The movie "The Wind" met the audience on September 29, 2009, with directors Gao Qunshu and Chen Guofu, and stars Zhou Xun, Li Bingbing, Zhang Hanyu, and Huang Xiaoming participating in the filming of this spy war film. Huayi Brothers promised "unlimited investment" at the beginning of filming, and the strong star lineup made the film attract attention. In the end, the film received 2With a box office of 2.5 billion yuan, it was hailed as "the best-selling film in the Chinese film industry in 2009".
However, the process of filmmaking is not easy. The leading actors said that the filming experience of the film made them feel uneasy and did not want to mention it again. Among them, Li Bingbing and Su Youpeng said that this experience was a lingering nightmare, and Zhang Hanyu bluntly said that the process of filming this drama made him worse than death. Years later, Zhou Xun is still afraid to mention things related to ropes.
This movie is adapted from the Mai family's name**, which is based on Guan Lu. Guan Lu, formerly known as Hu Shoulin, was a famous writer in the 30s of the 20th century and was known as one of the "Top Four Talented Women". She has published a large number of ** and publications, and actively called on the people to resist Japan. Guan Lu also participated in the revolution, and because of her influence in the literary world, she was sent by the organization to work as an editor of the monthly magazine "Female Voice", which was jointly organized by the Wang puppet regime and the Japanese embassy. She used this identity as a cover to collect Japanese pseudo-confidential information.
In July 1943, Guan Lu was ordered to attend the "Greater East Asian Literary Scholars Conference" held in Japan, and went to Japan to get in touch with the Japanese Communist Party. But after this trip, she returned to the liberated area of northern Jiangsu after being surrendered by Japan, but she was imprisoned twice because of the involvement of her old superiors, and spent 10 years in prison. The 10 years of imprisonment and the infamy of being a traitor for more than 40 years have put Guan Lu under tremendous pressure and pain. Before 1982, a talented woman suffered an injustice, and her spirit was devastated. However, she did not give up and insisted on writing her life. When she was finally rehabilitated at the age of 75, she chose to write her memoirs with pen and ink, and then committed suicide by swallowing drugs. The loneliness and despair of this talented woman deeply touched the heart of the Mai family, so he spent 8 years creating ** "The Wind" based on her. * After it came out, it caused a sensation, and Wang Zhonglei, president of Huayi, decided to adapt it into a movie. He and gold medal producer Chen Guofu jointly filmed the details, but in the face of this tragic role, Chen Guofu had doubts. When he discussed the script with Wang Zhonglei, Gao Qunshu happened to visit. Chen Guofu, who originally planned to direct himself, decided to invite Gao Qunshu to co-direct the moment he saw him. Huayi fully supports this film, and there is no upper limit on investment. In order to restore the scene in **, the crew built Qiuzhuang on the cliff by the sea in Dalian. Crews delivered the tools by hand, and the two buildings and the small bridge across the sea took months to complete. The crew carefully restored historical props, with a total of more than 9,000 antiques and ancient books, and the cost of props alone was as high as 4.6 million. Huayi sent its big names such as Zhou Xun, Li Bingbing, Huang Xiaoming, Zhang Hanyu, and Su Youpeng to star, and specially invited Wang Zhiwen to join. However, Gao Qunshu was worried when he learned that Zhou Xun was the protagonist, could such a complex role allow Zhou Xun to perform it vividly? In Gao Qunshu's interview, he mentioned that when creating the image of the old ghost of the underground party, this character is the backbone of the whole film, and it needs to show multi-layered performances. He is worried about whether the audience can accept Zhou Xun's performance, and at the same time, he is even more worried about whether the actor can withstand this torture. However, to the director's surprise, this seemingly weak woman refreshed people's cognition with her performance.
When filming the scene of torture to extract confessions, the director restored the brutal torture based on historical data. Although protective measures were taken, Zhou Xun's thighs were still blistered by the rough rope. After a few scenes, the blood blisters were repeatedly worn out, and the pain broke her heart. These pictures made Wang Zhiwen, who was playing with her, teary-eyed, and the director couldn't bear to look at it directly. And Zhou Xun's screams broke the hearts of the entire crew.
However, what is surprising is that despite Zhou Xun's great efforts, her treatment is far inferior to Li Bingbing. After Li Bingbing won the Golden Horse Award for this film, Huayi also held a celebration party for her. At the celebration meeting, Zhou Xun's agent made suggestions to the leaders, hoping that the company could give Zhou Xun more opportunities and give some of the resources given to Li Bingbing to Zhou Xun. This sentence seems to imply that Li Bingbing stole the limelight from Zhou Xun, causing Li Bingbing's agent to be dissatisfied and quarrel with Zhou Xun's agent. Huayi's senior management expressed dissatisfaction with this, believing that Zhou Xun's agent could not speak, which made the originally joyful celebration banquet unpleasant.
After this incident, Zhou Xun's treatment in Huayi began to decline, and she chose to terminate the contract after the contract expired. However, soon after, Li Bingbing also terminated the contract with Huayi. This caught Huayi off guard, and it seemed that he had lost both Zhou Xun and Li Bingbing.
Although both actors have made great sacrifices for this play, Li Bingbing's contribution seems to be greater in comparison. In this movie, she has a scene where she is "tailored" by the enemy. There is only one line in the script to describe the scene: Takeda took off Li Ningyu's clothes. Li Bingbing didn't know how to perform, but she chose to devote herself to it and sacrifice more for the play. When preparing for that key scene, Li Bingbing confirmed with the two directors whether they needed to take it all off. However, the directors always avoid answering questions and dodging questions like a ball. On the day of filming, in order to give himself courage, Li Bingbing drank eight taels of liquor in one go. She expected the director to call a halt and clear the scene at a critical moment, but the director did not do so. When Huang Xiaoming touched the button of her cheongsam, tears welled up in her eyes. Faced with the shame of imminent nakedness and the pressure of being in full view, she instinctively screamed, which was exactly what the director wanted. This scene was filmed for two hours, and Li Bingbing also cried for two hours. Her sacrifice and superb acting skills not only moved the audience, but also made her win the Golden Horse Actress.
It is worth mentioning that Su Youpeng has not acted for two or three years when he took over this play. He has made great efforts to play the role of Bai Xiaonian, a famous Kunqu opera singer. Without Tongzigong, he can't even break his orchid fingers. In addition to practicing his eyes, posture and manners, he also has to hang his voice every day to learn Kunqu opera and practice his voice. Although he studied for more than four months, he still felt struggling as soon as he entered the set. Especially in the scene where he was executed, he couldn't play the frightened feeling that the director wanted, and he NG 12 times in a row. The high-intensity pressure made him want to quit for a while, but he didn't want to drag down the crew and ruin the play, so he practiced silently alone, and finally succeeded in interpreting the character's fear and won the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Supporting Actor.
And Zhang Hanyu also suffered a lot of torture during the filming. His role was not easy, but he persevered and showed his acting skills and perseverance. He endured all kinds of torture, from electric shocks to pins and needles, each time with a different kind of pain. In the end, even a man as iron-clad as him only felt an endless torture: life was worse than death. Therefore, some people accuse the film of being like a brutal torture exhibition, only showing suffering. However, the director retorted: The real torture to extract confessions is actually more cruel than in the movie. Our aim is not only to reproduce the suffering and perseverance of the martyrs in extreme circumstances, but also to show a strong faith. It is this belief that makes them firmly choose to move forward in the face of despair and loneliness.