Special feature of 1905 film network "I never thought it could be made!"
On the occasion of the release, the director shared the creative journey of the past 18 years with the outside world again and again. Hu Mei has always had a special affection for A Dream of Red Mansions, from the time he read this literary masterpiece at the age of 9 to the time it became a nutrient in his life.
"A Dream of Red Mansions" has gone through a long road of 18 years from planning to shooting to release.
Eighteen years is enough to make the world change dramatically, and it is enough to make this film almost difficult to produce. Under the rolling tide of the times, such as the break of funds and the change of audience’s aesthetic standards, A Dream of Red Mansions encountered too many "accidents". In the "Dialogue" column of the 1905 film network, we asked Hu Mei if she had thought about giving up this project. I didn’t expect to attract her feelings, not to mention giving up. "I never thought this film could be made!" .
As early as 2006, Hu Mei began to plan to film A Dream of Red Mansions. In the past few years, 50 or 60 scripts have been written, and tens of thousands of actors have been interviewed. The film volume has been reduced from three to two, and then the essence has been completely concentrated in 116 minutes.
Hu Mei said that the length of A Dream of Red Mansions has been adjusted many times, and the narrative order of the film has also changed compared with the previous one. The theme revolves around conspiracy and love, which is a version of "A Dream of Red Mansions". With the age of classics getting farther and farther away from contemporary people’s lives, traditional culture gradually disappears. I hope it can draw people’s attention to China’s classical literature.
After the film was finished, Hu Mei felt that his work was finished. As for whether it can really reach the audience, she said that the market is unpredictable. After the film was released, it was left to everyone to evaluate.
01
Many people ask Hu Mei, "Why do you have to shoot this difficult Dream of Red Mansions?"
Hu Mei was only 9 years old when she first read A Dream of Red Mansions. At that time when there was no TV set, reading comic books was one of her few pastimes. Mother has a box of books under the bed, and Hu Mei goes to "peek" when she has nothing to do. Masterpieces such as A Tale of Two Cities and A Dream of Red Mansions broke into her world during that time.
For Hu Mei at that time, Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai were all children of their own age, playing with butterflies and having a little temper. The bits and pieces in the Grand View Garden left a deep impression on her as a girl. Whenever something unpleasant happens, she will immediately turn out this book to read.
In the blink of an eye, when asked by the outside world why she wanted to shoot A Dream of Red Mansions, Hu Mei always remembered those distant memories. "Although it didn’t have a direct effect on making this film, it planted a dream seed." When I grow up, this masterpiece is still around Hu Mei. She regards it as a decompression companion, and every time she reads it, she will have new feelings.
"I think I am really too old. How many changes have taken place in the world now." Hu Mei sighed.
The new era is changing with each passing day. All kinds of entertainment have long been popular, and going to the cinema to watch movies has become a popular way to decompress. As a source of happiness for people anytime and anywhere, short videos strongly affect the aesthetic habits of the audience. Nowadays, people prefer fast-paced and exciting visual communication.
The change of the audience’s viewing habits also drives the film creators to make certain adjustments.
Fifty or sixty manuscripts were written for the script of A Dream of Red Mansions. Originally, three films were planned, but in the end, the whole film was condensed to less than two hours. Hu Mei did a lot of subtraction for the film, and many plots were cut out reluctantly, just to concentrate the essence of the text in as short a time as possible.
When getting closer and closer to filming, Hu Mei also asked himself, why do you want to make A Dream of Red Mansions into a movie? "It is important that A Dream of Red Mansions is a pearl that condenses Chinese culture, and this pearl should be passed on to the younger generation." .
In Hu Mei’s eyes, this film is an innovative "red chamber of youth". She used "a good marriage of gold and jade" instead of "the alliance of wood and stone" as part of the title of the film, which is exactly the reverse technique. Good marriage is wrong and should be criticized. It was the marriage of gold and jade recognized by the feudal family that caused the love tragedy of Bao Daichai. "If you see the end, you will feel that the marriage of gold and jade is very relevant." Hu Mei explained.
02
The youthful "A Dream of Red Mansions" is on the screen, and the public will witness the birth of a group of young actors. Playing Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai respectively, and both stand out from the crowd.
In order to find the actors who fit in with A Dream of Red Mansions, Hu Mei and his team traveled to Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou to interview a large number of new people, hoping to finally find "blank paper" without any performance experience. Hu Mei said frankly that he had never considered using other famous new generation actors to play the leading role.
"A Dream of Red Mansions" was launched in 2018, when Guan Xiaotong was 21 years old. Hu Mei called her a young artist with mature and delicate performances, and considered her to play Lin Daiyu or Xue Baochai. However, because Guan Xiaotong is taller, it is not particularly appropriate to Lin Daiyu described in the original book. Compared with the new couple, Hu Mei thinks the role of "Yuan Chun" is more suitable for her.
"Anyway, listen to the director, just let me participate." Guan Xiaotong is more concerned about joining the film than whether he can play Lin Daiyu. Hu Mei praised the young actor, who can interpret various roles and has the shaping power of one person in thousands of ways.
Bian Cheng, Zhang Miao Yihe, Huang Jia Rong and other new actors all entered the set after long-term training.
The average age of the children from the auditions is only 14. The crew gathered them all together and trained them according to the ratio of 1:3 for each role. During nearly nine months of training, they not only have to learn piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, literature, philosophy and history, manners and postures, but also learn how to perform from breathing methods and learn intangible culture such as traditional Shuang Mianxiu.
"It’s really hard." Hu Mei recalled that when reporting the performance, almost all the people present cried. I didn’t expect the training to change them so much. Bao Dai studied, Bao Chai fluttered butterflies, Dai Yu buried flowers … A group of new actors joined hands to offer a brand-new interpretation of famous scenes.
In addition to the actors, the scenery and costumes in the film all show the characteristics of "the red chamber of youth".
Hu Mei introduced that the crew invited a large number of young designers to create modern aesthetic feeling on the basis of traditional and classical aesthetics, and the original concept map was too illusory and even had avant-garde sci-fi elements. The movie set has been adjusted from the original. As for people’s costumes, from colors and styles to materials, embroidery and wearing methods, they also resonate with young people as much as possible.
03
"When you have a certain social experience, you will find that it seems not enough to just tell the stories around you. Chinese culture is profound and profound, and wisdom has been passed down for thousands of years. As I grow older, I prefer to return to traditional culture more and more." From Yongzheng Dynasty to Confucius, and then to A Dream of Red Mansions, Hu Mei has been exploring the film and television of traditional culture.
The creation of A Dream of Red Mansions has gone through 18 years, during which it encountered numerous difficulties. Some of them were predicted by Hu Mei when he made this film. Such as the difficulty of adaptation. The "accidents" such as the break of funds greatly surprised her.
Looking back on the past days, Hu Mei admitted that he never thought of giving up, and never thought that the film could be made. "I didn’t deliberately have to go for these eighteen years. During these eighteen years, I was also making other films." .
Scripts are written one by one, shots are shot one by one, and everything is done step by step. When Hu Mei thought that the film could not be made for many times, she always had a chance to tell her that it seemed possible. At the moment when the film was finished, she felt that her work had been finished.
Born out of Chinese classics, whether it is reduction and innovation, or compared with its previous works, A Dream of Red Mansions is bound to attract much attention. In the director’s view, every film has its own soul.
Now the film has been put into the market and accepted by the audience. When talking about whether he was worried about the box office, Hu Mei bluntly said that it was useless to worry. Creators are like athletes. It is unpredictable whether they can stand on the podium after the competition is completed.
But she still hopes that this film can be seen by more people, and everyone can continue to imagine the "Red Chamber World".