Nanjing Morning Post/Love Nanjing reporter Li Xiaojie
Edit: Lin Li
Liu Jing's past is full of jumping feelings. She's always trying to step out of her comfort zone, find something she thinks is worth pursuing, and create new possibilities.
People often say that "everything is the best arrangement", but often overlook that every choice requires great courage, and this precious courage pushes Liu Jing to enter the film school, taste the life in the play, travel far away to study, and become the director of a movie.
Actor Liu Jing once created a number of classic characters such as Zhou Zhiruo, who palmed Emei, and DaQiao, who lived in the wall of Dongwu Palace, and gave them a real image with their talents and insights. And when she chose to abandon these auras, she replaced them with Liu Jing, a director who is more egotistical and can control her own life story.
Sometimes brave people may be a little reckless and radical, but when Liu Jing continues to break through himself and "transition" in his life, what we see is not a face full of attempts to climb to a higher mountain. Liu Jing's ease of self-satisfaction is not changed by the transformation of any identity, from one peak to the next starting point, she is firm but not hurried to go forward, the pace is firm, free in the world.
Children selected for art
Liu Jing's childhood, like many children, absorbed knowledge and learned about the world in school, but unlike most people, she has been entangled in art since she was a child. The debriefing performance of the kindergarten evening was her first "intimate contact" with the stage. At that time, she did not understand what "performance" was, and she did not think that her future self would engage in literary and artistic work, she only knew that singing and dancing were interesting things.
The family held the mentality of letting the children cultivate their emotions, allowing her to participate in the study of dance and vocal music in addition to the heavy study. Liu Jing's artistic talent gradually revealed, often representing the class, school, and city on stage.
As a "chosen child", she has become accustomed to performing on stage, identifying herself with her expressiveness beyond others, and enjoying the pride that comes with performing. At this time, she was not only an artistic cell, but also a natural decisiveness. After entering high school, she made the first important decision in her life: to take the art exam and study acting.
Although her parents did not support her decision, and all kinds of problems were rampant, Liu Jing still kept moving forward, paid more effort than others, and finally passed the Beijing Film Academy acting major with high scores.
An actress who can't be labeled
Liu Jing's road to fame is not bumpy, after graduating from keban, she was caught in the eyes of Wang Jun, the director of the Republic of China drama "Four Generations Together", and played the famous role of Peking Opera in the play, Wen Ruoxia. A good drama let insiders see her shining point, and then ushered in Zhang Jizhong's version of "Yitian Slaughtering Dragon" Zhou Zhiruo and Gao Xixi's version of "Three Kingdoms" two important roles, gaining a good reputation.
At that time, people's impression of Liu Jing was "Zhou Zhiruo", and it was a good thing that a role was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, but Liu Jing did not want to be framed by a role, nor did he want others to always label himself, so sometimes he deliberately appeared outside the play in a modern image to help the audience "forget" Zhou Zhiruo.
In the play, Zhou Zhiruo is gifted but lacks self-will, and only obeys the master's orders. Although Liu Jing outside the play is also superior, he does not have Zhou Zhiruo's indecisive moves. At the time when her career was the most smooth, she suddenly changed the course, sailed from the small river to the ocean, and decided to go to the outside world for a walk.
Be true to your own decisions
The real "sobriety on earth" is not judging the situation in adversity, but still daring to jump out in good times and pursue a higher realm. In 2011, Liu Jing, who was in the ascendancy of his career, chose to stop and go to the United States for further study.
This choice was too "willful" in the eyes of many people at the time, but only Liu Jing herself knew that although the aura of the work of acting was large, she could not express her own views according to the script, and had no initiative in the choice of script, which seemed to be not the state she wanted. By chance, she observed the scheduling of various positions on the set during the filming process and found that "this is what I wanted to do and could do." "She first had the idea of becoming a director and started the road to transformation.
The period of studying directing in the United States was the most fulfilling period of Liu Jing's life. Coming to a strange country alone and contacting unfamiliar fields is a difficult thing for everyone, but Liu Jing believes that this is a very worthwhile choice, and it is also an exercise that can never be obtained in China.
In her view, the director is a profession that is proficient in acting and requires more skills than the performance itself. In the first year of graduate school, the tutor asked the students to shoot a short film every week, and they did the casting, shooting, editing, and dubbing, and they also needed to create a full English script every week until the senior year. Liu Jing's biggest feeling is that the most difficult thing to solve is not technology, but cultural differences. How do I communicate with my team? How do you make your content understandable to others? How do you adapt to their system? These are all problems faced in the process of filming. Despite the difficulties, Liu Jing is still getting closer and closer to success with his dedicated research and communication skills.
Self-actualization of female directors
After returning to China, Liu Jing began to prepare her own film works, and officially brought her first theatrical feature film work - "Ice Beauty" as a director. It is not easy to be a director, and it is even more difficult for female directors. When asked if she was going well as a director, she replied, "Not well." "From the choice of script to the construction of the team, every step is not so natural, there are more or less problems.
"'Ice Beauty' presents a story of love and suspense, a script I've seen in 14 years and have always been obsessed with." So when Liu Jing was ready in 2017, the first thing she did was to put this story that she never forgot on the big screen. Set in a funeral parlor, Ice Beauty is a special scene that is inherently filled with a heart-pounding sense of suspense. The lingering love between the groomer Bai Yu and the anatomist Wen Cen at the junction of life and death paved a warm layer of warm pulse emotions for this cold scene.
When it comes to why she chose to make such a special theme film, Liu Jing showed her "dare": "Because I want to touch things that others have not touched, I want to do something new." Liu Jing saw the lingering pity in the special environment of "Ice Beauty" in the outline of the first two pages, and hoped to bring this story to everyone through his own way.
Although he experienced the cooperation storm of the main creator and producer during the shooting process, Liu Jing always relied on his unhurried attitude and worked closely with the team to complete his own work. She believes that the director and the producer are mutually balanced relations, and do not deny the efforts of every colleague on the set. I still feel excited in the intense preparation, shooting and post-production work: "As long as I can be a director and have a film, I feel very happy and full of strength." 」 "
Love yourself and respect others
For the future, her goal is very clear, and she hopes that at this stage, she who is good at literary and art films can also become a commercial film director. Liu Jing is a person who loves fashion and beauty, and also hopes that he can share his inner understanding and requirements of life with the audience: "The director has a mark, and what kind of things he likes will be expressed in the film." But she respects other people's preferences: "Sometimes beauty is not fixed, depending on what everyone likes." "
Liu Jing once mentioned Los Angeles, where he stayed when he studied abroad: "Everyone is very free and comfortable. And she does always pursue free expression, a comfortable life, while relying on her own empathy to tolerate different voices. Just like the tone of her conversation with people, gentle and full of power.