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【Cover parlor・Character Introduction】
Zheng Zhi, writer, screenwriter.
Novel works include "Raw Swallowing", "Immortal Disease", "Floating", "I am waiting for you at the end of time", "Don't go to that town", "I only care about you" and so on; His screenwriting works include "I'm Waiting for You at the End of Time", "Coward", and "Hedgehog".
In 2018, he won the first prize of the "Carp Anonymous Writers Program" in 2018 for his short story "Immortal Disease"; In 2019, he won the "Annual Youth Masterpiece Award" of the "Bell Mountain" Star Literature Award for "Immortal Disease"; In 2021, he won the "Future Writer" Award.
At present, the TV series "Coward", based on his best-selling work "Raw Swallow", is currently airing.
Cover news reporter Xun Chao intern Liu Xingyu
At present, the TV series "Cowards" written by Zheng Zhi, directed by Zhang Xiaobo, and starring Ou Hao, Wang Yanhui, Wang Yuwen, Zhou Zheng, Hou Wenyuan and so on is being broadcast. This youth suspense drama adapted from Zheng Zhi's original novel "Raw Swallow" unveils a past with two murder scenes spanning ten years and "exactly the same", revealing a past based on youth and suffering, intertwined with friendship and betrayal, full of regret and sadness. Recently, Zheng Zhi, who is also the author and screenwriter of the original work, was interviewed by a cover news reporter to talk about the transformation of the two identities and his views on film and television adaptation.
Make up for creative regrets
Continue to write "The Story of Emotional Flow"
The novel "Raw Swallow", which contains elements of crime, youth, and suspense, has been praised by readers as the "Chinese version of "White Night"" by readers. On the surface, "Raw Swallowing" sets the shell of a social serial murder, and inside the shell is the cruel story of youth of several young people. Zheng Zhi's writing unfolds along two perspectives and two clues: one is the clue of the character "Feng Guojin", which coldly shows the fierceness of the northeast through the retrospection of the case from an omniscient perspective, this line focuses on the plot, and the narrative rhythm is fast; Another clue is the clue of the character "Wang Wei", from the perspective of "I", through the memory of sadly showing Wang Wei and Huang Shu, Qin Li and others, from the early autumn of 1999 Huang Shu to Heping Yixiao, to the protagonist's youth after graduating from middle school in 2003, this clue is inked in the heart, and the narrative rhythm is slow.
"Whether you write a novel or a screenplay, 'the desire to talk' is always the first motivation." When the film and television company found Zheng Zhitan to talk about the film and television adaptation of the novel, he proposed himself to become the screenwriter of "Coward", "In the novel, I think that because of certain objective restrictions, I did not tell this story according to the way I felt in my heart. In Zheng Zhi's view, the novel serial has the limitation of length and rhythm, coupled with the reader's expectation and demand, the sense of oppression of pursuing change, he had to speed up the pace of the novel, so he gave up many of the original writing plans.
Stills from "The Coward"
Zheng Zhi said frankly: "The part that I regret the most and want to make up the most is the story of the emotional flow between these four young boys and girls, and the character relationship between them." Compared with the suspense part, the rhythm is slower and more delicate. But at that time, whether it was serials or print published books, they did not really make up for it. In the "Coward" episode, my most enjoyable, hilarious, and most satisfying thing is the volume of 16 episodes, which gives me enough time to compensate and slowly tell the story of these four young people. ”
When Zheng Zhi is creating, he never frames himself in a specific type of "suspense" or "youth", "suspense is the packaging of storytelling, a shell of narrative color." In the suspense, it is nothing more than life and death, and life and death are a proposition. As a novelist and screenwriter, telling a good story and telling the feelings of good people is the top priority. "He always believes that people who like these works will see themselves in the story." When writing "Cowards", Zheng Zhi also focused on retaining the multi-line narrative in the original work. "I always think that a multi-timeline narrative, giving people a sense of memory, layering, contrast, and stacking, is the temperament that the script of "Raw Swallow" has always wanted to retain, and it is also a respect for the original readers. But this temperament is rare to retain, and it requires a little adventurous spirit and some skill. ”
Crossover screenplay writing from fiction
"Screenwriting is a collaborative industry"
As the screenwriter and original author of "Coward", Zheng Zhi was deeply involved in the creation process of the entire series, "I think the characteristic of the play "Coward" is that it is a drama that cannot be watched without concentrating, and even if you want to go to the toilet in the middle, drink a water, it is best to press a paused play. Although some netizens questioned the slow pace of the play, Zheng Zhi had great confidence in the quality of the play, "I think this drama is a drama that needs to find an audience, I believe that after a period of time, "Coward" will definitely find more audiences of its own, they will know each other, know each other, just like the friendship of four young people and their life journey." ”
Walking between the two identities of screenwriter and author, Zheng Zhi also summed up the different creative experiences between the two types of work: "Play a simple metaphor, write a novel, you are the king of a person's country, everything is up to you, you only need to be responsible for yourself; Screenwriters create scripts, movies and TV series are a cooperative type of work, and everything must be based on the premise of cooperation. In the end, the script must be filmed, performed by the actors, and post-production to see if it can achieve the initial effect. Therefore, determining the success or failure of a script, the success or failure of a play, and the success or failure of a movie is not a single element from the beginning. ”
Ou Hao played "Qin Li" in the TV series "Coward"
Seeing his work successfully on the screen, Zheng Zhi sighed with emotion, "When I first saw the finished film, it should be regarded as the 'director's cut version', each episode is longer than now, it was watched in the director's studio, and after watching it in its entirety for two consecutive days, I cried until I was powerless and cried until I collapsed." Speaking of the slogan "Don't be a coward," he explained: "One has to face one's fears and cowardice to understand the true meaning of bravery." The sad part of this story is because we are not brave enough when we should be brave, choose cowardice, choose not to stand up. So that's exactly what we're really worth reflecting on as adults. ”
In the interview, Zheng Zhi also affirmed the performance of several actors in the play. "Ou Hao always has a very clean juvenile temperament in his eyes, especially the state presented after the makeup, which makes me feel completely in line with 'Qin Li', and he also gave this role something new, a new image, which I personally recognize." He also revealed that the script was finalized in accordance with the image of the four actors. "These four young actors all have their own personalities and personalities, including the way they perform, the script, the understanding of the story, which is very interesting. Choosing to adapt the original work to the actors under reasonable circumstances is the work that a powerful screenwriter should do. ”
According to the TV series "Cowards" film side
Poster of Cowards
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