Author |Reed note
"Mr. Red Carpet" is the most special movie in this Spring Festival file, as shown in the final trailer before the release:It's not a gossip movie, it doesn't play hilarious stalks, and it doesn't go to a family party, these are obviously quite different from the common movie-watching atmosphere of the Spring Festival stalls.
On a weekend two weeks before the release, Entertainment Capital met Ning Hao in Beijing. During the interview, Xiaoyu asked him what he thought about the degree of matching between this movie and the Spring Festival file, and Ning Hao's answer was: "The schedule is also shaped, and the Spring Festival file is not all family carnival, so the audience should be shown something different." ”
Indeed, this is an adventure for Ning Hao, Andy Lau and the film itself.
Under the shell of the secrets of the entertainment industry and Andy Lau's past, which most attract ordinary audiencesWhat Ning Hao wants to tell is a story about "communication".In an era when everyone is on their own foot, it is difficult for everyone to understand each other. He used "loneliness and sadness" to describe Liu Weichi in the movie, a star who works hard to make movies and win awards, and finds a clever way to shoot rural themes, but it always backfires.
The large blank space in the movie is the answer that I hope the audience will fill in. But this kind of film that focuses on authorship may be the ultimate mission is to find an audience that suits him, and truly complete the final proposition put forward by Ning Hao in and out of the play: communication.
"I want to go back and find out."
The origin of "Mr. Red Carpet" is the well-known story: in 2005, Andy Lau invested 3 million to Ning Hao to shoot "Crazy Stone", with a box office of 25 million, and Ning Hao became famous with this film.
At the beginning, Andy Lau took a fancy to Ning Hao's "Green Meadow" at the film festival, he saw in the movie that the cutting-edge director had the potential to make commercial films, and gave him the freedom to proposition and shooting, for this freedom, Ning Hao gave up other higher investments and chose Andy Lau.
Since then, Ning Hao has always wanted to make a movie for Andy Lau, but he has never found a suitable expression. In Ning Hao's words, he is a "realistic creative style", and the characters played by Hua Ge before are too far from the protagonists in his previous films, "because I know too well that he is Andy Lau." ”
Ning Hao chose the actor because he liked the temperament that was most suitable for the actor himself, rather than "subversive". Before "Crazy Stone", Huang Bo starred in "Get in the Car, Let's Go" and "Survival Migrant Workers", all of which were deeply rooted in the hearts of the people with the image of small people in the market.
Later, Ning Hao found that the trend of Hong Kong actors coming to the mainland to act is becoming more and more popular, and this story has a realistic basis, and then let Andy Lau play a big star in this background, which is reasonable and novel. The collision of Hong Kong culture and mainland culture, the dislocation of movies and short ** expressions, the story has a natural foundation for growth.
In the interview, he called the film a gift to Brother Hua, but in addition, "Mr. Red Carpet" is also a return to Ning Hao's visual aesthetics and narrative, in his words, "I just want to go back."
His two early works, "Incense" and "Green Meadow", were only about 400 shots, which were limited by cost on the one hand, and his aesthetic pursuit at the time.
This kind of minimalist film has representative directors and works in Northern Europe, and Ning Hao believes that it is also related to the local living environment, "The environment we live in is sometimes too complex visually, so we have more minimalist films on the lens, but few films that are visually minimalist." ”
In addition to that,He also wants to reach a two-way communication with the audience, rather than one-way indoctrination. "The previous 'crazy' series were too full, in fact, there was not much room for the audience to interpret, "No Man's Land" may have a little, but it is not enough. ”
This is one of the reasons why he called "Mr. Red Carpet" an "elegant" comedy.
Compared to the well-known "crazy" series, this movie is a little too quietThere is no superfluous soundtrack, no strong color collision and complicated multi-line narrative, no twisted and deformed characters and crazy and disorderly action. The film only used more than 380 shots, with most fixed shots and more white space. Sometimes the camera is pointed at one place, and the interlocutor speaks outside the camera, leaving only Liu Weichi's reaction in the picture.
Liu Weichi went to the countryside to investigate, and the village secretary introduced him to the house built for poverty alleviation, he sat in the car and looked out the window with complicated eyes, closed the car door and left. But what the house looks like, no one knows, you can only imagine for yourself.
In Ning Hao's view,".Once the drama is established, it grows on its own. Although art is the best in life, it can't directly move the bridge of life", therefore, even if there is a plot in the movie that is very similar to the real events in the entertainment industry, he didn't know the reason when he created it, Ning Hao said that this is a "contrast between drama and life after natural growth".
Just like the investors who keep stuffing people into the movie and want to make the movie into a car advertisement, Ning Hao admits that he has never encountered a similar situation, but "there are always such people in life, arrogant and rude, interfering people, from all walks of life." Or we have all been Party B, and we all know what Party A is like. ”
Communication is ineffective and there are no answers
The script of "Mr. Red Carpet" was written for a year, and at the beginning, Ning Hao gave the screenwriter the title, "A movie with Andy Lau as the protagonist about the communication problems of big stars." ”
Under the shell of satirizing big stars, connotating the entertainment industry, and "Chuangfei" everyone,Ineffectiveness of communication, is the question that Ning Hao wants to ask the most.
In the early part of the film, Liu Weichi is reluctant to communicate and refuse to dialogue, and because of a stubborn seriousness, there are many misunderstandings: throwing the pig-killing knife sent by the pig farmer into the field, the pig farmer thinks that he looks down on the farmer, but he refuses to apologize; If you want to show dedication, you don't need a stand-in to ride a horse to film, and falling off a horse is considered animal cruelty.
Although Liu Weichi, a big star, is the protagonist, Ning Hao feelsThis communication dilemma is universal.
In the second half of the movie, the staff, netizens, and even ordinary ** people around Liu Weichi have become the objects that they want to deconstruct in the film. Mr. Lau wanted to explain that horseback riding was a manifestation of his professionalism, but the people who did the PR for him didn't think it mattered. Liu Weichi blamed the agent for not helping him solve the problem, and the latter turned his head and went to worship the Buddha, which didn't seem to take it seriously.
Xiaoyu understands these as "the world is a grass platform". But when it comes to Ning Hao, this is still a problem of communication: "Maybe the way to solve the problem that this agent knows and understands is to worship the Buddha, and he can't be accused of not being serious enough, this is his serious way", and the gap of mutual incomprehension reappeared.
Ning Hao himself joined in, playing a director with award-winning ambitions in the movie, and repeatedly reproduced the helplessness of communication in the cooperation with Liu Weichi: the director wanted to shoot serious themes, while Liu Weichi wanted to shoot father's love. After many rounds of communication and even quarrels, they still couldn't convince the other party.
In the film, Liu Weichi loves to play magicNing Hao felt that this was an act of sadness and loneliness: Celebrities can't go out freely like ordinary people, and can only spend more time on themselves and their own practice.
Liu Weichi, who came to the mainland, was out of step with his surroundings. He didn't understand why he shouted "Lao Tie, 666", and after doing so, he mistakenly called it "liaoliaoliao", he wanted to correct it, but he was praised "This is very good", just like Jackie Chan's duang, which can become a hot stalk on the Internet.
Is there a solution to this communication dilemma? The "balance bike" that Lau rides at the end of the film is seen as an option.
At the interview site, Ning Hao placed a pig with his head on his back, he liked the performance of this pig in the film, and thought that this was a consistent continuation of the core of his work:The world is absurd, and there is no answer to everything.
This pig is also a symbol of Liu Weichi's externalized "desire". When he had the desire to make a rural movie, the pig appeared. He kept the pigs with him as pets. In the end, the crisis of "animal cruelty" appeared, and in the chaos, the pig jumped on the long table in the conference room, knocked everything over, and finally rushed out of the handrail and fell from the building to "commit suicide", and the crisis faced by Liu Weichi also came to an abrupt end. "It's the same in this world, when one mess overrides another, everything works out. ”
When Ning Hao was involved in the track again
After "Crazy Alien" in 2019, Ning Hao has not directed a feature film independently for a long time.
Before the release of "My Hometown and Me", he said in an interview with "People" that he didn't know what to shoot. "It's not because I don't have time, it's not because I'm tired, but I don't think it's meaningful to shoot something, what to shoot? There are not many commercial films in the world, and there is no shortage of commercial films. ”
Now "Mr. Red Carpet" is the answer he gave. It has the configuration of a commercial film: large-scale investment, Andy Lau's joining, and it will be released during the Spring Festival. But it no longer seeks a more popular understanding like the "Crazy" series, and although there is the ultimate proposition of "communication", the film is still more inclined to the author's self-expression.
Compared with the common family comedies and visual effects blockbusters during the Spring Festival, "Mr. Red Carpet" is very special, but Ning Hao still wants to give the audience one more choice. He doesn't think that hilarious or laughter with tears is the standard for evaluating a movie, "Movies can have many rich feelings, and works should give people different feelings and unique experiences." ”
Five years ago, "Crazy Alien" also competed in the Spring Festival, and the box office was good, but the word-of-mouth was polarized, and Ning Hao didn't have too much anxiety about it:Movies are meant to be liked by those who like it, and disliked by those who don't like it, which is actually quite good.
Now the thing he is most anxious about is still creating, more specifically, yesHow to spend more energy on creation in a limited time.
In the past few years, the "Bad Monkey Army" led by him has created a number of blockbusters with both box office and word-of-mouthDescribe your role as a serve, not a player on the courtProvide creative advice to new directors, but also respect the director's own ideas.
In the interview, Ning Hao revealed that the Bad Monkey 72 change plan, in addition to continuing to promote 3 to 4 works every year,We will continue to expand our scope to search for more outstanding Chinese directors in Greater China"This plan will come to fruition soon, maybe this year." When Entertainment Capital interviewed Wang Yibing, CEO of Bad Monkey Pictures, he also mentioned that the 72 Change Plan does not set a fixed goal in a periodic manner, and everything follows the natural law of film creation.
When Ning Hao became one of the highest-grossing film directors, he said that he didn't really want to get involved in the track: "Now everyone has the anxiety of falling behind, everyone is desperately squeezing into a track, competing endlessly. I used to make movies without doing business to avoid these competitions, but I didn't expect to end up being forced to get involved in the track. ”。
In the end, "Mr. Red Carpet" was still involved in the Spring Festival file war.
He also said in an interview that the most important thing for the Chinese film market is to establish a diversified evaluation system. It's just that in the Spring Festival, when the business atmosphere is the strongest throughout the year, this kind of "extravagant hope" looks difficult.
But "Mr. Red Carpet" is still a worthwhile adventure, as Ning Hao answered in the face of "Is this movie suitable for the Spring Festival":"It's weird that anything is formatted, isn't it? ”