A group of idle, flesh-and-blood young people came to Kaohsiung from the Penghu Wind Cabinet to watch white drama, gamble, fight bravely, and experienced bitterness and pain in their growth. This is a milestone work of the great director Hou Xiaoxian's leap and transformation - "The Man from the Wind Cabinet", which was restored and re-screened in Taipei after 35 years of disobedience.
On December 1, 2018, Hou Xiaoxian, a screenwriter and Taiwanese female writer Zhu Tiantian, and a veteran Taiwanese film critic, Wen Tianxiang, came to taipei's Guangdian Huashan Film Museum to have a post-screening discussion with the audience 35 years later, talking about the exclusive memory of "The Man from the Wind Cabinet".
Stills from The Man from the Wind Cabinet (1983).
In addition to the exclusive memory of Hou Xiaoxian's films, Zhu Tiantian also talked about the new movie on the same day, praising "Elephant Sitting on the Ground": "The best thing to watch this year is of course the Golden Horse Award for Best Film, "The Elephant Sits on the Ground". I think that's so pretty good. On the evening of November 13, when the 55th Golden Horse Film Festival was in full swing in Ximending, Taipei, the sharp-eyed audience found that Hou Xiaoxian appeared in the back row of the audience seat of "Elephant Sitting on the Ground".
Zhu Tiantian revealed that Hou Dao also remembered it after watching it, saying that he was very touched, better than when they were young, and they were in tears. He said at the beginning that the director of this film is really a talent that has not been seen in a hundred years, and then this happened
(Suicidal)
thing. Of course, it was too much of an exaggeration to say that I would not see in a hundred years, and he changed his words to say that I would not see him in twenty years. As long as he thinks about it, he will talk about this film from time to time. Speaking of last year's Golden Horse Awards, Zhu Tiantian praised "Big Buddha Plus": "Super good-looking, very good-looking film." ”
What kind of cooperation memories do you have between Zhu Tiantian and Hou Xiaoxian? What will she think of Hou Xiaoxian's films? At the scene in Taipei, Tan Xinyi, an intern reporter of the Beijing News, reported on the dialogue.
Zhu Tiantian, born on August 24, 1956 in Taipei, Taiwan Province, was born in Linqu County, Shandong Province, and is a Taiwanese writer and screenwriter. Wen Tianxiang, CEO of the Golden Horse Awards, was once known as Taiwan's youngest "senior" film critic.
Zhu Tiantian: Hou Xiaoxian filmed "Horizontal Conquest and Tyranny"
In 1982, at the age of 26, Zhu Tiantian wrote "The Story of Xiao Bi", which was published in Taiwan's Lianhe Bao. The next day, she received a call from Hou Xiaoxian, saying that she wanted to adapt the novel into a movie. Since then, she has hit by mistake and stepped into the film circle.
Discussing the script, they were at the Star Cafe in a section of Wuchang Street in Taipei. Zhu Tiantian recalled: "The so-called discussion script is that you tell your story, and I tell my story. "Winter's Holiday" is my story, "Love wind and dust" is Wu Nianzhen's story, and "Childhood Past" is Hou Dao's own story. In this way, one story after another became a movie, and the long and legendary cooperation between Zhu Tiantian and Hou Xiaoxian began.
"In the past thirty or forty years, we have been tortured enough by Hou Dao." Talking about the dismal box office of "The Man from the Wind Cabinet" in Taiwan in 1983, Zhu Tiantian joked. The first cooperation "Xiao Bi's Story", the movie "sold out and applauded", and it was a New Year file, and the fire reached "the cinema in the south". They thought that "The Man from the Wind Cabinet" would also be a big hit. In fact, the film had to be released seven days ago, which was three days more than the "Green Plum Bamboo Horse" they cooperated with Yang Dechang.
Zhu Tiantian recalled:
"Everyone understands it very well now, and they won't understand it." But at that time, when it was released, the audience was completely at a loss, thinking how could this be, and there was no ending. Especially those 'wrong audiences', want to see the tearful and laughing story of "Xiao Bi's Story", after the expectations are disappointed, the reputation of the film has become extremely poor. ”
Taiwanese writer Wang Wenxing once said that when he wrote novels such as "Family Change" and "The Man With the Back to the Sea," his readers were being "expropriated and violently" by him. Zhu Tiantian borrowed the phrase "horizontal conquest and tyranny" to describe Hou Xiaoxian's requirements for the audience: "This is how we were tortured and trained by him, and before we watched Hou Dao's films, we probably understood in our hearts what it would be like." Of course, Director Hou always said that this film must sell well, and later we will know that it is good to listen to it. ”
Hou Xiaoxian shoots "Wind Cabinet": Taking The "Perspective of Heaven" from Shen Congwen
Zhu Tiantian said that Hou Xiaoxian is a director of the "soil method steelmaking". From apprenticeships and field notes all the way up, there are many contacts with practical work. In this way, he relies on the intuitive experience of "natural", "natural", "natural" and "can do without knowing", but he can also "have a very good time". However, when he met Yang Dechang, Ke Yizheng, Zeng Zhuangxiang, and Wan Ren, a group of new filmmakers who had returned to China, he took the fresh film theory learned from abroad, "like a new wave, it hit him hard." Zhu Tiantian laughed and said that in the past, Hou Xiaoxian would fall asleep when watching the so-called "master movies". This group of friends who returned from studying movies abroad brought him a lot of impact.
For a long time, in the Japanese-style apartment at No. 69 Jinan Road in Yang Dechang, this group of friends watched films by Nagisa Oshima and others. After watching it, Yang Dechang sent everyone a sub-field table to tell everyone about the narrative technique of this movie. Zhu Tiantian recalled, "made like an accordion", pulled open a long copy. Another friend, Zeng Zhuangxiang, was the favorite leading figure in German New Wave cinema at that time. Talking about "Overland Boat" and "Heavenly Punishment", Hou Xiaoxian had never heard of it. Unlike Yang Dechang, who later had the best relationship with him, the T-shirt he wore on the first day of China Shadow had three names printed on it: Herzog, Bresson and himself. After listening to so many trendy theories and watching so many master movies, Hou Xiaoxian, who "didn't know but could do it", wanted to make movies again, and he fell into confusion.
Zhu Tiantian recommended him to read Shen Congwen's autobiography: "Shen Congwen is a rural boy in western Hunan who came to Shanghai during the May Fourth period and was dumbfounded--Shanghai is too new." At that time, the new literary writers who stood at the forefront of the times were all in Shanghai. For a while, what Shen Congwen wrote completely deviated from the original creative style. This made me have an association, Hou Dao and Shen Congwen, their encounters have commonalities. Hou Dao is also a country boy. I met so many fashionable people at once, and I didn't know what to do. She recalled that Hou Xiaoxian said after reading it and knew how to shoot it.
What Hou Xiaoxian learned from Shen Congwen's autobiography is a downward-looking, objective "heavenly perspective." Hou Xiaoxian once said: "This novel has a point of view, it is overlooked, as if all kinds of sad things happening in this world, he is very objective in looking at, there is a kind of open-mindedness. Shen Congwen saw when he joined the army, "There are two hundred and two hundred people captured every day, almost all of whom are peasants in Miao Township." Neither all of them could be exonerated nor should they all beheaded, so the procedure chosen was entrusted to the king of heaven who was revered by the local people. Lead the prisoners to the front yard of the main hall of the Heavenly King Temple and throw bamboo rafts in front of the gods. One upside down and one covered shun, kai release, double yang gong, kai release, double cover yin, kill the head. Life and death depend on a throw, the dead self goes to the left, the living self goes to the right. A man takes advantage of three-quarters of a penny of gambling, so no one who should die does not speak, and goes with his head bowed. "The heavens and the earth are unkind, and all things are dogs." Hou Xiaoxian found this angle and filmed "The Man from the Wind Cabinet". The distance was far away, looking at his own youth from the perspective of heaven.
In terms of execution, he has always said to the photographer Chen Kunhou that the camera should be far away and the lens should be long. Zhu Tiantian recalled that there is a long shot in "The Man from the Wind Cabinet" in which four young people sit in front of a land temple. There are no frontal, short-cut shots at all, and the expressions on the faces of the characters are also obscured. After shooting this long shot, Hou dao said OK. Chen Kunhou questioned, "Are you sure?" Don't cut a close-up into it? Hou Xiaoxian said, OK. Chen Kunhou said, Is Hou Dao crazy? He didn't want any short shots, and kept saying that the shots should be far away and cold. Interestingly, this film is very meaningful to the director and to the cinematography. Hou Xiaoxian once said that if he wanted to choose a movie that was most important to him, he would choose "The Man from the Wind Cabinet". Chen Kunhou also said, "The Man from the Wind Cabinet"
It is the most enjoyable film of his creative career, even if Director Hou has always asked him to "step back and back" to shoot a long-range shot that suits his heart.
In the editing of "The Man from the Wind Cabinet", fresh ideas were also absorbed. Zhu Tiantian recalled that at the time of cutting, Director Hou and the editor Liao Qingsong just went to see the French film "Broken Breath" directed by Jean-Luc Godard. After reading them, they sighed, wow, and this kind of cutting, does not need continuity, logic. There is a scene in "The Man from the Wind Cabinet" in which three teenagers run to Kaohsiung to catch a bus, repeatedly take the wrong ride, go up and down. When editing, they also draw scoops up according to the gourd, and do not stick to logic in editing. Zhu Tiantian explained: "In the past, the editing was like this, and the hand of the previous scene should correspond to the hand of the next scene. When they cut the scene, they cut it out and didn't connect it directly, which was very rebellious 35 years ago. ”
Zhu Tiantian said: "After meeting Yang Dechang and them, the state of Hou's filming began to swim on the margins of conscious and unconscious. In "The Best Of Times: Hou Xiaoxian's Film Record," she writes, "According to my observation, when Hou Xiaoxian made "The Man from the Wind Cabinet," he didn't know the historical background of realism, authorship, scene scheduling, long shots, and so on—in fact, at that time, he couldn't figure out what Gundam was doing—and he made this film that completely shot realistic content in a realistic style." But it is also strange, when it is not clear, it is all know-how, and he suddenly breaks into the extremely high situation of the movie like a fly, and he actually talks to the masters and travels. "Absorbing new theories, and Hou Xiaoxian's consistent observation of life, the film that comes out of the marginal flow between conscious and unconscious is "The Man from the Wind Cabinet". Zhu Tiantian commented that it was fresh, sharp and sharp, like an "old knife that was newly developed in the arsenic".
Yang Dechang and Hou Xiaoxian: An Experiment on the Soundtrack At Any Cost
When making "The Man from the Wind Cabinet", there was a rather interesting episode. In 1983, when the film was released in Taiwan, the soundtrack was based on Li Zongsheng. However, after the dismal box office and helplessness to get off the film, Yang Dechang, who is well versed in classical music, helped the film reassign Vivaldi's "Four Seasons", which had a good effect. Zhu Tiantian explained that this is actually a "no matter the cost" soundtrack experiment played by two directors who feel sorry for each other.
Zhu Tiantian recalled that Hou Xiaoxian and Yang Dechang were both doing post-dubbing in China Film at that time, Hou did "The Man from the Wind Cabinet", and Yang did "A Day on the Beach". Hou Xiaoxian saw "A Day on the Beach" and sincerely sighed at its delicacy. He told Yang Dechang that if he had seen "A Day on the Beach" before filming "Wind Cabinet", he might have done better. It is also because of this pity that after seven days of "The Man from the Wind Cabinet", Yang Dechang felt very sorry and boldly proposed to help him re-score. Hou Xiaoxian also found it very interesting. But the movie has already lost money, and it is also down, so why make a new version? Chen Kunhou, who was also the producer, could not understand. For this soundtrack experiment, Hou Xiaoxian spent another 200,000 yuan at the expense of the already lost money, and remixed several tracks. Zhu Tiantian said that in fact, this is very crazy.
Speaking of Hou Xiaoxian's sympathy with Yang Dechang, Zhu Tiantian said: "Healthy competition is very happy, like Hou Xiaoxian and Yang Dechang. In this world, it is not so easy to have someone you can compete with. They all have things that the other doesn't have, so 'the opposite sex attracts'. The best appreciation between them, as Cai Qin said, is almost like falling in love. ”
Hou-style local style: not to cater to the Western imagination
Hou Xiaoxian's films are usually based on local experience. Zhu Tiantian revealed that in "The Man from the Wind Cabinet", many scenes are pieced together from Hou Xiaoxian's first-hand personal impression. Once Hou Xiaoxian went to Penghu to visit Wang Jujin's class, wandered to the wind cabinet, saw a group of young people billiards in the grocery store, sat there and watched, watching for nearly an hour. After leaving, remember. He once said: "I can't forget the group of young people, it seems that they are no longer studying, I feel that they are so unstable, and there will be accidents at any time." In them you see the unpredictable sorrow and tragedy of youth life, that desolate and lonely afternoon. This became the opportunity for him to make "The Man from the Wind Cabinet", which became the first act of the film.
He is also familiar with Kaohsiung, another filming location for the film. Zhu Tiantian introduced that that year Hou Xiaoxian wanted to enter the university and specially ran to the home of a friend in Qijin to study. The role of Niu Chengze in the movie is almost a portrayal of Director Hou himself. Zhu Tiantian said, "In "The Man from the Wind Cabinet", a large part of it is the story of Hou Dao himself 'playing hooligans' in front of the City God Temple. "The mother cut her son's thigh with a kitchen knife, and the son dropped his rice bowl during the funeral of his father, these plots in the movie are Hou Xiaoxian's own experience. The protagonist's capable sister and silent brother are indeed like Hou Xiaoxian's description of family members in "Childhood Past".
In the film, A Qing and the three want to watch "big screen, color, European films" on the streets of Kaohsiung, and are tricked into an empty building that has not yet been completed. Facing a whole floor-to-ceiling window, they shouted: Lean, it is really a big screen, and it is still colorful!
"This plot is also real." Zhu Tiantian laughed, "My sister Zhu Tianxin had a 'Gang of Four' at that time, which was written in her "Kik Song", and the members were her, Tang Nuo, Ding Yaming, and Lin Duan, who had passed away. Being deceived is what these three boys experienced, and was later filmed into the movie by Hou Director. ”
Talking about the "oriental mood" in Hou Xiaoxian's film, Zhu Tiantian admitted that under the gaze of some ill-intentioned Western people, "oriental mood" has almost become a "dirty term". "You can't deliberately echo and satisfy the Imagination of the West for the East in the movie, poverty, and so on." It's a terrible thing. Zhu Tiantian said, "Hou Xiaoxian has repeatedly stressed that his films grow out of the dirt. In the absence of the realistic limitations of Hollywood's perfect industrial system, he needs to kill a bloody road and find his own way of telling stories. This method of storytelling may be different from the existing film grammar in the West, but it is definitely not intended to cater to the imagination of Westerners. Wen Tianxiang also added that defamiliarization does bring the thrill of spectacle, but it is difficult to last. Hou's films are often favored by well-known international directors, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami likes "Dream Life", Coppola likes "Goodbye south country, south country", and Martin Scorsese likes "Sea Flower". This has clearly transcended the superficial cultural divide, but has found resonance and inspiration at a deep level.
The screenwriter's exclamation: "The people in the sky don't need gravity"
The collaboration between Zhu Tiantian and Hou Xiaoxian often takes the script first. "The Man from the Wind Cabinet" and "Winter's Holiday" were all stories, scripts, and then novels, which were serialized in newspaper supplements at the time. Zhu Tiantian said that at that time, Hou Xiaoxian's filming was already very formulaic, and when filming "Xiao Bi's Story", he was already skilled enough to write the script in advance, one minute in the first scene, one and a half minutes in the second scene, and so on. At this time, Hou Xiaoxian hoped to invite Zhu Tiantian and others who had no experience in writing scripts to write for him, "like a fresh wind blowing in." But Zhu Tiantian laughed and said that Hou's script was also "probably probable". "Xiao Bi's Story" only uses one or two sentences of dialogue from Zhu Tiantian and Ding Yamin in the end, and the rest are the daily improvisation of Hou Director, and the script is often just a blueprint for the staff to find a scene.
Over the years, Zhu Tiantian and Hou Xiaoxian have collaborated on seventeen or eight films, and Hou's personal style is as distinct as ever. When asked whether the triumphant stroke in the script would be given up, Zhu Tiantian said bluntly: "Never." It's just like filming "Assassin Nie Yinniang",
(I write the script)
That effort was made... The New Book of Tang, the Old Book of Tang, made a bunch of them, built an iceberg, and finally only showed a little bit in the movie, minimalist into this look. All the places where there should be cause and effect in the middle are cut out, and there are no psychological changes. The audience may think after watching it, this screenwriter is a fool, right? As a screenwriter, watching this movie, I thought, ah, it doesn't matter. You have gone to heaven. We may still have gravity on the ground, and from this side to that side there always needs psychological changes, there must always be causality. The people of heaven do not need it. You think, Director Hou is a screenwriter, how can you not know how to explain the causal relationship? But he's going to go with his own ideas. ”
"A film is not a text, it is an image, and in the end it is the director's." Zhu Tiantian said, "I also have my own text battlefield, so I am very comfortable and very relieved. ”
Author: Beijing News reporter Xiao Yi Intern reporter Tan Xinyi (from Taipei)
Edit: Sissi
Proofreader: Xue Jingning