Recently, I had the opportunity to watch the legendary "Father's Prairie Mother's River" and was struck by the rough prairie style and delicate human writing in the film.
Three years ago, I talked to director Kang Honglei about his new work. At that time, the drama was still being filmed. Kang Dao's passionate exposition, because there is no support of concrete images, seems somewhat abstract.
After watching 60 minutes of large flowers and 3 integrated films before the Spring Festival, I felt completely different. This is really a good drama that cannot be missed.
If "Mountains and Seas" writes an epic poem of poverty alleviation with an authentic western style, then "Father's Prairie Mother's River" is a long volume of national cultural integration with full passion.
The story begins in Nanjing at the end of the 1960s, that kind of cramped urban space, that kind of beautiful human nature under pressure, that kind of rough growth in the vast world, and the kind of mutual foam that breaks the national division.
This is not the self-absorbed work of an old director, the characters and stories can be known and felt empathetically. Nor is this a work of licking wounds and reflecting on the past, since "The Years of Burning Passion", Kang Honglei is not the director of this hanging.
In fact, because of his debt and longing for his hometown, he filmed "Father's Prairie Mother's River".
"My father once described the fragrance of the grassland, so that he could never forget it at the end of the world, and my mother always loved to describe the mighty river, rushing in the Mongolian plateau, my distant hometown..."
"Father's Prairie Mother's River" is a song written by Xi Murong and a song that Kang Honglei must sing every time he drinks with friends in Inner Mongolia.
Kang Honglei integrated his deep affection for his hometown into the story he had worked so hard to find: the four brothers and sisters of the Mo family, an urban youth, responded to the call of "taking root in the grassland and building a frontier" and successively came to the northern steppe. The grassland accepted them with a broad mind, and they also gave back to the grassland with their youth and talents. Decades have passed, zhiqing and herdsmen have become a family linked by blood, and Wulan pastoral riding has also moved south from the grassland to Guangdong...
This drama dissolves passion in the plot and integrates thought into ornamentation, and is currently in the release stage. With the mood of not completely calming down after watching the film, we interviewed director Kang Honglei and listened to him talk about the birth and end of "Father's Prairie Mother's River".
The following is Kang Honglei's self-statement -
At the wine table, someone said to invest in me
Filming "Father's Prairie Mother's River" is actually because of "indebtedness".
There are always people who say, "I owe nothing in my life," and I don't like that, and when someone says that, I hide away. Because in a person's life, there must be a certain stage at which you feel indebted.
I was born and raised in Inner Mongolia. I grew up listening to the stories of the Prairie People and watching their deeds. When I became an adult, I also married a Mongolian lover. Everything in Inner Mongolia has been engraved in my bones.
But from 1989 to now, I've been a director for more than thirty years, and I haven't really shot my hometown.
I think it's particularly comfortable to feel indebted to this. This is also the feeling given by the Mongols. In their artwork, there will always be stories of indebtedness and sorrow. The songs sung are either father or mother, or hometowns that can never be returned.
A nation of sorrow is a nation of hope, a great nation. Just like looking at the river on the grassland, it does not rush like the Yellow River of the Yangtze River, it flows silently all year round. Years have passed, and you may have forgotten about the river, but it still flows silently there. That kind of eternal momentum makes us who are very fickle feel a sense of shame.
Since I walked into this line of work in my twenties, there has not been a moment when I did not want to make a drama about Inner Mongolia. Shoot what? I've been thinking about this.
Because it's not specific. Familiar subjects, our predecessors have all photographed. At the same time, you can't just shoot a small area, you have come out, traveled all over the country, and even seen a lot of international things, how can you shoot another partial story?
Inner Mongolia is 1.183 million square kilometers, divided into western grasslands, central grasslands and eastern grasslands, which are even more difficult to subdivide. It's so vast that no one has ever tried to photograph the whole of Inner Mongolia. I want to give it a try.
The first thing to be fixed is the theme, one is the Chinese community of common destiny, and the other is the integration of national culture, especially the integration of urban culture and nomadic culture.
I think of the late 1960s, when a train set off from Nanjing, pulled more than a thousand Intellectuals to Inner Mongolia, got off one after another along the way, and scattered across the entire western grassland. To this day, there are still many intellectuals living on the grassland.
It's a seed that grows, it's going to take shape, it's going to become something figurative, it's going to be a screenwriter. Speaking of which, I have to mention the Inner Mongolia Film Group, which first invested in me.
At that time, the boss of the Inner Mongolia Film Group had just taken office and wanted to meet with several directors. That's when they found me, and at dinner, they talked about it.
He said, I just came here and want to do something, can you help me and do a drama together. I said either I couldn't or I didn't have the money. He immediately said I'll give you money.
In fact, I just listened to it at the time. According to past experience, some people who say to give you money at the wine table may forget it tomorrow after saying it today.
But I didn't expect that at ten o'clock the next morning, people would call. Say Kang Dao, you tell me an account number, I will call you with money.
Is this really dry? And it really gives you money. After saying this, I will call 5 million to my company over there. Once the 5 million yuan arrives, the start-up funds for the pre-planning and script development will be available.
Later, Tencent Pictures and several other investors joined in, and the project was really done.
Four waves of screenwriter relay to write the grassland in my heart
Initially, the two screenwriters I first came into contact with were both locals. We grew up in a similar environment, and they might understand me.
Although I want to shoot Inner Mongolia, my feelings are very egotistical, and no one can be sure what will become in the story.
I've been telling them stories since the '60s, about what I've seen, what I've heard, and people I know. He even talked about the grassland people going out and performing in the China Splendid Folk Village in Shenzhen, and talked about our Inner Mongolia choir winning awards internationally.
The two screenwriters came up with two or three versions of the story synopsis, all of which were distinctive, but not what I wanted. It may be that it is too limited to the grassland, and the feeling of a community of common destiny in China has not come out. I want to jump out and look at our lives.
In this process, I did not pay less tuition, but also in the communication to constantly improve the idea. Later, I decided to bring the screenwriter myself to do it, and the task was handed over to the screenwriter Dong Tianyi.
However, Xiao Dong is young, he is not from Inner Mongolia, and he has feelings after listening to my story, but there is no concrete picture. I said, okay, let's go.
In the spring of 2016, he entered the grassland for the first time. At that time, the fourth brother (producer Li Yihua) took it, starting from Alxa, all the way east through Ordos, Xilinhot and finally to Hulunbuir.
At that time, the grassland was cold and dry, and Xiao Dong was from Wuhan, and he went to a trip, and his nose was full of blood lumps.
Fortunately, there are a lot of gains. I met a lot of intellectuals and many local Mongolians. Xiao Dong wrote a character note and an interview note and had some ideas. The setting of using the four brothers and sisters of the Mo family to connect the eastern, northern and western grasslands was proposed by Xiao Dong.
But what he gave me at the time wasn't called a story, it was just a big framework. I said, you should at least bring me a few stories from below. So, still have to go.
Xiao Dong went to Chifeng again and to Tongliao. In Tongliao, I met an old Zhiqing in Nanjing. He went to Inner Mongolia at the age of 17, first to the western grasslands, and later to the eastern grasslands, where he lived for a lifetime.
He told Xiao Dong a lot of stories, how he came to be, what he saw in the car, how he went to the grassland, and what he did later. With this, Xiao Dong had a very specific cognition.
This old acquaintance of Nanjing has become one of the prototypes of the protagonist's fame. But only one old man is not enough, and the story must have a beginning and a turn.
I was reminded of a musician in the Inner Mongolia Radio and Television Art Troupe, when we worked in a courtyard. He was not able to attend the Conservatory of Music, was taken by a train to Inner Mongolia, with the herdsmen, and later entered the Wulan Pastoral Riding with his talent, and gradually walked to the Inner Mongolia Radio and Television Art Troupe. I just want to integrate his story into Mo Chengming' body.
The names of the four brothers and sisters of the Mo family come from a poem by Chairman Mao: Bao Er is determined to go out of the countryside and vow not to return if he does not become famous. Buried bones why mulberry land, life is everywhere green mountains. Each of the four poems takes two characters as a personal name: Zhixiang, Chengming, Sangzi, and Qingshan.
Mo Chengming is the second eldest of the Mo family, and his story is more realistic. Then the more legendary plot lies in the old third Mo Sangzi and the old fourth Mo Qingshan. And the old man Zhixiang did not appear head-on, and I will shoot his legendary story alone when I have the opportunity.
Mo Sangzi impersonated the army and was always stared at by a comrade-in-arms. Because of a fire, he became a martyr, and this fire is well documented. Her story is something I talked to the screenwriter about, and it has a feeling of a spy movie. The fourth was a jerk, he had congenital lung dysplasia, and later miraculously cured on the grassland, which also has a prototype.
At this point, the overall framework has been set up, and the urban part has been established, but Xiao Dong is not a child of the grassland after all, even if he goes to experience life again, his roots are not there, and there will be no unforgettable feelings.
Or you have to find someone who understands the culture of the steppe. It was a sad time for me. One of our assistant directors, who is Mongolian, recommended her lover to me. This is the screenwriter Sha Mo, who loves nomadic culture and understands the children of the steppe.
I have reached this point in total, so let's see you. At this sight, I thought, it is really heaven that will not destroy me.
It was really late to see each other, he understood what I said, and I agreed with what he wrote. Although the amount of work of refinement is still enormous, the framework is there, and that goes well.
After the crew started up in August 2018, I filmed during the day and discussed the plot with him at night. There have also been many plots overturned in the middle, the external connections of the characters are easy to write, what are the real thoughts in the heart, this kind of thing must be carefully considered in order to have a amount of information.
We wrote while filming, and by the last three episodes, Mr. Samad had fallen. This is indeed a huge blow to the crew, but you can't just grieve, and there are so many people waiting for you in the crew. And turn grief into strength.
The last three episodes can only be played on their own. At that time in Guangzhou, I took the director group to discuss, and the field record was recorded next to it. But thankfully, I've already thought of the ending early.
The forefront of reform and opening up is Guangdong, and the frontier of China's music is also there. That's when pop music began to enter the prairie and had a huge impact. The last three episodes are the story of Wulan Mu riding out of Inner Mongolia and coming to Guangdong to perform.
Compared with the beginning, the nomadic culture and urban culture at this time have changed places. From the beginning of the urban culture to the current nomadic culture out, it has always influenced each other.
Therefore, this play mainly revolves around the integration of the Chinese community of destiny and national culture. That's what I've wanted to express most over the years.
Look for the children of the prairie
This time filming "Father's Prairie Mother's River" not only made up for the regret that I wanted to do something for my hometown, but also fortunately cooperated with many Inner Mongolian compatriots.
Tu And Teacher Sichenkova are old friends who have known each other for many years, but unfortunately they have not been able to cooperate. This time, they came. I invited the three generations of Inner Mongolian actors I thought were suitable.
However, the casting of the heroine Hangla is still difficult. Mainly looking at the whole country, it is difficult to find a girl with the temperament of that era.
I have always believed that bravery is the most precious quality. Most of the girls engaged in acting are from the city, they are fashionable and beautiful, but there is no such bravery in their eyes.
Hang la is a herder. Children on the prairie grew up watching cattle and sheep mate, unlike children in the city who can sometimes be shy. It's mating season on the grass, and the kids are used to it.
And then look for it nationwide. Finally we found Deji, a Tibetan girl. But as soon as I looked at her image and the look in her eyes, I decided it was her. She gives the impression that if you let her take a gun and go to the front to fight, she will go immediately. That's what I want.
Lu Xingchen is from the film, her eyes are adducted, not as outward as the usual TV drama actors, is what I want "Mo Sangzi" feeling.
Dancer Wang Yabin has collaborated in "Tuina", and the host Liang Zhi learned dialect quickly, and they all played an important role.
The actor Mo Chengming is played by Li Hongliang. He has been filming with me for a long time, "Soldier Assault", "My Regiment Leader My Regiment", "Our French Years", "Tuina" all have him, but this is the first time he has made me a male number one.
I was very strict with him. When shooting, several times it was almost likely to give him a complete collapse. In the evening, he talked to his lover on video, crying while talking, saying that he was not qualified and could not get into the director's eyes.
In fact, it was not deliberately difficult for him. Because behind them are the audience, the old intellectuals who are still alive, including the prototypes. Even so, people may still pick out the fault.
I am a witness and an experiencer, and if it is simply past me, I can't stand this history, I can't stand these people, I can't stand the audience behind me.
The same was true of filming in Guangzhou at that time. The last scene was in Shunde, the scene had been demolished, and the crew was ready to return to Hohhot. But I'm still not satisfied. Therefore, while re-setting up the scene, while waiting for the actors to slow down, they still want to re-shoot this scene.
How many times have I "broken" with my friends in order to create these things. A famous screenwriter once said that when Kang Honglei did not make a script, he was a good person with humor. But as long as you work on the script with him, he is definitely not human. Now I also reflect that in the future I will try to be like a person when making scripts.
Many people think that this drama is difficult to shoot. Including shooting snow scenes, that year all of Inner Mongolia was stunned that there was no snow. We waited and wrote the script. It was hard to wait until the snow, chase the snow, and run to shoot. Because of the overdue period, the funds are difficult to continue, and the main creative staff advance money to shoot.
I don't like it when people say it's tough. I love it, and if I love it, how can it be difficult. But I also have things that I find difficult, that is, to ask for people for distribution. I've put everything I'm going to say in my work, and you're asking me to sell myself again, and I can't open my mouth.
Before I always dreamed, a dream is in the film crew, not in the night scene transition, full of garbage, I am picking up garbage; that is, to shoot the grassland scene, the front is full of sand, I went to the art team, let them dye the sand green.
But after doing "Father's Prairie Mother's River", when I returned to Inner Mongolia for the New Year this year, I did not have such a dream. When I returned to Beijing after the fifteenth day of the first month of this year, when I was in Inner Mongolia, I skated and played football every day.
I felt like I was healed.
【Interview/Li Xingwen Author/Pomegranate】