Chapter 38 Return of National Treasure

The most important iconic cultural relics in Yuanmingyuan are the animal heads of the twelve zodiac signs.There are 12 hours in China. Emperor Qianlong wanted to make a time-keeping thing so that it could spray water once every hour. Finally, Chinese and Western craftsmen cooperated to make the twelve zodiac signs. When the copper head was auctioned for the first time in 2000, I started to pay attention to this matter.That year, the tiger head was auctioned for more than 10 million yuan, and later it was discovered that its price had been soaring.Once I had dinner with people from Poly, and they said, brother, you should make a movie, it’s a good theme.I recalled my experiences over the years. When I went to Egypt and Angkor Wat in Cambodia, I saw that many Buddha statues had half their heads gone, and a good bodhisattva had half their faces gone. When I went to other places, I found that the Pharaoh’s Huzi was actually there, so he asked: "Why not send it back to the original country?" They answered beautifully: "This is a world heritage, it belongs to everyone..." But I wanted to say: "Since it belongs to everyone , Why do you keep it with yourself? Why don’t you send it back?” Everyone’s reminders made me want to make this movie, not only for China’s national treasures, but also for the national treasures of other countries.In fact, I once really spent money to take pictures of animal heads, but I didn't take pictures, it was too expensive.It was too expensive at the beginning, more than 60 million yuan. I originally asked a friend to help me see it, and said that I could do it up to 30 million yuan, but it suddenly exceeded this limit, and it seemed to be 68 million yuan in the end.

The preparations for the movie started, and the first thing I faced was making props.I can't put a few shoddy things in the movie, it's a disrespect to myself and the audience.Since 2009, I have spent my own money to make copper heads, and when the movie was released, I continued to do it, spending five or six million yuan.Whether you make 1 set or 100 sets, you need to open the mold first, which is the most expensive.When I first started doing it, my team was learning and exploring, pouring silica gel, removing wax, and many procedures.The first batch was made out of more than 40, and only 6 were usable.I heard the technical terms they said, and I don’t quite understand them. After two dewaxing and dewaxing, the silica gel is broken, so I have to make a new silica gel. If the hardness is not right, when the copper is injected, every All nostrils filled.When you open it, you find that one piece is missing, but you can't repair it, you can only redo it.In the end, it took me three years to make two sets.One set was used for filming, and the others continued to be donated to some organizations one after another.For example, the Bird's Nest, the Old Summer Palace, the Military Museum, and even see if we will send one set to France and the UK in the future to remind them that these cultural relics belong to China.

During the filming process, only 7 of the 12 copper heads knew their whereabouts, 1 was vague, and the remaining 4 did not know where they were at all, and the possibility of rediscovering them became less and less, because of the power of the media. It is getting bigger and bigger, no matter where it is being auctioned, as long as this thing is in the hands of others, they will definitely not take it out easily.Or if it is not in the hands of others at all, it is likely to be lost or destroyed along with history. It may take 100 years to create a piece of history, but to destroy a piece of history, a fire and a bomb are enough.During the filming process, I also thought about it more than once, is it possible to bring Tongshou back to China through the power of movies?If one day someone comes out to donate the animal head, even if there is only one, my mission will be accomplished.

In fact, you can look back, starting from "Junior Brother Going Out" more than 30 years ago, it was said that a group of people wanted to smuggle national treasures to foreign countries, and they were protected by two yellow-haired boys. Later, "Drunken Master 2" , foreign profiteers wanted to transport national treasures out, but were protected by Huang Feihong in the play, and there was a line that attracted many people's attention, "No one can take away cultural relics from other countries and put them in their own country's museums. , saying that it is for others to keep it, but actually wanting to keep it for myself, this is a shameful behavior." Then to "Zodiac", I have been conveying this message through my own movies along the way.As early as when it was released, I told the media that if someone from any country watched my movie and gave us a cultural relic, wouldn’t it be a good thing?At the time, many people thought it was absurd.

In April 2013, the French Pinault family announced that they would send the rabbit and rat heads back to China.Just a few months after the movie "Zodiac" was released, the two animal heads actually returned, and my dream came true.Regardless of whether it is the reason for my movie, I will take it as it is.