On December 9, "Tharlo" was released.
Filmed by Tibetan director Wan Ma Tse-dan and adapted from his novel of the same name, this feature film has won many awards at the Venice Film Festival, the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan, and the Vesur Asian International Film Festival in France since 2015.
The film tells the story of a series of encounters of a lone shepherd in the process of entering the city to apply for an ID card. Tibetan actors Sidney Ma and Yang Xiucuo play the male and female protagonists.
On the day of the movie's release, I saw Yang Xiucuo, wrapped in a black down jacket, standing in the wind outlet of the corridor shivering. I followed her to her studio.
Yang Xiucuo
We walked up to a large brown carpet and sat on either side of a low table.
I said, "Today Tullow was released, and the response was good." ”
She said, "Oh, really? That's fine. ”
As she spoke, she got up and took a pot of boiling water and made me tea.
After the two sat down, Yang Xiucuo said: "In fact, after participating in "Flowers and Blossoms" in 2010, for a long time, I did not appear on the public platform. I don't know if I should see you or not this time, and I don't know what to say. But I thought, "Tharlo" came out, this is my favorite category, I will go down this path in the future, I should still tell the people who pay attention to me what I am doing. ”
In 2010, Yang Xiucuo participated in the talent show "Flowers and Blossoms".
She didn't put on a little makeup on her face. The setting sun thickened for a while and then faded quietly. I looked at her thin face, bright and dark in the sky.
We talked about her "decathlon" troupe career from her childhood watching open-air movies; from "Quiet Ma Ne Stone" to "Tullow"; from her once popular draft career to hiding in the empty door after a disillusionment...
"Most grateful to the man I was in my previous life"
After drinking tea in silence for a moment, Yang Xiucuo stood up, picked up a piano from the corner of the room, and said, "This is the Za nian qin, I will play a tune for you." ”
She plucked the strings. Suddenly, the long sound characteristic of strings sounded in the room, thicker than the sound of the guitar.
She played a relatively simple, but beautiful tune.
At the end of the song, she touched the piano and said: "The Zha Nian Qin has a history of more than 2,000 years, and it is the first instrument invented by the Tibetans themselves. Beijing's climate is too dry, and the material used is not the old wood that grew on the plateau before, so the strings will be loose and the tone will always change. However, I have been excluding all the things I would have since last year, such as drum kits, bamboo flutes, paintings, etc. These things make people inflate a little bit, and in the end they don't have themselves. I haven't reached the point where I can handle anything well in any situation. ”
Until the age of 12, Yang Xiucuo was always in a rural school. At the age of 14, he starred in "Quiet Ma Ne Stone" directed by Wan Ma Tse-dan. Later worked in a troupe. In 2010, Yang Xiucuo secretly participated in the competition of "Flowers and Blossoms" without the troupe, and was concerned about entering the national final four and officially debuted.
When Yang Xiucuo was 14 years old (third from the left), he starred in Wan Ma Tse-dan's "Quiet Mana Stone".
Now you can find some videos of Yang Xiucuo's previous participation in various competitions and programs on the Internet. She would wear brightly colored costumes, sing and dance, and decorate the stage very lively.
But this time when I saw her, I found that she was very different from what I remembered. She was wearing a brown knitted sweater and sweatpants, and she was in a quiet state.
She said: "After the draft, I stayed in the company for more than two years, there are many fans, I have been far away from others, but I find that every day is not very happy, very confused. I came to Beijing when I was 19 years old, and it was true temperament at that time. Later I found myself getting more and more complicated, and when one day I realized that I could never go back to before, my tears flowed down. ”
"One day I couldn't hold on, so I went back to my hometown in Qinghai and went to the monastery every day to talk to the monks in the local monastery about Buddhism, the history of Tibetan Buddhism, and so on." Yang Xiucuo said: "That year, I fully understood the reincarnation of man. The Buddha had a saying: 'What you were like in your previous life depends on who you are in this life; what you are like in your next life depends on your virtues in this life.' I can't live with an emotion anymore, I'm going to really be myself. ”
A real "hair-dropping ceremony"
In "Tharlo", Yang Xiucuo played Yang Tso, a hair washer.
Stills from the movie Tharlo
Yang Xiucuo said: "The character of Yang Tso has a very strong personality and a concentrated personality. Although there are not many scenes, it is easy to shine. I felt that no one was better suited to play this role than I did. From the environment to the language, to the current state of young Tibetans, no one is more familiar with it than I am. ”
After some self-recommendation, Yang Xiucuo got the role.
In the movie, Yang Tso's positioning is: a hair-washing girl in her thirties.
Born in 1991, Yang Xiucuo, in order to shorten the distance with this role, the first thing he did was to gain weight. She eats four meals a day, eating whatever is easy to get fat.
Looking back on that time, she smiled and sighed: "Enjoy it." ”
"The people in our place have a very slow and single pace of life, and the state of the people is very relaxed, so it is impossible to be very thin. So to play this role well, I must be fat. Yang Xiucuo said.
While busy gaining weight, Yang Xiucuo also went to the barbershop to learn professional shampooing and massage postures. In "Tharlo", the long shot of Yang Tso washing her hair is on one side of her hand skillfully walking on Tharlo's head, and on the other side is her straight, seductive eyes in the mirror.
Yang Xiucuo said that there are indeed people like Yang Cuo in her life: "There is such a girl in my hometown, she generally deceives the elderly, cheats thousands of pieces, hundreds of pieces. This is what I have heard and seen with my own eyes. I even showed her picture to Wan Dao. ”
Yang Xiucuo also carefully observed the posture of a woman in her thirties in the small town where her hometown was located, including the position of her hand.
The scene where Tharlo shaves his head is a small climax. Director Wan Ma Tse-dan said: "Tharlo's actor Sid Nyima cherishes his hair, which he left for many years. ”
Because it is a long shot, you can only really shave your hair.
In that real "falling ceremony", Sidney Ma looked solemn. His identity as a well-known comedian and Tharlo the shepherd is very different, but the loss of pigtails as part of his national personality has left them at a loss in the rolling wave of urbanization.
The language of the shot in Tullow
In the filming tidbits of "Tharlo", there is a picture of Yang Xiucuo holding the lamb in the film and greeting the camera.
The lamb takes on a part of the film's warmth and delicacy. Like Tharlo, he was an orphan. He was Tharlo's closest companion, and Tharlo carried lambs on his back everywhere he went. In the cold and withered ravine, the sheep were his only solace.
He stood in the flock singing with one ear over his ear, and he watched as the flock drifted away in the valley and, every night, alone, plunged into darkness.
The wolf bit many sheep, and the employer rushed over to insult Tharlo, which was a turning point in Tharlo's fate.
Tharmo from the movie "Tharlo"
In fact, the corpses of the sheep scattered on the ground were made by the art team going to the slaughterhouse to buy sheepskins and sheep heads, and filling them with things. Including this "lamb bitten by the wolf", in fact, it was actually released.
Yang Xiucuo recalled: "All the interior scenes are on hand, and the exterior view of the city is actually my hometown. ”
"There was a scene where when I leaned on Tharlo's shoulder and couldn't see my face. At the time, my good friend was also on the crew. After a few shots, my friend said to me, 'I can't see your face anymore, you have to look up.' In fact, I know the director's intentions, in that kind of scene, I don't need to highlight it, just point to the end. ”
Yang Xiucuo life photo
In Tullow, many scenes need to be reflected in a mirror. In this regard, Yang Xiucuo said: "What everyone sees on the screen is me and Tharlo looking at each other. I didn't actually look directly into his eyes, there was a place in the mirror, and I looked at that place, and in the shot I could look into Tharlo's eyes. ”
In "Tullow", a lot of fixed camera positions are used, and the camera cannot be shaken with the actors. In order to prevent the actor from walking out of the camera, the ground is sometimes marked, and the actor steps on the sign to move out of place. But the mirror should be wiped clean and cannot be labeled, so it is all up to the director's instructions and the actors to figure it out for themselves.
The use of camera language in Tharlo, such as fixed camera positions, mirror reflections, and placing characters in corners, is all very profound. Yang Xiucuo said that the director has always explained: Tharlo was in the center of the picture when he was on the mountain, which means that he is very free inside; but when he arrives at the county seat, he has no sense of space, so he is pushed to the corner.
As for how to view the character of Yang Tso in "Tharlo", Yang Xiucuo said: "In fact, I can understand her. In that environment, so boring every day, in such an impetuous city, there will definitely be an urge to escape. ”