Chapter 36 first quarter

A director once said something like this to me, and it made me break out in a cold sweat. He said: Movies should be wine, even if there is only one sip, but it has to be wine.What you photographed were grapes, very fresh grapes, even with frost hanging on them, but you didn’t turn them into wine, they were grapes at the beginning, and they were still grapes at the end. Other directors understand this truth. They know that the film must be wine, but there is no brewing process.It's a sip of wine when it comes up, and it's still a sip of wine when it's over.What's even more frightening is that this wine is neither made from grapes nor from grain, but from chemical blends.

He also said: Xiao Gang, you should turn grapes into wine, not just be satisfied with making glass after glass of freshly squeezed grape juice. I've heard a lot of criticism of my films, mostly around the word "commercial".But the director's criticism above skipped over these superficial phenomena and revealed the essence of the problem. The director's name is: Jiang Wen. I filmed for Jiang Wen, and he also filmed for me, "Sunny Day". Other than that, we rarely see each other.On average, I can't make one phone call a year.I love to chat, but I am very afraid to chat with Jiang Wen.I feel that talking to him is very strenuous and tiring, I can't keep up with him, and it's very artificial to follow him, I can't control the right to speak, and the conversation seems very passive.For Jiang Wen, movies are a very sacred thing, and it is also a very sad thing for him.He believes that cinema should be a career for people who love cinema.This kind of love should be very pure, reckless, and cannot be mixed with other things.Compared with this standard, I always have a feeling of embarrassment, as if I have done something sorry for the movie and made the movie vulgar.Because I am basically still at the level where I eat movies as a meal, and in order to keep my job, I have to be quick and witty to defeat the enemy.It may have something to do with my situation, but also my personality.I couldn't push all the way up, and I was desperate to get to the top.My first consideration is that if I lose, I must minimize the loss as much as possible.Let's put it this way, it's like a war, different people are involved in it, and everyone is desperate, but the Bartona loves war from the bottom of his heart, with very simple ideas and only one purpose, to become the most powerful in the war The winner; and Garrison's brothers who dared to die, although they were also very dedicated to fighting, but they all had ulterior motives and kept their backs.If Patton was defeated, he would be called a war criminal, he would be a united front target, and he could be admitted to the CPPCC; the guys from the Garrison Death Squad were pulled out and shot when they were defeated.So Barton is not afraid to pay a heavy price, the most important thing is to have fun.The Garrison Death Squad must not have any mistakes, in order to save their lives, they must ensure victory without sacrifice.The participants in the two wars have completely different realms.Sitting together and talking about the war, the right to speak was firmly in Barton's hands, and the younger brothers could only listen.

When filming "Party A and Party B", Patton's first choice was Jiang Wen, and Yingda was replaced by Yingda if he couldn't invite him. Of course, Yingda also performed very well. He also has the wisdom to turn black into white.For example, Yingda does not admit that Chinese medicine can cure diseases, and does not admit that there are meridians.He said: The meridian is just a breath, not a substance, and its existence cannot be proved by science.It is said that the only role of Chinese medicine is psychological suggestion, but psychological suggestion is not in the scope of medicine.I carried it with him and asked him: Then why is there a distinction between Chinese medicine and Western medicine?He said: There should be no term of Chinese and Western medicine, only "medical science".If you have to make a distinction, you can barely call Chinese medicine "Motherland Medicine".He also gave a lot of examples, all of which sounded right, making everyone present think that Mr. Ying is very knowledgeable.Afterwards, I went to Jiuxianqiao Hospital to see a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, and the doctor told me that Yingda had just prescribed some Chinese medicine in our place.I said, well, he wouldn't let us believe it, but he secretly took traditional Chinese medicine.It seems that he still admits that Chinese medicine can cure diseases in his heart.I said this to show that Yingda and Jiang Wen's wisdom is very sufficient.It is precisely because of this that they always maintain a victorious posture in the conversation.

A sentence that Jiang Wen often uses is: You can’t do this.Every time I hear a sentence like this, my immediate reaction is, I really can't do this anymore.Afterwards, I asked myself again: what happened to me?Over time, I developed such a wish for them, eager to hear them say: I was wrong when all their wisdom and wisdom were used. I remember that I almost seized such an opportunity in the last century, but unfortunately, it was proved that I was wrong afterwards. That was in 1991, when it was filmed. We were living in a small town called Oyster Bay on Long Island, New York, and one evening, before dinner, a few of us were sitting in the living room watching TV.A trailer for a movie that lasted only a few tens of seconds was played on the TV. It was the British movie "The Bridge on the River Kwai".Ma Xiaoqing and Jiang Wen had a dispute over whether the starring role of the film was David Niwen.

Ma Xiaoqing insisted that "The Bridge on the River Kwai" will star David Niven.But Jiang Wen categorically denied it. He told Ma Xiaoqing that there is no David Niven in "The Bridge on the River Kwai", but the director of this film is David Lean, who has won an Oscar.He also said that he had watched the movie 7 times. They asked Li Xuelei, the sound engineer of the crew, for verification, because Xuelei graduated from film school and had watched countless movies.Xue Lei said that it seems to be starring David Niven.Jiang Wen's nose was twisted with anger, and he insisted that it was useless to anyone, and there was absolutely nothing about David Niwen.

For this reason, Jiang Wen and Ma Xiaoqing made a bet.Whoever loses, the winner has the right to do anything to the loser. The crew was also divided into two factions. A large group led by Zheng Xiaolong firmly believed that Jiang Wen would not make mistakes, so they stood on the side of Jiang Wen.Ai Weiwei and I are on the side of Ma Xiaoqing. I hadn't seen "The Bridge on the River Kwai" at the time, but I hope Jiang Wen won.I agreed to drive Ma Xiaoqing to rent the video tape, and there was only one condition. If Ma Xiaoqing won, Jiang Wen would say in front of everyone: I was wrong.

It was already dark at that time, and I drove Ma Xiaoqing and Ai Weiwei from Long Island to Manhattan, a hundred kilometers away, along Highway 495.During that time, the most enjoyable thing for me was that during filming, I called Ai Weiwei and Ma Xiaoqing, and drove around in the car. As long as Ai Weiwei was by my side, I was not afraid to go to the black area of ​​Brooklyn. I was driving a rented taxi at the time, and the unit price per kilometer was printed on the door. Passers-by who didn’t know the truth often reached out to stop the car. Sometimes I saw a few blonde girls coming out of the bar, and we were very interested. I will also give them a ride, because it is free, so when we break up, we and the girls will be a little bit reluctant.I don't know English, and I didn't know the way at the beginning, so I kept asking Ai Weiwei who was sitting next to me. Sometimes he didn't give directions when he was bored, and he didn't talk when it was time to turn. I just drove straight ahead and where I was going. Where do you count.Once, I was angry and drove all the way to the beach, and said to him: If you don't say the turn, I will drive to the sea.He lay on the car seat with his eyes closed and said: Roll up the glass and wait until the car is completely submerged in water before escaping.My head was hot, and I almost kicked the gas pedal and blasted into the sea.After I stopped the car on the shore, he said to me seriously: I really want to experience the feeling of diving headlong into the sea.When driving normally, he always said: Hit it once, please, hurry up and drive faster.As time went by, it made me feel like I was on fire, and I always felt that I was driving an armored vehicle.Finally, once in Long Island, I drank a few sips of wine, tried to drive at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour near the parking lot, and crashed into a small dirt slope without stepping on the brakes. The momentum generated is still fresh in my memory.From this, one can imagine how terrifying it would be if a car crashed at a speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour.

During that time, the appearance of Ai Weiwei filled my heart with wildness, and my desire to destroy order was increasing day by day. If I hadn’t been born cowardly and full of longing for the future, the consequences would have been unimaginable.Then I saw Kubrick's movie "A Clockwork Orange" and immediately understood what those bastards were doing. Ai Weiwei is a friend invited by Zheng Xiaolong to help the film crew. He is also a native of Beijing. He used to be the main member of the "Star Painting Club". ".After studying in college for less than two years, I was bored and bored, so I resolutely gave up my studies and came to New York.

He had been in New York for 12 years when I met him.He is an avant-garde artist who lives on Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue in Manhattan. There are many inconspicuous artists like him in that area, as well as skinheads and gangsters. At the same time, that area is also a New York dealer. A black market for unknown goods.Ai Weiwei and the black brothers in that area are as close as a family. When they meet each other, it's either FUCK this or FUCK that.He is fond of mischief, and is good at grafting two unrelated things together at will to make them produce a new meaning.For example: he would put a basketball into a woven bag, throw it from the roof of the building, and watch the woven bag bounce on the street, causing many pedestrians who didn't know the mystery to stop and watch, puzzled .Another example: He bought a plastic record from a black man that was published in China during the Cultural Revolution.Ai Weiwei found an old-fashioned record player, connected it to a speaker, and turned up the volume to let Mao Zedong Thought resound loudly on Seventh Street in New York.

Ai Weiwei is a man of righteousness, and his friends are all kinds of people. On Christmas Eve in 1992, I was staying in his basement, and I met a Korean who came to visit. As soon as I sat down, Ai Weiwei wrapped him in a plastic bag from behind. Putting his head on, he tightened the plastic bag so that the Korean blushed, and said to me: This kid is a thief, search him carefully, there must be something good on him.The Korean thief struggled desperately, took out a paper bag from his arms, spoke Korean English, and solemnly gave the bottle of wine wrapped in the paper bag to Ai Weiwei. The Korean thief said sincerely: I didn't steal anything today. I bought this bottle of wine with my own money and gave it to you as a Christmas present.