(This article is the speech of screenwriter Liu Kaijian in the keynote speech of "Song Fangjin and His Friends" at the Gulou West Theater.) ）
Hello everyone, my name is Liu Kaijian, I am a screenwriter and a comedy researcher. What I want to share with you today is the impact of comedy on my destiny. Ten years ago, I was working as an editor in a magazine, and in my spare time I wrote a few short drama scripts, but I didn't expect that the TV station would shoot it and broadcast it, so I quit my job as soon as my mind was hot and decided to become a screenwriter. But in fact, when the screenwriter was far more difficult than I thought, for the next few years, I was constantly rejected and denied. In order to alleviate this depressed mood, I began to watch dramas and watch various tragedies, hoping to see how people change their destiny from tragedies. The more I look at it, the more depressed I am, and I really feel like Li Shi said that the human world is not worth it.
I remember one night, after receiving a rejection call, my mood was like falling into an ice cellar, feeling that I couldn't do anything, and there was a particularly strong sense of powerlessness. I actually felt like I was close to depression at that time. I inadvertently clicked on a Korean drama called "Shunfeng Obstetrics and Gynecology", and after two episodes, my previous frustration was swept away. This comedy healed me at the time and brought me into the world of comedy. During that time, it was those excellent comedies that accompanied me through the depressed moments, they were: "The Men of the Bathhouse Owner's House", "Funny Family", "Strange King's Biography", "I Love My Home", "The Story of the Editorial Department", "Wulin Wai Biography", "French Pavilion", "Yes, Minister", as well as Zhao Benshan's sketches, Xu Guanwen and Zhou Xingchi's films. I am sincerely grateful to these comedy creators and performers for illuminating my bleak life.
After watching more comedy, I began to think about the reasoning behind it, and then I wrote down my understanding of comedy, and I had this "Sad Comedy". I hope that after I understand the principles of comedy, I can also create excellent comedy works, bring joy to those who are tired and lost like me, and hope that one day some people will be illuminated by my works. However, I find that there is a huge problem in this. As an author, you don't have light yourself, and you can't make your work produce light. So, I began to think about the relationship between people and life through comedy.
What kind of comedy is interesting? It must be a sufficiently vivid person, a sufficiently vivid thing, and this kind of freshness must not be standardized, it must not be routine. So in the real world, what kind of people, what kind of life is interesting? When a person is full of enthusiasm and is not bound by the worldly social standards, he can release himself to the greatest extent, he is an interesting person, and he is most likely to live his life interestingly. One of the writers I pay more attention to, Shi Kang, the screenwriter of the TV series "Struggle", went to the United States on a business trip ten years ago, only to discover another possibility of life there, and then he lived another life, learning mathematics, learning medicine, learning sailing, he completely reinvented himself, like a transformer in life. 56-year-old Su Min, a housewife who has been like a housewife for decades, decided to temporarily leave her family on September 23, 2020, she set off from Zhengzhou to start her own road trip, from this day on, she will truly live for herself, from this day on, she will have a new life.
Didn't Kant say that? "Man can only be an end, not a means." Man's ultimate purpose is only man himself, and everything outside of man is a tool. Instead of the other way around, in turn, we regard all external means as the ultimate end, then we are the tools of money, the tools of power, the tools of art. Tool people can't experience the joy of being human. Therefore, in my opinion, tragedy is the background of life, comedy is the attitude of life, we do not live as a tool, but live as a person who does not exceed the rules, the ordinary life is not plain, the meaningless life becomes interesting. This is the inspiration and reflection that I brought to my life after I met comedy.
Finally, I would like to thank Mr. Song Fangjin, the supervising producer of the book "The Comedy of Sorrows", who invited a very luxurious guest lineup to help me when I first published the book, which made me overjoyed. Thanks to the China Workers' Publishing House, I am the son of a farmer, and the Workers' Publishing House's publication of this book for me is equivalent to accurate poverty alleviation. Thanks to Mr. Ren Zhong, I grew up watching his plays. Thanks to Teacher Liu Shuo, if I had become her student, I would not be a failed screenwriter to this day. Thanks to Teacher Mao Jian, Teacher Liang Haiyuan, Wang Hailin, Tan Fei, Li Shanglong, I will not be grateful, because we often face the base. Finally, thank you all!
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