Recently, "Chosin Lake" was screened, and there were three directors who directed this film, namely Chen Kaige, Xu Ke, and Lin Chaoxian. To say that the biggest of these three directors is Chen Kaige, the banner figure of the fifth generation of directors in the mainland. When talking about director Chen Kaige, there is a problem that cannot be ignored, that is, in the audience's evaluation, his work has a huge gap in reputation. Good works such as "Farewell to the Overlord" ranked first in the list of Chinese films in the film word-of-mouth rankings, while poor works such as "Wuji" once became synonymous with bad films.
However, on the whole, Chen Kaige is still a very talented director, and the works he has directed, such as "Yellow Land", "Farewell to the Overlord", "Jing Ke Thorn Qin King", etc., all belong to the top Chinese films. It is also interesting to say that through these works, we can analyze an important "advantage" of Chen Kaige. As the flagship figure of the fifth generation of directors, Chen Kaige has been at the forefront of domestic films since he started his career, and in the 1980s and 1990s, Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou represented the highest level of mainland films. However, the characteristics of the two are not the same, because Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, who are classmates of Beiying, belong to different majors.
Chen Kaige not only studied directing at that time, but he also came from a family of directors. Chen Kaige's father, Chen Huaikai, is a representative of the fourth generation of Chinese film directors, so Chen Kaige is engaged in film work, and he will naturally start from the perspective of a director. Zhang Yimou was originally engaged in photography work, so after becoming a director, Zhang Yimou will still maintain the attitude of a film technician, and everything is bound to be done perfectly and meticulously.
We look back at Chen Kaige's two most successful works, "Yellow Land" and "Farewell to the Overlord", of which "Yellow Land" is a film cooperated by Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou. When creating "Yellow Land", Zhang Yimou served as the film's cinematographer and Chen Kaige served as the director of the film. Later, the film's high-altitude and thick-earth image style left a deep impression on the audience. And this bold creative technique has also made "Yellow Land" a landmark work of the fifth generation of domestic directors. After the success of this film, the relationship between Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou experienced a honeymoon period, and Chen Kaige even wrote a character biography for Zhang Yimou called "Qin Ren".
However, Zhang Yimou later transformed into a director and became popular with the movie "Red Sorghum", and since then Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige have become a pair of competitors. Zhang Yimou did not sound, a blockbuster, with "Red Sorghum" won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival, the director of the mainland film industry that year, almost instantly changed from Chen Kaige to Zhang Yimou. In the face of such a situation, Chen Kaige is somewhat unconvinced, but in the film industry, the work is the best response. In the following years, Zhang Yimou successively directed the movies "Ju Dou" and "Qiu Ju Fights a Lawsuit", and both achieved good results. Zhang Yimou has won recognition and attention at the Oscars and venice film festivals with these works, which has significantly suppressed Chen Kaige's momentum.
At this time, Chen Kaige met a key person in his life, this person's name is Xu Feng, and we may feel strange to her name at first. But in the Chinese film industry, she is also known as "Chivalrous Woman", and the reason for this title is because Xu Feng starred in the work "Chivalrous Girl" directed by the martial arts master director Hu Jinquan in her early years. The film "Heroine" won the technical award at the Cannes Film Festival. As a result, Xu Feng and the Cannes Film Festival formed an indissoluble relationship. Later, Xu Feng married Tang Junnian, the boss of Tomson Yipin, and became a veritable rich woman. After living a carefree life, Xu Feng has not forgotten her old business. It's just that her identity has transformed from a movie star to a movie investor.
At the end of the 1980s, Xu Feng saw Li Bihua's novel "Farewell to the King", and a few days after buying the adaptation rights of the novel, he met Chen Kaige, who was a little frustrated at the film festival. This encounter between the two was a godsend opportunity for Chen Kaige. Xu Feng decided that Chen Kaige was the best candidate to be the director of "Overlord Farewell", and in the following period of time, Xu Feng and Chen Kaige have maintained interaction and eventually contributed to the film project of "Farewell to the King". In addition to investment, Xu Feng also participated in the casting of the film. Among them are details such as Ding Zhang Guorong starring Cheng Dieyi, Ding Gongli playing Ju Xian and so on.
Why should we cite the above two examples of Chen Kaige? In these two examples, do we find a common point, that is, when Chen Kaige creates good works, there are always some competent assistants around him. We can certainly explain that the project is too big and there must be many people involved. However, in Zhou Youjun's view, this precisely reflects one of Chen Kaige's advantages, as well as a disadvantage corresponding to the advantages. The advantage is that Chen Kaige is better at working with talented people and converting some suggestions into the effect of the work. The disadvantages also correspond to the advantages, that is, Chen Kaige's ideas are too jumpy, and he needs the constraints of the people around him.
Later, Zhang Yimou created the movie "Hero" in the style of "Chinese style". Although the word of mouth when "Heroes" was released was also average, the film achieved a record huge box office. Later, Chen Kaige's work "Wuji" was almost released under the banner of "Hero" second, but it suffered a fiasco in the two dimensions of word-of-mouth and box office. The failure of "Wuji" precisely reflects the second characteristic of Chen Kaige, that is, he pays too much attention to personal talent and ignores the analysis of market data and technology. And when we watch the movie "Wuji", it is almost operated by Chen Kaige and Chen Hong.
Subsequently, Chen Kaige kept a low profile for a long time, and in recent years, his career has embodied a new dynamic. That's like doing some partnership things, such as being the general director of "My Motherland and Me" before, and being one of the directors of "Chosin Lake" this time. But when we look at the work "Chosin Lake", although there are three directors, Chen Kaige, Xu Ke and Lin Chaoxian, the style of the whole film is very consistent. Although interspersed with two different scenes of the domestic and Korean battlefields, the style is perfectly integrated.
It is difficult to say that there is no credit for Chen Kaige, who is a filmmaker who is particularly good at cooperation. In this regard, Chen Kaige and his old classmate Zhang Yimou are very different. Chen Kaige is a director who has a strong personal style, but he will also accept the opinions of others to a certain extent. Xu Feng, the producer of "Farewell to the Overlord", once said that Chen Kaige is a director who needs others to collide with him, and only after a full collision can Chen Kaige have the best play.
In this regard, "Chosin Lake" has a clear embodiment, and it has been rumored before that Xu Ke is not a filmmaker who is very easy to work with. As early as a few decades ago, Xu Feng's teacher and Xu Ke's idol Hu Jinquan made an unpleasant scene when he collaborated with Xu Ke on "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu", and it is said that this cooperation was still matched by Xu Feng. I don't want to go around this time Xu Ke and cooperate with Chen Kaige, but this cooperation is very successful for the two. In addition, there is director Lin Chaoxian, who should mainly provide technical support in the process of film creation. Chen Kaige and Xu Ke pay more attention to the overall effect of the film.
The cooperation model of "Changjin Lake" this time gives full play to chen Kaige's advantages, and if such a model is grasped by Zhang Yimou, it is estimated that it is not Zhang Yimou's strength. If Chen Kaige knew himself early, it is estimated that there would be no iconic bad film such as "Wuji", but it is also "Wuji" that Chen Kaige better understands himself.