One room, four meals, six people, the multi-layered expression of “I still think you are the best” | Interview with director Chen Yongshen
Author / Zhu Ting
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378 million!
According to data from the Lighthouse Professional Edition, as of 18:00 on September 15, the 2022 Mid-Autumn Festival has a total box office of 378 million, a total of 9.453 million people, and a total of 1.021 million screenings.
In addition to old films such as “Lonely Walking on the Moon” and “New God List: Yang Jian”, “Hello, Brother” and “Mom!” “” “There is her in the world” “I still think you are the best” and other new films jointly build the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2022.
Based on the current situation, this result is not bad.
It is worth mentioning that “I Still Think You Are the Best”, written and directed by Chen Yongshen, starring Huang Zihua, Stephy Teng, etc., was still in the screening stage, and scored 8 points on Douban. As of press time, the mainland’s cumulative box office was 42.85 million.
From the initial comments such as “this name looks like a bad movie”, “the main actor is not familiar with”, “the second brother and the eldest brother’s ex are okay, so bloody?”, etc., jumped to “dbq is my voice is too loud. “, “Good-looking”, “Love Hong Kong Film is Back” and other wind reviews counterattack. “I still think you are the best”, I like to mention the honor of “word of mouth dark horse” in this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival.
“The same roof, 3 couples, 4 relationships, the gathering of people eating together every night gradually evolved into a dinner table Shura field, laughing and laughing.” kk has always felt that any good project should have at least two characteristics: one , one sentence can tell the story clearly; secondly, the creator (director, screenwriter) has enough control and construction ability. After chatting with Chen Yongshen, director of “Still Think You Are the Best”, kk is more convinced of these two points.
As for why it can become the dark horse of the Mid-Autumn Festival box office? In the dialogue, there is also a set of answers that belong to the perspective of the creator and the audience.
one house
After watching the movie, I know that the story of “I still think you are the best” almost happened in the three brothers’ homes, and the place to eat is the most frequent.
Although some film critics said that the house of the three brothers in the film is too big, it is not very close to the reality of Hong Kong. (In this regard, it is explained in the film because it is the father’s factory) But frankly,In such a confined space, the audience can see people, homes, relationships, themselves, Hong Kong, and the times through the film. In kk’s opinion, this is a very sophisticated scriptwriter, director, and actor.
“I have been a screenwriter for more than 20 years, and I cherish every opportunity to be a director.” Director Chen Yongshen said that this is a challenge he and himself play, that is, whether a scene can be written a story.
From a more industry perspective, this is a project that returns to traditional screenwriting theory. “I also want to try, can screenwriting theory support a story with only one scene?” After Chen Yongshen set a challenge for himself, he began to put emotional relationships (love, family) that he felt over the years into it, amplifying the drama contradictions , the story slowly takes shape. “It went pretty well.”
When you only have one scene, it means you can’t use other things to assist. For example, you can’t go to a beautiful restaurant when you are in a relationship, and you can’t go to the beach when you propose. At this time, dramatic contradictions, character establishment, and film structure become particularly important.
“I have always felt that the space of the movie scene is limited, it is just a cut in the processing of the film’s drama, and the emotions that can arouse the audience’s resonance have unlimited space.”The emotions of the characters are the basis. If each audience can automatically bring their own emotions, the world of film architecture will be bigger. “
As director Chen Yongshen said, in retrospect, it seems that over the past decade or so, there have been fewer Chinese-language films that value traditional screenwriting theories. Everyone seems to be busy innovating, but they seem to have lost the most basic and essential support of the movie – the script.
four meals
Eating is a very common thing for the public, and it is eaten every day, and every meal is entangled in what to eat. (Real world problems)
Under the same roof, “I Still Think You’re the Best” used four meals, as the film’s seemingly indistinct time boundary.
However, these four meals are meaningful.
The food is very Hong Kong and very thoughtful.
The first meal, hot pot, is called a side stove in Hong Kong dialect. Implying this is a family in question and hot pot takes time, sit back and eat as it cooks. Director Chen Yongshen explained that when a family has different ideas and does not understand communication, they need to eat hot pot and try to find an appropriate time to cut to the point. “If they are confident, they can talk for a long time at ordinary meals.”
For the second meal, Zhu Zhu (played by Wang Wanzhi) cooked a “very manly” dish. This meal took place after Monica (played by Stephy Tang), the former of the eldest brother (played by Huang Zihua), and the current second brother (played by Zhang Jicong) moved in. One is to shape Monica’s strong and unyielding character, which is also in line with her choice of letting go of her eldest brother as her ex and staying with her second brother, and moving in after the eldest brother sends an invitation; the second is the choice of three different women in the film A kind of vagueness of the character’s hard core and self-improvement.
The third meal, “pretend to go”, is an obvious character mapping. Each of the six people has different ideas in their hearts.
The fourth meal, barbecued pork, Hong Kong specialties, was cooked by the elder brother himself. Although it was a farewell meal, it was more like a normal family meal.
The meal is over and the movie is coming to an end. The six people face the problem head-on, understand themselves better, and know more about what to cherish. Rice and people and emotions are well linked. As an audience, the stamina is far more than the laughter and tears brought by these more than 100 minutes. Or those former friends who appeared and disappeared briefly, or those relatives who were close by but always ignored, or the self who never dared to face his own imperfection, or the glory and feelings of Hong Kong once…
About the table, food, people eating together. Director Chen Yongshen used “wonderful” to describe the relationship between them.
In the film, pigs cook dishes like flowers, but in real life, the director’s wife cooked them for him. “She was cooking in the kitchen for a long time, and when she brought it out, my child and I finished eating quickly.” “The people who cook are great. They spend a lot of time doing one thing, but only one or two people eat. I know your hard work and effort. And I made a movie and let a lot of people watch it, and many people knew what I did. But cooking is just as hard, but only a few people know about it.” Chen Yongshen believes that this is quite similar to the relationship between people, everyone is looking for the same kind.
There are also some cooked by the director’s mother. For example, the director’s favorite food, pig intestines, is very difficult to cook. It takes a lot of time and a lot of work, but the people who eat it finish it quickly. “Pig large intestines are like being human. In the beginning, they may be ordinary or even not very good, but if you work hard and spend time and effort, you may have a good and delicious life.”
You see, it is not difficult to understand why four meals were designed in the film. Director Chen Yongshen likes to think about human nature and truth through food.
six people
After talking about the house and food, it’s time to talk about people.
Three men: eldest brother (played by Huang Zihua), second brother (played by Zhang Jicong), and third brother (played by Chen Zhanwen);
Three women: Monica (played by Stephy Tang), Zhuzhu (played by Wang Wanzhi), and Miaomiao (played by Lin Mingzhen).
Let’s talk about casting.
As an extremely senior Hong Kong artist, Huang Zihua is called “Zihua God” by people in the world, and this “I still think you are the best” is also his rare appearance in the so-called main drama, not blindly funny; Zhang Jicong, a child star, played a role in the film. Acting boldly as a “sister-in-law”; Chen Zhanwen also changed from “Three Husbands” to his third brother this time.
Wang Wanzhi, who is known as a natural comedian, Miaomiao Lin Mingzhen, who really made his debut from the Internet, and Stephy Teng, who has been flying directly in the performance field in recent years (“Golden City”, etc.).
The three brothers, the eldest brother and the second brother are half-brothers. The birth of the third brother has become the link of the three people. The third brother shares the same father as the eldest brother, and the same mother as the second brother, which breeds family affection.
Six people, three couples, but four relationships were designed. If so, there will be a dramatic conflict at the level of love. The seemingly simple construction of character relationships, carefully touched, unfolded one by one and related to each other at the same time, the skills of the main creative team can be seen.
In a word, the actors and characters are very close, and the group portraits are very harmonious.
The fulcrum is still in the creation of movie characters. Director Chen Yongshen believes that the core is human nature, the most complex and the most moving.
It is true that when watching a movie, if the characters are not like people, then the writing is not three-dimensional. And a good character should be good, bad, strong and weak, that is, a real person, TA will occasionally do small bad things, but the background is still a good person and a kind person.
For director Chen Yongshen, “I Still Think You Are the Best” is the result of mutual trust between the creator and the actor. Huang Zihua also said in other interviews that this time he completely gave himself to the director and concentrated on being an actor.
In the interview, I was asked which character is more close to the character of the director himself in life. Director Chen Yongshen said that the closest is the eldest brother, and the age is more similar. (laughs) “I’m also someone who tries to make everyone around me happy.”
Multiple layers of “expressions”
Hong Kong, love, comedy, the three elements of “I Still Think You Are the Best” are clear and clear.
Like most audiences, kk has rarely seen such a pure Hong Kong romantic comedy in the mainland.For director Chen Yongshen and his team, this is not an attempt at the level of compatibility between pure Hong Kong films and mainland audiences.
“Whether you are worried that mainland audiences won’t be able to get Cantonese comedy stalks”, “Whether you are worried that mainland Mandarin films will affect your perception”… Questions such as these have almost become questions that must be answered by the creators of all Hong Kong films. This time, “I Still Think You Are the Best” is no exception. However, Chen Yongshen’s team also seems to be working on a new set of problem-solving ideas for this purpose.
According to his answer, the title of the film that was “spit out” by everyone in the early stage – “I still think you are the best”, was not this at first. The reason for making adjustments is that on the one hand he feels that this sentence is closer to the mapping of multiple emotions in the film, and on the other hand, he wants the mainland audience to focus on emotions rather than comedy elements.
Of course, this is inseparable from the film’s high degree of integration in love and comedy. Then there is the “small to see the big” mentioned above, which is the excellence of “I Still Think You Are the Best”. From the construction of character relationships, to the design of scene lines, to the processing of details, etc., different audiences have different perceptions.
One sentence: Open the door, go out, go farther.Expressing that you cherish your family, but instead of keeping each other together, you must face your own flaws and problems and make yourself better. No matter how complicated the family is and how many conflicts there have been, you know in your heart that TA is your family, and you are a family.
One sentence: No one ever asked me if I was happy.It is the sadness of the “big brother” in the play, and it is also the inner corner of the comedians such as Huang Zihua and Zhou Xingchi outside the play.
There are many such expressions of one-word puns, one-sided expressions, and many more. Including a deeper level of adaptation to the old and new culture of Hong Kong, and doing it with the times, it is possible to move forward and so on.
The interview took advantage of the trend to talk about Hong Kong movies. Director Chen Yongshen said that at this stage he is considered an intermediate force, and every time he makes a film, he comes with the mission and responsibility of some filmmakers. He also hopes that more capable people can write, shoot, and promote more, so that people around them will have more job opportunities, so that the film can continue.
He said that his goal in making a movie is quite simple – “The audience can be happy when they watch the movie, and they can feel a warm feeling when they leave the scene. That’s what I want to do the most.”
Finally, we asked: If you have the ability to change one thing in the current film industry, what would you most like to change? “
Director Chen Yongshen’s answer was: “I hope the industry will pay more attention to screenwriting, and I hope that screenwriters can pay more for screenwriting.”
Image source: provided by Weibo, Douban, and the filmmaker, invaded and deleted.