Speaking of the recent popular movie "Chosin Lake", we have to mention the director of the film, Chen Kaige. Although the film has three directors directing, and all of them are well-known, especially director Lin Chaoxian, who has performed well in recent years with "Mekong Action" and "Red Sea Action", and director Xu Ke is also a rare figure in the history of Chinese cinema. However, compared with Chen Kaige, the fame of these two is still much inferior. As the "number two" director in the mainland film industry, Chen Kaige can be described as famous. Since the 1980s, Chen Kaige has become the flagship figure of the fifth generation of directors. However, this situation came to an abrupt end in 1987 with the release of Zhang Yimou's film "Red Sorghum".
Later, Chen Kaige was suppressed by Zhang Yimou for many years, and it was not until the release of "Farewell to the Overlord" in 1993 that Chen Kaige turned the situation around. And this Chinese blockbuster that won the Cannes Palme d'Or allowed Chen Kaige to go hand in hand with Zhang Yimou again. And the situation continued until the release of "Wuji" in 2005, when it comes to this movie, although Chen Kaige himself said that he has no regrets, but from the outside world's evaluation of Chen Kaige's entire career, "Wuji" is a topic that Chen Kaige cannot avoid. Even some time ago to do variety shows, "Wuji" was also taken out to ridicule.
The film "Wuji" directly affected the fans' evaluation of Chen Kaige, and even because of the performance of this film, fans once doubted whether "Farewell to the Overlord" was written by Chen Kaige. Of course, Chen Kaige himself did not respond too much to this, after all, under the tide of changes in Chinese films, many times, the quality of the film cannot put all the responsibility on the director. Didn't Zhang Yimou, who is also a representative figure of mainland films, also direct bad films such as "The Surprise of the Three Guns Shooting" and "The Great Wall"?
Although it can be said that, fans did not recognize it, and after the release of "Wuji", everyone questioned Chen Kaige's directing ability. After all, as the flagship figure of the fifth generation of directors, being able to direct the works on "Wuji" really surprised the public. So much so that later Chen Kaige directed a number of films, but the response was very flat. Among them, there are also many star-studded big productions such as "The Legend of the Demon Cat" and "Taoist Descending the Mountain". From the perspective of theme and marketing means, these works are very similar to the small version of "Wuji". Through the stacking of stars, through a mature story, to create a commercial film with the main purpose of box office.
Therefore, after "Wuji", Chen Kaige was abandoned by fans to a certain extent. Even some viewers, because the film is directed by Chen Kaige, look at this work with colored glasses, and some viewers dismiss the idea of watching the film because Chen Kaige is the director of the film. In fact, we have a certain degree of misunderstanding of Chen Kaige, and we mistakenly count the mistakes of the market situation on Chen Kaige alone.
Take the recent film "Chosin Lake", if such a work was placed more than ten years ago, it is estimated that with the domestic film industry system at that time, whether it can be successfully completed will be a problem. At the time of the creation of "Wuji" that year, the domestic film industry system was still extremely imperfect. At that time, the commercial genre films of mainland films mainly relied on Feng Xiaogang's Lunar New Year theme to support the market, and the so-called commercial blockbusters, except for a few martial arts films, almost did not have any works on the stage. And our so-called film industry representatives Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, they are all known for their literary and artistic films. To put it bluntly, literary and artistic films and commercial films are almost two different concepts, literary and artistic films rely on the artistic achievements of filmmakers such as directors and actors, and commercial films need the perfection and maturity of the entire film industry system.
Why did "Wuji" fail that year? In the same period, only Zhang Yimou's "Hero" achieved box office success, and the reason for the success was very simple, although the story of the film was criticized by fans, but in the name of large-scale production, big marketing, and revitalization of the national film industry, it gave fans enough reasons to buy tickets. The film brings together Jet Li, Zhen Zidan, Liang Chaowei and other top Chinese stars, which makes the film star-studded. At the same time, coupled with the top production team behind the scenes, it is difficult for this film to sell well. However, the same trick is difficult to play twice, "Hero" succeeded, "Wuji" is difficult to continue this success.
And "Wuji" also has many innate shortcomings, for example, the degree between literature and commerce in the film is very problematic, and the audience has seen this film, although they have seen many celebrities, but they do not have any relaxed atmosphere of commercial films. If we have to say that "Wuji" is a literary film, we really can't see the core content of the film. The reason is that there is still too little experience, and in order to make a big production and big marketing, Chen Kaige's steps are too big, and two problems make Chen Kaige's film separate from the audience's viewing needs.
Under such circumstances, "Wuji" has naturally become a bad film in the evaluation of fans. I don't know whether it is the changes in the film market, or Chen Kaige has learned the lessons of the past, and Chen Kaige's works have been relatively successful in recent years. However, in recent years, Chen Kaige has rarely been active alone, such as the film "My Motherland and Me", and this time "Chosin Lake", Chen Kaige is one of the directors, not the director of the entire film.
To say that this team creation model is actually conducive to Chen Kaige's play. In Chen Kaige's career, his masterpieces "Yellow Land" and "Farewell to the Overlord" are collective works. Among them, "Yellow Land" is directed by Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou is the photographer. The main feature of this film is because of the video style of the high sky and thick earth in the film. Then to "Farewell to the Overlord", although we all know that this film is directed by Chen Kaige, the film's producer Xu Feng, the film's artistic director Chen Huaikai, as well as the film's screenwriter Reed, the film's lead actor Zhang Guorong, they all made outstanding contributions to the final success of the film. It is worth mentioning that Mr. Chen Huaikai, the father of Chen Kaige, is the representative of the fourth generation of directors in China.
Xu Feng, the producer of "Farewell to the Overlord", once said that Chen Kaige is a talented director, but he too much wants to inject all his talents and the ideas he expresses into the big screen. And this process often exceeds the limits of the film itself. In addition, Chen Kaige thought about some issues too complicated. For example, in the process of casting "Farewell to the Overlord", Xu Feng proposed to let Gong Li play the role of Ju Xian, but Chen Kaige took into account that Gong Li was the royal protagonist of Zhang Yimou, and then Xu Fengli invited Gong Li to come to Gong Li. There are many things like this, and although Chen Kaige has an artistic stubbornness, at the same time, he also lacks the determination to complete this artistic goal. In this regard, Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou have a big gap.
However, this time Chen Kaige finally found his own rhythm, and with the success of "Chosin Lake" and "My Motherland and Me", Chen Kaige finally proved his value again. Although both films belong to the collective director, Chen Kaige's performance is still remarkable, so Chen Kaige's professional ability is still beyond doubt, but he needs a correct way to open.