When you think of Chinese directors, who do you think of? Zhang Yimou? Jia Zhangke? Ang lee? Wong Kar Wai? Hou Xiaoxian? Chen Kaige? Jiang Wen? Xin Yukun? Wu Yusen? Lou Ye? Johnnie?
Jia Zhangke mentions three directors in his film notes, and they represent the three creative directions of Chinese films – Wong Kar-wai makes fashion pop, Ang Lee produces mass consumption and aesthetics, and Yang Dechang depicts the world's sentient beings
And director Yang Dechang, who seems to be the most unknown, is also my favorite domestic director.
Looking back at June of one or three years, he leaned back on his desk, holding a paintbrush, the tip of his pen touching his unfinished work, the animated film "Chasing the Wind".
Since he was a child, Yang Dechang can be described as a variety of stinky diseases: rebellious, restless, grumpy, keen on freedom, influenced by his brother, he liked the popular manga magazines at that time, and the famous manga god Osamu Tezuka was loved by him
"Astro Boy" Osamu Tezuka
Yang Dechang's brother has a hobby of self-editing and drawing, and it seems that whether he reads novels or comics, he will have a beautiful vision of making a fool of himself, and Yang Dechang is no exception, he imitates his brother to create. Later, his brother grew taller, so he liked playing basketball and gave up drawing comics. But Yang Dechang never stopped, and insisted on painting until his high school graduation.
His father would always think that Yang Dechang was not doing his job, and often when he was concentrating on drawing cartoons, Leng Buding slapped him on the head in the back. Perhaps Yang Dechang's psychological quality is scared out of life.
Yang Dechang also loves music, the Japanese pop music that shouts loudly at home to the loudspeaker of the roller fruit stall, to the Elvis presley and cloak fighters who invaded Taiwan like a virus in the 1960s, or the classical music after a much older age, his love of music is as good as ever
Of course, at that time, he also liked movies, from the Hong Kong Shaw films of the 50s to the western cowboys of Hollywood, and the voiceover of "The Juvenile Murder On Muling Street" had a clip from "The Dragon Slayer".
In high school, Yang Dechang was in the rebellious period of his youth, and he would be curious to go to the ice shop near his home to observe the every move of the Taibao and the little sisters, but he did not follow the gang. In his essay titled "Color Potion and The Same Medicine," he recalls the experience:
The name of the ice fruit shop next door I will never forget, called "Yellow Pavilion", the handsome men and sisters at that time were all in the Yellow Pavilion, flared pants, bumping shoes, in the school to stay big flat head, drop out of school to stay big baotou, small sister, tight clothes, tight skirts, Hepburn head, at that time although the material conditions are not ideal, these small changes and small fun is still not less.
After graduating from high school, he seriously considered whether he wanted to study architecture, after all, he had his own art foundation (limited to the point of drawing comics), and he could express his aesthetic concepts through architecture. However, he said that his interest in architecture was not strong in the end, and finally his thinking made him follow his parents' advice and enroll in the Department of Control Engineering of Hsinchu National Chiao Tung University.
When he was a freshman, Yang Dechang was so bored that he wanted to take a break from school, but his girlfriend felt that he was too unrealistic, so that Yang Dechang finally completed his four-year college career under the direct eyes of his girlfriend.
After graduating from college, he went to the United States to study and went to the University of Florida to study for a master's degree in electrical engineering, during which he was exposed to European art films, and the first thing that led him to the world of images continued to shock and enlighten him was Fellini's "Eight and a Half Parts", Yang Dechang once confessed that he had watched the movie four times to understand the meaning.
After completing his master's degree, he still couldn't let go of his love for film and went to study in the film department of the University of Southern California, but he was not accustomed to the pedantic teaching method of the film department of the University of Southern California, and dropped out of school in less than half a year (attached, the film department of the University of Southern California is the best film school in the United States)
After graduating from the computer industry, Yang Dechang gradually began to contact German New Wave films, of which Weiner Hosso's "Akil God's Wrath" brought the most inspiration to one of the four masters of German New Wave films, which was shot by only eight staff members and a thirty-five-millimeter camera stolen from school.
Hosso proved that a wonderful movie does not require much investment, and his work seems to be shouting at Yang Dechang: You can do it, come quickly
Weiner Hossole blossomed
Naturally, Yang Dechang also immediately responded to Hoso's seductive call, purchased photographic equipment, and began to prepare for the shooting of experimental films
Even if Yang Dechang turned into the film industry at the age of thirty, Herso once said: "Everyone knows what I used to do?" Ancestral blacksmith shop, in the next talent, the money to shoot the first movie is also smashed pots to sell iron is really made up. "The film industry is full of talent (convinced
Note: New Wave cinema originated in France in 1958. The films made by new wave directors deliberately depict the situation, psychology, love and sexual relations of modern urban people, and are full of subjectivity and lyricism compared with traditional films. This kind of film emphasizes the atmosphere of life, using live-action shooting, advocating improvisation; most of the films do not have a complete storyline; the expression method is also more varied. In Taiwan in the 1980s, a new wave of film movement was set off, with Yang Dechang and Hou Xiaoxian being the most representative directors.
His parents did not support him in becoming a film director, and in their minds it was common to believe that where would he make a movie to support his own money? Even more than a decade later, Yang Dechang has truly become a veritable director in the world field, and his parents still hope that Yang Dechang will return to his old computer business.
But Yang Dechang felt: It seems that no guy starved to death because he was a director, right? Yang Dechang, who has obeyed his parents several times in life events, once again showed his rebellious nature and embarked on the road of the movie without hesitation.
Although compared with the rest of the people, Yang Dechang's time to change to the film industry is too late. But for the momentum and enthusiasm of the film, Yang Dechang is no less than that of young people.
It was the era of the rise of Taiwanese New Wave cinema. Several big boys who returned from the United States gathered in the café, the sunlight leaked from the gaps in the leaves and leaves, as if to fill the gaps between their staggered bodies, the light and shadow of the space constituted a picture of their future, they are the protagonists in this special movie, time is the director, tall and thin and casually dressed, full of outdated ambition and youthful vigor, Yu Weizheng, Tao Dechen, Zhang Yi, Hou Xiaoxian, Yang Dechang, three three two two, shake the spring light. Hou Xiaoxian recalled that at the beginning, the narrative said that everyone often went to Yang Dechang's father's old Japanese house on Jinan Road to party, Yang Dechang himself had a blackboard, full of all kinds of ideas and ideas for movies, as well as the name of the film company to be selected when cooperating in the future, written full, as if it were-
Vision and dreams.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > "If you want to know me, go see my movies."</h1>
What Yang Dechang said in an interview before his death. Yes, Yang Dechang, the godfather of Taiwanese new wave film directors, this silent man, in addition to the movie, did not leave us any interesting information, perhaps only through his film side is the best and only way to understand him.
If I had to describe Yang Dechang's original intention for film, it would be:
Always rational, always angry
It is also because of his anger and rationality from beginning to end that he is known as the scalpel of Taiwanese society.
In 1981, the thirty-four-year-old Yang Dechang was invited by Zhang Aijia to shoot the drama TV series "Eleven Women", thus starting a career as a director.
In 1982, Yang Dechang participated in the filming of the director "The Story of Time and Yin". This passage-style film co-directed by Todok Tak-chan, Yang Dechang, Ke Yizheng and Zhang Yi kicked off the prelude to Taiwan's new film movement, and the brilliance of Taiwanese film history was born.
The work shows the confusion of childhood, adolescence, youth, adulthood and four stages of life in the time span, and growth is the mother of the film.
"Hope" directed by Yang Dechang is the most mature one in it. Yang Dechang has a strong female narrative perspective from the beginning, and most of his films are men committing suicide. He seems to want to see the world from a feminine perspective, but inside he is always a desperate old boy.
"Hope"
1983's "A Day on the Beach" was director Yang Dechang's true debut, which laid the foundation for Yang Dechang's calm, rational and speculative video style.
The sense of independence is indeed helpful for women's position in society, but it is not necessarily a good medicine for marriage. When the daughter told her mother that I was wrong, her mother just smiled faintly
Concise and wordy, cold grinding, the theme of the film is based on the change and growth of Taiwanese women's self-awareness, the narrative uses the form of three time and space collisions, and the story integrity of the multi-line narrative is handled with ease. It can be said that it is already a mature film with a very personal style.
A Day on the Beach
Yang Dechang's close cooperation with Hou Xiaoxian was in 1985's "Green Plum Bamboo Horse". After a thorough analysis of the dilemma of contemporary marriage, Yang Dechang carefully showed the helpless reality of the fairy tale model. Although the feelings of youth are warm and sweet in the memories of time, the gradual drift of the trajectory of life has made the two lose the platform for symphonic resonance. The flying knives of time have cut themselves into familiar and progressive individuals, in fact, in this sense, who in the world has ever known each other? "The United States is not a panacea, nor is marriage" This sentence tells the pessimism of Yang Dechang, a stuffy movie that hides the disillusionment of dreams, the loss of culture, and the wandering and embarrassment of middle age. The open-ended outcome shows emotional pessimism.
"Green Plum Bamboo Horse"
"Terrorist" in 1986 is the peak of Yang Dechang's multi-linear cross-narrative of multiple characters.
A prank call accelerates the tragedy, seemingly accidentally, but in fact inevitable. When the world is bad for you, all we can do is just worse for ourselves... The end of the swinging intestines can be chewed for several years, the inexplicable horror of "Waiting for Godot", the lethality is huge, if the director is not Yang Dechang, it may be his best movie.
The Terrorist
Yang Dechang used his cold eyes to examine the seemingly unfazed but restless society, and he used tragic accusations and tragic care.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Yang Dechang's film, killing people is not killing people, but the collapse of the world</h1>
Compared with the so-called sadness, I think that "The Juvenile Murder Incident on Muling Street" is a tragic and even tragic story
Four hours of oil. Group portrait of Taipei in the 1950s. Fourteen-year-old Zhang Zhen. Yang Dechang of power. Chronicles of growth. Flash in the dark. Looking back, the trajectory of youth is still clear enough to be deeply embedded in the surface, but that kind of vividness and profundity is simply not allowed to go again. Each age has its own sorrow and greatness, the humble man bends his back and listens to the wind and thunder, the brave and pure man takes the body and the ideal to the heavens, rising or falling from within.
Authoritarianism suppresses commoners, the rich suppress the poor, the old suppress the young, men suppress women. The repressed in turn project their anger at the helpless self onto the lower end of the food chain. Tanks rumbled past, summer was coming to an end, leaving behind the bodies of young boys and girls.
"The Juvenile Murder Incident on Muling Street" may be my favorite Yang Dechang's film, but "Yiyi" is indeed a masterpiece directed by Yang Dechang.
"Juvenile Murder On Muling Street"
The chicken and dog jump of "Independent Times" vividly interprets the philosophy and confusion of the Chinese. Hypocrisy and self-justification, ridiculous and cute, absurd and ironic, objective and spicy, false and true when true and false, can not see through the inaccurate Chinese are all strange. The vast network of character relationships is connected through various large and small things, and the sour, sweet, bitter and salty life is also displayed in words.
The Age of Independence
And Yang Dechang in "Mahjong" seems to have gradually become much milder, he put the evil of human nature to the extreme, and then calmly watched him collapse little by little, so as to highlight the so-called truth, goodness and beauty
Mahjong
"No one in this world knows what they really want. They wait for someone to tell them, so as long as you tell him with a very sincere attitude, he is right to do what he wants. Do you know why? Because no one wants to admit their mistakes when they fail, they would rather be deceived and blame others than scold themselves..."
"Yiyi" may be the best work in the eyes of many domestic literary and art film lovers. It has been described by the French media as a "poem of life", sung through the film, and when telling a simple family story, it truly touches the "essence of emotion", and explains the hearts of young girls, childhood confusion, career crises, family disputes, as well as religious lamentations and satires on current affairs with four or two thousand strokes of skill.
《One By One》
"Since the invention of cinema, human life has been extended at least three times"
"I thought that if I lived again, maybe something different would be." The result is still the same, no different. It just suddenly felt like, if I lived again, it seemed that there was really no need for that. ”
"You can't see it yourself, so I'll show it to you."
"Without a cloud, without a tree, it is not beautiful."
"I think I'm getting old too..."
Before we have understood the propositions of life, the world watches us until we see them coming and going.
"One By One" was praised at the Cannes Film Festival, and director Yang Dechang won the best director of the Cannes Film Festival, he was the first director in Taiwan to win the best director in Cannes, and the only three best directors in Cannes in China.
But in fact, when Yang Dechang was alive, even in Taipei, where he regarded his life as the mother of creation, many people had not seen his works, and until now the cinema line has not released "Yiyi". When "Yiyi" was about to go to Cannes, the Taiwan Information Bureau threw Yang Dechang such a cold sentence on the phone: This is not a Taiwanese movie. Yang Dechang was disheartened: "The most frustrating time when I made a movie was not when I encountered any difficulties, but when I heard such a sentence. ”
Yang Dechang hopes that others will understand his personality and so on by watching his movies, but he himself seems to have been disappointed all his life.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > please - "Chasing the Wind"</h1>
After Yang Dechang finished creating his own masterpiece "Yiyi", he picked up his childhood interest in comics. Yes, he intends to make the animated film Chasing the Wind
In order to create this work, Yang Dechang specially went to Japan to find Miyazaki and other directors for cooperation. But Miyazaki's agent offered a sky-high price to Yang Dechang, and even said to Yang Dechang: You filmmakers, you can't even figure out the storyboard of animation, how can you make a good animated movie?
How can Old Yang's irritable personality hear such a thing? I immediately decided to start making "Chasing the Wind" myself and adopt a one-shot to the end model - didn't you say that I wouldn't split the shot? I'm not going to use storyboarding to make a good animated movie for you to see.
In the end, a shot is the pursuit of authenticity to the extreme of the shooting method, can take this way of time span will be very short, and a shot in the end is actually the most difficult is the director's scheduling ability, and requires the actors can not make mistakes, so there is basically no one shot to the end of the film, even if "1917" is also a long shot spelled out of the pseudo one shot to the end. In addition, the animation film itself does not need the so-called pursuit of realism (at least at the time it was not very needed), and there is no test of the director's scheduling ability and the pursuit of the actor's acting skills, it can be said that the shot taken in Yang Dechang's "Chasing the Wind" is an unprecedented and worrying attempt in the animation industry.
But he did.
Chasing the Wind
In Chasing the Wind, he uses "Qingming On the River" as the base, and the civil society and official residence life in the prosperous and wealthy Fenjing of the Song Dynasty are slowly unfolded in the shots that move from right to left. The twinkling lights, the sound of opera, the river town, and the shadow of the bridge with lanterns have all become the background of the teenager's heroic deeds in a city like Beijing. But at this time, Yang Dechang had already learned that he had colon cancer.
He endured the pain of illness and began to work harder to paint, holding a paintbrush, hoping to complete "Chasing the Wind" in his final years. But until the shanghai animation company's fax machine will no longer hear the original painting of a person named Yang Dechang, until the sycamore outside the window sprinkles the time of the piece.
Yang Dechang completed seven and a quarter of his works.
And there is also a person in the world who is absolutely honest.
When my favorite Japanese live-action film director, Kore-eda, said in an interview that his favorite director was Yang Dechang, I hope that more people will know the rebellious and cute guy.
Really hope.
Written by: Lin Lang