Zhang Yimou has a new film scheduled for the Spring Festival - "Article 20", which has been less than half a year since the release of the last movie "Solid as a Rock". His creative energy is not as vigorous as a 74-year-old man.
In the past, Feng Xiaogang, who once occupied half of the Chinese film market, seems to be in a good mood, and the Chinese New Year file "If You Are Honest Do Not Disturb 3" has been released for three weeks, and the box office has not yet exceeded 100 million yuan.
In fact, since Feng Xiaogang entered the year of the sixtieth year, that is, after 2018, the two have shown an intriguing division: one is fading and the other is advancing sharply.
Especially in 2023, the film directed by Zhang Yimou will win 5.896 billion yuan at the box office, while the box office of the film directed by Feng Xiaogang is less than a fraction.
Why is this so?
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The masterpieces of the prime of life often determine the direction of future creation.
After directing "Red Sorghum" at the age of 38, Zhang Yimou established his international reputation, work style and creative tendencies in one fell swoop. Since then, he has been rooted in realistic themes, and with the blessing of art style, photographic color and avant-garde literature, he has continued to release excellent works such as "The Red Lantern Hangs High", "Qiu Ju Fights a Lawsuit" and "Alive".
On the contrary, Feng Xiaogang's path has been in harmony with the audience from the beginning, not to his liking, but to be stuck in the zeyere of the times, and his creative preferences and the needs of the audience have just reached a balance. Since the launch of "Party A and Party B" at the age of 39, creating a precedent for China's Chinese New Year and commercial comedy trends, Feng Xiaogang has indulged in his own comedy rules, and has successively launched popular and popular works such as "See You or Leave", "Endless", "A Sigh", "Big Names" and other works.
After the turn of the millennium, Zhang Yimou's narrative ambitions expanded, set foot in the commercial genre, and created the era of domestic blockbusters with a "Hero", and then continued to stabilize the blockbuster name with "Ambush on All Sides" and "The City Full of Golden Armor";
Feng Xiaogang's works are adapted from "Hamlet", and Zhang Yimou's adaptation is based on "Thunderstorm", both of which are famous dramas, all of which are court plots, and they are all star-studded. There are too many commonalities, and even the final word-of-mouth is almost the same, with a Douban score of 6.0 and a Douban score of 5.9.
In 2006, this unanimous setback seemed to have no impact on their creation, but an interesting phenomenon emerged - the two began to converge, and they had dabbled in and left a sufficient amount of works in the fields of literature and art, business, history, homeland, war, and even large-scale activities.
For example, Zhang Yimou's "Return" reflecting on history, Feng Xiaogang's "Tangshan Earthquake" recording history, Zhang Yimou directed the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games, Feng Xiaogang directed the 2014 Spring Festival Gala, Zhang Yimou filmed the pure love movie "The Love of the Hawthorn Tree", and Feng Xiaogang also had the romance film "If You Are Honest, Do Not Disturb......
From the prime of life to the sixtieth year, the filming rate of the two is basically maintained at one to two films a year, and sometimes two films a year are filmed. These two parallel lines are moving forward rapidly, and there was a brief intersection in 2018 - at that time, Feng Xiaogang's proudly complacent work "Fanghua" had been released, and then in a dialogue program, he alluded to Zhang Yimou using 1 billion to make a movie, and he had to get 3 billion to return to the cost, which was "to find that guilt for himself".
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"The Great Wall" is the most tragic "Waterloo" of Zhang Yimou's career, with a box office of 1.173 billion yuan, which is miserable, and a Douban score of 4.9, which is simply embarrassing. Zhang Yimou became a joke. On the other hand, Feng Xiaogang, one of his literary films "Fanghua", actually won 1.4 billion yuan at the box office.
This victory, Feng Xiaogang has been waiting for a long time, not against Zhang Yimou, but against the unpredictable film market and the uncertain preferences of Chinese audiences.
With victory, entering 2018, Feng Xiaogang turned 60 years old. As a result, instead of taking advantage of the victory, he showed his declining state, and so far, he has only directed two films, one "Only Yun Knows" is an affectionate retrospective to his youth, and one "If You Are Honest Do Not Disturb 3" is a requiem for a series of IP created by himself. In addition, he also directed two unpopular TV series, and both of them had a mediocre reputation.
Looking at Zhang Yimou next door, in the past 5 years, he has directed 7 films and produced 1 movie, and the amount of creation is almost twice that of Feng Xiaogang, and the themes he involves include ancient intrigue, era plot, war theme, conspiracy comedy, spy war suspense, anti-corruption and anti-gangster, legal comedy, especially "Man Jianghong" in the Spring Festival in 2023, which topped the annual box office with a score of 4.544 billion yuan.
You must know that Zhang Yimou is 8 years old when Feng Xiaogang is older. The two were originally the two troikas of the Chinese film market, from the early fork in the road, to the middle of the road, to the middle of the road, to the 2018 after the division of the field:
One is sluggish, one is diligent, one is nostalgic, one is renewing, one is slightly tired, one is becoming more and more rapid, Feng Xiaogang has fallen behind in this carriage, and Zhang Yimou is a peerless ride, not only old and strong, but also like rejuvenation.
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Zhang Yimou has seen flying saucers. In the few minutes he lost his mind, perhaps his brain was reprogrammed to develop a certain artistic intuition and a strong tolerance for work. This is not a joke, but it is recorded in the quasi-biographical work "Fate: Lonely Zhang Yimou" approved by Zhang Yimou. At that time, it was 1985, Chen Kaige was preparing to shoot "The Great Military Parade", and Zhang Yimou was the photographer. Many people in the crew saw a flying saucer like a large iron basin, hanging high in the air, and after slowly disappearing, a pink mushroom cloud remained.
Later, Zhou Xiaofeng, the author of "Fate", was also deeply involved in the literary planning of Zhang Yimou's various projects, and said with emotion, "Zhang Yimou's almost pathological work attitude and energy are the consequences of his mind being scanned by aliens. ”
He is a workaholic, he can work for more than ten hours in a row without any rest, without yawning, and the highest record is dozens of hours without sleep, and it is just "a little bloodshot in his eyes". Once the film was on, he shot during the day, edited it at night, and slept only two or three hours, for months.
Bi Feiyu, who cooperated with Zhang Yimou in "Shake, Shake, Shake to Grandma's Bridge" in the past, talked about the script and got sleepy and fled back to the hotel; Zhang Yimou chased after him, circled around the bed, talked about the plot, and survived Bi Feiyu until he passed out before leaving the room.
Writer Bi Feiyu served as the screenwriter of the film
Zhou Xiaofeng said that compared with it, we are like half-finished human beings. Strictly speaking, it is not that we are "semi-finished products", but that Zhang Yimou is a "superman"; Feng Xiaogang is one of us, and there are thresholds of physiology and energy.
During the filming of "If You Are Honest Do Not Disturb 2", Feng Xiaogang admitted frankly in his essay collection "Uneasy", "The photographer and I have a fever after a tiring day, and I have a break today, and I can't play anything." "Nearly 5 months of field shooting," this is a hard journey to break life. ”
Physical strength, energy, endurance, this is an objective limit, and mortals are helpless. And some "clues" can also be seen from the personalities of the two.
"Red Sorghum" takes the earth as the color, the blood as the sacrifice, and the majestic and unadorned "Dionysian Comedy" as the cavity, presenting an irrepressible vigorous wildness; "Party A and Party B" takes the market as the theme, takes the times as the scene, and uses black humor and language as the melody to invigorate blood and dispel stasis, so that the absurd and the real are blended, and the irony and warmth are combined.
In the former, the heavy sword has no edge, and in the latter, the edge is exposed. The same is true of the personalities of the two.
In 2023, Zhang Yimou and Feng Xiaogang, according to Visual China
Zhang Yimou is a native of Shaanxi. The people and works raised on the Loess Plateau seem to be full of heaviness, tolerance and ruggedness. Like Chen Zhongzhong's "White Deer Plain", three generations of grievances, half a century of disputes, and a piece of land are the penmanship of historical books. There are no witty words, and there is no emphasis on technical ingenuity.
Zhang Yimou's character is probably the same. He endured it, was steady, and didn't say anything about his love affair with Gong Li back then; and later split with Zhang Weiping, he didn't say the same; "Bo Bing has walked and the fire has been forged, and the torture of public opinion has never stopped, but he doesn't say it, he doesn't say it, he doesn't say it!"
He is accustomed to forbearance in his mouth, and his behavior is the same, even if the flood is monstrous, he only buries his head in his work. "Straightforward and simple in character, without too many folds. "A tendon of a typical Shaanxi person, sometimes he doesn't understand people, he doesn't pay attention to miscellaneous things, only movies, can make him forget his troubles, only work, can make him energetic and radiant.
Feng Xiaogang is probably the opposite of Zhang Yimou. He boasted that he had a mouth that loved to tell the truth and tell the truth, and he had offended many people. "I am not afraid to offend people, because others are never afraid to offend me. In the past, his words of reprimanding the Chinese audience were still in his ears, and the fight with Wanda made the scene embarrassing, all kinds of things, unscrupulous, ridiculous and scolding, unbearable in case of trouble, and the expression of temperament was always greater than reason.
Just like Zhang Yimou's correspondence to "White Deer Plain", Feng Xiaogang's correspondence is Wang Shuo's early series of literature, using vulgar drama and elegance to ridicule everywhere, in order to ridicule authority, denounce hypocrisy and abuse, and stand on the side of the public, like a cynical ruffian, a recalcitrant master who rebels against the mainstream. Feng Xiaogang, who was born in Beijing, has already been infused with this "ruffian" and "stubborn" genes in his personality.
He is a sharp blade, easy to hurt others, and easy to frustrate himself. Compared with it, Zhang Yimou is more like a bladeless knife back, more wear-resistant and more resistant. The edge of the knife wears out over time, but the back of the knife is different, and the sharpening may become. Lao Tzu said, "If you are sharp, you can't keep it for a long time", which is exactly this reason.
Therefore, Feng Xiaogang frequently stated his stance after "If You Are Honest Do Not Disturb 2", "My love for movies is getting weaker and weaker, and I am beginning to feel disgusted with such a life." He also said, "It seems that people can't be overly focused on what they love something, and if they are not careful, their youth is gone, and a lot of time and enthusiasm and energy are plundered by movies." ”
For Feng Xiaogang, the film is "plundered", and for Zhang Yimou, it is "fallen into it". As a result, after the age of sixty, Feng Xiaogang retreated bravely, but Zhang Yimou was reluctant to work day and night, which is easy to understand.
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"Uneasy" reveals a secret. Feng Xiaogang said, "I don't go for comedy, I write about the days I am obsessed with, which is a way of living." ”
He was obsessed with the military uniform of his literary and artistic soldiers, so he filmed "Fanghua"; he missed his friends in his prime and the freedom of creation in the old days, so he filmed "If You Are Honest Do Not Disturb 3"; he was obsessed with the great dream of his youth, so he filmed "1942"; as for whether the audience likes it or not, it depends on capital and fate. When capital can still influence his creation, he will shoot "Private Order", and when he is independent, he will purely act out of his heart and only serve himself.
This kind of mentality makes him not regard movies as the only thing in his life, it is just the best tool to recall the Fanghua era. "I'm looking forward to getting the movie to the screen, then I'm going to take the holidays and fly away. He said that, and probably did the same.
For Zhang Yimou, "work is not a punishment, it is his continuous addiction." ”
Zhou Xiaofeng once asked him, "Do you have any hobbies?"
He replied: "Movies." ”
Zhou Xiaofeng asked, "What about other than this?"
He replied, "No." ”
Zhang Yimou takes movies as his priority in life. This is the way, if not the only way, for him to verify his existence.
On the set of "Ambush on All Sides", Zhang Yimou and Zhang Ziyi
It is this kind of addiction that gives him a naïve artist's atmosphere; because of his forbearance in everything and his "superhuman" energy, he has become a craftsman, focusing on forgetting things and self, and in addition, he also hides a wild nature like "Red Sorghum", which forces him to always seek innovation in the field of film, "seeking change rather than stability", refusing to be "symbolized", and loving to take risks in art.
After 2018, Zhang Yimou is an artist who has always been a craftsman, seeking innovation and change, and creating steadily.
"If you don't have the ambition to make a movie, you will be left with sin. Feng Xiaogang said this after filming "1942".
On the set of "1942", Feng Xiaogang and Liu Zhenyun
But at that time, he still had four films to make in his contract. Now, presumably the end of the contract, "I must fly before the old dragon clock is gone, tired of playing, and indifferent to all temptations." At the age of 65, he is far from the point of old age, and it is still unknown whether he has "fallen away" and "tired of playing".
Perhaps, there is still a "temptation" in his heart, which drives him to continue filming, just slowly. After all, in the list of Douban's works, there is also a "One Year Old in Spring" with Liu Zhenyun, Huang Bo, and Fan Wei, which may be released in 2025.
Of course, Zhang Yimou, who is old and strong, will still use his crazy working methods to continue to test his limits. On the list of works to be screened in 2025, "Above the Cliff 2" and "The Protagonist" are impressive.
This is their fork in the road, but also their choice.
Text/Li Ruifeng Editor: Wang Liqiang
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