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"This article is transferred from the non-profit online media "The Reporter" (www.twreporter.org)"
| Text: Yang Huijun Xie Xuan | Photo: Su Weiming
"When I was in my 20s, I met Hou's film, and because of this, I realized that this was also my father's hometown. I thought more deeply about Taiwan and Taiwanese films, and I fell in love with it. Seeing Director Hou himself, I was deeply attracted by his personal charm and wanted to be closer to him, so I made up my mind to become a film director. The two of us were not related by blood, but I always thought that I was one of his sons... ”
Pushing off the scheduled itinerary and isolating for 14 days, the Japanese director who came to Taiwan to participate in the "Golden Horse 57" was Hirokazu Kore-eda, and he said this moving introduction for the lifetime achievement award winner Hou Xiaoxian, which warmed the Taiwanese audience and filmmakers with practical actions and sincere language. Before the Golden Horse Awards ceremony, Kore-eda was interviewed by the "Reporter" and his only visit to Taiwan on this trip, talking about his feelings for Taiwan, his attitude towards film, his feelings about international cooperation in recent years, and revealing a plan that had been brewed in his heart for 15 years - "I want to make a "City of Sorrows" that belongs to me." Both the film and the pursuit of the world are in the direction of "Hou Xiaoxian", which he regards as a father.
In 1995, his first film, "The Light of Illusion", was shortlisted for the Venice Golden Lion Award; in 2009, "Taste of Yokoyama Family" won the Asian Film Award; in 2018, "Thief Family" became the third Japanese director to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival after Akira Kurosawa and Masahei Imamura. Kore-eda is not only the most iconic Japanese director of our time, but also one of the world's best.
But he always has a "selfish heart" for Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards.
<h2 toutiao-origin="h4" >▍ Taiwan is full of peace, and the Golden Horse Award makes people feel at ease</h2>
The grandparents could not marry in Japan because of the same surname, and gave birth to his father after "eloping" from Amami Oshima to Kaohsiung, and it was Kore-eda who was a descendant of "Wansheng", but in Hou Hyo-hyun's film, he made a connection with his father's growth, and regarded Taiwan as another hometown. In 1993, kore-eda came to Taiwan to shoot the documentary "Film Screening Times: Hou Xiaoxian and Yang Dechang", which became the key to his decision to go to film, and also opened a deep friendship with Hou Xiaoxian and a group of Taiwanese new film era workers for nearly 30 years.
Hou Dao edited and supervised the old partner "Liao Sang" Liao Qingsong, mentioned that it was Kore-eda and smiled: "(At that time) he was still a young man, holding Miguo to visit, after he left, Miguo was what we ate, and Hou Dao did not eat." Now look at his white beard. "When I came to Taiwan this time, I couldn't remember the hotel where I stayed when I filmed "The Film Screening Era: Hou Xiaoxian and Yang Dechang", nor could I find the roadside snacks I had in mind, but on the night when the quarantine period expired, it was Kore-eda who still ate porridge and small dishes with Li Pingbin, chairman of this year's Golden Horse Awards jury, and I understood the taste of lovesickness.
In 2009, Kore-eda participated in the Golden Horse Film Festival for the first time, paying tribute to the focus of the year, Lee Ping Bin. This year, under the COVID-19 epidemic, the cost of international mobile time is extremely high, and he still came to Taiwan to participate in the "Golden Horse 57", in addition to serving as the introduction to the award for the lifetime achievement award winner Hou Xiaoxian, he also led the Golden Horse Film Workshop as a mentor and taught for the emerging directors.
"Yes, I originally had other itineraries at this time, but as soon as I received the invitation of the Golden Horse Awards, I decided to change to Taiwan, don't say quarantine for 2 weeks, even if I am quarantined for 4 weeks, I am willing," said the gentle smile hanging on the signboard, in his eyes, "Taiwan, is a 'very peaceful' place, the Golden Horse Awards are also full of such a peaceful atmosphere, the staff of the Golden Horse Film Festival and Taiwan filmmakers, always very gentle, laughing Mimi, compared to other international film festivals, sometimes a little 'tightness', the staff will be a little fierce, Coming to Taiwan makes people feel very comfortable. ”
Three hours before the award ceremony, Kore-eda had put on his dress for the ceremony and was interviewed by The Reporter. In the interview conducted in the café on the first floor of the Eslite Travel Hotel, the staff intimately arranged in an undisturbed independent space, but the moment of movement, he glanced at the outdoor turf with the wedding couple taking photos of relatives and friends, immediately stopped, took out his mobile phone twice and took it, "Very beautiful", this international director is full of curiosity about the world like a child, ordinary scenes, in his eyes seem to have different imaginations.
<h2 toutiao-origin="h4" >▍ Heaven and earth have feelings, see the perspective of the tree in "Childhood Past"</h2>
"'Heaven and earth have feelings' is a sentence that my most respected Taiwanese director Hou Xiaoxian often writes on colored paper, and I have the same understanding and am often moved by such a relationship."
My works are not created by me, the works and feelings are already contained in the world, I am just gathering them to select and show them to the audience. The work is the author's dialogue with the world. ”
—"Like Walking Speed", 2014
It was Kore-eda who came to Taiwan for 14 days of isolation, re-watched Hou Xiaoxian's "Childhood Past" and "Love Wind and Dust", and his touch was the same as before, "When I first watched these works, I saw a different style from all movies, and people's real lives exist in the movie space, which was something that had never been thought of in the past (movies). ”
It is Kore-eda who believes that Hou Xiaoxian's "heaven and earth have feelings" is not only to present human feelings, trees, wind, rain, all things have feelings, mountains, rivers, trees have their own meaning and value.
"The 'Childhood Past' I saw, it was not a human perspective, it was a tree's perspective on this story, the big tree at the mouth of the temple, to see the life, old age, illness and death of human beings; the flow of time in "The City of Sorrows" is not dependent on the scale of human behavior, but everything has its own time and emotions."
Hou Xiaoxian, 73 years old, has been taking the MRT almost every day, walking with the public and communicating with society, and even telling future directors to "don't drive, you can't see anything when you drive". It was Kore-eda who heard us talk about it and said, "Huh?" Is it? "Then I mentioned that I am also a train family in Japan, and I love to write scripts on shinkansen and airplanes," "Yokoyama Family Flavor" was completed during four Shinkansen moves in Tokyo and Kyoto, four round trips, about 16 hours. ”
<h2 toutiao-origin="h4" >▍ The glimmer in the closet of "Thief Family", Yang Dechang's film and his own growth experience overlap</h2>
He regards Hou Xiaoxian as a "father"-like existence, and Yang Dechang's shadow often appears in the movie.
Shota in "Thief Family" sleeps in the closet, and uses a flashlight to illuminate the marbles so that the boy has a glorious little universe in his heart, reminiscent of the little four who also sleep in the closet and explore the world with a flashlight in "The Juvenile Murder Incident on Muling Street". In the film "The Truth", which cooperates with the French transnational cooperation, the family looks up at the sky at the end of the film and fades out, Catherine. Danife's granddaughter, turning back to use the camera to take the most beautiful French autumn colors in Grandma's mouth, also seems to see the Yangyang in "One Eleven" who always takes the camera to take pictures of the back of the adult's head.
Ask him if these shots were really influenced by Yang Dechang? He thought for a moment and said, "Maybe. In 2018, "Thief Family" participated in the Cannes Film Festival, Zhang Zhen was one of the judges, and it was Kore-eda who specially ran to Zhang Zhen and said, ""Thief Family" is very similar to "The Juvenile Murder Incident on Muling Street"! ”
But the real answer is that many life experiences have the universality of the times, so realistic films can provoke resonance across borders and cultures. "In fact, it was a real experience of my own childhood, when I didn't have my own independent space at home, and I was often a person hiding in a cupboard reading books and snacking." It was Kore-eda who said.
In Kore-eda's films, we see the spirit of Taiwan's new films; in recent Years, there are also Kore-eda's styles in Taiwanese films. This year's Golden Horse won 3 awards for "Dear Tenant", director Zheng Youjie for "The Taste of Yokoyama Family" Chinese version of the translator, generously admitted that Chen Shufang won the Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actress Role, the role of Grandma, was influenced by the role of Kiki Shirin's mother in "The Taste of Yokoyama Family". Another film with a very good box office reputation, "Lonely Taste", depicts the sisterly love, which is also considered to have the flavor of the Taiwanese version of "Sea Street Diary".
"I think what's interesting about the film itself is that even if you're not in the same country or you really know each other, people influence each other. It's a very good reciprocal relationship. It was Kore-eda who said.
<h2 toutiao-origin="h4" >▍ Movie Witness Era, not to give an answer</h2>
It is the theme of Kore-eda's films, and it seems that they are trying to analyze/deconstruct family and family relationships. In fact, it is wrapped in the intention of recording the times.
In the past 20 years, Japan's economic, social, and family forms established after World War II have undergone drastic changes, and kore-eda is seeing a Japan whose roots are gradually disintegrating:
The proportion of singles is high, the number of children is small, the typical family originally composed of blood is no longer the mainstream, and the "family community" is declining; the townships outside the metropolis, due to the aging of the population and the serious outflow to the city, many railways no longer stop in these remote villages, and the "regional community" that used to be built with mutual support has also collapsed; the lifelong employment system that once supported the post-war Japanese economy has shifted to the way of appointment and dispatch of employees, so that enterprises are no longer the main body supporting the overall economy, and the "enterprise community" is also collapsing.
"After these communities slowly collapse, what kind of communities will human beings rely on to grow? Or do humans not actually need to be interdependent and can survive? I think that's something to think about later. It was Kore-eda who put forward his observations of generations, and also mentioned that this is actually the theme of the film that he has continued to pay attention to from "Nobody Knows Summer Morning" to "Thief Family".
Making a movie is to witness the times. "For many things, although I have my own answer in my heart, whether I watch a movie or make a movie, it is not for that answer. Movies can record the times, and so can I do it myself, to be a witness, because if you don't record, you may be forgotten, but you don't have to give the answer in the movie. ”
Such a society with a gradual disintegration of the collective nature, "that is more than 20 years ago, Yang Dechang saw things!" It was Kore-eda with admiration.
<h2 toutiao-origin="h4" >▍ 15 years of exploring Japanese historical materials, "I have not yet made my "City of Sorrows"</h2>"
This world, not a static cross-section, he wants to ask, "How did we get to where we are today?" ”
It was Kore-eda who revealed that for 15 years it had been brewing a film about Japanese history. "I've always wanted to delve into the history of Japan and understand where we came from." He wanted to start during World War II.
"For the past 15 years, I have been looking for information on this aspect, and I found that in Manchukuo at that time, there was a Manchurian Film and Painting Association, which was a film studio dedicated to shooting propaganda films of the Japanese Empire, producing countless patriotic films that promoted the prestige of the country, but the people who worked in the studio were not only Japanese, but Chinese, and Koreans. What kind of existence was it in that era? In what mood do these people work together? ”
It was Kore-eda who said, "I want to make my own City of Sorrows." But this theme has not yet taken shape, he said that it is still developing and learning, "Hou Dao used "City of Sorrows" to let everyone see history, I have not yet made my "City of Sorrows", this is my homework that I have not yet completed. ”
In recent years, his focus has been on transnational cooperation and cultivating film talents. It was also an encouragement from Hou Xiaoxian.
After completing the French film "Real", "Broker", which is ready to enter the production period, will challenge Korean films, cooperate with Korean film emperor Song Kanghao, and continue the frontier with Bae Doona in "Air Humanoid", "Movies, in fact, no matter where they are filmed, it is very hard! It was Kore-eda who laughed.
But he has full confidence in working in a different place, "sometimes the language barrier, but better communication (not limited by human feelings), and I can understand the actor's performance." 」 However, geographical and interpersonal backgrounds do require local teamwork, as an example, he uses "The Truth", which is described by Catherine Lee. The former French film star played by Catherine Deneuve, because of the "real" and "covered up" plots in the publication of his memoirs, triggered family conflicts, interpreting the hearts of actresses who "would rather not be a good mother than a bad actor", and the acting life is real life.
The script was written by Hirokazu Kore-eda, but was originally written by the protagonist Catherine. The manor where Dannyf lives, there is a black grandmother next door who often visits the house, and the French crew rushed to explain to him that in France, there are few mixed races of different colors, especially in the upper-class community where white people live, there can be no black neighbors, "This kind of thing is something that we foreigners will not imagine, when writing the script, if there is no map of geographical location and interpersonal relationships in your mind, you will not be able to imagine the moving line, it is easy to become a tourist feeling, this part must have local teamwork." ”
<h2 toutiao-origin="h4" >▍ More than 20 years ago, Hou Dao said a sentence to take over the mission of nurturing talents</h2>
In 2014, kore-eda set up a production company, Fenfu, and began to nurture emerging Japanese creators.
When he was filming Hou Dao's documentary that year, Hou Dao's words sowed this seed for him: "I hope to cultivate new creators all over Asia, no matter what country, give the 16mm camera to these new directors, become a cultivation plan, and enhance the creative energy of Asia as a whole." Hopefully, you'll be a film director before that. In 2009, Hou Dao opened the Golden Horse Academy in Golden Horse Film, becoming the first professional talent training base of the film festival in Asia, which has been successful in 10 years and has blossomed everywhere in the Chinese film industry.
It was Kore-eda who really continued this mission after becoming a film director. "Fenfu" holds a planning meeting every month, and has assisted 6 new directors in the emergence of feature films, from script development, fundraising to casting, giving appropriate assistance and suggestions for each work, and leading the cutting-edge first mile film road step by step.
Among them, "Is there a baby crying around" with the "Raw Peeling Ghost Festival" in Akita Prefecture as the core of the story? (く子はいねぇが, Any Crybabies Around?, 2020) was released in Japan, and director Kuima Sato took the initiative to send the script to "Fenfu", Kore-eda recalled with some excitement, "The last scene of the script was very brilliantly written, and if the first draft of the script can reach this level, I believe that this work must have the possibility of being made." "Is there a baby crying around?" "Found Nakano Taiga starring, but also selected for the Spanish San Sebastian Film Festival.
Although the films produced by "FenFu" have their own styles, they still have a shallow breath of Kore-eda. "I'm quite respectful of each creator's traits when making, and there's no specific requirement to convey specific values. Maybe it's because I ask everyone to observe people and details carefully, so that there is a certain commonality. It was Kore-eda who explained.
<h2 toutiao-origin="h4" >▍ movie that made the "little otaku" of the year open their hearts to the world</h2>
After more than an hour of interviews and photographs, in the face of our unscrupulous throwing of heavy or distant or trivial questions, he at most frowned and spit out "Wow... how difficult!" "But there is no perfunctory or omitted question, and the response thrown out is completely organized and sincere." When he was asked to move outside to take pictures, even if he was wearing a mask, he was still recognized by the sharp-eyed fans for a second, quickly handed over the autograph book, and the staff stopped us while whispering to us, "I want to help the director block it!" "It's Kore-eda, but the one who comes doesn't refuse."
"Director, are you someone who won't refuse other people's requests?" The friendliness was almost unbelievable, and in the end, we couldn't help but ask this non-movie-related question. He smiled and said, "Well, that's right. ”
Again, he did not give a simple answer, carefully explaining why, he could not bear to refuse the request derived from the film.
"When I was a child, I was a kid who stayed in the closet by myself and read a book alone, had no friends, wasn't used to having too much contact with society, wasn't too interested in outside things, and was a 'little otaku'. I didn't expect that after becoming a film director, I could go to film festivals all over the world, and so many people were willing to listen to me, it was a movie that opened my heart and vision. Because of the movie, he stepped out of the "cabinet" and embraced the world.
It seems that shota is in front of her, riding the light of a flashlight, from the dark wardrobe to the vast universe with light in the glass beads.
< h1 toutiao-origin="h3" > correlated</h1>
Jia Zhangke: Hou Dao, Xiao Xian2011-05-07 In the "Director's Statement | Director's Words"
The Taiwanese non-profit online media "Reporter" was officially launched in December 2015. Committed to in-depth reporting and investigative reporting in the public domain, and continuously tracking important issues for readers, we work together with all walks of life in the spirit of open participation to create a diverse and progressive social and media environment for the next generation.
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