“Chinese Doctor” leads this year’s summer box office and breaks 1.1 billion
Director Liu Weiqiang: Don’t shame the Chinese
From the outbreak of the new crown epidemic to the release of the movie “Chinese Doctor”, the interval was only 17 months, and the creative pressure that director Liu Weiqiang took can be imagined. Today, the box office of “Chinese Doctor” has exceeded 1.1 billion yuan, leading this year’s summer vacation. Liu Weiqiang, who finally breathed a sigh of relief, said: “As a director, it’s right to make a good movie. So the pressure to make this movie is not whether you make it well. The biggest pressure is that this movie is not just for Chinese people. It’s for people all over the world, so I don’t think I can shame the Chinese.”
The script was revised repeatedly, and finally decided to focus on the “eye of the epidemic” of Jinyintan Hospital
At the beginning of 2020, Liu Weiqiang was ready to shoot the main theme commercial blockbuster “Changjin Lake”, and only waited for the actors to join the team to start up, but the sudden outbreak of the new crown epidemic forced the filming to be stopped. Bona Film Group, which has filmed “Operation Mekong”, “Operation Red Sea”, “Emergency Rescue”, “Heroes of Fire”, “Captain of China” and other films to create “civilian heroes”, took the initiative to ask Ying to shoot “Chinese Doctor”. The director of “Captain of China” Liu Weiqiang has become the “one choice” in the eyes of Yu Dong, chairman of Bona Pictures.
In March 2020, after receiving Yu Dong’s invitation, Liu Weiqiang agreed without hesitation. “I didn’t think too much at the time, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this is really a not simple subject. “Chinese Doctor” is not as simple as a movie. It is a big thing we have experienced in our lives. I think it’s good to have a movie to record what happened at that time. But unlike previous movies, “Chinese Doctor” is a big challenge for me.”
The movie “Chinese Doctor” is adapted from the real events of the fight against the new crown pneumonia epidemic in 2020. The story is based on the “eye of the storm” in the new crown pneumonia epidemic-Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital as the prototype. Exciting, eloquent and moving moments, using images to reproduce the local medical staff in Wuhan and the white-clothed retrogrades from all over the country, they stepped forward in the most critical moment, fighting against time and fighting blood in the “City of Heroes” in Wuhan, and finally won It won the battle of Wuhan, Hubei, and epidemic prevention.
The film focuses on the “eye of the epidemic” in Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, and sees the big from a small, showing the great battle “epidemic” of the people of Wuhan, Hubei, and the whole country to help each other and overcome difficulties in the face of the epidemic. Liu Weiqiang revealed that he has been polishing the script with the screenwriter to determine the general direction. “It’s probably not until August 2020 that it is set with Jinyintan Hospital as the background. The characters include Dean Zhang Dingyu as the prototype, Guangzhou Aid E doctor who takes Sangling as the prototype, etc. The big story is set in this way. There are other people, such as the takeaways played by Ou Hao, who gradually connect the whole story.”
Regarding why we chose to focus on Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, Liu Weiqiang said that a lot of the news I saw at the beginning was from Jinyintan Hospital, “because it is a specialized hospital for infectious diseases, at that time, if there is an unknown virus, it will go to Jinyintan for isolation. Jinyintan Hospital There is an infection department, so there is equipment and a place to isolate.”
In addition, Zhang Dingyu, the director of Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, is also a “person with a story.” Liu Weiqiang mentioned Zhang Dingyu admiringly: “He has frostbite. Our lives are counted year by year, but his life is counted day by day. Yes. It is very likely that in a few years, he will be in a wheelchair, and he may really need someone to feed him, and he needs some help to eat and drink. Therefore, this person is very special, and his personality is very Hubei, very Really, he has a lot of ideas that he wants to implement. Up to now, I still think he is a very special person. Now it has proved that we did not make a mistake in shooting him.
Zhang Hanyu’s role as Dean Zhang Jingyu in the film is based on Zhang Dingyu, the former Dean of Jinyintan Hospital. Dean Zhang in the film is “tempered.” Liu Weiqiang said that this is not an emphasis on “dramatic”, but through an interview with Zhang Dingyu. After a long interview and getting along with him on a daily basis, Dean Zhang left a deep impression of their true temperament. “We also watched a lot of documentaries. One of them was that Dean Zhang Dingyu had a curse. This impressed me a lot. Because we generally think that the dean is gentle, but he is not. He has a real temperament. He has a real man. On the other hand, he didn’t want to scold you, he just told others that it must be this way. Zhang Hanyu and Dean Zhang have been together for about four or five days, went rounds with him, and saw that he really has this temperament. So, I Just put this character in the movie.”
After watching the movie, Zhang Dingyu himself described the movie as a “tear gas bomb” full of affection. He also affirmed the director Zhang Jingyu who was shaped by Zhang Hanyu: “Some of the tempers and habits of the director in the movie belong to me, but those bold heroes The characteristics of the film are displayed by condensing the images of all medical staff. Thank you to all the creative and filming units for bringing us this movie.”
Filming is fast and accurate because of a lot of preparations in advance
Director Liu Weiqiang is known for his “fast, accurate, and ruthless” style of filming. On May 14, 2018, Sichuan Airlines 8633 made an alternate landing in Chengdu. On September 30, 2019, the film “Captain of China” directed by Liu Weiqiang was released, which took only 16 months in total. This time, from the outbreak of the new crown epidemic to the release of “Chinese Doctor”, it only took 17 months.
Huang Jianxin, the producer of “The Founding of the Army”, who collaborated with Liu Weiqiang, also praised the director Liu Weiqiang for showing strong control during the preparation and shooting periods of “The Founding of the Army”. “He allowed the entire crew to operate efficiently. In the rhythm, from the start of the shooting to the finalization, there has never been any delay. Every day, the original shooting plan is executed strictly, which shows the director’s rigorous work attitude, technical expertise, and profound knowledge.”
During the live shooting stage, the crew of “The Founding of the Army” not only “held regular meetings” every day, but also rehearsed important scenes in advance before entering the live shooting stage. It can be said that the “Liu Weiqiang style” film shooting rhythm is not just a blind pursuit of speed, but is based on the time-consuming and laborious preparation of details that are hard to see by others.
The same was true for the filming of “Chinese Doctor”. After accepting the task, Liu Weiqiang began to search for information. At that time, he couldn’t come to the mainland because of the epidemic, so he checked the information online, and the screenwriter looked for information in Beijing. “Contact Wuhan and find a lot of things for me to see, including texts and documentaries. We can also find different reports in Hong Kong. It’s not just Wuhan. The epidemic has become a problem all over the world. Many places have been closed, and many people around us have suddenly left us, making people feel that life is impermanent.
Liu Weiqiang said that this feeling of helplessness is completely different from preparing other movies. “I didn’t think about how to shoot at the time, so I kept reading the information. After Wuhan was unblocked, the screenwriter went to Wuhan to interview many people, not only doctors, but also experts. , Community workers, takeaway brothers, community volunteers, etc., we talk on the phone every day. About the end of June, I went to Guangzhou to meet with Academician Zhong Nanshan, and the medical aid team in Hubei. Among them was Sang Ling (the prototype of Zhu Yawen’s role). See you After joining Academician Zhong Nanshan, he gave me a lot of confidence to make this movie. I also visited many hospitals’ ICUs. I was in Guangzhou for about two weeks. I met a lot of people and collected a lot of things. Then I went to Wuhan. I went to Wuhan for the first time. One place to go to is Jinyintan Hospital. I met with Dean Zhang Dingyu and heard him talk about how to face the epidemic, how to deal with it, how to reform the hospital, how many assisted doctors in Hubei helped them, and how they divided the labor.”
The crew members admire Liu Weiqiang’s extensive preparations. Ran Xiao, one of the medical consultants of the crew and deputy chief physician of the Emergency and Critical Care Medicine Department of Tongji Hospital, Tongji Hospital of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, said: “Before we arrived, the director had collected a lot of materials during the epidemic prevention and control period. He told me that he shut himself up at home and collected materials for more than three months. In a room of three or four square meters, these materials can probably fill a whole wall.”
Zhu Yawen, who played the role of the doctor Tao Jun of the Guangdong Medical Aid Team in Hubei, also said that the film was launched on October 1, 2020, and Liu Weiqiang had been preparing for it for several months before it was launched. After the actor joined the group, Liu Weiqiang also conducted a two-week trial filming. “This trial filming does not mean that the director is practicing the skills of his team. He is restoring the time and space of the fight against the epidemic. After the actors entered that time and space, Still can’t be eaten by the sense of solemnity and oppression. You have to find your own creative gap in it, so that everyone can work in this space seriously, seriously, and with ease. This is me and Director Liu Weiqiang summarized him after several years of cooperation. He just wrote all the words’difficulty’ at the top, and he was always cheerful and smiling when facing us, and then he couldn’t sleep when he went back. For example, he goes to bed at eight o’clock in the evening and wakes up at three o’clock in the morning to do his homework. He is one such person.”
Yuan Quan, who plays Wen Ting, director of the Department of Critical Care Medicine, said that the homework done by Director Liu Weiqiang made them feel that when they arrived at the shooting scene on the first day, this place seemed to be a certain scene in the epidemic. “Before we joined the group, the director had already presented everything he could provide to the actors, like the wards and intensive care units we saw, the details down to the words on the whiteboard, time, etc. The director did everything he could What we did allows us to get into all the preparations for this situation. And although the director is very fast on the scene, he feels that he is very delicate and precise. If he gives pointers, it will make you feel “Wow, that’s accurate.”
Pursue truth, give medical consultants the power to call cut
The 1:1 Airbus A319 simulator in “Chinese Captain” is impressive. This time in “Chinese Doctor”, the pursuit of reality is also the basic requirement of Liu Weiqiang. The hospital equipment used for filming was all built in strict accordance with the real hospital construction standard 1:1. In Liu Weiqiang’s words, the hospital was “moved” into the studio. Every hospital bed and every instrument are all real. “We are lucky that there are many medical equipment manufacturers to help us. When these actors enter the set, as if they have entered a real hospital, the feeling of their performance will come out. .”
Liu Weiqiang also requires actors to undergo very rigorous professional training, “Because this is a medical subject, it is very professional, and the gestures and the posture of the operating equipment are required to be very precise. Because there are many doctors watching our movie, so we You really can’t go wrong.”
During the filming, Liu Weiqiang said to Ran Xiao, one of the medical consultants of the crew and the deputy chief physician of the Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology: “Give you the power to call cut.” Usually in the crew, The director has absolute authority, saying one thing is true, asking someone other than himself to call cut, which shows Liu Weiqiang’s requirements for the professionalism and authenticity of “Chinese Doctor”. Liu Weiqiang said: “After the filming started, we watched the film every day in front of and behind the scenes. There were many experts watching to see where there were errors and problems. The actors looked at the actors, the staff looked at the staff, and the experts looked at whether there were any mistakes. Error. At that time, when work was over, we opened a’criticism meeting’ to confirm where the filming was wrong and to reshoot. We use this method to watch movies and meetings every day, and reshoot where there is a problem and where it is not good. Use This method was filmed from October to December. It was very uncomfortable at the beginning. As a mature director, many people criticized you. But later we thought this was a very good thing. From the beginning, I felt bad every day, and then I was very happy. Before I made a movie, there was a difference. So this process is very memorable, very deep, but also very happy.”
Regarding the filming of “Chinese Doctor”, Ran Xiao said that he felt that the first is that he is particularly nervous, the second is that the director is very professional, and the third is that the shooting efficiency is particularly high. “The director also told me that they have to make sure that they do it within a few passes. At most, there are seven or eight cameras capturing a scene at the same time. It is better to edit after one pass. This requires that your In front of and behind me, above and below, there should be no mistakes or piercings in the various positions of the hands. This shooting technique is actually an eye-opener for me.”
Following such rigorous work as a director, Ran Xiao said that their pressure is also very great: “Every time before the shooting, when the notice comes out, I have to go through it in my heart and think of all the details. The director will be the next day. What questions may be asked during the filming, it should not appear that something is wrong after the filming, and then reshooting the next day, it is not very good. The director also asked me to say: “This is how we are filming. If there is any problem on the scene, It doesn’t matter if you want to mention it at any time and call cut at any time. What needs to be changed is still to be changed. The prerequisite for shooting is to ensure that the shots are in accordance with the scenes and principles of the anti-epidemic period.'”
We are not afraid, we all face the epidemic together
Liu Weiqiang’s shooting speed is fast, but he is also fierce when making the film. This is the consensus of the crew on Liu Weiqiang, so many people laughed and said that on the set, they all walked around the director. According to Liu Xueqing, one of the medical consultants of the crew and the head nurse of the Sino-French Xincheng District of Tongji Hospital of Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, director Liu Weiqiang’s personality is very dual. “After starting up, when you enter the working state and you are super focused, you will think he is irritable. Maybe you think this is a small thing, but the director will lose his temper and he pays attention to details. He may be very small. Influencing creative thinking is a destruction to artistic creation. He cannot accept this imperfection. The second reason for his anger is attitude. He uses anger to tell everyone that each of you must be very cautious and serious. Treat this matter.”
Liu Xueqing laughed and said that although the director on the set is fierce, the director in private is very lively, “We think he is like a child. You say he is so busy, there are hundreds of people in the whole crew, you will find that he pays attention to everyone. When we join the group, he will carefully think that we have been away from home for a long time, and ask someone to buy us Zhou Hei Ya and hot dry noodles. He is so busy and can care about everyone in every aspect, which makes me feel very warm. .”
Ran Xiao also said that when the early filming hadn’t officially started, he felt that Director Liu Weiqiang was very easy-going and easy to get close to: “We are sometimes training actors, and the director comes in from the outside abruptly and sits behind and listens to us seriously. He gave lectures and asked questions, and he asked very professionally. Usually, he also took special care of our doctor team. On the Chinese Doctor’s Day, when we were still teaching here, he led the staff of the whole crew to bring us cakes. Happy Physician’s Day for more than ten years. This should be the most meaningful and unique. We are really moved.”
However, after the filming started, Ran Xiao said with a smile that the director had changed someone else, “He was very strict on the scene, and he was very strict in controlling the details. There was no room for a little mistake. I have been behind him for the longest time. , I have to follow where he is. He asked me, “Ms. Ran, is this possible? Is this right?” Once I said yes, even if the filming was over, there would be no chance.”
When it comes to actors, Liu Weiqiang said that this time the requirements for actors are very high, because they spend a lot of time not showing their faces and only showing their eyes. “This must be very skillful in order to act with eyes. We have exchanged a lot about how to perform, and how to perform. Use body language to express the state of the character at the time. Back view, walking, and eyes are very difficult to play. Therefore, I am very happy every day of the shoot, because I can see them performing and they are covered by protective clothing. It is wrapped in a layer, but the performance level is very good. And even if they are covered by goggles, their eyes are still “playing”, which will release a lot of power. Each of them works very hard, wearing protective clothing and starting work for an hour After the end, the whole body is basically wet. The actors must be imaginative, work hard, have skill, and have energy when performing…Because they will collapse soon after sweating, and they will have heat stroke, so I admire them and the effect It also touched me a lot.”
In Liu Weiqiang’s view, “Chinese Doctor” is not a simple anti-epidemic movie, and it is also the experience of most of us. Although many people will watch “Chinese Doctor” with the mentality of watching an anti-epidemic movie, it is actually a one A movie that touches life, “I believe this movie will touch many people. Through the movie, you can see how many selfless medical staff defeated the virus, including neighborhood committee staff, ordinary citizens, takeaway brothers… You will see that Everyone is facing the epidemic together. Just like the theme song “We are not afraid”, we face this incident together with a very positive attitude and send a very strong positive message to everyone. We are not afraid, we face it together, all The Chinese face it together.”
Text/Photo courtesy of our reporter Zhang Jia/Micro
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