"Wild Dragon" is not crazy| interview with Liu Guanwei, director of "Crazy Dragon Demon"
Goodbye director Liu Guanwei, nearly 70 years old, he is still full of energy, talking about the film script and the set, the enthusiasm has not retreated.
Most people know him because of the "Zombie" series, which left many classic films in the highlight moments of Hong Kong movies, with the title of "the founding father" of zombie films.
Among them, the most classic is "Mr. Zombie", which won 12 nominations at that year's Hong Kong Film Awards. Liu Guanwei was also nominated for Best Director at the 5th Hong Kong Film Awards.
As of today, there is still no work in the same genre that can break this record.
Nowadays, with the iteration of the film industry, Liu Guanwei has also dabbled in online movies in the past two years, and has directed three films: "The Return of the Heavenly Master", "New Mr. Zombie 2" and "Crazy Dragon Demon".
Once the best director nominee of the Academy Awards, and now the director of the Internet University, people can't help but wonder, what is the opportunity and original intention of Liu Guanwei to enter the Internet University? How many viewers of its network trilogy have bought it? After decades in the industry, he called himself a newcomer to the Internet University; about the movie, from the script to a rattan (prop), Liu Guanwei still insisted on doing everything himself.
Liu Guanwei's highlight moment
"November 1985", Liu Guanwei said that this is a date he will remember for the rest of his life, which is both the launch date of "Mr. Zombie" and his own highlight moment.
Recalling the anxiety and uneasiness of filming "Mr. Zombie", he admitted that when the film came out, the bosses He Guanchang and Hong Jinbao predicted that the film would have a box office of up to 6 million and might lose 2 million: "I even thought that my directing career was over." "But in the end it grossed as much as 20 million.
Subsequently, from 1986 to 1991, in just five years, more than 100 zombie movies were shot in Hong Kong, which also created the heyday of zombie films and left many memories of zombie movies for the audience.
It is no exaggeration to say that the zombie movies of that time ushered in an era.
But unfortunately, with the departure of Lin Zhengying, the decline in the quality of zombie films caused by the trend of Hong Kong films, the impact of Western zombie movies, and the rise of Japanese and Southeast Asian horror movies, zombie movies have gradually faded out of the film market.
Until last year, Liu Guanwei returned with "New Mr. Zombie 2" and entered the net university. His comedic style is unique, not by backing lines, but by body language to be funny, which is the language of the world, do not listen, just look at the picture to find it funny.
Liu Guanwei is good at adding a lot of comedic elements to horror films, which largely dissolves the horror atmosphere of such films.
In addition, Liu Guanwei has also directed classic Hong Kong films such as "No Tricks to Win", "Tiger with Fangs", "Zombie Young Master", "Uncle Zombie" and so on.
Recently, he partnered with his old friend Chen Haomin for the first time, with the new work "Wild Dragon Demon", and then fight the network, what surprises will it bring?
The Net Big Trilogy
In February 2017, Liu Guanwei's first online movie "The Return of the Heavenly Master" was exclusively launched on iQiyi, and on the day of its launch, the number of plays exceeded 5 million; in January 2018, "Mr. New Zombie 2" directed by Liu Guanwei and starring Qian Xiaohao, Dingdang and other original people triggered a collective memory killing.
Different from the previous two films, its latest online "Wild Dragon Demon" has walked up the "demon" wind. The film tells the story of Tu Jun (played by Chen Haomin) leading the two disciples to save the United States with Wu Wu and Chang Le to destroy the demon, and with the development of the plot, the battle of the demon is slowly turned into a rescue journey...
Objectively speaking, compared with most of the internet universities, "Crazy Dragon Demon" is still a relatively complete story film, and this time it invited actor Chen Haomin to join, which has been guaranteed in acting skills.
As of now, "Wild Dragon Demon" has nearly 20 million hits, with a cumulative account of 5.91 million. Frankly speaking, such achievements are definitely the best for the overall relatively cold Net University.
Despite this, Liu Guanwei still admitted that he was not very satisfied. "Of course, it's not that the clicks are not satisfactory, but the final presentation." After the film was launched, he summarized the opinions of the audience through platforms such as bullet screen, commentary, and Douban, and summarized the reasons why the film did not completely capture the audience, that is, the elements and visual impact were not strong enough.
"If this kind of subject matter is to be filmed well, the special effects are very critical." It is necessary to use special effects to create a scene that belongs to the "demon", so that the audience believes and increases the sense of substitution of the movie. In his view, the success of a film in addition to the core elements of the script, but also need the team, actors and other aspects of cooperation, until now he is still looking for the most favorite team and team.
When it comes to the script, Liu Guanwei, the three online universities that have been launched so far, have participated in the setting of the script. "I think I can make a script." He told me that usually after the script was written, he would show it to his trusted screenwriter friends and listen to their suggestions.
During the creation of the script, he usually has actors in his mind who conform to the setting of this character, and the sense of picture is very strong. He has always believed that the advantage of being a screenwriter and his own director is that he no longer has to spend time on the shooting scene to run in, and the script has a high degree of restoration.
According to Liu Guanwei, the script like "New Mr. Zombie 2" has been polished for nearly a year; "Crazy Dragon Demon" is also deeply involved in the whole process from the script to the shooting to the later stage. The story begins with Catch the Demon, "Monsters can also be not evil." It sparked him to think, "Demon love, explore the world of demons, does the audience buy it?" "
So he spent nearly a month sketching out the characters, and then adding elements of comedy, magic, and emotion to them. "Every night at 9 o'clock, when my daughter goes to sleep, I start writing, and when it gets dawn, I can't really write and sleep."
Coincidentally, shortly after the completion of the script, he and friends of Jin Element International Media had dinner and talked about this project, and the cooperation was decided in this way, so there was the rapid birth of "Crazy Dragon Demon", Liu Guanwei said, the network market, pay attention to this kind of comedy, magic, emotions of the user is more, relatively safe.
Another thing worth mentioning is that this is not only his first cooperation with Chen Haomin, but also his first time directing a film with the theme of "catching a demon + comedy + magic". He insisted that he was a newcomer to the internet, and the three films in the past two years were more in accumulating experience and gaining insight into the network market and users.
As for the regrets left by the film, Liu Guanwei said that he would try his best to make up for it in the next work, but the premise of all this was not to lose money. After decades of traversing the movies, he can certainly see the reality in them. "If one or two films are lost, who will still look for you to shoot?" Any business is the same, as long as it does not lose, there is still a chance.
During the interview, Liu Guanwei repeatedly stressed that he has been filming three principles: the costumes involved in the script must be given; the selection of actors (starring) should be suitable as the standard, in line with the character settings; the main actors' schedules and time should be given enough to ensure the quality of the film.
Liu Guanwei on the set is very serious and cautious, and he himself did not deny this. As small as the filming was just completed in July this year, and it was necessary to do special effects for three months in the "Eight Immortals Across the Sea Dragon Fighting Tiger": rattan, if time permits, he will definitely ask for as realistic as possible. Of course, there are times of compromise, and time becomes particularly precious in the net.
In the first half of this year, he worked on four projects at the same time, sleeping 2 hours a day. Ask him if his body can eat well? He laughed and said: It had just taken a month to raise his body back, and soon, he was going to start a new project.
He likes to chat with young people and will keep looking at their works. "Crazy Dragon Voldemort" is Liu Guanwei's second cooperation with the new set, and what he values is the state of the new set. Successively, it is described as "young, energetic, and willing to provide young people with the opportunity to practice film".
At nearly 70 years old, Liu Guanwei still has a heart that does not obey the old, "can not be disconnected, you can not only be in your world, but from the perspective of the same as young people, to think and observe." "
Why should I make an online movie?
Nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards in the past, he is now the director of the Internet University. A veteran filmmaker who has switched from the theater to the Internet, Liu Guanwei is not the first, nor is it the first time.
But he is definitely a supporter of the net and is very optimistic about the net. In his view, online movies are a training ground and a dream fulfillment place for movie enthusiasts. Now, after four years of development, NetDa is entering the 2.0 era of high-quality products.
The competition is becoming more and more obvious. Liu Guanwei shared a small detail, last year when he filmed "Crazy Dragon Demon" in Hengdian, four or five crews (all of them were waiting) behind a scene, and this year, the number of net crews in Hengdian was significantly reduced.
To a certain extent, this is the mark of the development of the high-quality products of the network university, in other words, the reduction of the production capacity of the network university is necessary for the long-term benign development of the market. In the words of Liu Guanwei: "This year and beyond, the investment in the internet market is getting bigger and bigger, and the market will become more and more dangerous." "
It is true that in the current network market, the cost of more than 10 million yuan is regarded as head content. The overall production, investment, etc. are greatly improved, everyone's starting line is relatively high, and the recycling dedication has also increased.
In the past, a head network may be large, at least three weeks to a month of box office cycle, and the data changes significantly; at this stage, a month is shortened to a week. "Basically a week's box office determines the film's nearly 85% share."
As a veteran filmmaker in the Hong Kong film industry for more than 30 years, talking about the development of the Hong Kong team in the Internet industry, Liu Guanwei admitted that in fact, they are all making movies, and there is nothing special. "The only dominant thing is the spirit of Hong Kong filmmakers who bear hardships and stand hard work." Talk less, do more, and have a relatively industrial set of filming processes.
As for what Hong Kong elements are integrated into the net? Liu Guanwei said that these things may have already penetrated into their bone marrow and brain, so in the process of creating the script and shooting, they inadvertently infiltrated it. "There is no deliberate joining."
It is undeniable that in the past two years, the entry of Hong Kong teams such as Liu Guanwei has definitely helped the growth of the production of the University of China. Whether it is "The Return of the Celestial Master", "New Mr. Zombie 2" or "Crazy Dragon Voldemort", in terms of production, if it is 100 points, you can at least score 80 points.
Liu Guanwei described himself as just a small chef, and every time he shoots a film, he is groping with his heart and accumulating and precipitating his own internal strength. During the interview, "insurance" became his high-frequency vocabulary, appearing at least 10 times.
As he put it, "don't lose money" is his principle. It is true that the spirit of hard-working Hong Kong filmmakers is reflected in him, and the temperament of commercial films is also revealed.
On the one hand, it is the honor of the past, and on the other hand, it is the age. Can't help but wonder, why did he choose to shoot the big net? This is also the question he has been asked a lot in the past two years, he feels that he has become accustomed to it, laughing and saying, "You asked me to retire, didn't you wait at home to die?" I can still shoot, why not shoot? "
"When are you going to shoot?"
His answer was: shoot until you can't move.