Zhang Yimou is "strategic" in the selection of actors, and the actors he prefers are both like and not like. It seems that most of them have become mainstays, not because the actors selected by Zhang Yimou fit the temperament of his different stages and different works.
He understands actors, art, and business, just like his works, between business and literature. But Zhang Yimou himself went "no conspiracy" between the two.
"You are more and more good at acting now," Zhang Yimou and Liu Haocun sat in front of the camera, watching the clip just now. This is the second cooperation between Zhang Yimou and Liu Haocun, although many viewers feel that there is a big gap between Liu Haocun's acting skills in "On the Cliff" and other film emperors and film queens, but Zhang Yimou said: "She (Liu Haocun) is eating this bowl of rice, and the universe can't stop her." ”
Zhang Yimou is determined in the selection of actors, which is not only reflected in Liu Haocun. After the release of "Hawthorn Tree Love", although Zhou Dongyu's acting skills were too green at that time, in Zhang Yimou's view, Jing Qiu in "Hawthorn Tree Love" precisely needed Zhou Dongyu's youth to complete this role. Subsequently, Zhou Dongyu took the golden statue, golden horse, golden rooster and other awards into the pocket, and Qingshi always went to be skilled, and Zhang Yimou, who initially found that she had the potential of an actor, once again told the audience that in the selection of actors, he had exquisite control, and this control was not limited to actresses.
Zhang Yimou is strategic about the selection of actors, the actors he chooses are real, and they can always be fired, and "Mou Girl" and "Mou Boy" are definitely not an empty title. Commercial value, acting recognition, actor talent, Zhang Yimou's actors wander between business and literature and art, but Zhang Yimou himself has gone "no strategy" between the two.
Men and women are different from each other
"Do you have the desire to transcend the times?" In "Thirteen Invitations", Xu Zhiyuan asked Zhang Yimou in this way.
"You can rest assured, people go tea cold." Zhang Yimou, who uttered these words, is 68 years old. In 2020, "One Second" was released, and the result of breaking through 100 million in 8 days of release was not excellent, especially for directors like Zhang Yimou. But it is such a mediocre box office movie, in the early stage of publicity, it is said that it is an autobiographical film, is "a love letter to the movie".
Zhang Yimou did not choose a popular star to attract more people to read this "love letter", but chose Zhang Yi, an actor who lacks appeal from the appearance, in Zhang Yi's own words, "My face is like making people sit on an ass."
In "One Second", Zhang Yi played a labor prisoner, in order to shape the role, lost 15 pounds in 10 days, and the outstanding performance of "One Second" gave him a second chance to cooperate with Zhang Yimou. When someone asked Zhang Yimou why the male protagonists of both films chose Zhang Yi, Zhang Yimou only responded with one sentence: "Zhang Yi's acting skills are beyond doubt!" ”
Zhang Xianchen, played by Zhang Yi in the movie "On the Cliff", is the main personnel who executes the "Utra" secret operation, and the scene where he was arrested and tortured to extract a confession, Zhang Yi's bruised face, numb expression, and unconsciously trembling muscles immediately captured the audience's heart, and it was Zhang Yi's talent to present such a performance, and it was also Zhang Yi's fierceness. It is said that in order to restore the cruelty and pain of electrocution, Zhang Yi himself even chose to experience a real electrocution himself.
For good actors, Zhang Yimou is always humble. When doing the promotion of "On the Cliff", Zhang Yimou said that when he talked about film remuneration with Zhang Yi and Yu Hewei, he was not very interesting, and he joked: "Talk about film remuneration, in case you don't come to Zhang Yi and Yu Hewei, don't talk about film remuneration, their acting skills are really leveraged, fortunately, in the end it is 'flickering' over!" ”
In the view of Wang Hailin, vice president and secretary general of the China Film and Literature Association, "On the Cliff" is a film that Zhang Yimou has a high degree of watchability in recent years, not only because of the script, but also because of the blessing of the acting school, Wang Hailin used "no stars, there are actors" to evaluate the roles in the movie.
In Wang Hailin's view, Yu Hewei's performance in "On the Cliff" is a highly embodied, and it also reflects the characteristics of an era. "An era will have an epochal character. The more emotional he should be, the more he shows that I have no feelings, in fact, more power, especially actors, but no emotions are not equal to full performance. ”
Wang Hailin's understanding of performance and Zhang Yimou's understanding of actors coincide with each other, whether it is a performance or an actor, paying attention to an "emotion". When talking to Gao Xiaosong about the profession of "actor", Zhang Yimou said: "I myself feel that actors are a special group of people, and he has special talents. What is his special talent? If it's a technique, or a skill, it's about turning reason into sensibility, and that's what they do. And the subtlety is that the actor transforms reason into sensibility in an instant, and bursts out of his own flesh and blood. ”
They are all transformations of reason and interpretation of emotions, but in Zhang Yimou's view, good actors are still divided into three categories: one is God's appreciation of rice, one is the grandfather's appreciation of rice, and the other is both.
God is born to appreciate food, some people are born to look good, they are photogenic, and their understanding of the role is amazing, which is an innate condition. And the grandfather appreciates the meal to eat is the diligence of the day after tomorrow, using various methods to learn, to train, and strive to get close to the role, so that the results obtained are no different from the group of people who appreciate the rice. Liu Haocun is the former, Zhang Yi, Yu Hewei are the latter, and this is also the difference between Zhang Yimou's choice of male and female protagonists.
As early as the filming of "Happy Time", Yu Yuxi, general manager of Beijing New Picture Film Company (the company is the investor of "Happy Time"), revealed Zhang Yimou's usual idea of selecting actors: "When choosing actresses, the image is the first, and the second is the ability; while the selection of male actors is reversed, the first must be the ability." ”
Zhang Yimou's works in recent years have not used actors to deliberately cater to the mainstream market, but more than a decade ago, standing at the center of the mainstream market, he was saddled with a lot of controversy.
Mainstream and non-mainstream are pure
Zhang Yimou's most glorious time was not when he was young, but when "Hero" appeared and kicked open the door to the era of Chinese commercial blockbusters, when his films became the mainstream of Chinese films. Big investment, big stars, big scenes, this has also become the basic element of the later domestic commercial blockbusters. Jet Li, Liang Chaowei, Maggie Cheung, Ziyi Zhang, Chen Daoming, Zhen Zidan, an international cast, martial arts history, and a strong Chinese style, have pointed out a way out for Chinese commercial films. In 2002, "Hero" was released, and the final total box office was 250 million yuan, accounting for a quarter of the total box office of the whole year and half of the box office of domestic films.
Before "Hero", Zhang Yimou filmed "Red Sorghum", "Ju Dou", "Big Red Lantern Hanging High", "Qiu Ju Fights a Lawsuit", "Alive", "My Father and Mother", tradition, locality, reality, this is Zhang Yimou's bones, but also rely on these to gradually establish his position in the domestic film industry, but "Hero" is his ambition to enter the international, so everything about "Hero" is to show the world a Chinese-style spectacle, visual, auditory, including actors.
The role of nameless is Zhang Yimou "begged" to come, young, cold nameless, Zhang Yimou felt that only Jet Li was suitable, and at that time Jet Li was already filming in Hollywood, which was also in line with Zhang Yimou's idea of entering the international market, but Jet Li's film salary was high, the file expired, Zhang Yimou repeated telephone communication allowed Jet Li to take over this play, and since then the stars of the mainland, Hong Kong, and Hollywood have gathered in a movie, and also achieved this "Hero".
But the controversy about this movie has never stopped, and reed, the screenwriter of "Alive", once believed that the content conveyed by "Hero" obliterated the spirit of martial arts, and many people thought that this was a "failure" made up of big stars.
In the face of these questions, Zhang Yimou believes that this is a commercial entertainment film, good to look at, should not be on the line, he even said: "You are on the website, to find Pan Shiyi, you have to click on real estate, to find Zhang Yimou, you can only go to the entertainment channel." Zhang Yimou clearly selected a group of actors who are most suitable for commercial blockbusters, not to mention that these actors accurately convey the roles.
Zhang Yimou did not stop because of the doubts of "Hero", followed by "Ten Faces Ambush", Zhang Yimou is purposefully doing domestic commercial blockbusters, he also never likes the so-called "ten years of grinding a sword", just like his evaluation of himself, "I can't stay idle" "Never cherish feathers, nor pretend to be a master".
Jin Chengwu, Andy Lau, Zhang Ziyi, the choice of actors in "Ten Faces Ambush" is not only because Zhang Yimou sees the value of actor cooperation between mainland china and Hong Kong, but also because "Ten Faces Ambush" has the investment of Hong Kong filmmakers.
Commercial films must have the appearance of commercial films, big productions, big stars, but Zhang Yimou has never forgotten his feelings because of business, and even formed a law, after two commercial films, there must be a literary and art film. "Hero" and "Ten Faces Ambush" after "A Thousand Miles to Ride Alone"; "The City Full of Golden Armor" and "Three Guns Shooting Surprise" after "Hawthorn Tree Love"; "Return" after "Jinling Thirteen Chao"; "One Second" after "The Great Wall" and "Shadow".
Released in 2005, "A Thousand Miles and a Single Ride" was rated as "Zhang Yimou's Return" by Professor Ni Zhen of the Beijing Film Academy. In this film that Zhang Yimou spent 5 years thinking about, the male protagonist chose Japanese actor Ken Takakura. Zhang Yimou admitted that asking Takakura Ken is largely Zhang Yimou's dream of cooperating with idols. Zhang Yimou once invited Ken Takakura to star in "Hero", but Ken Takakura himself said that he preferred warm and emotional content, so he refused Zhang Yimou's invitation, and this film became an opportunity for the two people to cooperate.
This is not a film of Zhang Yimou's self-chasing stars, Andakura Ken's appearance makes the theme of family affection form a special tension under a scene with different languages, anxious, warm and moving. After its release, the film grossed more than 30 million yuan in the mainland, although the total number of screens in the country at that time was less than 3,000.
Whether it is a mainstream film or a non-mainstream film, Zhang Yimou's selection of actors always fits his positioning of the film. The purity of picking actors is what Zhang Yimou has always done.
Scheming actors Scheming themselves
Whether it is a commercial film or a literary film, Zhang Yimou has won a lot of popularity, and when he picks actors, he has to go through the audition, the second selection, in the second selection there is a sketch has been used so far, the actor must pass this pass, no matter who, so that what sketch, Zhang Yimou said "I can't reveal, because this is a unique secret recipe."
Zhang Yimou has formed his own way of selecting actors, but he is a director who "never cherishes feathers and does not pretend to be a master".
He can export commercial blockbusters such as "Hero", and he can also say that "people go tea and cool" and shoot "One Second", in the face of business and literature, he can hardly say that he is a person who has exhausted the organs.
However, Wang Shuo's sentence is not wrong, "Zhang Yimou's life can be said to be the movie "Alive". If he can't make a movie, I think he will die of pain. ”
Being able to make a movie is already "alive" for Zhang Yimou, so it seems that Zhang Yimou is also "no plan".