In 2003, when Feng Xiaogang was preparing to film "No Thieves in the World", he always failed the review, he asked Wang Shuo for help, Wang Shuo glanced at the script, and only changed one sentence, which made Feng Xiaogang admire him so much.
Why did Feng Xiaogang's "No Thieves in the World" be reviewed many times? What did Wang Shuo change to make this Chinese New Year film with a box office of over 100 million yuan successfully released?
The movie "No Thieves in the World" is adapted from Zhao Benfu's novel of the same name, which tells the story of a stupid root who has been working in the northwest for five years, taking the train with his savings for many years, and wanting to go back to the countryside to marry a daughter-in-law.
At that time, there were many theft rings and pickpockets on the train, and they liked to steal passengers' things while people were not paying attention. In addition, the Chinese New Year is approaching, and many migrant workers are carrying money on the train, so the activities of pickpockets are even more rampant.
But Silly Gen is simple and kind in his heart, he believes that there are good people in this world, and no one will steal the money that others earn by working hard.
Therefore, the stupid root who was happy and proud of his savings of tens of thousands of yuan not only did not hide the money well, but also boasted to strangers around him that he was rich.
At this time, a couple who made a living from theft happened to be on the train, and the female thief saw that she was so naïve and kindly reminded, but she didn't expect Silly Gen to announce it loudly in order to prove that there are no thieves in the world.
The novel then tells the story of this couple who steal for a living, helping Silly Root stop the crowd who come to steal money.
In Feng Xiaogang's film, the skills of various thieves are emphasized, they can steal money in an instant when people are unprepared, and their ability to disguise themselves is also amazing.
The film depicts a lot of scenes of both sides playing tricks, and it's easy for viewers to forget the negative identity of the thieves and instead praise their ability to steal.
Therefore, when it passed the trial, the film was rejected many times, and Feng Xiaogang had to weaken the image of the thief and made many rectifications.
But despite this, the film is still not recognized. Feng Xiaogang invited Andy Lau, Liu Ruoying, Ge You, Wang Baoqiang and many other big names in this movie, if it can't be successfully released, the 30 million cost invested in the early stage will be in vain.
Feng Xiaogang couldn't afford this loss, so he recruited many professional directors and scholars to help him with his staff, but he was still rejected after a lot of work.
On the one hand, the reviewers think that the movie glorifies thieves too much, and on the other hand, they think that thieves who make a living from theft have experienced so many thefts.
was moved by a rural stupid root who didn't know each other to fight desperately against many theft gangs, and even led to the death of the male protagonist, which is somewhat far-fetched. After all, if they were so easily moved, they wouldn't have made a living from theft.
When Feng Xiaogang found many professionals to no avail, his friend Wang Shuo also came to see this movie. Wang Shuo immediately had an inspiration, saying that it would be good to get the heroine pregnant.
Wang Shuo said that this movie needs to depict the process of the thief's inner goodness, and for women, children are the biggest fetters. If the heroine is pregnant, she will feel guilty for the two of them stealing for a living, and she is afraid that she will end up with retribution on the child.
So let the female owner learn that she was pregnant.,Meet Silly Gen again and express willingness to help him.,And the male protagonist was gradually influenced by his girlfriend.,After learning that his girlfriend was pregnant, he made up his mind to help Silly Gen.。
This has a reasonable logic, and it also highlights that being a thief itself is wrong, and it will not make the audience worship the identity of the thief.
Wang Shuo's suggestion instantly gave Feng Xiaogang a direction, and this change not only did not affect the overall tone of the film, but sublimated the film.
In this way, the 2005 New Year's film "No Thieves in the World", which touched everyone, was successfully released and ushered in many praises!
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Resources:
The plot of "There Are No Thieves in the World".
Feng Xiaogang interview
