One late autumn in the 1990s, Wang Junzheng, a female director at the Beijing Film Studio, got a script.
After she got the script, she read it carefully several times, and immediately contacted the screenwriter He Guofu, and the two changed several drafts back and forth, and by the time the script was finalized, Beijing had entered winter.
The north wind is steep and the winter is cold, and it is in such a cold Beijing city that a small-scale production film "Heaven Reply" that depicts life in a soft language is quietly released.
Many people may be unfamiliar with the name Wang Junzheng, but those who know a little about Beijing Film Studio's films must have heard a little about her works.
In 1980, "Miao Miao", which tells the story of the relationship between people's teachers and children, was widely popular with its vivid and lively character image and simple and elegant artistic style, and also won the 1980 Excellent Film Award of the Ministry of Culture and the Special Award of the First Golden Rooster Award of Chinese Film;
Two years later, Wang Junzheng once again directed the children's feature film "Yingsheng Ag" as a director (and one of the screenwriters), and won the Ministry of Culture Outstanding Film Award that year again with his exquisite conception and gentle narrative.
For another five years, Wang Junzheng directed "The First Woman in the Mountain Forest", changing the previous gentle and delicate but delicate shooting style, showing a strong dramatic and emotional color in the process of telling the female student Lin Nan of the Drama Academy to go deep into the life of the Northeast Daxinganling Forest District to collect creative materials, and won the Best Supporting Actress and Best Recording Nomination at the Seventh Chinese Film Golden Rooster Awards that year.
At this point, Wang Junzheng's directing style has almost taken shape: the style can be delicate and broad, skillfully use the lens language to show the director's intentions, especially good at excavating the details that can be seen everywhere in life, and use the unique lens language and exquisite theme conception to give each ordinary life a long aftertaste of warmth and touching.
This style is even more vividly displayed in "Heaven's Reply". With its delicate lens language and diversified expression of life, the film won 12 awards at home and abroad in the following year, such as the International Youth and Children's Film and Television Center Award at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival, the 10th Chicago Children's Film Festival - Children's Feature Film Award, the 5th China Film Child Cow Award - Excellent Feature Film, etc., and also became the most awarded work in Wang Junzheng's career.
Few people have seen "Heaven's Reply", and less than 20,000 people have given ratings on Douban, but the rating is as high as 9.1 points, which is identified as "better than 98% of drama films and children's films".
Why is a small-scale "old" film still widely regarded more than two decades later?
Zhong Yibing, former deputy editor-in-chief of "Literature and Art Daily", summed up the success of "Heaven's Reply" in this way: "The success of the film is not because of the twists and turns of the story, the noble characters, and the grand scenes, but because the choreographers are dedicated to writing love, writing deeply, skillfully, and movingly, and promoting the development of characters and stories with emotional ups and downs. ”
In the nineties, when the production of a film did not have high-end shooting equipment and dazzling technical special effects, the crew of "Heaven's Reply" put all their energy on the script, and it was this spirit of "telling a good story" that made the film not dusted by the years. Extremely deeply written, exquisitely written, and soothing, a "Reply to Heaven" that tells the family life of three generations of grandchildren still makes people cry.
The story takes place in Beijing in the 1990s. The boy Chenchen's parents went abroad to work a few months after he was born, leaving his grandfather alone at home to take care of him, and the grandchildren were dependent on each other. Grandpa is a retired postman, but sometimes he will still go out to help deliver letters, and in his spare time, he will take Chenchen to the park to put a kite he made, and the grandchildren often play for half a day, and when the kite flies together, it is the happy laughter of Chenchen.
The elderly grandfather looked at the smiling face of the little grandson and felt that everything that was uncomfortable in life was gone.
Grandpa had a heart attack, and ChenChen always remembered this, always like a little adult, and always told Grandpa: "Left coat pocket, first aid kit, under the tongue to take a piece." For viewers who have seen the film before, this sentence has almost become a switch of tear glands, and just overheard it makes people's eyes sour.
From the 1990s to the present, each of our families has had different survival choices. In order to create a better future for the next generation, in order to better take care of the older generation, the parents' generation will almost always choose to go out to earn money when the children are still young, and the grandparents who still have the ability to live and the grandchildren who have no ability to survive are dependent on each other in such a big environment. The so-called "generation-skipping parents", we who grew up around our grandparents may have a deep understanding.
Grandpa's kindness and Chenchen's understanding are the same as every pair of grandchildren in the world. However, while the film uses soothing long shots to create a short triviality and delicacy in parents, it is not only limited to showing the depth of the feelings of grandchildren, but also quietly shows the content that the director and screenwriter try to interpret through the appropriate plot progression, such as the normality of life, old age, illness and death, the conflict of different educational concepts, and the appropriate way to get along with children.
It is precisely because of this delicate and gentle and rational way of expression that "Heaven's Reply" has become a work of kindness about life and life seen from the perspective of children, and this simple to pure goodwill has made it stand out in many children's film awards.
(1) Instead of giving children the indifferent truth of death, leave them with a well-intentioned expectation.
Chen Chen pestered to accompany grandpa to deliver the letter, and the two ran to the place only to find that the elevator was broken. ChenChen was a little discouraged, and Grandpa bent down and asked him, if you receive the letter, will you be happy? Chen Chen looked down and thought about it, looked up and told Grandpa, "Let's climb the stairs!" Grandpa looked at his grandson's young and determined little face and smiled.
Upstairs, the two found that the recipient had died. Young Chenchen still couldn't understand what death was, but Grandpa's face was dark, he thought of himself, he thought of his little grandson after he left, he would be very sad, thinking about it, he felt painful. He took Chenchen to fly a kite, tied the letter that no one would ever receive again, and told Chenchen to send the letter to heaven, and the other party could receive it.
After a grandfather was discharged from the hospital, the two talked about death for the first time. Grandpa explained death this way: "People have to die when they are old, and if they don't die, more and more people will not be able to stand on the earth, right?" ”
After Chen Chen accepted some kind of relationship between old age and death, Grandpa told him that if he wanted to send the letter to heaven, he would receive it. At this time, he thought that his grandfather would grow old and die in the future, although it was inevitable to be sad, but because he could send the letter to heaven to his grandfather, he had the courage to no longer be afraid.
"Death", this heavy and desperate topic, is naturally unbearable for children, but because of the white lie of grandpa, countless "mornings" in the world will be free from being entangled in the cruelty and pain of this distinction in their infancy, and also have a warm kindness.
(2) Under the theme of the era of educational anxiety, no matter how different the concept, there is only one end: for the children you love
Chenchen's mother quit her job abroad and returned to take care of her father and son. However, the joy of the initial reunion has passed, and two completely different attitudes to life have caused constant friction between the two sides, such as different preferences for Chinese and Western food, different styles of home decoration, and different living habits, among which the most eye-catching and conflicting is the educational attitude towards Chenchen.
Mom returned from abroad, advocating elite education, she hopes that her children can have more knowledge, get more survival ability, so she has repeatedly forced ChenChen to learn English, piano and so on. However, for Grandpa, he only hopes that Chenchen can grow up healthy and happy, plus he does not have the corresponding vision knowledge, so it falls in the eyes of his mother, which has become a pampering for Chenchen.
The two generations of completely different educational concepts have repeatedly clashed, and finally Grandpa chose to return to his old house because he was worried that Chenchen was dissatisfied with his mother because of himself. Before leaving, Grandpa and Mom had a poignant conversation. For Grandpa, he is old, Chenchen will always have to live with his mother in the future, plus he really does not know much about education, it is inevitable that Chenchen willful, for the sake of Chenchen's growth and the harmony of family relations, he chose to move back to the old house. And my mother kept rubbing her hands, trying to convince my father to live with her, but she also knew that this might be the best way to educate chenchen.
The anxiety of education is no longer just a "new thing" of that era, but a problem that every pair of parents in reality will face. However, the times are different, and the concepts of different generations are naturally different, but no matter how much friction is continuous, we still need to face up to it, their starting point is still the love for the child regardless of the effort, and the end is also for the child's better future.
(3) Being an elder and a child, it is better to be a friend, which is a kind of growth for parents and children
If you want to draw a line in Chen Chen's heart, there is no doubt that the mother is the mother, but the grandfather will be a friend. Grandpa would take him to fly a kite to deliver letters, but his mother would only leave Grandpa to take pictures with him alone, even if he said that he wanted to take Grandpa with him, his mother only told him that he needed to spend time alone with him; Grandpa would help him take care of his old friends who had been raised for many years (two Dutch pigs), but his mother did not like his old friends; Grandpa would accompany him to watch cartoons and get into a mess with him, but his mother forced him to learn piano and did not want him to play at all.
It is true that Grandpa's love has a little doting component, but there is no doubt that he has been trusted by Chenchen, and this trust will allow Chenchen to learn to care for Grandpa with the identity of a friend in the process of growing up, and slowly grow into a small adult. After all, who wants to like a person who doesn't understand himself and forces himself to do something he doesn't like?
After the two Dutch pigs were inadvertently thrown down the stairs by their mothers, ChenChen once resented his mother, but all the resentment and dissatisfaction disappeared in the moment when his mother followed him to put food in the empty box. For him, nothing satisfied him more than his mother's understanding and support.
After getting her son's forgiveness, the mother finally found the right way to get along with the child. After all, equal communication and thinking in the shoes of others are the sweetest dews for a child to grow up healthily.
The reason why the film is called "Heaven's Reply" is actually out of this kind of symbolism that makes people feel warm. There is no heaven in the world, but because of that kindness, the children have good expectations in their hearts. Letters could not have been received in heaven, but because of that white lie, children grew up with many thoughts.
It's an ordinary life, but it has a warmth that each of us can feel empathy for. Although the film is not watched by many people, it can get high praise, probably because it delicately and truly restores every warmth, every distress and every parting we experienced in the process of growing up.
When the film was screened at the Berlin Film Festival that year, many people cried a lot. The director of a hospital in Menihei, Germany, asked Wang Junzheng, "Do you have such a grandfather?" ”
In fact, she did not have such a grandfather, but she had such an adoptive father. Unfortunately, her adoptive father left when she was fifteen years old, and during the adaptation and filming process, she poured out her feelings for her adoptive father, and later in an interview, she also said that if she could subtitle at that time, she would definitely write: "I would like to dedicate this film to my adoptive father." ”
Then, with such a tear and laughter intertwined "Reply to Heaven", I would like to dedicate it to every you and me who grew up around grandpa, and also to every grandpa who grew up with us in his old age.