On New Year's Day, two big figures in the film and television circle took the lead in apologizing, one was Yu Zheng and the other was Guo Jingming.
Originally, I thought that Guo Xiaosi was lost and returned, but later found that his apology was purely for self-preservation and had no sincerity to speak of.
At that time, it coincided with the hit of his masterpiece "Qingya Collection", and he apologized only for the sake of civilian indignation not to let "Qingya Collection" take down.
This film can be described as Guo Jingming's proud work, which was released for 10 days, with a box office of nearly 500 million and a good reputation (early stage).
"Qingya Collection" is adapted from the novel of Japanese novelist Dream Pillow Tapir, dream pillow tapir as a big IP in the Japanese fantasy novel industry, by his works adapted into film and television is not a minority, the reputation is very good, but there are exceptions.
This exception is Chen Kaige's "The Legend of the Demon Cat".
In 1999, the film "Jingke Thorn Qin King" directed by Chen Kaige and produced by Kadokawa Ritsuhiko and others was released in various countries, and at that time, taking into account the cultural differences of each region, the film edited several versions, but the result was mixed.
But all the viewers who have seen the Japanese version are impressed by it, and once praised as a god's work.
In particular, Kadokawa Ritsuhiko, while being impressed by Chen Kaige's shooting methods, hopes that the two can work together again to continue to write a new chapter in the history of film.
Chen Kaige immediately replied: One word is certain.
But what Kadokawa did not expect was that this wait had been waiting for 10 years, and Chen Kaige had indeed completed a new chapter in the history of cinema, but it was only a new chapter of being scolded.
Seven years later, the novel "Shamen Air and Sea of the Great Tang Ghost Feast" was published, which is set in the Sheng Tang Dynasty and the love story of Tang Xuanzong and Yang Guifei as the main line, telling a series of strange things triggered by a cat that spits out human words.
Chen Kaige himself has different feelings for the Tang Dynasty, and Tang poetry is even more open-mouthed.
When he saw the story described in the novel, he felt as if he had seen the Tang Dynasty in his heart, and immediately went to the original author to talk about cooperation.
Unexpectedly, the dream pillow tapir said: "I want to adapt it into a movie, but the ideal director in my heart is Zhang Yimou." ”
Later, with the help of Kadokawa Rihiko, the dream pillow tapir agreed to cooperate with Chen Kaige.
In order to find a picture that matches the description of Sheng Tang in the novel, Chen Kaige ran all over the country's film and television bases, but did not meet the requirements, but he was unwilling to settle.
Finally, a big hand: since you can't find it, build a new Tang Dynasty.
Chen Kaige is nicknamed "Infrastructure Maniac". At that time, when filming "Farewell to the King", a street in the 30s of the last century was built; when filming "Jingke Thorn Qin King", it took 4 years to build a Qin King Palace; when filming "Zhao Orphans", a "Zhao Orphan City" was created.
The matter of building the city was familiar to him, and soon he chose the address in Xiangyang, Hubei Province.
Chen Kaige is a detail control, every brick and tile, grass and tree in the city, including the spacing between the two trees, Chen Kaige must personally inquire.
The Buddha statue that appears in the movie for only a minute or so has been carved for nearly a year.
Art director Lu Wei originally expected that it would take about 2 years to build the city, and at the beginning of the construction of the city, Lu Wei's daughter was just born, and as a result, when the city was built, her daughter would go to primary school.
After six years, the Tang City was finally built, and as soon as the original author Dream Pillow Tapir entered the Tang Dynasty, he couldn't help but burst into tears.
Dream Pillow Tapir spent 17 years writing this novel, almost gave up in the middle, and now sees his haunted Tang Dynasty, from words to a real city, how can you not sigh.
And Chen Kaige even released a bold statement: I want the audience to realize the real dream of returning to the Tang Dynasty in the cinema.
But he would never have thought that what really made this Tang City work was not in the movie.
Just when Chen Kaige bothered to build Tangcheng, the film's casting activities were also in full swing.
The first is the black cat that spits out human words.
Although most of the black cats in the film use special effects, there are not many scenes in the real body, but Chen Kaige does not dare to be careless, the black cat with a black body and no stray hair is selected by the national sea, for this reason, Chen Kaige also let his younger son Chen Feiyu be a solid shoveling officer.
Then there's the Air Sea Mage.
In history, there is indeed a person who went to the Tang Dynasty to worship Master Huiguo of Qinglong Temple, was the founder of the Japanese Buddhist Shingon Sect, and was also an authentic Japanese.
Although they are all yellow-skinned, the cultural nuances, whether it is speech or expression, are still different from Chinese, so Chen Kaige specially invited Someya Shotai to play.
When he received the script, it was the pregnancy of Someya's wife, and he thought about it for a long time or agreed to act, and came to China alone. Since his lines are all Chinese, he practices Chinese desperately as soon as he has time.
However, the Chinese language has always been not good, and he can only rely on dubbing in the later stage, coupled with his not-so-skilled Chinese and habitual lip-sipping action, after the release of the movie, it was also spit by the audience as a "fan's smile".
Finally, there is the soul figure Yang Guifei.
Although Yang Guifei's role in the film is not much, she is the leader of the whole movie, and all the plots revolve around her.
At the beginning of the selection of Yang Guifei, Chen Kaige wandered between Zhang Yuqi and Zhang Rongrong for a long time, and finally chose Zhang Rongrong, who was half French.
Chen Kaige felt that if Zhang Yuqi was allowed to play Yang Guifei, the audience would only think that Zhang Yuqi was beautiful, and if Zhang Rongrong played Yang Guifei, the audience would think that Yang Guifei was beautiful.
And there have been historical works that point out that Yang Guifei originally had the blood of the Hu people, so Zhang Rongrong was relatively more suitable in appearance.
In order to better reflect this role, Zhang Rongrong spent several months before filming to learn pipa, walking, talking, etc., just to better enter the character state.
Kung Fu pays off, and after months of practice, Zhang Rongrong has indeed gained in temperament.
Xin Baiqing, the actor of Li Bai, said in an interview: In the play, Yang Guifei said such a sentence to Li Bai: "Put on your boots!" ”
Just such an understated sentence, but without losing the honor of the noble concubine, it can be seen that Zhang Rongrong really played out the connotation of Yang Guifei.
For the actors he carefully selected, Chen Kaige naturally will not "easily let go".
He took out his axis of building a city to ask the actors, Zhang Yuqi a shot of eating melon, filmed more than thirty times; and Zhang Rongrong a look back shot, but also shot nearly a hundred times, the light hit 4 layers.
However, he did not expect that he was so well-intentioned to shoot, and the audience did not buy it in the end.
In 2017, after 8 years, "The Legend of the Demon Cat" was finally released in the audience's eagerness, but after the release, it was a box office word of mouth.
The investment of 250 million yuan has only gained a total of 530 million box office, and even the money for the original construction of the city has not been recovered.
(Fortunately, later, at the suggestion of others, he changed the painstakingly built Tang City into a film and television base, opened it to the public, and filled in the deficit of the previous film by relying on the money earned by collecting tickets)
The Douban score opened high and went low, and finally slipped to 7.0, just past the passing line, and the reputation was even more miserable.
The first is that Zhang Rongrong's Yang Guifei is criticized by most people, which is not in line with the public's imagination of Yang Guifei, and her mixed-race appearance is also too dramatic, making it difficult for people to adapt.
Sure enough, the director's aesthetic, I wait for ordinary people to not understand ah!
Then there are the special effects on the screen, which makes people look in the clouds and do not know what to call it, and some viewers comment: In the theater, people who see half of them are sleeping with ha lazi, or people who leave the scene halfway.
For a time, Chen Kaige was once again scolded to a new height.
16 years ago, at the press conference of "Wuji", director Chen Kaige once said: Within 5 years, no one can understand "Wuji".
That's a big truth.
To this day, "Wuji" is still no one can understand, mention it, in addition to the word "bad film", I really don't know what to use to describe.
6 years ago, a "Taoist Down the Mountain" was born, as if to verify Chen Kaige's sentence that "no one can understand", and it is still summarized as a "bad film" industry.
The release of "The Legend of the Demon Cat" seems to be another stroke for Director Chen's "bad film" cause - or a heavy stroke.
After the film was released, Chen Kaige was interviewed, and a reporter asked: What do you mean by this movie?
Chen Kaige replied: What you see is what I want to express.
This answer is even more puzzling than the film itself.
Could it be that Chen Kaige spent a lot of money to make works to give people a scolding?
No, it's not.
Chen Kaige himself is a Tang controller and has a unique view of Datang culture, so he has to go to great pains to build a city, not for the sake of eyeballs, but only for the Tang Dynasty in his heart.
In Hou Xiaoxian's eyes, the Tang Dynasty was Nie Yinniang, who saw through the red dust; in Xu Ke's eyes, the Tang Dynasty was Di Renjie, who could break the conspiracy; in Zhang Yimou's eyes, the Tang Dynasty was the golden armor of incest in the palace; and in Chen Kaige's eyes, the Tang Dynasty was a gorgeous and magnificent love affair, like a dream, like dew like electricity.
He believes that Datang was a turning point in China's history, when China returned to the world and celebrated in all directions. It was also after the Tang Dynasty that China slowly withdrew from the position of the first brother of the empire, and he had inexplicable feelings for Tang.
It is precisely because he has a unique affection for the Tang Dynasty, so he will certainly not spend 8 years to shoot a work of "scolding".
So, what does "The Legend of the Demon Cat" really mean, and why did Chen Kaige make such a movie? Maybe we can find the answer in the film.
In the Taoist classic "Questions and Answers on Kun Tong", it is said: Man's false creation is a demon, the nature of things is a spirit, and the soul of a person is not scattered as a ghost.
A demon cat is a demon that behaves strangely, is transformed by obsession and resentment, and is only the form of a cat, so it is called a demon cat.
Demons are false, cats are true, and from the very beginning, the title has been telling us that true is false, false is true, true is false, false is true, false is true, we are all in it.
And the supreme secret of the Dharma that Kukai is looking for is hidden in these illusions that are difficult to distinguish between true and false.
What is Supreme Secret?
Some netizens have concluded that the supreme secret is divided into three stages, and only when it is thoroughly understood can we have real possession, and these three stages are:
1. Look at the mountain as the mountain, and look at the water as the water
2. Look at the mountain is not the mountain, look at the water is not the water
3. Look at the mountain or the mountain, look at the water or the water
In "The Legend of the Demon Cat", in the end, many people have penetrated the Supreme Secret, but Yang Guifei is the first person to penetrate.
Yang Guifei is the happiest person in the world, she is the pride of Datang, no matter where she is, she is one of the most watched.
Just for a birthday feast, Tang Xuanzong invited envoys from all over the world to celebrate it, and named it "Bliss of Bliss", just for Bo Meiren to smile.
This is the first stage of Yang Guifei, all the glory and favor are for her, it is not too much to say that it is under one person and above ten thousand people.
But the appearance of a person made her suddenly see through everything, let her know that all that she was proud of was nothing but illusion.
This man is Abe.
In the name of sending agate, Abe wanted to show his love to the noble concubine, but before he could say anything, he was interrupted by the emperor, who said, "No matter what time, the noble concubine will never be alone." ”
The noble concubine is not a person, she is only a vassal of the emperor, and it is also because that person is the emperor, so she is the noble concubine, and all the honors of the noble concubine are obtained through the emperor.
In other words, if the emperor wants to take back this honor, he can do it at any time.
This is the second stage of Yang Guifei, and everything she originally had was only attached to the emperor, and she was only a tool to show off.
Her fate is closely linked to datang, and Tang Xuanzong's favor for her is not only because of her beauty, but also her political value, and her favor is actually a signal transmitted to the countries of the four sides, that is, Tang is the center and the concept of the heavenly kingdom.
At this time, the news of An Lushan's rebellion came, and Ma Songpo mutinied, demanding that the emperor execute Yang Guifei.
At this time, the noble concubine had the opportunity to flee to the Uighur Kingdom with Abe, but she remembered the emperor again, and she knew that if she left, the rebels would not let the emperor go.
Even though she knew that the emperor might treat her like a male animal, at the banquet, the emperor's deliberately flattering look was real, and there was a true feeling between them.
At this time, the noble concubine had no choice but to be given death and to be handed over to the rebels.
Therefore, in the face of the third way for the emperor to let her fake death, the noble concubine did not hesitate to agree, and after drinking the wine that took away the poison, she gave her own green silk to the emperor, and then resolutely and resolutely left without turning her head.
This is the third stage of Yang Guifei.
At this time, the noble concubine understood their situation, she did not want to embarrass the emperor, and she also understood that what the emperor gave her was just a more decent way to die, but the noble concubine still had hope for the emperor in her heart, after all, they had loved each other, and the noble concubine was willing to face everything she had to face.
In the film, Dan Long said: There is also truth in magic.
The so-called supreme secret is just to see the essence through phenomena and find the most real part of the illusory world.
In the words of Romain Rolland: there is a kind of heroism, that is, after recognizing the truth of life, still love life.
This is the Supreme Secret.
Cinema is rational and people are emotional.
All the truly valuable films, what he summarizes, are not from this era, nor from this world, they only exist in the mind of the creator himself, and everyone will have different interpretations of this, which is a perfectly normal phenomenon.
Chen Kaige had already obtained his supreme secret.
He just wanted to tell us in this way that life is inherently bitter, but you and I both live in it.
All we have to do is to face it and look directly at it from this illusory suffering, just like the woman on the boat with her child in her arms, after facing the disaster that she is powerless to change, does not yell, but accepts it calmly, and rejoices that her child is asleep, and in the dream everything is beautiful.
Chen Kaige once said: For a movie, there are always people who like it, and there are always people who don't like it, and I can face all this calmly.
For life, he has penetrated thoroughly, and the rest can only be left to the audience to slowly understand.
. END .
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