Balloon poster
"Director, is your last name Wanma or wan?"
"I don't have a surname, Tibetans don't have a surname, we just have a first name." When I interviewed this minority altar-level director, it began with a dialogue like this.
For a long time, people of other ethnic groups have known Tibetans almost exclusively of the sacredness there: the grandeur of the Potala Palace, the prayer flags fluttering in all seasons, the dense prayer wheels in the temples, the long kneeling monks who go on pilgrimage to Lhasa, and the clear blue sky there.
But beyond that, we know very little about the land, the people and culture there.
On the occasion of the release of Wan Ma Tse-dan's new film "Balloon", Titanium Media chatted with him about the story behind the film and the culture he has been committed to delivering. Wan Ma Tse-dan is the staunch defender of Tibetan culture in this era of constant cultural change and fierce disintegration and reshaping of values.
<h2>Behind the movie "Balloons"</h2>
The story of "Balloon" takes place in Tibetan areas in the 1990s. Under the strict implementation of family planning, the protagonists Dajie and Zhuoga already have three children, and regeneration means further fines and excessive financial burdens. Once, As usual, Drogga went to the clinic to ask for a condom, and when he took it home, he was stolen by his own children when the balloon was blown, resulting in an unexpected pregnancy.
Drogga wanted to beat the tire. However, the grandfather of the family had just passed away, and the master predicted that Zhuo Ga was pregnant with the reincarnation of his grandfather, so her husband Dajie resolutely disagreed with Zhuo Ga's induction of labor, and the two had an irreconcilable conflict.
The story of the film seems to be cleverly conceived, and everything seems to be created by the author from the plot.
However, as the author of the original novel, the creator of the script and the director of the film, Wan Ma Tse-dan told Titanium Media that the origin of the birth of "Balloon" is actually just an image.
One autumn or winter, when Wan Ma Tse-dan was passing through Zhongguancun when he went to the University for Nationalities, he suddenly saw a balloon floating in the wind. At that moment, he was suddenly attracted to the imagery, and then he wanted to make a movie related to the image of the red balloon.
As a result, the thoughts that began with the red balloon quickly spread out. "I first thought about the ending, and then I came up with the story, and then I wrote it into a script." The director recalls.
For various reasons, the script at that time could not be approved, and for the script that could not be made into a movie, it was meaningless in his opinion. So Wan Ma Tse-dan adapted "Balloon" into a novel and published it in a magazine, so that it could be presented and disseminated in another form.
Later, when the filming of the film was again opportune, Wan Ma Tse-dan expanded the novel of 10,000 words into a mature script of 30,000 or 40,000 words. "The biggest challenge is the sensitivity of the subject matter, so I have considered the main points and lines of the story." Wan Ma Tse-dan said.
Stills from the movie "Balloon"
This time, the director added the auxiliary line of Zhuoga's sister, the nun, which enriched the image of the heroine Zhuoga and became a metaphorical description of his other fate. This makes the text of today's movie "Balloon" go through the process of script, novel and then script polishing.
From the trilogy of Tibetan hometowns directed by Wan Ma Tse-dan in the early years, "Quiet Mane Stone", "Tharlo" and "Old Dog", the audience can feel the tension between the conflict between the old and new cultures between the Tibetan cultural village area and the mixed Han and Tibetan cities.
And because "Balloon" has more realistic meaning than the Tibetan hometown trilogy, this contradiction between religious belief and real life, which originates from the depths of Tibetan culture, is more fully reflected.
"This story is based on the fertility of women, and if they are born, it has the pressure of reality; if they are not born, there is pressure on the level of faith." Wan Ma Tse-dan expresses the message that the film wants to convey in this way. In such a condensed story of feminist themes, the confrontation between the traditional consciousness of religion and the reality facing life in the present reaches a culmination, which leads to infinite thinking.
In recent years, The topic of feminism and film and television dramas in China have set off a wave after wave. But when asked if "Balloons" was deliberately trying to be a topic related to Tibetan women, the director's answer was no.
For Wan Ma Tse-dan, who has the triple identity of writer, director and screenwriter, any form of his work is more from accidental inspiration.
"'Balloon' is not a feminist propositional essay, and I generally don't do propositional essays, but once the image of the red balloon is related to Tibet, it just makes me think of women, and then there is a story."
<h2>Guardian of Tibetan culture</h2>
Extending from the movie "Balloon", Wan Ma Tse-dan talked to Titanium Media about the cultural concept he has always adhered to in filming.
From the Tibetan hometown trilogy to "Knocked Over a Sheep", when you watch every film directed by Wan Ma Tse-dan, you can find those familiar images: the lonely Tibetan old man in the countryside, the Tibetan who thinks traditionally and does not want to cut off his long pigtails; the Tibetan young man who is dressed more and more Sinicized and wants to enter the city, the little lama who is curious about new technologies such as television and radio...
These images represent a contest between the old and the new cultures: it may be a subtle absorption of Tibetan culture by Han culture, perhaps it may be a question of traditional religious beliefs by contemporary new technology, or it may be a choice between generations of Tibetans in urban and rural areas.
For director Wan Ma Tse-dan, who was born in the relatively isolated Tibetan area of Qinghai, went to Gansu to study, and was later admitted to the Beijing Film Academy, it may be the kind of background of study that left his hometown, the kind of life that once stood out of place in the city, so that his attachment to his hometown and attachment to traditional culture have always been reflected in his works.
Director Wan Ma Tse-dan
However, the trajectory of reality never goes against the current. For the impact of the accelerating pace of urbanization on Tibetan culture, Wan Ma Tse-dan's realistic view is the clear word "helpless".
This sense of helplessness is also occasionally expressed in the mood of his works. For example, in "Old Dog", the fierce performance of the old man who guards the Tibetan mastiff finally killing the old dog is a way for the older generation to maintain cultural dignity, and it is also an attitude in Wan Ma Tse-dan's heart to turn the tide.
But he also told Titanium Media that in the film, he is more of an objective representation of different groups in cultural change: children in "Quiet Ma Ne Stone" are willing to accept new technology, "In Search of Zhimei Gengden" has a strong collision between the old and new factions, and in "Tharlo" the different views on cultural abandonment when young people in the city and the countryside interact...
As the guardian of Tibetan culture, the sensual Wan Ma Tse-dan feels lonely because traditional culture will inevitably pass, but he is also superordinarily rational: "I will hardly stand in the perspective of God who is high above and arrange a fate for the characters under the lens." Once the character is formed, she will follow her own destiny. Just like in "Balloons", whether the heroine is a monk in the end, I did not give an answer, it was an open-ended ending. ”
In an era of constant cultural change and violent disintegration and reshaping of values, perhaps the presentation of different content is more important than the ideas themselves.
Between the collision of various new and old cultures, Wan Ma Tse-dan told Titanium Media that "compassion for compassion" is the spirit he most wants to convey in Tibetan culture.
Faith is an indispensable soul thread in many of the Tibetan director's films. "Many people will ask me why my films deal with faith, because faith is a part of Tibetan life, and all their behavior and way of thinking are related to faith, including the Buddhist concept of life and death, including compassion." 」
Whether it is the concept of reincarnation involved in "The Balloon" or the religious story about Zhimei Gengden mentioned in "In Search of Zhimei Gengden", they all string together the belief concepts of "not killing" and "giving love to others".
"The core of Tibetan culture and Buddhist culture is compassion and love and charity, which is a spirit that I hope to be able to pass on forever; therefore, I will find a representative intellectual in the film, Zhimei Gengdeng, who conveys the most precious things in Tibetan culture through a symbolic person."
"Zhimei Gengden" is a famous traditional Tibetan opera, taken from the story of Buddhist scriptures. It tells the story of Prince Jimei Gengden, who was framed by a traitor who wanted to usurp the throne, and after being exiled by the king, he unconditionally sacrificed his eyes and children to other people in need, and finally regained the king's trust.
The reason why Wan Ma Tse-dan wants to reflect such a story theme is that the pure culture of giving is constantly disintegrating in the present.
In "In Search of Zhimei Gengden", the disdain shown by young people for this Tibetan drama is a portrayal of the crisis of traditional culture; in this film, when another farmer gives his wife to a disabled person, he first asks for his wife's consent, which symbolically shows that this kind of giving is no longer unconditional giving.
Of course, the director also realized that all the culture of love and giving may have its original limitations. Zhimei Gengden's blindness after giving up his eyes and depriving himself of the life of his husband and wife and children after giving up his children may also be a culture of excessive dedication that is worth reflecting on.
"In the current social context, these ideas may also need some abandonment, and people can feel it for themselves when watching movies." Wan Ma Tse-dan said.
<h2>The person who unveiled the veil of Tibet</h2>
I had never been to Tibet before, and before I watched a film directed by Wan Ma Tse-dan, I was revered and unfamiliar with that Buddhist holy land.
And when this familiar Tibetan director went deep into Tibetan areas again and again and told the most ordinary stories here so wonderfully, the real side of Tibetan life slowly unfolded before my eyes.
Director Wan Ma Tse-dan also sighed that since he filmed Virgo "Quiet Ma Ne Stone" so far, the entire Tibetan cultural film environment has undergone obvious changes.
"Everyone's awareness of Tibetan films has changed, and I think that many misunderstandings about Tibetans have been dispelled to a certain extent, and may have moved from a kind of ethereal to reality, knowing how herders in Tibetan areas live as human beings." Wan Ma Tse-dan said.
Director Wan Ma Tse-dan was interviewed
In the Tibetan cultural areas of Tibet and Qinghai, in addition to the solemn scenes of monks chanting and pilgrimage, there are also cheerful scenes of young lamas playing and competing for TV to watch "Journey to the West"; not only traditional Tibetan men insisting on growing their hair, smoking old-fashioned cigarettes, and taking in lambs that no one keeps, but also Tibetan girls in the city who smoke new types of women's cigarettes in KTV and love to sing Chinese songs; there are Tibetan singers who sing raps, and rural Tibetans who only want to go to the city.
This is the whole life of Tibetans under multiple cross-sections. Allowing audiences of other nationalities to see another picture of Tibetan life is also the driving force behind Wan Ma Tse-dan's filmmaking.
Although Wan Ma Tse-dan's Tibetan films have always enjoyed a high reputation in the literary and art circles and among veteran film enthusiasts, and have won many awards around the world, unlike commercial films, his films have always had low box office revenue in theaters.
When asked if he would consider broadening the audience of his films in the future, the director, who is dedicated to traditional Tibetan cultural content, told Titanium Media that he would not deliberately cater to the audience and the market, just like the magic literary and artistic films such as "Bumped into a Sheep" are only suitable for the art association to screen.
"Some movies will point to a fixed group, which is a more accurate delivery." Wan Ma Tse-dan mentioned.
But as a director, of course, he also wants the film to be seen by more people. Therefore, on the other hand, Wan Ma Tse-dan also said that he would try more without affecting the story.
"Today's language structure between Tibetan groups has changed, and there will be a lot of foreign vocabulary involved. Therefore, I may also add more Mandarin and even English to the film in addition to Tibetan in the future. In this way, the richness of language will open up the narrow audience situation a little. ”
However, in addition to this, Wan Ma Tse-dan is also full of confidence in the expansion of the Tibetan film market itself:
"As Tibetan films mature in the past two years, the prejudice of audiences across the country and even around the world about the quality of Tibetan-themed films should also be weakened, which will naturally attract more audiences."
Wan Ma Tse-dan hopes that one day, everyone will gradually have a change of attitude, break the ceiling of Tibetan film art in their hearts, and recognize the due position of Tibetan films in the market. (This article was first published on the Titanium Media App, and the author |.) Tao Tao)