Stepping on the red carpet of the opening ceremony of the 14th Beijing International Film Festival, director Hu Mei used "finally seeing the light" to describe the mood at that time. Her new film "Dream of Red Mansions: The Golden and Jade Relationship" was launched in 2006, and endured countless tests and difficulties in the middle, and finally ushered in the news that it will be released nationwide. "It's been 18 years, don't mention it!" she laughs humorously.
Hu Mei has been to the Beijing Film Festival several times before, but this is the first time to participate with a new work. In the afternoon, Beijing was full of vitality and spring in the bright spring. Hu Mei and the 14 young actors of the crew and Yu Dong, chairman of Bona Films, attended together, and when they stepped on the red carpet, Hu Mei heard an audience exclaiming: These girls are so beautiful, why don't you know any of them! When I learned that this was the crew of "Dream of Red Mansions", I couldn't help but sigh, no wonder all of them are so smart!
Hu Mei was happy when she heard these discussions. "At the time of filming, the children were all between the ages of 12 and 15, and now the youngest of them is 18 years old. Six years have passed, and they have all grown up, and I would like to take this opportunity to introduce these wonderful young actors to audiences around the world. ”
Hu Mei began reading the novel "Dream of Red Mansions" when she was ten years old, "because there were no books to read at that time, and there were no movies and television, so it was difficult to listen to a radio." The lack of books made her chew "Dream of Red Mansions" repeatedly, and the books were all turned over, and the bridge of the Grand View Garden in the book is still vivid in her mind. Later, after her girlhood, youth and middle age, every time she rereads Hu Mei, she has a new experience, "The spiritual enjoyment brought to me by Dream of Red Mansions is irreplaceable by any other book. ”
There have been many versions of the film and television drama "Dream of Red Mansions", and Hu Mei ingeniously adopted the theme of "conspiracy and love" this time, which has never been done before. She and her team checked a lot of historical materials in the early stage, consulted many authoritative experts, and finally formed the current version of the story. She believes that as a literary and artistic worker, it is indispensable to inherit history and culture, but artistic creation cannot kneel in front of predecessors, "We must uphold the spirit of innovation, not only to be faithful to the original work, but also to use modern film language to open up the barrier of communication with young audiences, only in this way can the work carve the mark of the times, so that the traditional culture can spit out the old and absorb the new, endlessly." ”
The theme of this year's Beijing Film Festival is "Mutual Learning of Light and Shadow, Mutual Benefit from the Same Way", which coincides with Hu Mei's original intention of filming "Dream of Red Mansions: Golden and Jade Relationship". Internationality is one of the important features of the Beijing Film Festival, which plays a very important role in attracting guests and friends from all over the world with an open mind, helping Chinese films to go to the world, and making Chinese films move from a big film country to a film power. Hu Mei's last film "Into the Capital" tells the story of the Qing Dynasty's Hui class entering Beijing and opening up the history of Chinese Peking Opera. The film won three awards for Best Director of the Year at the 35th Chinese American Film Festival in 2019 and Best Director, Best Producer and Best Supporting Actress at the 4th Canada-China International Film Festival in the same year. When the film was screened abroad, it was liked by many audiences, which made Hu Mei full of confidence in spreading the excellent traditional Chinese culture to the world through film. She believes that the more national the more global, as a director, in addition to having more and more rich life experience and more and more broad vision, but also to have firm cultural self-confidence and passion for mutual learning between civilizations, so that the works can resonate with everyone.
When "Dream of Red Mansions: The Golden and Jade Relationship" was screened internally, many experts who rushed back from abroad gave high praise after watching it, which made Hu Mei feel very gratified.
Hu Mei is very grateful for the support of the crew at this year's Beijing Film Festival. She said: "The Beijing Film Festival has a soft spot for traditional Chinese cultural films, they don't pay attention to me, nor do they pay attention to our crew, but how to promote and spread traditional Chinese culture." In this regard, the Beijing Film Festival is very open and forward-looking. Hu Mei said that her greatest wish is to hope that the audience will have the urge to sit at the desk and quietly reread the novel "Dream of Red Mansions" after enjoying the movie "Dream of Red Mansions".