Director Min Hui graduated from the Shanghai Dance School and worked as an actor in the Shanghai Ballet. He then worked as a program host and news anchor at Xinjiapo Television and New York's American Chinese Television. Her directorial debut, Stand Up, was shortlisted for international film festivals in Atlanta, Rotterdam, and New York in 2009 and received a lot of praise. Twelve years after Tao Guang's obscurity, Min Hui returned to the big screen with her new work "City in the Air", and in this April film market where commercial films gathered, a literary breeze blew.
Director Min Hui
The narrative of "City in the Air" consists of three parallel story lines intersecting. It tells how three very different characters and families, a bartender facing a mid-life crisis, a rich merchant's wife, and a widowed veteran, face the difficulties and dignity of their respective lives. The three main characters in the play do not intersect in the story, but the characters around them are inextricably linked to them, weaving a close network of relationships for the whole film. It's like life, everyone lives in their own net, or become a thread in someone else's net.
The film was filmed in Chengdu and featured some local actors. Many scenes are done in a secret way, Chengdu dialect can be heard everywhere in the film, and even important actors such as Wang Qian have also opened up local dialects, making the film especially "grounded". In terms of actor configuration, audiences familiar with mainland literary and art films must know that it is not the first time that the lead actor Zhang Jiayi and Luo Lanshan, who plays his son, have cooperated. In Jia Zhangke's "Destiny of Heaven" in 2013, the two had the same frame performance. In that movie, Zhang Jiayi played the factory director who fired Luo Lanshan, which indirectly led to the latter's suicide by jumping off a building. In "City in the Air", the two people played a bonded father and son, which has to be said to be a wonderful intertextual relationship.
In addition, at the beginning of the film, there is a cameo performance by the famous folk musician Xiaohe, who slowly sings a quiet song with his iconic Ruan. This film is also Kogawa's first time on the big screen after performing a number of independent films many years ago. Director Min Hui said in an interview that filming Xiaohe is like participating in his personal concert, he watched the lyrics improvise, and after trying again and again, he finally found the best rhythm and singing method, and completed the shooting and recording of the theme song on the spot. The lyrics of the theme song are a poem that writes out the final fate of all the characters in the film, but it appears in the opening part of the film, and I believe that the audience can experience a stronger sense of fatalism after getting this.
The following is an exclusive interview with director Min Hui by the director gang.
Q: Your last film, Stand Up, focused on marginalized groups, is more diverse in perspective, like a depiction of sentient beings, what influenced the change in your creative perspective?
a: "Stand Up" is an expression of a shocking spiritual force through two small characters, the life of a tragic person into a comedy, and two small white flowers blooming in the mud swamp. And "City in the Air" is an intransigence expressed by several characters under the powerful fate, which is to turn the absurd and real life into poetry, and it is a stream flowing out of the mountains. So in essence, the two films still have a little bit in common, that is, the tension generated by the confrontation between the characters and the world is called drama in the movie. In a way, "City in the Air" is a movie that belongs to everyone at the moment. The film covers three generations of old, middle and young people, and I believe that audiences of every age can find their own shadow in this movie, so please ask the audience to chat with themselves face to face after watching the movie.
q: How do you understand the imagery of a red hot air balloon in the film?
A: This is Bai Rong's (Liu Tao)'s inner utopia, and I used this image to express and externalize her inner rich sustenance. At that time, I happened to see a Western novel about a red balloon that wanted to fly but couldn't fly outside the house. I immediately felt that this imagery could be added to the surreal passages of City in the Sky. In a sense, the red balloon is white melting, and through such an unintentional but seemingly intentional "fly away", she sees herself and the city in which she lives from a new perspective. Every day we look down at the chores in front of us, and we don't remember to look up at the moon in the sky. But when we experience the grand propositions of life, such as life and death, love, etc., we will remember the essence of life. The white melting red balloon is the medium that takes her to "Lhasa at the top of the mountain", allowing her to meet a young boy who has never lived before, and plans to leave Lhasa together... Then, after the sun had risen to illuminate the city, she walked down the hill without turning her head. "Lhasa has already been there.".
Q: The original title of the film was "Going to Lhasa", so why choose Lhasa as an ideal outlet for the characters in the film?
A: Lhasa can be any place, it just exists as a utopia. Moreover, Lhasa is in the snowy plateau, and the thought of it always brings people a feeling of pilgrimage. I haven't been to Tibet myself, which is a pity, so Lhasa is a utopia in my heart. If you really go, then the Lhasa in your heart will disappear, so you can't go. Quoting a poem by Wang Zhihuan of the Tang Dynasty, "Want to be poor and go to a higher level", that floor does not exist, because even if you go up one floor, there will be a higher floor there. We are now building a building, with one floor, two floors and three floors, and a basement... But there is no zero layer, and the Lhasa that this movie has been talking about is that zero layer, and it does not exist in the real world with us.
q: Why did you design a snowy room at the end of the film?
a: The surreal image I arranged for the role of Bai Rong is a red balloon, and the surreal image of Lu Baicheng, played by Zhang Jiayi, is the stone that has been following him. City in the Air uses stones as clues throughout the beginning and end. In his heart, that stone is his utopia. He is unemployed in middle age, his children are rebellious, his wife is crazy, and real life is so cruel to this role, where is he even if he wants to escape? Couldn't find it at all. But we are movies, and if the stone can also snow, why can't he have happiness? Therefore, this snow must fall, for a group of contemporary middle-aged men, silent tenacity and forbearance in front of life. In another sense, snow is pure, it can wash everything away and then be reborn. Although Lu Baicheng did not see the snow falling for him in the movie, all of us in the audience did. The main part of Zhang Jiayi's character comes from my uncle, and I write about this character with deep sympathy, and there are many very weak and fragile things in it.
Q: As a female director, what are your own unique thoughts when filming the crisis of middle-aged and elderly people?
A: Ma Lao, played by Teacher Xu Huanshan, is also a character "stripped" from life, many elderly people actually do not feel old, just like people who are completely drunk do not know that they are drunk, it is their bodies that remind them that they are old. The little nanny has gradually become Ma Lao's anti-aging medicine and his crutch, and such examples abound in life. Widowed in old age, he had to learn to live again, like a child, but Alzheimer's disease left him with nothing to rely on. The photos of him and his wife when they were young eventually faded, and no one was gone, leaving only the white snow-capped mountains. Life is fragile, but so long. When I see these old people, I will think of time, what is it for us? Is it related to memory? I don't know if you have found that all our life memories are made up of points of several events, and they are connected into lines. We don't remember the trivialities of the day, but we do remember the important moments that happened. We have to live a lifetime to form this moment, to constitute a complete life. Why can't we condense all the "happenings" together? These are some of the thoughts that came up with me when I was patting Ma Lao.
q: You comment on the acting skills of Zhang Jiayi and Liu Tao
a: Zhang Jiayi is a very relaxed actor, slack is the foundation of a good actor, is extremely advanced in performance, just like the "skill" in kung fu. Putting him in any environment can go unnoticed and can be fully integrated into the character setting. I remember a scene where he was sitting in a tea room in a park drinking tea, and he was wearing a very ordinary green jacket that day. We hid in the park and set up the machine far away to photograph him. At that time, the tea room was surrounded by real tea guests and residents, but no one noticed his appearance, and his state was exactly the same as that of the people drinking tea around him. This can only be done by very good actors. The highest state of acting is actually not acting, but "becoming". He became his role in the film.
Liu Tao presented the most beautiful side in this movie, and I asked some foreign friends to watch the unfinished film and unanimously praised Liu Tao for being so beautiful and attractive. I think Liu Tao is now at a very mature but still blooming age, which is the best time. Her technical acting skills are very gripping, she will set up many wonderful details for the role, plump up the character to add layers, and it is my happiness to meet such an outstanding actor.
q: What are your plans for the future? Will you continue to do literary films?
a: My next film hopefully will be a little more commercial. Business does not mean not art, business in my understanding is an artistic way that more people can easily understand. But I've always thought of myself as an audience-oriented director, and my films can't be separated from the characters, and they will still be supported by the characters. I also don't want to be labeled as a "female director of literary and artistic films", and next time I may let everyone see a "female director of thrillers", and the film director must first bring himself something unexpected.