Nishikanji is Lee's second film, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Tokyo Film Festival. As a director, Li Jixian is a newcomer, but in fact he is already very senior in the film industry. After graduating from the 85th-level fine arts department of the Beijing Film Academy, he can be described as the authentic "sixth generation" of The Root Red Miaozheng.
As an art director, he participated in "Weekend Lover" and "Dangerous Girl" directed by classmate Lou Ye, "Growing Up" by Lu Xuechang, and later he consciously prepared for the transformation of directors, filmed advertisements, and participated in Lu Xuechang's "Very Summer" as a co-screenwriter. It was not until 2002 that Li Jixian finally made his debut feature film "The Summer of Wang First". This children's film with rural themes has been shortlisted for the Berlin Film Festival "Youth Forum" competition, Munich, Germany and other film festivals, and has received considerable recognition.
"Nishikando" was produced by a Sino-Japanese joint venture and completed in 2005. The reason for the Japanese funding is that the previous game "The First Summer of the King" sold well in Japan. Japanese audiences are most easily moved by films depicting the simple emotions of ordinary people, such as Huo Jianqi's "That Mountain That Man And That Dog", "The Summer of the First King", and "West Road".
In "West Trunk Road", the director's gaze is no longer focused on the current reality, but instead recalls the youth past, and the time goes back to the 80s of the last century: West Trunk Road, a closed town, a ring railway, adolescent Li Siping, a sudden love. Also about the era drama of the 80s, "Xigandao" is more like Wang Xiaoshuai's "Qinghong", or Lou Ye's "Summer Palace": self, closed, belongs to the temperament of the authentic sixth generation, rather than the Spring and Autumn brushwork of small people under the torrent of the times like Jia Zhangke's "Platform".
"West Road" has its self-sufficient world, which is an almost absolutely enclosed space, the sky is high and the earth is far away, and the daily life is unchanged, changing only the increasing hormones in the protagonist's body, and the rebellious emotions that match it. Li Siping's father was a military doctor in the army, and his mother was a family member from the countryside, ordinary but not ordinary. His parents' choices determined that he was born to face a lonely, boring world; his father's power further controlled Li Siping's life, and the railway was a symbol of hope, as often appeared in Ozu's films. In fact, the train did give Li Siping a glimmer of hope - the sudden appearance of 18-year-old girl Xueyan in the small town, breaking the peace of his life, and love must also begin. Love is the miracle in Li Siping's life, a life-saving straw, but this emotion is luxurious and unbearable for Li Siping. Li Siping is faced with a choice: work hard in the factory or fall in love; stay or run away, admit his fate or go out to fight, in addition to a special love enemy: his brother Fang Tou, the one his parents love more.
Li Siping's life dilemma can be compared with Zhang Jingchu in "Peacock", of course, there is also the pickpocket Xiaowu in "Xiaowu" and the aunt in "Auntie's Postmodern Life". They all have similar tragic personalities and are doomed to escape the fate of tragedy. Therefore, at the end of the film, Li Siping will choose to give up love, choose to live according to his father's will, join the army, and then accidentally but inevitably die.
The director, who is an artist, not only has a strong control of the narrative and actors, but also shows a rare talent in restoring the atmosphere and texture of the times. Of course, Wang Yu, who is also an 85-level photographer of Nortel (who has filmed "Dram of the Tea Horse Ancient Road", "Suzhou Creek", "Purple Butterfly", etc.), has also made great contributions to the film, as the most talented and styled photographer of the sixth generation, he gave the film a rare cold and gloomy, lifeless and hopeless visual texture of the national film, making the story more convincing.
The story told in "West Road" is a microcosm of the tragedy of an era, although the information about the times is always behind the gray images of the twilight: school violence, adolescent budding, struggle with patriarchy... So everyday, so trivial, so ordinary, no big star, no sensory stimulation, but also so touching. Lee Ji-hyun patiently tells a delicate emotional story, which is why he can get recognition in Tokyo.
"Xigandao" is very light, and the trivial things make it difficult to find sound in the impetuous moment; but it is really heavy, because it is a premature death of youth, a disillusionment of hope, a distant and sad youth that belongs to Li Jixian.
When it comes to the film's shooting methods, why the director uses such a simple way to express the story, and uses a lot of long shots in the film, director Li Jixian explained that the film describes the historical turning point of the reform and opening up at the end of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in 1978, focusing on the encounters of ordinary family figures in the period of social transformation. Based on this, the film tries to shoot this story from a calm and simple perspective, and strives to show that the work is simply presented to the audience, so that the audience can feel and evaluate it by themselves. "Art is my absence," Li Jixian concluded.
The performance of the actors in the film also left a deep impression on the fans, especially the small actor who played the "square head", and many fans praised his performance. Director Li Jixian introduced to the audience that in the film, except for the female lead actress Shen Jiani, all the actors participating in the performance are ordinary people living in the filming place, and their performance status is all from the accumulation of life. In particular, the actor of Fang Tou has traveled to dozens of primary schools and seen thousands of primary school students, and he has indeed not disappointed himself and has created this character brilliantly.
As for the performance of the lead actor Shen Jiani, the director also gave a lot of affirmation, believing that Shen Jiani's temperament complemented the film. The director expects the actors to be able to integrate their own understanding and performance characteristics into the performance, and Shen Jiani has done it well.