Preface
Speaking of the word "tough guy", the first thing that comes to mind is Jiang Wen.
"Zhang Muzhi" with a bold, brave and resourceful personality in "Let the Bullets Fly", and "Yu Zhanao" who is rough and unruly in "Red Sorghum".
As an actor, Jiang Wen is distinctive and charming.
can be a director, but Jiang Wen's works have made many audiences call "I can't understand", such as "One Step Away" and "Evil Does Not Prevail Over Justice", all of which are applauded or not.
Some people even ridiculed that Jiang Wen's best work is that the church Quentin said "cow~bi".
Today, billions of movie works are one after another, but the ghost director Jiang Wen has never been seen, what happened to Jiang Wen?
1. A movie has been closed for five years, and the child is named daily?
In 2000, Jiang Wen directed an anti-Japanese war film - "The Devil is Coming".
This movie made Jiang Wen, who wanted to show his strength in the directorial industry, famous internationally, and also made him stop for five years.
The film did not pass the review in China, and was sent to the Cannes International Film Festival to participate in the selection, which is an illegal entry.
In the end, "The Devil is Coming" was banned in China, and Jiang Wen couldn't be a director for five years, so he could only go back to acting.
In addition to this, "The Devil is Coming" has also received a tidal wave of doubts and scolding.
The film is based on the novel "Survival" by writer You Fengwei, but it is actually a subversive change.
In the original work, the focus is on the positive side, and the military and civilians have the courage to resist the invasion.
In Jiang Wen's film, he uses black and white tones, sad music, and dramatic treatment to satirize the ignorance and timidity of the peasants in the play.
Therefore, as soon as the Cannes turmoil came out, countless saliva smashed at Jiang Wen, and even the original author flipped the table, thinking that the adaptation of this movie was too large.
Of course, the presentation of film and television works is a thousand people, because it is naturally unreasonable for a film to beat Jiang Wen to death with a stick.
But soon, because of the naming of his children, Jiang Wen made waves again.
Jiang Wen's first wife was the beautiful and elegant French scholar Sandrine, and the two gave birth to a beautiful daughter, whom Jiang Wen named "Jiang Yilang".
At this time, her daughter's name has not completely plunged Jiang Wen into a storm of public opinion.
But after Jiang Wen and Jiangnan girl Zhou Yun got married, the two gave birth to two sons, but Jiang Wen resolutely risked being scolded and named his son "Jiang Taro" and "Jiang Jiro".
When they hear the names of their two sons, many people immediately feel like a Japanese name.
Coupled with the previous "The Devil is Coming", Jiang Wen was quickly branded as "pro-Japanese", and for a while, Jiang Wen's reputation was seriously damaged.
Jiang Wen didn't care, and responded that everyone should read more.
In ancient Chinese culture, Lang was a good name for a man, and in ancient times, wives called their husbands, and parents called their sons.
For example, the famous hero Cao Cao called his second son Cao Pi "Taro", and his third son Cao Zhi called "Jiro".
Therefore, the name makes sense, and there is nothing to blame.
Jiang Wen's response to his son's name is as free and stubborn as he was when he treated "The Devil is Coming", you can't read or understand, I don't care, I only do what I want to do.
And it is this stubbornness that makes director Jiang Wen's works dismal, the market is not optimistic, and the audience does not recognize it.
2. "Jiang Lang is exhausted", "Let the Bullets Fly" is all "bad movies"?
Jiang Wen is very good as an actor, but he always has a special paranoia about being a director.
The energy of a Beijing gentleman in his body seems to be silently telling everyone that I must make a special cow movie.
As it turned out, Jiang Wen did it.
1994 was a blowout year for world films, and too many excellent works bloomed like flowers.
Among foreign blockbusters, "The Shawshank Redemption" composes a symphony of self-redeeming fate, and "Forrest Gump" moistens things silently, conveying optimistic and tenacious values to everyone.
In domestic films, the god's work "Farewell My Concubine" uses the background of the times to describe all living beings, and "Alive" explores the meaning of life from the outright tragedy.
And Jiang Wen's debut film "Sunny Day" broke out of the encirclement and topped the list of top ten international outstanding films.
That year, Jiang Wen was 30 years old, and in the track of directing, he was definitely a "ghost talent" who suddenly appeared.
Every shot, the use of color, and the display of the characters' personalities have been shot to the extreme.
Even in order to truly restore the opening song "Revolutionary Wind and Thunder", Jiang Wen invited a symphony orchestra and chorus of more than 180 people.
The success of his debut novel made Jiang Wen ecstatic.
So, he filmed "The Devil is Coming", which was also successful, and the film won two awards at the Cannes International Film Festival and the "Best Foreign Language Film" at the Japan Mainichi Film Awards.
In his fledgling career, there were two such outstanding works, and Jiang Wen gained a firm foothold in the director industry.
Even the national teacher Zhang Yimou said that he believes that Jiang Wen will be the best director in China in the future.
It's a pity that no matter how talented a director is, he must bow to reality.
Jiang Wen's later movie "The Sun Also Rises" was dismal at the box office, which can be said to be a miserable loss.
The expenditure of 50 million and the return of 18 million, the audience did not buy it, and they all said that they could not understand it.
In desperation, Jiang Wen went to shoot a full commercial film - "Let the Bullets Fly".
"Let the Bullets Fly" will not make people look at it in a fog, and Jiang Wen said a lot of what he wanted to say in the movie, even rudely.
Like what:
"I thought that when I drank the wine in one sip, the road was going step by step, and the steps were bigger, and it was easy to pull Dan. ”
"Don't be in a hurry, be patient and let the bullets fly for a while. ”
"If you live, you will die sooner or later, and if you die, you will live forever. ”
There is also the most classic sentence, "I just want to stand and make money", it is hard not to doubt, isn't this Jiang Wen's heart?
In the end, relying on the box office of 670 million yuan in "Let the Bullets Fly", Jiang Wen made a lot of money, and won various awards.
But at this time, he said that "Let the Bullets Fly" is a good thing in terms of the market, but for the creators, it is an easy thing.
In this life, people can't just do easy things.
So later, he went to shoot works that were laborious, unprofitable, and unflattering.
After that, the works have almost a bad review, "One Step Away" is obscure, and "Evil Does Not Suppress Justice" has too much Jiang Wen's personal style.
Some viewers even said after watching it;
"What the hell you filmed. ”
"Use first-class film techniques, choose third-rate movie themes, and shoot a story that people can't understand. ”
And more people feel that Jiang Wen has no talent, and "Let the Bullets Fly" is his highest peak.
So, is Jiang Wen really "exhausted Jiang Lang's talent"?
Third, standing and making money, Jiang Wen has always been stubborn
In this era, whether a movie sells well or makes money is no longer completely determined by the work itself.
Invite traffic stars, seize the hype of the topic, and you can harvest a large wave of box office.
Jia Ling's "Hot and Hot" has a box office of 3.1 billion, and Zhang Yimou's "Man Jianghong" has a box office of 4.5 billion, all of which are small costs and big benefits.
And Jiang Wen seems to be a maverick "freak" in this impetuous movie era.
When other directors have two years, or even one work a year, and earn one film after another, everything looks at "money".
But he insisted on making movies with all his heart and no matter the cost, and only made 6 works in 26 years, and it took 6 years to disappear.
But according to Jiang Wen's character, you seem to feel normal.
Because he has his own stubbornness, he thinks that Chinese filmmakers can't just think about money, entertainment is not standing on the street, and movies shouldn't be so dirty!
At the end of 2023, Jiang Wen's new film "The Legend of Shi Jianqiao" was officially announced, and in the promotional poster, a red wall painted with chalk drawings was used as the background, and the queen heroine Zhou Yun stood there melancholy.
It seems that this movie is still full of Jiang Wen's characteristics.
epilogue
Some people say that Jiang Wen is too arrogant, too self-conscious, and completely ignores the audience's preferences, and the things he shoots, except for "Sunny Days", are not excellent.
Some people also say that I owe Jiang Wen a lot of movie tickets, although Jiang Wen is not a particularly great director, he has not blindly compromised with capital, and has always had his own style and told stories in his own way.
Yes, there are many directors in the film industry, and there are indeed very few who are as stubborn as Jiang Wen, but they are also precious.
The source of the information in this article
【1】《圆桌派》,2018-07-09，2018-07-12.
[2] "Thirteen Invitations" Season 2 Issue 13.
[3] "Oriental Eye" 2015-01-02, "Dialogue with Jiang Wen".