Image source @ Visual China
Wen 丨 Chief Character View, Author 丨 Weiwei, Editor 丨 Jiang Yue
On the first day of the Year of the Tiger in the Lunar Calendar, two war movies "Sniper" and "Chosin Lake Water gate Bridge", which also told the story of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, were released on the same day. Two men also met in a narrow way: Zhang Yimou and Wu Jing.
One of them is the director of "Sniper" and the other is "Chosin Lake's Water Gate Bridge", at least in this narrow encounter, they are not the same identity. But in a sense, there is a lineage between them.
Inheritance is about the self-confidence of young people.
In the eyes of the previous generation of young people, Zhang Yimou, who was at the peak of his art, showed the charm of Chinese films to the world, allowing many people to find cultural self-confidence. This generation of young people has sensed the confidence of the rise of great powers in the box office record set by Wu Jing in Chinese films. Self-confidence is in the same vein, behind the flow of the times, Zhang Yimou, Wu Jing, are at the right time, with the right works, so that young people find an outlet for a certain emotion.
Of course, self-confidence is just a common undertone. If the film and television work is a mirror, everyone shines from the inside, it is a different shadow.
01. Disputes
The controversy over Wu Jing is fading.
In 2019, "The Wandering Earth" was released at the same time as "Arita". After watching "Arita", Zhang Yimou casually nodded his like on Weibo, and also raised the question of "why didn't the director like "The Wandering Earth", which eventually evolved into a conspiracy theory that "Wu Jing moved the entertainment circle cake".
As it turns out, this is just an overconceal of concern among fans. In 2021, Zhang Yimou clearly affirmed the high box office achieved by "Chosin Lake".
For a long time, selling national sentiment to make a fortune became Wu Jing's "original sin", and even his fans were called "Wolf Warrior", which was originally the name of his famous "Wolf Warrior" series. Two years later, after the release of "The Wandering Earth", Wu Jing obtained the new word "Hanjing Rate" on the Internet, which together with "Hanmi Rate" became one of the criteria for judging the quality of movies and articles, and the higher the content, the lower the quality.
But in the 2022 Spring Festival file, after the release of "Chosin Lake", the entry related to Wu Jing was another starring Zhu Yawen, who broke the news to the media that "Wu Jing is the actor who is most afraid of cold in Qilian". Comment area fan message: I did not expect that the tough guy JingGe is also a child who is afraid of cold, and there are fans who have acted in a small theater -
Wu Jing: Frozen hands
Others: Hands-on? Come on.
Behind these ridicules is the audience's love for Wu Jing.
At three o'clock in the afternoon of the second day of the lunar calendar, Wu Jing won the report card of box office breaking 1 billion in such a peaceful joke - the second place "Four Seas" just broke 300 million. This means that the total box office of the film starring Wu Jing has exceeded 25 billion, becoming the first in the history of Chinese cinema.
It was a joy, but not a big surprise. After all, in recent years, breaking through such a difficult thing as the box office seems to have become a common thing for Wu Jing: in 2021, the National Day file "Changjin Lake" was released, and by November 24, "Changjin Lake" finally broke through 5.694 billion yuan at the box office, winning the first crown in the Chinese film box office list. Previously, Wu Jing's other work, Wolf Warrior 2, occupied this position for four years.
After the explosion of the fire, it fell into controversy, and then was re-examined in the controversy, which is what middle-aged Wu Jing is experiencing, and it is also something that 72-year-old Zhang Yimou has tasted as a whole. What makes the "old master" worry now may be the thing that Wu Jing has not worried about the most - the box office.
Just when Wu Jing's box office exceeded 1 billion, Zhang Yimou's "Sniper" just exceeded 60 million at the box office, ranking sixth. Many media did not directly write the box office of "Sniper" in the report, and struggled to maintain the last trace of decency of the "old master".
"I see this year's Spring Festival masters such as Lin, are all good movies, everyone's strength is not weak, but I still hope that the audience can make a little time, have a little interest, go to see our "Sniper", I hope it will not disappoint you." 」 Zhang Yimou answered softly. This was a media meeting about Sniper that he attended before the Spring Festival, and it was 10:30 p.m. at the end of the night.
Hard work and low-key, to some extent, are also pulling the favor of "Sniper". For Zhang Yimou, the more important significance of this film is to pave the way for co-director and daughter Zhang Mo. As for Zhang Yimou himself, he has proved his strong appeal to the box office 20 years ago.
In 2002, "Heroes" was released, and the $30 million film eventually won 170 million international box office and 250 million domestic box office, respectively, the latter accounting for a quarter of the national box office that year. "Hero" is more eye-catching at the box office than "Chosin Lake". What is even more significant is that it was this film that ushered in China's "blockbuster era".
When the black Qin crossbowmen approached the city, when Nameless (Jet Li) died at the gate of the Qin Temple, many Chinese felt the charm of grand narrative through the movie for the first time, which was a Hollywood-style big production. In the end, these scenes condensed into a white-clad sword (Liang Chaowei) pulling out a long sword, and slowly writing the word "Tianxia" in the yellow desert. This is the spiritual core of the world for the public.
Pictured: Stills from "Heroes"
Hollywood and Chinese stories blended together, and were eventually shown by Zhang Yimou in black, red, yellow, blue, and green Chinese style pictures, and the bell of China's "blockbuster era" was slowly ringed by Zhang Yimou.
But Zhang Yimou's influence goes far beyond that.
Before "Hero", he had already made a series of local Chinese films such as "Qiu Ju Fights a Lawsuit", "Have Something to Say", "Big Red Lantern Hanging High" and "Alive". Exposing suffering and telling the flow of fate attracted his first supporters.
In the 90s of the last century, the Chinese Drama Academy would play movies outdoors three days a week, one day abroad films and one day domestic films, many of which were from Zhang Yimou, sitting below in addition to the students of the film academy, there were young people from other universities in Beijing who came to rub movies. In order to save a few cents for movie tickets, some people secretly use pen drawings to fool through the customs.
Once, zhang Yimou's "Have Something to Say" was finished, and Zhou Chuanji, the "first godhead of Chinese cinema", personally took the stage to tell young people the details of the film. He is also a teacher for Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige at the Beijing Film Academy. Zhou Chuanji's meticulous comments on his disciples' works, Pan Yueming in the audience are still fresh in their memories many years later.
Another young man at that time, Wang Zijian, because he liked Jiang Wen too much in "Have Something to Say", learned Jiang Wen to speak when he had nothing to do, and once stuttered, creating some small difficulties for the future talk show career.
It was the film era that belonged to Zhang Yimou. He shuttled between realism and commercial romance and continued to conquer the recognition of international film festivals. The Golden Lion Award, the Golden Lion Award, and the Golden Horse Award were brought back to Beijing one by one by him, and there were three Oscar and Palme d'Or nominations, and even Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi, the "mou girls" he had cultivated with his heart in the past, were also "killed" into Hollywood, which was the dream of all female stars at that time.
But just as Wu Jing fell into the whirlpool of controversy after "Wolf Warrior" broke out later, the commercial success of "Hero" also pushed Zhang Yimou to the cusp of the storm. Among them, over-commercialization is the most powerful weapon against him.
"After Zhang Yimou's 'Qiu Ju Fights the Lawsuit,' I will never watch his films again, and if "Hero" and "Ten Faces Ambush" had not been called that way, I would not have gone to see it, but I watched it and did not spend money." Years later, Zhou Chuanji commented again. Jin Yong, who created China's martial arts jianghu, is even more blunt, not seeing the respect for life in "Heroes", and Xu Zhiyuan, who lived in the 80s, was confused by the cultural hero of the 80s and seemed to be overly responsive to the times.
Pictured: Stills of "Qiu Ju Fights the Lawsuit"
"I don't really like to chew on the sufferings of the past years at all," Zhang Yimou said in an interview with Film Art, "From my personal point of view, I value today's China more, and I am more optimistic about tomorrow's China." Zhang Yimou has his own answer.
Today, these controversies are getting quieter and smaller. On Douban, the rating of "Hero" is constantly being spontaneously pulled up by the audience: 6.6 points in August 2016, 7.2 points in March 2019, and 7.6 points in 2022. There are also a large number of voices in the comment area that are uneven for Zhang Yimou, and some users say that "Hero" should be above 8.5.
When business is completely accepted by a new generation of young people, and when the national tide is more and more liked by young people, people are shocked to realize the preciousness of Zhang Yimou. As a result, everyone began to appreciate the tense Chinese aesthetics in his films while nostalgic for the cultural temperament of the fifth generation of directors.
02. Demarcation
To a large extent, Zhang Yimou's transformation was inspired by his old classmate Chen Kaige's "Farewell to the Overlord".
In 1994, after Zhang Yimou's old classmates Chen Kaige and Reed changed "Farewell to the Overlord" into a movie, Reed invited Zhang Yimou to watch it, and Zhang Yimou commented that "this is the movie that is most similar to learning in Hollywood", and Reed and Chen Kaige were angry enough. At the time, Hollywood was a derogatory term.
However, the success of "Farewell to the King" exceeded everyone's imagination – it not only became the first Chinese work to win the Cannes Palme d'Or, but also the only film to win both the Palme d'Or and the Golden Globes. Director Chen Kaige's reputation soared, Zhang Yimou quickly found Reed to adapt "Alive", and in the same year that the film was released, he went to Cannes to win back 5 trophies, which to some extent also made the Chinese people raise their eyebrows.
Now, such glory belongs to Wu Jing, and the symbol of glory has changed from a foreign award to a movie box office.
On January 31, 2022, Wu Jing's "Water gate Bridge of Chosin Lake" won 280 million yuan in on-demand and pre-sale box office, while Zhang Yimou's "Sniper" was only 28.264 million, only one-tenth of the former's performance.
The numbers are like metaphors, reflecting the situation of the two people today.
The most stark change in the fate of the two occurred in 2002 and 2008 – and now it seems that what is more important behind this is the change of the times.
In 2002, Zhang Yimou's "Hero" was launched. As the first film in China to borrow Hollywood shooting methods, it quickly swept the domestic and foreign box office, and because of its rich color, it once became a test film for many foreigners when buying home theaters.
The reputation of the "Old Guoshi" skyrocketed, and at this time, Wu Jing was preparing to go south to Hong Kong. However, the Hong Kong film and television circle was shrouded in an unprecedented crisis at that time.
In 1993, Hong Kong made 242 films a year, but after a decade, only a few dozen films could be made a year, and the reason for the decrease in the number of films was the "attack" of American films, and movie theaters wanted to put up posters of local films, and they had to greet American filmmakers in advance. Zhu Yanping, a director who has worked with Wu Mengda, Zhou Xingchi and others, later said that a familiar theater owner once revealed with difficulty that "Harry Potter" can put up eight posters, and "The Lord of the Rings" can put up seven posters, but if you post local movies, American studios can make his theaters close.
Vicious competition brought a series of pains: first the number of employees fell from 20,000 at its peak to less than 5,000, and on September 16, 2002, the box office revenue of Hong Kong's cinemas hit a 10-year low: the total box office of 140 cinemas was only 516,000, and each film averaged only 13 viewers.
The situation on the mainland is very different. "The Lord of the Rings 1" and "Harry Potter 1" have also landed in Chinese mainland theaters, but these two films have only earned about 56 million yuan at the box office, and there is no competition with "Heroes".
Pictured: Stills from The Lord of the Rings
At this time, Wu Jing, who chose to "go south", naturally had no films to shoot, after all, hong Kong directors who saw the success of "Hero" were already preparing for "going north".
Several more things happened in China in 2002. For example, China's economic GDP exceeded 10 trillion yuan for the first time, and the growth rate reached 8%. The enthusiastic Chinese consumer market is about to lift up one domestic film after another, and Chinese young people are about to witness the restructuring of an industry. Of course, there are also things that remain the same many years later: in 2002, Chinese football debuted in the World Cup, with three wins and three losses, which is as "stable" as this year's performance.
However, Wu Jing's move to "go south" at that time was not impulsive. Born in Beijing, Wu Jing was deeply influenced by the trend of "bringing in" and "going out". This was even written into Chinese textbooks at one point. China, which has just risen economically, is eager to stand on the world stage, and Hong Kong, Europe and the United States, these prosperous places affect people's reverie, making countless people eager to go there to win a place. The mainstream attitude of the Chinese film industry to Hollywood is also "learning".
But in 2008, these things were changed, and Zhang Yimou and Wu Jing once again stood at the crossroads.
This year, Zhang Yimou directed the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, showing the ancient and brilliant civilization of 5,000 years to the world stage, and also laying the foundation for his position as a "national teacher".
At the bird's nest on the evening of August 8, a dazzling fire soared into the sky, activating the 5,000-year-old sundial. Then, the light of the fire poured down, lighting up the 5,000-year-old honor. 2008 performers, singing and singing: there are friends from afar, and they are happy. This is China's invitation to the world, and it is also the voice of self-confidence that China has re-emerged after a hundred years behind.
Zhang Yimou used his artistic accomplishment to support this self-confidence, but this also seems to have become a turning point in his personal film career.
Ten years later, in 2018, Zhang Yimou appeared on Gao Xiaosong's program "Xiao Shuo" in order to publicize the new movie "Shadow". At the beginning of the show, Gao Xiaosong's introduction to Zhang Yimou is that for a long time, Chinese films mentioned directors, which refers to Zhang Yimou. This is not a measure of how many awards have been won, but a kind of industry-wide respect from the heart. Gao Xiaosong also gave an example: In the music industry, when mentioning big brother, it must refer to Li Zongsheng.
But art and commerce, after years of mingling with Zhang Yimou, eventually fell lonely in 2008. Since then, he has continued to try to connect with the international standards - "The Great Wall" is regarded by him as a deep cooperation film between China and the United States, before Zhang Yimou took over, the film had been developed by the Americans in a very commercial and industrial way for 7 years, and Zhang Yimou did nothing more than embed Chinese elements into Americanized films.
Photo: Stills from "The Great Wall"
Only this time, young people don't pay anymore.
If you look down from God's perspective at this time, you will easily see how Wu Jing lifted up the young man's new self-confidence step by step.
Wu Jing in 2008 was preparing to return to Beijing from Hong Kong. The one who came to Beijing before him was Chen Kexin.
In 2007, Chen Kexin came to the mainland with "Submission of Names", and the schedule directly bumped into "Gathering Number", which was directed by Feng Xiaogang. Chen Kexin did not look at him at all, but the final result was that "Cast Name" box office 202 million, "Assembly Number" box office was 210 million. There is not much difference, but this figure is enough to verify that it has shaken the Hong Kong film industry.
"The support that a good-looking main theme film can get is even greater." After returning to Hong Kong, Chen Kexin went around promoting the mainland market while looking around in his drawers for scripts that did not conflict with the mainstream ideology, and two years later, "October Siege" grossed 290 million at the box office.
In the years that followed, Chen Kexin's words became a certain consensus in the film industry. Just as important as ideological background is the increasingly dynamic mainland consumer market. More and more ordinary people, accustomed to using popcorn and Coke as companions, spend evenings and weekends in the cinema.
In 2008, Wu Jing, who returned to Beijing, set up his own film production company, Dengfeng International. Together with Wu Jing, it is the Hong Kong directors who have been hesitating for a long time.
A profound event also happened this year. During the Wenchuan earthquake, Wu Jing, who was not yet popular, went to volunteer. After living with the army for dozens of days, Wu Jing, who had been studying martial arts in Shichahai since childhood, was infected by the temperament of a soldier and began to consciously contact military themes.
Four years later, in 2012, "I Am the Blade of the Special Soldier" landed on Jiangsu Satellite TV and won the first position in the National Day ratings of Jiangsu Satellite TV. This was the first time Wu Jing had worn a military uniform, and for this reason, he deliberately went to the army to train for 18 months.
By 2015-2017, two "Wolf Warriors" landed in theaters, two films directed, starring and invested by Wu Jing, and eventually earned more than 6.2 billion at the box office.
Pictured: Stills from Wolf Warrior 2
Now it seems that the grass snake gray line, stretching for thousands of miles.
Snow disasters, earthquakes, the Olympics and the middle class outline China in 2008. The Global Times commented that 2008 was the first year of China's rise. Against this backdrop, Young Chinese no longer need the suffering of the "fifth generation of directors" and lack a strong desire to prove themselves. They are more accustomed to the world pandering to themselves.
Wu Jing became the label of this confidence. His name began to appear more and more frequently: first the "Wolf Warrior" series was released, and then in the 2019 and 2021 National Day files, Wu Jing's two films were launched at the same time - in 2019, Wu Jing's "My Motherland and Me" and "The Climber" were launched at the same time; in 2020, Wu Jing starred and invested in "Changjin Lake", and another "My Father and Me" also had his participation and directing.
Some media joked that the only one who could defeat Wu Jing was Wu Jing.
03, emotions
Will Wu Jing be the Zhang Yimou of the younger generation? The answer may not be revealed until many years later. But at present, Wu Jing has at least carried the expectations and emotions of the younger generation, just like Zhang Yimou did at the beginning.
In 2018, Zhang Yimou met with Gao Xiaosong. Gao Xiaosong asked him: Why can you always feel the sense of tragedy of Shakespeare in your works. Zhang Yimou replied with an embarrassed smile: "Our generation especially likes tragedies, and my film must end up with two dead people, and I think that two people are profound." That will lead to Shakespeare. This kind of Shakespeare's tragic romance has resonated a lot in the Internet for many post-80s and post-90s generations – a generation that yearns for freedom over life and is eager to prove itself.
In that interview, Zhang Yimou also told a story. After Hero, he was approached by a European film company hoping to adapt Notre Dame into a movie. Zhang Yimou asked why himself? The other person's answer was because he wanted to add oriental elements. In the end, Zhang Yimou decided to keep only the core of "Notre Dame de Paris" and put the story scene into Chinese history, but the project ultimately failed to be implemented.
For a long time, Zhang Yimou was eager to prove his ability to influence the influence of chinese culture at the box office. This urgency comes from a bitter upbringing. Born in 1950, Zhang Yimou worked as a farmer for 3 years, then as a worker for 7 years, and was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy after resuming the college entrance examination in 1978.
When he saw the bikini and the helicopter on the big screen in the school, he would be shocked to the point of being unable to speak, and when he was seen by the same school, Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuangzhuang laughed at him: "Grandma Liu has come to the Grand View Garden." When he graduated, the school teacher told him not to feel that he was great, and after graduation, he entered the factory, and no one should think of taking control of the machine without staying up for more than ten or twenty years. After Zhang Yimou listened, he felt that the future was bleak.
Photo: Zhang Yimou (right)
In order to adapt to the environment and win opportunities, he has to constantly make efforts, which is like an inertia that grows in the body. Zhang Yimou once made a career advantage diagnosis system, which roughly divides the human way of doing things into five kinds of animals, and the artist is usually an owl, paying attention to detail, and perfectionism. But Zhang Yimou's result is "more like a chameleon tiger", with both leadership and the ability to adapt to different environments, as he has stressed many times in interviews, the film is mass culture, it is made for young people.
Unlike the suffering and tension represented by Zhang Yimou, Wu Jing is happy and stretched, and he grew up in the 80s and 90s when China's economy was constantly taking off. Although there was a difficult period of time in the later south to Hong Kong, unlike Zhang Yimou's dazed entry into the film industry, he was very clear about his direction from the beginning.
"I have worked hard in Hong Kong for seven or eight years, and although I have gained some fame, I have never been able to create my own action film era like Jackie Chan and Jet Li, and the directors say that I lack my own characteristics." Later, Wu Jing explained his return to the north in this way.
Pictured: Stills from "Kill the Wolf"
Now, he has clearly found his own characteristics.
He became some sort of endorsement of China's power. His face also appeared in various brochures and promotional films: cheering for athletes participating in the Tokyo Olympic Games, encouraging unpaid blood donation, and popularizing fire prevention and theft safety knowledge.
At the B station, Wu Jing's memes continued to become popular.
"I just took a match and lit up everyone's patriotism with a little spark." Wu Jing explained that his emojis were everywhere. Under the language deconstruction of a new generation of young people, the "Hanjing rate" has also changed from a criticized incitement to a high-spirited representative.
Unlike Zhang Yimou, Wu Jing and his fans are more at peace with the collective emotions of the fifth generation of directors who are holding their nerve and wanting to be recognized.
On National Day in 2021, a topic of "dream for Wu Jingyuan 8 years ago" rushed to Weibo's hot search. Eight years ago, Wu Jing, who was filming on the 210 provincial highway, wore camouflage uniforms, took a photo of the ham sausage in his hand, and posted it on Weibo and shouted: Is there a ham sausage advertisement looking for me to shoot? Eight years later, some fans saw this Weibo and forwarded it, which finally successfully promoted the cooperation between Wu Jing and Shuanghui.
Pictured: Screenshot taken by Wu Jingshuanghui
In the Spring Festival of 2022, most of the audiences who bought tickets to see "The Water Gate Bridge of Chosin Lake" went to Wu Jing. But has Zhang Yimou thus become a thing of the past? The answer, of course, is no.
At the 2022 Winter Olympics, zhang Yimou once again served as the director of the opening ceremony. On January 8, 2022, Zhang Yimou was interviewed by CCTV13, and when asked by reporters about the difference between the two Olympic Games, Zhang Yimou replied: "In 2008, we had quite a lot of space about 5,000 years, showing ancient traditions and ancient civilizations. Not this time, because we showed it. The whole world has seen such wonderful things. This time my focus is on moving together toward the future and more united. ”
Zhang Yimou's words wrote a footnote for Wu Jing's box office success.