Xu Ke directed "Deep Dialogue" in "Band of Seven".
The finale story of the film "Band of Seven", "Deep Dialogue", is directed by Xu Ke, nicknamed "Old Monster", who has always been good at playing the concept of "imagination" in his works, this time he specially set up a space for people to imagine the infinite future, with interesting dialogue and surprising plot reversals to describe the future, as a tribute to Hong Kong and film. As one of the representatives of the new wave of Hong Kong cinema, since directing his film debut "Butterfly Change" in 1979, Xu Ke has been constantly trying and innovating in creation, and the new martial arts films he directed have raised the stunts of Hong Kong films to a new height, but in addition to martial arts action films, he sometimes uses his own way to tell different movies, such as "Deep Sea Search" and "Women Are Not Bad". Talking about the shooting of "Deep Dialogue", he laughed and said that the synonym of this short film is happiness, friendship, or age, which is about "our own things". At the same time, he also hopes that there will be more works like "Band of Seven" in the future, "I hope that Hong Kong directors can come together and shoot a similar type of thing." Not once, not twice, I hope there are many times, you can continue to cooperate, make one or more works to represent our era, tell the audience, there are these people here. ”
【Creation】
"No depth" explores a lot of deep questions
"To tell the truth, I don't really know what to shoot, seven people shoot seven stories, shoot an era, but I think if you touch an era, you can talk about a very broad content, because you have to tell seven representative things at seven different times." 」 In fact, I think it is best to have no age. Xu Ke thought about it, smiled and said: "In fact, I did not draw (the age), they said that I drew to the 'future', what is the future?" As one of the seven directors, you go to shoot a story, the most important thing is to shoot your feelings at that time and in the present, I felt that "Band of Seven" came from the idea that when I made "Iron Triangle", the three people (Xu Ke, Du Qifeng and Lin Lingdong) collaborated to make a play, and I thought about it with the original idea. I find that a lot of questions involve filmmakers why do filmmakers make movies? Why do so many of us come together to do such a thing? I want to see our surroundings from the perspective of the creator and see how we ourselves are. So I thought of this "Deep Dialogue". ”
Zhang Daming and Zhang Jincheng play doctors and patients respectively in "Deep Dialogue".
As for the problem of limited shooting costs, almost every director in "Band of Seven" has encountered, and Xu Ke is no exception, he wants to try to do something that can be done in a limited condition, he envisions setting up a house in the film, the house is about the outside world, so what is the outside world like? It is up to the audience to judge for themselves. This dialogue talks a lot about the problems of the earth, the problems of life, the problems of men and women, who is in charge of whom? Where is the relationship between the audience and the creator? To let Xu Ke make a summary of this short film: "In fact, the dialogue is a little bit of water, there is no depth, "Deep Dialogue" is regarded as humor for yourself. [Laughs]"
【Message】
We, the directors, can finally do one thing together
Filming on film is a rule of The Band of Seven and a feature of cinema. To ask Xu Ke what is different about shooting on film, he said that it is no different, except that the camera is different, everything else is the same. "Film is actually the suspense of not seeing the picture, in fact, it is still the feeling of the year when it was filmed." In fact, I am not restoring film, but the era when I restored film. People in that era were very nervous when making movies, and they would be nervous about whether the film was enough? Enough time to shoot? Do you have the budget to buy film? That tension is really deep. Now we use digital. In fact, there is a big difference between what film can do and what digital can do, and what film can do in the future is very limited, and we will think of a lot of things before we shoot it, so that the film can be printed out of what we want. But now it's hard to find a place to print film, and we can't see what we're shooting, which gives everyone a great sense of expectation, and film is like this. In Xu Ke's heart, after experiencing the film era, watching the predecessors come over, with the peers coming over, and then using the film will actually have a sense of sacredness in the heart: "Doing this, film is indeed a very precious tool, film is not good, many times there is no remedy, we have to find a way how to shoot well, this experience is the most precious." ”
"Band of Seven" director group portrait version poster.
After filming "The Band of Seven", Xu Ke was very touched, he told the Beijing News reporter that he hoped that after the "Band of Seven", all the directors in Hong Kong could get together to shoot another work, or even shoot a few more works: "Because we have done this before, bring all the directors together and make a movie, then this movie, no matter how well it is filmed, will make Hong Kong directors have more opportunities to deepen friendship and mutual understanding." And there will be a very important point, that is, we directors can finally do one thing together. ”
【Interview】
For so many years, shooting every scene was like a fight
Beijing News: This time, "Band of Seven" invited seven of hong Kong's most representative directors to participate, do you usually have more opportunities to meet and chat about the past?
Xu Ke: (We) are not very easy to get together, and we have very few opportunities to meet together. Like me, there are very few opportunities to meet Hong Jinbao, Yuan Heping and Tan Jiaming. Du Qifeng and Lin Lingdong and I had more opportunities to gather, often sitting together to have a meal and talking about the next day, and everyone laughed at each other. If you want to gather seven people to talk, I think it will only be possible at some film festivals, but now the film festival is not so easy to hold. You say that using video (chatting), that is not a lot of people like to use the computer, that is not a lot of people like to use mobile phones. If we talk about meeting, sometimes, when we look at everyone's released works, it is regarded as a kind of meeting.
Beijing News: You have cooperated with Du Qifeng and Lin Lingdong in the film "Iron Triangle", is it because this cooperation model has contributed to the future "Band of Seven"?
Xu Ke: Du Qifeng and Lin Lingdong and I are both from TV stations, and when we work in TV stations, we often meet, eat, and chat after work, talk about movies that everyone likes, and talk about which director's play is good. The three of us thought about making some movies we liked together to commemorate the confidants and brothers of the three people, and then we thought that it would be better for us to make a "Iron Triangle", but at that time, we sat down and talked for a long time and did not figure out what we should shoot, so it was better for each of us to shoot a third and synthesize a play, which was a happy thing. So many of us shoot a play, we can have more contact, talk more days, and understand more about everyone's ideas at that time. Creation is good, (the work has) personality is good, want to do anything good, make a movie I think it is worth it, whether it is good or not is another thing.
Director Xu Ke was filmed on the scene of "Deep Dialogue".
Beijing News: You have been in the industry for many years, what is the most memorable challenge in the film industry?
Xu Ke: It is difficult to make every movie, and the difficulty of every scene is different. For example, it is not easy to shoot "Band of Seven", why? At the beginning it was called "Eight and a Half Parts", as one of the 8.5, what are you going to talk about? I'm often asked," did you go well?" "Of course, the shooting went smoothly, but in fact, there were different problems when shooting. For example, (to face) their own health problems, (face) what kind of creative problems, plus the difficulty of the play, technology, budget, etc., will encounter problems and difficulties, so difficult that it is difficult for you to distinguish between the heavy and the heavy. For so many years, shooting every scene is like fighting, and using your own strength to fight will make this thing have a result.
Beijing News: Everyone is basically watching film and television works in digital form, such as traditional cinemas have also been affected by streaming media, how do you think of this "replacement"?
Xu Ke: There are many ways to watch TV and movies, whether it is a mobile phone, a computer, a television set, or a projection, all of which have different effects. I believe that creators will definitely create their own works according to different effects, so I don't think that cinema will be replaced by mobile phones. Many people use mobile phones to watch movies for convenience, and movie theaters also have wonderful places, and the audience who wants to make choices is very clear about this. Worry? Is it worried that it will not come, how to worry? For example, when the epidemic came, many movie theaters needed to be closed, and this round was not what we were worried about. The degree of human evolution is something we cannot change, we can only adapt and do what we should do according to the development of different eras.
Beijing News reporter Zhou Huixiaowan
Edited by Huang Jialing
Proofreading By Chen Diyan