Qianjiang Evening News Hour news trainee reporter Liu Yuhan
On October 20, the "West Lake Forum" Local Industry Development Forum was held in Hangzhou, and experts and scholars held rich discussions on "Zhejiang Film and Television Strategy under the Background of the Construction of Common Prosperity Demonstration Zone".
Mao Jian, a professor at East China Normal University, also participated in the discussion, and she paid attention to the unique power of Zhejiang landscape in film and television dramas, calling for ideographic landscapes in film and television dramas, providing a very novel analytical perspective.
The following is Mao Jian's statement (with abridgements) -
Photo: Qiu Guoqiang
The subject of my statement is very hastily prepared and has never been addressed before. Although I myself am from Zhejiang, I never seem to ask myself, as if you are in Zhejiang, as if you are a film critic, what advantages do you have? This time is also an opportunity for me to think about it: As a Zhejiang person, what responsibilities and responsibilities should you have in making movies?
From 1905 to the present, Chinese films have also gone through more than 110 years. Zhejiang people and Zhejiang people, or Zhejiang people because of the development of Chinese films, created a very glorious beginning, but also contributed half of the country.
I would like to explain the problem of Chinese cinema from Zhejiang or from the scenery of Zhejiang.
Because the previous teachers have already talked about some of the functions contributed by Zhejiang predecessors in the history of film, because I am a Ningbo native, I take Ningbo as a representative to talk about the firsts created by Ningbo people in the history of film.
For example, Zhang Ishikawa, who shot China's first feature film "Difficult Husband and Difficult Wife", in 1916 Zhang Ishikawa also founded China's first independent film company, that is, The Phantom Film Company, by 1925, the four Shaw brothers founded the Tianyi Film Company, and the Ningbo people first pushed Chinese films overseas.
Stills from "Difficult Husbands and Wives"
By 1931, we had our first sound film, "Song Girl Red Peony", which was also created by Zhang Ishikawa.
In 1933, there was the Tianyi Company founded by the Shaw brothers, and later the Tianyi Company was pushed to Hong Kong, becoming half of the Hong Kong film industry. We saw that shaw was still very excited about the title, because they launched a series of very good movies. So Shaw is indeed a kingdom.
I put a picture of Yuan Muzhi here, because he was the director of the first film bureau in New China, and there was also The Ningbo man Sang Arc, who made the first "Liang Zhu" ("Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai"), the first color feature film "Blessing" and so on.
Stills from "Blessings"
I checked some movies, and the two provinces in the history of Chinese cinema in the past century are the most contributors and deeds, one is Zhejiang and the other is Guangdong.
The list of Zhejiang Province is very, very long, including Zhang Shichuan, Ying Yunwei, Yuan Muzhi, Wang Danfeng, etc., and a large number of people have gone out from Zhejiang. Therefore, filmmakers who went out from Zhejiang not only created mainland films, but also became the new force of Hong Kong films, extending the line to affect Asian and European and American films. There are too many character deeds, I will not say them all, the previous teachers also talked about Hengdian, Xiangshan Film and Television City and so on.
Back to the question of Zhejiang style, two days ago I saw a movie, which was particularly amazing when I watched it, that is, Gu Xiaogang's "Spring River Plumbing" in 2019.
The movie "Spring River Plumbing" is actually very simple, it is a seasonal structure from summer to spring, the basic vision comes from the Chinese landscape long scroll, the long scroll is the lens, mainly concentrated in the space scheduling along the river, where the granddaughter and the teacher fall in love, there is a ten-minute super long shot, let many people comment.
Of course, this film has many shortcomings, but when I watch this shot, it makes me suddenly re-look back to the Chinese national film language, to the Zhejiang landscape film language, zhejiang mountains, Zhejiang water, Zhejiang people actually created China's original film grammar - Jiangnan long shot. This film once again allows us to take back the language of Chinese cinema in that year.
What does that mean?
As soon as you shoot the Fuchun River, you feel that a man and a woman have entered a state of quasi-love.
Now we are making movies very bleak, and we feel that the landscape language of the motherland cannot be obtained.
Including this time "Chosin Lake", as soon as Yi Qianxi pushed the train away, the MTV-like shot of the Great Wall was about to summon Yi Qianxi as a Chinese soldier. The original image of this shot is very good, but the kinetic energy of the shot is not enough, and the relationship between Yi Yanqianxi and the Chinese soldiers is not close enough. This movie would have done well if it had been made in the 1970s, or in the way of Spring River Plumbing. Because Zhejiang landscape naturally has a lyrical kinetic energy. In the landscape of Zhejiang, a man and a woman, do not need to hold hands, do not need to kiss, we naturally enter a state of quasi-love, these things are in the history of Chinese cinema.
For example, 1976's "Unforgettable Battle" was filmed in Ningbo. It's not a love movie, it's a war movie, and war comes with a little bit of a counter-feature. When our personnel appeared on the scene, every time it was a beautiful scenery, the camera was very beautiful, and the enemy was indoors when they appeared, which was relatively dark. Of course, this is the grammar of the enemy and the enemy of the year, very clear.
Stills from Unforgettable Battles
But at that time, we can see that the landscape is a blessing for the character, and the landscape or this mountain is the spiritual temperament of one of our characters in the real world can be characterized by the landscape. We and the landscape rhyme with each other, share the fate, the same state.
At that time, it was unique to Zhejiang landscape or Zhejiang scenery, or Jiangnan scenery. Therefore, the scenery of Jiangnan is a gesture, the willows are floating, the waves are far away, and the golden light is shining, and we know that the hero and heroine have entered a very beautiful state of feelings. These are all very valuable assets that Chinese cinema has always had, but we have basically thrown it away now.
So up to now, it feels as if we still have a lot of Zhejiang scenery on the screen, and there are also a lot of scenery presented on the screen, of course, this is also a good side, like "The Wind rises from the Long Forest of the Lang Evil List". Every time he wanted to express the immortal qi of the "Lang Evil List", including Hu Ge, including Huang Xiaoming in front of Zhejiang Shanshui, his decibel was also greatly reduced, and he was no longer a person of the Roaring Sect, and Zhejiang Shanshui suppressed his entire temperament a little more Sven. When "The Wind Rises the Long Forest" came out, I thought it was quite good for Huang Xiaoming not to die, because he had a depressing effect on him in the landscape, or a peaceful effect on him.
Stills from "Lang Evil List: The Wind Rises the Long Forest"
Zhejiang landscape has played a very big role in the history of film, including many low-quality films that also use Zhejiang landscape to obtain a sense of balance. Like "Taoist Descending the Mountain", Wang Baoqiang is a person whose state does not match the Zhejiang landscape, but when he goes down the mountain, because of the blessing of the landscape, the whole state is still quite good.
Including many martial arts films will be filmed in Zhejiang, "Liang Zhu", "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu", "Divine Eagle", all of which are taken in Zhejiang in large quantities, and filmed in many places such as rooftops and Xianju. On the one hand, it is the requisition of Zhejiang's "immortal qi", which also contains the problem of Chinese films, and there are too many immortal qi. It seems that Zhejiang has become a place to shoot Chinese xianxia dramas, martial arts dramas, and ancient Chinese dramas.
In this regard, the connection between Zhejiang mountains, Zhejiang water and contemporary Chinese life has not yet been well established. So in this sense, I would like to re-remind you of the lyrical function that Jiangnan Landscape once had in the history of cinema. I remember very clearly, I have said this twice on different occasions. At that time, I wanted to lyrically to the motherland, shoot a five-star red flag, or shoot a big river.
When I watched "To the Youth We Will Eventually Pass Away", there was a sentence at the end of the film, that is, "Loving a person should be like loving the motherland". At that time, I watched at the Hengshan Cinema, and the whole cinema burst into laughter, and everyone felt that "loving a person should be like loving the motherland", and this grammar seems to be untenable.
How do we reconstruct the relationship between people and the motherland? Reconstructing the expression of the landscape of the motherland, I think in today's film is very, very chaotic. So I want to revisit the relationship between Zhejiang landscapes and characters, reconstruct the relationship between private narratives and public narratives, and use this way to combat the over-stardom of movies.
For example, "Do Not Disturb" was filmed in Hangzhou, and it seemed to promote real estate somewhere in Hangzhou. But the shooting of "Do Not Disturb" is actually a very destructive to the national film language, because although it was filmed in Hangzhou, it is actually a star's shooting method. So when we watch this movie, we use a lot of close-up shots to shoot Shu Qi, Ge You, etc., and Shanshui has become the MTV background board of stars.
This is also the place where today's scenery cannot be lyrical.
How are abilities restructured? "Spring River Plumbing" is a good example. Put people into the landscape, because it is a storyboard of a ten-minute super long shot, people are very far away, and we don't quite recognize who this actor is, or who plays it is not so important, it is far away.
Zhejiang Landscape or Chinese Landscape has returned to our films in the way of Huang Gongwang's "Fuchun Mountain Residence Map", and the relationship between Chinese landscape and human beings has been reopened, and the landscape has gained public legitimacy in the image, which is very good.
So like "Jiangnan Book Sword Love", this is Xu Anhua's shooting, in fact, Xu Anhua did not shoot well, but here you can see the landscape of the Qiantang River, which has built a very good martial arts function in it.
Stills from "Jiangnan Book and Sword Love"
There are also like "Shaolin Temple", although it is filmed luoyang "Shaolin Temple", but why shoot on the rooftop? I think it is also because the mountains of Zhejiang and the water of Zhejiang have a very strong emotional function, and it cannot make the hero and heroine particularly have a love function, and cannot completely make them have no feelings, so at that time, there were a lot of spring scenery on the rooftop, peach blossoms, and jet Li practiced there all year round, all done on the rooftop. So the film with the north as the background is completed in Jiangnan, and the landscape grammar contained in it is very important.
Including "The Legend of the New White Lady", a large part of the success is an imitation of the Jiangnan scenery, in fact, a large number of scenery is not taken in Hangzhou, but its imitation of the Hangzhou scenery is quite successful.
Finally, to sum up, use the mountains of Zhejiang, the water of Zhejiang, and through the connection of such a landscape to reopen the reconnection between Chinese films and the grammar of national films that we had before, and use such an ideographic function to hit the overly powerful star system.
Just like "Chosin Lake", a large number of scenes should be taken in Pinghu Lake, but it is not taken in Pinghu Lake. But no matter what, as soon as Wu Jing entered the screen in that boat, we couldn't see the landscape. Yi Ye Qianxi came out to play water drift, we can't see that water drift, we only see Yi Yan Qianxi, excessive starization covers the landscape.
In this sense, the crisis of Chinese cinema is not only the destruction of the connection between the functional expressions of shanshui, but also the huge suppression of Chinese films by the star system, which is also a problem of Chinese films and Chinese TV dramas.
Now that TV dramas have come up, many times because there are still many group scenes in TV dramas, but movies have not yet gotten the method of group dramas, and a lot of short shots are used to shoot the faces of stars. These futures can be overcome through the landscape of Zhejiang.
So in this sense, can Chinese films start from the landscape of Zhejiang Again?
Thank you.
This article is the original work of Qianjiang Evening News, without permission, it is forbidden to reprint, copy, excerpt, rewrite and carry out network dissemination of all works of copyright use, otherwise this newspaper will follow judicial channels to pursue the legal responsibility of the infringer.
Source: Qianjiang Evening News Hourly News