One
In 1974, when Zhang Li, a 17-year-old Hebei boy, went to Pingjiang, Hunan Province, to join the team, The little Song Jia who later rumored about him had not yet been born, and his future sixth wife, Liu Bei, was only 7 years old.
In the three years of joining the team in Pingjiang County, Zhang Li's life was both boring and poor. In order to add some fun to life and fill his stomach, Zhang Li often ran to the film crew of Xiaoxiang Film Studio to help with chores.
Over time, Zhang Li really liked the atmosphere of the film crew and liked the movie. Teng Xi, a photographer at Xiao Film Studio, found that Zhang Li was a good seedling for photography and recommended him to apply for his alma mater, the Beijing Film Academy.
Fuji Xihui also told Zhang Li a sentence: "If you do photography, fame and profit basically have nothing to do with you." But Zhang Li was very persistent, and he did not point to the rich and expensive of dry photography.
In 1978, the 21-year-old Zhang Li was admitted to nortel photography department, and among the classmates were Zhang Yimou, Gu Changwei, Chen Kaige, Li Shaohong, Hu Mei, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Wu Ziniu and so on.
More than a decade later, this group of them was called "China's fifth generation of directors".
Fast forward to 1982, after Zhang Li graduated from university, he and several classmates were assigned to Xiaoxiang Film Studio. At that time, they had dreams, and they dreamed that they could make several works that left their names in history.
But when they arrived at Xiaoying Studio, they were stunned. The distance between reality and dreams is not a star and a half, just like those who run on the Internet, the greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment.
In their sleep, the pictures they take with the machine are picturesque, and in reality, they sweep the floor every day, and even touch the machine to be scolded.
Zhang Li, who has a hot personality, naturally can't stand it, follows his classmate Wu Ziniu to participate in the "general strike", and goes to the factory leader's office every day to squat, wanting a chance to shoot a film.
The factory leaders really couldn't stand the torment of this group of young people, and agreed to let them set up a "youth film crew" to give them a chance.
The factory leaders did not expect that this "youth film crew" from Nortel really gave everyone a surprise.
Two
At that time, Xiao Film Studio only had four film shooting places per year, but there were no restrictions on children's films. So, the youth film crew made a children's movie "Alternate Team".
After the release of "Alternate Team", it not only had a good reputation, but also won the special prize of the Golden Rooster Award and two international awards the following year.
On the day of receiving the Golden Rooster Award, Zhang Li and director Wu Ziniu and others ran wildly through the streets of Jinan with trophies. They ran and shouted, making the police think that this group of children had just robbed the gold shop, and chased after them...
In 1984, the youth film crew continued to work hard to shoot the second film "Blood Black Valley".
Although Zhang Li participated in the whole process, because he was a photographer, he has been unknown. Fortunately, I made a lot of friends during the shooting, including Jiang Qitao, the screenwriter of "The Right Way in the World is Vicissitudes", and Hu Mei, the director of "Yongzheng Dynasty".
In 1987, when the 30-year-old Zhang Li was carrying a camera and running with the crew, his classmates Zhang Yimou and Gu Changwei joined forces to shoot the award-winning "Red Sorghum", officially starting the name of "China's fifth generation of directors".
Seeing that his classmates are so outstanding, Zhang Li has not tried to be a director to make a movie, but unfortunately, his film debut "Escape from the Evil World", for various reasons... It was not released.
Later, Zhang Li ran to Shenzhen, the forefront of reform and opening up, and met a very important nobleman.
Three
In Shenzhen, Zhang Li met Ye Daying, a big man in the Beijing circle. Coupled with screenwriter Jiang Qitao, the three temporarily formed an "iron triangle" and made two movies.
One is "Red Cherry", which made Ye Daying famous and rich, and the other is "Red Lover", which won Mei Ting.
Zhang Li won the Best Cinematography Award at the 16th Golden Rooster Awards with "Red Cherry", and finally broke through a little in the circle.
But when he returned to the factory after filming "Red Cherry" in Moscow, he caught up with the change of leaders of Xiaoying Studio.
The newly appointed leader did not let the film, that did not let the shooting, so angry that Zhang Li directly resigned and did not do it, even the senior title that had just been rated was not wanted.
In 1997, zhang Li, who was already 40 years old, came to Beijing, joined Feng Xiaogang's team, and became the "royal photographer" of Feng's commercial film empire.
Zhang Li, because of his hard technology and explosive temper, sent Ya number in the crew: "Uncle Li". Later, the classic line in Feng Xiaogang's movie "No Thief in the World" "Uncle Li is very angry, the consequences are very serious", and it is Zhang Li who is hidden.
In 1998, the 41-year-old Zhang Li was helped by director Hu Meila as the artistic director of "Yongzheng Dynasty".
With the full cooperation of the two, this "man drama" that was not optimistic, unexpectedly became the annual rating champion of CCTV.
This play made Zhang Li have a strong interest in historical drama, which led to the later "Towards the Republic" and "Daming Dynasty 1566".
In 1999, the 42-year-old Zhang Li won the Best Cinematography Award at the 20th Golden Rooster Awards for his film "Born out of the Blue", and at the same time, he also captured the heart of a young girl.
Four
This girl is Liu Lin, who played "Ma Lan" in "Born in the Sky".
At that time, Liu Lin was 25 years old and was deeply attracted by Zhang Li's talent, although Zhang Li was 17 years older than her, she still fell in love.
Before falling in love with Liu Lin, Zhang Li had just divorced his fifth wife, Xiao Nan. Zhang Li and Xiao Nan also had an affair at that time, and later because of their incompatible personalities, the two divorced.
In the three years that Liu Lin was with Zhang Li, she repeatedly proposed to get married, but Zhang Li never agreed.
In the face of this relationship that only has the present and no future, Liu Lin has to endure the pain of proposing to break up. At first, she thought that Zhang Li was too badly injured in the previous marriage to dare to remarry.
But I didn't expect to break up for half a year, and I heard the news of Zhang Li's remarriage.
Liu Lin understood that Zhang Li did not want to get married, but did not want to marry her.
After being severely injured by Zhang Li, it took Liu Lin a long time to come out, but the initiator, Zhang Li, had already walked to the cave.
In 2003, the 46-year-old Zhang Li had already directed "Towards the Republic", which had a Douban score of 9.6, so he was crowned a god in world war I. In the same year, when he was filming the TV series "Military Secrets", he had an affair with the 36-year-old actress Liu Bei.
At that time, Zhang Li was in full swing, and many people regarded "Towards the Republic" as "the culmination of Chinese TV drama creation", but one person did not think so.
This person is Zhang Li himself. Zhang Li was not impatient after his own fire and prepared another divine drama.
Five
In January 2007, Zhang Li devoted countless efforts to the historical drama "Daming Dynasty 1566" was broadcast on Hunan TV. Unfortunately, it was the world of modern dramas and military dramas, and this slightly boring historical drama had a rating of less than 0.7.
Because of the dismal ratings, this divine drama was put into the warehouse by Hunan Satellite TV and has not been broadcast again.
No one expected that ten years later, the copyright of "Daming Dynasty 1566" was bought out by a video platform, and netizens finally discovered that this was a well-made and far-reaching historical drama, with more than 4 million plays on the first day, and more than 30 million in the first week...
However, these impressive achievements are all later.
At that time, the ratings of "Daming Dynasty 1566" were cold, Zhang Li was hit hard, fortunately, the film "Night Banquet" directed by Feng Xiaogang, who served as a cameraman, achieved good results, so he won the Best Cinematography Award at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival and was nominated for the Golden Horse Award for Best Cinematography, which was somewhat of a face saver.
Since then, Zhang Li has continued to team up with Zhang Guoguo and the original team of "Daming Dynasty 1566" to direct the classic TV series "Once Upon a Time in China".
After the broadcast of "Once Upon a Time in China", the word of mouth and ratings were good, and it won the third prize of the 27th Feitian Awards for feature-length TV dramas and the best feature-length drama awards at the 4th Seoul International Television Festival.
However, Zhang Li's biggest topic is not these, but that he is once again "in love with the drama".
Six
In 2007, when the 50-year-old Zhang Li was filming "Once Upon a Time in China", he had a scandal with the 27-year-old actress Xiao Songjia.
At that time, the crew of "Once Upon a Time in China" found that every time they went to the scene of Xiao Songjia, director Zhang Li would slow down the shooting rhythm. Later, when the scandal between the two broke, they suddenly realized.
As soon as the news came out, Little Song Jia immediately denied it. Claiming that he and Zhang Li are just an ordinary working relationship, all this is the hype of the crew for the achievements of the TV series.
Just when netizens were relishing this complicated feeling, less than two months later, the plot reversed again.
In March 2008, the scandal between Zhang Li and Xiao Songjia, which was 23 years old, spread the news of "breaking up".
Some people speculate that the reason for the breakup between the two is that when Xiao Songjia was initially exposed to the news of the "third party", Zhang Li did not come forward to clarify for Xiao Songjia, resulting in her solid "carrying the black cauldron".
Little Song Jia has always expressed dissatisfaction with this, and the two have quarreled many times, and finally decided to break up peacefully.
However, some insiders broke the news that the reason why the two broke up was because Xiao Songjia was involved in the factional struggle within Orange Sky Entertainment, involving Zhang Li, who had terminated his contract with Orange Sky and opened his own studio...
And Zhang Li, in the next play, at the same time with two beautiful women once again "because of the drama".
Seven
In 2008, when the 51-year-old Zhang Libao was not old, directing the historical war drama "The Right Way in the World is Vicissitudes", there was a scandal with two actresses.
One is Zhang Heng, who plays the female number one "Yang Lihua", that is, the beautiful woman who played the "Princess Saiya" in "Huan Zhu Gege", 21 years younger than Zhang Li.
This decision came as a surprise to many people. After all, Zhang Heng was not very famous at that time, and his acting skills were also decent, and Zhang Li's salary was not low.
So many people speculated that Zhang Li was once again "in love because of the drama", which gave Zhang Heng the opportunity to become a "Li girl".
In addition to the female number one Zhang Heng, the female number three Yang Xue has also had a scandal with Zhang Li.
However, not long after, Yang Xue revealed the real reason why Zhang Li chose her in a certain program:
The "Lin E" played by Yang Xue is a spy officer, and Yang Xue's parents have really engaged in espionage work, so Zhang Li believes that Yang Xue can restore a spy to the greatest extent, which is why she was chosen by all opinions.
In 2009, after the broadcast of "The Right Way in the World is Vicissitudes", the Douban score was 9.2, and Yang Xue lived up to expectations and won the "Most Potential Actress Award of the 16th Shanghai TV Festival Internet Public Vote".
Because of the continuous shooting of classic TV series, for a time, the two words "Zhang Li" became a golden signboard, and it seems that as long as it is a TV series directed by Zhang Li, it will inevitably be a classic.
But no one expected that when he was 59 years old, Zhang Li overturned the car.
Eight
In 2016, after Zhang Li directed the historical legendary drama "The Young Marshal", he also had to take over the adaptation of the fantasy novel "Wudong Qiankun", which surprised many people.
Many people came to ask Zhang Li why the director with thick eyebrows, big eyes and red roots and seedlings also began to "defect"? In the face of many friends' doubts, Zhang Li only said at first that he was for fun.
Later, the voice of doubt grew louder and louder, and Zhang Li had to publicly explain:
"As a director with a background in photography, I still have unlimited pursuits of shooting methods. But in historical dramas, many technical techniques are often limited and cannot be released at all. In a completely overhead world, realizing those wild imaginations was very attractive to me. ”
When the audience heard this explanation, they felt that it was also reasonable, so they were full of expectations for "Wudong Qiankun".
As a result, after the "Wudong Qiankun" was broadcast online, the word of mouth was in a mess, and the Douban score was only a pitiful 4.4 points.
For a director who shot a 9.6 points "Towards the Republic" and a 9.7 points "Daming Dynasty 1566", such achievements are naturally difficult to say.
But Zhang Li did not take a public stand, but came up with a project that had been prepared for many years: the historical drama "Cao Cao".
Cao Cao has always been a highly controversial tyrant in the Three Kingdoms period, Zhang Li filmed "Cao Cao", and invited Yi Zhongtian as a historical consultant, and the leading actor also set a very personal Jiang Wen, so everyone was full of expectations.
However, "Cao Cao" has been preparing for a long time and has not seen any movement, first, because Zhang Li has high requirements for the script and has been revising. The second is waiting for the lead actor Jiang Wen...
At the end of 2021, Zhang Li, who was over the age of flower armor, also presented a "Win or Lose" to the audience. This workplace emotional drama starring Chen Kun, Xin Zhilei, Wang Xuexi, Zhang Zijian, etc., may represent another direction of Zhang Li's efforts.
But we are still looking forward to "Cao Cao" directed by Zhang Li and starring Jiang Wen. Because although the production of TV dramas is high now, they do not pay much attention to quality, too many directors and screenwriters have begun to rush to make quick profits, lacking the spirit of grinding a sword for ten years.
A director, peach blossom luck, in the end still have to rely on the work to speak. This requires not forgetting the original intention, and persistently spending more time and energy on the work, rather than on the wine and beauty.
Although fine wine is good, it is not advisable to covet a cup; although a beautiful person is good, it is not advisable to be greedy. Only the classics that purify the human soul can reproduce the legend of "Ercao's body and name are destroyed, and the rivers and rivers are not wasted".
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References for this article: See the picture in the text.