Text | Cynic Chop Chai Academy Columnist Editor | Dan Dancui "I heard three words from you, called dissatisfaction." In
"Actors please take their place", Chen Kaige sharply criticized the actor Yu Xiaotong in a sentence The Internet went viral. Unlike Guo Jingming's tirades, nor as straightforward and unacceptable as Li Chengru, Chen Kaige's words are always loud, brief, but quite majestic. In this show full of competition and pressure, Chen Kaige looks like a wise man who sees through the world. Some people say that after "Taoist Goes Down the Mountain" in 2015, Chen Kaige has been stuck in a position of "not going up and down", neither being able to follow the "Farewell My Concubine" all the way to the gods, nor falling into the dust because of Jiang Lang's talents. . In fact, from "Jingke Assassinated King of Qin" to "Promise", from "Mei Lanfang" to "The Legend of the Demon Cat", and then to this year's "My Motherland and Me". Over the years, Chen Kaige has been adapting, changing and experimenting, and insisted on deconstructing this era from his own perspective and interpreting Chen Kaige's utopia. In an interview, he said to Yang Lan: "I don't embrace this era, I'm sitting on the sidelines." The words
, this cup of calm and heavyness, just summed up Chen Kaige's more than 30 years of filmmaking life impartially.
Past events 1969, this year, there is no smog in Beijing. The Vietnamese on the western border are fighting the Americans. China is also shrouded in a red flame, and everyone is looking for directions. 17-year-old Chen Kaige, with ten bags of toothpaste and a box of old books prepared for him by his father, Chen Huai'ai, sat on the train to Xishuangbanna and dipped into the flood of "going up the mountains to the countryside". In the roar of the siren, it passed through 8 provinces and cities to Yunnan 4000 kilometers away. Yunnan is the “land of Zhang Li” among many populations. Many people from the north cannot adapt to the climate there. When the master of the Republic of China, Chen Yinke, arrived at Southwest Associated University, he was ill in bed because he could not adapt to the climate.
When Chen Kaige first arrived here, he also developed macules all over his body like everyone else, first with redness and itching, and then began to fester. A group of children from Beijing came to the lush virgin forests of the south in their supposedly carefree years. Their daily "work" was a hoe, a machete, and a tiger's mouth that always blew blood. Many years later, there are still people questioning whether this is ill-fated or the times? When he was an educated youth in the primeval forest, Chen Kaige cut down many trees. There is a kind of tree called "Dracaena". The branches are soft and dry, and the bright red sap is discharged from the cut, which can often stain the hands of the loggers red. Chen Kaige once said in "Let’s Talk": "My hands are covered with the blood of a big tree." At that time, Chen Kaige looked at his blood-covered hands and suddenly understood what life is—"life, It's a piece of torn clothes patched with flowers." There are occasional colorful embellishments, but they can't hide the sad background. Such boring and hard days made Chen Kaige's heart full of confusion and sadness. "Lying in the dark at night, I can see the big star in the gap between the roof thatch, listening to the sad cry of the muntjac in the forest in the distance, and secretly shed tears, the dream is all the old things of the old man, think about it, it will still be bright. The heart panicked." Before going to Yunnan, "hunger" has always been the deepest memory in Chen Kaige's life. During the three-year special period, the rations for children in Beijing cities were only six to nine kilograms. Once upon a time, the director who won the Palme d'Or in the future was also looking for vegetable roots and vegetable leaves near the vegetable market and chopped them up with sweet potato bread into vegetable dumplings. Holding it in both hands, eating it carefully, like a delicacy, I'm afraid it will fall on the ground.
Later in his movie "Yellow Earth", the desolate Xintianyou in the mouths of Xiao Suo and Cuiqiao, who are full of holes, are all the reflections they experienced back then. Many times, people do not want to embrace the times because they are too cold. If you hold it in your arms, you will definitely hurt your lungs. During his years in Yunnan, Chen Kaige saw fireflies flying all over the sky, and saw his fellow travellers being crushed to death by felled tree trunks, and he also met the writer A Cheng who jumped in line with him... The things that these experiences gave him, later they were or More or less mirrored in his movies. Movie Dream In 1976, Chen Kaige returned to Beijing. The ten cans of toothpaste given by his father were distributed to colleagues who jumped in line, and the box of books was all made of tobacco paper, which did not comfort the soul, but satisfied the addiction. Two years later, Chen Kaige enrolled in the Directing Department of Beijing Film Academy and officially entered another important role in his life. Some people say that Chen Kaige is best at subtle narratives. He can make a short story into a two-hour movie. His movies always have an indescribable exquisiteness.
In 1984, Chen Kaige released his debut novel "Yellow Earth". The film was filmed by Zhang Yimou, a well-known director who later became famous. The two standard bearers met together and announced that the fifth generation of Chinese directors had begun to enter the stage of history. In the movie, the land of China, which was full of holes and still shrouded in depressive atmosphere, was transformed into the "yellow earth". In the heavy desolation of thousands of gutters, it seems that a long-depressed force is about to spray out. An Ansai waist drum in the film is also known as "the most classic chapter in Chinese film history." Later, Chen Kaige wrote in "How I Photographed the Yellow Land": "The land here is like history itself. It is desolate and full of hope." Zhang Yimou was 34 years old when he was filming "The Yellow Land". 32 years old.
Two years later, the film "Grand Parade" was born. The film continues the charm and style of "Yellow Earth". In the grand composition, it still does not lose the thinking and questioning of human nature and the status quo. In the film, Wu Ruofu, the soldier played by Wang Xueqi, has a very classic dialogue: "Old Chinese people said that a good man is not a soldier! This is not right now! How many roads have we taken in the past few months? I'll forget it, everyone goes. It's 9993 kilometers! Isn't a good man able to endure such a hardship? So I want to say! Good men are soldiers!" While describing the harsh training of the army, it also tells the heavy sense of honor on the soldiers. By 1987, Chen Kaige directed the film "The King of Children" adapted from the work of the writer and friend A Cheng, which also reflected their young experience. In this movie, the teacher Laogan as an educated youth goes to Dashan as a Chinese teacher. The students have no textbooks, are busy with their work, and the head teacher does not do practical work. All kinds of status quo impact this purely sensitive and true young man's perception. Later when he left Dashan, he specially left a dictionary and wrote a sentence for his student Wang Fu: "Wang Fu, don't copy anything from now on, don't even copy the dictionary."
Chen Kaige said, "Kids King" "Is a film shot with simple techniques and techniques. He hopes it is "honest" and "full of novelty". After that, Chen Kaige step by step towards his own peak. I have to say that the 1980s was an era full of idealism, but beauty and dreams were also fleeting. People sometimes don't want to embrace the times because the appearance of the times is so delicate and fragile that they must be careful to see the whole picture and convey their own voice. Farewell My Concubine One night in 2001, Chen Kaige had a dream. In his dream, he saw a man walking towards him wearing a costume gown, and only when he looked closely, he discovered that it was Leslie Cheung. Dimly, his elder brother said to him in very pure Mandarin: "Farewell from now on." Chen Kaige was awakened suddenly, his forehead was sweaty when he sat up.
Two years later, on April 1, when Chen Kaige was having dinner and chatting with several foreign friends, he suddenly received news that Leslie Cheung committed suicide by jumping off the building. "Don't forget, today April Fools' Day, don't tease us!" Chen Kaige didn't want to believe this was true. Five minutes later, there was another call, this time confirming that the message was true. And the Cultural Oriental Hotel where Leslie Cheung committed suicide was the one where they discussed "Farewell My Concubine" together. It was in that hotel that year, Chen Kaige talked to Leslie Cheung for two and a half hours. During the banquet, he observed Leslie Cheung smoking a cigarette, and as the story went deep, his hands shook more and more severely. After the script was finished, Leslie Cheung smiled faintly and said, "Director, I'm the Cheng Dieyi."
Chen Kaige was extremely surprised after listening. He did not expect this superstar who is higher than the four kings to agree with this. Character. It was this meeting that became the pinnacle of Chinese filmmaking. Since then, whether it is Zunlong or others who want to play "Cheng Dieyi", Chen Kaige has always supported Leslie Cheung. On the screen in 1993, Leslie Cheung’s Cheng Dieyi, Zhang Fengyi’s Duan Xiaolou, and Gong Li’s Juxian, the three of them staged the entanglement of love and hatred, which carried a strong sense of history while pushing the plot. Over the years, on the Douban rankings, this film, which won the Cannes Palme d’Or and the American Golden Globe for best foreign language film, ranked second only to “The Shawshank’s Redemption”, which is known as “the greatest movie of mankind”. The score is as high as 9.6. The New York Times said that this is a new peak in the history of Chinese film, and it is also a masterpiece in the history of Chinese film. What many people don't know is that Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine" and Zhang Yimou's "To Live" are both written by Lu Wei. The two films also tell the rise and fall of individual destiny in historical changes. But "live"The Work" is not as refined and hearty as "Farewell My Concubine", which uses the stage and reality to interweave to tell the characters. And Chen Kaige's other Peking opera work, "Mei Lanfang", is not as good as "Farewell My Concubine", because "Mei Lanfang" is originally a real-life story, and there are too many things tied up in the creation. Only in "Farewell My Concubine", actors from the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong, the best directors, and the most talented screenwriters gather together at the best time. How can such a perfect combination not collide with great works?
Many years later, a friend called Chen Kaige: "You will shoot another "Farewell My Concubine"." Chen Kaige replied: "You tell me, I really can't shoot. I don't think I can't shoot anymore. I think the times are no longer Give me this condition." People, sometimes they don't want to embrace the times because they are so helpless in their chests that they can hardly move forward. Those who stay in place are not necessarily complacent. The fifth-generation director of Chen Kaige's films, whether "Taoist Down the Mountain", "Demon Cat Biography", "Promise", "Mei Lanfang" or others, many people feel that they have not reproduced the glory of "Farewell My Concubine".
Some people even said that the highlight moment of Chen Kaige's "fifth generation directors" has passed. However, this may not be the case. Perhaps as Chen Kaige said, but the soil of the times has changed. Why did the fifth generation of Chinese directors surprise the world? Chen Kaige said: "Everything is inseparable from the experience and feelings of the creator. Ten years of anxiety and anger, four years of studying, and then burst out, can you not make the'six palace pink and black'? "Look back" The personal experiences of the representatives of the “fifth generation of directors”: Chen Kaige went to work in Jinghong County, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan at the age of 17; Zhang Yimou jumped to work in the rural areas of Qianxian County, Shaanxi after graduating from junior high school; Tian Zhuangzhuang went to work in Lai County, Jilin Township at the age of 16; Huo Jianqi, 1976 He went to Beijing’s Huairou village to jump in and live for one year; after graduation, Wu Ziniu also went to the countryside to jump in and settle down. These people have experienced the hardships of life in a special era. Later, after the resumption of the college entrance examination in 1977, they entered the Beijing Film Academy. Life, world, and destiny left enough marks on them. Zhang Yimou's "Living", Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine", Huang Jianxin's "Black Cannon Incident", and Wu Ziniu's "Last Winter" are all works with a strong "epic mellow".
In the 1980s and 1990s, they used their own methods to reflect on the past, deconstruct history, and think about the nature and future of the nation. In their works, there is always a strong personal touch and Shi Hai's deep and profound. Therefore, whether you succeed or fail, many of them are due to the times. In Chen Kaige's precision and composure, the long-lasting cold wind is always blowing. In fact, being born as a human being, in the turbulent situation, always learn to keep a distance from the troubled times, so as to be able to see the full picture of the world.
All living beings are inevitably gloomy and miserable, but more importantly, they find their own balance after the torment of fragmentation. Perhaps this is the original meaning of "watching on the sidelines" in Chen Kaige's mouth. People come to this world to live a lifetime, and one year, one month, one day, one hour is not a lifetime. It's been dry and flourishing several times, but it's just normal. Speaking of this, I suddenly remembered a poem by Chairman Mao: Wei Wu waved his whip, and there is a posthumous piece on the east side of Jieshi. Xiao Se Qiufeng is here again today, changing the world. To some extent, Chen Kaige is a prose poem composed of years. Exquisite, concise, magnificent, not to mention the profoundness. And this is precisely the composure and objectivity of a "cold-eyed bystander". [Typesetting | Mu Yi] [Daily Topic] What do you want to say about Chen Kaige? Welcome everyone to leave a message and discuss. Uncle Chai loves to listen~
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