Reporter | Pan Wenjie
Edit | Yellow Moon
In film and television dramas, "real costumes may not work on actors, so I adjusted it to make it have an ancient feeling and look good to wear." In the process, Ye Jintian discovered the secrets of fashion, "A lot of my work is to do collage, and after collage, I find that it constitutes my own view of time." At the launch of his new book "A Timeless World", Ye Jintian said that wanting to be neither separated from people's imagination of traditional costumes nor the aesthetics of the public is actually a matter of focus, as long as the focus is found and blurred in places that do not need to be focused, it will produce new ideas, which means that artists "must be familiar with both history and contemporary habits."
In 1986, Ye Jintian was favored by Xu Ke and served as the executive artist of "The True Colors of Heroes", and became acquainted with the film. For more than 30 years, as an art director and costume designer, he has cooperated with directors such as Ang Lee, Chen Kaige, Li Shaohong, Feng Xiaogang, Guan Jinpeng and other directors to create visual imprints and aesthetic styles for many film and television dramas such as "Chibi", "Night Banquet", "Daming Palace Words", "Orange Red", etc., and won the Oscar "Best Art Direction" and the British Academy Film School "Best Costume Design" award for the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". At the event, he said that in the process of doing film art direction, he learned different language systems from the work of designing scenes, shots and storytelling methods, and gradually developed his own style. In 2004, Tim Yip designed the overall vision of costumes and choreography for the "Eight Minutes of China" handover ceremony at the closing ceremony of the Athens Olympic Games. At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, he designed a medal-receiving dress for the Chinese delegation. In 2021, he directed the third stage play of Zhang Ailing's "Love in the Fallen City".
Talking about Hong Kong movies: Behind heroism is self-reliance
Both Ip Kam Tim and writer Chen Guanzhong grew up in the Hong Kong film industry in the last century. At the event site, Chen Guanzhong said that the advantage of Hong Kong culture is mixing - on the one hand, various cultures can coexist, and on the other hand, they can promote innovation after coexistence. "There are both the things of the British colonies and a lot of traditional Chinese culture, mixed together to create new things." For his generation, the film industry is a very young industry. He entered the crew in 1981, from director to cinematographer, Wu Yusen and Xu Ke are basically the same age, and there are almost no elderly people. The old directors at Shaw Studios have a set of shooting methods, but everyone doesn't want to see it anymore. In contrast, young people "have no rules, not even too understanding", but investors do not want the elderly, preferring to let young people try, many young people are hard-headed. Chen Guanzhong said, "You are interested in art, you have never done a movie before, but you have to be an art director of a movie as soon as you come up," that generation of Hong Kong filmmakers broke out.
Recalling his generation of Hong Kong filmmakers, Ip believes that what makes him feel most deeply about Hong Kong is "heroism", "It is possible that we all grew up in the cracks, it is difficult to find our roots, there is no bottom." He was very confused for a while, many designers around him "changed" the things in foreign magazines into their own works, as if they did not let the original authors of foreign countries know, they thought that their things would never reach the level of being seen by others, Ye Jintian "from that time on desperately looking for Chinese things, hoping that one day what is made can be seen." Behind this heroism is self-reliance, "there is a sense of loneliness", which requires self-completion and strong will, Ye Jintian said, "I also have a bit of this heroism, want to make something very different." ”
His "New Oriental Aesthetics" was also born from this heroism. After filming "The True Colors of Heroes", the young man traveled to Europe, and with the deepening of his understanding of Europe, Ye Jintian found that he "lacked some of the power of the source, and he had to shoot his own language, not to follow the language of the West all the time". He began to study the traditional aesthetics of China, and wanted to use a systematic visual language to express the beauty of China. When participating in the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Ye Jintian followed this concept, the film's art design uses elements such as ancient city walls, bamboo forests, and gray tiles to create a simple and classical atmosphere, "My new Orientalism is actually infinitely developing various possibilities" - not to copy tradition, nor to deconstruct postmodern, but to reconstruct the worldview and self in China's vision.
Talking about "Love in the Fallen City": Extreme complexity is never satisfied
In 2021, Ye Jintian brought a stage play based on Zhang Ailing's novel of the same name, "Love in the City", which used to be used as art director and costume design, many things had to be done according to the director's requirements, this time it was his turn to make a decision, he needed to have a strong "intention" and express his desire.
Chen Guanzhong introduced that "Love in the City" has been put on the stage three times: the first time was in 1944, When Zhang Ailing wrote her own script and put the novel on the stage in Shanghai; the second time was in 1987, when Chen Guanzhong made an adaptation and was performed by the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre. This version has been performed many times at the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre and has become a reserved project of the troupe, and after entering the new century, the script has also undergone some modifications. Ye Jintian's version is the third time that "Love in the City" has been put on the stage.
Many of Ye Jintian's friends attach great importance to Zhang Ailing's works and know that they are very difficult to change, and when the Shanghai Grand Theatre first approached him to direct, he felt strange, but was willing to take creative risks. He said that what was most interesting in his creation was the uncertainty between people. There is infinite space in the dialogue between Fan Liuyuan and Bai Liusu, from which he slowly deduces what kind of person Fan Liuyuan is, what kind of person Bai Liusu is, and how the invisible relationship between them is established. Ye Jintian said, "Bai Liusu has not listened to fan Liuyuan to say anything, she has been asking you when to marry me, and she is not interested in anything else." But in fact, Fan Liuyuan did not listen to what Bai Liusu was talking about, "Bai Liusu saw a rich man, Fan Liu principle was chatting with the Snow White in his heart", the two people were not looking at each other at all.
"Zhang Ailing did not write about many important occasions, such as the scene where Fan Liuyuan met Bai Liusu." Ye Jintian believes that this is an important scene, can not help but write, he presented it in a silent way without dialogue in seven minutes, "as far as I can to show that ambiguity, that resistance, and the hatred of the white family". Throughout the play, Ye Jintian is also trying to dig deep into the two characters, trying to "dig deep into the ambiguity, mystery, and subconscious things in their two speeches."
According to media reports, Ye Jintian designed 86 costumes for "Love in the Fallen City", one of which was mentioned in the novel, the "Moon White Cicada Wing Gauze Cheongsam", which was crystal clear and hand-sewn, and Wan Qian, the actor who played the white tassel, could not help but ask if he could take it home and collect it. Chen Guanzhong summarized Ye Jintian's style as "extreme complexity", and Ye Jintian recognized this. He believes that maximalism is the importance of believing in the reality of the world and re-evoking it, and he once said in an interview that it means "bringing things to the table and putting dissatisfaction and worry on the table." At the event site, Ye Jintian once again talked about "extreme complexity is insatiable", and the pursuit of extreme complexity is also looking for singularities. He uses the mathematical concept of "singularity", which means that when things develop to a certain extent, there will be abnormal, undefined things, which means that new creativity will be brought, in his own words, "to pull everyone to a place where they have not been before."