Taiwanese cartoonist Zheng Qing, with a strange and bright style, is regarded by the comic book industry as a genius who turned out to be a genius. In 2017, zheng wen, who was only 58 years old, suddenly died of illness, leaving a world of great color, and his influence on many people is far-reaching, the most famous, perhaps the "big handprint move" in Stephen Chow's movie "Kung Fu" is from Zheng Wen's work "A Nose Sword".
After three years, Taiwanese director Wang Wanrou has written and directed a documentary about Zheng Wen, "A Thousand Years and One Question", which will be released soon to trace the footsteps of Zheng Wen's life. Zheng Wen's lifelong focus is on comics, and the film is also as far away as ink, from his infancy, study, and entrepreneurial period to comics, game design, etc., until the end of his life. The whole film is divided into eight episodes, each of which is named after the chapter of Zheng Wen's comic strip, interspersed with elements such as character interviews, animation, and Zheng Wen's technique reproduction.
Zheng Qing's manga sensational success in Japan is widely known, but the later stages of his creative career were empty. Why did he go away? And why switch to game design? These experiences are rarely introduced in various materials, but "A Thousand Years of Questions" strives to present them in its entirety, giving everyone a glimpse of the loneliness, depression and loneliness of this lonely traveler.
Zheng asked about the Forbidden City exhibition.
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According to Wang Wanrou, "Zheng Wensheng is low-key, silent and depressed, and is an implosion-style artist. He is obsessed with creation, does not travel much with people, rarely appears on shows or gives interviews, and has very limited information", so the filming of documentaries "can only start from the work and the people around him." But perhaps doing everything possible to interpret the technique and spirit of the comic is the posture that can most closely approach Zheng Qing. This is also the basic idea of Wang Wanrou's documentary, the director should be an invisible person, and the real light is the subject and the film itself.
Born in 1958, Zheng Wen showed interest in comics as a child, interviewing his sister in the film, saying that Zheng Wen would take pocket money to rent comics or buy painting tools; high school friends also mentioned that Zheng Wen's method of attracting girls was through painting — it seems that he established his passion for painting early on.
The late Taiwanese cartoonist Zheng Qing.
Zheng Wen graduated from the Fuxing Commercial Sculpture Group, engaged in interior design in the early days, and established a company. Then, because he could not receive money from his friend's case, he was discouraged and lazy; and because he cooperated with Zhang Dachun in the illustration of the "Human Supplement", mainly turning the published text into images; these experiences, coupled with the love of creation in his bones, finally made him devote himself to the field of comics. In 1983, he published his first comic, Warrior Black Panther, in The Times Weekly. The work was heavily influenced by Star Wars, but Zheng's comic assistants in the documentary talked about how Zheng had threatened to kill anyone who had seen his debut. Since the editor of "Times Weekly" learned that the manuscript fee was denominated in grid at that time, Zheng Wen learned about it and added many extra boxes in the single-page comic to earn more fees.
The narrative of "A Thousand Years of Questions" follows the seasons of Zheng Wen's life and follows the steps. Wang Wanrou did not deny it: "This is a documentary that looks like a running account. At first, I was worried about whether it would be boring? But then it was decided to do so. Because Zheng Wen's comics are the same, they completely follow the chronology of classical movies and will not play flashbacks or interspersed. ”
In 1986, Zheng Wen's ink-and-ink manga "Assassin's Legend" attracted him's attention and attracted the attention of the Japanese manga industry. 1989's "Ah Nose Sword" brought an unprecedented visual experience of martial arts comics, casting realism and freehand, and planted opportunities - so that he later cooperated with Taiwan's Perak International Multimedia and Hong Kong's Jade Dynasty Group in the "Comics Big Bang", which was based on the story of the Perak Cloth Bag Drama Series, and then co-branded with Hong Kong cartoonist Ma Rongcheng to launch the fantastic "Tale of the Wind and Clouds: The World Is Unmatched".
His seminal work The Legend of the Heroes of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was launched in 1990, making him the first Taiwanese manga artist to serialize in a Japanese manga weekly magazine, and his innovative drawing methods and even the application of different media and utensils, such as rollers, toothbrushes, plastic bags, sand paintings, etc., are refreshing. Japan originally attached great importance to professionals, so they respected Zheng Wen and awarded the 1991 Japan Cartoonists Association Award "Excellent Award" to the "Biography of the Heroes of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty". Cheng is the first non-Japanese winner in 20 years and is known as "Asia's Greatest Treasure". The 1992 work "Deep and Beautiful Asia" is another eruption of Zheng Wen's creative energy, the narrative and the picture are integrated into one, using brushes to show the contrasting images of the human world and the pencil drawing magic world, demonstrating the struggling and fantasy human world.
Among all of Zheng Wen's works, Wang Wanrou's favorite is also "Deep and Beautiful Asia", especially the first three parts, which not only directly attack the changes and deficiencies of people's hearts, but also discuss various ways of human existence, and even expand to the phenomena of structural Asian society.
Zheng Wen's heyday was mainly concentrated in the first half of the 90s, "The Legend of the Heroes of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty" and "Deep and Beautiful Asia" were serialized at the same time, and he had to submit 70 original manuscripts every month, which was a staggering number, but he spared no effort in the development of painting techniques, and tried his best to cope with the pressure of serialization, still adhering to the injection of artistic experimental spirit. In this regard, the documentary recreates how Zheng Qing created pictures with fire-baked painting paper, scroll wheel painting, toothbrush flicking, etc., allowing people to directly witness how he achieved these innovations across the usual text introduction.
Stills from "A Thousand Years of Questions"
Later, they also became the former assistants of cartoonists, such as Zhong Mengshun ("Lafeng Baby", "Legend of the Sacred Stone"), Lian Ren ("Campus God List", "Records of Tang Xuan"), Chen Zhilong ("Crazy God Mixed Heavenly Dragon"), Huang Jianfang, etc., all witnessed Zheng Wen's madness and full attention to creation in the documentary - even if the deadline is forced, under the harsh workload of business, his pursuit of art has not been slightly reduced. "A Thousand Years of A Question" and recorded that Zheng Qing, in order to seek realistic movements, in addition to the storyboard draft, he and his assistants played comic characters, took photos, and then drew works with reference to the limbs in the photo.
"Millennium Question" is also trying to show the particularity of Zheng Wen's comics in Taiwan, "painting is not shocking and endless", each comic is carefully right, not to serve the story, but to take the picture, scene, character design, etc. as the core value of the comic. In contrast, the documentary is also meticulous in form, using a feature film specification camera, high-resolution scanning, and 2D and 3D animation technology, the interviewed scenes change with comic rental shops, rooftops, offices, homes, etc. Zheng Wen's paintings are 3D, and there are empty mirrors such as his 2D portraits through the streets of Hong Kong and the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
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The entire documentary interviewed more than 50 family members, friends, apprentices and partners, and also brought together many manga artists such as Ryoichi Ikegami ("The Godfather of the Sanctuary", "Crying and Killing God"), Tetsuya Chiba ("Tomorrow's Father", "New Good Boy"), Takahashi Nu ("Landmine Earthquake"), Hong Kong's Ma Rongcheng, Feng Zhiming and the godfather Huang Yulang; illustrator Katsuya Terada, writer Zhang Dachun, lecture hall editor Yoshiyuki Kurihara, and "Infernal Affairs" trilogy director Liu Weiqiang, all of whom also shared the strange story of this strange man.
Most of them talked about Zheng Wen's fascination with painting, and he was uneasy about the existing and known categories, saying that he was a reveler of painting into the soul, which was probably good. In fact, Wang Wanrou originally only heard the name of Zheng Qian, but later collected information and became more fond of and admired this character. She mentioned that Ryoyuki Kurihara, an editor she has worked with, said that young manga artists can borrow Zheng's drawing skills, "especially his mastery of the eyes is amazing, and the charm is extraordinary." If you can learn from the eyes of Zheng Qing's characters, Kurihara believes that as long as you copy more, you will definitely make great progress. Kurihara also told her that when Zheng Wen won the "Excellent Award" of the Japan Manga Artists Association Award, his mood was instead: Are those judges qualified to judge Zheng Wen manga? "In other words, in Kurihara's mind, Zheng Qing's level is higher than that of those judges."
The documentary "A Thousand Years of One Question", featuring Taiwanese cartoonist Zheng Wen, is written and directed by Wang Wanrou.
In the eyes of peers and editors, it can be seen that Zheng Qing is superb. But Wang Wanrou filmed it all the way, only to find that zhengwen in Taiwan was almost forgotten for a while, and was only highly respected among heavy comic fans or professionals. Zheng Qing walked the road of human growth alone, Wang Wanrou was very pitiful about it, and naturally put the emotions and atmosphere she felt into the movie, and "A Thousand Years of A Question" is like a sad poem.
Wang Wanrou also can't help but wonder: "When cutting the film, will the audience want to see the later frustration of the character who is a Taiwanese comic myth?" But the essence of creation is to be loyal to oneself, and zheng asks not to do the same? Therefore, I must also honestly share the Zheng Qing that I have seen and known. ”
Zheng Qing to 1995 to introduce Photoshop computer graphics to create "Long Live", and even 1998 "Shi Huang", has been able to end a short chapter to return to the life experience of Zheng Qing, in the face of the Japanese market's requirements for long-form comics, after all, poor adaptation, the work is also facing the weekly waist beheading. After the millennium, he switched to Hong Kong comics, but still could not commercialize for business's sake, and the rapid and large-scale format made him difficult to be happy. After that, he went to the mainland to engage in game design, and spent ten years of painstaking efforts to produce a full 3D online game "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" from 2003 to 2012, although he was loved by the team and trusted by the top management of the game company, he was ultimately unable to go online due to various technical problems, and this experience may also cause him a heavy blow.
"A Thousand Questions" traces back the difficulties encountered by these Zheng Questions in Japan, Hong Kong and the mainland, focusing on the gap between the times and individuals. For example, in Hong Kong, it is a fast and accurate standard, processing and production, where cartoonists make pencil drawings, and then assistants assist in completing them, and even color companies directly color. However, Zheng Qian's color science has its own sensitivity and context, can not fake others, and the "Comics Big Bang" is a full-color comic, Zheng Qian's requirements for artistic aesthetics, so that it is uncompromising, it is not surprising that he cut off this set of comics himself.
Stills from "A Thousand Years of Questions".
As the film progresses, Zheng Qing, who is obsessed with the leap in painting art, gradually shows a downward trend, Wang Wanrou will bet on the scene of pity and emotion, downplaying the end of Zheng Wen, or it is inevitable to think of the perfect king and the ideal king in "Deep and Beautiful Asia", one is a fiasco in the absolute standard of perfection, and when he dies, he also has to pose a perfect posture, and the other is strict and self-seeking, resolutely pursuing the ideal country, but it is difficult to return to the magic
This set of comics still seems to have strange charm today, and many of its characters such as the unlucky king, the ideal king, the festering king, the snake langjun, the toad spirit, etc., are like Zheng Wen's multiple doppelgängers, complex human nature, and regard "Deep and Beautiful Asia" as Zheng Wen's self-portrait or quasi-autobiography (the hundred guards in the comics are also divided into 99 one guards in the end), and it is also impossible, and with a considerable degree of propheticity. The eight-character naming of "A Thousand Years of One Question" is also mostly taken from the chapter name of "Deep and Beautiful Asia", which is not only Wang Wanrou's ingenuity, but also a manifestation of Zheng Wan's confidant.
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Wang Wanrou graduated from the Chinese Department and went to Exeter University in the United Kingdom to study for a master's degree in script writing. Taiwanese documentary filmmakers often spend years with the film, exchanging patience for the unpredictability of the scene, or preferring to focus on the unexpected events of the interviewee's life, but Wang Wanrou tends to have a plan and theme, and she uses the method of first producing the script and then shooting on the spot from the beginning of the first documentary "The River Without Banks". The same is true of "A Thousand Years of Questions". Wang Wanrou said, "For me, the script is the core of the movie. When I collect a lot of information, I will first organize the script. After filming started, everything followed the script. In the post-production stage, Wang Wanrou will also write the editing script so as not to lose herself in a large number of video materials.
Of course, there are uncertainties in the filming of documentaries, and the advantage of script first is that after the overall structure and focus are determined, it is not easy to be chaotic and shaken, and it is better to judge whether some unexpected materials should be filmed. Wang Wanrou could not hide her surprise: "This time I photographed the "Mine Tremor" manga artist Takahashi Nu, which was not expected, it was recommended by Kodansha, and Takahashi Nura's friend and well-known illustrator Terada Katsumi was interviewed together. They all very much like Zheng Qing's works. Takahashi once invited Zheng Wen to draw the male protagonist of "Landmine Earthquake" as an illustration, and he told us that his role was almost like being reborn under Zheng Wen's pen. ”
Wang Wanrou, choreographer of "A Thousand Years of A Question".
Zheng Qian's ambitions for comics focus on the technical level of "drawing for the sake of drawing", while the exploration of human nature focuses on allegory. Whether it is "The Legend of the Heroes of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty" or "Deep and Beautiful Asia", they are very good at depicting human choices, and their character paintings are like complete portraits, not only people themselves, but also the relationship between characters and the world, and even emotions and destiny, Zheng Wen creates a unique artistic conception, with composition, lines and colors to deeply convey metaphors.
For example, the characters in the first episode of "The Legend of the Heroes of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty" want to leave, and the color page painting is to leave the rope like hanging, which is a "name" word, which implies that he wants to die away from the name, and with the content of seeing that he is willing to die, he can better understand the determination of the characters. Zheng Qian's philosophy, observation and experience of human nature, can often be visualized into pictures through amazing imagination, for example, "The Sword of A Nose" has eighteen evil paths, and the body under a head is painted with pen and ink as "evil".
In particular, "Deep and Beautiful Asia" is not only a yokai, a legend of gods and demons, but also an allegory of human nature, which refracts and metaphorically reflects the fact that human hearts are diverse through the creation of a fantasy country. For example, the words "Proud Spider" depict a spider spirit who tries every means to devour the protagonist of the comic strip Hapless King Bai Bingwei (anyone who touches him will be in vain), when he succeeds, does not touch the Hundred Guards and can eat it, but he is excited, and in the end, his pride, self-esteem and nobility, so that he can only swallow his own body, people can't help but think of the mystery of Franz Kafka's novel, in a different situation and scene, interpreting the character and fate, There is no way out of the loneliness.
In addition to paying tribute to Zheng Qing's paintings through the lens composition, the loneliness of the spiritual theme is also close to Zheng Qing's attempts, such as the opening is the sound of speech first, accompanied by the indoor empty mirror, and the rear mirror position swings and moves, stepping down the stairs, in front of the scene is the picture of the interview with Mrs. Zheng Wen, followed by the animation of Zheng Qing's portrait, silently watching and listening on the spot, like a guardian god. This kind of shooting in the field of Documentary films in Taiwan is relatively rare, not only the sense of a large instrument, but also a vague reference to the loneliness of Zheng Qianshan's lonely walk. And Zheng Qian's bitterness can be seen in the end of the documentary and in the photos with past assistants, and its appearance is indeed becoming more and more vicissitudes and gloomy, and it is no longer the anger that was erect before.
Zheng asked his disciple Zhong Mengshun.
Wang Wanrou's first two documentaries were filming the poet Love's "River Without Banks" (2014), and "Foley" (2017) with Floey (synchronous sound effects, onomatopoeia) teacher Hu Dingyi as the main one - "River without Banks" ended with Love alone in the empty exhibition hall, and the final picture of "Foley" was a series of Floey actions for Hu Dingyi, looking around the foley workspace, and turning off the lights after the camera became an empty scene, which was unbearable heartache, similarly, "A Thousand Years of a Question" There are also animated portraits that simulate Zheng Wen, and they enjoy the scene of the Zheng Qing Forbidden City Exhibition alone, with a deep sense of loneliness in the magnificence. Wang Wanrou empathizes with the loneliness of these creators, and gazes deeply at everything that will eventually pass away with images and sounds.
Wang Wanrou said with a sigh: "Zheng Qian's later life was not very happy, from moving to Japan, to Hong Kong, the mainland development, from all indications, he seems to have hit a wall. Zheng asked what he had been pursuing, but what that pursuit was, there was no way to determine. "Life is lonely or makes it difficult for Zheng Wen to stop, and he can only pursue the end wildly."
"A Thousand Years of A Question" is to take Zheng Wen as a silent questioner, showing his exploration of history and the vision of the world's soul, and also reproducing the artist's hunger and thirst spirit, which is a highly respectful and respectful look back at Zheng Wen's comics and the sum of life.