In December last year, the film "A Wisp of Ancestors" adapted from writer Fang Lei**'s "Lost Water" was officially launched in Beijing. At present, the crew has completed most of the creation, and the crew will go to Yinchuan and Xining for follow-up filming in April. Regarding the style of the original work and the film being adapted and being filmed, director, screenwriter and translator Wang Feng and writer Fang Lei had a more in-depth conversation.
Stills from the film "A Wisp of Ancestors").
The original ** and the adapted script are like the same island with different landing places.
Wang Feng: I have read all 13 of your ** collection "Lost Water Flow", among which "Lost Water Flow" is one of your ** collection of the same name, I am very eager to hear your self-evaluation of this work.
Fang Lei: Most of the works in the collection have been published in different literary journals, and the title of the collection was originally the title of another work with the same name when it was published, but it was changed to "Lost Stream" before it was printed, and I didn't communicate the reason with the editor of the book, but I think maybe there is something indescribable in the work that can make people more concerned and pay attention to it. When the work was published in a journal, the title was "The Stars Are Hidden".
This ** is not large, just a short story, and it is also very smoothly written, and the inner feelings and emotions made me finish it in a few days. The work is written about a young man listening to the legends of his ancestors, looking for the family inheritance of his ancestors by a legendary river, and then coming from afar to find the legendary river, and finding this inheritance in the intertwining of many things and people, but it is not imagined at all. But his perception of the world and himself has completely changed. His own fate is also mired in uncontrollable variables. The core of the work has an absurd background, because the truth of life is presented in different absurdities, and the more absurd it is, the more real it is. The search in the work reflects self-knowledge and confirmation, and in the questioning of the truth, the self becomes an illusion, and fate is like an abyss without solution. In my works, I don't have the luxury of exploring any truth and mystery, I just try to carefully look at fate and tell others what I have learned.
Wang Feng: I have been paying attention to your works for a long time, and generally speaking, your words and imagery are very good, and I personally appreciate them very much, and your works are more suitable for making literary films, mainly lyrical and poetic. Do you have any self-requirements for your literary creation?
Fang Lei: Here we will limit ourselves to short stories**. I am still convinced that the most important thing in the short story is imagery and language, in fact, the language of the medium story is also very important, but the short story is especially so, the good language is like the moment when the waves hit the wall and emit a flash of lightning, and the good short story is more like the inner meaning of a poem. **Especially short stories**Why do you have to need a story, character building, and plot, I think you can have it or not. Why can't it be an image of life, a state of existence, a freehand of fate, or even an emotion? Even if it is just an emotion, it is precious, moving and profound to the human world. People's true emotions are often more powerful than the truth.
Wang Feng: What do you think of the film script adapted from the original book, and what is your real attitude?
Fang Lei: The original work itself is very imagery, and it should be said that it belongs to a niche work. The scripts I have seen have been adapted greatly, the timeline has also crossed seasons, and the characters are more traceable and epochal. After all, the text and the film script are the presentation of two systems, and I have also participated in the adaptation of the script, although some of my thinking dimensions are a little different from those of the director and other screenwriters, but I still respect their opinions for the most part. The core of the film respecting the original book is the most important. Just like a ship traveling in the ocean, with different routes, the people on the ship will see different landscapes, but these external sights and hearings are what they see on this ship, and in the end, the other side of the ship is on the same island, but the landing place may be slightly different, but they will all go to the same island.
Stills from the film "A Wisp of Ancestors").
Idiosyncrasies are the soul of the work.
Wang Feng: Compared with the original book, what new artistic connotations and values do you think the film presents?
Fang Lei: In terms of the adapted script, I think the film is more characteristic and novel than the original book. Overall, the integration of novelty and plot also makes the film more flexible and wonderful, which should be of great benefit to the sense of viewing. I feel that both in the creation of the script and in the filming of the film, I respect and be faithful to the cold temperament and desolation of the original work, and the lonely and lonely atmosphere in ** is also very expressive and infectious. Especially after catching up with the scenery shooting after the blizzard in Beijing, it highlights the bleak core texture and temperament of the original work.
I think that both ** and the characteristics of the film are actually very important, from a certain point of view, it doesn't matter how many readers or how many viewers there are, because the former is the soul of a work, and it is the true value of the work's existence in the world.
Wang Feng: We also know that in addition to the original book, you are also one of the literary planners and screenwriters of the film "A Wisp of the Ancestors", what do you think is the difference between creation and script adaptation?
Fang Lei: I think the difference is too big, although it belongs to a large artistic category, the rules and aesthetic elements of each are very different, and the artistic pursuits of writers and playwrights are also very different, after all, the needs of readers who read a book and the audience who watch a movie are also different. But what can be sure is that good ** and good movies always have similarities in common, that is, they will eventually resonate with people's hearts, such as: uneasiness, confusion, love and hate, etc.
Literature gives the ability to "slow down".
Wang Feng: This script adaptation also refers to many images of your poetry collection "The World Remains", how do you understand the adaptation of poetry into film and television?
Fang Lei: I didn't think much about this aspect before, but when the director talked to me about the script adaptation, I was surprised at first, but then I also felt that this possibility was also logical. I have a poem that I finished after watching a certain movie, so it is entirely possible that a certain "acupuncture point" in the movie comes from a poem. Like some** itself has a deep and broad poetry, such a ** adaptation into a film will naturally have poetic DNA.
Wang Feng: What do you think is the meaning of self-writing?
Fang Lei: I am grateful for the nourishment that literature has given me in my heart. The most important thing in literary writing is to keep my feelings forever and give me the ability to love and think. Literature and writing allow me to accept everything in life calmly, and I can feel the "slowness" in my soul as much as possible in literature. The most frustrating thing in life is that everything is too fast, people are running, they are looking forward, which makes time seem to be rushing by, the world is changing, and the "fast" is too late to miss, too late to chew, too late to think, too late to feel.
Literature is giving me the ability to "slow down", and I am fascinated by exploring the way I came, fascinated by the scenery behind the scenes, and fascinated by the subtle labyrinth of people's hearts.
I would like to be a writer who looks at the back of people and times.
Fang Lei: Member of the Chinese Writers Association, director of the China Financial Writers Association, student of the 40th Advanced Research Class of Lu Xun Academy of Literature, and 5th Advanced Research Class of Lao She Academy of Literature (** student. Former bassist of the Beijing "No Rules" rock band. His works have appeared in many literary journals such as October, Flower City, Feitian, Shanxi Literature, Guangzhou Literature and Art, Anhui Literature, Fujian Literature, Contemporary, Literary Port, Selected Prose Magazine, and Prose Overseas Edition. He has published a collection of short stories "Breathing Out Without Breathing", "Lost Water Flow", "Rusty Abandoned Rails", a collection of poems "The World Remains", and a collection of essays "Light and Shadow". Biographical literature "Under the Stars", "The Beginning of the Heart", "Chasing". The essay "Reading the Sea in August" was selected into the middle school Chinese extracurricular course "Literary Vision" (high school volume) (Shanxi People's Publishing House).
In October 2019, December 2021 and April 2023, he co-organized the "Calendar" series (Fang Lei's poetry and rock music special) with the band "No Rules" in Beijing.
Wang Feng: **Ph.D., Department of Directing, School of Drama;
Film Screenwriting Project:
Blocking (and director), "Three Decades", "Situ Meitang", "Wushan Cloud".
Director: Screenwriter of the short film "Torch";
Participated in the production of film projects:
Lanxin Theater", "A Cloud Made of Rain in the Wind", "Qimen Dunjia", "Shadow", "The Whisperer of Life and Death", etc.; Sino-US co-production films "The Sun, the Moon and the Mermaid" and "The Birth of the Dragon";
directing and writing eight stage drama works;
Translation of academic treatise: Nolan's World of Images: Infinite Imagination