Jiemian News Reporter | Lin Ziren Jiemian News Editor | Jiang Yan "True equality and freedom means that women should also feel that realizing self-worth is the most important. Whether relationships succeed or fail, they are all experiences for themselves. The most important thing

interface news reporter | Lin Ziren

interface news editor | Jiang Yan

"True equality and freedom means that women should also feel that realizing self-worth is the most important. Whether relationships succeed or fail, they are all experiences for themselves. The most important thing The most important thing is that I live my life. A man is not enough. You can find another one. You can be single or married. It doesn’t matter. It is just an experience in our lives. "In the "Creation" held yesterday. "Her" China Female Filmmaker Summit, "My Altay" director Teng Congcong responded to some viewers' doubts about the "love brain" of Zhang Fengxia played by Ma Yili in the play. She said that Ma Yili herself liked it very much. As a director, she also believes that Zhang Fengxia's emotional scenes are an indispensable part of the character's arc.

At this event, director Xu Anhua, director Liu Jiayin, director Teng Congcong, art shanghai Sino-French Women's Film Project "Her in Creation" academic chairman Dai Jinhua and scholar Mao Jian discussed the gender consciousness, living conditions and current women of Chinese female directors. Discuss issues such as the characteristics of creation.

What is feminism

The conversation started with Mao Jian asking Xu Anhua why she said in a previous interview that she "doesn't consider herself a feminist". Xu Anhua said that someone had asked her this question as early as the 1970s, a time when feminism was rarely discussed. Later, through reading feminist books, she realized that there are two kinds of feminists in the world, one is dedicated to fighting for women's rights, and the other is speaking about what they see as a woman.

"I have been thinking recently, then I must be a feminist," she said, "but the key to the question is whether you have this (gender) awareness. We live in a male-centered world, under the colonial feudal system, Women are men’s accessories. I have been thinking about what kind of feminist I am in the past two years, what do I agree with and what do I disagree with? This is a long process.” "This Trip " won the Best Director Award at the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival. She admits that it was filming this film that made her think about gender issues. After the movie was released, she suddenly began to ask herself, could it be possible that Wen Shan, the male protagonist played by Hu Ge and , was a woman? This question made her aware of the different gender role expectations that men and women carry: “For a person who is almost 40 years old, has no fixed job, and lives alone in a city as big as Beijing, these settings can only be completed by men. The expression of the proposition is how ordinary people face and overcome the pain in their lives. If this is a female character, it will bring a lot of questions about this character. I need to answer many other questions first, such as why she is 30. How old are you still not married? "

"It's a Worth It" Poster (Photo Source: Douban)

Teng Congcong believes that Xu Anhua's works have given her a lot of creative inspiration. In her heart, "Days and Nights in Tin Shui Wai" It represents the possibility contained in a narrative that is completely different from the grand narrative of heroism. She said that the narratives and characters in Xu Anhua's films may seem calm, but they conceal a lot of philosophy of life. This undercurrent is "particularly advanced" and has profoundly influenced her own creation. Some of the lines in "My Altay" that are talked about by the audience, such as "No matter how bumpy life is, we must live it brightly", "To love, to live, to get hurt", to a certain extent, are also inspired by Xu's works. The temperamental lines would not be out of place even if they were included in "Days and Nights in Tin Shui Wai".

"Compared with the 'routine' plots of many commercial films, you can easily understand how this routine is done. On the contrary, the wisdom of life and the unique perspective of women in observing things are very rare and subtle." She explain.

Stills of "My Altay" (Photo source: Douban)

Dai Jinhua said that every time he talks to Xu Anhua about his highlight moments in film history, he will mention the important role played by others in the filming of the film.For example, when talking about the dining scene in "Days and Nights in Tin Shui Wai", Ann Hui would say that there was someone in the team who was good at cooking and there was a very talented young screenwriter. "I really haven't met any other male director who would say that my most successful film was because I met a good screenwriter or a request from the film studio. This is a very female perception." Dai Jinhua said with emotion, Although she is also an advocate of auteur-centered theory, she believes that Xu Anhua's humility represents a kind of female strength because it faces up to the fact that film is a collaborative art.

Expressions and challenges of female creators

Several guests also talked about the opportunities and challenges faced by female creators today. Liu Jiayin pointed out that the gender stereotype of "what themes are suitable for female directors" still affects the career development opportunities of female directors. Liu Jiayin himself is a sports fan. He has studied sports movies in depth and is also very interested in shooting movies on this subject. However, sports subjects are usually considered to be a field that female creators would not choose. Based on her experience and observations, female filmmakers still do not have as broad a field as their male counterparts.

Teng Congcong believes that female directors should be brave enough to try new themes and blaze new trails little by little, so that investors who are accustomed to "playing it safe" can see the abilities of female directors. Dai Jinhua said that the practice of consciously excluding female directors from big-budget film projects certainly needs to be changed, but she also reminded female creators not to easily fall into male creative logic, "Why do we have to film Creation of Heaven and Earth, This Conquest, That Conquer? That logic is something I don't agree with from the inside out, and I don't want to express it in a movie. We don't have to make choices in order to prove that we can do things that only men can do. "

Teng Congcong also used the character "Ba Tai" in "My Altay" as an example to respond to the audience's question about whether there is a "female gaze" in the creations of female directors. She said that many times she was unable to draw conclusions and created more spontaneously, and Batai was indeed a beautiful male image in her mind that did not exist in reality. In her view, the "female gaze" is not just the reversal of the "male gaze". It brings the possibility of some equality. "Men are shooting the perfect women in their hearts, so there should be more female directors." Let’s ask the male audience what good and beautiful men are in our minds.”

Batai in “My Altay” (Photo source: Douban)

Regarding the trend of popular male stars occupying the screen in recent years, Dai Jinhua made the following analysis. First of all, fan culture has shaped the overall consumption trend of actors who are getting younger and younger, and whose characters are closer to puberty than mature characters; secondly, the increase in the cultural consumption ability of middle-class female groups has determined the supply of cultural products, resulting in the image of men third, Yuandan (original Danmei) developed from different sources in the United Kingdom, North America, and Japan, and has converged into a considerable market in China. In this popular culture, male characters replace female characters and become The object being watched by the audience.

Dai Jinhua once interviewed four or five senior original authors. She asked them, are the male characters you create your ideal lover or your ideal self? They hesitated for a moment, and the answers they gave were all "ideal self", which Dai Jinhua found very interesting. "In Danmei writing, the first thing to deal with is not the theme of men and women, but mainly the issue of self-expression of modern women unconsciously." She believes that it is difficult for female creators to express their true social achievements and social practices. , social growth is placed in female characters to express, but it requires the help of male settings in order to fully express women's life experience.

At the same time, Dai Jinhua does not believe that the emergence of female-oriented works poses a substantial challenge to the tradition of "male gaze" in film and television works. "On the contrary, after female directors establish their legitimacy, we can still see male characters in the works of female directors." Gaze. Men’s rights are not only men’s power, but also an ideology internalized by women.”