In the "Duck Prophet" unit of this year's National Day movie "My Father and Me", Zhang Yimou, who was wearing a Zhongshan suit, said "Don't fool me, I can make a movie", which made the audience can't help but be amused, and this long-lost surprise cameo once again allowed the audience to see Zhang Yimou's side as an actor.
Although he is not from a professional background, whether it is a migrant worker in "Have Something to Say" or Li Lianying, a grand eunuch in "The Gate of the Big House", the role played by Zhang Yimou can always make people shine.
In fact, as early as before becoming a director, Zhang Yimou won the Golden Rooster Award and the Best Actor of the Tokyo International Film Festival with Sun Wangquan in the movie "Old Well", becoming the first international film emperor in China.
After many years, watching this movie again, I will still be moved by Zhang Yimou's natural and simple performance and the film's display of the rural landscape at that time.
01, under the oppression of feudal concepts, the bitter mandarin duck
In Laojing Village on the Loess Plateau, water is the only thought of the whole village, and generations of villagers have been going forward to build a well.
Wang Quan and Qiao Ying are the two most tragic characters in the film, as the intellectual youth in the village, they should have had a beautiful love and a happy life, but they were forced to separate because of the constraints of their original families.
In order to make up enough money for Wangcai to get married, Wangquan broke up with Qiao Ying under the persecution of his grandfather and father, and became the son-in-law of Xi Feng, a widow in the same village, and endured the arrogance of his mother-in-law all day.
The town organized the young people in the village to participate in the well drilling technical class, so the Wangquan brothers and Qiao Ying took on the responsibility of digging wells for the villagers.
While Wang Quan and Qiao Ying worked to dig a well, they also endured gossip from the villagers.
During an underground operation, an accident occurred suddenly: the well collapsed, Wangcai was hit by a stone and lost his breath on the spot, and Wangquan and Qiaoying were also trapped underground.
There was little hope of survival, and the two could no longer suppress the desire in their hearts at the last moment of their lives and kissed together desperately, but fortunately both survived in time for rescue.
But Wangquan is already married, Xi Feng is also pregnant, helpless Qiaoying chose to marry far away, and donated all his dowry to continue to support the villagers to dig a well, which made all the villagers present moved.
The story of Laojing Village is a typical representative of the remote rural areas in the early days of reform and opening up, and the well is not only to survive, but also to benefit future generations and pursue a better and happier life.
What is even more lamentable is that Wang quan and Qiao Ying were not able to come together in the end, and their unsustainable love was not only a personal tragedy, but also rooted in the deep-rooted feudal traditional concepts of Chinese ideology at that time.
02, Zhang Yimou lost more than 20 pounds for filming
The director of "Lao Jing" is Wu Tianming, the leading figure of the fourth generation of directors, and also the Bole of Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and others.
In 1982, Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and others had just graduated from the Beijing Film Academy, Chen Kaige entered the Beijing Film Studio as he wished, and Zhang Yimou was assigned to the relatively remote Guangxi Film Studio.
However, Zhang Yimou, who has not yet entered the factory for less than one year, has been appreciated by director Wu Tianming because of a movie in the Guangdong Film Studio.
This film is the pioneering work "One and Eight", which is still known as the fifth generation of directors, and Zhang Yimou is the cinematographer in this film.
Although this film is a clichéd anti-Japanese story, because of its innovative narrative perspective and photographic composition, it has attracted the attention of many people after its release, and Wu Tianming is one of them.
In 1984, Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou and others were looking for shooting scenes in Shaanxi in order to shoot "Yellow Land", and Wu Tianming, then director of the Western Film Studio, warmly welcomed them and helped them coordinate various problems in the shooting process.
Later, at the gracious invitation of Wu Tianming, Zhang Yimou was transferred to Xi'an Film Studio as a cinematographer.
In 1986, when Wu Tianming filmed "Old Well", Wu Tianming posted heroes across the country, and there were many male actors who came to audition, but Wu Director has not found a satisfactory male protagonist, and Zhang Yimou, who was a photographer in the crew, attracted wu Tianming's attention.
Although Zhang Yimou had never acted, he felt that acting was very new to him, so he accepted Wu Tianming's invitation.
Zhang Yimou himself is a Xi'an native, and when he was young, Zhang Yimou had a northern man's forbearance and stubbornness, but the only drawback was that he was not lean enough, which was not in line with the image of Sun Wangquan's rural youth.
In order to meet the requirements of his mentor, Zhang Yimou made up his mind to lose weight, so he did a lot of physical work every day at the shooting site, and for more than two months, he carried stones every day to walk between mountain roads.
When the film began to be officially filmed, Zhang Yimou successfully lost more than 20 pounds, and Zhang Yimou, who lost weight successfully, played the role of Sun Wangquan as desired.
When filming the scene with the heroine Liang Yujin trapped in the well, in order to present the state of death, Zhang Yimou did not eat for three consecutive days, just to present the most real state, I have to say that the "film emperor" Zhang Yimou is too hard.
The efforts of the actors and directors have finally been recognized by the audience and the film festival jury.
Zhang Yimou's tenacity when filming left a deep impression on Wu Tianming, and also laid the foundation for Zhang Yimou's future shooting of "Red Sorghum".
03, Wu Tianming paid for zhang Yimou's directing road
In the second year after "Old Well", Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang and others all had their own masterpieces, which made Zhang Yimou, who was still working as a cinematographer in the film studio, a little unable to sit still, so Zhang Yimou explained his ideas to Wu Tianming and wanted to adapt Mo Yan's novel "Red Sorghum" into a movie.
Wu Tianming had already gained insight into Zhang Yimou's thoughts, and he was also very confident in Zhang Yimou, so he reported to the leader, but did not get the support of the leader.
So Wu Tianming raised 40,000 yuan for Zhang Yimou himself, let him turn around first, and finally with the joint efforts of the two, "Red Sorghum" began shooting smoothly.
With such support from his mentor, Zhang Yimou was quite touched and determined to make "Red Sorghum" film well and give back to his mentor.
Zhang Yimou and Gong Li, Jiang Wen, Mo Yan and others have been rooted in the countryside of Gaomi, Shandong for several months, and the film "Red Sorghum" has not failed to live up to the efforts of Zhang Yimou and others, and has shined at the Berlin International Film Festival, and Zhang Yimou's road to directing has since begun, step by step towards the ranks of international famous directors.
After "Red Sorghum", Zhang Yimou filmed excellent films such as "Ju Dou", "Alive", and "My Father and Mother", further consolidating his position in the domestic and foreign film circles.
After 2000, Zhang Yimou followed the trend and filmed commercial blockbusters such as "Hero" and "Ten Faces Ambush", which were also unanimously recognized by the audience and industry insiders.
From the Guangdong Film Studio to the Western Film Studio, from the famous domestic photographers to the international famous directors, Zhang Yimou has come all the way, without the full support of director Wu Tianming, Zhang Yimou has not lived up to the promotion and help of his mentor, in fact, not only Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Chen Kaige and others have also been helped by Wu Tianming.
It can be said that the film road of the fifth generation of Chinese directors was indispensable to the support and help of director Wu Tianming at the beginning, and director Wu Tianming's contribution to the Chinese film going abroad to the world in the 1980s and 1990s was indelible.
In 2014, director Wu Tianming died of a sudden heart attack, and the entire film circle mourned for it, and directors such as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Gu Changwei, and Xie Fei sent articles of condolence.
Wu Tianming has created countless classics in his life, "Life", "Lao Jing", "Changing Face" and other works have left their names in film history, flowing for hundreds of generations, and the Si people have passed away, and we can only remember the style of the Grandmaster of the Chinese film generation through works. (Author: Pippi Shrimp)