Stills from the documentary "Endless Climb". Xia Boyu was climbing the mountain.
The documentary "Endless Climbing" is being screened, telling the story of China's legless mountaineer Xia Boyu conquering Mount Everest in 43 years, and the unremitting persistence and love of faith conveyed in the film touched many audiences. The film is voiced by the famous actor Wu Jing and the director of "The Wandering Earth" Guo Fan, the producer and actor Hu Ge. Why do they value this film so much? How did the work change from an original feature film to a documentary? The Beijing News reporter exclusively interviewed the film's producer Ke Qingfeng and the producer and film producer Liu Kailuo, asking them to share the climbing journey of "Endless Climbing".
I wanted to make a movie with a lot of material, but the documentary has more power to convey "persistence"
"Endless Climbing" truly records the story of mountaineer Xia Boyu's 43 years of unremitting persistence and love, relying on a pair of prosthetic limbs to climb Mount Everest five times, and finally succeeded. Xia Boyu joined the Chinese mountaineering team in 1975 and was amputated while climbing Everest for helping his teammates, resulting in frostbite on his calf, but he did not give up his dream of climbing Everest. In 43 years, Xia Boyu has impacted Mount Everest five times, and with his perseverance and love, he finally successfully reached the summit at the age of 69 on May 14, 2018, becoming the first person in China to climb Mount Everest without legs.
Ke Qingfeng and Xia Boyu have known each other for more than ten years, and he has been witnessing Xia Boyu's persistence in the dream of climbing Mount Everest. In Ke Qingfeng's heart, Xia Boyu faced a lot of misfortune in life, but always optimistic, never complained about the injustice of life, since 2013, almost every year Xia Boyu will adhere to the dream of mountaineering, even in the face of the failure to climb Mount Everest in 2016, but it is precisely because of his choice at that time that he moved Ke Qingfeng: "In 2016, Xia Lao climbed Mount Everest, only 94 meters away from success, one step away, but he chose to withdraw considering the safety of the people around him, and his decision almost completely rejected his previous efforts. In his own words, it didn't matter if I died on the mountain, but I couldn't take the risk with the young lives around me, and I thought how precious this courage was, and I felt more and more that it was right to record these images. ”
In fact, Ke Qingfeng is not a person in the film circle, he is mainly engaged in outdoor sports, because he has not done movies, and he does not know the difficulty or ease of this line, but he is very aware that this story is worth making a movie, he said that the biggest difficulty in making movies is uncertainty: "I saw that he did not continue to climb, only to know that one is suffering from blood clots, and the other is lack of funds." In 2017, I thought that I should plan a movie for him, maybe to attract more attention and investment, these things he did were not able to make up, just try to shoot as many as possible. Whether it is the hiking point, the hardships of the base camp, his inner changes, I hope that this movie can appreciate the struggle for life more, if it is just a movie about how to climb, it is not interesting. ”
"Endless Climb" producer Ke Qingfeng and executive producer Liu Kailuo.
The creators of "Endless Climb" actually don't have too high an estimate of market returns, but they can't change their original intention to bring this movie to the big screen. Ke Qingfeng laughed at himself, making a theatrical movie until the release of the process, may be more difficult than climbing Mount Everest, he is not familiar with the film industry, but also does not have much experience in production, distribution, marketing and other links, can present "Endless Climb" in front of the audience has indeed gone through countless efforts and unlimited support from filmmakers around him. In fact, after Xia Lao's successful ascent to the top, all the materials were recorded, Ke Qingfeng found someone to do the editing at that time, the left cut and right cut were not ideal, and once decided to give up the film, but they always had an obsession in their hearts, is it not worth being seen by others for such an inspirational deed of Xia Lao? Later, Ke Qingfeng found ye Fengchang, the editor of "The Wandering Earth", and asked if he could make a feature film with some materials and the deeds of Xia Lao. After learning about the material and the story of Xia Lao's climbing Mount Everest, Ye Lichang believes that there is no more powerful way to present all this than the documentary, Xia Lao's deeds are great, and the material has laid the foundation for a good movie, they have found and promoted a number of blockbuster projects "Detective Chinatown 1, 2", "Catch the Demon", "Wolf Warrior 2", "I am not a medicine god", "Wandering Earth", "Riding the Wind and Waves" and other films Liu Kailuo served as the supervising producer, controlled the direction, and clarified the direction of promoting this film into a documentary. "Whether he climbs to the top or not, this is excellent film material, it can make everyone draw strength, not that he climbed Mount Everest, but he has always insisted on what he likes, which is a spiritual force worth passing on."
Wu Jingguo Fan and Hu Ge participated in the film, not trying to return the benefits to transmit positive energy
"I have a heartfelt touch on this project, although some people may think that Xia Lao's deeds of climbing Mount Everest are not great, and his biggest impression is not the success of climbing the summit, but the simplicity and persistence of his favorite things, he has no legs to climb the mountain, and he suffers from cancer and blood clots, so old that he has experienced several cruel failures, but he still has not given up." Liu Kailuo said that in the process of making the documentary, Wu Jing and Guo Fan also saw the film, they both liked it, and decided to invest to help the film be released, "In fact, director Wu Jing, even if they don't invest, they are already very touched to help shout, but they especially admire these things that Xia Lao has done, and they also feel that it is worth doing something for this movie, without asking for any promises in return, we later found that everyone was inspired by Xia Lao's energy to this project. I don't want the film to miss the opportunity to meet the general public. ”
When Xia Boyu visited the crew of "The Wandering Earth 2", he took a group photo with Guo Fan, Ye Fengchang and Wu Jing.
Another highlight of "Endless Climbing" is that the actor Hu Ge dubbed the movie. When the production team found Hu Ge and asked him to provide a narration for the film, he immediately agreed, all of which also stemmed from his special fate with Xia Boyu. In the movie "The Climber" released in 2019, Hu Ge played a role based on Xia Boyu, and as soon as he heard about Teacher Xia's deeds, he wanted to be made into a documentary, and he also hoped to participate in the way of sound. Most people will think that this is a marketing way to open up the market for documentaries and improve the attention rate and gimmicks, but in Liu Kailuo's view, this is a very unfair idea: "They have some understanding of Xia Boyu's affairs, and they are also moved by Xia Lao's deeds, and are willing to use their influence to let more people know about this movie, so that more people can feel the positive energy transmitted by Xia Lao, they do not collect money, do not seek any interest returns, and use their own film experience to give advice to the film. Can this still be described in the way of 'looking for gimmicks'? ”
【Interview】
If I only want to return the money, I will sell the material
Beijing News: In the "Climber" released in the National Day file in 2019, the prototype of the role played by Hu Ge is Xia Boyu, is there any relationship between these two works?
Ke Qingfeng: Actually, it doesn't matter, and when "The Climber" was released. "The Climber" is a feature film, it is based on the archetype of the characters, real events, but we are a pure documentary, let people know more about the person close to Xia Boyu and the spirit of him, which is completely different.
Stills from The Climber. Hu Ge plays Yang Guang.
Beijing News: Xia Boyu climbing Mount Everest is a kind of obsession, you insist on making this movie seems to be your obsession, I heard that you also mortgaged the house for this movie?
Ke Qingfeng: If you really want to make a movie to return to the original, if I take the materials I have made in the past few years to sell, won't I earn it back long ago? (Laughs) In fact, in the production process, I often talk to Wu Jing and Guo Fan, although I have not done a movie, but I always think that the form of film expression is the most advanced, and The deeds of Xia Lao are really worth filming, and if such a good deed is not insisted on in front of my eyes, I will feel that I will not go. Although this movie is constantly facing various problems, whether Xia Lao can reach the top affects whether the shooting can be completed, and whether there is anyone to watch after the movie is more difficult than climbing, but despite this, if no one does this, there is nothing.
Beijing News: Have you ever thought about giving up during the production process? After all, climbing Mount Everest is a very personal act, and it is likely to fail?
Ke Qingfeng: If you have been worried about the risk, there is really no need to shoot, what Xia Lao has done is not just an act of climbing, his experience of more than forty years, including his own experience and his attitude towards others, has stepped out of the climb itself. Constantly climbing is just his behavior, more is the spirit he transmits. I don't quite approve of people "deifying" him, he is just an ordinary person who has done what we did not insist on.
Stills from Endless Climb.
Beijing News: After the film is released, it will be handed over to the market, what regrets will there be?
Ke Qingfeng: If there is a regret, there are too few people spreading it. We have many famous filmmakers who help the film, they all have seen the movie, they have great admiration for Teacher Xia, and think that this movie should be seen by everyone, so they help us run around. But maybe not everyone can see it, especially the market conditions that the documentary faces and the market share that can be occupied, which is more difficult.
Beijing News reporter Zhou Huixiaowan
Edited by Huang Jialing Proofreader Li Lijun