In the 90s, when Yu Hua went to the United States, an American reporter asked him:
"Why did you give up your life as a wealthy dentist (Yu Hua used to be a dentist) and engage in poor writing? ”
Haha, the Americans simply don't know.
There is a question on the Internet:
How much money did Yu Hua make with "Alive"?
Xu Zidong relayed Yu Hua's words: "I live by "Alive".
In fact, when he played "Alive", he was making money for Yu Hua.
In 1992, "Alive" had not yet been finalized, and Zhang Yimou wanted to make it into a movie, so Zhang Yimou gave Yu Hua a huge sum of money, 25,000.
At this time, Yu Hua's manuscript fee was only worth 400 yuan.
He lived with his wife in a rented house on the outskirts of Beijing, and his life was tight, and on the night he received the money, Yu Hua said to his wife: I don't think we will have to worry about it in this life.
Later, the film won an award at Cannes and became internationally famous.
The publisher was confident and printed 20,000 copies in one go.
No one expected that the movie would be banned, and the novel would be unsalable.
Yu Hua's heart also cooled.
The book can't be sold, the publishing house can only sell the waste paper, Yu Hua is distressed, he packed several sacks and carried it home, and his friends sent one by one, but he hasn't finished it yet.
The peak turns around, I don't know what year.
was banned as the best propaganda slogan, the movie "Alive" came to the altar, and the novel "Alive" was reborn.
In 2018, "Alive" sold a total of 20 million copies, and it is said that in this year alone, Yu Hua's copyright fee was as high as 15.5 million.
In an interview, he once joked that the Chinese teacher who asked to read "Alive" has entered the third generation.
Yu Hua, you can really rely on "Alive" to live.
Looking back today, I recall the days when novels and movies danced together.
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Origin, success is also Xiao He, defeat is also Xiao He
Zhang Yimou loves to collaborate with writers.
Previously, his "Red Sorghum", "The Red Lantern Hangs High", "Ju Dou" and "Qiu Ju Lawsuit" were all born from literary works, and they were all acclaimed at home and abroad.
But because of this, Zhang Yimou's image was equated with "peasant" and was ridiculed: soil.
In order to wash off this label, Zhang Yimou was ready to transform into a thriller, and literary planner Wang Bing recommended "Mistakes by the River".
The author's name is unknown, his name is Yu Hua.
Who would have expected that halfway through the adaptation, Yu Hua brought a new novel.
With the curiosity to learn about the writer's new work, Zhang Yimou opened "Alive".
It's like a whole night.
The next day, he put aside "The Mistake by the River" and only talked to Yu Hua about "Alive" throughout the whole process.
It turned out that "Alive" was an accident.
In the nineties of the last century, the wind was suddenly rising, the sea of art was surging, and film creation caught up with a good time, and hundreds of boats competed for the current.
After Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine" won the Palme d'Or, Zhang Yimou's eyes were red in a hurry, and a phone call called Lu Wei, the screenwriter of "Farewell My Concubine", to Beijing.
What are you doing here? Clean up Yu Hua's "mess".
Previously, Yu Hua insisted on being the screenwriter of "Alive", and wrote a version of the script according to the novel.
Reed took over, rolled up his sleeves, and overturned everything all over again.
When "Alive" was released, Zhang Yimou added a name to Lu Wei on the subtitles - "finalized script".
The reed is also worthy of this head.
After the script was launched, the casting work was also on the agenda.
In the role of Fugui, Zhang Yimou decided that only Ge You could play it, but after the connection, Ge You didn't play it!
At that time, Ge You had already become popular because of "The Stubborn Master", and he starred in the leading role of many movies, he felt that "Alive" was a literary film, and the salary was definitely not high.
After her mother knew about this, she pointed at Ge You and scolded: Zhang Yimou's movie, you have to act if you don't pay for it.
Ge You listened to his mother's words and made a request to Zhang Yimou.
If the salary can be given 70W, he will consider acting, and Zhang Yimou agreed very happily.
Later, Ge You learned that he had been deceived, and the original salary prepared for him was 300W.
negotiated their own exports, and earned more than three times less.
The actor is set to be difficult, but the actress has no effort, Gong Li is 27 years old, and she is already the queen heroine of Zhang Yimou's five movies.
Big names gathered.
Niu Ben played the mayor, Guo Tao played Chunsheng, Jiang Wu played Erxi, Ni Dahong played Long Er, Liu Tianchi played Feng Xia, and invited Dong Lifan, Huang Zongluo, and Liu Yanjin to make a show......
Zhao Jiping was also invited to compose.
In the summer of 1993, Lu Wei, who had been delaying the draft for a month, rushed to Zibo to deliver the script nervously, Zhang Yimou watched it all night, without changing a word, and "Alive" officially started filming!
At the start-up ceremony, Gong Li's beige shoulderless short sleeves and Northeast large flower pants wrote a festive and auspicious prologue to this "miserable" movie.
Plot: Epic of the times Fate is like duckweed
Lu Wei adapted "Alive" and settled at home.
The country is too far away from the world, and home is the nest of individuals.
Zhang Yimou was tired of filming the peasants, so he changed Fugui to a city person, a young master, and a foolish life.
Fugui became addicted to gambling, and angrily left his pregnant wife Jiazhen, and lost all the old mansion left by his ancestors.
Since ancient times, gambling debts are also debts, and Father Xu admitted it, and in the end, he died in the old house as he wished.
Fugui pulled the flatbed truck and walked through the alley he often walked, and he didn't feel anything in his heart, and in a blink of an eye, there was only this bit of belongings left in the car.
A year later, Jiazhen gave birth to a son, holding the big one and holding the small one, waking up the old lady on the sickbed and calling back Fugui who was selling on the street.
When the family is complete, the story begins.
Lu Wei's "Alive" is going to the family film, outlining a family with the technique of life flow, and placing five people in the torrent of the times.
He looked coldly at people living like ants.
As Yu Hua wrote in the preface of the book: people only live for the sake of living, not for anything other than living.
The change began one night, when the tip of the knife pierced the curtain, and the stabbing sound was a precursor to the destruction of the house.
Fugui was dragged to the army, in the rain of bullets, wearing dead clothes, being beaten by stray bullets, and singing for the troops......
When the war was won, Fugui rushed back day and night, and saw a little girl at the entrance of the alley, who called a few times and no one answered, it was the dumb Fengxia.
Lu Wei recalled that after this sentence was written, he had already burst into tears, and the screenwriter was always the first to cry.
Subsequently, he burned the old house, killed Long Er, and five gunshots rang out, which frightened Fugui to hug the trunk of the tree and pee his pants
[Five shots, five shots, killed Long Er, killed Long Er, killed Long Er, killed five shots, definitely can't live, if the courtyard doesn't lose to Long Er, these five shots are me. 】
The washed revolution proves that if you frame it and hang it on the wall, you can change it for a peaceful life.
Youqing's death, the movie was made conservatively.
The mayor's car crashed into the wall of the school, crushing Youqing, who was sleeping under the wall.
None of the fifteen dumplings that Jia Zhen put in his schoolbag did not move, and all of them became sacrifices.
Ironically, the district chief who drove the car was Chunsheng who fled for his life together, and Fugui didn't know how to calculate this life.
In Yu Hua's novel, Youqing was drawn to death.
The school organized blood donation for the county magistrate's wife, and Youqing was the first to run to the hospital, but he couldn't get down from the bed.
When Fugui arrived, the doctor asked expressionlessly: Why did you only give birth to a son?
I can't bear to think about it.
Fugui walked home with Youqing's corpse, his thin body did not look like he had lived for thirteen years.
And looking back at the path that curved to the city, I could no longer hear the sound of Youqing running barefoot.
Writing this, Yu Hua said: The moonlight shines on the road, like sprinkled with salt.
It's like taking the reader's heart and dipping it in it.
Since then, the movie has arranged a more optimistic ending, refreshing the house, and Fengxia getting married.
Feng Xia died in childbirth, following the setting of the novel, but leaving new hope for this family.
Erxi took his grandson steamed buns and often came back to visit the two old men, and Fugui used the shadow box to make a nest for the chickens.
[When the chicken grows up, it becomes a goose, the goose grows up and the sheep grows into a cow, and the cow grows up, the cow grows up, the cow grows up, the cow grows up]
The wind and rain are bitter, the eyes are full of devastation, the people are still there, and the family is still there, so live well.
The three-minute-long long shot at the end of the film gives a new meaning to "Alive".
Life is like a drama Drama is like life
Lu Wei loves shadow puppetry, and Zhang Yimou also has an obsession with shadow puppetry.
The two once planned to make a film of Shaanxi shadow puppet artists, called "Peach Flying in the Sky", but the review did not give the project, and finally it was not done.
arrived in "Alive", the two coincided and chose shadow puppetry.
After finding the Huaxian Guangyi Shadow Puppet Society, Zhang Yimou said to Master Pan, who dubbed Fugui: To sing a weird feeling, Fugui is not a serious shadow puppet artist, he is a swinger, he is happy in the casino, he pushed the serious artist aside, and sang blindly for a while.
Raising eyebrows and hanging eyes, he is full of sloppy words, obscene words and songs, and half a life of romantic debts.
It is from this moment that in the next 40 years, people are like marionettes on the stage of history, and they have no roots and no support since then.
Ge You acted well.
not only played an insensitive gambler, but also played a miserable and humble commoner.
In the barren and ruthless fate, with a faint hope like a mirage, he stepped on the ice floes of reality and quietly moved forward.
Never forget: to be alive.
This almost separated character will become the most talked about character in Zhang Yimou's creative career in the future.
The 1994 Cannes Film Festival is just around the corner.
"Alive" was nominated, and the group set off for Paris.
It is rumored that Ge You took his own way, refused the luxurious first-class cabin prepared by the organizers, and set off from China half a month in advance, took the train to Moscow first, and then to France, reversing more than 20 times before arriving in Paris.
At the awards ceremony, Ge You couldn't understand French, and when he read out the best actor, no one accepted the award at the scene, Ge You joked to Gong Li on the side: Why didn't anyone accept this award, don't you get it for me.
Gong Li reacted first, jumped up excitedly, and shouted: It's you.
Zhang Yimou did not attend for special reasons, and the award presenter moved a jury award to "Alive" in front of his empty seat.
At this time, the fate of "Alive" has been decided, and the mainland is banned and cannot be released.
Now, a full 30 years have passed since 1994, when a group of heroes gathered and one person paid tribute to the 100th anniversary of film history.
The scenery is no longer there, leaving the audience nostalgic.
And "Alive", which was not very dazzling back then, was like lead out of silver, and gold out of mine.
Today, in the 21st century, like a fable, it has torn open a hole in the life of the Chinese, and when we look at it, we can breathe for a moment.
According to Douban data in 2021, the number of viewers of "Alive" will be 900,000, and in just three years, it will rise to 1.423 million people, with a score of 9.3.
During this period, the word "alive" was searched on Sina Weibo, and the topic discussion reached 210 million.
The commentary of the second creation area of major platforms, "Alive" contributes tens of billions of hits every year.
Movies are to novels, novels are to movies, it is impossible to distinguish whose audience is wider, and it is impossible to determine whose credit is greater, but there is a label in the Chinese -
"Alive".
Some people say that "Alive" is the most hearty work that Zhang Yimou has survived before he was "castrated".
Some people also say that the current situation of Chinese survival is a large-scale "Alive".
And I think that perhaps the word "alive" is the reason in itself.
In the torrent of the times, people are like a drop of water, a leaf, and a seed.
After the crossing of Qianfan, "living" is not only a comfort for the rest of your life after the catastrophe.
It is also an outlet for oneself and others when people are helpless.
Resources:
The second season of "Sonorous Journey to the World": Dou Wentao talks to Xu Zhiyuan
The Secret of Film Screenwriters, Wang Tianbing, Lu Wei, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press
"Alive" Yu Hua, Writers Publishing House
Huaxian Shadow Puppet Archive, Shanghai Culture Publishing House