Greater Bay Area Mid-Autumn Festival Film and Music Gala • Light and Shadow Bay Area
Interview with big coffee
On September 21, the "Bay Area Rising Moon" 2021 Greater Bay Area Mid-Autumn Festival Film and Music Gala will be held in Shenzhen. This mobile feast, revisiting classic Hong Kong films and Cantonese golden songs is an important part of it. A melody, a picture, can drag many people back to that era of bright stars, and Gao Zhisen is a figure that cannot be ignored in this memory.
As the "father of family comedy" in Hong Kong, Gao Zhisen has participated in the production of more than 80 films so far. As early as 1984 (at the age of 25), he made his debut film "Happy Ghost" at a production cost of HK$2.5 million, which earned more than HK$17 million at the box office. In this way, in his later film career repeatedly appeared, the box office performance was stable, his shooting efficiency was even faster, to take the most exaggerated example, in Hong Kong for four and a half months in a row of "I have a date with spring", the original only 13 days. He was once the most secure and efficient person in the Hong Kong film industry. Gao Zhisen, who has deep qualifications, has enjoyed the cheers of box office and word of mouth, but also witnessed the ups and downs of Hong Kong films. Since the mid-1990s, Hong Kong cinema has been showing fatigue, and he has turned to stage drama. In recent years, he has traveled north from Hong Kong to the mainland, switching from filmmaking to directing stage plays, and recently directed the stage play "Twelve Beijing Fifteen Days" in Beijing.
In the face of the lament that "Hong Kong films are dead" in recent years, Gao Zhisen is not pessimistic, as early as a few years ago, he looked forward to and practiced the concept of "Greater Bay Area films", he believes that "Greater Bay Area films" can be a way out for Hong Kong films. How to understand this? We listened to him.
Hong Kong film plot
"The best 'bridge' is the cheapest 'bridge'"
Southern Metropolis Daily: You have been working in the Hong Kong film industry for many years, which one do you think best represents you?
Gao Zhisen: It's so difficult haha, my masterpiece should not have been filmed yet. I have been involved in more than eighty films so far, forty as directors, and forty as screenwriters, producers and planners. Judging from the box office and word of mouth, of course, it is "Happy Affair at Home" and "Happy Event in The Flower Field". However, in the past two decades, there is a movie that is particularly popular with mainland intellectuals: "Nanhai Thirteen Lang" (1996), which is considered to be a higher score among Douban Hong Kong films. This film makes people feel very "enduring", it is often selected to enter the retrospective film festival of Hong Kong films, and once I attended a symposium on this film, and there were two or three hundred audiences in the audience, and one-third or even nearly half of them were not born before 1996. There are constantly new young audiences like, it seems to break through the time limit, everyone will think that "There is a happy event at home" and "Happy Affair in the Flower Field" are old films of 20 or 30 years, but "Nanhai Thirteen Lang" no one thinks it is an old film. If I had to choose a masterpiece, I would choose this one.
Nandu: What do you think is the unique feature of Hong Kong movies compared to movies from other places?
Gao Zhisen: The characteristics of Hong Kong movies are popularly said to be "many bridges" (many ideas), very dense, and the elements are particularly rich, such as Hong Kong action films, which will have suspense elements and comedy elements, both tense and exciting, and warm and lyrical; Hong Kong ghost films, like "Happy Ghost", have comedic elements and youth elements, so that you are not afraid from the beginning to the end, but laugh to the end. Under one theme, recombining different ideas and elements is weird, and it provides a lot of solutions to problems.
Another feature is that Hong Kong films attach great importance to production costs. In the past, the most successful Hong Kong films did not spend too much manpower and material resources to shoot, and the overrun was 10 million or 20 million, and the cost was well controlled. For example, in 1984, I made "Pistachios" at a cost of only two and a half million, and "Rich and Compelling" and "Chicken and Duck Talk" were only four or five million costs, and at that time, millions of costs, it took dozens of days to make a very rich film. I had a very proud saying at that time: the best bridge is the cheapest bridge. Hong Kong films have always had a small and clever production spirit, we will not respect thousands of troops, if there are screenwriters at that time the first sentence of the script writes thousands of horses, this screenwriter will be "fired".
Nandu: You've worked with so many Hong Kong filmmakers, who do you think best represents this spirit of Hong Kong cinema?
Gao Zhisen: There are two. One is Hui Guanwen, he is very good at timing, the sense of rhythm is very good, his comedy will play a lot of small cleverness, whether it is visual, or dialogue, he is very representative of the small cleverness of Hong Kong movies. In fact, Hong Kong movies are a lot of clever assemblages, not made up of thousands of troops and horses. Xu Guanwen is good at visual expression and dialogue design.
The other is Mai Jia, who has many ways to make a movie full of entertainment elements when he is in "New Art City". His precise calculation of entertainment elements, as well as his intention to fight with the audience - this is actually in line with Xu Guanwen, the film of that era is to fight with the audience, how do I make a bridge section that the audience does not expect, kill the surprise, make the audience laugh. Maka combines various entertainment elements with precise calculations. Personally, I think the two of them are the most representative.
Nandu: Can you use "arrival" to describe Hong Kong-produced films?
Gao Zhisen: Very resistant, Xu Guanwen in the 1970s, he proposed "a small laugh for one minute, a big laugh for three minutes". Ninety minutes makes you more happy, and it is definitely a sight to behold.
Bay Area
"Whether the cost can be recovered is the key to determining the future of films in the Greater Bay Area."
Nandu: At the end of "Nanhai Thirteen Langs", there is a sentence "dedicated to the whole Hong Kong screenwriters to encourage each other", Hong Kong filmmakers seem to have a special sense of sympathy among their peers, is this also part of the spirit of Hong Kong cinema?
Gao Zhisen: This sentence has been misunderstood, I am not encouraging my peers, it is actually very sad behind this statement. The film script is the basis of a play, the script determines the life and death of a movie, the script is not good, and even the big stars are useless. In the 1980s, the actor fee accounted for only 30% or 40% of a play, and one-third was already a lot, but in the 1990s, the screenwriter was forgotten, and many production fees were not for writing scripts, but to invite stars. Many people believe that as long as there are a few stars, even the worst movies will be watched. This is a very sad reality in the Hong Kong film industry in the 1990s, and it is also the main reason for the decline of Hong Kong films, so I wrote this sentence to express criticism.
Nandu: Is this phenomenon of "heavy stars and light scripts" also a warning for mainland movies?
Gao Zhisen: The mainland's showbiz circle is also like walking the road of Hong Kong movies in the past, wanting to take the most money to give small fresh meat and buy traffic. If we still make movies and engage in stage plays in this way, it will be a crisis for the entire Chinese showbiz circle. Two months ago, someone said to me, you find a big star to play, as long as he comes, standing on the stage without speaking or doing anything, he can sell out all the tickets, and some people will believe such a perverse reasoning. I am not completely opposed to the star effect, but do not be led by the nose of the star, do not blindly demean the star, nor overly praise the hype of the star, otherwise the entire industry will go to a vicious development and embark on the dead end of the Hong Kong film.
Nandu: For so many years, there has been a saying that "Hong Kong cinema is dead", but you are not pessimistic, and you have mentioned the concept of "Greater Bay Area cinema" on other occasions.
Gao Zhisen: When it comes to prospects, the key is whether you can recover the cost. Hong Kong-made films from the 1980s and 1990s can recover their costs in Hong Kong, and there are surpluses overseas. But today's Hong Kong films may not be able to do it, in the early 1990s, an average of 300 films were made every year, and in the past one or two years, there were not ten cinema films.
Hong Kong itself is in the Greater Bay Area, and the Films of the Greater Bay Area already include Hong Kong films. The Greater Bay Area has nine cities plus Hong Kong and Macau, eleven cities, with a population of 72 million. The Greater Bay Area can afford to support movies in terms of population, economic capacity and consumption potential. The Greater Bay Area has a perfect two-hour traffic circle, and it is all Lingnan culture, Cantonese is common, even if it can't be spoken, it will be listened to, and there is a lot of resonance and recognition in the Greater Bay Area. I think that whether the cost can be recovered is the key to determining the future of film in the Greater Bay Area.
Nandu: In 2004, you shot a film version of "Foreign Daughter-in-law Local Lang" in Guangzhou, is this a "Greater Bay Area Movie"? What was something memorable at the time?
Gao Zhisen: At that time, the idea was to think like this, and the whole idea had this intention at the beginning, but the conditions at that time were not mature enough. The whole distribution, publicity, promotion, in fact, can do better in all aspects.
My biggest impression of this play is to know an actor named Guo Chang, who is the most core character of "Foreign Daughter-in-law Local Lang", his performance style is very unique, on the surface he seems to be acting, but his explosive power is very strong, and his ease of retracting and letting go impresses me. Zooming in, I thought that Hong Kong already had a lot of good actors and old drama bones, and it turned out that there were more old drama bones in Guangzhou, and Guo Chang's skills would definitely not be worse than Wu Mengda. Unfortunately, he left not long after the cooperation. If he doesn't leave, many future works will look for him.
Homeland
"The progress of the country makes me more respectful and recognized,
I ask myself to contribute in this position."
Nandu: Over the years, there have been many Hong Kong filmmakers who have chosen to go north, what suggestions do you have from people who have come here?
Gao Zhisen: Hong Kong people must first understand the culture and life of the mainland, first understand, and then you will have feelings for the country and the people's lives, have respect and identity, and then talk about playing.
Now is the critical moment for Hong Kong, and in the past year, the social atmosphere in Hong Kong has been fundamentally different. Many young artists or young people in Hong Kong need to first contact and understand the understanding of the mainland, and participate in the contribution with respect and recognition. The process must be like this, and I myself have gone through this process. From the initial ignorance, to now doing stage plays and movies in the mainland, there has been a big difference. In the past two years, I have two stage plays, one of which helped the Guangdong Quyi Troupe direct the Quyi musical "Little Star", I used a lot of Western Broadway methods to do it, before I was in Hong Kong, I never thought of being able to achieve such a level of music and content; the second is "Mrs. Sin", an opera musical, its theme and expression of the rich elements, I did not expect in Hong Kong. The progress of the country has made me more respectful and recognized, and I ask myself to contribute to this position. Everyone's process will be different, but you have to take the first step first.
Nandu: You are now directing the stage play "Two Beijing Fifteen Days" in Beijing, the original work is a novel by writer Ma Boyong, what is the opportunity for you to direct this play?
Gao Zhisen: In fact, the "Chinese Theater Line" found me, they wanted to produce their own production, do the IP of the stage play, and chose to adapt this work for this point. I feel honored that they found me, the director of Hong Kong, China. Although I was in the midst of an epidemic during the preparations, I was not in Beijing and had to rely on video calls. I spent a few months screening dozens of people in front of and behind the scenes, all of whom were young people in their twenties and thirties. What attracted me the most about the whole invitation was that they gave me the whole adaptation task. For me, it's not pressure but motivation. The original work was 700,000 words, and after three revisions, it was condensed into 47,000 words, and the performance duration was controlled to more than two and a half hours. The adaptation process is a big challenge, how to express it in a film way is also a challenge for me, and I am willing to accept this rare challenge.
Nandu: As a Hong Kong director, how do you view the theme of home and country?
Gao Zhisen: This is a very good question, especially at this time. Speaking of home country, the answer I give you today will be different from that of five years ago and ten years ago. I have spent half my life under British rule, so many years after my return, many Hong Kong people are still stuck in the concept of "I am a Hong Konger" for their home country, but in the past decade, especially in the past three years, I can say that many Hong Kong people have begun to be completely different. As we all know, the social events that have taken place in Hong Kong in the past two or three years are not just a matter for Hong Kong itself, it involves an international political level. In the past, we Hong Kong people would often ignore the relationship between the country and us. But in the past two or three years, I have felt too strongly, there is no country where there is a home, no home has me, we should stand with the country, national security is unquestionable, and one step can not be backed down. Nowadays, many Hong Kong people are already reviewing themselves, and they have not paid enough attention to the concept of home and country in the past. Now the problem arises, and after going through this storm, we wake up.
Written by: Nandu trainee reporter Liu Yifan