Tong Liya presented a domestic violence scene and asked to be really beaten, hoping to give the audience strength丨Director Qin Haiyan said himself
Starting this summer, Tencent Entertainment has cooperated with the Film Island Awards to exclusively launch the filmmakers' self-narrative dialogue column "Yingjian SP: Self-Statements from Filmmakers" - listen to them talk about themselves, movies, and love; In addition to looking forward to the summer of Chinese movies returning to the era of tens of billions in such a hot season, I am also looking forward to meeting more good movies and narrators.
Here is the 7th part of the summer file, we invited Qin Haiyan, the director of "I Passed Through the Storm", to listen to her tell her story with the movie.
My perception of the movie "I Pass Through the Storm" was a little different from what I had expected.
Looking at the introduction to the story, you will think that this is an "anti-domestic violence" movie, and since "Don't Talk to Strangers", such a theme has rarely been touched on in mainland film and television works. But after watching it, you will find that "domestic violence" is only the focus of the movie but not the whole, in fact, the director uses "domestic violence" as an incision, describing a picture of the current situation of contemporary urban women's existence, in which the growth and psychology of men are also related to the light, if you want to find an adjective, then an audience member mentioned the four words "all living beings are suffering" during the roadshow may be the most appropriate.
It is not only Xu Min, the victim of domestic violence, who has gone through the storm, but everyone who lives in this world actually lives under the conventional evaluation system and labels, in the face of the "storm", everyone is created equal, and everyone has nowhere to retreat. The only thing you can do is to make yourself stronger and face it bravely and calmly.
Director Qin Haiyan is a screenwriter I have always paid attention to, and she cooperated with director Zhang Ming a lot in the early days, and films such as "The Bride" and "Her Name is Red" are all realistic independent masterpieces that emerged around 2010. "Find You" written by her in 2018 is, in my opinion, the beginning of the trend of domestic women's films in recent years, and this film also has a certain connection with "I Passed Through the Storm" in terms of motif. After that, some famous domestic blockbusters were also by Qin Haiyan, such as "Assassination of a Novelist" and "Ten Thousand Miles Home", which are all well-known boutiques.
"I Pass Through the Storm" is Qin Haiyan's first directorial work, in the process of watching this movie, I will be easily touched by some small details of women's life, such as physical harassment of male customers in entertainment, workplace PUA, need to wipe off lipstick before going home to cook, face disputes family persuasion and not persuade to leave, etc., Qin Haiyan told me that she has experienced these scenes to a greater or lesser extent, so she can write these realistic moments from life. Although it is now a light wind, as a member who has also experienced the "storm", those heartaches and pains may only be known to herself. Now that she has become more and more powerful, it is also an encouraging thing to use such a movie to bring more people a warning.
This time, I talked to her about the story behind the scenes of the film's creation, the journey of being a single mother with three daughters, the brave decision to turn screenwriter to director, and some views on current feminist works. In particular, the discussion with her on the issue of "women's perspective" was very enlightening.
The following is director Qin Haiyan's self-statement, she shared with us her story with "I Passed Through the Storm":
1
The original name of the project "I Passed Through the Storm" is "Leaving You", it is easy to think of my previous screenwriting work "Find You", I didn't want to make a series, but there will be some thematic continuation between the two works: both are female themes, and they both show some of the survival difficulties of contemporary urban women.
In 2019, my friend around me really happened to be subjected to domestic violence, she has a strong ability to work, but also has certain economic conditions and social status, usually I can't see that I will experience domestic violence, I didn't expect domestic violence to happen so really around me. I accompanied her through that difficult period, a woman who seemed to have a successful career, but also had such a bad family and incomplete moments. I found that they are reluctant to tell the hurt and their own secret stories, maybe they don't want to admit that they are weak, or they have been more valuable to their self-identification since childhood, so when problems arise, they will doubt intimacy, but refuse to express it to those around them. Gradually, there were more and more such silent people in the city. I decided to write a story under a "domestic violence background" and set the protagonist Xu Min as a working woman who works hard outside and endures violence when she returns home, but she dares to say no and bravely takes a step in her life - leaving her husband.
Xu Min's body has a sense of strength, in our preliminary investigation, we found that a large number of women are unable to get out of the marriage relationship, and only a very small number are willing to divorce and start a new life. Xu Min also had a hesitation in the movie, for the sake of the child, for the integrity of the family, returned to her husband's side, but when he found that the child's body also began to have violent tendencies, and may even become the next Chen Jun, this became the last straw that crushed her, she must fight for herself and for the child.
Of course, as a female creator, in the process of writing the script, it is natural to substitute my dilemma, including the plight of my friends. Now the public has high requirements for girls, both to have a successful career and to be a competent mother at home, and "hexagonal warriors" have become the standard, but this is also a shackle on women. In the movie, after Xu Min left Chen Jun, he had to take his children while being busy with work, and it was difficult to achieve a balance. I myself am a single mother with three children, and I am also a screenwriter and director, it is really difficult to balance these two sides, when I am particularly nervous about work, I have to quickly open my mobile phone to buy vegetables, and when taking care of my children, it is difficult to fully devote myself to it, sometimes I can only rely on work to give my mother a holiday, and rely on my mother to charge my work. Fortunately, as a creator, I am still lucky, these difficulties will be transformed into my creative nutrients, if I am not married, I do not have children, I would not write such a story.
My three children are girls, they all have their own ideas, and when they come to visit the set before, they will find this job boring and hard, because everyone on the set is very nervous, and no one can spare the energy to play with them. But then they came home, and my nanny and aunt took a video of me, and they began to imitate our state on the set, including directing the performance, playing the board, watching the playback on the monitor, etc., and would say how your performance should be, and I was really funny and gratifying after watching it. I didn't know what I was like in their minds, I communicated and got along with them equally, and I was surprised to find that they were actually more accepting and tolerant than I thought, and there were many things I learned from them. For example, my eldest daughter, she felt the impermanence of life very early, and sometimes sighed: "Feelings change, nothing is eternal" I did not teach her this, these are the realizations she gained by observing life and experiencing life. The personalities of the three daughters are completely different, and I think the best way to educate them is to let them feel the world for themselves.
My decision to become a director comes from my challenging spirit, which is actually what I want my children to see, that people can't be afraid of difficulties. Compared with screenwriters, the biggest challenge for directors is that they need to constantly do judgment and multiple-choice questions, and they must have the high-intensity processing ability to deal with various complicated affairs. Fortunately, I am not a very internal consumption person, if I find a problem on the set, I will not complain, but the first time to communicate how to solve the problem and make a decision. Like the scene where Xu Min was released from prison at the end of the movie, the surrounding grass should be green, but because of the pesticide spray the day before yesterday, the grass was actually yellow, and it was originally hoped to be a sunny day, but it turned out to be cloudy that day, and I could only quickly think of a solution, such as communication special effects, there is no need to show negative emotions, and bring this emotion to the crew. For example, our shooting cycle was shortened for various reasons, I remember the production director came in with a sad face and told me that we needed to finish a week in advance, I didn't get entangled at all at that moment, but quickly took out the drawn storyboard to decide which scenes to shoot in advance and which scenes to abandon, at this time the advantages of being a screenwriter are highlighted, the script is exceptionally clear in my mind, and I can make judgments more efficiently.
Fortunately, my main creator and production team are very professional, I am a new director, in this process while learning, while practicing, it is also a very memorable creative process, and finally everyone completed the film together.
2
Tong Liya had previously starred in "Assassination of a Novelist" with me as one of the screenwriters, and we had contact at that time, and I was looking forward to her potential very much, so when writing the role of Xu Min, her appearance was reflected in my mind. Through the producer and producer to show her the script, she was also very interested in this story, and agreed to star at the first time, which can be regarded as a kind of "two-way rush". She or me, we will always live in a social expectation or the definition of others, slowly learn to take care of their feelings, learn to love themselves, from her personal experience, she can find many common places. I value the communication with the actors, and I developed this habit when I was a screenwriter, and I think that this play is only right if the actor is comfortable acting. If the content of the script goes beyond the logic of life, or the dramatic situation, it will make the actor uncomfortable. Tong Liya and Wu Yuhan are both very experienced actors, but when filming this play, they will pay more attention to experience while using methods.
For example, the trial crying scene at the end of the movie, which is also the colorful moment of Xu Min's character. In order to make Tong Liya better perform, we first filmed the shots on her side in a row, although this scene was cut in the finished film, it was filmed completely in 30 minutes during the actual shooting. Tong Liya also valued this scene, she stayed up all night in advance, and ran for a long time, making herself look particularly haggard. There were one or two hundred extras in that scene, they seemed to have watched a drama, after Tong Liya's performance, the audience applauded thunderously, I was also in tears in front of the monitor, and the elderly grandfather on the field could not help wiping his tears, that scene was quite shocking. Tong Liya has high requirements for herself, she hopes that the emotions of this play are full and completed in one go, and because we have different camera positions, she needs to perform the same performance seven or eight times in those three or four days, just like acting in seven or eight drama solo plays in a row, the whole person collapsed.
The whole movie is basically shot according to the emotions of the characters, and at the beginning, we also specially shot some scenes outside the script, Tong Liya and Wu Yuhan lived with two young actors, eating, sleeping, frolicking, let them build a family feeling, everything is very beautiful. Then I filmed the scene where Xu Min came back from entertainment and argued with Chen Jun and was beaten, the gap before and after was quite large, and the feeling of tearing up beautiful things with his own hands, everyone felt very painful psychologically, but they could also find the feeling of being on the verge of collapse. Wu Yuhan sat there and rested for a long time after filming that scene, he is a very gentle person in his life, and now it takes courage to make such a change in the role, the two of them rarely talk on the set, and it takes a long time to come out of the emotions after each scene.
Wu Yuhan is also a very pure actor, we set Tong Liya after we began to look for actors, spent a few months, asked many people, everyone after reading the script are a relatively uniform reaction, feel that the role is very malleable, but after a week or two will reply that sorry, may not be appropriate. When Wu Yuhan joined, he had no worries at all, he simply felt that this role was something he had not played, and he would be very enjoyable in acting, in fact, in the end, he really performed the complexity of Chen Jun. The dispute scene in the movie, we specially invited the action director of "Assassination of the Novelist" to carry out the action design, there are also many protective measures on the set, Wu Yuhan takes care of Tong Liya, but the effect is not real enough, Tong Liya said simply you can really fight, for the sake of the movie The two people are also open, and finally like the scene in the underground parking lot, although we have done enough protection, Tong Liya's body will still have some bruises, these details all move me very much.
The last scene of the movie is that Xu Min is finally released from prison many years later, Xu Min's face is full of wrinkles, this scene we actually did with special effects. At first, we wore old age makeup, but when we edited it in the post, we always felt that we were still not old enough. Finally, we invited the special effects team of "The Wandering Earth" to do special effects for the elderly for Tong Liya, which will appear more real and natural. I think there needs to be such a scene, a woman has experienced the storm, but when the storm is over, she may not even know that she is no longer the same person, she has left traces. She looked at the children who had grown up, mixed feelings, old tears, many people said that they felt very shocked when they saw this scene, and also made a good ending to this movie.
3
A few days ago during the roadshow, an audience member said that she saw "all sentient beings are suffering" from this film, in fact, not only Xu Min, who was abused by domestic violence, including the abuser Chen Jun, but also Li Xiaomeng, a lawyer who helped Xu Min, everyone lives in the system of social and other people's judgment, and may really learn to love themselves first before they can live out their true values. Under the theme of "domestic violence", many viewers can see such empathy, which is very gratifying.
I don't want to set Chen Jun as a pervert who was "born a demon", we also saw in the process of research that domestic violence is inherited from generation to generation, including Chen Jun's mother in the movie, that is, the character played by Teacher Arya, she is both a victim of domestic violence and later a perpetrator, Chen Jun grew up in a loveless environment, and he naturally does not know how to love. Many couples and couples will think after reading it, how should we get along in the future? Although most people do not have domestic violence, they will have quarrels and disputes, in this process, is it to kidnap each other in a "in the name of love" way? Or do two people communicate in a more independent and healthy way? That's all I want to discuss with you through this movie.
The line of Li Xiaomeng, played by Wang Yinglu, actually has a richer plot, but for the sake of time, I cut some of it. Her mother told her that it was better to do well than to marry, but she still chose to come to the big city alone to work hard, and finally found her own value. The reason for setting up the role of a lawyer is that in our previous interviews, many young female lawyers had a lot of confusion about the victim when they were not married, including why the victim did not come out of this deformed relationship? Or I helped you divorce, why did you choose to go back to square one in the end, etc. I think such a perspective is necessary, she is an ordinary person who has not experienced domestic violence in her life, from prejudice against this matter, to understanding Xu Min, empathizing with Xu Min, and realizing the redemption of two people. At the same time, I don't want the audience to stop believing in sincere love and emotion after watching the movie, so I set up a boyfriend for Li Xiaomeng who understands her very well and accompanies her to the end, that is, the role played by Zhang Youhao, hoping to make everyone more hopeful about life.
I didn't find a good solution to the matter of domestic violence at the beginning, and in the story, Xu Min finally chose a very extreme way to get out of such control. But in the process of the roadshow, there are really audiences who have experienced domestic violence who dare to stand up and say their experiences, including many parents who also bring their children to watch the movie, wanting their children to understand in advance how to maintain a sense of proportion in an intimate relationship, and what kind of way to love, so many problems at the beginning of the creation may not be so clear to me, but the audience's reaction made me realize that although the problem cannot be fundamentally solved, at least through literary and artistic creation, more people can pay attention to this matter, and make some changes and see"The elephant in the room", this is better than nothing.
From "Find You" to "Thousands of Miles Home" to now "I Passed Through the Storm", as a creator who likes to draw from real materials, I have always faced the problem of balancing realism and genre narrative. "Thousands of Miles Home" is particularly difficult, a little more real may be a little weaker to watch, and a little more typification may be a little more distorted. This time the film is between realism and genre, I think it will be more realistic, which is also a position after communicating with the crew in the early stage, I want to let the audience be more realistic in life.
However, in terms of creation, I do not deliberately look at the problem from a "female perspective", if you look at my screenwriting works, you will find that I am particularly attached to the concept of "family", such as "Assassination of a Novelist", I entered the fulcrum of this story is a father's perspective, I also substituted into this father to find something to find. After receiving the theme of "translators", I began to search for material, and then did countless interviews, about two or three years passed, until one day I interviewed a former translator of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who had really experienced the evacuation of overseas Chinese at that time. When he told me the story, I got goosebumps all over my body, I was really empathetic, his feelings for his home country transcended gender boundaries, and he was also the prototype of Zhang Yi's character. And when I was creating, I completely substituted the role of Zhang Yi to deconstruct this story, so in this process, there was no female perspective at all. Including later interviews, I was often asked whether the inclusion of the role of Wan Qian, the wife of a diplomat, in the story, was it a manifestation of a female perspective? I think this view is biased, and the setting of this character is also to reflect the sense of indebtedness to their families when diplomats go to distant places, and to feel the warmth of the fireworks again after returning home, which is my original intention for creating the character.
I chose to be a director this time because the story starts from the experience of women and has enough female awareness. "I Pass Through the Storm" is of course a women's movie, but I don't think feminism is to create gender antagonism, it should be equal rights for men and women, everyone can be equal, respect each other, and have the free development of unique personalities. This is also why when I write this story, I will also pay attention to Chen Jun's growth process, I am not "whitewashing" him, this is him alive, his pain is rooted, and naturally breeds the gray side of human nature.
Of course, even if I become a director, I will not give up my work as a screenwriter, because the screenwriting work can bring me happiness, it has a certain originality, and many directors who were originally screenwriters will tell me that screenwriting is more difficult, but the pleasure gained is incomparable. In the industry, screenwriters are indeed vulnerable to treatment that is not exactly equal to labor, but when the director has to bear more pressure, it is not easy for the director to spend two or three years polishing the hard work and dedication of a work.
I've been in the industry for almost 20 years, and I don't feel lucky, on the contrary, looking back on the road over the years, I'm thankful for working hard enough. Over the years, the skills have improved a lot, and the survival rate of the project has also been much higher. When you are young, you may die eight or nine out of ten projects, and if you don't have that strong resilience, you can't stick to it. Now that I am a director, I will be tested by the box office and the market for the first time, and I am ready to hope that this film can really become an armor that can bring more audiences the power to withstand the storm.