Yen-Ping Chu
Movie network news(Photo/Report Group of Directors’ Summit in the Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong) The 11th Cross-Strait and Hong Kong Film Directors Seminar and the 2010 China Film Directors Annual Commendation Conference continued to be held in Sanya. On January 12th, Zhu Yanping, a Taiwan Province director who has been developing in the mainland in recent years, accepted an exclusive interview with Movie Network. He thought that both the box office and the word-of-mouth directed by himself and Xiaogang Feng failed because they collected too many Hollywood elements, but they didn’t meet the local flavor. He also laughed and said that he was not superstitious about New Year’s Eve.
Zhu Yanping said that Xiaogang Feng benefited him a lot and found the reason for the failure of "Thorn Ling".
Movie Network: As one of the earliest directors who cooperated with the mainland, your "stab mausoleum" has a miserable box office, but it has a good record, with a box office of over 100 million yuan. Have you already explored the tastes of mainland audiences?
Zhu Yanping: Actually, I was confused at one time. Today, I was suddenly enlightened by director Xiaogang Feng’s words. Xiaogang Feng said that all his films only included the elements of selling money in Hollywood, but only this film didn’t sell (money), and the same is true of the thorn mausoleum.
I think we should shoot Chinese’s own stuff. It’s a new attempt for me to put Hollywood elements into it. People don’t even think I shot it when they read The Thorn Mausoleum. Another important reason for the failure of The Thorn Mausoleum is the temporary advance of the schedule, which made it impossible for Jay Chou and Lin Chi-ling to promote it. This time, I adjusted a direction to shoot "Laughing Rivers and Lakes", and Zhao Benshan and I hit it off. Zhao Benshan has always wanted to find a director who can make comedies, and I have always wanted to find an actor who can perform comedies. We have a very happy cooperation.
Movie Network: The movie you directed is the Spring Festival, while "Thorn Ling" and "Laughing Jianghu" are both Chinese New Year movies. Is it because these two movies are easy to sell?
Zhu Yanping: Actually, personally, I don’t want to be on the Lunar New Year’s Eve. I don’t think it’s a good schedule, because the competition is too fierce, the military strategists are fighting for it, and everyone is beating their heads off. I made three movies in the mainland, basically in this schedule, which is really a bit unbearable.
I hope I can make a movie that will be shown in other slots, and I think the box office of 200 million yuan will definitely not run away. I think it’s normal to compete with two movies in a schedule, but it’s too tragic to compete with four movies in December. Just when you should be selling, the cinema schedule put you down, alas! I think the summer file and the eleventh file are also very good. Of course, at present, I am still in the exploratory stage, and I don’t know which schedule is the best.
Learning from Hollywood’s product placement, there is no trace of new people breaking files because the film is superstitious about "old people"
Movie Network: Xiaogang Feng has been criticized by the audience for too many product placement advertisements. What do you think of more and more product placement advertisements in movies?
Zhu Yanping: To be honest, product placement is necessary. A movie must take commercial factors into account. The more you invest in product placement, the more money you spend on making movies. I think it’s mainly about how to combine product placement with movies. For example, in Hollywood movies, there are more product placement than us, but no audience will count how many products have been placed. People won’t even notice this problem, so it’s very important to implant products without trace.
Movie Network: No matter in the Mainland, Hongkong or Taiwan Province, there is a problem that new actors are cut off at present. What do you think is the reason?
Zhu Yanping: It is true that young actors are cut off. Up to now, Hong Kong is still Louis Koo, Donnie Yen, the mainland is still Chen Kun, and so on. Relatively speaking, Taiwan Province is even better. Recently, there are Ehan Juan and Mark Chao. In fact, Taiwan Province has trained many film actors, including Shu Qi, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Lin Chi-ling, Jay Chou, etc. However, after these actors became popular, their prices soared, and Taiwan Province films could not afford them immediately because of low investment, so they went to the mainland to make blockbusters, which is also the sorrow of Taiwan Province film industry.
Zhu Yanping: Movies should be grounded.
Taiwan Province movies are small and beautiful, and the director doesn’t know how to spend money to go out, which is the biggest crux.
Movie Network: In your opinion, what is the urgent problem to be solved in Taiwan Province film industry at present?
Zhu Yanping: Taiwan Province’s films are small and beautiful, with an investment of about two or three million RMB. They are very creative and of high quality. I dare say that if there is only 2 million investment, no one can shoot better than director Taiwan Province. For example, the investment in a film in the mainland is often hundreds of millions of yuan, and if director Taiwan Province wants to get the money, he may not know how to spend it.
However, because the films are small and too localized, Taiwan Province films are mainly shown in China, and their influence in other places is relatively small. I think the urgent problem for Taiwan Province films is how to go abroad, at least in the whole Chinese-speaking region.
Film Network: At present, there are not many directors from Taiwan Province coming to the mainland to make films. Do you think there will be more cooperation between filmmakers from both sides of the strait in the future?
Zhu Yanping: Yes, I am the only director in Taiwan Province now. I am Depth Charge. I didn’t get much support when I filmed "The Thorn Mausoleum", but the Taiwan Province media coverage of "Laughing Jianghu" was overwhelming, and more and more Taiwan Province directors began to pay attention to cooperation with the mainland. I believe that more and more Taiwan Province directors will come to the mainland to film soon.
Movie Network: What do you think Taiwan Province’s director should do to film in the Mainland?
Zhu Yanping: Grounding gas (laughs)! For me, it’s not difficult to meet the local conditions in Taiwan Province, but it’s a bit difficult to meet those in the mainland. We need to know more about mainland culture, but I think the prospect is worth looking forward to. You see there are still language problems in Hong Kong and the Mainland, and Taiwan Province has an advantage in this respect, so I think director Taiwan Province will adapt faster!
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