Chinanews.com, Beijing, January 24th (Reporter Wang Shiyao) "When shooting sports movies in China, there are two most important themes: one is the women's volleyball team, which has already been filmed, and the second is the national football - 'table tennis'."
In the interview room, directors Deng Chao and Yu Baimei talked about the original intention of filming the movie "Chinese Ping Pong: Jedi Counterattack".
Their eyes showed firmness, confidence and expectation.
This painstaking work, which has been prepared for a long time, finally met the audience on the third day of the Lunar New Year (January 24) after going through twists and turns.
two underdog sports fans
A film counterattack planned
Deng Chao and Yu Baimei, the two of them are famous directors, screenwriters, and actors. In fact, they also have another identity-"sports fans".
"The two of us seem to talk about sports the most besides movies. We play basketball and watch various games together." The two sports fans met together, thinking, "In our lifetime, we will definitely make movies. A sports movie".
Yu Baimei’s relationship with table tennis began with his father.
"My dad is a huge table tennis fan, and he won the men's doubles championship in Chang'an County, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province before. So he is almost 80 now, but he plays table tennis rackets for two hours a day no matter where he goes. I am sure he is also affected. Because of his influence, he has a better understanding of table tennis."
Another important opportunity is the Indian movie "Let's Wrestle!" which was released in China in 2017.
dad".
According to Yu Baimei, the leading actor Aamir Khan had met him before the filming started. At that time, he was surprised that Aamir Khan had gained a lot of weight. At that time, he learned about "Let's Wrestle!"
News about the upcoming filming of Dad.
After 1 or 2 years, "Let's Wrestle!"
Dad" came to China to promote, and Yu Baimei went to support it.
At that time, Aamir Khan had already lost weight, and his wonderful performance in the movie also shocked Yu Baimei a lot.
"I like the movie very much. When I like it, I think in my heart, when can we make such a good-looking sports movie?"
Just at this time, the project team of "Chinese Ping Pong: Jedi Counterattack", which had been rejected many times, sent another invitation.
After thinking about it, Yu Baimei decided to call his father. After he briefly explained the situation, he only heard his father reply "Really"?
This sentence of "true" full of expectations allowed Yu Baimei to receive hints from his father and strengthened his determination to shoot.
Director Yu Baimei.
Photo provided by the interviewee
There is a slogan on the poster of the movie "Chinese Ping Pong: Jedi Counterattack": Dedicated to everyone who is not favored.
This is not only the state of the national table tennis men's team in the early 1990s, but also matches the state of mind of Deng Chao and Yu Baimei.
"Does Deng Chao have something in Yu Baimei's hands?"
"Yu Baimei must have blocked Deng Chao's gun, otherwise why do the two always work together?"
"Deng Chao + Yu Baimei, you understand this combination..."
These online doubts and criticisms from the audience were actually silently remembered by Deng Chao in his heart.
"We are a group of people who are not favored, and then overcome difficulties by ourselves, believing that we can fight back."
The best way to crush doubts is not to ignore their existence, but to face past failures and use works to complete a beautiful counterattack.
Deng Chao said that in the past five years, "Chinese Ping Pong: The Jedi Strikes Back" has been hatched and filmed, and now it can finally be introduced to the audience. The whole project is also a healing process.
As for the outcome of the cure, we may have to wait until the results of the "counterattack" are revealed, so let us wait and see!
The movie "Chinese Ping Pong: Jedi Counterattack" poster.
Photo provided by the film party
From ping-pong rookie to team ceiling
Deng Chao's secret weapon is "it"
"Every Chinese thinks they can play table tennis!" This skill seems to be a sports buff (a video game term that refers to a magical effect) that Chinese people are born with.
Although he claims to be a "ping-pong rookie", Deng Chao is also an "veteran" with decades of "ball experience" if it is not strictly counted.
"I was born in 1979. When we were young, no matter whether we played table tennis well or not, we would definitely grab the cement table, and we would never be able to! When you go there, there are already a group of people around there, and then you can only try to find a way to do it." I used bricks to draw a line directly on the concrete floor, and used a desk to form a billiard table." Deng Chao recalled, "At that time, table tennis was too crazy!"
It's a pity that my childhood sports hobby did not persist. It was not until he started preparing the movie "Chinese Ping Pong: Jedi Counterattack" that Deng Chao picked up this long-standing skill again.
Director and actor Deng Chao.
Photo provided by the interviewee
With professional coaches and intensive training, it is no longer the cement table of childhood, but a brand new table.
This time, Deng Chao will use 10,000 times of swing training in exchange for a professional performance that does not let the audience play.
In the movie, Deng Chao plays the coach Dai Minjia who has returned from overseas. When the national table tennis men's team fell into a trough, he bravely stood up and uttered bold words, which is bound to make the Chinese men's table tennis rise again.
As a coach, he is still injured. There are not many scenes in the movie that let Deng Chao display his table tennis skills.
But he still practiced hard for this role for more than 8 months, and switching to playing with his left hand doubled the technical difficulty.
Not only Deng Chao, but other actors also plunged into table tennis training, and the entire crew also held internal round-robin league matches every day.
Speaking of this, Yu Baimei couldn't help but break into the conversation and broke the news: "Let me expose it. In order to win, Deng Chao not only relied on his unique advantages as the director, but also found some of the most powerful coaches to give him a small talk, and directly Get equipped!"
Deng Chao plays the head coach.
Photo provided by the film party
It turns out that Deng Chao's character doesn't wear long glue, but in order to win others, he secretly changed into a new long glue that Yu Baimei called "Dragon Slaying Knife" level equipment.
Originally, as a director, Deng Chao spent far less training time than others.
"Those actors who play athletes will go to practice directly after filming their own scenes, so for a period of time their level has improved by leaps and bounds. At this time, Deng Chao really felt that the ceiling was a bit unstoppable, so he changed to long rubber. "Yu Baimei vividly described the scene at that time.
"Three days later, those actors who loved the competition the most were all 'killed' by him." The director was happy, and the actors were in a hurry!
Duan Bowen deliberately went to find Deng Chao and complained: "Director, you can't do this. We practice every day to play the role more actively. You change the tempo and come here every day to ravage us. This makes us feel bad, and we feel that we can't act well. role!"
The crew kicked the hall on a national tour
Beat the current TOP5 players in the United States
Later, the crew, who were gradually dissatisfied with internal competitions, started the urban kick-off mode.
Every time the crew arrived in a new city, they began to search for nearby arenas and inquired about the ping-pong masters lurking among the people.
It happened that there was no play on that day, and as soon as they made an appointment, a few people started to post battle posts and went straight to the arena to challenge their most powerful coach.
"We were in Xiamen at the time, and we almost smashed those arenas!" Yu Baimei said.
Now, this group of actors who have stepped out of the crew has begun to attack the community, and they have signed up for competitions in various communities.
Today you are playing in Huilongguan, tomorrow he will go to Wangjing to challenge the uncle.
Actor training.
Photo provided by the film party
In the latest publicity period, everyone gathered together and went to the country to run publicity.
At that time, there were 18 coaches in the crew all over the country, and those table tennis masters who "did a fight" during the filming also became friends in the end. Therefore, during this promotion period, everyone still went, made appointments, and "played" wherever they went.
How strong is such a "beautiful" crew?
According to a crew coach who was once selected for the national training team: "If we form a team to participate in the European League, we can reach the top 8."
In this sentence, there is actually a story that can corroborate its strength.
The Belgian team in the movie has a member played by Tom, an active American national team player. He is also a top 5 table tennis player in the United States.
Not only can Tom speak Chinese, but many skills are also practiced in China.
One day, on a whim, Yu Baimei happened to see a table tennis coach next to him, so he set up a game to see the difference in strength between him and the active players in the United States.
Before playing, the ping-pong coach, who is in his 30s and has already switched to finance, secretly said to Yu Baimei: "You are asking me to bully people!" Facts have proved that this is not a "crazy statement". Tom finally ate the defeat.
The next day, other people who heard the news flocked to Tom, and everyone's lines were also very unified, "I'm in the team, and I'm not a professional athlete. I'm not very good at playing. We can compete in a game. for a while?"
In this way, after losing four games in a row, Tom became anxious, "I knew it earlier, I also said that I can't play"!
The movie "Chinese Ping Pong: Jedi Counterattack" poster.
Photo provided by the film party
This personal experience had a great impact on Yu Baimei. He said that if he didn't make this movie, he really didn't know that the level of Chinese table tennis is so good.
An amateur table tennis expert who has never played professionally in his life has the strength to beat the top 5 active American players.
So how many people at the same level as him are there in the whole of China?
The table tennis coach said that including the provincial and national teams, there are dozens of people in each province and city, and there can be thousands of people in the whole country.
"There are thousands of people in China who can win against the top players in the United States. This is a very surprising thing observed from the perspective of our film." Yu Baimei sighed.
Perhaps this is why table tennis is also called a national game.
At the end of the movie, there is a line "Chinese people must be the most diligent", and the use of "affirmation" here can better express the emotion that the creator wants to convey.
It is generations of hard-working Chinese who have forged the four characters "Chinese Ping Pong" with their hard work and firm will.
(Finish)