Xu Zidong
The film "The First Burning Incense", directed by Xu Anhua and based on Zhang Ailing's novel, is about to be released. Zhang Ailing's novels have been filmed and televisionized, such as "Love in the Fallen City", "Half Life", "Red Roses and White Roses", "Color, Ring", but not many successes. Why is Zhang Ailing's novel so difficult to make? Teacher Xu Zidong also talked about Zhang Ailing in his new book "Rereading the Chinese Novel of the 20th Century", before the release of "The First Burning Incense", let's listen to what he thinks of this novel and movie.
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Xu Zidong on Zhang Ailing's Novels and Films (11:05)
Advance notice, guys, when you watch the movie, there is a midday tea party at the aunt's house, and there are two rich Hong Kong businessmen standing on the balcony, one of whom is Xu Zidong, I don't know if they will cut it off at that time.
Why do you think Zhang Ailing's novel is so difficult to film?
Zhang Ailing's novels are difficult to shoot, but many people go to shoot, because readers like, but also because readers like, so her films are difficult to shoot, which is almost a rule. I have seen five or six different versions of "War and Peace", but this does not prevent later generations from going forward and constantly adapting casting masterpieces, and Zhang Ailing is the same. Xu Anhua's movie I have seen her three times, one is "Love in the City", that play is not successful enough in my opinion, the reason is casting, Fan Liuyuan is looking for a young Zhou Runfa, Miao Qianren plays a white tassel, it seems that Zhou Runfa is still younger than Miao Qianren. According to today's parlance, the effect of the small fresh meat hair is too different from the original novel.
Stills from "Allure of Love"
So it is very simple, because this kind of drama is born like an idol drama, and if the male and female protagonists are selected, if everyone thinks that it is too different from the original imagination, it is difficult for this play to succeed. "Eighteen Springs" - that is, "Half Life", which is better filmed.
Stills from Half-Life
"The First Burning Incense", I also helped them come up with ideas at the beginning, and then the shooting scene also went. This film has not yet been released, there has been a lot of controversy, the Internet is very lively, mainly focusing on the casting of the heroine Ma Sichun, and Peng Yuyan. I don't want to say more, but in this way, there is one actor who has a prominent performance and is of great importance to the structure of the whole play, that is, Yu Feihong.
The aunt played by Yu Feihong in "The First Burning Incense"
In the original novel, the image of the aunt mainly assumes a function, that is, to make the pure schoolgirl degenerate. She herself was depraved, she had married a rich man many years ago, and when the man died, he wanted to use the money to maintain her decadent life. Yu Feihong makes this role possible to strengthen. In fact, we have to look at it in the history of literature, the role of aunt is still very important, we do not pay enough attention to her, how to say it, simply put:
Qinglou novels and modern literature
In the Qinglou novels of the late Qing Dynasty (the background is the romance novels of the late Qing Dynasty, most of which are written in the Qinglou), the main picture, remember, is not sex, not very untargeted what behavior, action, clothes, most of the scenes are at dinner, on the dinner table. You go to see Hou Xiaoxian's "Flowers on the Sea", you go to see the earlier "Traces of the Flower Moon" and "Qinglou Dream", you go to see the more decadent "Nine-tailed Turtle", all the same, all of them are pursuing love in the Qinglou, or pretending to pursue love, or using human standards to do a contradictory coordination and struggle with the scene of the Qinglou.
Stills from Flowers of the Sea
For example, in "Flowers on the Sea", a man falls in love with a prostitute and says I want to redeem you, and I will not only redeem you, but also marry you as the main chamber. The prostitute was very impressed, but then the man's family could not figure it out, so it was said that we ransomed you as a concubine as a concubine according to the convention, and took it in the second room and the third room. If the prostitute refuses, I will either be in the right room or I will always be here. This is a kind of plot setting in the pursuit of human morality in the Qinglou, you go to see the "Sea Flower" movie in this plot is very common, forget which woman, just make a request to the male protagonist, you want to come here to be good with me, you can't get close to other women, prostitutes can't do it, you have to be very loyal, you have to spend a few months talking to me about piano, chess, books, paintings, a piece of loyalty, and then give a lot of money - money is to be provided. I see that this is more serious than the current family, what does it mean? It shows that in the middle of the Qinglou novel, it has a family effort, he wants to fantasize about a certain family in the Qinglou, of course, this family is not a man and a woman, it may be a family pattern of one man and many women. Even better, I have noticed that contemporary literature has reached a very recent stage, and the stories of men and women have appeared in the plot of talented people who are in trouble and women save each other. Zhang Yongxuan's right wing was unlucky, and Lantana saved him. She was carrying an unidentified child, surrounded by three men, a custodian, and a young boy villager, but she liked right-wing intellectuals the most. Including when we go to see Jia Pingwa's famous "Waste Capital", this male protagonist who relishes it is in his own home, on the one hand is his wife, on the other hand, he is a lover, on the other hand, he is also a servant, who is also secretive, turning his home into a brothel and a green building. It turns out that the story mode of Caizi and the wind and dust woman, from the pure contradiction between the Qinglou and the morality to the rescue relationship between the people and intellectuals, has a clue, and the turning point in the middle of this clue is Zhang Ailing's "First Burning Incense", which describes a brothel-like family and a brothel like a family, and its core character is his aunt.
You think that we critics and professional readers can read such complex content in the work, so it is difficult for Zhang Ailing's novel to make a movie.
Zhang Ailing's novel successfully adapted is "Color, Ring"
So far, Zhang Ailing's novel has been successfully adapted into "Color, Ring".
Guan Jinpeng adapted her "Red Roses and White Roses" so respectful of the writer that on some screens he simply typed the text out. We would feel a little disappointed with the movie.
"Red Roses And White Roses" types out the words in the novel directly
Probably because "Color, Ring" is very short, we must turn such a short novel into a movie, and Ang Lee has to add a lot of content. There is only one sentence in the erotic drama novel: "It's like taking a hot bath", and the hot bath (in the movie) becomes three bed scenes. People who have watched it carefully know that three bed scenes can not be less. The first shows that the man's attitude is like rape to the woman; the second is a draw, and there is a happy thing, there is happiness in it; the third, the woman has taken the lead, and she can almost assassinate the man, but her men are merciful. So, in general, Ang Lee is warmer than Zhang Ailing, Zhang Ailing's work is very cold in the bones, simply put, Mr. Yi killed Wang Jiazhi in the novel is silent, but in the movie, he wants to kill Wang Jiazhi, almost under the coercion of the secretary, and under the supervision of another intelligence leader of the other side. In other words, in the movie, Liang Chaowei can't kill without killing, which brings some warmth to the whole work.
Stills from "Color, Ring"
Of course, because this work has written the script a little deeper on some occasions. Zhang Ailing only wrote about the performance, doing revolutionary action because the performance was too deep into the play, but after being adapted into a movie, Ang Lee used many details to strengthen the coercion of the heroine and control of the heroine by the action of this organization, and later Wang Jiazhi was also involuntary, even if it was a tragedy in the end. So, this is my personal feeling that so far - not counting "The First Incense" - "Color, Ring" is a better adaptation, and "Color, Ring" itself is a better movie as a movie.
Editor-in-Charge: Gu Ming
Proofreader: Luan Meng