On May 22, 2019, the first day of the start of "First Incense", negative reviews surged in, xu Anhua filmed for more than forty years, the first time she encountered this situation, she was a little caught off guard.
There was no media arrangement at the boot scene, and the flow of the photo did not go through her consent, Xu Anhua recalled a little self-blame: "I was too ignorant to know that every time I appeared in the media was so important, nor did I know that the power of netizens was so strong." ”
Xu Anhua won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Film Festival
Xu Anhua is 74 years old this year. She won the Hong Kong Academy Award for Best Director for the first time at the age of 33, and since then she has won a total of six times, and last year she won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Film Festival, becoming the world's first female director to win the award.
She could have laid down in such a seniority book to point out the country, but she still stood on the front line of the set with her back hunched over.
Zhang Ailing's novels have always been difficult to shoot, and Xu Anhua has previously made two films: "Love in the City" in 1984 and "Half Life" in 1997, because the box office was cold, and she once vowed that "even if there is a chance, she will not shoot Zhang Ailing.".
However, she could not resist the "temptation" and "wanted to do what she found difficult", and took over "The First Burning Incense".
The aunt's rich mansion in the movie
Published in 1943, this novel is one of Zhang Ailing's masterpieces, 4 years later Hui Anhua was born, and the scene of the rich people in Hong Kong that she saw when she was a teenager had many overlaps with the novel, so she mixed a lot of her own sights and feelings when shooting.
The novel tells the story of a middle-class female high school student, seduced by the decadent life of high society, falling in love with a prodigal son, and finally becoming a social flower.
The relationship between men and women, old and young, is intricate, and Xu Anhua continued to write 30 minutes of content in the movie, which directly shows these unruly and pickled, and the lens is fragrant and bold.
Compared with the first two films, Xu Anhua believes that he has made a lot of progress in "The First Burning Incense". Nowadays, the voice of the outside world is of little importance to herself, but she still wants to say a few words for the actor.
The following is director Xu Anhua's self-statement:
The famous film star Xia Meng founded Blue Bird Film Production Co., Ltd. in 1979
The pioneering work is Xu Anhua's "Running to the Fury Sea"
One reason why I took over "The First Burning Incense" was because I liked Zhang Ailing very much, and her work was a huge temptation for me; another reason was that Blue Bird Pictures came to me, they were very enthusiastic, Blue Bird is the name of Xia Meng' company.
Xia Meng later passed the company over to Liu Ren and told him to film well, and Liu Ren has been rushing to buy the copyright of "First Burning Incense" since 2014.
Initially they asked me to be a producer, we met at an art center in Hong Kong, I didn't expect Xia Meng to come too, I was surprised, because at that time Xia Meng basically didn't come out, so I was very happy to see her.
About the end of 2017, I decided to be the director of "The First Burning Incense", asked Wang Anyi to write the script, and then looked for the main scene and the actors, and I got busy.
It's a story of love and depravity
I shoot Zhang Ailing, not always to discover her original spirit, why, because your so-called original spirit is actually very subjective, you have your opinion, I have my opinion, everyone in this book to find their own things obsessed.
I think "First Incense" first of course tells a love story, Ge Weilong fell in love with Ge QiqiQiao, she is very aware that the other party is a scumbag, cheating everywhere, but she still lied to herself that he loves me very much, which is the most cruel and profound place in "First Incense".
The aunt has many lovers, including male college student Lu Zhaolin (Yin Fang)
In addition, it talks about hypocrisy in high-end society, so the aunt represents this thing. She has an affair with many men, marries for money, and when her husband dies, she has many lovers, old and young, and she and Situ Xie are lovers but help him find other little girls, this is all depraved, but she has made this corruption and depravity very decent.
When Ge Weilong entered such a network, it was difficult to escape. The allure of the glamorous life of the upper class is obvious, and then she is not going back to Shanghai, we added a paragraph that she got on the boat, and she was anxious to queue up, and was scolded by others for no reason, that class thing is obvious, then she is very determined to come back to her aunt's house.
Wei Long, who was initially very student
Later, Veron became a socialite
Accompany the businessman Situ Xie (Fan Wei) to dinner
Wei Long and Georgie are married, and secretly they are also promised to Situ Xie, and finally look a bit like a high-level social flower.
We continued to write about the life of Wei Long and Georgie after marriage, because in the original book, they jumped from marriage to the end of the Chinese New Year's Eve market, in the end, what is the taste of their depravity, that kind of unruly relationship, we will use a few scenes to prompt it.
In the original work, Wei Long always calculated some things in her heart, such as she hated her family's maids for not being able to get on the stage, she planned to go to the choir just to get close to Lu Zhaolin, etc., these I did not shoot, if I shoot it, it will be made into a voiceover, too clear it is not good.
And only the old-fashioned will slowly calculate how much their chastity is worth, modern people will not calculate it that way, so that if you shoot it, it will make this story too distant and too contemporary.
I didn't expect it to cause such a big controversy
We invited Ma Sichun and Peng Yuyan to be the male and female protagonists, I did not expect to cause such a big controversy, nor did I expect that the power of netizens is so strong, I am too ignorant.
I didn't care about myself, but Ma Sichun was so miserable, she was scolded for two years because of this.
In fact, unfortunately, when we started the camera, there was no reporter, everyone was dressed very casually, we didn't know that someone had taken it, and we didn't know how the photo was leaked.
Then Ma Sichun was scolded, she was under a lot of pressure and couldn't sleep, but she had to continue acting, because we couldn't stop and wait for this matter to pass, and the filming behind was more or less affected.
Stills from "July and Ansheng"
Ge Weilong put on a wedding dress
At the beginning of 2019, I decided ma Sichun, why did I choose her, because after watching "July and Ansheng", I felt that her love drama was very good. Some people can act in love dramas, some people can't, such as seeing a boy she was stunned, some people can put that "stunned" performance, but there is no real feeling of love, but Ma Si pure.
So when filming "The First Incense", I think several love scenes she played were still in place.
Georgie Joe is a handsome mixed-race man with a feminine affinity
Peng Yuyan, we have worked together before in "When is the Bright Moon", and he is a very serious actor. He plays Georgie Joe, a Mixed Chinese-Portuguese, his mother is driven away, he lacks maternal love, his father is not good to him, and then he himself is lazy and has nothing to do.
Peng Yuyan has always had a feeling of uneasiness when acting, such as the line he said "I can give you happiness", he was not very confident, not like trying to convince a girl, he added an uneasy background to a person who was originally very bad and dashing, which has become the characteristic of our version of Georgie Joe.
My aunt was good at weaving a web of relationships
Yu Feihong played the aunt, I think she acted particularly well.
The aunt and Lu Zhaolin have some erotic scenes, and there is also a shot of a vague nudity in it. I was seeing a picture of Charlotte Ramplin lying in front of her in a flesh-colored nightgown with a naked man behind her, and I thought it was an aunt when I looked at it. Then I showed the actors the picture, and I said maybe I could shoot such a shot, and they all agreed.
In that shot, at first glance you think it is one person, look closely at two people, you think that your aunt is not wearing clothes, and then look at the naked man behind you, this feeling of staggering, itself is dramatic.
There was a scene where the aunt got up at night to smoke, in fact, there were originally two versions, one wearing a suspender, one wearing a long sleeve, I discussed with Yu Feihong, or chose the long sleeve.
The sling version is also very good, it is a little too sexy, the audience's attention will be distracted, can not see her expression.
Please come to Du Kefeng and Emi Wada for photography and clothing
Top luxury behind the scenes
Our screenwriter is Wang Anyi, the cinematographer is Du Kefeng, the costume is Emi Wada, and the composer is Ryuichi Sakamoto. ... The team behind the scenes is very strong, but we are not deliberately asking so many big names to come.
In 2018, I went to see Teacher Wang Anyi, who was teaching in hong Kong Chinese, started writing the script in June, handed it in in August, and then we changed the script in the next six months.
Du Kefeng I want to cooperate with him for a long time, I looked for him twice in the past eight years, he just didn't pick up, and then there was a drama that was picked up, but it was not filmed, this time I told him, if you don't cooperate anymore, everyone will die, there is no chance, so he came.
I really admire her, the first time we met was not to talk about clothes, but to talk about novels, because she read Zhang Ailing's novels translated into Japanese, and she also liked the story of "First Burning Incense".
The costumes in the film are very bold in color
Our clothing design does not specifically refer to the style of rich families in the 30s or 40s, but grasps a feeling.
Wada Emi's colors are very bold, such as evening dresses, some green, and some lake blue.
Her materials are very elaborate, and Ma Sichun's yellow skirt is a piece of cloth that Wada Emi has collected for a long time. The piece of the white floral flowers she actually bought from a Liberty department store in London.
The clothes, workmanship and fabrics worn by Ma Sichun in the film are extremely elaborate
Ma Sichun wore a pink dress when she was on a boat, and when she tried it on, I said it was beautiful and beautiful, and I said that it was just a substitute for second-class fabric, and the real best fabric was only one piece, and she had to wait until the end to determine it.
Sakamoto Ryuichi was found by Liu Ren, I said can you please move him, he said yes, then I think of course. Before Sakamoto Ryuichi scored the music, he watched the film, and I posted his previous music in the play for him as a reference, and he was very happy. He rewrote the music I wanted on time and gave more options.
The film was mainly filmed on Gulangyu Island
Our main filming location was at Gulangyu Island, and the feeling of this place is very right.
I remember when I was a child, Hong Kong was divided into two halves, half coffee and half green and white. The coffee color is the districts of Wan Chai, where the poor live, there are many people, and the feeling of brown; but once in Central, there are very few people, very clean, red flowers and green grass, all white buildings.
Gulangyu Island has a lot of old buildings, in a protected area there are about 20 old villas, relatively broken, we chose 2 of them, put up, on the basis of the original to do a big renovation.
The artists have redoed the garden and the fountain, and the whole pattern is very similar to the Hong Kong mansion I saw when I was a child, with green grass coconut trees and banana trees, the mountain road is particularly long, and the slow steep slope is particularly good.
I shot three zhang Ailing and did not see her face
About 1978, when I was in my 30s, I first read Zhang Ailing's book, which should have been called "Zhang Kan", a collection of short stories, which included "The First Burning Incense" and "The Second Burning Incense".
I liked her writing as soon as I saw it, and at that time I was not looking at the love in it, but paid attention to the colonial style of her writing.
In 1978, the foreigners in our play were beaten, such as Bruce Lee beating the ghost guy, others bullying you, you have to fight back.
But this is not the relationship I have seen in my life, I live in The Model Estate in Hong Kong, the neighbors are Malaysians, Indians, very ordinary, alas, I was thinking, how come no one writes about this state of this group of people.
Then I think the biggest feature of Zhang Ailing is to write these foreigners as ordinary people like us, like the Indians written in "Serial Set", with joys and sorrows, and their own weaknesses, rather than writing them as noble or cruel.
Stills from 1984's "Allure of Love"
I filmed three love stories of Zhang Ailing, "Love in the City", "Half Life" and "The First Burning Incense", but I never saw Zhang Ailing's face.
"Love in the City" is the copyright bought by Shaw, which has a certain economic relief for Zhang Ailing at that time.
We originally wanted to visit Zhang Ailing, but Shao asked me to find Song Qi. Song Qi was very helpful, invited us to afternoon tea, and was willing to match us. Later, Song Qi said that Zhang Ailing was constantly moving and it was inconvenient to meet.
However, before the shooting began, Zhang Ailing sent a fax to Song Qi, and Song Qi forwarded it to me, and she said that she was very happy and congratulated her on starting the shooting.
In 1984, "Love in the City" was released, and all aspects were not ideal. I understood the love in it as "Gone with the Wind", took the wrong route, and I had never been to Shanghai at that time, and all kinds of details were wrong.
The shooting scene of "Love in the City", the far right is Xu Anhua
Later, Zhang Ailing's letter was not published, I read those paragraphs to know. Song Qi was excited to see the premiere of "Love in the City" and came back to write a long paragraph, saying that he was disappointed in this play.
When he introduced me to Zhang Ailing, he said that Xu Anhua was a reader and a master's degree, and he had just made a movie "Running to the Fury Sea" and won the Golden Horse Award, which was very famous, and I estimated that she had great hopes for this play. She said that the main part of her dislike of "Love in the City" was that she felt that the Shanghai depicted in it was not like it, and the furniture did not feel right.
Later, I also saw a magazine that said that Zhang Ailing used "unbearable" to describe my "Love in the Fallen City", and I later asked Song Yilang, and he said that he had not said so, he thought I would mind, how could I mind, she had the right to say so.
To be honest, I don't like my "Love in the City", I don't think there is any need to argue, it has passed, I hope that the bad places I shot can be adjusted later.
In 1997, "Half Life" was filmed in a shanghai alley
"Half Life" has always wanted to shoot, eight years ago, I went to Shanghai for the first time, the alley is all in front of your eyes, there is little air conditioning, you can shoot real scenes.
It dragged on until 1996, when many of the old houses on the streets were demolished, and I felt that it would be too late if I didn't shoot at that time.
Now they all say that the casting is good, but they didn't think of it at all.
Gu Manlu, played by Mei Yanfang
Investors told me that if they found Li Ming and Wu Qianlian, they could shoot, so I looked for them. Sister Gu Manlu is Played by Mei Yanfang, a big star, she is very expensive, in fact, many people can play Manlu, but as soon as I told the producer to find Mei Yanfang, he was very excited, and it didn't matter if we didn't have enough money to find it.
Because we hired these stars, we didn't have enough money, and we were worried about the shutdown.
To shoot Gu Manzhen and Shen Shijun in the factory scene, I said that it is better to walk around in a corner, which is more economical. But the art director said no, he actually found a factory, the scenery still has to pick, it is very good.
In the end, when I was doing the late stage of "Half Life", I basically had no money, more than a hundred thousand, not a lot, but I couldn't pay for that money. I ran to borrow money to finish the later stage.
Now it is said that "Half Life" was filmed well, but when it was released in Hong Kong in 1997, it was almost silent, and there were not many people who read Zhang Ailing, and everyone did not react after watching it, feeling bored.
The box office is very bad, our total investment is 12 million to 13 million Hong Kong dollars, and the box office is six or seven million Hong Kong dollars. However, later, the copyright was sold in South Korea at a high price, because Wu Qianlian was very popular in South Korea at that time, so it should not have lost a lot.
In 1996, Zhang Ailing had passed away, and even Song Qi was ill, and we bought the copyright with Crown. I have always felt very sorry for Song Qi, I like him very much, I dare not go to see him, the company invited him to watch the film I do not know, and then he also went.
The whole process is more difficult, but anyway, it has passed, it doesn't matter, now everyone likes it is the best.
To "The First Incense", I think the art, technology, music and other aspects are better than the first two, and the actors are also better, but there are still some gaps from my ideal.
"I'm not someone, but I have a lot of ambitions"
I will listen to what people say about my play, but I am not very angry, but I want to say two fair words for Ma Sichun and Peng Yuyan, I know that I may not be useful in this way, it may have the opposite effect, but I still have to say, because I am the director, I have the responsibility to protect them.
I really don't care myself, especially people my age, it's already happy to survive, isn't it? Because many of my friends are sick or die.
I myself am old, many things can not catch up, for example, I do not dare to go outside now, I will not use mobile phones to pay, nor will I use network maps, the whole social environment changes too fast, how to adapt, to survive, in the face of adversity can also be very active to go in a good direction, I think this is much more important than my personal performance and reputation, more important.
Xu Anhua gave Fan Wei a play on the set
You now ask me to shoot any novel of Zhang Ailing, I still want to shoot, maybe my personality is a bit "masochistic", can not resist the temptation, always have to do some difficult things, knowing that there are tigers in the mountains, biased towards the tiger mountain line. However, I also hope that other directors will shoot and have more different perspectives.
I still want to make a film later, in fact, I don't have any confidence, but it doesn't matter, where is it.
If you make a movie and the requirements are getting higher and higher, you must be creative in the structure and the way you tell the story, which can be called a movie, not simply telling a story.
The Japanese film Floating Clouds was released in 1955 and directed by Kio Naruse
"Floating Clouds" is a film that I think has a perfect cinematic feel, and its script structure is the structure of the experience of the two protagonists, and the form and story match perfectly, like music.
Being able to turn an archetypal story into a work of art is of course an ultimate pursuit of mine, of course, people will say "who are you, such a big ambition", I am not a person, but I am very ambitious, oh, I hope to be the best.