Very suddenly.
Very suddenly.
The news made the entire film circle grieve and shock: director Wan Ma Tsedan, due to sudden illness and ineffective medical treatment, died in Tibet in the early morning of May 8.
Wan Ma Tseidan has many identities, and is also a screenwriter, novelist and producer.
But the identity that cannot be ignored is that he is the recorder of the homeland, the inheritor and disseminator of culture.
Early "Tibetan trilogy": "Quiet Mani Stone", "Looking for Jimei Genden", "Old Dog". It tells about the "looking", "pursuit" and "persistence" in this Tibetan culture and the current society.
△ "Quiet Mani Stone" was nominated for the Busan International Film New Wave Award and won the Chinese Film Golden Rooster Best Director Debut Award
Or, talk about the relationship between religion and man's self-will, which conflicts with modernity and tradition: "Colorful Arrow", "Tharlo", "Hit and Kill a Sheep", "Balloon".
This year, "Stranger", which was just completed at the end of March. Starring Huang Xuan and Wang Zhuotso, it seems that they already want to push Tibetan films to a farther and wider film market.
Unfortunately, before the movie was released, Wan Ma Tseidan died suddenly in the golden period of his creation.
Today's one. Miss Wan Ma Tsedan, walk into Wan Ma Tsedan.
Life is impermanent, but the work is eternal.
01
Tibetan, opened his mouth and spoke on the screen
Wan Ma Tsedan's feature film debut, 2005's "Quiet Mani Stone".
Before preparing to appear on the big screen, there were reports: works that fill the gap in national films.
Before this, there were also Tibetan-themed film and television dramas. TV series "King Gesar", Tian Zhuangzhuang's "Horse Thief", Feng Xiaoning's "Red River Valley".
However, it is all from an "external" perspective. It is almost impossible to see Tibetans speaking on their own, telling contemporary stories that have been stripped of legend and folklore displays. This is the impact of "Quiet Mani Stone" on Chinese films.
And in the movie, it is also a story about shock. One shot is enough to summarize the contradictions of the plot: a little lama in a monk's robe, holding a VCD in his hand, and wearing a plastic mask of the Monkey King on his head.
How will tradition and modernity, the outside world and inner beliefs, affect this young child?
△ Taiwanese photographer Li Pingbin, after reading the script, said that if the schedule allows, he will take on the position of photography without pay
The little lama was fascinated by watching TV, which showed "Journey to the West", which featured a "Han Lama" and a very powerful monkey. Wan Ma Tseden unabashedly wrote his "longing" for the outside world on the face of this little lama. This kind of entanglement and conflict is the reality that Wan Ma Tseidan wants.
In the interview, Wan Ma Tseden said: "My hometown always gives the world the feeling of an isolated paradise or a wild place. I don't like this 'real', I want to tell the real story that happened in my hometown in my own way. ”
It can be said that Wan Ma Tsedan's movies always tell about the impact between reality, fate, and religion. However, he cleverly grasped these huge propositions on a person, or the life of a dog.
"Looking for Tomomi Genden", a road film that walks between reality and legend. "Zhimei Genden" is a traditional Tibetan story, taken from Buddhist scriptures, telling the story of Prince Zhimei Gendeng's selfless dedication, and finally even giving his eyes.
On this day, a film crew came to the village and wanted to shoot a movie about "Tomomi Genden", and they needed to find a girl who could sing the most and was also beautiful as the heroine. When they found a girl who met the criteria, she kept her face covered and had one request: to take her to her ex-boyfriend.
What do girls look like? From beginning to end, the movie does not take off the scarf from her face.
Along the way, Tomomi Genden's story did not tell much, but the group talked about their love stories. The two images of the lover and the girl with the face covered in the memories are intertwined, making this distant "finding Jimei Genden" not just as simple as finding someone. It seems to be looking for an eternal, unfading beauty, which can be embodied in the devotion to faith, the attachment to love, the more real needs of people in Tibet under the old and new trends of thought...
If we say that the above two parts are the non-stop "pursuit" and "longing" of the people in Tibetan areas to the outside world. That "Old Dog" is more like traditional persistence and determination. In the herdsman's family, the son sold an old Tibetan mastiff that his father had raised for many years, and now it is popular to raise Tibetan mastiffs in the city, and the price is very high. After the father learned that the old dog was sold, he worked tirelessly to finally retrieve the old dog.
When he was shepherding with the old dog again, he was asked about the price of Tibetan mastiffs several times, and even stole the old dog after stealing and robbing. The father took the old dog behind the low wall on the hillside and ended the old dog's life with his own hands.
The story is more brutal and cold-blooded than the previous one. However, the old shepherd asked again and again that the Tibetan mastiff is the treasure of the shepherd, what do the people in the city keep dogs for?
In the movie, urbanization and commercialization are pervasive into Tibet. "TV shopping" appears on TV, from shepherds riding horses to sheep, to cars, pickups, and trucks slowly entering.
A chaotic and disorderly social situation is impacting the lives of the Tibetan people.
What does the Tibetan mastiff symbolize?
There is still a traditional persistence and unwillingness to compromise spirit on this plateau.
However, under the powerful material world and modernization. Human life is like the dog that cannot be leashed.
02
Hometown, worried that it will never know again
If the previous films, they all have a realistic style similar to documentaries. It is not an exaggeration to say that the works since "Tharlo" can be said to have created the genre of "New Wave of Tibet". "Tharlo" as the dividing line of his works, the picture and story are more exquisite, and the lens language is more profound.
What is the story of "Tharlo"?
The story of a person without an identity who lost his identity. Tharlo, a sheep herd who herds sheep, whose name is in Tibetan, means "one who flees." In this movie, Wan Ma Tseidan aims to shoot a simple and confused little character who originally wanted to escape from the city, escape from love, and in the end, could only escape "himself".
Therefore, Wan Ma Caidan chose black and white to shoot this movie, alluding to Tharlo's heart - only black and white, black and white, he can put sheep well, he is a good person; Without sheep, that's the bad guy. is such a simple little person, after a police station to ask him for an ID card, Tarlo had to go down the mountain, ready to do ID cards and other matters, but "lost" himself in this small town with bright lights.
Wan Ma Tseidan does not hesitate to create "chaos" with pictures.
In the photo studio, the couple wearing a suit and sitting in front of the Statue of Liberty background cloth in New York to take wedding photos looked embarrassed and unnatural. But, when they held the little lamb in their arms, they immediately showed a relaxed smile.
And when Tarlo first appeared in the movie, he was reciting "Serving the People" in a chanting tone, as if it were another of his scriptures.
But at the end of the movie, after Tarlo cut off his pigtails, he was cheated out of money by a woman, and when he returned to the police station again, he couldn't memorize the "scripture" that should have been engraved in his habits.
The confusion and chaos of "Tharlo", some say, is due to loneliness, love, or the loss of human nature. In "Hit and Kill a Sheep", its "absurdity" comes from dreams and redemption.
It is worth mentioning that this movie is produced by Wong Kar-wai and has some Wong Kar-wai tones.
However, the story has the traditional religious meaning of "almsgiving" and "liberation".
Jimba, a long-distance driver wearing sunglasses all year round, hit and killed a sheep on the road and prepared to overtake the sheep; Kangba Hanzi, Kimba (left), wants to find his father's killer and hitchhikes in another Kimba's car.
The camera deliberately only shows half of the faces of two people, and these two people also have the meaning of being one.
Two people, one, feel guilty for not intentionally killing; One, in order to kill, and hatred. But in the end, the killer Kimba saw the young son of the enemy, and became pitying and gave up killing. The driver Kimba, but accidentally fell into a dream, became a killer in his dream, and helped Kimba blade murderer.
The most absurd and impressive thing about the movie is this dream. The truck stops on the riverbed, but the camera moves down, and the shadow reflected from the river is the entrance to the dream.
In Wan Ma Tsedan's view, the killer Jinba, putting down the butcher knife, is a relief; The driver Kimba, who kills in a dream, is a handout. In the dream, "My Sun" changed from the Tibetan version at the beginning to Italian, which is also the characteristic of "dream" enhanced by Wanma Tsedan, and his explanation of this paragraph is:
"In the dream appeared such a song that he could not understand at all, such a sense of absurdity, the surreal feeling of the dream arises."
At the end of the movie, a Tibetan proverb appears:
"If I tell you about my dream, you may forget it; If I let you into my dream, it will also be your dream."
At this time, the story has the meaning of Zhuang Zhou's dream butterfly, whether it is butterfly Zhuang Zhou, or Zhuang Zhou butterfly. Only those in dreams know.
For Wan Ma Tsedan, "Balloon" is a very bold work. With the image of balloons, it connects various issues such as women's bodies, life cycles, and social reality.
Fathers bring balloons to their children from the city to make toys; The child steals the "balloon" in the parents' nightstand, and the mother becomes pregnant unexpectedly; The mother's belly was bulging like a balloon day by day, this was her fourth child, the family could no longer afford it, and she wanted to kill this child. But the Living Buddha calculated that this child may be the reincarnation of his grandfather, so the family hoped that she could be born...
Is this balloon light or heavy?
In the movie, women and sheep exist at the same time.
When Zhuoga suspects that she is pregnant, she goes to the hospital for examination. The camera, looking at the fence from the doctor's point of view, a lamb chained to the grass. The camera turned, from the perspective of the sheep, looking at Zhuo Ga. Women, and lambs, have long been one and the same.
At the beginning of "Balloon", Zhuoga's husband picks out the ewes in the sheepfold and locks them up on the other side.
-This ewe usually looks quite honest
- What is the use of not producing lambs honestly
Zhuoga seemed to be speaking for himself.
In the film, the director is more like standing in the distance, looking at the family from a peeping perspective. The subject is placed in the distance, and the middle is deliberately spaced by buildings, wooden boards, etc., to present a third-party perspective.
For example, a woman goes to a health center to get a condom from a doctor.
In the middle of the camera, the window is deliberately blocked, and from a third-party perspective, watching these two whispering women, talking about the issue that can change their destiny, reproductive rights, whether they can control it.
Or, when the doctor approached Zhuoga and wanted to ask her when she would go to the hospital for abortion surgery, he still used this perspective to create a sense of alienation. Peek into the woman's choices without interfering.
This is also what Wan Ma Tseidan wants to express:
"Any decision she makes in the end of a woman in such a situation is reasonable and regrettable. Like her, I was often in a dilemma, and no one could give me an answer. ”
In Wan Ma Tsedan's films, he always has a gentle eye, softly gazes at the people and stories of this land.
Gaze without praise or disdain at the lives of this group of people and the fate that cannot be resisted. He carries with him a kind of compassion, tolerance, under fate.
03
Tinder, let it continue to pass
No one could accept Wan Ma Tsedan's departure. His creations are still so alive that his words are still in his ears.
Wan Ma Tsedan's last circle of friends was yesterday, full of attention and encouragement to young filmmakers.
For many young people, he is more than just a director. More like a mentor.
At this year's 13th Beijing International Film Festival, Wan Ma Tseidan served as the chairman of the international jury of the Focus on the Future unit.
In the "ReelFocus Reality Project", he is also the chairman of the jury of "New Blood".
Over the years, Wan Ma Tseden has been committed to supporting and helping young directors. On Weibo, it is the promotion and support of young directors' works.
It is a documentary of small costs, sparing no effort to forward.
In his hands, there are also many films of excellent young directors. For example, director Wang Xuebo's "Knife in Clear Water" won the 21st Busan International Film Festival, New Wave Award;
Director Lahuaga's "Wanza's Rain Boots" won the Best Director Award at the 12th FIRST Youth Film Festival;
Director Jigme Sei-ryeo's "One and Four" won the 16th FRSIT Youth Film Festival, Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Actor, and three important awards. And shortlisted for the 34th Tokyo International Film Festival, the main competition unit of the best film nomination.
Also because of him, more Tibetan movies slowly came out with his footsteps, and slowly increased. In this year or two years alone, he has supervised the production of 7 new directorial works. For example, "Dusk Circus", "Second Child", "Winter Traveler", and there are 4 Tibetan movies - "Bride", "River State", "A Thousand Miles of Cranes" and "Black Tent".
At the master class of the 3rd Hainan Island International Film Festival, Wan Ma Tseidan said: "I am a strict producer, I intervene from the creative stage, help check the script, shooting, build the main creative team, as well as select and send film festivals, film promotion, etc., investing more time and energy than making films myself." ”
Ask why – the answer is: "Do these things out of a feeling, even with a sense of mission." ”
He knows it's not easy here. Naturally, it will be doubly cared for.
Now, with the departure of Wan Ma Tsedan, Sir cannot lightly say that this is the loss of the audience, the loss of Chinese films.
I don't want to say any of this. Because this is immeasurable and immeasurable.
At this time, we seem to lack a gentle teacher, a wise man who understands religion and culture, an observer who caresses the land and looks at the sky, and a recorder who writes for Tibet...
Sir wanted to end with a story from Wan Ma Tsedan's book, "The Story Is Only Half Told Story":
I couldn't sleep anymore.
When the whole world quiets down, I am completely awake, which is a particularly uncomfortable thing. At this time, I really want to find a random guy who is sleeping and fighting, whether that guy is a big guy or a small thin man, whether he wins or loses in the end, it doesn't matter.
At five o'clock in the morning, my phone rang very harshly. I quickly picked up my phone to see that it was Wangmu, the daughter of the old man Zaba, who called. And I answered the phone, and Wangm said, "Abba just left."
After that, there was a deathly silence.
The picture of this article comes from the Internet
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