Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 14 014 [I must experience the joy of being a great director in this life]

Li Yishu, who had already returned to Sichuan, had no idea that his name had spread throughout the Beijing Film Academy.

It can be said that there are both praises and criticisms.

Some people think that it is very impressive that Lee Yi-su can independently shoot such a movie at such a young age.

Some people also think that this movie is too plain and positive.

The film is too simple because it does not focus on the ugliness of human nature. It should have explored why the father has not been promoted after working as a rural postman for more than 20 years, and why the county is unwilling to even give medical expenses.

Too positive means that in terms of subject matter selection, we should not focus on these positive characters, but should focus on those marginalized people living in the big cities, such as thieves, prostitutes, unemployed youths and so on.

Only when it shows the confusion, bewilderment and helplessness of marginalized people in the context of the great era and records it truthfully with the camera can it be called a movie.

If Li Yishu knew about these comments, she would just laugh it off.

Because he knew that there were many sixth-generation directors in the Beijing Film Academy who would shoot realistic themes in the future, such as the more well-known Guan Hu and Wang Quanan, who were still waiting for their graduation defense in the school.

Because they all grew up in the same era, in her previous life, Lee Yi-su was quite envious of these sixth-generation directors. They could shoot whatever they wanted and each of them became famous.

But even though he envied them, he still didn't like some of the movies made by the sixth generation directors. They were too obscure and pretentious.

It has always been said that movies are art, which is true, but movies are popular art, not exclusive to those who are not understood by the general public.

Since you are making a movie, you cannot emphasize yourself too much. You cannot use your personal thoughts to cover the thoughts of the majority of the audience.

It's just like the film "Jinling! Jinling!" directed by Lu Da, in which he used Lu Tailang's ideas to refute Japanese imperialism to influence the thinking of the general public. Isn't he mentally retarded?
Li Yishu originally had no idea or understanding of the discussions taking place on the Beijing Film Academy campus.

However, with a letter sent from Beijing Film Academy to Emei Film Studio, he learned that the directing department, acting department, and literature department of Beijing Film Academy had been holding extremely heated discussions because of him in recent days.

The writer did not write his own name, but used the pen name "Zhuye" instead.

Looking at the "bamboo leaves" in the letter, it tells about the discussion and controversy caused by Li Yishu's film after it was screened at Beijing Film Academy, including his/her understanding of the film and some details about the film that he/she wants to ask...

At the end of the letter, he/she also expressed the hope to receive a reply from Li Yishu as soon as possible.

Reply to the letter——

Li Yishu only thought for a few seconds before deciding to reply to the other party.

After all, this was the first fan letter I received, and the other party was a junior at the Beijing Film Academy, so I had to reply to it.

Li Yishu had been writing letters for many years in her previous life...

No, to be exact, I haven’t written for almost thirty years.

On the one hand, there was no one who needed to write letters, and on the other hand, with the advent of the mobile phone era, if there was really something to say, you could just make a phone call and say everything at once.

Even if you are in another province, you just have to pay more for domestic roaming charges.

After replying the letter, Li Yishu began to edit the film peacefully in the factory. All his thoughts and energy were now focused on the movie "That Mountain".

This is because Li Yishu knows very well that a director’s first work is often a key node that determines his future directorial career.

Zhang Yimou changed his career from photographer to director, and his first film was Red Sorghum, which won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival. This film can be described as groundbreaking, as it was the first domestic film to win the Berlin Film Festival, and his name became a sensation across the country.

Someone who might be somewhat similar to him is Gu Changwei, who has been a photographer for more than ten years. Later, he made a movie called "Peacock", which also caused a stir in the domestic entertainment industry. This is because he is the number one photographer in the country, so he is likely to have the opportunity to win a big prize by changing careers like Zhang Yimou did.

Changing careers to become a director has brought many benefits to Gu Changwei, and in Li Yishu's opinion, the biggest benefit may be that it allows him to have close or even negative distance contact with actresses.

This is also what Li Yishu hopes for, to be a great director and experience the joy of being a great director.

Just like that, by the end of April, Li Yishu received another letter from "Zhuye".

This time, the letter did not mention the discussion about him at Beijing Film Academy, nor did it mention any doubts about "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog". It only contained some trivial daily life of "Zhuye".

Come to think of it, it's been more than half a month, and Li Yishu is not a big celebrity. He is just a little-known senior directing student. It's pretty good to be discussed for a few days.

Let’s start with the most discussed movie in China, which should be “Raise the Red Lantern” directed by Zhang Yimou.

The original novel of this movie, "Wives and Concubines", became extremely popular and became a must-buy book for many literary young people when they go to bookstores.

Nowadays, movies still have a huge impact on the original novels. Often, a book that is not very popular, if adapted into a movie, can immediately sell several times more than the original version.

Later, when Mo Yan was interviewed, he joked that after "Red Sorghum" was adapted into a movie, the publishing house asked him to reprint it several times, which made him earn a lot of royalties.

When she was at Beijing Film Academy, Li Yishu saw several classmates holding a copy of "Wives and Concubines" and chattering about their impressions after reading it.

But if you have to say that this book is popular, it’s not that popular. What’s really popular are the martial arts novels and romance novels from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In China, Wang Shuo's "Forever Lost My Love", which was published in the bimonthly magazine "Contemporary" two years ago, was printed as a single volume at the beginning of this year.

Li Yishu has not read this book, but from the newspaper introduction, she roughly concluded that this is a sad love story about a "terminal illness."

It seems that this book is quite popular recently and has sold about 70,000 to 80,000 copies.

Seeing this sales volume, it would be a lie for Lee Yi-su to say that she was not shocked. How could such a "terminal illness love story" sell so well?
How about writing one yourself and earning some royalties?
The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed to him. He only came to the studio every day to play a supervisory role, so he still had plenty of time on hand.

Li Yishu would like to make another movie, but she currently has another movie, "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog", waiting to be exhibited.

It would be better for him to concentrate on learning "creation". He remembered many excellent domestic and foreign films, many of which were suitable for adaptation into novels.

For the next period of time, Li Yishu began to "create".

Taking into account the background of the times and the reading habits of this year, we finally chose the Japanese pure love movie "Love Letter" for adaptation.

Because I had never written a novel before and had never read the original work, I just adapted the novel into a novel based entirely on the plot of the movie. So after Li Yishu wrote several thousand words, he was not sure whether his writing was good or not.

It happened that while replying to "Zhuye", he gradually confirmed that the other party was "her", so he copied the manuscript he had written and sent it to the other party.

I want to see if this female intellectual likes this story.

At first, just by looking at the handwriting, Li Yishu couldn't tell whether the other person was a man or a woman.

But later on, gradually, from the description in her writing, including the content of her letters, it became clear that she was very much in the style of literary young women of that era - she talked about the sadness of autumn when she had nothing to do, and tears flowed before she could speak.

(End of this chapter)