Chapter 45 second quarter

In April, the adaptation of the script was completed, and I feel that if I hurry up and shoot it, I will be able to compete with the world by the end of the year. As I write this, the premiere has already been held, and there are some dissenting comments in the newspapers, and even the reporters want to hook you up and make irresponsible remarks.I told the reporter: I can’t guess what the mentality of the media is, but as a director, don’t be jealous. You can’t solve your own problems because of jealousy. This is the fault of the Chinese. The Chinese team played in the World Cup. It's really smelly, the Korean team played very well, so the Chinese fans turned their disappointment into jealousy towards South Korea, pouring dirty water on South Korea every day in the newspapers, and I also beat South Korea to lose every game, and the result was every game. It was South Korea that won.Besides, a movie cannot solve so many problems, and it is not easy to complete a task.Zhang Yimou also said that this is a commercial film with only one purpose, to look good and sell money.I think he achieved this goal, and he did it very well.I just say things that the educated people don't like to hear. There is no hatred for no reason in the world, and there is no love for no reason.I sympathize with Zhang Yimou because I have suffered the same thing.Now I finally have company.

I sent my script for review, and the answer I got was that I hope I change the subject matter.The reason is that the above thinks that it seems inappropriate to use a thief as the protagonist of the film.This is something I never thought of. I always think that, as far as the theme of the film is concerned, the theme of the prodigal son turning back and calling for beautiful emotions in the world is very positive.I have repeatedly explained that writing a thief, discovering his conscience, and turning his evil back to the right, this kind of story of turning a ghost into a human has a contrast and is powerful.I also gave an example: It's like writing a story about a prostitute who is a good woman, which is much more touching than writing a story about a woman from a good family from beginning to end.But my explanation is futile, and everyone is still very worried, for fear that the effect will discredit the new society of reform and opening up.From this, I found that it is easy to persuade thieves to be good, but it is difficult to persuade censorship to be loose.

Of course, it is fair to say that the Film Bureau has always attached great importance to my films in recent years, and has given the green light to release them all the way. The review of my works is tighter, because my films have a wide audience, and sometimes they think it is not a problem. Later, someone wrote a letter to sue the film bureau, which made the leader have to conduct a review on my behalf, which was more wronged than "Dou E." Putting it down, my eyes once again extended to the script that had been on the desk. It was adapted from Liu Zhenyun's novel of the same name, and Liu Zhenyun himself acted as the screenwriter to create a script.

It is not only a magnificent picture of exile, but also a spiritual history of the Chinese nation.The script involves 30 million Henan victims suffering from hunger and cold, and the 3 million souls among them who died of cold and starvation on the way out of Tongguan in the west. ; Down to the dying of hunger, one after another victims lying on the side of the road waiting to be eaten by wild dogs.There are not only Chiang Kai-shek's complex emotions as a ruler, facing national calamity, family enmity, and broken mountains and rivers; but also the personality split that occurred when Western missionaries used the famine to preach because of their inner fear and the tragic situation they witnessed.And when so many intricate relationships are stirred together, the protagonists we see are neither the victims of the disaster, nor their ruler Chiang Kai-shek.There is only one protagonist, and that is the nation.While Liu Zhenyun salvaged three million innocent souls who seemed to have nothing to do with us, he also blew away the dust of history and handed us a conclusion that we are unwilling to face.No one can escape, we are all descendants of the victims.Shooting such a film is my long-standing dream. In order to realize this dream, we set out to do this 8 years ago.I remember that it was 1994, when Liu Zhenyun and I participated in the meeting of the Beijing Youth Federation, I said to him: If you trust me, I want to make your film into a movie.He said to me: The time is not yet ripe, our understanding of things is still only on the surface, and it takes time to improve our understanding, and this process cannot be omitted.

During the Spring Festival of 2000, I received a phone call from Liu Zhenyun, who wished Xu Fan and me New Year greetings on the phone, and at the same time gave a new century gift to his friend.While salvaging three million innocent souls who seem to have nothing to do with us, Liu Zhenyun also blows away the dust of history and gives us a conclusion. He said to me: about the matter, we can start on the road. One night after the festival, Liu Zhenyun came back from his hometown. We drank all the beer in the refrigerator at home, and we still couldn't get enough. I asked him: Why did you decide to give me this gift?In the eyes of others, I may not be the best person to shoot such a film.He said to me: We do have a few excellent forwards, but they have already rushed to the bottom line. If you want to score goals, the best way is to pass the ball to the players who are starting from the midfield. At this time, insert from the middle and the ball will be passed to you.We held a symposium and asked everyone who read the novel to talk about their thoughts on adaptation. Almost every participant thought that this is an investigative novel, and it is unimaginable to adapt it into a movie.

After the meeting, the two of us sat under the shade of the tree in silence for a long time, and Liu Zhenyun said to me: The best way is actually the most stupid way.All efforts that are considered useless afterwards are indispensable work beforehand.Just like, there is a saying that people often say: Looking back suddenly, that person is in a dimly lit place.The so-called looking back suddenly does not mean standing there still. When I look back occasionally, it must be in the dark at night, on a rugged mountain road, groping in the dark, walking many wrong ways, and finding it after a long time of searching.

We decided to start from the very basics, go to Henan for interviews, and think on the way. We received the full support of "Huayi Brothers" for this matter, and formed an interview team. We went to Henan twice, and then went to Shaanxi, Chongqing, Shanxi, and Cairo to find out the root cause and understand the ins and outs of the matter. We took dozens of photos for this matter. In the 1-hour documentary, there is an old man named Bai Xiude in the planned interview list. He was once a reporter sent by the American Time Magazine to the Chinese war zone. It was he who wrote the article about the famine that happened in 1942 and his personal experience. , published in Time Magazine, let the world know about the tragedy that happened in Henan, China.Unfortunately, the old man passed away in the United States in 1995.Let us lose a lot of valuable leads.

During the interview, we passed a village in Gongyi, Henan, and saw a church. We parked our car and walked in. We met an old lady over 90 years old named Liu Heping.During our conversation with her, we learned about the 1942 disaster. Liu Heping once witnessed the victims of the disaster, because of despair, they went down with a pole and shot their dying children to death. She also narrated an incident related to eating. It was that her fellow countryman was on the way to escape from the famine. He was so hungry that he passed out on the side of the road. He suddenly felt a sharp pain. When he opened his eyes, he was shocked and found Another victim used a sickle to cut off a piece of flesh from his buttocks.The fellow villagers hurriedly shouted: I am still in the middle!Don't eat me!But the victim who cut the flesh said: You are missing, please help me.We were horrified to hear this kind of cannibalism, but the old man Liu Heping remained indifferent.She said: Too many people starved to death.During the great famine, her relatives also starved to death, so she wept unceasingly, and was taken in by a church. The priest asked her to put her hand on the Bible, and she learned what the priest said.

The priest said: Lord, wipe my eyes so that I don't cry anymore. She then repeated the priest's words. Liu Heping said to us: Since then, until today, I have never shed tears again.Also from then on, she became a devout Christian. We asked her: what does heaven look like? She said: The golden street with a jade facade, drinking cold water will not make you hungry. This shows how deep the scars hunger left in her heart. In the end, the old man Liu Heping sang a carol to us. Her voice was hoarse and her tone was flat, but her singing voice flowed into our hearts. she sang: The river of life, the river of joy, flows into my heart slowly, I want to sing a song, a song from the sky, the dark clouds in the sky, the sadness in my heart, all fall down...

When we went to Chongqing for an interview, we saw a historical photo in Chiang Kai-shek's "Huangshan Villa", which showed a spinning wheel made of wood.Through the explanation, we learned that this spinning wheel was given to Mrs. Chiang by Mr. Gandhi when Chairman Chiang visited India.Later, Liu Zhenyun learned from historical materials that Chiang Kai-shek once told the then foreign minister Chen Bulei that he admired two people most, one was Gandhi and the other was Mao Zedong.He said: "Both of them can be a pure nationalist and I can't. The "Huangshan Villa" is very simple and very different from our imagination of the residence of national leaders.I said to Liu Zhenyun: It seems that the Chinese revolution and counter-revolution are very simple.

He said: The chairman is also a disaster victim. From this, I thought of another interview. That was when I went to the Cairo Film Festival, and the interview team went with me.