Author: Fork Less
Source: Char Siu in the past
This article is 4832 words and is expected to read in 13 minutes
In 1988, four of Wang Shuo's novels were adapted into films, of which only Mi Jiashan's "Die Hard Lord" filmed the soul of the original book, which was called "a real comedy since the founding of the People's Republic of China".
Wang Shuo once said unkindly, "Several directors want to make big achievements and make big changes, so the more they change, the worse they get, but Mijiashan has no ability, so he shoots according to the novel, so he shoots good things."
That summer, Mi Jiashan took Ge You, Liang Tian, and Zhang Guoli to a concert, and then bought rock singer Wang Di's "Worried People Say" as an interlude for the movie, and later when it was screened, the audience began to applaud as soon as the rhythm rang.
I had dreamed of living in a modern city
But now I don't know what to say
The number of tall buildings here is increasing day by day
Days here
It's not good
Unemployed young Man Wang Shuo
In the summer of 1984, the 26-year-old Wang Shuo walked into the magazine "Contemporary" to submit an article, and the editors felt that the young man in the round neck T-shirt and shorts looked quite energetic, like a middle school student, so they asked him to leave the manuscript, this novel is called "Air Miss", which is a story of pure love between a naval soldier and a flight attendant.
The story is based on Wang Shuo's love experience, the flight attendant in the novel was killed in the line of duty, and in reality, the two broke up peacefully. In those two years, Wang Shuo talked about a total of six girlfriends, all of which ended in a breakup, and the last girlfriend was a flight attendant in Guangzhou, Wang Shuo once sighed with his comrades-in-arms, "Looking back on this period of love experience, I feel a little despicable." ”
The experienced old editor saw Wang Shuo's talent, but the text was a bit wordy, so he changed it four times, 90,000 words refined to 40,000 words, and was immediately adapted into a TV series of upper and lower episodes after publication, and the director was You Xiaogang.
Wang Shuo, who had just entered the literary world, and his future image judgment were two people, he took the initiative to obey the editor's request for revision, and Qin Zhaoyang, the old editor-in-chief of "Contemporary", once asked him to revise the end of "Air Hostess".
Qin: This protagonist always has to have a destination.
King: I don't know where he belongs, he's done with that little thing.
Qin: This is not okay, this character must be sublimated, to create a new person.
King: I understand, there must be a bright tail that gives people hope.
Therefore, Wang Shuo made up a "bright" ending for the protagonist who lost his lover.
< Contemporary Magazine 1987 Hainan PEN Club, Wang Shuo (second from left) >
The next year, Wang Shuo published "Floating on the Sea" in "Contemporary", telling the love-hate entanglement between an unemployed youth and a female student of the dance academy, the story is still his own experience, but this time his girlfriend Shen Xujia became Wang Shuo's wife.
The manuscript fee was more than a thousand yuan, and the kind editor gave Wang Shuo an idea, "You and your girlfriend signed together, so that the average is not more than eight hundred, and you are exempt from personal income tax." ”
After "Floating on the Surface", Wang Shuo wrote and flew, and successively published novels with fresh language and deconstructed sublime such as "Half Seawater, Half Flame", "Rubber Man", and "I Am Your Father".
"Air Hostess" attracted the attention of the Shanghai literary magazine "Harvest", the editor Cheng Yongxin wrote a letter to Wang Shuo, and after some days, Wang Shuo sent a novel called "Pork Belly", writing that three young people opened a "3T" company to solve problems for people.
This time, Wang Shuo really couldn't make up a bright ending, so he simply wrote where to count, "I originally wanted to write a story of a liar, and even in the end I wanted to fall into the educational sense, that is, at the end, they regretted it, they were guilty or something, but then I couldn't write it, you wrote the real thing in front of you, and if you wanted to put it false, you couldn't put it in." ”
Several old editors of "Harvest" saw that there was no problem, and unanimously agreed to publish it, only the title should be changed, Cheng Yongxin told Wang Shuo, in the reply letter, Wang Shuo listed four alternatives: "Caterpillar", "Stubborn Lord", "Villain", "Three "T" Company".
He also explained in the letter, "I think this novel will make some upright gentlemen have a bad feeling, so the name is as self-contemptible as possible, and the word 'stubborn lord' in Beijing is a derogatory term for the demon king of the chaotic world, which can also be used to describe the living conditions of these people." I originally took the name of "pork belly", borrowing it is neither fully fat nor all thin, red and white are all there, stir-frying is not OK, small fire stew rotten is also quite fragrant meaning, this classic is probably vulgar, not attractive but a big problem. In a hurry, I am also short-witted, otherwise, you look at giving a name and entrusting you. Sheinon Sheinon. ”
Cheng Yongxin selected "Stubborn Lord", published in 1987 "Harvest" No. 6, that issue is the "Harvest" 30th anniversary special issue, Wang Shuo's "Stubborn Lord" was quickly circulated in the writers' circle, it is said that Zhang Yimou intended to buy the copyright to make a movie, but was bought by a director of Emei Film Factory for five thousand yuan, this person is Mijiashan.
Mijia that mountain
To talk about the bumpy experience of filming, MiJiashan is comparable to Feng Xiaogang, Feng Dao later relied on the New Year film to kill out, and Mi Dao patted his ass and left, "Lao Tzu is not playing with you."
In 1976, MiJiashan graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Shanxi Academy of Arts, was assigned to Emei Film Studio, starting from the last level of painting of the artist, carrying a paint bucket every day, the photographer said that it was shallow, he brushed it, the director said that there was a tree missing there, he cut down one, and then lay on the ground and supported the tree with his hands until the shot was finished.
According to normal circumstances, it takes at least ten years for MiJiashan to stay up until he becomes a director, but after the turmoil, most of the talents in the film studio are not picked up, in 1977, Emei Factory filmed "Slave's Daughter", the assistant director and heroine were expelled, had to let Mijiashan go to Shanghai to choose actors, he saw Pan Hong, who was waiting for someone, at the door of the studio, and wanted to recruit her in.
At that time, Pan Hong had already entered Xie Jin's "Youth" crew, and Mi Jiashan had the courage to borrow people from Xie Jin, and he really borrowed it, and he also became a director's assistant because of his casting merits, and also married Pan Hong back home.
In 1983, Mi Jiashan and his colleague Han Sanping went to the Beijing Film Academy for two years of further study, and finally had the opportunity to direct films after graduation, the factory stipulated that the first film after the employees graduated must be co-produced, and Mi Jiashan and Han Sanping co-directed a "Unsinkable Horizon" dedicated to the fiftieth anniversary of the Red Army's Long March.
< Han Sanping (first from the left) and Mi Jiashan's "Second from the Left" >
Mijiashan feels that the story is very main theme: the old Red Army, which has become a general, returns to the meadow, meets four students of the Academy of Fine Arts, and recalls the past with young people, the old Red Army remembers itself that has been shaken during the Long March, and the film sets three lines in the way of stream of consciousness, which is very avant-garde in the form of expression.
At that time, after watching the film, the president of the Soviet Film Association excitedly clapped for half a minute, invited them to participate in the film festival, and also received nominations for the Best Debut Of the Decade in the New Era.
However, when it was sent for trial in China, Mijiashan encountered an unexpected situation, a film bureau leader who fully affirmed the content of the film before shooting suddenly said, "The situation has changed, it must be greatly changed", and it is exactly where Mijiashan wants to focus on performance, and finally deleted a total of 24 scenes, cut out more than 1300 feet of film, increased the cost of 140,000, and sent it for review four times before it was passed.
An exploratory art film was changed beyond recognition, only 8 copies were sold, ranking first in the copy distribution list that year, losing more than 600,000 yuan to the factory, and Mijiashan, who wanted to hit a hit, could not make a film for a year, and his mood was like Yu Guan, the manager of the Three T Company who was forced to shut down, full of anger and nowhere to vent, shouting I want to hit people, I really want to hit people. ”
< The movie "The Bad Lord" >
One afternoon in 1987, Mi Jiashan opened "Harvest" and saw Wang Shuo's "Stubborn Lord", in which he described his feelings in an interview, "I feel that I have suddenly found a catharsis, I must have a way to laugh and scold, do not have to be so serious. With irony, ridicule, catharsis of social repression... My heart was completely in line with Wang Shuo's soul. ”
Mi Jiashan told the director of the factory, Wu Baowen, that he wanted to take the copyright of "The Stubborn Lord" to make a movie, prove his ability and at the same time recover the previous losses for the Emei Factory, but this novel without a story line and typical characters made the E-Film Art Committee difficult, "Three people who can't tell who is there are talking nonsense, can this make a movie?" ”
The opposition of the old leader has enhanced Mijiashan's confidence in this subject, and he signed a "military order" with the factory director, "The cost of the film is 600,000 yuan, and I will pay you 1 million." Cost 800,000, I still give you 1.2 million. If I lose money, I will stop paying my salary for two years and stop filming for two years. ”
Mi Jiashan's masochistic request made "Naughty Lord" unconventional, his wife Pan Hong had a big fight with him for this, the two quarreled all the way from home to the set, Pan Hong starred in the film Yu Guan's girlfriend Ding Xiaolu, which is one of the few beautiful characters in it.
26 years later, Mijiashan still remembers the time when he filmed "The Stubborn Lord", "It's very refreshing, I just want to come against them, how fun I shoot, I will take them." There are four words in my heart: I X you X. ”
Summer in Beijing
"Stubborn Lord" was filmed in Beijing for two months, and in order to save money, the crew lived in an empty building in the Beijing office of a foreign company in Shili fort. Mijiashan's casting criteria are quite rebellious, "Handsome and beautiful men, good wives and good mothers, don't want anything, just find me someone with characteristics." ”
Under the guidance of this standard, Ge You, Liang Tian, and Li Geng, three actors who could only play bandits before the 1980s, were recruited into the crew and played an important role, and Yu Guan, who ranked first in the cast list, originally wanted to find Xie Yuan, but because the schedule could not be opened, Zhang Guoguo, who was the assistant director, was temporarily on top, and he also became the only person in the crew with thick eyebrows and big eyes.
Mijiashan encouraged actors to improvise, basically did not say drama, in Xidan, Houhai street scenes are secretly filmed. The fashion show that amazed the audience in the film was added by Mi Jiashan himself, more than a dozen fashionable models came from the stage, a 3-year-old child played in a dragon robe, landlords, Kuomintang, pre-liberation farmers, Red Guards appeared together, and finally a big party.
Mijiashan is very satisfied with this satirical post-opening scene with chaotic values, the only regret is that this scene came out too early, and the photographer installed the wrong negatives, and had to reshoot it once, so that the factory added 120,000 investments.
At the end of the filming, there was only 100 feet of film left, Mi Jiashan thought, unemployed youth, revolutionary fathers, moral education professors, popular writers have been satirized, simply satirize a film circle, so the rest of the crew is in the middle school playground next to the residence, improvised a stand-in crash scene.
The plot is that Yu Guan went to work as a movie stand-in to shoot a crash scene in order to repay the debt and save the company, and in reality, Mijiashan was facing a cost overrun and could not complete the military order.
That night, Mijiashan asked all the actors and crew not to make mistakes, they had to go through one by one, shoot a shot to report the number of films, and the first shot was shot, "18 feet!" When he finally heard the "click" of the machine, Mijiashan's heart was completely relaxed, just like Wang Shuo who stopped writing, "Just stop here, it's over."
Pork
Before the official release of "The Stubborn Lord", the students were put on a show in advance at the Beijing Film Academy, and dozens of applause rang out in the middle, and everyone came to congratulate the director after watching it, and Mi Jiashan felt that "it is worth making such a film in my life, and it is worth not doing this line in the future." ”
When it was sent for review, the film bureau said that "I have not seen such a film for a long time since the review of the film, and the theater effect is the best." But I also put forward a lot of opinions, such as the rough words in the play should be deleted, and the plot of the moral education professor waiting for people at the entrance of the Great Wall Hotel should also be deleted, because there is a moral education professor in the whole country, don't let people sit in the right seat.
In order not to change, Mijiashan "tricked Lai" ran from the factory, and later the factory repeatedly did work, he deleted a line from Yu Guan's reaction to his father, "You want to call my father, I will also give you urine." ”
"Stubborn Lord" sold 83 copies and received six nominations for the Golden Rooster Award, and Ge You and Ma Xiaoqing's Best Supporting Actor and Actress were the only nominations, but due to the opinion of a critic, none of them won in the end.
Due to the cost overrun, Mijiashan did not complete the profit target, he had to abide by the "punishment" of not being allowed to make a film for two years, fortunately, Chen Jianyu, director of the Fujian Film Factory, enjoyed "The Stubborn Lord", so he asked Mijiashan to shoot the genre film "Yuan's Inheritance Case", which made hundreds of thousands of profits for the factory.
Chen Jianyu told Mijiashan that the profit of the last play is good, shoot a film you want to shoot, Mijiashan filmed "You are not 16 years old", reflecting the tide of business, the loss of high school students, although the praise of the dedication of teachers, but before the filming was reported to the Provincial Education Commission, the copy of a pressure is five years, hundreds of thousands of investment and water drift.
In order to pay off the debt, Mijiashan had to find materials from the stall novel, and earned 720,000 yuan from the thriller "The Mystery of St. Paul's Hospital". Since graduating from the North Film Directing Seminar, Mijiashan has made five films, and everyone who wants to explore a little in art has "failed", but those who pursue sensory stimulation have made money.
< Mijiashan > filming "The Stubborn Lord"
As the "Stubborn Lord" complained, "It is really not easy to make movies in China, those audiences were quite deep in the first two years, these two years are crazy, the heroine is half off, but also to see the big collision with the living." ”
At Zhang Guoguo's 60th birthday party, Feng Xiaogang thanked Mi Jiashan and "Stubborn Lord", saying that ""Naughty Lord" is the grandfather of the model of "Party A and Party B" and "Private Customization". ”
However, "Private Order" uses Fan Wei's dream of being a clean official, Song Dandan's dream of sudden prosperity, and "Yang Zhong", who is no longer young, to please the officialdom, the rich and the audience, which just betrays the most maverick spiritual core of "The Stubborn Lord".
On the 25th anniversary of "Stubborn Lord", the reporter asked Ge You what Yang Zhong, who is in his 50s, would say to Yang Zhong, who is in his 30s, Ge You thought about it and shouted, "After so many years, why are you still so unreliable!" ”
Unreliable is the romance of the stubborn lord in the eighties, but also the film and the reality of the moral education professors most want to educate them, when faced with the critics' "Beat generation" evaluation, Mi Jiashan said that these young people find their own way, run their own companies, for others to solve problems, manage some things that no one wants to manage, they do not want to retaliate against anyone, just want to live in a down-to-earth manner.
Times have changed, and the stubborn lord is gone, as Wang Shuo said in the preface to the re-edition of "The Stubborn Lord":
"When I was young, I thought there was a lot of important things in front, as long as I kept running, I could see it, and when I came over, I found that the important things were happening behind me, and it had passed, and then there was a blank space.
These scenes are gone, these people are scattered, the living are not old, and I don't talk and see myself that way anymore, so sometimes I feel like I have lost the ability to continue writing. ”
Worried said Wang Di - Rolling Stones 10 years commemorative disk 4 continental 1990
Some references:
[1], "Air Hostess", "Stubborn Lord", Wang Shuo
[2] The Generation of Screwba: Wang Shuo in the Vision of Growing Up, Gui Lin, China Film Publishing House
[3], "The Stubborn Lord and Mijiashan", Wang Xiaolu, Economic Observation Network
[4], "Mijia Mountain Goes to the Sea", Hama Ting, film review
[5] "MiJiashan Talks About the Stubborn Lord", Wang Yunzhen, Film Art
[6], "The Game of Disappointment", Chen Yu, blog world
-END-
Author | Few forks
This article is from the public account: Past Char Siu (id: wschashao), focusing on discovering the shining moments in the old times. What is written here is the past of the cultural circle and the entertainment industry. Time is a magician, and what seems to be insignificant at that time determines the history and the direction of life in the dark.