Chapter 148 "Love" Starts Filming, "House of Flying Daggers" Is Here

Zedong Film Company is a Hong Kong-funded film company co-founded by Sunglass King and Liu Zhenwei.

This company not only produces movies, but also signs actor agents.

Under its banner, there are many Hong Kong celebrities such as Liang Chaowei, Zhang Manyu, and Liu Jialin.

Gong Li, the first actress in the mainland, is also signed to this company.

It is precisely because of signing with this company that Gong Li was able to enter the Hong Kong film circle after parting ways with Zhang Yimou and starred in many Sunglass King movies.

"2046", which will be released this summer, is directed by Sunglass King and starred by Liang Chaowei and Gong Li.

In addition, there is a 104-minute erotic film "God of Love" co-produced by Italy, Hong Kong, the United States, France, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom.

Well, this movie can't be talked about too much. In short, it is a movie that will never be released in the mainland.

But the lineup of this movie is very sharp, and Robert Downey Jr., who later became Iron Man, also starred in this movie.

Gong Li, who had just finished filming this movie and returned to Beijing from Hong Kong, was flipping through a script in the Beijing office of Zedong Film Company.

"Ali, this is the script sent by your mainland director, Wu Yuan, who is in Hollywood."

"Although it is the second female lead, this is an award-winning art film, which will be submitted to the main competition unit of Cannes."

"I think you should like it, so I agreed to it for you."

Gong Li's agent is a veteran agent from Hong Kong. He has managed many Hong Kong superstars and was specially invited by the Sunglass King to manage Gong Li.

But her Mandarin is really a little different. Gong Li has to listen to her very carefully every time to understand the general idea.

"Director Wu's new movie? Not a commercial film?" Gong Li was a little surprised.

Wu Yuan actually came back to shoot art films again, which is really rare.

Her agent nodded excitedly: "Yes, the staff who sent the script asked me to convey to you that Director Wu has high expectations for this movie and wants to achieve better results than "Departures." "

Although many Hong Kong filmmakers look down on mainland movies, they look down on the entire circle, but dare not look down on certain directors in the circle.

For example, Zhang Yimou, Wu Yuan, and Chen Kaige.

These three directors, even if placed in the Hong Kong film circle, would be respected and sought after, because their movies are either the top three in Europe or are box office hits.

Gong Li's agent naturally would not think that letting Gong Li play the second female lead in Wu Yuan's new movie is a cheap thing.

She even hopes that Gong Li can play Wu Yuan's play.

There is no way, the big directors in the two sides of the Taiwan Strait can be counted on two hands, and for an actor of Gong Li's status, her range of choices is also very small.

You must seize the opportunity to develop a new top director's network!

Not to mention that Wu Yuan still holds a ticket to Hollywood.

Gong Li was indeed very interested. She looked at the script of "Love" sent by Wu Yuan seriously and read the story carefully.

Wu Yuan thinks this movie is better than "Departures"?

"Departures" won the Best Director Award in Berlin. If it wants to be better than this award, it must be the Jury Prize and the Best Film Palme d'Or.

You know, at present, only Chen Kaige has won the Palme d'Or in Cannes with "Farewell My Concubine", which is the only one in China.

Gong Li can see that "Love" is a good movie, but if she is asked to judge which one is better between this movie and "Departures", it is definitely not possible to judge at this stage.

At least we have to wait until the whole movie is finished, and we can have a comparison in our hearts after seeing the finished film.

"It's a pity that the heroine is a 70-year-old woman, which is not suitable for me." Gong Li sighed and said with some disappointment.

It would be better if she could play the heroine of Wu Yuan's new movie. The second female role is still a little bit lacking.

"The role of this second female role is also very important. There are only three important roles in the whole movie." The agent persuaded.

"I know." Gong Li glanced at the utilitarian agent and said helplessly: "I have to accept Director Wu's invitation even if it's just a guest appearance."

Even if it's Gong Huang, she is not willing to easily refuse Wu Yuan's invitation to act.

"Then I will reply to the Light and Shadow Times?" The agent agreed.

"Reply, act."

You Benchang, Wu Yanshu, Gong Li, this is the main cast that Wu Yuan prepared for "Love".

In addition to Liu Yifei, who guest-starred as the granddaughter, and seven or eight role actors invited from the Beijing Film Studio, the preparations for "Love" are complete.

As an art film, "Love" naturally has no big scenes.

On July 6, 2004, "Love" was officially launched in an old staff building in Beijing.

You Benchang and Wu Yanshu, who put on old-age makeup on their original age, tremblingly began filming the movie.

Most of the content of this movie will be shot in this small two-bedroom, one-living-room faculty dormitory.

To be precise, this is the home of the elderly couple in the movie.

They are a couple who have been engaged in music education for more than 40 years and have just retired a few years ago.

This house was allocated by the school. It is very characteristic of that era. It is not very big and is only enough for the couple and one child to live in.

However, their daughter has already started her own family and moved out with her husband and daughter.

The small staff dormitory is just right for the couple to live in and it is also very warm.

The filming of "Love" started with the couple's daily life.

In order to ensure that the actors' emotional expressions can be coherent, Wu Yuan chose to shoot in order this time instead of arranging the scenes in a disordered order.

This is also one of the reasons why many actors in art films are more emotional and seem to have "better acting skills".

Because art films are often concentrated in one or two scenes, the director can calmly shoot according to the order of the script.

For example, a love movie can be shot from the male and female protagonists meeting, knowing each other, getting familiar with each other, and falling in love. The emotions of the actors completely follow the story.

Unlike some TV series and commercial films, because a large number of transitions are required, a scene must be shot in a few days. This will make the actors not know each other in the previous shot, kiss in the next shot, and break up in the next shot.

No matter how good the acting skills of the actors are, they can't change their emotions so quickly and express their true feelings.

This is not the case when shooting "Love". You Benchang and Wu Yanshu really put themselves into the role and regarded themselves as this elderly couple.

Go out for exercise together, go to the vegetable market to buy vegetables together, take the bus together, take a walk after dinner together, and tidy up the room together.

These plots are very plain, without any explosive points.

But it is precisely this plain daily life that truly presents the life of a pair of elderly people living alone to the audience.

The details also show that the love between them has turned into family affection.

When taking a walk, the old man still protects his wife on the inside like he did when he was young, and walks on the outside close to the road.

When taking the bus, he will also carefully protect his wife on the inside.

Although there is no corny "I love you" or the like in the lines of the two during the filming, there is no love talk, just a very ordinary daily life.

But after Wu Yuan edited and pieced together the finished film every night, he saw it full of "love".

This made him very satisfied.

The old actor who has performed dramas for decades has really nothing to say about his acting skills.

This kind of thing that can be seen in the plainness is really something that young actors can't act out.

There is no need for Wu Yuan to explain too much on the set. Just relying on the understanding of the script, the two old actors performed the feeling that Wu Yuan wanted very well.

This also put a lot of pressure on him.

The acting skills of the actors are fine, so whether the final film is good or not depends on whether he can grasp the lens language and lens art.

Fortunately, he still chose the film this time to play to his strengths and avoid weaknesses.

Most of the plots of "Love" were shot in this small house with two bedrooms and one living room. The main focus is still a script story, not the picture art.

The shooting progress was very smooth, with few NGs, and most of them were one-take or one-take.

The material shot was also very good. Sometimes Wu Yuan would shoot while editing at night.

Because it was shot in a smooth manner, there was no need to worry about the messy editing later.

It even gave him the illusion that art films were easier to shoot than commercial films.

In this way, the crew shot step by step, and the days gradually came to July 16.

On this day, Wu Yuan gave the whole crew a holiday, and then invited everyone to go to the cinema to watch a movie together.

"House of Flying Daggers" directed by Zhang Yimou, which was reserved for the whole theater.

Wu Yuan did not attend the premiere, mainly because Director Yimou invited a bunch of singers to turn the premiere into a party. Han Hong, Daolang and others went on stage to sing. It was very lively, but Wu Yuan did not like this atmosphere, so he did not go.

The movie premiered, so what was the big deal about inviting a bunch of singers to sing?

But support is still necessary.

On the day when "House of Flying Daggers" was released, the entire crew of "Love" watched this new work directed by Yimou at the Xinghui Cinema in Beijing.

After watching it, Wu Yuan could only say that this movie well showed the consistent style of Zhang Yimou's movies: exquisite scenes.

The Peony House in the movie is really beautiful. It should be the first time that such a beautiful Tang Dynasty style building has appeared in a Chinese movie.

In addition, the bamboo forest shrouded in mist, the blooming sea of ​​flowers, the silvery birch forest and the layers of picturesque distant mountains are all rare and beautiful scenery.

It can only be said that this group of fifth-generation directors are really beautiful when making movies.

But this is the only thing that can be praised.

The plot of the movie is too simple and full of loopholes.

The fighting scenes are not "more professional" as Director Yimou said, but worse than "Hero". The action scenes are edited quickly with close-ups and close-ups. There is no long shot that is done in one go, which does not reflect the real excitement of the martial arts film.

I don't know whether Zhang Ziyi can't fight or Director Yimou can't shoot.

Anyway, in "House of Flying Daggers", the fighting scenes use a lot of montage editing methods, which doesn't look realistic at all, and there is no excitement of fists hitting flesh and swords colliding.

However, the other people in the crew still watched it with relish.

There are really not many martial arts blockbusters like this these days. Compared with those martial arts movies shot in Hong Kong Island, the scenes shot by Director Yimou are indeed grand and magnificent, revealing the demeanor of a great country.

At this stage, Director Yimou is the only director in China who can shoot such a grand martial arts movie. It is no wonder that "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" can sell tens of millions of box office in North America.

Wu Yuan also sent a congratulatory text message to Director Yimou.

If nothing unexpected happens, "Your Name", which has held the title of mainland China's box office champion for nearly half a year, will be taken away by "House of Flying Daggers".

There is no way. With "Hero", Director Yimou has really become the most powerful director in the hearts of all ages of mainland movie fans.

When his new movie is released, all three generations of people will be interested in going to the cinema to watch it.

Unlike Wu Yuan, "Your Name" mainly attracts young people, and the box office of 140 million has almost squeezed the market of young people in the mainland.

The fact is just as Wu Yuan thought.

The box office of "House of Flying Daggers" reached 55 million yuan in the first three days of its release, exceeding the 52.4 million yuan of "Hero" at the time, breaking the mainland record again, and it is about to break the record of "Hero"!

However, public opinion soon poured cold water on "House of Flying Daggers".

The box office of the first weekend was not worthy of its reputation.

Although photography, sound effects, and colors are still Zhang Yimou's forte.

The massive publicity activities in the early stage and the box office appeal of Director Yimou and many stars also caused the film to trigger a wave of audience viewing at the beginning of its release.

But the plot is not tense enough, the opposition between officials and the people, the ambiguity of the spirit of martial arts and chivalry, etc. are written with a love suspicion, and the fatal shortcomings such as lack of fullness cannot be covered up.

After watching the movie, many fans felt that the movie was not well made and could not be compared with "Hero".

Or the public's expectations for Zhang Yimou are too high, and his "House of Flying Daggers" and "Hero" are not comparable at all.

"Hero" is an immature commercial blockbuster in Wu Yuan's eyes, so "House of Flying Daggers" is even worse.

Although the subsequent box office results still dominate the daily championship, the momentum has opened up a gap with "Hero", and market expectations are constantly declining.

It took less than half a month for Zhang Weiping's slogan to change from "300 million box office" to "exceed "Your Name", at least 150 million box office"

It's okay, the throne of the first box office in the mainland can still be maintained.

Although the success of "Hero" was not repeated, and the audience's evaluation of "House of Flying Daggers" was somewhat mixed, the box office continued to rise over the past few days, which made people full of confidence in the box office market of domestic films.

Wu Yuan also felt a little regretful about this.

It was still the Hong Kong and Taiwan stars who pretended to be so awesome.

The handsome Jin Da and Hua Zai, their current box office dominance in the mainland is indeed beyond doubt.

Now the group of actors and directors in Hong Kong who want to go north to make money are probably going to move.

Fortunately, Wu Yuan counted on his fingers and found that if "Painted Skin" is faster, it should be released in the summer of 2005!

After he made many adjustments and took over the film himself, all the resources of the company and China Film Group were tilted towards "Painted Skin", which could speed up the production of this film.

In this way, if "Painted Skin" can achieve a good box office result, the first batch of Hong Kong directors and actors who went north to make money will not face a smooth situation.

If he remembered correctly, there seemed to be few Hong Kong and Taiwan co-productions in 2005 that had good box office results.

The box office results of "Initial D", "A Chinese Odyssey", and "Hancheng Raiders" are only 50 to 60 million.

"The Promise" has a good box office, but it will undoubtedly be nailed in the history of Chinese movies.

In this case, as long as "Painted Skin" can win the annual championship, those money-making guys will have nothing to say, and they dare not shout the slogan "The mainland can't make movies".

And the success or failure of all this depends on the movie "Painted Skin"!