Animation "Lotus Princess" (1992) Director: Hu Yihong, produced by Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio
KimBerson interviews Hu Yihong, director of the animated film "Lotus Princess"
The author | Kimber Pine
Editor| Cai Jie
Pawson: What sparked your first impulse for this story?
Hu Yihong: As far as my personal hobbies are concerned, I have always had a strong and strong interest in the "Lao Zhuang Doctrine" in ancient China. The story of "Lotus Princess", I saw the comic strip of the same name painted by Nanjing painter Xu Lele for the first time, and the shape, color and other artistic painting language of the comic strip itself are extremely wonderful, it can be said that it is "great" and outstanding. The story itself, although it was written by a historical ancient man who was far away from the century, has the charm of "modern consciousness" in the contemporary international academic community. A student is dreaming, dreaming of real life, in which the faint feeling, the philosophy of having or not living together, goes beyond many other works that I have seen around me, and its artistic taste is obviously at the level of high taste. It is exactly what I want and want to find.
Xu Lele's Chinese paintings
Bai Song: "The Tall Woman and the Short Husband" is also based on Feng Jicai's novel of the same name, and its film and original work have made great and big changes in content. "Princess Lotus" has not changed much from the original, which is a bit out of line with your thinking, why?
Hu Yihong: "Tall Woman and Short Husband" is self-evident at a glance in terms of artistic style and expression methods, which is "Ada-style". But every artist must create, pursue something of his own individuality. I'm trying to find my own personality. At the beginning of this play, I still hoped to have my own re-creation on the script first, however, I changed it seven times and eight times and felt that the changes were uncomfortable, and the things that I changed were hard to stuff but could not be stuffed in, and when I stuffed in, I felt that the original beautiful relationship was broken. Pu Songling's work gives people the feeling of a transcendent perfection. It is not until I touch it that I can find this genuine high-grade feeling, especially in terms of philosophy, and its sedimentation is very pure.
Cartoon "Tall Woman and Short Husband" (1989)
Director: Hu Yihong
Pawson: How do you use the language of animation in this film?
Hu Yihong: The language of animation is composed of a combination of artistic elements. Especially as the "film language" of "film", painting, modeling, action, sound, photography, etc. are all important elements of animation, and due to the friendly cooperation of various departments of the film crew, I have completed this film relatively smoothly. Among them, especially the photographer Mr. Jiang Youyi, who is an excellent and extremely serious and creative photographer, it is really emotional to cooperate with him.
Cartoon "Lotus Princess" (1992)
In terms of character modeling and picture style, comic strip original provided me with a good foundation. The shape is highly refined, the color is also very elegant and simple, there is a kind of modern literati painting - known as the charm of the new literati painting, such lines and colors will form a novel visual force. It is very integrated with the charm of Pu Songling's original work, ancient and modern, as a kind of modeling image, it will play a great role in this kind of film, which I imagined at the beginning of the film.
The music, sound and effects of this film also pursue elegance and meticulousness. Due to the close cooperation and tacit cooperation of various departments, the animation language of my film was formed.
Pawson: Through the creation of this film, what new experiences do you have in the creation of art films?
Hu Yihong: In view of the reality of the current economic difficulties of the US film studios, I think that it is best to combine this kind of art short film with the commercial nature of the film, which is entirely possible. In the Us film studio, if we co-produce with people, we can do the preliminary work first, such as the script, the director's artistic conception, etc., and then go to find foreigners to invest in the co-production. In this way, it can not only have a certain degree of artistry, but also ensure its commercial value.
The aging of the creative concept of the US film studio is something that everyone has been shouting for a long time. Everyone should be encouraged to look for their own artistic feeling.
(To be continued)