Zhang Yimou: From a worker in eight years to a national teacher, young people should never be afraid of being a late bloomer

At 8pm on February 4th, another visual feast created by Lao Mouzi was held at the Bird's Nest. This year he was 72 years old.

The Beijing Winter Olympics has attracted worldwide attention. This is the first time in China’s history that it has hosted the Winter Olympics. The classical romance unique to the Chinese people has been perfectly captured by Zhang Yimou, and he is applauded for his ingenuity.

14 years ago, this man and his team were criticized. He bluntly said that he was driving everyone crazy for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

At that time, he had completed the commercial transformation of the director route, received several Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, and also set domestic box office records with each of his masterpieces.

The audience believes in Zhang Yimou's talent for making movies, but they also question his ability to do the Olympics. Faced with this heavy responsibility, he knows that this is a tough battle.

"You can make many movies in your life, but you only have one Olympics in your life."

This sentence has a bit of a desperate meaning, and it is a determination to only succeed and not fail. .

Later that night, the five thousand years of Chinese civilization were vividly displayed on the scroll, and everyone was convinced.

Zhang Yimou was born on April 2, 1950 in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. He is an Aries and has blood type A. His decisive character is a little more calm and stubborn.

After finishing elementary school and junior high school in Xi'an, Zhang Yimou went to a rural area in Qian County to join the labor force, farming and working. After years of hard work, he was later arranged by his family to work in a cotton textile factory. There he worked for eight years.

As a boy, Zhang Yimou did not join the Party or the Youth League due to his family background, and was unable to participate in many meetings. He gradually became less talkative, withdrawn and lonely. This native inferiority complex fermented in his character. Later Zhang Yimou He became more and more calm, taciturn and tried to be as low-key as possible.

The ordinary and boring factory life is like a pool of stagnant water, with only the end of life in sight. In the midst of boring and heavy labor, his wish at that time was to enter the propaganda department of the factory and do some work. An officer.

It was in such a situation that Zhang Yimou found his own unique way of expressing his emotions. In the factory, he lived frugally and bought one of the most popular Seagull cameras, and took pictures of his co-workers in his spare time.

Photography seems to have become his spiritual pillar. He shoots records and also processes and innovates. His works have been unanimously praised by people around him, and those wild and unconstrained ideas are gradually growing in his heart.

Zhang Yimou, who has low self-esteem, works and lives in the factory as usual with his camera. No one could have imagined that in the near future he would rewrite the history of Chinese films.

The co-workers admired and praised Zhang Yimou’s shooting skills and strongly recommended him to apply for film school. It happened that the college entrance examination was resumed in 1978. Zhang Yimou, who had been isolated in the noisy world of workshop lathes for a long time, decided to jump out of his comfort zone and go see Take a look at the outside world.

When I came to the Film School, I applied for the Department of Photography. Zhang Yimou was already 27 years old. He was an over-age college student and did not meet the admission requirements of the Film School. Later, after many twists and turns, the Minister of Culture personally approved the admission of this interlude. Overage students who have been in the team and have been workers.

Zhang Yimou’s life began to counterattack from this exception.

In 1984, Zhang Yimou won the China Film Outstanding Photography Award for his unique and spiritual lens design for his participation in the filming of the movie "One and Eight", and he also gained some fame in the industry.

This film is listed as the pioneering work of the "fifth generation" of films, and Zhang Yimou later became one of the representatives of the "fifth generation of directors".

The history of Chinese film development to this day, from the first generation in the silent film period to the culturally diverse sixth generation, changes in society, culture, times, and technology have given films a diverse vitality.

When I was studying directing, I would always laugh and wonder whether the seventh generation of directors would be born among a group of people like us. However, as the years have passed, we have been working out of marriage, changing careers, and working for Broken Banknotes. Ji Liang is exhausted, and it seems that few people are doing things related to movies anymore. As for the seventh generation, it can be regarded as a new movie consciousness.

Some people burn their passion to pursue their dreams, while others burn their dreams just for their passion. There is no way to argue which one is right or wrong.

As representatives of the fifth generation of directors, Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang and other young directors who graduated from Nortel in the 1980s were almost all involved in the turmoil of the times during their teenage years. among.

Some have served in the military, and some have endured ten years of catastrophe, so we can see very strong subjective will and symbolic meaning in their works. Those ordinary and bumpy life experiences are integrated into each one. Every shot and every frame is endowed with a mysterious and profound quality.

Everyone knows about "Red Sorghum" and only knows that he is an excellent director, but they don't know that he won three Best Actors for his "Old Well" in 1986. That was his first time Starring in a movie.

The following year, "Red Sorghum" won the Golden Bear Award at China's first international film festival. From photography, to actor, and then to director, he successfully completed the transformation of his career.

Zhang Yimou is from Shaanxi, and he has the calmness and stubbornness of people from the northwest. Every time he is interviewed, Zhang Yimou seems a little silent, just like the person he is. He admitted that he is a very low-key person, and his behavior has always been relatively reserved, easy-going and sincere. However, Zhang Yimou seems to have a different look when making movies.

When he was a photographer in the early days, "Yellow Earth" made his shooting expression very subjective, and the large and strong color blocks continued into the works he later directed.

From "Red Sorghum" to "Raise the Red Lantern", from "My Father and Mother" to "Hero", the use of color has become an unavoidable element in Zhang Yimou's films. These works are in sharp contrast with Zhang Yimou's own personality. The more restrained he lives, the more unbridled his image expressions become.

He said, I like to go to extremes in the form of expression in movies, go as far as possible to exaggerate things, and try to render this form as extreme as possible.

So there are the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers double awards, the Golden Lion, Silver Lion and Golden Bear awards, and there are surprises for Chinese movies again and again.

In 1987, Zhang Yimou directed his first film at the age of 37.

As one of the few highly prolific directors in China, Zhang Yimou has released works almost every year while also strictly controlling the quality of his works. Of course, there are many films that have received mixed reviews from the audience and are highly polarizing.

Before he transformed into a commercial director, Zhang Yimou’s films focused on society, women, and conflicts, and every character was portrayed in a three-dimensional and vivid way. Zhang Yimou, who was a director of literary films, and his tacit partnership with the heroine Gong Li, created masterpieces such as "Red Sorghum", "Ju Dou", "Alive", "Shake, Shake, Shake to Grandma Bridge".

During his years in the industry, Zhang Yimou witnessed the country's transformation from a planned economy to a market economy. Chinese films underwent tremendous changes, and he adapted to the changes and transformed into a commercial director.

In 2002, a movie "Hero" entered the foreign box office list, setting a record for the highest global box office for Chinese movies. Chinese movies also went global, but in the following years, this movie was reprimanded. For bad movies.

In 2006, Zhang Yimou was appointed as the chief director of the Olympic Games when he was in danger. When he received the appointment letter, Zhang Yimou was still filming "The City of Golden Armor". Time was tight and he had no skills. In order to fight this battle well, he took three years off from acting. When he went all out to prepare for the Beijing Olympics, Zhang Yimou was already 56 years old.

To brainstorm and exchange ideas with young people, one must always be energetic and clear in thinking, and constantly overturn and polish. The "movable type printing" performance of 6,000 people alone drove Chen Danqing crazy at the time. But Lao Mouzi beside him was radiant, and he was constantly fighting wits with the team for more than ten hours. He would create another plan after giving up a plan, and his drive to never give up until the goal was achieved also made this body that does not have the advantage of time, because Diligent and shining.

In addition to the Olympic Games, the Hangzhou G20 Summit, the 70th anniversary party of the founding of the People's Republic of China, large-scale operas, ballets, and a series of cultural and tourism promotional videos, various "side jobs" allow the audience to see the uniqueness of this seventy-year-old artist. artistic talent.

Artistic creation not only requires talent, but also requires always maintaining enthusiasm and never stopping.

I like this sentence, what can defeat me is never age, but fear.

If you can't make it at twenty, you will make it at thirty.

If you can't make it at thirty, you will make it at forty.

If you can’t make it at forty, you will when you are fifty.

If you haven’t made it by fifty, you will one day.

Don’t be afraid of being a late bloomer.