"Like the white horse in Journey to the West, when it is used by people, it is coldly abandoned.
Who cares about its mood, and who can understand it?
In fact, people are like horses, when it is useless, who will care about your life and death? ”
Yang Jie once wrote in her autobiography "Dare to Ask Where the Road Is", and she also sadly pointed out to the media, "In fact, that horse is writing about myself." ”
Why does Yang Jie, who made such a legendary classic as "Journey to the West", compare herself with a horse?
Follow the editor, let's go back to the time when we started filming "Journey to the West" in 1982, and explore the untold stories behind Yang Jie and "Journey to the West" together.
First, take on heavy responsibilities
"Yang Jie, if you were to be responsible for making Journey to the West into a TV series, would you dare to follow?"
At the end of 1981, the deputy director directly asked Yang Jie on the stage.
At this time, the "Journey to the West" belonging to our country has been remade by the Japanese magic, in the Japanese, Tang Monk is a young woman, and the king of the golden horn and silver horn is a husband and wife...
Yang Jie, who had long been angry about this matter, heard the words of the deputy director and did not think about it and immediately stood up and said.
"If you have money, you dare, why don't you dare!"
In this way, Yang Jie, who has been engaged in opera directing, took on this major and brilliant task - shooting Journey to the West.
Yang Jie is also determined to shoot the real "Journey to the West" and let those foreigners see what is "Journey to the West".
So in July 1982, Yang Jie, who was already 53 years old, began her own "9981 difficulties".
Second, he almost died
Yang Jiema, who took on the heavy responsibility, began the team formation work without stopping.
In the remake of the four famous works, the crew of "Journey to the West" can be said to be the least valued, and the funding obtained is even less than 5% of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
Other remakes of famous works even have specially built studios, but Yang Jie's crew has nothing, and as a large-scale magic drama, "Journey to the West" is much more difficult to shoot than other crews in terms of costumes and special effects.
Director Yang Jie had foreseen the difficulties that followed before filming began.
At this time, the entire crew had only one "old guy" from the TV station - a 300P camera that needed batteries.
There are only a few people, and even the photographer is directed by Yang Jie' 14-year-old husband Wang Chongqiu.
In order to compress the budget to the minimum, director Yang Jie decided to take a small number of teams to visit various beautiful and distinctive places in the country to determine the most suitable route for shooting.
The car was in the mud, wet by the heavy rain, the people were crowded in a hut, running day and night...
These troubles are all situations that Yang Jie often encounters.
During the long journey, Yang Jie and they finally arrived at Huangshi Village in Zhangjiajie.
In the distance, the green mountains are layered, hidden in the haze of smoke and rain, which really deserves the sentence "The gallery is thick with empty greeners, and the rain is soft in the layers of cliffs." ”
Zhangjiajie has also become a shooting location for "three dozen white bone essences" because of its smoke and rain.
The group was stunned by the scenery in front of them, in order to find the best angle to reflect the scenery of Huangshi Village, Yang Jie and his party enjoyed the beautiful scenery in front of them from all angles.
At this time, they found a small platform, the small platform is very close to the edge of the cliff, a group of people want to come to this small platform to see the panorama, photographers they jumped over first.
When it was Yang Jie's turn, but accidentally slipped the soles of his feet, you should know that at this time, Huangshi Zhai has not been fully developed, it can be said that there is almost no protective equipment, and Yang Jie, who has slipped on the soles of his feet, is in front of him, and suddenly, Yang Jie's pants do not know what is hooked, and the soles of the slippery feet have stopped.
At this time, everyone realized that it was obviously a cold environment, but a dense layer of sweat had already appeared on the door of the brain.
The terrified crowd rushed to support Director Yang Jie and looked back at what "saved" the director's life.
It turned out that there was a tree stumps hidden under the grass, and a sharp new stubble grew on the stump, and it was this new stubble that hooked Yang Jie, and even hooked Yang Jie's pants and velvet pants.
It is precisely because of this new stubble that it saved Yang Jie's life at the moment of a thousand gunshots, and also made this journey become thrilling.
Yang Jie's "Westward Journey" not only has these thrilling thrills, but also the gifts of nature.
In order to determine in advance the most suitable "westward road" for filming, the framing team can be said to be
Running day and night.
At this time, Yang Jie heard that in the Mahayana Mountains of Lengshuijiang City, Hunan Province, there is a strange cave that is naturally formed, which is almost like it was tailor-made for Sun Wukong.
Hearing this news, Yang Jie ignored the hardships of the journey and went to Hunan Province without stopping, wanting to see the strange cave.
When Yang Jie and his party came to this cave, they were immediately shocked by the scene in front of them.
The cave is an open site, decorated with a variety of natural stalactites, with trickles, and even more incredible, in an open hall in the cave, there is a natural stone seat.
"Isn't this the water curtain hole of Sun Monkey?" God has already prepared it for him! ”
Therefore, this cave in Hunan Province was also the main shooting location of the Huaguoshan Water Curtain Cave later.
In this way, through three months of running, Yang Jie's people almost traveled all over the mountains and rivers of the motherland, and finally determined the final "road to learn the scriptures".
Third, the master and disciple meet for the first time
The director team first determined the route, and then it was time to determine the actors.
The first is the "invisible male protagonist" Sun Wukong in "Journey to the West".
Yang Jie hesitated between the "Southern Monkey King" and the "Northern Monkey King" at that time, and finally decided on the six-year-old child of the "Southern Monkey King" for various reasons.
However, the six-year-old child is too squeamish, and he still needs his father to take a bath in his twenties, which makes Yang Jie a little dissatisfied.
In the end, it is the six-year-old child who will have to endure hardships to determine.
As we all know, the Tang monk in "Journey to the West" is completed by three actors together, but many people do not know why the core character of Tang Monk has to be changed back and forth.
In fact, the first version of Wang Yue did not satisfy everyone before he joined the group, because Tang Monk should be full of compassion, but Wang Yue was a little bitter, or Yang Jieli gave this young man a chance.
However, Wang Yue obviously did not deserve Yang Jie's "preference", and gradually lost himself in the cheers of the crew, thinking that his wrist was big, so he asked for a play, that is, to take other scenes outside of filming "Journey to the West".
Of course, Yang Jie could not agree to his request, so she sent Wang Yue away that night.
The second Tang monk was Xu Shaohua, but Xu Shaohua finally left the crew because of his schooling and the difference in salary of five yuan, but after that, Xu Shaohua played in the name of Tang Monk to earn gold.
The third and longest-existing Tang monk was played by Chi Chongrui, and it was also a coincidence that he could meet Chi Chongrui.
Yang Jie, who was worried about the candidate for Tang Monk, walked on the stairs, and came to a boy with red lips and white teeth and warm eyebrows, just one glance, Director Yang Jie directly decided that he would play Tang Monk.
After that, Ma Dehua's Eight Precepts of the Pig and Yan Huaili's Sand Monk were also in place.
Here we have to mention the fifth starring role of "Journey to the West" - White Dragon Horse.
In the early stages of filming, the whole crew spent a lot of effort to find a suitable white horse, so they had to find a horse in the local area to act as a white dragon horse everywhere they went.
But white horses are difficult to find, in order to let the shooting continue, Yang Jie even dyed brown horses as white horses to use, but inferior pigments can not withstand close-up shooting, and even the next trip to the water is gone.
So Yang Jie decided to set a white dragon horse for the crew to truly follow.
At this time, Yang Jie's crew came to Inner Mongolia to shoot, and finally met the white dragon horse.
However, this white dragon horse was a "civil servant" and a military horse of Xilinhot, and it was reasonable to say that military horses were not allowed to be transferred and sold.
However, Yang Jie really could not give up this horse, and successively promised to plead, and finally this military horse could only choose to be expelled from the military, and then bought by Yang Jie's crew.
In this way, the white dragon horse followed, that is, 6 years.
In the past 6 years, this white dragon horse seems to be the same as human nature, working hard and complaining, cooperating with shooting, even if it is injured many times.
After the main actor is determined, those supporting roles are not a thing, in order to make the cost the lowest, many actors are changing tricks to play.
For example, Yan Huaili is not only a sand monk who works hard and complains, but also a majestic Taishang Laojun, or a dragon king and a bull demon king.
It can be said that in order to reduce costs, the "Journey to the West" crew has maximized the "utilization" of these actors.
Fourth, special effects are difficult to learn
The route is determined, the characters are determined, so how should the magical scenes in "Journey to the West" be represented?
How should those miraculous "immortal means", strange shapes of "demons and ghosts", magnificent "earth shaking mountains", how should these "special effects" that exist everywhere in "Journey to the West" be filmed?
Yang Jie, who had never learned relevant knowledge at all, had to "steal teachers to learn art" everywhere.
Yang Jie came to Hong Kong, after all, the Hong Kong film and television industry in the 1970s and 1980s was in its heyday, and no other place in China could surpass Hong Kong at this time.
However, the people here were unwilling to teach more, and even Yang Jie's request to see the props was rejected.
Yang Jie, who had no choice, could only grope for imitation step by step.
Sun Wukong's jumping up and down is so natural because Sun Wukong always has a trampoline on the soles of his feet, and jumping up from the trampoline can be more realistic to perform the state of soaring in the air.
Including Weia, which exists in almost every film and television drama now, there was almost no inland at that time.
Director Yang Jie can only watch Yi Hulu paint the scoop, and even in order to make the wire not obtrusive in the picture shot, always color the wire according to the background.
In the episode of Wuji Kingdom, there were real and false Tang monks, and the crew members who were not mature in technology could only cut the pictures and superimpose the shadows little by little, which also led to the figure of a Tang monk in the final picture being somewhat unreal.
The shooting at the bottom of the sea was not built at a huge cost, after all, the crew was tightly funded, but filmed with a fish tank!
I believe that many people are as surprised as the editor, how to shoot with a fish tank?
At that time, the crew bought that kind of glass water tank, which was filled with water, and deliberately illuminated it with a spotlight.
Immediately after that, the camera was placed in front of the camera to record the footage, during which he deliberately stirred the water surface and artificially blew bubbles to create the effect of "underwater dragon palace".
Like the above technical problems that can be solved through the "stupid method" did save the crew a part of the cost, but more technology can not be solved, this kind of difficulties make Yang Jie difficult to move, as the saying goes, "it is difficult for a smart woman to cook without rice", And Yang Jie, who had no choice, had to apply for funds from Taili again.
However, it was this application for funds that laid a deep hidden danger for Yang Jie's "cunning rabbit death, lackey cooking" after that.
Fifth, the expenditure is large
At the beginning, the budget given by the stage was 2 million, but the actor's salary, costumes and props, and travel did not require funds.
In order to save money, Yang Jie was eager to break a penny in half to spend.
However, Yang Jie, who devoted herself to "Journey to the West" in this way, was seriously criticized by the superior leaders.
Why?
Originally, "Journey to the West", which was only twenty episodes, has been filmed for six years, but now it has only been filmed for a dozen episodes.
"Yang Jie, more than twenty episodes of the TV series, how many years have you been filming?"
Yang Jie, who received a call from the leader, could only tell the difficulties in the filming process.
However, Yang Jie's complaint did not make the leader understand.
"Yang Jie, it's been six years, you're shooting more than twenty episodes of TV series, don't you want to take the national resources to play in the mountains, right?"
Yang Jie, who heard the leader's questioning, only felt extremely aggrieved.
But there was no way, Yang Jie could only write a report to reflect the real situation.
At this moment, Yang Jie can be said to have already exhausted her heart.
During the day, the crew should grasp the overall situation and do it perfectly, and go back at night to sit in front of the night lights and write reports overnight.
Even so, the leader still does not understand and directly demands an immediate ending.
It turned out that because the budget was used up in more than a dozen episodes, Yang Jie had no choice but to go to Taili to apply for funds.
However, the leaders of the station were very dissatisfied with Yang Jie's inability to shoot a TV series of more than twenty episodes for several years, coupled with Yang Jie's relatively straight personality, he had already offended many people, and at this moment Yang Jie even continued to ask for money.
In this regard, the leader only replied: "Your crew goes to raise money by themselves, but the copyright still belongs to the station." ”
It has been injected into the whole group for 6 years, how can it be said that you can give up if you give up?
Therefore, Yang Jie had to broadcast the first 11 episodes in 1986.
No one expected that the show would be a huge success after the broadcast of "Journey to the West", and this also gave the sluggish crew a dose of calming agent at this time.
After the broadcast, the response was so good, it should be filmed even more, but it was difficult to do without funds.
Yang Jie had to ask the crew who could pull some funds, and in the end, li Hongchang, the actor of centipede spirit, pulled three million yuan of investment from the Ministry of Railways, and the crew was able to continue to work.
After a combined period of 8 years, "Journey to the West" was finally released in full in 1988.
The broadcast of "Journey to the West" received unprecedented popularity, and even broke the Guinness Book of World Records, and everyone in the crew became famous.
However, the suffering of running together all these years seems to have become unworthy in the face of fame and fortune
Sixth, it is difficult to get rich
It can be said that the biggest contributor of "Journey to the West" is Yang Jie, countless people outside the play, especially the four masters and apprentices, because Yang Jie has gained infinite glory, but Yang Jie bluntly said in the interview that he is lonely alone?
"Yang Jie, I heard that the four masters and apprentices of your crew are making a lot of money in Singapore!"
Yang Jie, who received a call from her friend, felt incredible, because she was sure that Chi Zhongrui was recuperating at home, and several others also took leave to say that there was something wrong.
However, as his friend described it more and more clearly, Yang Jie was sure that it was the three masters and apprentices and the second Tang monk Xu Shaohua, and their so-called leave of absence was for the sake of business performances to earn gold!
Because she grew up in a red family since childhood, Yang Jie has a kind of respect for art, and this behavior of the four masters and apprentices is simply trampling on Yang Jie's bottom line.
After the four masters and apprentices returned, Yang Jie directly summoned the whole crew and severely criticized the behavior of the four masters and apprentices at the meeting.
Several of the main actors, who had been overwhelmed by flowers and applause, completely forgot who made them popular at the moment, because of Yang Jie's ruthless face, so that several people walking outside as "big coffee" were dissatisfied.
Since the explosion of "Journey to the West", when have several masters and apprentices not been praised by the stars, and when have they suffered such "grievances"?
The more several people thought about it, the more fierce they became, so they summed up and went to the stage to sue Yang Jie.
In fact, Yang Jie has offended the Taiwan leaders many times because of this tough personality, and the Taiwan leaders directly took this opportunity to expel Yang Jie.
He had to dedicate himself to the crew for several years, and he was in danger many times and even almost lost his life, but in the end he ended up with a rebellious end.
Even his own spiritual hall has become a venue for six-year-old children to star in the film!
epilogue
This makes the editor can't help but think of the white dragon horse, the white dragon horse is also the same as Yang Jie, walking all over the mountains, stepping all over the rivers, but in the end it was cruelly abandoned in the film and television base for people to ride, and even finally died tragically in the shadows.
It is no wonder that Yang Jie would rather "Journey to the West" fail.
"'Journey to the West' is an eternal pain in my heart, and when I see it, I change the stage."
It is precisely because of the suffering and heartache brought to Yang Jie by "Journey to the West" that Yang Jie, the director of "Journey to the West", said such a ruthless and even "cruel" word in the interview.