The new "Dream of Red Mansions" was unveiled, Jia Baoyu chose the right one, and Xue Baochi caught my eye as soon as he appeared

Not long ago, at the Shanghai Film Festival, Bona Film held a 2023 new film release conference, and the list of 20 films and 5 dramas was announced in one breath.

Among them, the movie "Dream of Red Mansions: Golden Jade Liangyuan" directed by Hu Mei was officially announced to be finalized, which attracted the most attention.

If nothing else, director Hu Mei has a deep relationship with "Dream of Red Mansions" itself.

Back in 2006, Beijing Radio and Television and China Film Group Corporation cooperated to prepare the TV series version of "Dream of Red Mansions", in fact, the original director was Hu Mei.

Although the CCTV version of "Dream of Red Mansions" directed by Wang Fulin is difficult to surpass.

But at that time, director Hu Mei, who held the three top dramas "Yongzheng Dynasty", "Hanwu Emperor" and "Qiao's Courtyard", was definitely the best candidate for the remake of the drama version of "Dream of Red Mansions".

Subsequently, the producer decided to hold a large-scale talent show event for "Dream of the Red Mansion" to select actors for this drama.

In the process of audition, director Hu Mei withdrew angrily in 2007 because she was dissatisfied with the results of the draft and failed to take the lead.

We all know that this drama was taken over by director Li Shaohong, and after it was broadcast, it received a rating of 5.9 and a scolding on Douban.

There is a saying on the Internet: "You can do it, you go on!" ”。

I believe everyone is curious, if director Hu Mei had finally filmed "Dream of Red Mansions", what would have happened?

No, the movie version of "Dream of Red Mansions" directed by Hu Mei is really here.

According to director Hu Mei, the film has been written since 2005, but the script was sent for review for ten years, and after continuous revision and improvement, it was finally passed in 2015.

The film was cast in 2017, filmed in 2018, completed in 2019, and was not ready for release until this year.

A trailer of only 40 seconds was also released at the scene, and although the videos leaked on the Internet are all "gun versions", they can also glimpse the scene and texture of the movie, triggering some of our imagination of the movie.

Some people, keep expecting;

Some people couldn't help but spray and asked: "Is Director Hu Mei also going to overturn?" ”

The various ideas of netizens actually have their own reasons.

According to Pi Ge, "Dream of Red Mansions" is a hot potato, it is difficult to shoot, and it is easy to overturn.

"No gold and steel diamonds, no porcelain work".

I believe that director Hu Mei has done enough homework to make this movie.

But if she wants to shoot "Dream of Red Mansions" well, there are still three problems that she can't get around

First, "Dream of Red Mansions" itself is a broken book, for this novel, the final direction of the story ending, everyone has their own ideas, how should director Hu Mei design it to meet the expectations of most audiences?

Second, "Dream of Red Mansions" has 120 times in the book, there are many characters, the story is complex, judging from the 115-minute length of the official announcement of the movie, how to choose the "essence" in the book?

Third, 65-year-old director Hu Mei has encountered a "bottleneck period" in creation, can her energy support her ambition, and is there an aesthetic deviation in the choice of the three leading actors in the film?

Around these three questions, let's talk about Hu Mei's "Dream of Red Mansions".

Boldly predict how the story of the movie will go, and what are the highlights and regrets in the casting of the three leading actors of the movie.

One

The four famous books have all been read, but "Dream of Red Mansions" is indeed the most difficult of these four novels to start, I believe many people also have this experience.

"Dream of Red Mansions", formerly known as "Stone Records", was written in the 56th year of Qianlong (1791), with multiple versions, and the most popular Gengchen book now has the first 80 times, which was originally written by Cao Xueqin, and the last 40 times were sorted out by Gao Que.

Although the last 40 times of Gao Que's collation (continuation) have made the entire story of the novel complete, almost all writers and ordinary readers have always felt that the last 40 times, from the theme of thought and artistic achievements, are difficult to reach the level of the first 80.

It is precisely "everyone has their own Hamlet", since everyone is not satisfied, then everyone can have their own desired ending of the story.

For example, in the CCTV version of "Dream of Red Mansions", director Wang Fulin was not satisfied with the happy ending of Gao Que's version, so he gathered the most famous literary artists in the mainland at that time, adapted it according to the results obtained by Tan Yi, and began to write another version of the ending.

The first draft of the script was 5 episodes, but due to lack of funds and review, it was eventually cut down to 3 episodes.

In this version of the finale, Ningguo Mansion and Rongguo Mansion were raided by the emperor's decree, Jia Zheng, Jia Xun and others were dismissed from their posts and investigated, and Sister Feng and Baoyu were also imprisoned in the temple.

Sister Qiao was sold to Guazhou by her uncle Wang Ren, and was finally ransomed by Grandma Liu, Xi Chun begged for food, Shi Xiangyun became a singer, Sister Feng died tragically, and Baoyu finally became a beggar.

Although this ending is very different from Gengchenben's Gao Que version of the ending, as Lu Xun said: "Tragedy is to destroy the valuable things in life for people to see."

The audience is happy to see such an ending, and the series has achieved unprecedented success after it was broadcast, and many people still think that it is the "genuine" ending of "Dream of Red Mansions".

In contrast, in Li Shaohong's version of "Dream of Red Mansions" in 2010, the drama party adapted it according to "the most popular version in China (Gengchenben), that is, the last forty times continued by Gao Que", and also followed the ending of the original book to shoot "happy reunion".

In this version of the finale, Lady Xing and Jia Huan want to marry Sister Qiao to King Fan, but are rescued by Grandma Liu.

Baoyu and Jia Lan won the imperial examination, Baoyu won the 7th place, and Jia Lan also had 137, which made the emperor Long Yan happy, first summoned Jia Lan to face the saint, and then granted amnesty to Rongfu, rewarding the copied Jia Fu family property, so that Jia Fu saw the hope of revival.

This version was filmed according to the ending of the original book, but it caused dissatisfaction among the audience, thinking that this was the lack of assertiveness of the drama party, so it would be filmed according to the book.

Shoot according to your own ideas, be well received, shoot according to the original, but will be scolded, have netizens already seen the trick?

I believe that director Hu Mei has also seen it for a long time.

In fact, a sentence in the book has been hinted at, that is, "full of absurd words, a bitter tear." ”

Many people take it as the author's hint at the ending of the novel, and the happy ending of the Gao Que version is obviously contrary to this.

Therefore, Pi Ge felt that to shoot the ending of "Dream of Red Mansions", it was only necessary to shoot "miserable" according to Cao Xueqin's first 80 thoughts.

Two

As mentioned above, the original work of "Dream of Red Mansions" has been written 120 times, about 960,000 words, which is an extremely long "masterpiece".

There are many characters in it, and each has its own personality characteristics, especially the description of "Jinling Twelve Songs" is the most excellent, to make these into movies, it takes up a lot of length to restore the characters and stories in the original work.

In 1989, the film "Dream of Red Mansions" directed by Xie Tieli and Zhao Yuan was made into 6 films, with a total duration of 12 hours and 15 minutes, and it took half a day to watch.

At that time, this blockbuster work of Beijing Film Studio, which gathered the best actors in the mainland at that time, began filming in 1986, lasted for three years, and was not completed and released until 1989.

And the CCTV version of the TV series "Dream of Red Mansions" launched almost at the same time.

Although the cast is not luxurious in the movie version, newcomer Deng Jie cannot be compared with Liu Xiaoqing (also playing Wang Xifeng), and Sha Yuhua does not have the fame of Zhao Lirong (also playing Grandma Liu).

However, the drama version was broadcast in 1987, and with the help of the TV platform, it achieved greater dissemination and popularity than the movie version.

Although the movie version of "Dream of Red Mansions" is more well-made, due to the length of the movie, it is impossible to fully restore the story in the novel, and it is always necessary to reduce some plots.

And the spread of the film is single, can only be released in cinemas, or released on discs (there was no Internet at that time), these are the problems faced by large-scale novel adaptation movies.

Therefore, film works adapted from classical masterpieces can often only select one or two stories in the original work for adaptation, and cannot show the full picture of the novel.

For example, Zheng Baorui's 3 "Journey to the West" movies; John Woo's "Red Cliff"; "The True Color of the Heroes of the Water Margin", directed by Chen Huiyi and starring Leung Ka-fai, is a character story selected and filmed in the original novel.

"Dream of Red Mansions: Golden Jade Good Relationship" is only 115 minutes long, and it is obviously impossible to cram the entire novel into the movie.

According to the director's description, she chose the main line of the original work, that is, the "Baodai Love" that we are all familiar with, and the rest of the plots that deviate from the main line will be cut nine times out of ten, after all, the length of a movie can't stuff so many things.

The title is behind "Dream of Red Mansions", and there is a subtitle "Golden Yu Liangyuan", which already explains everything.

Instead of copying the original work, but selecting some of them to adapt, this operation of cutting down the complexity and simplifying is the wisest and safest approach.

But for the audience, we must also lower their expectations, we will definitely not be able to see the full story of the original work.

Three

Director Hu Mei, born in 1958, was only 52 years old when the "Dream of Red Mansions" was broadcast in 2010.

At that time, she had 5 80+ high-scoring dramas in her hands such as "Blood Persistence", "Loyalty", "Qiao's Courtyard", "Hanwu the Great" and "Yongzheng Dynasty", and was a sister in the mainland TV circle.

However, the reputation of director Hu Mei's works has declined over the years, and the dramas "Open the World", "Cao Cao" and "The Great River Goes East" are not highly rated.

After switching to the film industry, the two works "Confucius" and "Into the Beijing" failed to cause much repercussions.

In other words, director Hu Mei seems to be in the "bottleneck period" of creation, and making TV series is in the industry, but making movies may not be possible.

Now 65 years old, Hu Mei, her energy and state are certainly not as "raw" as when she was 52 years old, and how to ensure the quality of the "Dream of Red Mansions" movie is still unknown at this time.

Therefore, some netizens are not optimistic about the movie, thinking that this will be another "overturning" work, which is not difficult to understand.

However, before the movie is released, we must not jump to conclusions, or from the trailers and information currently available, to make a prediction of the quality of the movie.

First of all, it is certain that since the film project was established, director Hu Mei has been given absolute right to speak, and the draft work led by her is not as large as the "Dream of Red Mansions" talent event, but it is more attentive.

In 2017, the film launched an audition, and among the 20,000 young actors who came to audition, 70 or 80 candidates were identified.

And these young actors, whose average age is under 20, are not directly involved in filming.

Instead, they must first participate in 9 months of preliminary training, in addition to acting, they must also learn Qinqi calligraphy and painting, in order to cultivate the temperament of ancient rich and noble families.

What our netizens are most concerned about is the "Baodai" duo, who will play them.

Jia Baoyu in the original work is as his name, formerly known as Shen Ying's attendant, is a piece of beautiful jade that has fallen into the world, he is stupid and remote, not familiar with general affairs, but smart and wise, kind-hearted, and is the image of a beautiful man with the most love and holiness.

Because Jia Baoyu has a slightly feminine temperament, many previous versions, including the 1989 film version directed by Xie Tieli, have let female actors reverse the string.

For example, in the 1989 movie version, I found Xia Jing; In 1962, the Hong Kong Shaw edition found Lottie; In 1977, Li Hanxiang's "Dream of Red Mansions" directed by Li Hanxiang also used Lin Qingxia.

In the CCTV version in 1987, director Wang Fulin tried his best to exclude the crowd and insisted on using the then unknown Ouyang Fenqiang to play Jia Baoyu, which proved that Wang Fulin's bet was right.

At that time, Ouyang Fen, who was just in his early 20s, had a strong face like crown jade and lips like paint fat, which was very in line with the aesthetics of the Chinese people, and his image of Jia Baoyu was also deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and became an unsurpassable classic character.

The casting of Hu Mei's version is almost impossible to surpass the classics, but as long as it has its own characteristics, the audience can accept it, which is also a success.

Jia Baoyu in this film will be played by the post-00s actor Bian Cheng.

Bian Cheng, born in 2004, debuted as a child star as early as 2010, but he has already participated in many film and television works at a young age.

The side in front of the camera has fair skin and clear eyebrows, and his role as the teenager Luo Di in "Live Up to the Truth" and Liang Huaiji in "Qingping Le" are particularly impressive to the audience.

When he starred in "Dream of Red Mansions", Bian Cheng was only 14 years old, which was also in line with the age of Jia Baoyu in the original work, so Pi Ge felt that Jia Baoyu played by him was worth looking forward to.

Let's look at "Sister Lin who fell from the sky", in the original work, she is the reincarnation of the pearl fairy grass on the bank of the Western Spirit River, smart and beautiful, very full of aura, but also lonely and proud and narrow-minded.

In today's words, it is a little "princess disease", jealous and easy to be jealous, is a pitying little girl image.

Among the many versions of Lin Daiyu that have appeared in the past, especially the CCTV Chen Xiaoxu version is recognized as the best, and Ouyang Fenqiang and the two are a perfect match.

And Chen Xiaoxu's life was short, and he died prematurely of breast cancer at the age of 41, which also made this version of Lin Daiyu a swan song.

Hu Mei's version of Lin Daiyu is played by post-90s actor Zhang Miaoyi, a native of Pinghu, Zhejiang, who carries the fresh and vulgar temperament of a Jiangnan woman.

Zhang Miaoyi graduated from Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts, and since participating in "Dream of Red Mansions", she has participated in the movie "Exclusive Fairy Tale" and the TV series "Meet Now", as well as the costume romance short film "Please! Don't spoil me".

In terms of appearance, Zhang Miaoyi is slightly inferior to Chen Xiaoxu, and her temperament does not have the kind of bookish atmosphere that Chen Xiaoxu brings.

But let's not jump to conclusions too early, or look at her performance in the movie, hoping that she can conquer the audience with her acting skills.

Let's look at another important character in the movie, Xue Baochai.

As a third party between "Baodai", although Xue Baochi is a "villain", his character and temperament are very in line with the public's aesthetics.

She has always been considered by male readers to be a more suitable wife than Lin Daiyu, and CCTV Zhang Li's version of Xue Baochi is also loved by the audience.

Hu Mei's version of Xue Baochi is played by the post-00s beauty Huang Jiarong.

Huang Jiarong, who signed a contract with Tianyu Media, was born in Guangzhou in 2001 and has participated in "Blood Together" starring Huang Zitao and Yi Yangqianxi, and "Back to the Past as a Minor" by Netda.

She in the photo has the temperament of "big sister", but there is not much information on the Internet at present, and she is also looking forward to her performance in the movie.

In addition, there is Yang Tongshu as Mrs. Wang; Grandma Liu, played by Ding Jiali; Lu Yan as Jia Mu is a well-known old drama bone in the mainland, which basically meets the public's expectations from the image point of view.

And the post-90s appearance Guan Xiaotong guest starred in Jia Yuanchun, which also brought us a full surprise.

Finally, look at the 40-second trailer footage leaked on the Internet, although there are only a few shots, netizens familiar with the original work of "Dream of Red Mansions" should be able to identify several classic story scenes.

For example, the picture of everyone gathering, guessing that it should be the famous scene of the princess Yuan's provincial relatives;

The pond with pavilions and pavilions is obviously the beautiful scenery in the Grand View Garden;

There are also Lin Daiyu entering Jia Mansion, Baodai reading "West Wing" together, Daiyu funeral flowers, etc., these pictures are beautiful and trigger infinite reverie.

It can be seen that "Dream of Red Mansions: Golden Jade Good Fortune" is an adapted film based on the novel "Dream of Red Mansions".

Although it is impossible to fully present all the stories in the original work, its creative process is rigorous, and the script that sharpens a sword in ten years should be relatively solid, which is worth looking forward to.

Four

At the press conference of Bona Film, Yu Dong, chairman of Bona Film, said: "Dare to move "Dream of Red Mansions", it is a great thing! This statement also makes sense.

Among the four famous books, "Dream of Red Mansions" is the most difficult to shoot, although the original novel is famous, but the text is weak, not with great enthusiasm and patience, it is difficult to read.

Compared with those romance novels with high online clicks, "Bao Dai Love" seems to be a love story like a castle in the air.

Therefore, even if it is filmed, how good the market response can be, and whether the investment spent of more than 200 million yuan can be recovered, I believe that Yu Dong and director Hu Mei themselves have no bottom.

But just like Hu Jinquan is obsessed with "The History of Blood and Tears of Chinese Workers"; Li Hanxiang also had to complete "Xi Shi" after losing his family; Hu Mei resolutely pushed off the drama version of "Dream of Red Mansions", and now she can finally use this movie to prove herself.

In the spirit of this artistic pursuit, as fans, we should also have full respect and expectations for it.

Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Blood Dan Xin

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