On the evening of February 20, with the grand closing ceremony held as scheduled, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, which lasted for more than half a month, came to a successful conclusion.
For Zhang Yimou, this is an unusual winter.
Small fires, snowflakes, these small and romantic things, like a fable, run through his entire winter, and even foreshadow his trajectory – great sound and sound, great road to simplicity, all grandeur begins at the origin, and then returns. to the origin. The tricks of the master are no longer dazzling. After a hundred battles, they have evolved into a particularly simple movement, but they are precise and powerful, and they condense a lifetime of skill.
Image source: Video screenshot
Compared with the national mission of the chief director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, the film “Sniper” directed by Zhang Yimou is really like a small fire and a snowflake. It is also the theme of Resisting U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. It collided with “Shuimen Bridge of Changjin Lake” head-on. “Sniper” without famous actors and big scenes has the highest score on Douban and the lowest box office among the six “seed players” in the 2022 Spring Festival. Zhang Yimou bluntly said, “The film arrangement is rather miserable.”
Zhang Yimou is calm about this situation. When “Sniper” was released, in a group interview including reporters from “Daily Economic News” (hereinafter referred to as “NBD”), he said: “I don’t have any expectations for the box office. Those films are very big. , there is also a lot of publicity, and our ‘want to watch index’ is all in the back. I hope everyone is watching blockbusters, watching hot and earth-shattering, but also pay attention to our small story, other than that More luxury.”
Some netizens commented that Zhang Yimou is too scary. At the age of (72), he can still maintain such creativity, he can always keep simple and simple, and he can maintain his attitude.
Although the small fire is small, it is endless. Zhang Yimou’s appeal is not just a flash in the pan, but his tenacity to be right and continue to shine for love no matter how high or low he is. In a way, Zhang Yimou’s best film is himself.
Picture source of Zhang Yimou at the opening ceremony of “Sniper”: Photo courtesy of the crew
It is the will of the people who want to send fresh blood to Chinese films.
Along with the various films in the 2022 Spring Festival, there is also the “highest ticket price in history to persuade the audience”. On February 5, “Sniper” took the lead in breaking the ice and issued a price reduction notice to cinemas across the country, and several other films followed up with price reductions.
Different from the public’s usual impression of Zhang Yimou’s films, “Sniper” does not have a big scene, nor does it have Zhang Yimou’s iconic strong colors and extreme shapes, and there are no big stars in the main actors, almost all of them are newcomers.
Forty years since filming, Zhang Yimou has accomplished many people. Lei Jiayin, one of the leading actors in Zhang Yimou’s last film “On the Cliff”, once said that almost all young and middle-aged actors in China want to act in Zhang Yimou’s films from the day they start filming, and he is no exception.
Still, Sniper uses almost all of the newcomers.
“Sniper” still photo source: Photo courtesy of the crew
In this regard, Zhang Yimou explained: “We read the information and asked the military advisors. The soldiers at that time were very young, with an average of about 18 years old. They really dedicated their youth to the motherland. I think they need a youthful face to express them. .”
“We picked up all the students who studied acting in the whole country and screened them one by one. After they were selected, they did a training camp for more than half a year, participated in military training, read a lot of materials of the year, and invited combat heroes to give them lectures. One advantage of newcomers is that, They have all the schedules for me, knowing that the actors are very busy now, and there are not so many schedules.”
But the newcomer was completely inexperienced. The filming site was minus 20 to 30 degrees, and a few suffered frostbite on the first day, and his ears were swollen like a peach, which frightened Zhang Yimou. But the actors felt that they should be like volunteers, without any protection at all, and stay in the snow for more than ten hours.
Zhang Yimou established discipline: “I said that we have to endure hardships and shoot with the spirit of the volunteer army, but we really can’t get hurt, otherwise we can’t finish the filming. So I set up a shed for them next to the studio with electric heaters inside, and gave them to them. My order is, don’t freeze outside as long as you don’t have a show, come back and warm up. The new actors are very hard-working.”
Zhang Yimou admitted frankly that there is a natural risk of being crushed by the star lineup by using new faces. But he felt that he still had to send fresh blood to Chinese films, “Everyone starts from no name.”
When asked about the significance of the spirit of Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea to contemporary young people, he took the initiative to talk about “Changjin Lake”. Why do young people like a film about the war 70 years ago? Zhang Yimou feels that the movie is like a public opinion poll, and behind the box office numbers is the will of the people.
“Defending the homeland and defending the country is not an empty phrase. It is a Chinese spirit to face the armed to the teeth and claim to be the world‘s No. 1 army under extremely simple conditions, and to win. This is a kind of Chinese spirit. The reason why it is loved by young audiences today. Today, the world is undergoing new changes, the international situation is more complex, and China has also been somewhat restrained in the process of development, so today’s young people naturally germinate a real emotional expression.”
Picture source of Zhang Yimou on the set: Photo courtesy of the crew
In Zhang Yimou’s view, Chinese young people like to watch Chinese-spirited films, which is the biggest change in the Chinese film market in recent years. “It’s very gratifying to see such a phenomenon. It’s no longer 10, 20 years ago, when we were so obsessed with Hollywood blockbusters and so obsessed with American pop culture, we’ve entered a new era. So I appear like this for the Chinese film market. very happy with the phenomenon.”
Great directors don’t like to watch boring movies
“Good-looking” is the first imperative for a movie to survive
Zhang Yimou is more willing to call himself a “professional director” than a master. He does not hide the estrangement from the artist’s personality. In an interview in 2016, Zhang Yimou said: “Movies are meant to be given to the public. If you think that the public is vulgar, there is no way to do it. What are you doing with this crime?”
Zhang Yimou does not like to indulge in the past and is always curious about new things. His mastery of popular online language and short video editing techniques is astonishing. At an event, the host asked Zhang Yimou if he knew “yyds”, and he quickly replied, “Eternal God”.
What is the future movie in Zhang Yimou’s mind, who is following the pace of young people? Look good first.
Image source: Photo courtesy of the crew
Now the commercialization and typology of main theme films are becoming more and more obvious. Zhang Yimou believes that the two are not opposite. “I myself like to watch movies that are both good-looking and meaningful. If it’s just very deep, but boring, I don’t like to watch it either, and I have to find time to watch it quietly.”
“Today’s young audience, no matter how profound the theme of the film is or how important the subject matter is, as long as it is not good-looking, he will abandon the show, and you will not be able to achieve its effect. So I think good-looking is a major trend in the future of film development.”
“In the past, we also divided films into literary films and commercial films, and discussed the opposition between the two. I myself estimate that this matter will not be discussed in a few years, and bad films may not be able to stay. One-day tours, half-day tours None. What should we do if we can’t wait? We can’t always give sympathy or support.” Zhang Yimou said, “We can express our high respect in private for a certain movie, but you may not have the patience to watch it. Now is the age of video, everyone is a director, and everyone shoots things, which will definitely affect the film – only good-looking images will stay and spread. No one will watch the bad-looking ones, and they will die on their own. . This is a question that every film director needs to seriously think about today.”
Good-looking two words, easier said than done.
Stills of Zhang Yimou’s film “On the Cliff” Image source: Maoyan Professional Edition
Zhang Yimou said that for filmmakers, the most important thing is to exercise the ability to make movies look good, and to improve the ability to tell good stories from generation to generation. “I have been making movies for so many years, and I deeply feel that it is not easy to make a good-looking film. I am talking about good-looking in a broad sense, and it is ‘good-looking’ for everyone, men, women and children. It is too difficult. I try my best to make a movie now. Telling a good character story, that’s probably what we’re going to develop throughout our lives, if you’re doing this job.”
At the age of 72, to outsiders, he is a tireless super workaholic, but Zhang Yimou enjoys it, and the more he sees it, the more he understands.
When talking to the youth UP master, Zhang Yimou joked that he is a “middle-aged and elderly person with a slash”. He wants to try different types of movies, stage plays, and large-scale performances as long as it is related to creation. Walk five kilometers a day, eat one meal, several projects go hand in hand, no fun other than work.
“Your hobby, your ability and your profession are combined, it is a very lucky thing. I like to work, but I like to create. As long as there is an opportunity to create, I will always be like this, and one day I will create. If you don’t move, you will rest. Because evergreen pine and budding pine do not exist, cherish the moment.”
