmly felt that all the stories I create, whether they are fictional or more realistic, whether they are science fiction in the future or rooted in the countryside, they all come from a real feeling, that is, I want to I have experienced it myself, so I took photos like this. I can have different depiction methods, methods that reflect social reality, and I can also have many imaginations, but my own feelings are the starting point and the seed.
Grandma "left on a boat", the shot is full of literary poetry
