On the morning of September 14, the famous director Wu Yigong died of illness at the age of 80. The news of Wu Yigong's death spread on the Internet, making the majority of film fans sigh, and there were not many works he directed in his life, but his influence was huge.
In May this year, Wu Yigong wrote "Long live Shanghai Movies" with trembling hands. A month ago, a good friend visited his home, and he received him warmly.
On the morning of the 14th, the Red Star News reporter interviewed a friend who had communicated with Wu Yigong before his death, and recalled the old artist together.
Liu Shu, an associate researcher at the China Film Archive, told Red Star News that a month ago he went to Wu Yigong's house, "His lover still left me at his house to eat rice cakes, I was a little embarrassed, they said, it doesn't matter, you taste Shanghai rice cakes are different." "Liu Shu brought the movie posters of Wu Yigong's works, and Wu Yigong signed them one by one, which was particularly enthusiastic.
Half a month ago, Liu Shu called Wu Yigong's family, and his family said that he was in a bad condition, but he did not expect that director Wu Yigong would leave us forever after half a month.
Wu Yigong, who ran a Sina blog called "Shenjiang Xiaowu", published up to 754 blog posts, the last update being may 22 last year.
In the blog, Wu Yigong not only posted the manuscript of the filming of "Old Things in the South of the City" that year, but also wrote down the travel notes of Chongqing Dazu Rock Carvings, Ciqikou and other places to share with netizens.
In 2005, Wu Yigong reunited with "Old Things in Seongnam" actors Yuan Jiayi (second from left), Zheng Zhenyao (third from left), and Zhang Min (fourth from left).
On July 23, 2006, Wu Yigong published a blog post titled "To Chongqing Again", in which he mentioned, "At 12:00 noon on December 1, 1938, I was born in Jiangsu Hospital in Chongqing at that time. I reckon the hospital was also moved from Nanjing, just like my parents and many so-called 'Xiajiang people'. Although I later traveled with my parents to Kunming, Guiyang and other places, when I was six years old, my family returned to Chongqing to live until the victory of the War of Resistance. After that, the first time I returned to Chongqing was in 1980, nearly 36 years after leaving her, when I was filming "Bashan Night Rain". Four years later, in 1984, I came here for the second time for the filming of The Exile University. This is the third time, and it has been exactly 15 years since the first time I left. ”
In 2012, Liu Shu co-organized the 50th anniversary of the "Red Detachment of Women" in Shanghai Cinema, which won the first "Hundred Flowers Award" of "Popular Film". The event invited artists such as Wu Yigong to attend, "he was active at the meeting. At that time, others were hot and thin, but their spirits were particularly good. At that time, this activity invited The widow Xu Dawen, the widow of director Xie Jin, and Wu Yigong talked about Xie Jin's cultivation of him, saying that he regretted that he had not cooperated with Xie Jin, but the relationship was particularly good, and he talked about the friendship with Xie Jin. ”
Wu Yigong and Xie Jin (right)
Liu Shu said that Wu Yigong once served as vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and chairman of the China Filmmakers Association, but he did not have a little shelf on him, and his popularity was excellent, which made people admire, "Regardless of the gains and losses of life, he really reached the realm of life where things and I forget." ”
At the 2018 Shanghai Film Festival, a film called "Those Women" attracted a lot of attention from the audience after its debut. "Those Women" is directed by Wu Yigong and Directed by Jiang Ping. Jiang Ping revealed that director Wu Yigong was not able to come to the scene due to physical reasons, "This film is a gift to him. Jiang Ping said that Wu Yigong served as the general director of the film and did not take a penny.
Director Wu Yigong once said: I have not made many films, a total of nine. In order, they are "Our Little Flower Cat", "Bashan Night Rain", "Old Things in Seongnam", "Sister", "Exile University", "The Young Master's Ordeal", "The Moon Returns with People", "Que Li RenJia", and "Soul of the Sea".
In 2010, Wu Yigong and Shangguan Yunzhu's eldest son Tian Tian (middle) and second son Deng Deng (right) took a group photo
In 2012, Wu Yigong gave a speech when he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award of the China Film Directors Association, which was a review and summary of his life, "Some people say that I am an idealist, and the film is full of ideal colors. I used to say that the golden childhood, the rose-colored teenager, the youth will not be easily forgotten, often expressed in the creative process. We are a generation that grew up with the republic, and the ideals, confidence, sincere pursuits, value orientation of life, romanticism, etc., left to us by that era, always refuse to be extinguished in our hearts. ”
Childhood Dreams - Me and "Seongnam Old Things"
Wu YiGong (excerpt from Wu Yigong Sina Blog)
I remember when I was a child, I was about ten years old, and my home was in Nanjing. There are many ponds in the north of Nanjing, and my family has them left and right. In the pond there are lotus flowers in the summer, lotuses and lotus roots in the autumn; of course, there are fish, all kinds of fish. I learned to fish with adults, but my hook was bent with a pin. The fish are always out of the hook. Later, I learned that the hook used for fishing should have a barb.
I remember when I was younger, about seven or eight years old, when my home was in Chongqing. There are many slopes and bumps in Chongqing, and there is a long hill in front of my house. I can't remember what it was called. Every day I have to climb through this obstacle that looks like a skyline to go to school. I would love to climb it every day, because on top of this hurdle, there lives one of my little friends called "Gray Face Lump". Because he was fat and because he was dirty, people called him "Gray Face", but he was my best friend. When I came back from school, he waited for me on the top of the hill every day, and we played tops together and played "officers and soldiers catch robbers" together. It wasn't until later that I learned that not all children the size of me could go to school at that time.
I remember when I was younger, about five or six years old, when my home was in Kunming. I started my studies there, I went into the first grade of elementary school. Take classes, do exercises, do labor, play. The most memorable thing was that I learned to sing a very good song, it was a farewell song, I didn't fully understand what the lyrics meant, but as soon as I sang it, I wanted to cry. Later, of course, later, I learned that the lyrics were not "outside the Great Wall, the ancient road side", but "outside the long pavilion, the ancient road side", nor "a pot of turbid wine", but "a bottle of turbid wine", the original lyrics were filled in by Uncle Li, called "Hold Farewell". To this day, I still want to cry when I sing...
Yes, this is childhood, a dreamlike childhood, and doesn't everyone have his own childhood in his heart forever? Whether the childhood is sour, sweet, bitter, or spicy, it will be engraved in their respective memories forever and permanently.
In November 1981, by chance, I read Ms. Lin Haiyin's novel "Old Things in Seongnam".
Ah, what a wonderful childhood dream! A silver-gray childhood dream that sometimes sparkles with roses. Somehow, it suddenly reminded me of the fish hook without barbs, the little friend who was running towards me barefoot, the song that made me cry when I sang it, and everything else, everything else... As the author wrote in the preface to the main text of the novel: "Childhood comes back to my heart."
From the first time I read the novel, I have been immersed in the childhood of the author's soul, and I have been immersed in the childhood of my own; I have always been with the very ordinary characters with whom the author lived in his childhood—the little friend at the well, the mad woman in the alley, the thief hiding in the grass, the song mother riding a little donkey back to his hometown, the loving father, and so on. There are also winter suns, camel caravans, Lugou Bridge, Xishan autumn leaves, Beijing's ancient hutongs, small courtyards, large locust trees, and of course, more children's songs that urge people to sleep and intoxicating... The author's childhood and my childhood became two rainbows of intertwined lights, and sometimes it was not even clear which was my own and which belonged to the author of the novel. I seemed to be awake, as if in a dream; I heard a distant and clear call, and I saw a multicolored and dazzling color...
So, in this way, I put the novel "Old Things in Seongnam" on the screen.
Screenshot of Wu Yigong Sina blog
Red Star News reporter Zhang Shihao pictured according to the Shanghai Wenlian public number
Edited by Peng Jiang