From film school security to best director
China News Weekly reporter/Qiu Guangyu
Issued in the 1010th issue of China News Weekly on 2021.8.30
On August 2, 2021, Xining, a young man named Zhang Zhongchen made his mark at the 15th FIRST Youth Film Festival. His feature film debut "The Last Farewell" won the best feature film and best director awards. .
In the award speech, the thin, shy, black-rimmed glasses, and a little restrained young man said with a trembling voice that if there is no image creation, he might choose "death."
Those who understand Zhang Zhongchen's experience will understand his excitement at the moment, because he has a life experience that is very different from that of an academic director.
He has worked as an assembly line worker, and worked as a security guard at the Beijing Film Academy, and he can only use his mobile phone to shoot his homework.
His story seems like a miracle in the movie circle full of star halo.
Real memory and underlying experience
In a plain village on the border of the four provinces, Fang Yuan, a deaf-mute youth, and his grandfather depended on each other. Fang Yuan’s father was mentally ill, his sister died accidentally when she was young, and her mother left them.
One summer, his father was wanted by the police for murder in a mental hospital. When Fang Yuan recalled his father's whereabouts in daily life, he gradually revealed the painful memories deep in his heart.
This is the story told by "The Last Farewell" in addition to beautiful long shots, clean and slightly brain-burning editing and breathtaking sound effects.
This film is the result of Zhang Zhongchen, a rural youth who stitched his own personal experience into the film with artistic and symbolic language.
In 1991, he was born in Zhangzhuang Village, Dangshan County, Suzhou City, Anhui Province. It is a place where four provinces meet and the culture of North and South is blurred. There are plains, mountain slopes and lakes.
Zhang Zhongchen is the youngest child in the family. There is an older brother and an older sister. The father, who is a teacher, was fined 4,000 yuan for violating the family planning policy for giving birth to him.
Some members of the "Last Farewell" film team were present at the awards ceremony of the 15th FIRST Film Festival.
From left: Zhang Zhongyu (literary planning), Wang Lei (producer), Chen Kunyang (producer), Wang Yaode (starring), Zhang Zhongchen (director), Luo Mengsi (starring), Zhao Yuyan (producer), Chen Ruotong (music) Production).
Picture/provided by interviewee
Zhang Zhongchen used to be a kid with good grades, but when he was 9 years old, his life changed.
On the morning of September 1, 2000, Zhang Zhongchen was on his way to Fa Xiaojia to ask him to go to school. He witnessed the scene where Fa Xiao’s father was tied to a tree covered in blood.
Later he learned that Faxiao and his younger brother were killed in anger by his mentally ill father because of the loss of a watch.
The immediate death caused a huge psychological shock to Zhang Zhongchen.
Later, his family transferred him to school farther away from home, and he felt even more helpless when he had no acquaintances.
This solitary state has always accompanied Zhang Zhongchen to the county town to study in middle school. The autistic personality and the identity of a rural child have kept him from being able to truly integrate into his city classmates.
It was not until the end of the college entrance examination in 2008 that Zhang Zhongchen plucked up the courage to say the sentence to his father: I don't want to study anymore.
At that time, the always-tolerant father became serious for the first time and asked him to go to at least a college, because the villagers believed that the teacher's children needed a diploma.
He agreed.
The story of making a small child became Zhang Zhongchen’s initial motivation for filming "The Last Farewell". He often thought, if Fa Xiao had not been killed by his father, but had survived, how would he recall the injuries he had been hurt by his closest relatives in the future?
Can he bear these sufferings?
These questions followed Zhang Zhongchen for many years.
The deaf and dumb male protagonist Fangyuan has become a symbol of the disadvantaged. It is like his small hair and introverted self. It is also like his deaf cousin who married his son early, bearing everything silently.
In "The Last Farewell", the protagonist Fang Yuan's profession is a factory security guard. He often faces the constantly switching camera monitoring images on a wall.
A large part of Fang Yuan's interaction with a factory girl was also expressed in the form of surveillance video.
These are reminiscent of the film "Dragonfly Eyes" created by artist Xu Bing with surveillance video, but for Zhang Zhongchen, the use of surveillance cameras is only because it comes from his real life experience, because he has worked as a worker and security guard. Experience, the monitoring room and the factory are almost the workplace where Zhang Zhongchen stayed for the longest time in his life. These experiences unexpectedly gave him a unique perspective in the movie.
"The Last Farewell" stills.
In 2011, Zhang Zhongchen returned to Anhui and worked as an assembly line worker in a well-known air-conditioning company in Wuhu. His job was to install air-conditioning filters. He had to work eight or nine hours a day without stopping. The meal was also settled in the factory canteen.
What finally touched Zhang Zhongchen was a couple who worked together at the time. The two have worked for many years and have children, but they still repeat the factory life in the same place every day.
He felt that the days in the factory couldn't see the future, so he started planning to escape.
During the National Day holiday that year, Zhang Zhongchen came to the Beijing Film Academy and defected to his brother as a security guard.
During the days of wandering in Beijing, he casually walked into a classroom of the film academy, and when he heard a teacher explaining Lee's film, he sat down and listened. He was so attracted and listened completely.
For a long time, he felt that his time had been spent boringly. He didn't know the meaning, but he made new discoveries in this period of about 40 minutes.
He began to listen to a large number of film school courses, and was extremely eager to learn any film-related knowledge systematically.
Almost amateur movies
In 2012, Zhang Zhongchen was admitted to the direction of director (drama) at the College of Continuing Education of Beijing Film Academy. For his livelihood, he also worked as a security guard at the Film Academy like his brother, because this job takes care of everything.
In the few years of working and studying, Zhang Zhongchen took care of both school and work. Sometimes he was on duty in the hall in the middle of the night, but he felt very happy.
Zhang Zhongchen gradually discovered his security group Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
At that time, he met students from Chongqing University and Northeast Normal University in the security team.
In order to apply for postgraduate entrance examinations in Beijing, they worked as security guards, and went to work while "scratching classes".
Chen Kunyang, the producer of "The Last Farewell", was a classmate who attended the School of Continuing Education of the Film Academy with him, the actor Wang Yaode of "The Last Farewell", the producers Chen Chongli and Shao Guang, the literary planner Zhang Zhongyu, and the actor's deputy director Zhang Miyi are A friend Zhang Zhongchen met in a security company.
After three years of continuing education to upgrade to a bachelor’s degree, Zhang Zhongchen naturally had the ambition to shoot a feature film, but for him the number one problem was survival.
Many of his classmates’ graduation works can take a small crew of dozens of people and find professional actors to shoot, but when he does his homework, he doesn’t even have the most basic equipment and can only shoot with a mobile phone.
Later, Zhang Zhongchen learned to edit, starting from helping his classmates cut films, and gradually taking on some commercial projects to make money, and at the same time learning the ideas of other directors in making films.
In 2016, Zhang Zhongchen helped to edit a film produced by Peng Fa. Peng Fa, known as the "golden scissor" in the film editing industry, was very satisfied with him. Since then, he has become Peng Fa’s apprentice. "Farewell" was also produced by Peng Fa.
In addition to the small deaths he witnessed in his childhood, some other things also stimulated Zhang Zhongchen.
On the way to accompany Chen Kunyang back to the wedding in Lushan County, Henan Province, Zhang Zhongchen found that the landform of this place was very similar to his hometown: trees lined with trees, mountains and lakes, but it was a plain without the sea.
Later, he saw the scene of the famous local "Central Plains Buddha" standing in various villages, and suddenly thought that if a lot of suffering had happened in these villages, the "big Buddha" would just look at it and he could do it again. what?
This trip also became another source of inspiration for the script of "The Last Farewell".
"The Last Farewell" stills.
The script of "The Last Farewell" was written as early as 2018, but such an unpopular rural theme is difficult to attract investment.
The final solution was to Zhang Zhongchen's security colleagues who loved movies.
Many of them have changed their careers, and each of them has put together some money to form the initial investment in "The Last Farewell".
10 people behind the film’s main creation, including Wang Yaode and Chen Kunyang, have worked as security guards with him.
Also due to budgetary reasons, Zhang Zhongchen finally gave up the idea of appointing professional actors. Except for Wang Yaode and Luo Mengsi who have participated in short film assignments, the other actors in the film are amateurs with no acting experience.
The budget did not limit Zhang Zhongchen's aesthetic pursuit of the film.
When the crew was selecting scenes in Lushan County, they saw three cows on a soil slope. The summer sunlight hit their white fur through leaves, reminding him of Monet's paintings.
Zhang Zhongchen said at the time that he wanted these three cows to participate in the performance, and to replace the three black cows that he had already spent money on.
The owner of the white cow was an old man in Lushan County. Because the cows listened to the owner, the old man was also taken by the crew to another filming location in Jiaxian to eat and live with them.
It just so happened that the actor who played the male protagonist's grandfather hadn't settled yet, so Zhang Zhongchen simply let the owner of the cow play the grandfather.
Later they learned that "Grandpa" had no children in his life, and all his family affection rested on these three cows.
The crew will leave after forty or fifty days. "Grandpa" has already developed feelings with them and is crying.
Others, like "Grandpa," are ordinary people with no acting experience. For example, the little actor playing Fang Yuan in his childhood is Shi Yingjie, a deaf child who Wang Yaode discovered when he was experiencing life at a school for the deaf. Fang Yuan’s mother role is controlled by The second aunt of the filmmaker Chen Kunyang, these amateurs performed together the most life-like atmosphere and deepest emotions in the movie.
Artistic expression and audience acceptance
During the years in the film school, Zhang Zhongchen spent a lot of time watching movies and reading theoretical books.
He is very fascinated by Jia Zhangke's "Xiao Wu". In addition, he also likes films by Austrian director Haneke, British director Bill Douglas's "Childhood Trilogy" and Kafka's novels.
In "The Last Farewell", many people saw the shadow of Tarkovsky's "Ivan's Childhood" from Fangyuan's dream.
This semi-subject director and full amateur actor's debut is hailed as the most "master-like" and "academic style" film at the FIRST Film Festival. The film festival's comment on this film is: "The creators are brave and sincere with their own actions. , Look after the pain and faces that have been hidden and ignored, unfolding a long time in a limited time, and try to smooth those creases with the warmth of the movie."
On August 1, when "The Last Farewell" premiered at the FIRST Film Festival, an episode occurred at the post-screening exchange meeting. An audience member suddenly launched a fierce criticism of the film, thinking that it was obscure and did not consider the audience's feelings.
At that time, Wang Lei, one of the producers of "The Last Farewell," pointed out with some disappointment that this audience should not come to participate in such a film festival, but should choose some movies that fit his aesthetics.
As a young filmmaker, Wang Lei has participated in the production of films such as "Back to the South" and "Balloon". This time he joined the production of "The Last Farewell" around 2019. He has watched it for the first time. After the rough cut, I understood Zhang Zhongchen's expressive intentions, decided to join the project, and helped Zhang Zhongchen edit.
In the view of Wang Lei, who has experience in rural life, Zhang Zhongchen wrote this film entirely with his own experience. This is what he values most as a producer.
The famous director Xie Fei wrote "Attaching Importance to the Literary Value of Movies" after the film festival, in which he praised the unique poetry of "The Last Farewell", but he thought that the film "The plot and character narration are weak and messy, and the theme is vague and serious. Affected audience acceptance".
Zhang Zhongchen himself didn't care about these comments anymore. He uninstalled Douban before he went to Xining to participate in the exhibition, not wanting to affect his mentality because of online comments.
When he arrived in Xining, he was pleasantly surprised to find that although some people left the film during the screening, many "post-00s" audiences said they liked the film and exchanged a lot of opinions with him face to face. For the audience who did not like his movie, he Also expressed "thank him for letting me introspect".
Producer Wang Lei hopes that "The Last Farewell" can be shown more in art theaters, online on-demand and even more international film festivals. Although Zhang Zhongchen, who has returned from FIRST, has successfully taken the first step, but The award did not affect Zhang Zhongchen's steadfastness and simplicity. He was thinking about his work as a "scissors hand", and when he returned from Xining, he immediately invested in editing projects that had not been completed before.
(Intern Yang Luxi also contributed to this article)
China News Weekly, Issue 32, 2021
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