Editor's note: This place is a theater full of nostalgia.
Interestingly, "Guanzhong Tomb Robbers" marks Li Guanghan's first TV drama creation, while "Tomb Road" is Wang Mingjun's first solo directorial work. In the process of creating "Tomb Road", Li Guanghan and Wang Mingjun jointly explored the mysterious world of ancient tomb exploration, and they carefully depicted the twists and turns of each tomb and the mystery of each tomb, presenting a gripping picture for the audience. From a certain point of view, "Tomb Road" can be regarded as the first work released by their collaboration.
The two recalled that when the filming of the TV series began in 2006, there were no online dramas or movies on the market that pursued visual spectacle like "Ghost Blowing the Lantern" and "Notes on Tomb Robbery". The production team deeply excavated local characteristics and integrated Shaanxi's unique customs into the plot to create a strong local atmosphere. At the same time, the local feelings and the pursuit of realism shared by the creators of Shaanxi are superimposed, which makes "Tomb Road" present its current appearance.
Promotional poster for Tomb Road.
The director of the work "Tomb Road", Wang Mingjun, has served as an assistant director in nearly 100 TV series in his career of more than 30 years, and has independently directed 38 film and television works. "Drought Love" has caused huge repercussions across the country and has become a dazzling pearl in Wang Mingjun's directorial career. TV series such as "The King of Soldiers" and "Dry Plateau", as well as the movie "Li Mingrui", are all works he has created in recent years.
Although the script for "The Tomb Robbers in Guanzhong" was completed, it did not begin filming in 2003 due to a number of factors. In an exclusive interview with The Paper, director Wang Mingjun recalled that the film had been filmed in Xi'an's film and television industry in 2004 and 2005, and "although many directors expressed interest in it, the management had reservations about it." ”
After the young people of the Western Film Studio took over the director's tube, they found that there was no "ambush" in the cemetery
Wang Mingjun, as a famous director of Xi'an Film Studio, is also a real descendant of Xi'an Film Studio. During his years at the Xi'an Film Studio, Wang Mingjun was deeply influenced by his father. My father, Wang Jicheng, is a graduate of the Department of History at Northwest University and served on the editorial board of Western Film Studio. Wang Jicheng plays an important role in the history of Chinese cinema, he is not only the enlightener of the fifth generation of directors, but also participated in the screenwriting of many classic films, and has made important contributions to the development of Chinese cinema. In the history of Chinese cinema after the reform and opening up, Wang Jicheng's reputation is closely linked to the rise of the fifth generation of directors. He is not only the founder of the fifth-generation film "Pioneering Works", but also the screenwriter of the film "One and Eight" directed by Zhang Junzhao. In addition, he is also the screenwriter of the first China TV Golden Eagle Award for outstanding single script "Magpie Tears", and participated in the second film "Life" independently directed by Wu Tianming, the director of Western Film Studio. He also participated in the script revision of Huang Jianxin's ** film "Black Cannon Incident", which is known for directing and producing a series of commercial blockbusters with a main theme.
Wang Mingjun, born in 1969, grew up in the countryside and did not return to Xi'an until junior high school, and at the age of 18, he had already published his ** in a local literary magazine. Wang Mingjun's time at the Western Film Studio was full of challenges and opportunities. He had a similar military career to Li Guanghan, and after being discharged from the army, he joined Western Film Studio and began his film and television creative journey. Wang Mingjun's days on the film and television set are like a gripping plot, from the beginning of the scene recording work, he gradually rose to the position of assistant director with his keen observation and solid directing skills. He started from the set to take notes, and after years of experience as an assistant director, he gradually created his own independent directorial works.
Wang Mingjun is no stranger to the theme of tomb robbing, as well as tomb robbery and the crackdown on tomb robbery in Shaanxi. During his work in Xi'an, Wang Mingjun often accompanied the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Team to some areas in the northwest to conduct investigations and excavations, and participated in the exploration and protection of many cultural relics. Around 1988, Western Film Studio launched five movies called "Tanglin Thieves" in a row, and it was his father Wang Jicheng who was responsible for the revision of the script behind the scenes and the overall planning. "At that time, I was working in Xi'an, and my father often came to help us make films, and I loved watching his works, so I always wanted to have the opportunity to go to Xi'an to see my father. "Since the mid-80s of the 20th century, my family has received a large number of scripts related to tomb robbing, and Western Film Studio only submitted "Tanglin Thieves" in the future. When I was in junior high school, my father was transferred from the Western Film Studio to Xianyang as the deputy director of the Cultural Affairs Bureau. In the past, the Cultural Relics Bureau and the Cultural Bureau were two separate departments, and he often left home late at night to work with ** to catch tomb robbers, which I personally experienced. ”
A promotional poster for The Tanglin Bandits.
His love for archaeology and his exploration of the depth of history and culture also constitute the main motivation for Wang Mingjun's future film and television creation. In film and television creation, Wang Mingjun is more inclined to excavate historical truth and human emotions. Li Guanghan and he both have different views on fantasy-style tomb robbery dramas: first, emperors of previous dynasties usually did not bury their ancestors in extreme geographical conditions such as glaciers or snow, but preferred to choose places with convenient transportation and pleasant natural scenery; Wang Mingjun is convinced that the real tomb hides countless mysteries. Next, is there a real cemetery similar to the secret tunnel mechanism described in "Notes on Tomb Robbery" and "Ghost Blowing the Lamp", or is it like the "pin string ambush" often mentioned in Shan Tianfang's commentaries"?
For screenwriter Li Guanghan, this is completely a fabrication of future generations. The claims about "flaps, hidden arrows, etc." are actually untrue. Mercury was the most common in ancient tombs, if anti-theft measures existed, as it was effectively sealed against the ingress of oxygen. Also, because mercury itself is toxic, it may be released once it enters the burial. To put it another way, even if there were mechanisms in ancient tombs, over time, these mechanisms may have become ineffective and unable to function as they should. ”
Screenshot of Tomb Road.
In the first half of 2006, Wang Mingjun co-directed a TV series called "We Are Like Sunflowers" with Zhou Youchao, a mentor of Western Film Studio. Wang Mingjun took the floppy disk, and he couldn't help but feel a warmth in his heart. During the filming, Yuan Guangcheng, a veteran actor of the Baoji Repertory Theatre, had difficulty moving, but Wang Mingjun cared about him very much and worked hard to arrange a shuttle bus for him. Wang Mingjun took the floppy disk, his heart full of anticipation. On the day of the finale, the old man handed him a 35-inch floppy disk. Wang Mingjun opened the script and his eyes lit up. "I found the script for 'The Tomb Robbers' and printed it out the next day, and it was hard to put down. The conversations are very close to everyday life and incorporate a rich historical and cultural background, which is very fascinating to me. ”
Screenshot of Tomb Road.
Yuan Guangcheng has worked in the field of drama for many years, and has appeared in many TV productions since his retirement, mainly playing the role of a simple and kind old man in Shaanxi. Yuan Guangcheng's performance in "Tomb Road" opened the audience's eyes, and he played the role of Li Guangxuan to the fullest. His work that impressed the audience the most was undoubtedly "Tomb Road". In this work, he completely changed his role positioning, no longer playing the "godfather" Li Guangxuan on the tomb robbery road in Guanzhong, but performed the whole time by sitting or lying on the bed. Yuan Guangcheng has a unique style, and the dry tobacco pouch with a jade mouth has become a symbol of his daily life. In his daily life, he likes to use a dry tobacco pouch in his jade mouth, squinting his eyes and pinching the mud monkey, and whenever a black and white guest visits, this seemingly loyal but actually treacherous "godfather" will always smile first without opening his mouth, which has played a big role in promoting the development of the plot. At Yuan Guangcheng's house, Li Guanghan shook hands with Wang Mingjun with a sincere face, and his eyes revealed an indescribable tacit understanding. Wang Mingjun recalls the summer of 2006, when he first met Li Guanghan at Yuan Guangcheng's home, and the two immediately resonated strongly! ”
Wang Mingjun, as a descendant of the Western Film Studio, has a strong interest in **, he recalled that in his young days, he showed clear planning thinking. "We were all young and inexperienced. I remember that at that time, there was a very famous team in Western Film, they were screenwriters, directors, and actors, and each of them had a very unique set of working methods. "When I was in my 20s, many directors at Western Studios used to go home and discuss scripts with my father. Probably because I've been close to these directors since I was a child, I'm not afraid and often recommend ** suitable for film adaptation to them. In modern terms, this is a high degree of curation. Later, when I became a director, a lot of the scripts would be included in the planning stage. ”
Screenshot of Tomb Road.
Wang Mingjun held the manuscript of "Guanzhong Tomb Robbers" and found his old friend, Zhao An, the CEO of Guangzhong Film and Television Company. Zhao An warmly received Wang Mingjun, and the two recalled their cooperation over the years. Wang Mingjun returned to his hometown of Xi'an from Beijing in 2001 at the invitation of Zhou Youchao, and has participated in at least ten television productions produced by Guangzhong Film and Television Company. In the crew of "Weak", Wang Mingjun showed outstanding talent and leadership skills, which made the TV series a successful production. In 2003, he directed the detective TV series "Weak" as an assistant director, which was produced by Kochu Company. The plot of "Weak" is exciting, and the audience's re-recognition of the image of the police is exactly the goal that Guangzhong Film and Television has been pursuing. The play inherits the unique description of the role of the police by the original author and chairman of the Henan Writers Association, Zhang Yu, so it has also aroused widespread social attention and discussion.
Zhao An also has a strong interest in the script "Guanzhong Tomb Robbers". "He's my director. He believes that this work has many similarities with "12.1 Shooting" in style and temperament. So, who should I choose to cast in the lead? "Look at that, isn't it all filmed? Recalling that period of history, Wang Mingjun laughed first. He said: "At that time, "Black Hole" was regarded as a model of domestic criminal investigation dramas. As soon as I opened my mouth, I proposed that Chen Daoming play Qin Anping and Tao Zeru play Song Ruoxu. While it may sound like a joke, in the movie One and Eight, which my father wrote, the two characters played the lead and supporting actors, respectively. This is the first work directed by Wang Mingjun, called "Black Hole", which is a TV series with a crime theme as the background. After listening to this, Zhao An said with a wry smile: "I don't want to participate in this scene anymore, you can come back." Wang Mingjun knows that if these two actors are chosen, the investment required may be as high as eight million. Only in this way will he give up the actors he has always dreamed of, such as Yang Xinming of the Xi'an Drama Theater and Qu Guoqiang of the Sichuan People's Art Theater.
My mentor was Zhou Youchao, who worked as an assistant director in Zhang Yimou's early works Red Sorghum and Ju Dou. And Zhou Youchao's mentor is Wu Tianming, the senior director of the West Film Studio, which means that I represent the third generation of the artistic style of the West Film Studio. "The casting of Western Film Studio is indeed strict, but more importantly, the actors must have a drama and be able to reflect the essence of the characters written by the screenwriter. Wang Mingjun explained to us that the criteria for selecting actors are first and foremost to ensure that their appearance is highly similar to the character. They believe that the appearance of an actor should be created by the screenwriter, followed by their acting skills. There is nothing special about them in the casting process, and the management should not limit the director's choice of actors. Because it was a director system at that time, the director and assistant director were allowed to speak. ”
In the process of selecting actors, Wang Mingjun was quite picky about his selection criteria due to his years of experience as an assistant director." In the movie "The Story of the Escort", the rivalry between Fu Biao and Ge Zhijun has become a classic. Taking Fu Biao as an example, at the end of the 90s of the last century, he was already known as the "** cannon rack" in Feng Xiaogang's Chinese New Year movie. However, in the 2000 movie "The Story of the Escort", he still played a supporting role that won the Golden Rooster Award (Best Supporting Actor), playing a fraud suspect Yu Tai. This time, Wang Mingjun selected Fu Biao and Ge Zhijun to play the opposite role, and the wonderful performances of the two veteran actors made the whole movie more vivid. Fu Biao's performance in "The Story of Escort" is the guarantee of my life, he and Shaanxi veteran actor Ge Zhi both participated in the battle, and finally Mr. Ge won the Best Actor Award at the 2001 Golden Rooster Awards. ”
The members of the "All Shaanxi Class" must participate in the performance, which is the first time Yang Xinming has played the leading role.
With Wang Mingjun in full control of a TV series, he firmly believes that "Tomb Road" should star the "whole Shaanxi class", and most of the actors he is looking for have a background in the drama stage.
In the 80s of the last century, Yang Xinming, who played Song Ruoxu, joined the Xi'an Drama Theater. He has played many roles, such as Liu Sanjie in "Red Lantern", Zhou Puyuan in "Thunderstorm", etc. In the 2001 anti-corruption documentary drama "Fate Breaks the Ganjiang River", Yang Xinming played the first deputy provincial senior ** Hu Changqing to be sentenced to death after the reform and opening up, and won the Golden Lion Award, which is an important award in the Chinese drama art world. Since then, Yang Xinming has directed a number of works, such as "The Red Lantern Hangs High", etc., which are loved by the majority of young audiences. The reason why he is well-known to audiences across the country is mainly because he participated in CCTV's "Variety Show" and the Spring Festival Gala in the early 1990s, and participated in a series of sketch performances. In works such as "I Am Not Pan Jinlian" and "The Red Lantern Hangs High", Yang Xinming has played one female character after another with distinct personalities and quite personalities. (Interview |Actor Yang Xinming: Can you retain some mystery in front of the audience? ）
The role played by Yang Xinming is Song Ruoxu.
Yang Xinming is someone I have known for a long time, and the director from Shaanxi at that time spoke highly of his acting skills. But before "Tomb Road", he rarely played the leading role in film and television works. In my previous work "Weak", he only starred in two or three episodes of the policeman, so many viewers were not impressed with him. Yang Xinming understands in his heart that actors need time to accumulate and experience in order to truly show mature acting skills. Wang Mingjun explained to us that there are many similarities with Yang Xinming, and that Tan Xihe and Luo Jingmin, who were also at the Xi'an Drama Theater, were both about forty or fifty years old at the time, "This is a moment when actors are at their peak, and they are almost the same age as the characters in the play." ”
The screenshot of "Tomb Road" shows the story of Tan Xi and Yang Xinming.
In 1986, the film "Wild Mountain" produced by Western Film Studio won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Feature Film, which also marked the first film co-starring Tan Xihe and Yang Xinming. After the release of "Old Well", Tan Xihe's performance was highly praised, and his acting skills became more and more mature. Tan Xihe later participated in the film "Old Well" directed by Wu Tianming and starring Zhang Yimou, which was the first time that a domestic film won the Best Feature Film award at the Tokyo International Film Festival (A Film Festival). In their acting careers, Tan Xihe and Yang Xinming showed unique acting skills and charm, especially in "Wild Mountain" and "Old Well", which left a deep impression on the audience. "Although Yang Xinming, Tan Xihe and 'Brother Monkey' (known as 'Brother Monkey' in Luo Jingmin's circle) are young and their appearance does not quite meet the standards of Xiaosheng, their acting skills are excellent and they have a wide range of performances. As they get older, their style becomes more and more distinctive, and they exude an air that is both righteous and **. ”
Stills from "Tomb Road" show.
In the 1998 drama "Red Makeup", I took on the role of assistant director, which was the first time I chose Na Kyung-min to play the positive character, that is, the prosecutor. Luo Jingmin and his actor wife Wang Mingjun performed from Beijing to Xi'an, all in a small county town. Wang Mingjun made a statement. "I think Luo Jingmin is more like an actor than before, with an actor temperament. In his eyes, Luo Jingmin plays Yang Liangwa, whenever she squats on the kang with a cigarette pouch and pot in her mouth, she seems to be a typical old farmer in Guanzhong. Tan Xihe played the role of "bandit". The most impressive scene of Tan Xihe's role as Xue Tiangui is undoubtedly that he disguises himself as a wandering Taoist priest and digs graves and commits various frauds in the village with his companions.
In an exclusive interview with The Paper, Yang Xinming also conducted an in-depth analysis of Song Ruoxu's role. He believes that Song Ruoxu has both the elegant temperament of an intellectual, but also the insidious and vicious leader of the tomb robbery. Even when it comes to showing his hypocritical side, he puts himself in the shoes of the character and shows his struggles with dilemmas and choices. In this TV series, most of the characters were played by our local actors in Shaanxi, and the creative atmosphere at that time was also quite good. ”
Screenshot of Tomb Road.
Qu Guoqiang, the actor who plays the captain of the cultural detective team, although he is a member of Sichuan Renyi, he is actually from Shaanxi and has worked in Shaanxi Renyi. Qu Guoqiang's role in the film industry is deeply loved by the audience, and his image is both resolute and full of a sense of justice, which is deeply imprinted in people's hearts. In the first decade of the last century, Qu Guoqiang has played the leading role in many films of Western Film Studio. He gave people a sense of stability and reliability on the set, as if he was the captain of the civil investigation team who could deal with all kinds of complex situations. "At that time, he was only forty-seven or eighteen years old, with good looks and a noble temperament, giving people the feeling of a policeman. Qu Guoqiang played a kind and responsible parent in "Door-to-door Son-in-law", and his cooperation with Zhang Fengyi and Wang Qianhua was full of tacit understanding. Wang Mingjun recalled that during the preparation of "Tomb Road", Qu Guoqiang, Zhang Fengyi and Wang Qianhua were cooperating in Xi'an to shoot the TV series "Door-to-door Son-in-law". "But unexpectedly, Qu Guoqiang thought about it seriously and said, 'This role is indeed very suitable for you, I can consider adjusting the budget.'" Zhang Fengyi was moved by this sentence, and finally joined the filming of "Tomb Road". Zhang Fengyi learned the script of "Tomb Road" from Qu Guoqiang and expressed his desire to play the role of Song Ruoxu, but I jokingly retorted: "You? It's too high. ”
The protagonists in the story are all in a critical period of battle, and the young supporting characters also show their unique charm in the play. Zhang Ziyi, who played the pangolin in the play, and Yang Xinming, who played Huang Bo, acted in several scenes. Wang Mingjun recalled that in the role of pangolin, he had intended for Huang Bo to play it. Because Huang Bo is not from Shandong, he can't act, but he has played Huang Xiaoxian in "Crazy" and Zhang San's son in "I Am Not Pan Jinlian". "He's been starring in Crazy Stone before, but I personally think he's from Qingdao and he speaks with a distinct accent. Although actor Huang Fei is a native of Yangzhou, he was educated at the Shaanxi Film and Television School and chose to develop in Xi'an after graduation, where he was able to speak authentic Shaanxi dialect fluently. Although the use of dialects in film and television productions was not encouraged at the time, it was acceptable for characters to have a local end note in their lines. Yang Xinming uses the authentic Guanzhong dialect in some of his lines, such as in Shaanxi, where he says "bite rice." ”
Screenshot of Tomb Road.
Although this is Wang Mingjun's first TV series directed independently, and there are many "drama bones" in his team, he does not show stage fright. Wang Mingjun said: "During the filming process, I pay more attention to the acting skills of the actors, rather than fame. I'm more inclined to wait for the screenwriter than the actor. So, I started building the team eight months ahead of schedule, and during that time, I waited for Lee Kwang-han to spend two months revising the script. These actors haven't reached the level I have now in the film and television field. Although they were my mentors, they couldn't compare to me when it came to discussing the details of history. ”
In the play, Song Ruoxu described the relics in detail, but in the moment of emotion, he also said something very different from before: "When I was a child, I was really scared to excrete in front of the emperor's tomb!" Wang Mingjun continued to share, he believes that the lines in this play are a kind of banter and ridicule of Song Ruoxu's own experience. Wang Mingjun said with a smile that Li Guanghan's script had been written quite perfectly, but only Song Ruoxu's line was suddenly inspired by him at the filming site. When he was young, his days in Xianyang were like a faint picture, which reflected the "troubles" in the cemetery of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. In fact, this is the "embarrassing thing" that Wang Jicheng's father did when he was a substitute in Xianyang, when he was young, he was "free-range" when he was young, and he did on the tomb of Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in Maoling.
Screenshot of Tomb Road.
The TV series "Tomb Road", which focuses on tomb robbery and anti-tomb robbery, did not let women leave, and Yang Xiu's role is still a topic of conversation among many drama fans. Yao Xinqian's performance in "Tomb Road" is eye-catching, her role is solid and vivid, and she is deeply loved by the audience. The actress later changed her name to "Yao Xingtong", and her name at the time was Yao Xinqian. Yao Xinqian's outstanding performance in "With You" has put her in the spotlight, and although she has not graduated, her talent has been recognized. Born in the 80s, although she has not yet graduated from the acting department of Beijing Film Academy, she has officially stepped into the showbiz by starring in the TV series "With You". Wang Mingjun said that he had intended to cooperate with her on a TV series before, but he did not make the trip due to schedule problems, and he thought of her again when "Tomb Road" was prepared. Wang Mingjun revealed that he had previously intended to work with her to shoot a TV series, but he failed to make the trip due to scheduling problems, which made him think of her again during the preparation of "Tomb Road".
Yao Xinqian was born in Harbin, northeast, but despite this, she is tall and delicate, giving people the feeling of a college student. She is fluent in six languages and has a talent and hard-working spirit. On set, she interacted with the actors and main creative team from Shaanxi, so she always behaved very humbly and often asked them for advice. This is one of the things that the reporter talked about when he interviewed Ms. Wang Mingjun, deputy director of the jury of the Beijing International Film Festival, during the Beijing International Film Festival. Wang Mingjun believes that Yao Xingtong's subsequent participation in the movie "Zodiac" directed by Jackie Chan and playing the role of Coco, a doctor of archaeology, is entirely because of her previous in-depth understanding of historical archaeology. "We have loved historical culture and archaeology since we were young. I think that if we can let more Chinese know some important figures in history through study, it will be of great help to the protection of cultural relics in our country. "In those days, we were a troupe dedicated to learning, and everyone got together to either discuss drama or discuss the legacy. ”