The release of the movie "More Than Endless" aroused the audience's resonance with the protagonist's life choices and collective nostalgia for the golden age of print media. There are endless discussions around the era background, story prototype, and social significance of the film.
Li Jingfei, the keynote speaker of the ideal audio program "On the Way to the Cinema", invited Wang Jing, director of "More Than End", to talk about the social issues, creative concepts and behind-the-scenes stories in the film.
Narration|Li Jingfei x Wang Jing
Source|"On the Way to the Cinema"
1.
2003, the collective memory of an era
Jing Fei: The movie "More than Endless" has BBS, QQ, Nokia 6600 in the setting, and there are also some typical events, including SARS, the news of the Shenzhou 5 manned spacecraft, etc., 20 years ago. It may be a little strange to young audiences, so I want to ask you to talk about it from the word North Drift, why did this movie choose such an era to present?
Wang Jing: It seems that the word Beipiao has not completely disappeared from the context of everyone's discussion. It is a word that cannot take root, is helpless, and has a bit of a tragic overtone. I came to Beijing in '03, and staying in a big city was quite natural and positive.
We talked to many people during the filmmaking process, and everyone's memories of Beijing in that era, although they did not buy a house or take root, but they all seem to be quite beautiful.
Jing Fei: The story in the film is connected to you in terms of personal emotions, is it the professional background of Han Dong, the protagonist investigative journalist, or does he actually represent some of your youthful ideals?
Wang Jing: I think Han Dong is an ordinary and not so ordinary person. His ordinariness lies in his origins, his identity, and his life circumstances, which may be similar to many of us. But his extraordinary lies in his bravery, and his spiritual world may not be the same as many ordinary people today.
I have been saying that I may not be Han Dong, but I believe that such people exist, and I also hope that everyone believes that such people exist after seeing the movie. In some critical moments, people may think that I can also be brave? This may be the spiritual power that this film has.
Jing Fei: Before watching the movie, I did some background research of the times, is there a prototype of the "Beijing Times" that appeared in the movie? Everyone said that it might be "Southern Metropolis Daily", because "More Than Endless" is a report from reporter Han Fudong, right?
Wang Jing: Actually, we first selected the character archetype. He was born in a small city in Heilongjiang and spent his childhood quite normally. In high school, he suffered an eye injury that forced him to terminate his studies. After a year, he felt that he might not be able to continue his studies anymore and that he had to try to survive.
At that time, his friend recommended that he take a train from the northeast to work in a chemical plant in Fuzhou. While reversing at the Beijing station, to kill time, he bought Southern Weekend at a newsstand. What the newspapers talked about, the possibilities presented, opened a door for him. He also sees himself as having the possibility and enthusiasm to participate in social issues.
So when he worked in a small factory in Fuzhou, he published his own discussion of social issues on BBS, and also tried to contribute articles to various newspapers in the form of readers' letters. Han Dong in the real world was selected by the editor-in-chief in many articles because of his contribution to the Beijing China Times in 02.
The editor-in-chief felt that the young man seemed to share their values and ideas, so he invited him from the chemical factory in Fuzhou to Beijing, and he became a journalist. It took him about a few years to become the chief reporter for China's largest metropolis newspaper. When we choose this character archetype, we naturally want to talk about his process from 0 to 1.
Jing Fei: There is a plot in the movie, Han Dong's pen flies, which is obviously a fantasy plot. The flying pen was connected to Yang Liwei's picture again. I think it's quite interesting for an ordinary journalist to connect with this image, how did you come up with the idea to do such a picture design?
Wang Jing: Your understanding just now is the same as what I had at the beginning of creation. When we decide to make a story set in the year 03, we must choose those typical symbols from our collective memory. I vaguely feel that the fact that Mr. Yang Liwei became China's first astronaut carries a narrative of a grand collective dream. It seems to be related to the narrative of the protagonist of our film.
One day, I asked my partners in the director's team to help me find some video material for the news report of that year. Suddenly found that Mr. Yang Liwei was in space, playing a lot of things easily, presenting that weightless environment. The pen in his hand is very coincidentally the same as the one we designed for Han Dong at the beginning. When I see two identical pens, I know how to make a connection.
Jing Fei: Yes, that scene is a bit surreal, and I think it's quite bold in such a realistic story. Because it has the potential to ruin our feelings about this real-life story. The last scene of the film is actually a floating image, and the newspaper flies.
Wang Jing: Actually, it echoes the previous weightlessness. I think any doctrine or any technique is just a tool. As a creator, my own yardstick should be the authenticity of events and the authenticity of emotions. I think as Han Dong or as the emotional clue of the movie, the pen should fly at that moment, this is the truth of the emotion, then I think it is real.
2.
Not an "elegy for the age of print"
Jing Fei: The time when Han Dong came to Beijing in the film happened to be an era when print media was booming. I think it's interesting that when we look back today, it seems that the print media has completely disappeared, but it is not like that.
People think this movie is an elegy for the print media, but I don't see it that way. On the contrary, it talks about how the discussion of public issues should be intervened in when the media changes. I don't know how you think about it when dealing with it?
Wang Jing: It is true that many people say that it is an elegy after watching it, but we did not think so at the beginning of the creation. If it were an elegy, maybe we wouldn't have that much motivation to shoot this thing. An industry may go through ups and downs, but we still believe that spiritual power will always exist.
Like you just mentioned, I've been saying a word called possibility. I think it was an era full of possibilities, in the print media industry itself, the emergence of urban newspapers, the relaxed environment of market-oriented newspapers, which provided young people like Han Dong with the possibility of engaging in this profession. Internet included 1. In the 0 era, everyone can discuss some social issues on the Internet, which actually provides possibilities. So in fact, no matter what industry, if it is possible, it may be an ideal state.
Jing Fei: Actually, speaking of this possibility, the film mentions the super event of 2005, which is "Super Girl". It actually brings us into the era of media for all, giving us the opportunity to vote on some public issues, as if there really is a feeling of one person, one vote.
We see the birth of a newspaper in the movie, which has to go through many processes, such as making plates and signing plates, and there seems to be a sense of sacredness after getting off the printing plant. But in today's information age, we seem to be able to speak more loosely on many public issues, is there still the possibility of professionalism and faith?
Wang Jing: In those days, the rights and responsibilities at the level of writing or language were quite clear, and the transmission channels were relatively top-down. As the movie says, journalists are responsible for every word they write. Because he has enough power, he may influence enough people. The meaning represented and carried is different from today's self-media.
At the same time, that system actually has a strong ability to withstand pressure. Some time ago, I chatted with a former journalist friend, who has now switched to self-media, and he said that he may just change a platform to do the things he once believed in and insisted on.
In the end, we as individuals can change very little. This movie seems to be about an individual who has changed the fate of many people, but in fact, more often than not, the power of an individual can not do much. But I have always said that I am not Han Dong anymore, I am not as brave as him, so sacrificial and desperate.
Nor can I tell or instigate people through a movie that you should all bravely sacrifice your lives. I just think that bravery is the most precious quality of human beings, and if we can be brave at certain moments, it may make the world a little better. This film is not to say that only journalists in the industry are brave.
I think everyone can be brave within their reach. If we're willing to participate in discussions about social issues, to focus on the present moment, and then to make a brave voice in certain moments, I think that thing might be worth recording.
At the beginning of the movie, I wrote a sentence, which is also Han Dong's line, "What is the thing in the world, which has nothing to do with me." It is about the social nature of human beings. When we make some critical choices, it may be important whether we are from a private perspective or as a member of society.
3.
Be wary of typed black and white
Jing Fei: From a creative point of view, what is the most difficult thing about making a film that takes into account both time and social issues?
Wang Jing: Objectively speaking, at the beginning of creation, we did not completely treat it as a genre film, or a commercial film. If we were talking about the market feedback of a film, we probably wouldn't do such a theme, because there is no precedent to learn from. Everyone is doing this more by silly bravery.
It is not about talking to oneself and expressing feelings for that era and the group of journalists. We've been talking about its sociality, the possibility of transmission, so it's more or less mixed in with some typology. Not just this movie, maybe every creator is trying to find a balance.
Jing Fei: Yes, we have hardly seen this genre before. As an investigative reporter, the first thing that pops up in our minds may be some Hollywood-style, which will be set in a thriller or suspenseful story type to predict. And the story that unfolds with hepatitis B discrimination as the main line, in fact, there are other prototypes to make the movie look more like genre films and more exciting, did you consider this direction when writing the script?
Wang Jing: We have been working on this script on and off for more than a year. Frankly speaking, in terms of the subjective will to create, I want to avoid typification or scary things. Because if I were to make a very genred film, I probably wouldn't use the journalist genre.
At the beginning of 2018, we had a version with a lot of courtroom scenes, and there were also scenes of investigative journalists going into the tiger's den and being physically threatened. But I thought at the time that if I talked about hepatitis B discrimination like this, I might make it small, because it is easy to be black and white, but this ease will make me a little wary.
This thing is not the root of the matter, because the thing itself is quite complicated. If many people say "I watched a hepatitis B public service promotional film" after watching the movie, I think it is worth it. Because today, I think that doing popular science seems to be a great morality.
When we couldn't find an entry point in writing the script, we happened to hear an episode of Story FM, which was dictated by a hepatitis B carrier. That's the story we're going to write, it's not intense, it's not that much conflict and contradiction. But it seems that because it does not have these things, it has some universality.
How does an ordinary hepatitis B carrier view the problem of self? This thing seems to have an intertextual relationship with the character of Han Dong that our movie wants to talk about. So we more or less reconstructed the character of Zhang Bo from this episode, and brought out the group of hepatitis B carriers from behind him.
4.
Countering the "silence of victims"
Jing Fei: There is also some audience feedback that this movie is a good person. Because we see that everyone actually has his helplessness and goodness, even including doctors who help them make false reports and do proxy examinations. I think this is a feeling, after you are used to watching genre films, you may feel where is the target of this movie?
Wang Jing: You made two particularly good questions. The first one is the so-called all-good people, I don't know how genre films are created, but on the first day of learning screenwriting, we were asked to talk about understanding what is behind each person. The world is complex, not simple. So I don't know if this "all-good guy" is praise or criticism.
Then there's the question of targets. From Han Dong's point of view, what is he need to fight against? This thing is called the silence of the victim, a bit of nothingness. First, the silence of the victims is blameless. Any individual has the right to choose silence.
But as for Han Dong, when he wanted to write a story and needed some people to tell it, he found that he encountered a collective silence. Whether Zhang was written or Zhou Chao, he was only one or two of the 100 million hepatitis B comrades who were willing to stand up.
Jing Fei: But in fact, there are as many as 120 million of this group.
Wang Jing: Yes, they are one in 120 million. There are very few people who can really face themselves calmly. The silence of the victims was so unconventional that even I didn't think we could make it clear. But at that time, when I wanted to do this theme, I subjectively felt that I had to put it in it.
Jing Fei: So there's a very clear lead behind it, and it's this thing that the story really wants to present. Because I saw that you mentioned one word in other reports, shame.
Wang Jing: Yes, what caused the stigma is unclear. Until I made this film, I went through a process. I first believed that hepatitis B was not very contagious because I had a friend who was very similar to Zhang Bo. He was facing some difficulties in his life and relationships, and he confessed to me that he was a carrier of hepatitis B. I felt the shock for a moment, but the shock was over, and I quickly accepted it.
Another level is that when I started making this movie, I systematically and scientifically understood what the transmission route of hepatitis B was. Just like Director Yao said in the movie, mother and baby, blood, sexual behavior. None of them are things that are involved in everyday contact.
So why such a simple truth has not been clear for decades, including today, hepatitis B discrimination still exists. There will still be some people who inadvertently encounter a hurdle that they can't get by. There will still be many non-profit organizations, and mutual aid will be willing to speak up for them and do some litigation help. The head of a hepatitis B mutual aid association said that since 2020, the number of public interest lawsuits accepted has suddenly increased.
In fact, in many of the hepatitis B possessors I contacted, their stories, the problems they encountered in life, and their choices, I think there is a certain typicality in Zhang Bo's person. First of all I am a patient, patient is a neutral word, I am sick is my physical problem. Then because of everyone's misunderstanding of the disease and the acceptance of conventional consciousness, these patients became perpetrators.
As the movie says, "You are all sick people, don't come out and harm us", their identity is transformed into the perpetrator. In the process of becoming perpetrators, they become victims at the same time in order to protect their feelings or those around them. Wrap yourself up, choose silence, and then choose to live your life according to other people's stereotypes, the code of conduct that others misunderstood. This was probably the one thing that made me feel the most at the time.