CCTV International February 4, 2005 10:26

Speaker profile:

Dai Jinhua: Professor Peking University. 1978 10 month-1July, 982, studying in Chinese Department of Peking University; June1982-July 1993 taught in the Department of Film Literature of Beijing Film Academy, and June 1992 appointed an associate professor; June 65438+July 0993- Now, I am teaching in Peking University Institute of Comparative Literature and Comparative Culture. 197 10 as a professor, and 5438+0 as a doctoral supervisor in March 2006.

Major: China Film History and Popular Culture Studies. He has participated in international academic seminars abroad for many times, offered special courses and held a series of lectures on China films.

Content introduction:

In Wang Shuo's novel "You are not a layman", there is an apple polisher named Xiaogang Feng. He led a group of young people, such as Zhu, Zhu and Ding, to interpret dreams for people. This novel later became the story prototype of the film "Party A and Party B". Interestingly, the director of this film was also named Xiaogang Feng.

Xiaogang Feng in the novel didn't make an amazing move in the end, but Xiaogang Feng in reality became an instant hit because of directing the film Party A and Party B. In the mid-1990s, when all kinds of films in the China film industry were competing with each other, they suddenly emerged, and in just a few years, they established the position of the overlord of China's New Year films. His rise has also become a myth in China's film history. So, what kind of person is Xiaogang Feng? What made him quickly popular? Why can't people pay attention to his films? Don't, he has any special trick? Dai Jinhua, a professor from Peking University, is a guest in Lecture Room, revealing the mystery of the popularity of Xiaogang Feng, the king of China's New Year film.

(Full text)

I think there are several cultural phenomena, or cultural facts, related to the Xiaogang Feng phenomenon. First of all, the emergence of Xiaogang Feng is directly related to the rise of a cultural phenomenon called popular culture in China. Xiaogang Feng actually appeared as a great figure or master in the mass culture production in China, because he entered our cultural cause from a popular mass art such as TV series. Then "Beijingers in new york" caused widespread high ratings and social repercussions at that time. Then the following New Year films are such important and popular entertainment. In a sense, the peak of Xiaogang Feng's New Year films is very similar to some sketches in the Spring Festival Evening, which has become something that ordinary people can look forward to at the beginning of the new year. A period of time that can bring you some happiness, some laughter and an hour and a half of happiness. So he rose with the popular culture in China.

At the same time, Xiaogang Feng phenomenon is linked with Wang Shuo phenomenon, another cultural phenomenon in the early 1990s. I think Wang Shuo, a writer, was involved in film and television a lot later. Everyone should have heard of him or seen his works. Subsequently, Xiaogang Feng entered the China film industry for the first time as a member of Wang Shuo's team and Wang Shuo Group. However, Xiaogang Feng's early works, including his three New Year films, are very Wang Shuo's style. That is, the characters in his works are funny little people, and then they are a little marginalized, and then they talk endlessly, but there are often no serious words in their mouths, that is, Wang Shuo's ridicule and Wang Shuo's parody. But when I said that he started writing as an independent director and an important director in Xiaogang Feng, his films were a little different from those of Wang Shuo. So what do I say this change is? It's a mild version of Wang Shuo. Because the characters in Wang Shuo's story are new, marginal and a little different. In fact, he is not a so-called bad guy or an evil figure, because the characters in Wang Shuo are always orderly people. Although he looks like a rogue on the surface, in fact, in the end, you will find that when the last bunch of really evil thieves in "A Thief-Free World" appear, you will find how conscientious our thieves are. Under a more evil reference, we will see that Wang Shuo's protagonist is actually an orderly man with a conscience. But when it comes to Xiaogang Feng's works, I think he is more moderate than Wang Shuo. It is the ridicule, ridicule, cynicism and cynicism in Wang Shuo's works that began to disappear, and a kind of Xiaogang Feng-style warmth began to inject.

Then the third thing is about the changes of the whole China film market, the marketization of China films and the changes of China film market. So what kind of important facts are related to? Then at the end of 1994, an important change happened. It was after nearly half a century that the China film market once again opened the door to Hollywood films, that is, the import of blockbusters, and the introduction of ten blockbusters took place. Then the entry of Hollywood films into the China film market has brought two undeniable facts. It is a fact that only ten films have entered China, and now there are more than ten films, which have basically covered the film market in. Another fact is that it has also activated the film market in China. I don't know if you still remember, but for a long time, no one went to the cinema and no one watched movies. At that time, I said it was called movie culture without movies. There are many people who love movies, many movie magazines, many people who subscribe to periodicals, and many people who discuss movie topics, but few people enter the cinema. Therefore, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a tragic landscape emerged, that is, a large number of cinemas have been transformed into dance halls, billiard halls and entertainment places, and the front of the cinemas is always empty. Then as soon as Hollywood blockbusters entered, the cinema suddenly became a hit. Well, I said the flag was flying, and then the scalper appeared, and so did the scalper. There has been a warm situation that has not been seen for a long time.

However, there is another problem, that is, Hollywood movies have activated the film market in China, but it seems that the film market in China is not suitable for China movies. Is that we go to the cinema, but few people go to the cinema to see China movies. Many people may go to the cinema once or twice a year, basically watching blockbusters. The so-called blockbusters are foreign movies, especially Hollywood movies. Then, while China's film market is showing its vitality, China's films are also facing an unprecedented crisis. Half a century later, China films will face Hollywood for the first time. Obviously, we China filmmakers in China film industry were not ready at that time. It is in this sense that Xiaogang Feng stands out. His New Year films are almost rare. If I say unique, it's a bit exaggerated, but he has almost become one of the few directors. His films can face Hollywood to a certain extent and gain some market share. In other words, under the rule of Hollywood, Xiaogang Feng can get a piece of the action, and he has achieved success in the sense of facing the China audience in the China market. Therefore, to discuss Xiaogang Feng phenomenon, we must contact China film market and China film market. So I think this is a Xiaogang Feng phenomenon. If there is a Xiaogang Feng phenomenon, then we will see that it is related to such a big background and such basic facts.

Then let's go back to the Xiaogang Feng phenomenon. I think in the first two periods, Xiaogang Feng in his heyday and Xiaogang Feng in his heyday, his films were completely different. Can't say it's completely different. One of the obvious characteristics of his film series is that we just said nobody. He is a mean person. To put it another way, he is a very insignificant little person at the bottom of society, and he does not go to the palace. These little people actually live a life, and their daily life is presented in a state of tragicomedy, which is a tragicomedy of daily life. Xiaogang Feng is different from Wang Shuo or the mild version of Xiaogang Feng not only in his gentleness, but also in his warmth. In his films and stories, a kind of warmth is injected, which is also aimed at this marginal nobody. Because we know that there are many ways to tell the story of the little guy, for example, one is mean, spicy and ironic, and the other is praise. Writing a little guy as a little guy is actually a hero, that is, in the end we find that we need to look up to see him. This little guy became our hero. Xiaogang Feng, on the other hand, is gentle and considerate, and describes the life of this little person, his wishes and tragicomedy in his daily life. At the same time, he threw himself at the big shots with other mild taunts. To put it in a more popular way, that is to say, he paid attention to and sympathized with the poor, but mocked the rich, the people in the scene, and the decent people with measured malice. When I watched Xiaogang Feng's movies, I remembered a famous saying in the past that the lowly are the cleverest and the noble are the stupidest. Because in their movies, in their works, the little people are full of wisdom, they are full of emotions, and those decent people, those rich people, they are stupid, they are ridiculous.

Then let's talk about an example in detail. Everyone will remember a very comic scene, which is also a very successful scene in Xiaogang Feng's first New Year's film, that is, the rich man in A, B, C and D, so the company in the story that satisfies everyone's dreams sent him to the countryside, to the people as he imagined, to the most ordinary life, and to a simple and natural place. As a result, everyone will remember that scene. The rich man ate all the hairy things in the village, and then he finally died. I want to use this word, lying on the millstone at the entrance of the village, waiting for the person who picked him up to come back. Then he used such a ridicule, a comedy ridicule, to ridicule the vain dreams of rich and decent people. Of course, from another angle, if we say one more word, in this sense, Xiaogang Feng is strengthening a new common sense expression of changing society, saying that we all long for a richer life and a more comfortable life. How normal and natural this is. This expression is actually a part of the ever-changing social changes. It is no longer a fashion that prides itself on suffering, hardship and simplicity, but pursues a more comfortable life and a more modern life with reasonable and legitimate human desires. Xiaogang Feng's films are so subtle and gentle that they catch the pulse. We say they catch the pulse of social change. He pays attention to the little people in this change. His concern for these people may not necessarily be the beneficiary of this change, right? Because in a great era of change, not many ordinary people or small people can become beneficiaries, but, perhaps, in any process of change, many small people at the bottom have been sacrificed, so he pays attention to these people, puts his sympathy on them, and then mocks the interests of this era.

His "Be there or be square" takes the United States as the location, shooting the lives of new immigrants, China as new immigrants and China people living in the United States. Then he didn't choose to say that he had a doctorate and entered a big American company to conquer Wall Street. He didn't choose such people at all. And choose the mainstream society like the United States to struggle for a living and rely on their own cunning and wisdom to find survival. So just now, we talked about the same strategy of Wang Shuo and Xiaogang Feng, that is, it must be bad people to foil us who are a little mean and have moved a little bad. In fact, they are ordinary people among us. Like every one of us, we have a thief's heart but no thief's guts.

Then everyone will remember the opening of "Be there or be square". He used a very shocking business scene, that is, he broke a glass window, then hooked an iron hook to the audio equipment in the car very accurately, brushed it off, and then opened the lens. We think this is a crime movie, an action movie, which is very eye-catching. We are waiting for things to happen, but the lens has nothing to do with our protagonist. He may be a member of a criminal gang in the United States, and our little guy is just looking for a possible chance to survive on the edge. It may not be reasonable to earn a little money, but it will never kill his conscience, never harm anyone, maybe not harm anyone, but never harm anyone. Moreover, in such a story, Xiaogang Feng is very good at showing the warm feelings of mutual concern among small people. His story "Never Lose My Love" is Xiaogang Feng's first film, which is a love story. But in most of Xiaogang Feng's works, he talks about love, but it is not so much love as warmth. A kind of bitter warmth, just like the couple in "Be there or be square" and the couple in "world without thieves", a little helpless and a little desperate. We are lovers, not lovers, we are peers, we are buddies and partners. To survive, we must be together. This is a very important feature of Xiaogang Feng's films, that is, the little people, and the description of the little people is warm and fun at the same time. Then we don't have to talk about the revenge he designed in Endless, such as ordering a Manchu-Chinese banquet for the rich who didn't pay, and then completing it in this way. Then this little guy thought of kidnapping when he couldn't make money from basic labor. Of course, the kidnapping story eventually evolved into a bitter and tender love story of Xiaogang Feng style, a love story. Then the two kidnappers and abductees once again become such collaborators, a collaborator, a collaborator for mutual warmth and sympathy, which is a very prominent feature of Xiaogang Feng's films.

My major is the study of China's film history, so as a person who studies China's film history, I actually recognized a familiar thing in Xiaogang Feng's films, and this familiar thing has disappeared for a long time in China's films. What's that? It's a tragicomedy of little people. I don't know if you have seen these movies, such as Street Angels, Crossroads, Crows and Sparrows, and the civic comedies of China movies in 1930s and 1940s. Therefore, the affinity between Xiaogang Feng and the audience in his films is largely due to the fact that most movie audiences can find their own projections when they enter the cinema. Because this is not the story of a great man, this is not a story far away from us, we can imagine that we know such a person, we can imagine that he is ourselves, and we can imagine that there is such a story around us. Moreover, the story in such a movie, for each of us, is called the comfort of imagination, especially in the late 1990s when China's society changed dramatically. Generally speaking, each of us went to see his movies and got a little psychological comfort. He said that he, like us, has experienced many setbacks and twists and turns, facing increasing pressure, tension and anxiety. But they are alive with vitality, and the warmth they put into the little people and the warmth among the little people also warmed us and comforted us. This is actually the most important and basic function of popular culture.

Others may be far away for everyone, because I have always stressed that when we discuss movies, we should not only discuss art and culture, but also discuss the industry and commerce behind them. So Xiaogang Feng was such a successful director at that time, and at the same time, he had another meaning. In the film industry, it is actually related to the movie audience to some extent, so Xiaogang Feng had a certain demonstration significance at that time. What is the demonstration significance? It was Xiaogang Feng who showed the so-called professional ethics to our huge China film industry and many China filmmakers. What is professional ethics? Is the way we become directors. People began to wonder that he showed us how to be a director. Did Xiaogang Feng teach you how to make movies? Obviously not. Everyone can make movies, and some people may be better than Xiaogang Feng in art. So what did he show? The success of his films lies not only in the audience's welcome and good reputation, but also in winning market share for China films in the face of the unification of Hollywood. Moreover, Xiaogang Feng's success lies in another aspect, that is, his film investment is relatively small, and his market return is quite high relative to his film investment, which is one of them. Is to spend very little money on good deeds. So it's different from the prejudice I just said. People think that movies are big inputs and big outputs. If you want to make a good film, you must invest a lot of money. It seems that the problem of China's films is that the production cost of China's films is too low, so Xiaogang Feng has a good demonstration significance at that time. He let us know the types of movies that can be made with very little money, which is a demonstration in my sense. In other words, it costs very little money, so investors trust Xiaogang Feng very much, and Xiaogang Feng can easily get film funds. Because today, many filmmakers, even excellent filmmakers, are very upset and say, where can I find film investment? Because film investment is a huge venture capital, but Xiaogang Feng was very trusted by investors at that time, because he would use very little money to complete what he wanted to do.

Then his exemplary role lies in that, as far as the production cost of Xiaogang Feng is concerned, Xiaogang Feng's films are well-made. Then he said Xiaogang Feng phenomenon or Xiaogang Feng film in a sense, which broke the prejudice that a good production quality and a good and excellent film image need a lot of capital investment. Therefore, we have noticed that Xiaogang Feng's films actually have one kind. When we watched this film, we thought that Xiaogang Feng's film was very good and we were very happy to watch it. Maybe people won't pay attention to it, but in fact, Xiaogang Feng's movies are so good that everyone is happy to see them. With such capital investment, we found a very excellent production method with his whole film. We watch Xiaogang Feng's movies. Every photo of him, the tone of his film and the atmosphere of his whole scene are actually quite meticulous and devoted. It seems that Xiaogang Feng once joked that he could criticize me for anything. If he criticizes me for cutting corners, I will be more wronged than Dou E. Then he is very dedicated to making a movie, and at the same time he breaks another imagination, a prejudice, that is, we think that only art movies should be done with all their strength, and only commercial movies should be done with all their strength, and commercial movies mean a fairly stereotyped routine, which is shoddy. Such a film, which is loved by the vast majority of the audience, does not mean bad habits, let alone vulgarity. So in the late 1990s, Xiaogang Feng played an exemplary role in China's films, and I say he became such an exemplary role. Therefore, frankly speaking, the artistic interest of Xiaogang Feng's films does not match my artistic interest. I am an audience of art films and a person who loves art films more. But I once supported Xiaogang Feng's films without reservation, because I think China films need more directors like this, so that our film industry in China can continue to develop and our films in China can maintain market share under the impact of Hollywood. So don't think that there is a kind of film art and a kind of storytelling in movies. In fact, we all know that there is a saying that in any work of art, a novel, a movie and a TV play, we can't separate the content from the form, because there is no naked content and no pure form. You said this story is really touching. It's not the story itself that touched you, but the sound and light drawing, the color and light effect of the picture, and then the movement of the lens. The lens position of course includes the actor's clothing, the actor's performance, the actor's image and the actor's dialogue. These isomorphic things have become things that touch you, touch you, please you and entertain you. Therefore, this is what I call Xiaogang Feng's tender expression of the little people's stories. He made a sophisticated and relatively sophisticated film image at a low cost, which was an isomorphic factor for Xiaogang Feng's success at that time. Xiaogang Feng's success at that time was a demonstration, or encouragement, to China's film industry at that time, indicating that we can accomplish it in this way.

At the same time, there is another interesting place in Xiaogang Feng during this period, that is, from A, B, C and D to Endless, then to Sigh, and now to world without thieves. I think there is still a more successful place in his works, so where is this more successful place? It was he who began to explore China's comedy, or a kind of civic comedy. In fact, China movies have the tradition of comedy and civic comedy. However, how can we make the audience laugh, make the audience laugh in tears, and let you leave with a warm heart after laughing? I enjoyed it in the cinema for at least an hour and a half. What should I do? He found such a form in his New Year film, and I think it continued to world without thieves, so he also broke a common imagination. So this common imagination is that we think comedy is another kind of cross talk or another kind of sketch. His film "A Party and A Party" is quite a sketch, which gradually becomes more and more narrative in his films, and then the warmth of comedy and the warmth of comedy become more and more intense. It makes us find that a kind of laughter, a kind of comedy effect, is not necessarily a sketch, not necessarily a certain degree of self-uglification of the protagonist, and not necessarily a certain degree of clown image. So, in my opinion, in world without thieves, Uncle Li, played by Ge You, has a little sketch feeling, but it is still a pillar of Xiaogang Feng movies to bring a little sketch feeling. Ge You retired to the second place this time, playing a supporting role, so it was a little comic. On the contrary, he chose Hong Kong and Taiwan movie stars Andy Lau and Rene Liu to play the leading roles, almost without taking the usual comedy or sketch route, but taking the warmth of this melodrama. So in fact, this thread is gradually developed in Xiaogang Feng's films, that is, it is not a clown, not through the ugly physical performance or verbal performance of small people. In fact, to put it bluntly, it is a kind of uglification of oneself. We know that there is a kind of cross talk, that is, teasing yourself instead of others, constantly making yourself miserable, and then causing the audience to laugh. Instead of telling his film story in this form, I think this is the characteristic of his film's beginning in Xiaogang Feng and its heyday.

In fact, Xiaogang Feng is quite prominent among the film directors in China today, as well as among his contemporaries. Where are the highlights? It is not that his films are better or more successful, but that Xiaogang Feng is one of the China film directors of his generation, and one of the few directors who did not receive professional film education and finally became a famous director. So what's the point? Is it meaningless to receive professional film education, or is it harmful to people? Of course, it is not necessary to draw such a conclusion. It just means that the characteristics of Xiaogang Feng's films, or his production, including the characteristics of his films, including the characteristics of his images, are all related to his personal life experience. Because we say that works of art are always about people, and they are made by people, the camera is very important, and more importantly, the person in charge of the camera behind it. Therefore, as an artist like Xiaogang Feng, he has never been trained by the formal class, and he has hardly received any highly specialized education. In the words of a film industry, that is to say, he rolled out in this industry, which is not a roll, but a roll. It is such a director who has gone through all kinds of business all the way, and it seems that all kinds of business can be competent and finally become a director. The growth experience of this kind of director is very similar to that of most directors in the history of China movies. Therefore, this kind of life experience decided to some extent that Xiaogang Feng's films paid attention to ordinary people and little people in his early years and heyday. Not just attention, because attention can be like this. I'm standing here watching you. I ignored you, but I am one of you. I recognize your life and your life experience. So such a character and such a life experience, he has never done a lot of business, experienced many ups and downs, and finally became a director and finally became a star director, which may explain to some extent such a basic feature of his films, that is, he may realize the real existence of such a small person, which I think is a very interesting fact.

On the other hand, we go one step further. I think it's not just that you start at the bottom of an enterprise, then gradually gain your own experience and then get your own opportunities. I'm not telling such a story. I want to talk about what I think is the problem with some China films today, not that they are too artistic or too rough, but that they represent big people, not small people. But there is always something I want to find in these movies. If I can't find a popular saying, let's use a saying that comes directly to my mind, that is, there is a sense of suspension. To put it bluntly, it has a feeling that there is no one in the world. So when we watch this movie, we don't know how to find our place. No matter the ordinary audience or the audience who have received some professional training or engaged in professional film research like me, we don't know where the director is. Where is the narrator of the film? Why did he tell this story? What story does he want to tell? I don't want to use such a powerful but unreasonable statement. One of our film critics said that I couldn't understand it and strongly rejected the film. I think this statement is really embarrassing. It is your business not to understand. You can't use it to criticize movies. So I don't want to use this unreasonable statement, so it's not that I don't understand movies, but that I can't find out how I got into the movie. I can't guess what the director is going to say and where the director stands to tell the story. Then I don't think this means that artists live too well. Artists should go to the countryside to experience the life of working people, just like the rich people in A, B, C and D, which is not the case. But a very special fact is that I think China in transition is China in great changes, and today's China artists are really in a state of suspension. That is, he is neither the so-called winner nor the upper class of a new society, such as feasting, parties, clothes and temples. No, he doesn't belong in that world. In such a world, he is an ordinary person, but in another sense, they are not nobody, not ordinary people in society. Artists themselves form a community, and artists live together.

Then there was a film that was not very successful. He told the story of a man who bought a piece of land in the country and built a villa himself. It turned out that he was not from the city, but he was not from the village either. He has no contact with the people around him. He drives out of his villa every day, goes to his company, and then drives back to his villa. Because this village is such an isolated building, there must be security guards, guards, dogs and bars. As a result, in the end, his home and residence were like prisons, imprisoning themselves. Therefore, Xiaogang Feng, who was born in the early and heyday, is actually a bit exaggerated in his films, but he is also very straightforward. He just has a human breath, not a human breath or a philosophical breath. He has a human breath or a human breath. Because it may be quite a while, Xiaogang Feng has not entered such a state of suspension. As for whether Xiaogang Feng will take part in the competition today, I can't judge. We can only judge by his films. Ok, I will describe the early Xiaogang Feng phenomenon or the inspiration of Xiaogang Feng films.

(Source: cctv- 10 "Lecture Room" column)