Jiang Wen had two very important insomnias, enough to enter the history of Chinese cinema.
Once, late in 1992, he read Wang Shuo's novel "Animal Fierceness" and couldn't sleep all night.
Lao Wang wrote in the book:
"Maybe nothing happened that summer, and I saw a young girl and had some thrilling imaginations, that I was here to die and come back to life, and she knew nothing about it."
From these "thrilling" words, Jiang Wen caught a glimpse of his youth.
So he changed the novel, which was only 60,000 words, to a 90,000-word script.
And then it was made into a movie, Sunny Day.
Another insomnia,
It gave birth to "Let the Bullets Fly".
In 2007, Jiang Wen's seven-year-old grinding sword", "The Sun Also Rises", failed miserably at the box office.
Plus the previous movie that didn't even meet the audience.
For two consecutive films, he lost one hundred million to investors.
At this time, a successful TV series producer, Ma Ke, walked into Jiang Wen's studio in Taimiao.
Because in his heart, Jiang Wen is the most cattle director in China.
Ma Ke and Jiang Wen chatted for two hours, hoping to become his producer.
Then it was another sleepless night of tossing and turning.
Jiang Wen made up his mind to work with Ma Ke, and their first film was "Let the Bullets Fly".
But Ma Ke did not expect that Jiang Wen was such an inhumane person who "did not know how to lift".
In a "Hongmen Banquet" drama in which Jiang Wen, Ge You, and Zhou Runfa appeared at the same time, baijiu was the most important prop.
So several century-old liquor brands found Ma Ke and wanted to do advertising implants.
Later, Ma Ke recalled: "Several business leaders are my big brothers, begging for it, and the price is tens of millions. ”
The brand side means: three kinds of wine, arrange for each big brother to drink one, give 30 million.
Before the film was finished, he first earned such a large amount of money, and as an investor, Ma Ke smiled and closed his mouth.
But Jiang Wen's meaning is: no promise, the second pot head is still Maotai, the audience's attention is distracted, and how to enter the play.
No matter how Ma Ke asked, it showed that the people in it were sophisticated, and Jiang Wen "did not know how to lift."
Ma Ke has told the outside world more than once about this matter: "I really have a heart that I can't do it, and I am so angry that I want to cry."
The later story is that Ma Ke was very ill, and the two did not speak for a month.
Many years later, Jiang Wen told Dou Wentao in "Round Table Pie": Money is never the most important thing for me, it is not necessary.
Movies and money, he did not hesitate to choose the movie.
This is reminiscent of a widely circulated classic quote by Jiang Wen, about the movie, from Feng Xiaogang's quasi-autobiography "I Dedicate Youth to You", he said this to Feng Xiaogang:
"A movie should be wine, even if it's just one sip, but it has to be wine."
"The thing you shoot is grapes, very fresh grapes, and even frost, but you don't make it into wine, it starts with grapes, and then it's grapes."
"Other directors understand this, they know that the film has to be wine, but there is no brewing process. It's a sip of wine at the end, and a sip of wine at the end. What is even more frightening is that this wine is neither made of grapes nor grain, but is chemically blended. ”
"Xiao Gang, you should make grapes into wine, you can't just be satisfied with making cup after cup of freshly squeezed grape juice."
Feng Xiaogang admitted, "The movie is a very sacred thing for Jiang Wen."
But Feng Xiaogang did not keep Jiang Wen's expectations for him to use "grape wine".
In 2015, Feng Xiaogang signed a VAM agreement with Huayi Brothers and produced a net profit worth a total of 670 million yuan in 5 years.
In 5 years, he arranged four movies and a TV series for himself.
It's easy to fall into a kind of creator anxiety, you know that good things depend on time, but you have to rush to produce and sell money.
In the end, even this glass of freshly squeezed grape juice may have been mixed with water.
In fact, not only Feng Xiaogang, but also opened the list of Chinese guides, and almost "no one survived" under the "wrapping" of capital.
Zhou Xingchi, who also signed a VAM agreement, has been densely packed for the films to be filmed until 2025.
Wong Kar-wai can make money for the "Ferryman" he participated in the investment, and the word of mouth of 4.1 points is hard to say: I like it.
Zhang Yimou switched from the rhythm of one movie in three years to three times a year.
In the original words of Feng Xiaogang's book, everyone is "basically still in the stage of eating movies as rice".
Does the film need capital?
Needless to say, of course it is.
Even Jiang Wen had a headache for money that year.
Filming "Sunny Day", the lights were gone, because the crew did not have money to pay wages, and the lights were halfway away.
But Jiang Wen figured out one thing: money is for movies; movies can't sell themselves for money.
The liquor of "Let the Bullets Fly" was implanted in the storm, and finally Jiang Wen took the initiative to send a text message to Ma Ke: "Or, I will help you (get the money) back in terms of movie quality?" ”。
Did you get it back?
Got it back.
Stand and find it back.
Meng Guangmei was very confused about Jiang Wen: When the director only made a movie in four or five years, most of the box office was still very miserable, and he did not go to the hole, how to live.
Jiang Wen's reply is very simple, I have enough.
Therefore, behind Jiang Wen's "ignorance of lifting", he actually expressed two meanings:
One is that money is in my values, it's not the first, or even important.
Because desire is like salt water, the more you drink, the more thirsty you get.
Second, the movie should be very simple and cannot be mixed with other things.
There's his belief in the totemic style of cinematic fundamentalism.
Director Lu Chuan, who has worked with Jiang Wen on "Looking for a Gun", was surprised: "Film school students think they have seen all the movies, but in fact, Jiang Wen is like the person who has actually seen all the movies."
He understands the relationship between film and the polishing of time.
Director Yang Chao filmed a scene in the movie "Yangtze River Map" where Qin Hao and Xin Zhilei on the other side looked at each other.
The camera moves with Qin Hao, how did we find Xin Zhilei?
Slowly discover from a shot that is long enough.
At most, the director uses the corner of Qin Hao's flying clothes to "hint" to you, there is a woman here in the picture, and the man looking at the opposite side is actually looking at her.
This is the very pure audiovisual language of cinema.
It was rustic and complicated.
It's hard to believe that this is not the director who spent a lot of time and effort to design and figure it out.
Just like Jiang Wen's "The Sun Also Rises" begins with embroidered shoes from the track and ends with a newborn on the rail.
Let the Bullets Fly begins with Ma Bond's train and ends with the brothers' train.
In addition to a metaphor for reincarnation, there is also a fundamentalist homage to "The Train Comes In".
Hide the simplest understanding and love of the film.
So
Then ponder Jiang Wen's sentence: The movie should be wine, even if it is only one sip, but it must be wine.
How many big-name directors in the Chinese film industry will blush?
Text/Porco Rosso Watch Movie Editorial Department: Porco Rosso
(Image from network infringement deleted)