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A film crew, but hiding a "small society".
The most powerful voice is the director, after all, people are the soul of the whole movie;
The most profitable is the lead actor, who has an older wrist and can put a third of the budget of a movie into his wallet;
The most idle is the producer, if you want to do it, you will check behind the director, and if you are troublesome, you will directly hang up a name to collect money.
The most undesirable is the screenwriter.
It is reasonable to say that the importance of the screenwriter is not inferior to the director and the lead actor, but the income is 108,000 miles away from others, and the brain-draining work is the screenwriter's, and finally others eat meat, the screenwriter can only drink some soup, and if it is not good, it will be "sent to the blade" by the audience.
In Pigo's view, Chinese films have developed for so many years, why they still stay in a stage of telling a bad story, in the final analysis, is that the status of screenwriters is too low, powerful authors are not willing to wade through this muddy water, and the reputation is generally in this circle, anyway, the ceiling of the screenwriting industry is so high, the whole circle is stuck, and everyone's initiative is not so strong.
In fact, not only in China, the unfair treatment of screenwriters is a problem in many parts of the world.
In 1997, Hong Kong released a movie "Nanhai Thirteen Lang", which is about the legendary and tragic life of a screenwriter. Pigo will borrow this movie today to talk about the tragedy of China's screenwriting industry.
01、
"Nanhai Thirteen Lang" Douban score is as high as 9.2 points, is the best reputation of Hong Kong films, or even one of them, can be called the Hong Kong version of "Overlord Farewell".
The lead actor of this film, Xie Junhao, won a well-known film festival emperor in 1997 with this film to pressure Zhang Guorong, and many fans of his brother shouted injustice for him that year, but if you watch this film, you will find that Xie Junhao is really deserved, and he interprets the madness and pain of the characters into three points.
In fact, Xie Junhao and Zhang Guorong are similar in appearance, and the role he plays in this film is the same as Zhang Guorong's Chen Dieyi in "Farewell to the Overlord", they are all idiots who are "not crazy and do not live", and one of the great pleasures of watching this film is to appreciate Xie Junhao's performance.
The other starring actor of this film is Wu Qili, she is more well known as the mother of Xiaolongnü, when she was born in Yajie, she saw Jackie Chan mistakenly for life, and gave up her acting career early to make people sigh, but more than ten years later, she said in an interview that she never regretted her choice. In this film, she is graceful, and we may be able to understand why Uncle Long fell under her pomegranate skirt and made the mistakes that men all over the world will make.
There is also an actor in this film who is Huang Xia, yes, the word master who wrote "A Laugh in the Sea", who played a small role in the film.
The reason why "Nanhai Thirteen Langs" can attract such a big cameo as Huang Xia is that its theme is about a screenwriter, from the world to the street, the whole story makes people sigh, and the film finally hits the subtitle: "Dedicated to the whole Hong Kong screenwriters to encourage", like an encouragement, more like a comfort.
02、
Born in Nanhai, Guangzhou, in the early 20th century, Shi Sanlang was the thirteenth son of Jiang Taishigong, the most famous Cantonese opera screenwriter before the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and grew up in a prosperous life, frequently visiting celebrity venues.
By chance, he met Shanghai Qianjin Lili (Wu Qili) and fell in love with her at first sight, Shi San Lang followed her to Shanghai, the relationship between the two ended without a problem, and Shi San Lang was poor for love.
Thirteen Lang returned home, he has been removed from the school, nothing to do he went to see the play, from then on, step by step became a gold medal screenwriter, people sent the nickname "South Sea Thirteen Lang".
At his peak, Jushiro was able to compose several plays at the same time, where he improvised lyrics, and the speed at which the scribes at the bottom could not keep up with the speed of his creation.
There was a little brother named Tang Disheng next to Shi Sanlang, 7 years younger than him, Tang was deeply impressed by his creative talent, Shi San Lang asked Tang to bring a cup of tea, spit into it, and said to him, drink this cup of tea before accepting him as an apprentice, Tang who was thirsty for a teacher actually plucked up enough courage to drink this cup of tea, Shi San Lang stopped him, told him that this was a test for him, and the two formed a lifelong friendship between teachers and students.
When the War of Resistance broke out, Shi SanLang and Tang Disheng parted ways, Tang went to Hong Kong to break in, he took over the mantle of his master and became the most famous Cantonese opera screenwriter after the war, while Shi San Lang was tricked by fate and began to fall from the peak.
Shi Sanlang is a famous patriotic screenwriter, once went to Jiangxi to write a drama to the frontline soldiers to comfort, he could not stand the kitsch of his peers, and the people fought; others tampered with his script, to play a "Baolian Lamp Animal Version", Shi Sanlang opened the table in public, angrily scolding that no one was qualified to revise his script.
Gradually, no one looked for Thirteen Lang to write the script, he met his first love Lily on the street, the other party has married a rich man, the love career is empty, Thirteen Lang is depressed, jumped on the train and fell into a concussion, and his spirit began to be abnormal.
Shi San Lang came to Hong Kong to make a living begging, and his former troupe owner Xue Laowu was enthusiastic about helping him, but he was completely mad.
After that, he was reunited with his apprentice Tang Disheng, a master and apprentice, one was a well-known screenwriter, the other was a beggar who fell into the street, and the impermanence of fate made people sigh.
The crazy Shi San Lang rushed to the theater to give the apprentice a show, and before he met Tang Disheng, he died of a sudden illness behind the stage, and Shi San Lang was sad.
In his later years, Shisaburo went to the temple to practice, and accidentally learned that his father starved to death and the family road declined in a special era, and he himself described it as withered, and finally died barefoot on the street.
The story of Thirteen Lang in this film is told through the storyteller, more of a "life is like a play" meaning, we are familiar with the "Burning Heart of the Sun" also adopts this technique, but the storyteller and the film story in it are separated, and the storyteller in "South Sea Thirteen Lang" was begging with Thirteen Lang, he is the storyteller, but also the person in the play, the story it tells has a stronger sense of substitution, and it can resonate with the audience.
The ending of this film is exquisite.
When asked what the relationship between the storyteller and The Thirteen Lang was, the storyteller replied: This is just a sloppy screenwriter telling the story of another sloppy screenwriter.
This answer is very topical, the encounter of Nanhai Thirteen Lang is not only a story of genius and talent, it is the epitome of the lack of attention of the screenwriters of the whole society, this answer instantly makes the film sound lingering.
03、
In the glorious era of Hong Kong films, many screenwriters are outstanding, and their characters are either full of chivalrous temperament or full of family and country feelings.
For example, "Four Talents of Xiangjiang" Ni Kuang, is the royal screenwriter of the famous director Zhang Che, he has written works such as "One-Armed Knife", "Great Assassin", "Thorn Horse", etc., the department is a boutique, the heroic ambition in the story, the chivalrous spirit of the jianghu is touching, he and Zhang Che have achieved each other, and he himself has won the 2012 Academy Awards Lifetime Achievement Award.
However, with the development of the times, the market position of commercial films is getting higher and higher, and the right to speak of a film is gradually tilted to the director and starring. In such an environment, more screenwriters choose to be their own directors as soon as they have the opportunity, and while they gradually adapt to the market, they also inject humanistic connotations as much as possible to retain their own work style.
For example, wong Kar-wai, who is familiar to us, started from the screenwriter in the early 80s, wrote works such as "Little Fox Fairy" and "I Want a Golden Turtle Son-in-Law", which were tepid, and it was not until he finished writing "Jianghu Dragon and Tiger Fight" that he was appreciated by Deng Guangrong and began a real career as a director. Most of his subsequent works are self-written, and it takes a long time for a work to be shot, and many fine works are polished step by step.
For example, Wang Jing, although he wears the hat of "the king of bad films", he is also an excellent screenwriter.
He graduated from the Department of Chinese Literature of the University of Chinese in Hong Kong, he can control the grand historical background, he can play entertainment with nonsense fragments, and the lines he writes can also fit the actor's performance style, the most representative of which is Wei Xiaobao, played by Stephen Chow. Even if it is written in commercial films for the purpose of making money, you can still feel the talent of Wang Jing herself from the lines.
There is also Xu Ke, although he is not a screenwriter, but after becoming famous, he began to participate more in the creation of the script, creative avant-garde, narrative style changeable, his martial arts films can thus become their own, the humanistic ideas in the script look at the Hong Kong film industry also has few opponents.
Taking "Huang Feihong" as an example, he created the role of thirteen aunts in the movie, and used her as a window for Huang Feihong to perceive Western culture, and at the same time, he also extended his thinking about the current situation of the nation: "No matter how good our kung fu is, it can't beat the foreign guns", "If there is really a golden mountain in this world, why do these foreign ships come to our port?" Maybe we are already standing on the Golden Mountain", these lines can see Xu Ke's profound insight into history, but also to lead the audience to think, which is also the core connotation of this film.
These famous writers and directors each showed their talents, and together they created a hundred flowers in the heyday of Hong Kong films, but unfortunately, as they grew older, Hong Kong films gradually declined, and Hong Kong screenwriting talents gradually withered away.
04、
Our neighbor, South Korea, is particularly worthy of our thinking.
In South Korea, the status of screenwriters is particularly high, especially in the creation of TV series, the director can not modify the screenwriter's script without authorization, the actor arbitrarily modifies the lines is also a transgression behavior, many Korean dramas are filmed while broadcasting, some actors offend the screenwriter, directly will be "written to death" by the screenwriter.
Many Korean dramas are screenwriter responsibility systems, investors are invested by screenwriters, and some famous screenwriters even have the right to choose directors and actors, which is almost unimaginable in China.
▲ Korea's top screenwriter: Park Ji-eun
In the creative ecology of Korean films, the name of the screenwriter is "rare" a lot, because everything revolves around the director, and the director is the absolute core.
But the director himself also needs to have the ability to create a script, in other words, the director and the screenwriter are often "tied" together, and if the director wants the work to be recognized by peers and the market, he must first polish the script himself.
Especially for a new Korean director, this kind of "self-editing" ability is more important, if the debut script is not written by himself, he will be "despised" by his peers in the circle, and there is such a "congenital disadvantage", it is naturally more difficult to develop in the film industry.
Under such industry "norms", most Korean directors often write and direct a shoulder, they will carefully construct their own scripts, have an absolute right to speak in the role and plot arrangement, and ensure that the stories they write can be faithful to their personal hearts.
For example, Bong Joon-ho, since his debut, all his film works have been personally written scripts, a script of "Monsters of the Han River" he can sculpt for 3 years, and his works such as "Memories of Killing", "Mother", "Parasite" and other works reflect the director's skills at the same time, but also show his screenwriting talent.
It is precisely because of the emphasis on the function of screenwriters that South Korea can make such a life-like Korean drama and can make so many good movies that directly poke at the dark side of society.
05、
Looking at the mainland, most of the current screenwriter's work is based on the outline constructed by the producer to form the script, and there is little room for him to play, and his status is naturally self-evident.
Film and television dramas are no longer sharp and independent thinking, but more and more "clever", blindly catering to the market, what the audience loves to watch, what is added to the story.
For example, in the popular urban dramas "Ode to Joy", "All Is Good" and "AnJia" in recent years, you can see the plot design of the family preference for sons in the old era, although it can rely on plot conflicts to drive ratings, but from the perspective of the development of the TV series and screenwriting industry, it is extremely bad.
The screenwriter spirit of Shi Sanlang, who would rather die than compromise with the world, seems to be still "a dead end", and if you want to live, you must be "kitsch".
In fact, in the last century, the status and discourse power of mainland screenwriters are still worthy of affirmation.
If you look at the Chinese films at that time, you will find a common feature - many works are adapted from novels, and the author of the novel himself will personally participate in the group to participate in the screenwriting.
For example, a series of novels by Mo Yan, Liu Heng, Wang Shuo, and Liu Zhenyun, their original novels ensure the basis for the film to tell a good story, and when shooting, they personally serve as screenwriters to ensure that the film plot does not deviate from the spirit of the original work, and the director is only responsible for imaging.
Of course, the cooperative directors also respect, recognize and rely on them enough, and they can also achieve mutual achievements with the directors, and ultimately create the glory of the Chinese film industry together.
Unfortunately, as this generation of writers grows older, the dilemma of the screenwriting industry is exposed.
Zhang Yimou has also been frequently questioned about "telling a bad story" in recent years, and he also talked about this topic at last year's Pingyao Film Festival, soberly saying that the biggest problem in the Current Chinese film market is the lack of good screenwriters, "without a good script, it is impossible to do it."
Nowadays, the showbiz circle still prevails in the popular novel IP film and television, at first glance it is a fine tradition, but the control of all this has become commercial capital, the screenwriters and actors are marionettes, the original author of the novel can only helplessly wait and see in the face of the production line, hoping that the capital "uses snacks".
For example, When Zijin Chen was asked how he thought his novel had been adapted, he replied: My novel is just a rough house, and now how people decorate it doesn't matter.
For example, we are familiar with the world of Basing and the three uncles of the Southern Sect, their "Ghost Blowing Lights" and "Tomb Robber's Notes" have been taken to make movies, but their right to speak in the shooting is almost zero, which eventually causes the works born by the two IPs to be uneven.
There is also Liu Cixin, the absolute bull in the science fiction industry, but his novel was sold to the film company, and he himself could only watch others "badly practice", a "three-body" film was completely destroyed, and he was stillborn without meeting the audience. In the end, Netflix found Liu Cixin to shoot the "Three-Body Problem" episode, and Liu Haohao found the dignity of the creator from foreigners.
Having said all this, in fact, there are two points to improve the status of screenwriters, one is to raise salaries, and the other is to give enough voice.
It's just that these two powers were not negotiated calmly, but had to be won by fists, by shouting, and by the struggle of countless flesh and blood bodies like Nanhai Thirteen Lang.
Who wants to be the one who eats crabs? Who wants to be the one who doesn't want to be thanked? Who wants to drop their pen and really stand up? This requires a lot of courage, and the road is heavy and long.
Finally, as a writer, Pigo hopes that Chinese screenwriters will be remembered like Chinese directors and lead actors, and say to those screenwriters who are still silently code words: Hard!
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: A Chicken
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