Text/Sun Haifan
I have known Mr. Liu Shu for many years, and I have the impression that he is a "madman" who loves movies, especially Chinese movies.
He talks fast, walks fast, eats fast, and I always feel that a person who is very fast in all aspects must be a person whose head is fast.
I didn't ask about his "past history" carefully, I only remember that he worked as a planner in a real estate company owned by Li Ka-shing, about this experience, I did not want to ask, I did not have the opportunity to ask, because every time I met with him, I was in a hurry, just enough to spend on talking about movies.
Liu Shu was always in a hurry
The first time I saw him was introduced by the film critic Mr. Wang Zhun, the three of us went to "look for discs", as soon as I got on the car and did not have time to greet him, he opened the conversation box, talking about the things about Chinese films before 1949, such as which movies were remade from Hollywood at that time, which movies were produced by which company, director, starring and even artists, who were the photographers, what stories were behind them, with my rough understanding and impression of Chinese film history, I was sure that he was very correct, and I had a sentence in my mind at that time: He is a living dictionary of Chinese cinema! ”
He had actually returned to Shenzhen to sell his house, and he had already transferred to the China Film Archive in Beijing, and the reason for the transfer was because he, a super fan, often submitted articles to Popular Cinema in his spare time and his knowledge and love for Chinese cinema. To this end, he later said that although he lost a lot of money that might come from Shenzhen's soaring housing prices, he finally combined his hobbies and careers, and he did not regret it.
Working in the film archive, it is no exaggeration to describe him as "like a fish in the water", he was "near the water", began to dig, sort out and study the heritage of Chinese films more professionally and carefully, and also shared his achievements with fans and readers in various forms. Therefore, he has published the following of the Chinese film "Twenty-Two Stars":
Some of the books that Liu Shu gave me
Eternal Stars - A Biography of China's 22 Greatest Stars,
"Qin Yi Painting Biography",
Lonely Cold Star: Shangguan Yunzhu,
"Silver Sea Art Shadow: The Painting Biography of Pang Xueqin and Yang Huan",
"Kindy's Lost Years - The Days That Never Lost",
"The Row Without Songs--Wang Xingang's Painting Biography",
"The Magnificent Era: The Legend of Wang Danfeng"
And the Filmmakers of the Republic of China:
Liu Shu's book "Past Narratives: Film Artists on and Off the Screen"
"The Legend of Hu Di",
"Zhang Ailing's Light and Shadow Space" (in collaboration with others),
Lonely Traces: A Circling Private Photo Album,
And also:
Classic Old Chinese Movies (with others),
Behind the Scenes of Chinese Cinema,
"Past Stories: Film Artists on and off the Screen",
Born for Cinema: A Biography of Forester Paintings,
Back in Time: The Passionate Life of a Comfortable Phoenix,
"The Splendid Life of the Great Princess of the Great Wall",
"Gone to the Sun: The Twilight Years of the Red Movie Star",
"Never Owned, Never Lost: Qin Wen's Starlight Spots",
"The Little Boss's Last Night and Tonight: Liang Baltic Art Journey",
Silver Double Stars: The Legend of Golden Flame and Qin Yi,
"Beauty of the Four Seasons: Qin Yi: Helen's Story",
A large number of books about old Chinese movies and filmmakers, such as "Translated Classics in the Centennial Feast of Imported Feast", looking at these lists of books and thick books estimated to have millions of words, I can imagine how much labor and love it has been put into it, and at the same time a sentence has popped up in my mind: "He writes very quickly!" ”
Unlike many "writing fasters", many materials come from the Internet and collages of materials, and every word he writes comes from his own first-hand interviews, so I jokingly said: "You are not at the old movie star's house, you are on your way to their home." "Because of this, every time we see him, we come and go in a hurry, but we also understand him, after all, his interviewee is old, these Chinese movies have very little living dictionary left, he is very anxious."
Liu Shu and his wife Yu Yang, an old film artist
Liu Shu and the famous director Huang Jianzhong
Compared with those film and television stars who are rich and popular today, many of China's older generation of movie stars are very shabby in their lives, Liu Shu told me that he has gone to the homes of many old filmmakers in the past, they live in very small houses, living a very ordinary life, such as the old actor Wen Xiying, who has been living in the "pavilion room" in Shanghai before she died, and Liu Shu has become one of the few people who remember them and often visit them.
Liu Shu and the late veteran film artist Yu Lan
Liu Shu and the late veteran film artist Yang Zaibao
Liu Shu and veteran film artist Niu Ben
Liu Shu and the late veteran film artist "Hu Hansan" Liu Jiang
In the beginning, Liu Shu was to sort out and "rescue" the first-hand information of old Chinese movies, so when he went to interview old filmmakers, he had a work purpose. However, when he saw the current living conditions of many old filmmakers and still silently dedicating themselves to Chinese films, Liu Shu's heart was deeply moved.
Over time, he became a friend of the old filmmakers, and even after writing the book, he did not break the contact with them, as long as he tried to see these people who had contributed to Chinese films as much as possible after work or traveling and during the New Year's Festival. Therefore, I can often see him in his WeChat circle of friends with "Hu Hansan" (Liu Jiang) in "Shining Red Star", "Gao Chuanbao" (Zhu Longguang) in "Tunnel Warfare", "Fang Company Commander" (Daniel Zhang Hand) in "Surprise Attack", "Liu Sanjie" (Huang Wanqiu) in "Liu Sanjie", "Shi Yun" (Tian Hua) in "Secret Drawings", etc.
Liu Shu (first from left) took a group photo with an old film artist at the event
Liu Shu once introduced himself in the preface to his book during the centenary of Chinese cinema: "The earliest film enlightenment in my childhood stemmed from my grandmother's narration of the plot of old movies, the open-air movies I watched in my mother's warm embrace, the film clips I came into contact with during the absurd years of my youth, and when the second literary and artistic spring was revived, a large number of films that were imprisoned in the "Cultural Revolution" and saw the light of day suddenly made me feel surprised to break into the world of movies, deeply immersed in them, obsessed with them, and could no longer extricate myself." These films with different themes and different stories not only deeply imprinted unforgettable traces in the depths of my soul, but also injected with the 'old film complex' that I could not erase for the rest of my life. As a result, for many years, there has been a lot of nostalgia for the old movies that have been permanently cast by this specific feeling. Now, I have the honor of being a special reporter and columnist of "Film Past" of Popular Film, the oldest, most influential, and most popular film popular magazine in New China, and a member of the organizing committee of the "100 Century Film Stars" selection committee, especially the articles on the acting careers and personal experiences of more than 100 famous old actors and old film stars in the new Chinese film industry that I have personally written and exclusively disclosed in the past few years, and have compiled them into books in various ways, so as to dedicate themselves to the centennial birthday of Chinese films that are difficult to find in a lifetime. There are also the vast number of film fans and friends who have a deep love for Chinese films and are committed to it like me. At this moment when Chinese cinema is about to usher in her centennial birthday, light and shadow have traveled through the entire hundred years, and they are still constantly shining forward and extending. A hundred years of frightening dreams, a hundred years of dreams back, this day, this night, I seem to have thought for a long time, so I can no longer give up, at this time I did not taste wine, nor did I sing about wine, but I did not have wine intoxication, forgetfulness ... I turned the classic old movies in my mind into a glass of fine wine, a heart fragrance, a bouquet of Fangfei... To dissolve the mood, to melt the mood, just these thousands of old movies, she carried away my greetings full of hope and expectation for Chinese films, but it is difficult to soothe my inner dream of film films, as well as the flashbacks of light and shadow, pushing and pulling, and the children's love and nostalgia in the behind-the-scenes "montage" full of magical charm..."
From Liu Shu's self-introduction, we can understand the source of his "old movie plot", in fact, Liu Shu not only has an old movie plot, he also has an "old comic strip complex", because he may be one of the largest collectors of old comic strips in China, but in recent years, he has successfully combined these two emotions into one, and he has planned and published old movie comic strips as an important supplement to his film research, which not only preserves old movies, but also preserves the declining art form of comic strips.
"Lushan Love" in the series of classic Chinese film comic strips edited by Liu Shu
He presided over the planning and publication of high-definition versions of the old comic strips: "Movie Witness, Collection History - Chinese Classic Film Comic Book Series", including "Home", "Song of Youth", "Jia Wu Fengyun", "Lushan Love", "Wrangler", "Legend of Tianyun Mountain", "Three Sisters of the Song Family", "July 7 Incident", "Ji Hongchang", "Life and Death Decision" and so on. Watching him juggle around old movies and keep coming up with books, I had to exclaim: "He's a crazy person obsessed with old movies."
Liu Shu and veteran artist Xie Fang display a high-definition comic strip "Song of Youth"
Now, with the WeChat circle of friends, which allows me to "monitor" his whereabouts at any time even if I don't see him, recently, I found that he has a new research object, that is, the young actors who were active on the Chinese film screen in the new era in the 80s, including Zhao Jing, Yu Hui, Tong Ruixin, Zhang Xiaolin, Zhou Guobin, Xiao Xiong, Jiang Lili, etc., these people are the screen idols of our generation when they were young, Liu Shu and we are the same generation, and naturally his idols. Of course, even the idols, Liu Shu, who entered the film circle more than a decade ago, did not interview them, but waited until they were getting old to include them in their research horizons.
Liu Shu and film actor Xiao Xiong
Liu Shu and film actor Zhao Jing
Liu Shu and film actor Jiang Lili
In fact, it is very simple, Liu Shu has the complex of "old movies", and all filmmakers who are not "old" enough are temporarily outside the scope of his research, because he needs to mature Chinese film memories after precipitation, and he needs to brew "a cup of fine wine, a heart fragrance, and a bouquet of Fangfei" after time. So, I think that in another twenty or thirty years, there may be such a scene: the interviewer of the old movie is no longer the young man Liu Shu, but the white-haired Liu Shu Uncle Liu, sitting opposite him is Zhang Ziyi and Huang Xiaoming with wrinkled faces, and the first thing Liu Shu said must be "I finally wait until you are old!" ”
(The picture is taken from Liu Shu's WeChat circle of friends)