Interview with Cheng Er: "Nameless" is not difficult to understand, and I want to show the audience incredible expressions

"The audience is well-informed, the audience can understand everything, don't always think they can't understand, always show them something commonplace. I still hope to make everyone refreshed, so that the audience can see the narration and expression that they have never seen before, find incredible, and make them stunned in this Spring Festival stall," said director Cheng Er about the relationship between the new film "Nameless" and the audience.

Released on the first day of the Lunar New Year, "Nameless" reproduces the process of the CCP's special branch under the leadership of the Communist Party of China who began to struggle in Shanghai in the twenties of the last century, and the process of desperate struggle between various forces on the hidden front, showing the irreplaceable contributions of those unsung heroes on the party's secret front that are indispensable in the process of victory. Different from the traditional main theme film, "Nameless" not only pays attention to commerciality, but also pays more attention to Cheng Er's personal authorial expression, and brings the audience the most unique viewing experience in this Spring Festival file with a very charming narrative method and image style.

Cheng Er is currently one of the most concerned young creators in China, his works are not much, the last feature film "The History of the Demise of Romance" was 7 years ago, but he was highly praised among fans, because his works always have a distinct personal imprint, can tell seemingly simple stories, interesting, the audience watching his films is not only a viewer, but also a puzzle solver, when the curtain is lifted, it turns out that the story is far more complex than he imagined.

From "Criminal" to "The Third Man", from "The History of the Demise of Romance" to this "Nameless", Cheng Er strives to make more diversified explorations in creation. Including this cooperation with Tony Leung and Wang Yibo, it has also stimulated their more amazing potential as actors. Speaking of the feeling of working with Wang Yibo, Cheng Er said with admiration: "The result must have exceeded expectations, it was indeed very surprising, and even incredible." He specifically mentioned the two major action scenes in the film, both completed by Wang Yibo, and the shooting was very difficult, "His upbringing and morality really give people a very comfortable feeling, and these can also help him better complete this role." ”

Q&A

Question: After watching your interview before, you mentioned that you didn't really want to define the movie "Nameless" with labels like suspense or spy warfare, so when you made this movie, what was your original creative philosophy? What kind of movie do you envision it will be?

Cheng Er: I don't think I want to say that this kind of label is given by the audience or the media after the film is released, and what kind of movie it is. From the time we wrote the script, including our original intention, we didn't position it as a spy film or a single event. Because I understand that spy movies, it is a very single event, depending on how the protagonist solves this problem, we want to give this story a sense of the times. So I expected Nameless to be an epic film, about that era, about that history. Of course, this does not mean that our watchability will be reduced in any way, our perspective is more macroscopic, and when we open the distance, it is to depict each character in a broader time dimension, their fate changes and that sense of power, the drama can actually be highlighted, and it is more sufficient.

Question: Director He played by Tony Leung and Secretary Ye played by Wang Yibo, these two characters are particularly complex, and there have been many moments of struggle and contradiction among them, and of course, in the end, they also made the decision that they thought was right. What did you think about these two characters?

Cheng Er: The characters played by Mr. Liang and Yibo are the characters we write a lot about, and they each represent their origins, origins and final destinations. They have a strong sense of drama of personal destiny, and at the same time a kind of embarrassment, a fate, when we project our personal destiny into the torrent of history. In short, we are trying to balance a sense of history and drama, and we are trying to combine the two in a unified dimension or context, so that the film is both easy to think about and easy to watch.

Question: We saw your previous creative notes, and I felt that you were a typical perfectionist, and even a little paranoid in creation. This work took a long time to create, were there any difficulties or challenges in the preparation process that were very impressive? And how was it overcome?

Cheng Er: Fortunately, I'm actually not that paranoid, I'm quite negotiable. Whether in the creation of the script or on the set, I still have full flexibility. However, I will establish an insurmountable hurdle, and on top of this, I will make flexible adjustments according to the situation on the scene, including the situation of the actors. We shot quite smoothly, and this smoothness is really based on the professionalism of each actor and our very professional crew. Of course, we face some difficulties every day, but we seem to be able to solve them all, because we do a lot of homework in advance, and the work is very meticulous and meticulous. For me, my biggest difficulty on the scene is how to communicate with the actors and finally achieve the most accurate expression. Other difficulties we solved before shooting, such as the problem of the scene, such as the fact that we often need to involve rain, these are easy to solve.

Question: You just mentioned the communication with the actors, Mr. Tony Leung said that when you were on the set, you didn't communicate very much, there was not so intensive communication, so did you and Mr. Leung have any unique communication methods?

Cheng Er: Because Mr. Liang is a very experienced person, when he first arrived in Shanghai, we would have dinner to discuss his favorite movies and favorite books, and he covered a very wide range. Mr. Liang's own statement is that it seems that there is no need to say so much to film with Cheng Er, in fact, the cost of communication is very low, everyone just says a completely unmarginal word, but they can understand it, or very lucky to have such a way of communication, including being able to invite Mr. Liang to play such a role, and the final effect is outstanding.

Question: There are two scenes that we are particularly impressed by, that is, two action scenes, the first is Wang Yibo attacking the enemy to the end, and the second is that they Mr. Liang and Wang Yibo fought from upstairs to downstairs, I think these two scenes are quite difficult to shoot, I don't know if there are any unforgettable things when actually shooting? Probably how many times was it filmed?

Cheng Er: Yes, this will be relatively difficult, because it is a martial arts opera, including the first scene you mentioned, it is not only a long shot, it is also outdoors, and we set it to be a rainy environment. During the filming process, we happened to encounter a typhoon blowing in Shanghai, and that scene, including the design of the entire rainy scene, was actually dangerous in a typhoon day, so we stopped two or three times. There is also the problem of physical strength, whether it is the physical strength of Yibo or the physical strength of the Wuxing brothers, because it is a long shot, the overdraft of physical strength is very serious, so I think that at most I may be able to shoot 5 in one night, sometimes shoot 4, about 7 nights, so a total of about 30 shots, I use the penultimate one, Yibo is really hard, because he attacks the protruding part of the back of his hand will break, as long as he hits one and it will break immediately, blood will flow out. But this is such a job, and he completed it very seriously and without any complaints.

Question: How long was the fight between Mr. Liang and Wang Yibo filmed? That should be complicated.

Cheng Er: Yes, that's more complicated, probably they trained for a week. We used soft materials, which are actually foam boxes and cardboard boxes, according to the environment they will eventually fight, in the studio to build an identical environment, the size and structure are exactly the same, they probably trained for a week, filming about 9 days, which is also very hard.

Question: In the past two days, on many occasions, you have given high recognition to Wang Yibo's evaluation, and you also said that he is the first confirmed actor in "Nameless", how do you feel working with him this time?

Cheng Er: The result must have exceeded expectations, it was indeed very surprising, even incredible. We often shoot him a day, even the longest one for more than 40 hours continuously, but he still maintains a humble attitude, polite habits, and his upbringing and morality are indeed very comfortable, and these can also help him better fulfill this role.

Question: In fact, in this movie, in addition to watching the performances of the actors, we also want to see the author expression of Cheng Er himself, whether you are making a commercial film or a literary film, you have always had Cheng Er's own insistence on image style and narrative rhythm. What do you think is the source of confidence for this persistence?

Cheng Er: I think the relationship between the creator and the audience must be felt by the audience. Movies are very plain language that everyone can understand, and I don't think it's that hard to interpret. Shuffling the timeline is probably the basis and premise of my narrative, and I haven't thought about changing the way I narrate. Specific to "Nameless", it is certainly more readable than "The History of the Demise of Romance", because on the whole it is completely integrated, all its front "buttons" have echoes in the back, these echoes are good, the structural treatment is also good, does not involve reading, just to give the audience more pleasure: it turns out that the whereabouts of this Shiba Inu are like this, the fate of the Japanese soldiers is like that, or there is such a character relationship between them, including such a cramped and ridiculous person, It turned out to be such an amazing identity. I think that the treatment of each character still tries to make everyone feel unexpected. Let's not tell a story in a casual way, because the audience is well-informed, the audience can understand everything, don't always think they can't understand, always show them something commonplace. I still hope to make everyone refreshed, so that the audience can see the narration and expression that they have never seen before, find incredible, and make them stunned in this Spring Festival stall, which has always been our original intention, and I believe that the audience will understand.