[Global Times Report, Reporter Zhou Yang and Yang Liu] In the film market this week, a Hong Kong film broke through against the wind. On November 1, the disaster-themed movie "Burning City", produced by Jiang Zhiqiang, Andy Lau, and Pan Yaoming, directed by Pan Yaoming, and starr

[Global Times reporter Zhou Yang and Yang Liu] In the film market this week, a Hong Kong film broke through against the wind. On November 1, the disaster-themed movie "Burning City", produced by Jiang Zhiqiang, Andy Lau , and Pan Yaoming, directed by Pan Yaoming, starring Andy Lau, Bai Yu, Mok Wenwei , was released nationwide. In the film, Hong Kong suddenly encounters a leak of hazardous materials. Expert Fan Weili (played by Andy Lau) and official Cecilia (played by Mo Wenwei) disagree with each other. Fire captain Li Jiefeng (played by Bai Yu) and his teammates rush to the front line for rescue. The black chain of interests that caused the disaster gradually unfolds. Surface. In the 7 days since its release, the film's reputation and box office have continued to ferment: it ranked first in the single-day box office, with a total box office of more than 120 million yuan in the 7 days of release, and a Douban score of 7.6.

Actor Bai Yu plays the role of fire captain Li Jiefeng in the movie "Burning City"

Recently, film producer Jiang Zhiqiang and lead star Bai Yu accepted an interview with the Global Times and shared the original intention and behind-the-scenes story of the film's creation. Jiang Zhiqiang told reporters: "Using commercial packaging to express social issues and let the audience pay attention to this matter is the original intention." Bai Yu said: "Although the 'disaster' in "Burning City" is presented artistically, I hope that through the film Bringing everyone closer to real firefighters.”

How to make fictional disasters look realistic?

In 2019, Jiang Zhiqiang saw a news report exposing the " foreign garbage " industry: unscrupulous businessmen use toxic waste as a tool to make money, secretly resell it to third world countries, stop in Hong Kong for transshipment or destroy it, and earn high profits from it. amount of profit. From this, Jiang Zhiqiang came up with the idea of ​​turning this subject into a movie, and decided to use "disaster" as a packaging.

For a long time, Chinese-language films have rarely been involved in disaster themes. Jiang Zhiqiang admitted that disaster movies are difficult to make and risky from a commercial perspective, but he resisted the pressure and brought "Burning City" to the market: "This is a subject of great social value. These disasters seem far away. Maybe it’s only one step away, I want to tell the world this information that affects people’s lives.”

In order to make the fictional disaster look realistic, Jiang Zhiqiang led the team to conduct detailed preliminary investigations and discuss the details with experts in medical, firefighting and other fields. , it took more than two years to develop the script. After countless overturns and revisions, the actors who played the firefighters also needed to train in advance. In Jiang Zhiqiang's view, the most important thing in making a movie is that the story must be believable and the audience must be brought into the world constructed by the film. "If we cannot do this, everything in the future will fail."

The garbage dump where the fire spread, the dense Smoke billowing from post-disaster ruins, collapsed buildings... After "Burning City" was released, many viewers discussed the special effects scenes in the film on social platforms. Jiang Zhiqiang told reporters that the team has indeed spent a lot of effort on the graphics, but technology is only a tool to serve the characters and stories. “Disasters and special effects are all publicity points. The most important thing is to try our best to write the story solidly and bring the characters to life. Create a good image so that the audience can see it and feel the theme we express when they walk out of the cinema."

Bai Yu is the first choice for fire captain Li Jiefeng

In the movie "Burning City", Bai Yu plays the role of fire captain Li Jiefeng. Talking about the reasons for casting, Jiang Zhiqiang shared that he was deeply impressed by Bai Yu's performance in "The Silent Truth" a few years ago. When he read the script of "Burning City", Li Jiefeng in his mind was Bai Yu's image, "I I was very lucky to find Bai Yu to play this role. I had no other choice in my mind at the time. I had been waiting for him for a long time. His performance exceeded everyone's imagination."

"My first feeling was, how dare the creative team find one. Are people from the northwest playing the role of a Hong Kong firefighter? "For Bai Yu, when he first encountered the script, he was more worried: Can he integrate into the local environment? How to stand out among the Hong Kong actors? How to play a firefighter well? ... Bai Yu had many question marks in his heart. In the subsequent exchanges, the producer, director and Bai Yu worked together to design a character biography for Li Jiefeng, supplementing his family and growth background, and finding a "handling point" for his performance. After

joined the group, Bai Yu and the actors went to the Hong Kong Fire Department for internship.Bai Yu lamented: "We feel a lot of physical exertion just wearing firefighter uniforms. How can firefighters withstand the fire physically and mentally? I admire them very much." With this admiration, Bai Yu gradually approached The image of a firefighter and integrating into this group - "During training, I went to the bathroom wearing a character costume. Two firefighters recognized me as the real captain, saluted me and shouted 'sir'. I was stunned at the time. Live." Bai Yu shared with a smile.

At the end of the video, experts decided to blow up the building and bury hazardous materials. At a critical juncture, Li Jiefeng and two firefighters chose to stay at the scene, racing against time to install explosive devices, and finally solved the crisis at the cost of their lives. Regarding the sacrifice of the character, Bai Yu explained: "The firefighter also has relatives and friends, and his heart will fluctuate when faced with a choice, but he has a responsibility and thinks if I don't complete this thing, what will happen to so many people behind him. "

In Jiang Zhiqiang’s view, although Li Jiefeng ended with sacrifice, "Burning City" is not a so-called heroic movie: "In the face of disaster, someone will definitely stand up, but firefighters stand on the front line, and they have no hesitation. But I think What is expressed is not the bravery of a certain person, but that 'everyone is a hero', even if he helps an old man when danger comes. The protagonist of the whole movie is the common people."

"I want to tell the whole world about this."

"Burning City" brings together Hong Kong stars familiar to the audience such as Andy Lau, Karen Mok, Lin Baoyi, etc. Most of the firefighters are played by the younger generation of Hong Kong actors. With everyone's concern, Bai Yu, a "new member", quickly Integrate into the group. The expert Fan Weili played by Andy Lau is Li Jiefeng's brother-in-law. Li Jiefeng has always been resentful towards Fan Weili due to the death of his sister. Bai Yu recalled that the first scene he filmed with Andy Lau was a confrontation between the two, which made him even more nervous as he was already slow to warm up. After Andy Lau noticed it, he said to Bai Yu, "It doesn't matter, just do it (perform) the way you want." These simple words instantly comforted Bai Yu, "I let go of a lot of burdens and can focus more on the play." Bai Yu told reporters that he learned a lot from the crew of "Burning City": "Everyone regards this work as their own career. You can feel their professionalism and commitment both in front of and behind the scenes." In During the performance, Bai Yu spoke Mandarin and the Hong Kong actors spoke Cantonese. "When everyone expresses their characters with heart, they can feel (each other)."

Having been in the industry for decades, Jiang Zhiqiang has promoted the overseas distribution of Chinese films such as " Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ", " Heroes ", " House of Flying Daggers ", and produced many Hong Kong films including the " Cold War " series. Movie. Regarding the increasingly close exchanges and cooperation between Hong Kong and the Mainland in the film field, he said frankly: "Hong Kong and the Mainland are inseparable. There are exchanges of personnel in all walks of life, and the same is true for filmmaking. Nowadays, many Hong Kong movies are looking for actors in the Mainland, and everything is based on roles. "Need is the starting point."

Jiang Zhiqiang shared that many overseas audiences are interested in "Burning City" and the film will be released in more than 10 countries and regions. "They think this It’s not just a disaster movie, but a movie about international topics. We must tell the whole world about it.” When asked if he had plans to create a series of disaster movies, Jiang Zhiqiang said that he was willing to take risks and make new attempts, “I don’t want to take forever. Seeing the same routine in movies is also what the audience expects. If a disaster movie is made well today, will we continue to make it in the future? We cannot be superstitious about genres. The audience will only buy tickets for believable stories.”