Huang Zhenzhen's "Girlfriend 2" officially landed in theaters nationwide on March 2, from the 1997 self-directed feature film "Stay and Buy Road Love" to today's "Girlfriend 2", Huang Zhenzhen has worked hard in the film circle for 20 years. She has experienced the golden age of Hong Kong films, but also gone through the adaptation of co-productions, "Disappearing Lovers" box office dismal, today's "Girlfriend 2" obviously makes Huang Zhenzhen have high hopes, but in her interview, I want to know more from "Woman's Words" to "Girlfriend 2", is her creative path, creative intentions have changed, and can she still make movies that impress the audience in the future?
Huang Zhenzhen is not like a director who has been in the film industry for 20 years, with short silver hair, fashionable clothes, cheerful laughter, more like a fashionista, and it is easy to make the atmosphere of the dialogue relaxed. She is not a traditional person and dares to stand up for herself.
Soon the number of imported films will be fully liberalized, which will cause more pressure on the creation of domestic films, right?
Huang Zhenzhen: I think our restrictions are also very important, otherwise the competitiveness is very low, if there is only a certain type of comedy, youth films, nostalgia films, the theme is too single, it is difficult to meet the audience's taste, and the scale of suspense films and thrillers will attract more audiences in the future.
Why is it that your "Tears of the Fallen City" to "The Five Years That Were Stolen" to the previous "Disappeared Lover" are all focused on love or marriage that is slightly heavy, incomplete, and has various problems, why not make a youth film with perfect feelings?
Huang Zhenzhen: First of all, I never follow the trend when making movies, I am only willing to shoot the genre I like, only in this way can I shoot well, I have a passion myself, no matter what obstacles, I will do it. If an investor tells me that a certain type of popularity asks me to shoot, but if I am not interested, I will feel very aggrieved and will lack the momentum to do my best. I'm a creator and want to follow my feelings. Looking back at my work over the past few years, "Tears of the Fallen City" was not very successful, and at that time, it was also a bit unsatisfactory, and "The Five Years That Were Stolen" was much better, because I lived in the mainland for a while and slowly became familiar with the tastes and cultures of mainland audiences.
As for why I don't make a youth film, "The Back seat on the sixth floor" is a youth film that I shot very early, and this subject has already been filmed, so I have not particularly wanted to make this subject until now. In addition, I have grown up myself, a lot of things, the view of love, the view of family affection is a little different, the best life without regrets, you can do some both entertainment and inspirational themes, more interesting, of course, I hope that my work has a good box office, but also has to be a meaningful movie.
From "feminist directors" to "emotional experts" to "directors who know women's hearts best", the outside world has a lot of evaluations of you, what label do you like to give yourself and your films?
Huang Zhenzhen: I think recently the company helped me promote, a good label, that is, "real series", the focus of each film I shoot is very real, real emotion, real communication, from "Woman's Words" to now, may be shooting techniques or types of different, but still see Huang Zhenzhen in it. And I myself am quite real, my mother helped me change this name, in fact, is very much in line with my personality.
Will a realistic film like "The Woman's Words" be made again?
Huang Zhenzhen: Absolutely. In fact, I think filming is fate, like dragging, why did I shoot with this boy three years ago instead of dragging with that boy? That was the fate of the year. So I will never say which genre I shoot, as a director, it is best that you don't repeat, often challenge yourself, change is good, do not make a good romance film to continue to shoot, make more money. "Woman's That Talk" is the type I like to shoot the most, the most like me, very open, very natural, probably few people shoot better than me. My personality will make the people I visit very open.
Is that understandable for being guided by your own preferences without considering the needs of the market?
Huang Zhenzhen: I am not at all. But I started the company last year, and my partner was responsible for helping me publicize it. I usually open a play, there will be three alternative scripts, I will ask him to give me advice, such as he said you shoot 3 first, it is easier to publicize. So our combination is very good, it becomes that I concentrate on making the movie well, and give him the box office and publicity, which is more simple. If a director has been thinking about how to promote it and what selling points when making a movie, it will become not simple.
The concept of IP is very popular now, have you ever thought of making someone else's novel into a movie?
Huang Zhenzhen: Yes. But because I have created a lot of wonderful things myself, I haven't finished shooting, so I didn't go out of my way to find ip, and now there are five or six projects, all of which are very wonderful, and I wrote my own scripts. Some may not have a complete script yet, but there are already sub-stages, and it only takes a month or two to make a script. I agree with the direction of ip, especially from a business perspective. But I don't have to.
What do you think of the phenomenon that the domestic films that have particularly sold well in the past year may also be comedies or films with special effects?
Huang Zhenzhen: I know why, mainlanders are under too much pressure now, so they like comedy. It's a lot of pressure to go to work, don't let me think about things after work, come and entertain me! In addition, there are also some people who like to watch movies with real feelings, and it is not easy to find new feelings in such a busy society. So these two points are more liked by the audience. When a country is developing so fast and busy, it will need a "loose" movie.
But I don't have a plan to make comedy, and as I said before, I can't make movies without my own preferences, and it's not okay to shoot unnaturally, because I'm a Hong Konger, either my humor is your humor, I know this very well, I'm not greedy. Every film director should know his own position and know where his strengths are, do you think I can let a mainland director come to Hong Kong to make Hong Kong comedy? Definitely not, so I will never say that comedy is good now, Huang Zhenzhen to make comedy, to make money! It's impossible.