Since 1983

In the restaurant, the two met Ge You.

In reality, he had collaborated with the National Teacher in "Code Named Jaguar", but now he has not acted, and this is the first time we met. Xu Fei hadn't seen him for a long time, and was a little surprised: "Why are you so thin?"

"I'm playing Fourth Master Yuan, I'm recovering."

Ge You was already thin, but now he is even more exaggerated, so that his head looks big and his body looks like a stick.

"How about the triumphant song? I heard from Gong Li that it was very good." Zhang Guoshi asked.

"It's really good. It's good from head to toe. I didn't expect Hong Kong people to work so hard. That Leslie Cheung is a great actor..."

Ge You realized that it was not good to praise one director in front of the other, so he laughed twice. He was filming "Farewell My Concubine". The filming period was from February to July this year, and he had prepared for a long time in advance.

"Director Zhang is preparing a new film and wants to chat with you first." Xu Fei quoted.

"It's a novel called "To Live". It hasn't been officially published yet, so I'll give you a brief introduction."

Zhang Guoshi didn't care, and said, "The main character is called Fu Gui. Before liberation, he was a young master. He was addicted to gambling and lost all his family fortune. Later, he was destitute. Because his mother was ill, he went to seek medical treatment, and was arrested by the Nationalist Party on the way.

After the war, when he returned to his hometown, he found out that his mother had passed away. His wife Jiazhen worked hard to bring up a pair of children, but the daughter became dumb.

Later, Jiazhen suffered from rickets and could not do heavy work. Because the son had the same blood type as the county magistrate's wife, he died of too much blood drawn to save the county magistrate's wife.

Daughter Fengxia married a worker and gave birth to a baby boy named Kugen, who died of bleeding on the operating table.

After Fengxia died, Jiazhen also died. The worker was crushed to death by two rows of cement boards due to a crane error.

My grandson Kugen returned to the countryside with Fugui, living a difficult life, eating beans to death..."

"Ouch!"

Ge You leaned back, "They're all dead?"

"They're all dead, only Fugui himself and an old cow are left.

I asked Yu Hua, why is it so hard to write? He said that the inspiration came from an American folk song called "Old Black Slave". This old black slave has experienced a lifetime of suffering, and his family members died before him, but he still treats the world friendly.

So with this work, Yu Hua wants to say: people live for life itself, not for anything other than life. "

"This, this I don't quite understand."

"Human life is a biological instinct. Love, money, and dreams are all other things. Whoever says that I live for love and I live for dreams is nonsense. People do it for this Live by life." Xu Fei said.

"Oh, I get it. If this person's dream is shattered and Bia commits suicide directly, then it can be said that it is for the dream." Ge You nodded.

"But Director Zhang, you didn't make it clear. I have read Yu Hua's manuscript, and the background of the time is very complicated." Xu Fei said.

"Uh, right."

Zhang Guoshi gritted his teeth, failed to fool him, and said: "The timeline span is very large, starting before liberation, then uh huh, then uh huh, then uh huh. Anyway, there are almost all major events that happened."

"Then your scale is much bigger than "Farewell My Concubine", can you pass the trial?" Ge You was horrified.

"I have made several films, and I have a good grasp of it. It is almost the same after changing it."

Zhang Guoshi is confident.

Xu Fei stood up and poured him a cup of tea.

...

Let me talk about "Farewell My Concubine" first.

The investor is Xu Feng, a Taiwanese actor who married the boss of Hong Kong Tomson Group and started his own film and television company. She admired Director Chen very much and contributed to this cooperation.

After Director Chen got the right to adapt, the first thing he did was to find screenwriter Lu Wei.

When Lu Wei read Li Bihua's novels, he felt that the writing was second-rate and the drama was not strong. The advantage was that there were themes and relationships between the characters.

How awesome is he?

The first is the subversion of the entire context. "Farewell My Concubine" takes place in Beijing, but a Hong Kong writer uses Hong Kong's habits to write novels. He feels that he has to learn from Beijing movies and write scripts in the way that people in Beijing express their emotions.

I borrowed the videotape of "Teahouse", watched it day and night, and used Beijing movies to talk to people. After sleeping in the Opera Artists Association, in order to understand this industry, he became an expert in Peking Opera.

After finishing writing, Lu Wei said: I will get you a fake script for review, and use the real script for filming.

Director Chen agreed.

Films are submitted for review twice, the first review of the script is called project approval; the second review of the finished film.

Then it was filmed. Director Chen first considered using Hu Wenge (Mei Baojiu's apprentice) and Cai Guoqing to play Cheng Dieyi, but the film crew and Li Bihua insisted on using Leslie Cheung.

Later, I considered asking Cheng Long and Jiang Wen to play Duan Xiaolou, but of course Cheng Long would not play the role; Jiang Wen said that playing the Overlord was not a challenge, and I wanted to play Concubine Yu.

After filming, "Farewell My Concubine" was submitted for review for the second time

At that time, Cheng Zhigu, the director of the mainland partner Beijing Film Studio, had already written a review.

After the second review, you can send it out to participate in the exhibition, otherwise it is a violation of regulations. Then, "Farewell My Concubine" won the Palme d'Or.

In Taiwan, the film is listed as a mainland film, but in Hong Kong, it is not considered a Hong Kong film, so the Golden Rooster, Golden Statue, and Golden Horse did not participate.

So what is its box office in the mainland? It is said to be more than 40 million, which cannot be confirmed.

As for "Alive".

Yu Hua said: "Director Zhang often said that the details of the original work must be changed in order to pass the censorship. Seeing his confident appearance, I thought that he understands the censorship system so well, and I admire him very much."

Lu Wei is also a screenwriter, saying, "When filming "Farewell My Concubine" and "To Live", I thought our movie was about to start, but I didn't expect it to be our end."

As for why the novel can be published?

Because Yu Hua invested in "Harvest", the founder is Ba Jin, and Ba Jin said, send!

...

In the restaurant, Xu Fei poured a cup of tea.

"Does the screenwriter and the employer have any clues?"

"The screenwriter is looking for Lu Wei, and Yu Hua is also involved. "Red Lantern" is invested by Times International, a Hong Kong company. I have a preliminary discussion with them, and we should be able to continue to cooperate."

Teacher Xu turned to that side, "What about you?"

"I……"

Ge You scratched his head and said, "Listen to what you said, I think it's very good, and I really want to act. Anyway, we can talk about it after the script comes out."

"Okay, I want to change this story in half a year, don't worry."

Zhang Guoshi was full of confidence, and started chatting, "Xiao Xu, you said that you have such a big company, and you only make TV series, but in fact, you should make more movies."

"Yes, at least one will be released next year, and there will be a new film."

"oh?"

Zhang Guoshi was curious, he knew that it should be "The Great Sabbath", and asked: "This new movie, is it convenient to talk about it?"

"Oh, the animals are ferocious, waiting for you to enter the urn."