Time Network News This year's National Day file, Yu Fei directed and wrote the live-action movie "Pipilu and Lusisi's Canned Villain" met with the audience in the theater.
Yu Fei, who brought "Pipilu and Lu xixi" to the screen, graduated from the Beijing Film Academy and is now a director and screenwriter. On the eve of the film's release, Yu Fei was interviewed by Time.com to share the behind-the-scenes story of the film and his own creative ideas.
"Pipilu and Lusisi's Canned Villain" tells the story of Pipilu and Rusisi, a brother and sister who met five canned villains and changed their learning and life dramatically.
Pipilu and The Canned Villain of Lusisi
94 minutes - Comedy / Sci-Fi / Kids Released in China on September 30, 2021
This film is adapted from the fairy tale of the same name by "Fairy Tale King" Zheng Yuanjie, and Yu Fei made a lot of adaptations when writing the script, so that the current children and parents have more resonance. Zheng Yuanjie, who has always been "strictly protected" for his works, is very satisfied after watching the movie and says that he regrets not investing.
Yu Fei himself is also a parent, and he said that parents may feel more than their children after watching this movie. The film not only integrates his life with his own children, but also reflects his thinking on education issues. He said that the film is not an answer for parents, but distills the questions and confusions in the hearts of parents.
Mtime: When was the idea to make this film first?
Yu Fei: In the summer of 2018, I took my second-grade children to Jinan to play. For children as old as they are, watching movies is already a way of life, and he wants to go to the cinema, and I say go. But children of his age, the younger cartoons, they don't watch. They may have watched that film last year, but they won't watch it this year when they grow up. Love, war themes they obviously can't understand, it is very embarrassing, to the cinema did not pick the film.
At that time, I thought, first, this is a gap in the market, and second, we should make a movie for such a big child, and they should be able to accept this kind of live-action theme. After all, when we were children, we watched movies like "Thunderbolt Babe" and "The Atmosphere Disappears".
Mtime: Is Pipilu and Rusisi's Canned Villain a movie with children as the main audience? Or is it a family movie?
Yu Fei: In fact, it can't be considered a family fun. Parents will react more than children after reading it. We did a test of the film, surveyed the average liking, especially unexpected, parents seem to be a few points higher than the children's liking.
I understand that it is because I have seen some episodes related to education, and some parents have cried when they see it, or that there are more resonance reflections after watching it. Children and parents see it from two perspectives.
Mtime: Pipilu and Rusisi is a very famous IP, is there any pressure to adapt it?
Yu Fei: It is a very classic literary work in the 80s, an excellent literary work to an excellent film and television work, in the middle of which we must first go to an excellent script and then to a good film and television work, and each step has to go a long way. Which part is not done well, it must be put on the hat of ruining childhood.
This drama has responded well to the box office and word of mouth so far.
The first twenty or thirty minutes of the movie are changed on the basis of the original work, and the last 60 minutes begin to rebel against the characters, and go down to their own line, the original plot is very rare, in fact, the changes are not small. But the audience read the response is OK, I think the reader is more concerned about not your changes to the original book. I think they might want a good movie, not a good movie.
I think I can take care of the reader's feelings, but I can't sell them.
Mtime: The story of "Pipilu and Lu xixi" was originally told by Zheng Yuanjie to his son Zheng Yaqi, is the childhood life of children in that era and the life of children in 2021 still match?
Yu Fei: Life is definitely not right. When selecting materials, I try to find that this era has little impact, in fact, the theme is quite close.
For example, the theme of the original work, mainly explores the problem of "excellent students" and "backward students", backward students due to mischief and disobedience, even with the help of Dr. Villain, the results are still defined as "backward", but the concept of "excellent students" and "backward students" seems to have rarely been mentioned now, because now our children go to school, teachers are called babies, girls, which teacher dares to say that you are "bad children", "good grades" and "poor grades" are the most concerned issues for teachers, children and parents today. Today's teachers are very concerned about all children, and hope that children can be admitted to good middle schools and good universities.
Mtime: Is Zheng Yuanjie involved in film creation?
Yu Fei: He was not very involved, and I heard Zheng Yaqi say in an interview that he had never dared to show it to Teacher Zheng. Teacher Zheng watched it on June 1st, and after reading it, he liked it quite much. In fact, I did not expect that, because the changes are not small, I think it is very difficult for any adapted film work to be recognized by the original author.
Mtime: How did Zheng Yuanjie evaluate the movie after watching it?
Yu Fei: When the June 1 screening, after watching him tell Zheng Yaqi that he wanted to go on stage, Zheng Yaqi was particularly scared, thinking that he was going to smash the field, and then Teacher Zheng came on stage and said that the movie was very good, very moved, and regretted that he did not invest.
Mtime: You are also a parent, have you ever put it in the movie yourself?
Yu Fei: Yes. It can be said that the entire parent line, the role of dad played by Tian Yu, is mostly a problem that is tangled in my heart.
Some lines, for example, say, children say to their mother, "If the grades are not good, do you still like me?" ”
When my child didn't do well in an exam when he was a child, I said two sentences to him: We like you so much, why don't you study something well. He asked, something like that. I was stunned, how could I ask that? I put it in the movie. Works from real life are more impressive.
Mtime: After so many screenings, did you take your own kids to see this movie?
Yu Fei: He watched it from the time he was still wearing a green screen, and he cried at that time. Not only him, we showed many of the children around us, and when I didn't finish cutting them completely, we showed them their reactions and asked them questions.
Mtime: The children in the movie are about the age group of 7 to 12 years old, how do children in this age group spend their after-school life now?
Yu Fei: King, Douyin, now their favorite thing is to do this thing, we are all talking about going to Universal Studios to play or something, this is not their first choice. There's really no way to play with mobile phones, most children are like this.
Mtime: Basically don't even watch TV?
Yu Fei: They don't watch the program on TV, school-age children may watch cartoons on TV, students basically don't turn on TV, they are all mobile phones, iPads, and that's it now. And school-age children themselves have very little time, the double reduction policy is much better, and there is really no time before coming down. He had this class on weekends and that kid had that class. On weekends, several children who want to make an appointment can't get together.
Mtime: Parents educate their children, some words may not be clear or embarrassed to say, did this film also want to convey these words to their children through their works?
Yu Fei: Yes, he knows that dad's words in the movie are my thoughts, but at the same time, I especially want him to have a relaxed, happy, carefree childhood, and I am also very troubled.
Mtime: On the topic of education, does "The Little Man in the Can" ask questions or give answers?
Yu Fei: Mainly to ask questions for everyone to discuss.
But in some aspects, there is clarity, such as "grades are not the only measure of children", and there are many more important qualities than grades that we cherish.