In this lively May Day show, Zhang Yimou's "On the Cliff" became one of the hottest films. Statistics show that the film's box office exceeded 100 million yuan on May 1, and it is currently ranked second in the main films released in May 1.
Set in Harbin in 1931, the film tells the story of Communist agents on secret missions, fighting wits and courage with the enemy, and completing their missions. For Zhang Yimou, "On the Cliff" is also a new attempt - this is his first time directing a spy film.
Throughout Zhang Yimou's career, what he has been doing is constantly touching new film genres and film themes. At the beginning of his directing career, Zhang Yimou made a series of female theme masterpieces such as "Ju Dou", "The Big Red Lantern Hangs High", "Qiu Ju Fights a Lawsuit"; subsequently, he embraced the era of blockbusters, filming "Hero", "Ten Faces Ambush", "Full of Golden Armor"; in recent years, he showed the oriental aesthetics of ink color in the movie "Shadow", and even directed the concept performance "Dialogue Fable 2047", using stage art to carry out the dialogue between technology and human nature; this time, he had a new breakthrough in spy films.
This exuberant creative energy and constant pursuit of new things make it difficult to imagine that Zhang Yimou is actually over seventy years old. In an exclusive interview with reporters, he said: "I hope not to stand still, label and type myself. Follow the times and constantly try new film genres in order to 'stay young forever'. ”
[This is a full range of spy war movies]
Q: "On the Cliff" is your first spy film, why did you choose to make such a movie?
A: The choice of theme is often random, and the key is to see what kind of script you encounter. I happened to come across Quan Xianyong's script, which on the one hand is very textured and has various elements of spy movies; on the other hand, it depicts the story of the Communist agents struggling to survive after being arrested, with its own characteristics, and I decided to shoot this movie.
Spy movies are not easy to make, and I think this is why spy movies on the big screen in our country are rare. An excellent spy film requires plot advancement, reversal, and suspense, all of which are indispensable. While "burning the brain", it is also necessary to drive the audience's thinking to follow the story and continue to move forward, these elements are not easy to control.
Specific to "On the Cliff", this is a full range of spy war movies, in addition to our common spy war elements, there are hand-to-hand combat, drag racing, gun battles, wilds, interior scenes, cities and other large and small scenes, plus this is a group portrait drama, in two hours to tell a good story, but also to fully show the character image, which is more difficult for any director, homework is more difficult.
Q: The character is a highlight of the movie. As a group film, how do you portray the character in "On the Cliff"?
A: Group drama is more difficult to deal with because it means "evenly distributed". Especially for "On the Cliff", there are many action scenes, and the time and space to express the characters' hearts are greatly compressed. I think the most important thing in the character shaping in "On the Cliff" is to be concise and precise. I've had a careful discussion with the main actors in the film, what should each character say in a limited amount of time? What kind of expressions and eyes should I have? Keep the lines that best reflect the character image in the final presentation, and remove the dispensable parts.
For example, Zhang Xianchen, played by Zhang Yi, and Wang Yu, played by Qin Hailu, the first frame of the two means life and death, how to portray the feelings of this empty couple? At the beginning of the film, Wang Yu said to Zhang Xianchen: "Go to find the child alive", and Zhang Xianchen asked at the most important time twice: "Wang Yu, how are they?" A few words showed the conjugal love between the two people in addition to the revolutionary friendship, and the deep feelings for the children.
Therefore, in terms of character image shaping, we try to be as accurate as possible this time to "cherish words like gold", and at the same time, through the performance of the actors, the characteristics of each role are displayed, so that the group drama not only achieves "balance", but also "brilliant".
Q: Why did the film choose to tell the story in the form of chapters and backs.
A: The chapter body was chosen to balance the "handover stick" in the story. The film was originally a "two-part" design, from the no. 1 male protagonist to the no. 2 male protagonist Zhou Yi (yu Hewei). But later we felt that this design might make the audience feel that the film had become two pieces of hardness, so we decided to use the chapter back method and divide the film into 7 small paragraphs, which was more conducive to the audience to enter the development of the storyline.
However, you don't have to pay attention to the subtitles of each chapter, and the whole story of "On the Cliff" is still very coherent and completed in one go.
[I hope not to rest on my laurels]
Q: In your film career, you have been shooting new subjects and genres, why do you always make this new experiment?
A: This is one of my ideas: I want to shoot different types of works, not to stand still, to label and type myself. I think filmmaking is sacred, originality is great, so I want to do a lot of original work and try different types of films. The film directing industry needs to keep up with the times, because many of the film audiences are young people. You follow the times and constantly try new genres in order to "stay young forever" and your works will be more diverse. This is my personal thought, and it is also a point of view that has gradually formed over the years.
In addition, I am also personally energetic, and there is no other distraction, that is, I am focused on making movies and directing some performances related to literature and art, and I like to create. Probably my personal personality also determines that I will continue to try new subjects.
Q: Judging from the content of your films, what impressed everyone more deeply in the works of the early years is the female image, and in recent years, it seems that the male characters are more prominent, such as the roles of Deng Chao in "Shadow", Zhang Xianchen and Zhou Yi in "On the Cliff", why did this turn occur, is it a deliberate choice?
A: There is no deliberate turning, different stories have different subjects, and this change in my work is mainly because each story itself has a different focus.
Q: You just mentioned that you are full of creative energy, you are preparing for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, and there are also movies such as "Rock Solid" and "Sniper" to be released, where did you come from?
A: I think it comes from two sides. On the one hand is the creation itself, it is not boring. I'm lucky enough to be able to do what I love, so it's easy to spark my creative passion. On the other hand, exercise, I have to walk 5 kilometers a day, even when filming, through exercise to maintain my physical health, but also often use the brain, so that the body and mind are in a busy state. I think it's better to be busy than a little more idle, and if you are idle, maybe you will soon grow old.
[The key to shooting the main melody is to "land"]
Q: "On the Cliff" is a main theme film that coexists commercially and artistically. How do you think the main theme should be filmed to make the audience like it more?
A: If you want to shoot the main theme well, the key element is to "land". The so-called "landing" is to tell the story of flesh and blood characters, so that the audience will have resonance. The more you tell the great ideals and goals, the more you have to portray the character story well, and there is no other shortcut. Let the audience be moved by the emotions of the characters and the brilliance of human nature, and the main melody works can play their due role.
The audience is infected by the characters and the story, and the greatness is also manifested through the personality of the characters, which is the original thing of the film. For the characters in the main theme movie, we must not only present their faith, struggle, life and death, but also tell their family, friendship, humanity, and even weaknesses, only in this way, the passion and blood we want to promote will move the audience.
Some viewers told me that from "On the Cliff", they learned about the bloody struggle of the unsung heroes and felt the weight of the revolutionary martyrs moving forward, which also made me think that filming "On the Cliff" is a very meaningful thing.
Q: What advice do you have for young directors? Do you think that for young directors, the better early choice is to shoot genre films or author films?
A: Today's young directors are very diverse in genres and opportunities, and it is difficult to say which choice between genre films and author films is necessarily better. In fact, from a technical point of view, the threshold for directors has been lowered a lot, such as short video shooters, etc., which can be seen as part of the director group. But the more this is the case, the more young directors should hone themselves, after all, there are still too few good works.
For young directors, the key is to polish good works. The audience's eyes are shining, and your work is your stepping stone. Therefore, I hope that young directors can work hard to strengthen their personal cultivation and contribute to the development of film in our country.
Q: What is your next step? Is the TV series "Protagonist" in the plan?
A: Preparations are under way. It was my first time trying a TV series, and we were also polishing the script. Chen Yan's original novel is very good, this is another Shaanxi theme TV series, so I am very interested, and I also hope to be able to make a good one.
Producer: Zhao Cheng
Producer: Wu Huanqing
Coordinator: Wu Jing, Lin Hui
Reporter: Wang Peng
Editor: Wang Wei
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Produced by Xinhua News Agency