Yangtze River Daily, July 20, 20, "ShouDaoRen" director Chen Li brought starring Gong Zhe, Hou Yong, Sun Weimin to Han. In the 33 days of release, the box office of the movie "The Island Keeper" has exceeded 100 million yuan.
For ordinary commercial films, this is not too prominent achievement, but this is a biographical film with no traffic stars and no CG special effects, telling the true story of "one island, two people, three dogs, and 32 years of perseverance", and the result of breaking 100 million is surprising and more surprising.
An old-school story
An old-school way of shooting
"The Island Keeper" is based on the real deeds of "people's model" Wang Jicai and his wife Wang Shihua stationed on the frontier island for 32 years. As soon as the film opened, Wang Jicai, played by Liu Ye, suffered a level 9 typhoon, and the hut was crumbling in the wind and rain. Surprisingly, the picture of the storm is not a special effect, nor is it the common sprinkler spraying water, but a real shot.
Director Chen Li. Photo by Wan Xuming, reporter of The Yangtze River Daily
Director Chen Li said: "We shot on Kaishan Island, and the wind and rain there could not be created. Such a high lighthouse, fire trucks, sprinklers just can't reach it if they want to spray water. "Not only that, but more than 95 percent of the shots in the film are shot live, even in the animal scenes that are recognized as the most difficult to shoot." Many people advised me to use CG to shoot dogs, but I couldn't see the effect, and the special effects were pale, no eyes, no communication. As a result, a group of stray dogs were trained by the crew to become "dog actors", and it is common to shoot a shot more than a hundred times.
Starring Sun Weimin. Photo by Wan Xuming, reporter of The Yangtze River Daily
And this kind of shooting is undoubtedly a huge test for the actor. Chen Li not only asked the actors to go to Kaishan Island, where Wang Jicai was stationed, in advance to experience life, and did not allow makeup to beautify their faces when shooting, but also put forward such requirements as "performances that cannot be performed". She laughed and said: "When I first started shooting, Liu Yehua wore special effects makeup for more than two hours, and had to make him bump and bump, mosquito bites, and full of scars." But later, it only takes an hour to heal, and he has these scars himself. ”
Starring Gong Zhe. Photo by Wan Xuming, reporter of The Yangtze River Daily
Gong Zhe plays Wang Jicai's wife Wang Shihua in the film, but when she appears in front of everyone, the appearance of literature and art and white purity is diametrically opposite in the film. It turned out that although she was an actress, she was exposed to the sun on the island in the film, and it was common to be bald, and she had fallen down the steps in the wind.
Truth and truth
Let the "three noes" movie box office over 100 million
In the 33 days since its release, the box office of "The Island Keeper" has exceeded 110 million yuan. Director Chen Li is very calm, "It may be that young audiences like the peace and truth of Wang Jicai and his wife, they are ordinary people who create extraordinary." This proves the audience's love and recognition of Wang Jicai's obscure model of the times. "Sun Weimin, who plays Wang Jicai's father in the film, was very surprised," ""The Island Keeper" created a miracle, which is called a real movie, shooting human nature, and every shot is shot with the spirit of craftsmanship and seriousness. ”
Starring Hou Yong. Photo by Wan Xuming, reporter of The Yangtze River Daily
Hou Yong, who plays Wang Jicai's friend in the film, wondered: "I am thinking about where today's Chinese films are going?" "The Island Keeper" is such a subject, placed thirty or forty years ago to shoot, everyone will not worry about it is fake, but today it is particularly easy to shoot fake. It may be that our market environment has changed radically. One of the things that puzzled him was: "Now people always say 'artist', but I always feel that an actor is an actor, and it would be more accurate to simply call an actor for our professional attributes and characteristics." ”
Hou Yong recalled that after working with director Chen Li for many years, he heard such words very early, "That kind of cool shooting method is not far away, and only the traditional way of artistic creation can be evergreen." As Chen Li felt in the process of collecting wind, no matter how the world outside the island changes, Wang Jicai and his wife are still sticking, they are still them.
During their visit to Han, the crew of "Shoudao Man" also exchanged views with party members from Hubei Yangtze River Film Group, the Traffic Management Bureau of Wuhan Municipal Public Security Bureau, the Union Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and the Tongji Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and conducted a special party day activity with the theme of "Watching Movies and Learning Party History."
(Yangtze River Daily reporter Wan Xuming, intern Wu Jiaqi)
【Editor: Ding Fei】