Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 218 228 [Red Cliff crew symposium, development of Hengdian World Studios]

"Yu Hua is in the crew?"

"Yeah, I just got here yesterday and am chatting with Director Zhang and the others."

"Let's go in and take a look!"

Li Yishu became interested. He has always liked Yu Hua's works, and his favorite one is "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood". Unfortunately, it was not filmed in China, but the copyright was bought by Koreans.

I don’t know if Yu Hua has any ideas in this regard at the moment. If so, he should create this work as soon as possible and shoot it in advance while it is still possible.

In a village house, Zhang Yimou, Yu Hua, Ge You and other main creative staff were chatting.

"Director Zhang!"

At this time, a crew member ran over and said hurriedly, "Director Li Yishu is here!"

"Director Li is here!"

Upon hearing that Li Yishu was coming, Zhang Yimou quickly got up and went out to greet her.

Ge You, Yu Hua and others also walked out together.

When he got outside, he ran into Li Yishu. Zhang Yimou walked up to her enthusiastically and said, "Director Li, why didn't you inform me in advance of your sudden visit? I could have arranged for someone to pick you up."

Li Yishu smiled cheerfully: "Director Zhang, you are too polite. I was afraid of delaying your crew's filming, so I told Sister Gong Li and drove over."

The few of them were old acquaintances. After a brief greeting, Zhang Yimou introduced Yu Hua: "Director Li, this is Yu Hua, the author of To Live."

Looking at Yu Hua's youthful appearance, her hair was combed very neatly, a bit like Guo Fucheng's style. I didn't expect that Yu Hua's hairstyle when he was young was quite fashionable, completely different from the messy and sloppy style later on.

Regarding Li Yishu, a director who has achieved great success internationally, Yu Hua took the initiative to extend her hand and said enthusiastically: "Hello, Director Li, I am Yu Hua, and I am very happy to meet you."

"I've read your book 'To Live'. It's so well written, but it's also so tragic."

As soon as Li Yishu saw Yu Hua, she couldn't help but think of Fugui and Jiazhen in the book. The Fugui and Jiazhen in the novel were much more miserable than in the movie.

The novel ends with Fugui, who is alone, walking away with his old cow, singing a ballad, pointing out that "people live for the sake of living itself, not for anything other than living."

The movie still ends happily. The grandson is naughty and cute, and the sons-in-law Erxi and Fugui, and Jiazhen are happily together. They welcome the arrival of a new life and wait for the beautiful day when "chickens become geese, geese become sheep, and sheep become cows."

"Misery is just a way of expression. I just want to express the resilience and tenacious spirit of survival that we Chinese people endure silently."

Yu Hua didn't seem surprised by what Li Yishu said, and smiled faintly, "But Director Li can rest assured, Director Zhang has made major changes to the script."

It was a major change, except that the grandson Mantou didn't choke to death, the son-in-law Erxi didn't die in a construction accident, and Jiazhen didn't die of illness...

Emo, it’s not that bad.

Compared to the novel, the movie definitely has a good ending, but after watching it, it still makes people feel a lot of emotions.

"Director Zhang, this doesn't count as revealing the script, does it?" Yu Hua suddenly remembered and quickly looked at Zhang Yimou.

"Haha, that doesn't count."

Zhang Yimou smiled and shook his head, and just said that it was a major adaptation. How can this be considered a spoiler?

Little did people know that Li Yishu not only knew the plot, but had also watched the entire movie more than once.

Gong Li smiled and said, "Hey guys, the wind is howling. Let's not stand here at the door. Let's go in and sit down and chat."

"Come on, let's go inside and talk."

A group of people entered the house.

The room was not big. Li Yishu recognized that this was the wealthy family in the movie. Looking at the layout of the room, he couldn't help but ask, "Director Zhang, what plot is being filmed now?"

The movie itself was adapted from a novel, and the general plot remained unchanged. Zhang Yimou did not hide it and said, "We'll take a day off today, and shoot the scene of Fengxia's difficult childbirth tomorrow morning."

Fengxia had a difficult delivery!
Li Yishu frowned, this scene was really tragic.

He pretended to be curious and asked, "The plot of Fengxia's difficult labor and heavy bleeding has not been changed, right?"

"No."

Zhang Yimou saw that Li Yishu seemed very interested, so he smiled and said, "Director Li, if you want to know the ending, I'll have someone bring the script to you."

"No need, Director Zhang!"

Li Yishu shook her head and refused, "Let's wait until the movie comes out. I don't want to watch "To Live" again."

At this point, he also stared at Yu Hua. It was hard to imagine that this literary middle-aged man who looked honest now could actually write such tragic novels as "To Live" and "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood".

Being stared at suddenly, Yu Hua touched his nose a little embarrassedly and said, "Director Li, what's the matter?"

"Nothing, I just want to take a good look at you."

Li Yishu smiled and looked at Gong Li while saying, "Don't mistake the person when you come back to hit her with a club. You actually wrote such a bad story about Jiazhen, whom I like."

Gong Li felt very amused. She understood what Li Yishu meant, but others didn't understand. They thought Li Yishu was upset about the ending of "To Live".

"That's right!"

Ge You also acted as a supporting actor at this time, glaring at him and saying, "Yu Hua, what's wrong with you? It would be fine if you wrote me in a miserable way, but you actually wrote our Jiazhen and Fengxia in such miserable ways. What's your intention?"

“Ahem!! Well… Director Li, Lao Ge, I don’t want to write it this way, but the story has reached this point, and it is no longer something I, as the author, can control.”

Yu Hua smiled and said, "Writing a novel is just like making a movie. The story may have a direction at the beginning, but later on, as you write, it will start to develop into an unpredictable plot."

Of course he knew that Li Yishu and Ge You were joking. Not only was he not angry, but he was very happy that they said so, because it meant that the work he wrote was a success.

As the saying goes: laughter, anger, and scolding are all articles; actions, hiding, staying, and leaving are all topics.

Good literary works can easily make people feel sad.

Without Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the public would not know the tragic song of a hero dying before achieving his goal; without Dream of the Red Chamber, the public would not know the wasted time of life that is ultimately just a dream, with all its sorrows and joys…

While they were chatting and laughing, Zhang Yimou asked someone to notify Jiang Wu to come over.

Jiang Wu plays the role of son-in-law Erxi in the play, and his performance is very good.

Although Li Yishu has conflicts with his brother Jiang Wen, it does not prevent him from getting to know his younger brother. It is not like the ancient times where there is a system of collective responsibility. The most he can do is to refuse to cooperate.

Lunch time.

"How's your brother's movie going?" Li Yishu looked at Jiang Wu with a smile. He had only been back for two days and didn't know the current situation of the "Sunny" crew, or whether the funds had been raised.

"I am not very sure."

Jiang Wu smiled and shook his head, "I don't care about my brother's affairs, but I heard that he seems to have resumed work."

But he knew that his elder brother and Lee Yi-su didn't have a good relationship, and they had some conflicts before. This time, his elder brother Jiang Wen wanted to make a movie by himself, actually with the idea of ​​fighting with Lee Yi-su.

Hearing this, Li Yishu smiled without saying anything, then turned to talk to Zhang Yimou about next year's Cannes.

Zhang won the Berlin Golden Bear in 1987 and the Venice Golden Lion last year. Now he is only one Palme d’Or away from becoming a Grand Slam winner. Li Yishu was a little later than him. She won the Palme d’Or this year and is only one Golden Bear away.

There were two reasons why there was so much official publicity in China when he won two gold medals. The first was Li Yishu's age, and the second was that no Chinese had ever won the Palme d'Or before. He broke this history at the age of only twenty.

"Then I wish Director Zhang every success at the Cannes Film Festival!"

Seeing Zhang Yimou's confident look, Li Yishu didn't want to undermine his confidence or pour cold water on him at this critical moment.

If Zhang Yimou only had one gold medal in his hands now, he might have a chance to win the Palme d'Or with "To Live", but now that he has two gold medals in his hands, those people in Europe will not allow a Chinese Grand Slam player to emerge so soon.

Later, Zhang Yimou also discovered this and knew that Cannes was trying to lure him, so he slipped away immediately and no longer made any art films to participate in Cannes.

On the contrary, Gong Li went back and forth to the Cannes Film Festival for many years in order to achieve the three gold awards, but ultimately failed.

I can only say that if it’s a foreign award, don’t expect to win a Grand Slam.

This is also the important reason why Li Yishu will strive for awards next year and then completely give up and not care about awards anymore.

If these three movies can win a major award next year, they will win it. If they can’t, then winning a director award, an actor award or something like that will be enough.

As Chinese films are now being favored by the three major European film festivals, it would be a shame if they didn't win a directing award or produce a few best actor and actress awards.

That afternoon, Li Yishu took Gong Li, who used the excuse of going to the city to take a shower, to Tianjin.

We haven't seen each other for more than a month, so of course we have to spend a night together.

The next morning, when Li Yishu sent Gong Li back, she also watched the scene where Fengxia had a difficult delivery.

I have to say that Gong Li’s acting was really good, but the highlight of the play was still "Fugui" played by Ge You, and it was Ge You who won the acting award at the Cannes Film Festival.

I just hope that at next year's Berlin Film Festival, Gong Li can win the Best Actress award for "Central Station", which will make up for the regret of "To Live".

In the afternoon, Li Yishu said goodbye to Gong Li and others, took a bus back to Tianjin, and then took a train back to Yanjing overnight.

Tomorrow is the weekend. I had agreed with Yu Feihong and Jiang Qinqin that I would take them to Wangfujing for a stroll today.

Time passes little by little.

In the next few days, Li Yishu was either editing films at the Beijing Film Studio or visiting Yu Feihong and Jiang Qinqin.

In the blink of an eye, it was November 11th.

Beijing Film Studio.

A large banner was hung high on the stage in the auditorium.

The crew of "Red Cliff of Three Kingdoms" prepared for a symposium.

There are quite a lot of people attending the symposium today, more than fifty in total, including more than a dozen directors, five or six professors of the history of the late Han Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms, and the Wei and Jin Dynasties, more than a dozen experts in the study of Three Kingdoms culture, and more than a dozen experts in the study of ancient weapons, armor, etc.

Including the leaders of the Radio, Film and Television Bureau and the Propaganda Department, there are more than 50 people, and they all revealed how valuable this symposium is.

"Director Xie Jin, I really like your films The Red Detachment of Women and The Garland under the Mountain. They are so wonderful."

"Director Li Jun, your film "The Decisive Battle" is no less than "War and Peace" made during the former Soviet Union. It is simply an epic blockbuster."

"Director Wang Fulin..."

"..."

Li Yishu and Han Sanping stood at the door of the auditorium, welcoming every director, expert, professor and leader who arrived.

China has never had a super production with an investment of 2 million RMB. Although "The Decisive Battle" has reached the highest number of actors in history, it is more of a mainstream political film, and the production budget is only more than 1 million RMB.

Compared with the production budget of 2 million yuan this time, it is half less.

And there is no need to consider inflation, because the "Armageddon" series was filmed in 1990, and the "Armageddon" trilogy was filmed in one go. Only a few years have passed, and no matter how fast inflation is, it can't be half of it, not to mention that the production cost of "Armageddon" was more than 1 million yuan for a trilogy.

Therefore, this time, "Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms", with a budget of 2 million yuan, is truly the first of its kind, a domestically produced blockbuster film that directly competes with Hollywood's A-level productions.

Who doesn’t want to be able to participate in such a domestic blockbuster?
After all, judging from the current situation where the domestic box office market is gradually sluggish and major film studios are facing increasingly difficult times, this "Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms" may be the only major domestic production in the next few years.

You can't just lose money to gain publicity.

"Dear leaders, professors, experts, and industry veterans, I, Li Yishu, am honored to be the chief director of the Three Kingdoms Red Cliff crew. I am also very grateful for your enthusiastic participation..."

"A long time ago, I thought about making a blockbuster that belongs to us Chinese, but the current box office market in China is not enough to support a big production. Later, I joined the crew of Romance of the Three Kingdoms..."

"This time, the movie "Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms" is benchmarked against Hollywood A-level productions. The so-called A-level production is a film with a production budget of more than 5000 million US dollars. This year's "Jurassic Park", which has been raging in the global film market, is a super A-level production with a total investment of nearly million US dollars..."

As the host, Lee Yi-su naturally had to say a few words first. The tone was basically to thank everyone for joining, while at the same time fully confirming his role as chief director.

Even though "Red Cliff" was a project initiated and even invested by him, who knows if someone would get carried away and criticize him, saying that Lee Yi-seok is too young and unqualified to direct such a big production.

Fortunately, most of the directors who came here had already communicated with Han Sanping in advance and knew that the identity of chief director could not be changed.

On the one hand, the project was initiated by Li Yishu, and on the other hand, he also attracted investment.

Of course, there is one most important factor. In the current international film market, the three words "Lee Yi-su" do have some box office appeal, at least in the Japanese market.

When mentioning the director of "The Sixth Sense" in European and American countries, ordinary audiences will have more or less an impression of him. However, unlike these domestic directors, except for a few who have won awards in Europe, they basically have no fame overseas.

Li Yishu's speech set the tone for the event.

Next, a group of people began to discuss the preparations for the "Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms" crew.

History professors naturally want to restore the ancient Red Cliff battlefield; Three Kingdoms research experts don't want to think too much and just want to shoot according to the bridge in the novel; directors have even more unconstrained imagination...

After more than three hours of discussion, with the mediation and approval of Li Yishu, it was basically decided to adapt the novel based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but with the help of historians, some loopholes were filled in.

At the same time, five assistant directors were also confirmed, namely Director Xie Jin, Director Li Jun, Director Yang Guangyuan, Director Wang Fulin, and Director Shen Haofang. At the same time, various experts also joined the crew to serve as plot and props instructors.

After the tone was set, the script was handed over to director Wang Fulin, who recommended himself. The filming of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was completed not long ago. While preparing for post-production editing, he was also writing the script for "Red Cliff".

When talking about whether to shoot at the Three Kingdoms filming location or rebuild it from scratch, Lee Yi-su couldn’t help but think of Hengdian.

He remembered that when director Xie Jin was filming "The Opium War", in order to find a place to shoot, he was invited to build a Guangzhou Street in Hengdian, which later gave birth to the Hengdian Film and Television City where Hengpiao was born.

Maybe we can go and talk to Hengdian and build a Qin and Han City in Hengdian in the name of Hong Kong Art Film Company?

Why did investors still continue to invest in Chen Kai even though he lost money on his movies? To put it bluntly, it was because every time Chen Kai made a movie, he would build a film and television city, which greatly boosted the local tourism economy.

Who wouldn't be happy to spend hundreds of millions to create a popular tourist attraction and make some profit from the box office?

If you own part of Hengdian’s shares, it would be like having a big guarantee.

Hengdian Film and Television City will make a lot of money in the future. It does not rely on rental of film crews at all, but purely on tourists, and will have tens of billions of revenue every year.

　The chapter title is wrong. I will ask the editor to modify it tomorrow so it won’t affect the reading.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)