Meng Huo, director of National Memorial Hall: The experience of dying in the countryside is completely different from that in the city.

I am like a dragon swimming on the beach.

I'm like a fish that swallowed a hook.

I'm like a boat that lost its rudder in the waves. "

In the last egg of the movie "Crossing Zhaoguan", old Li Man Fuchang heard the news of the death of his old friend Han Yutang on the phone, and sang the words "Shiro visiting his mother" in this Peking Opera alone in the face of heavy snow. Before this egg appeared, the subtitle was typed: Dedicated to Grandpa.

This is dedicated by director Meng Huo to his grandfather who died on the 20th11Spring Festival. One day at the end of the second year, walking on the road, he suddenly remembered a sentence that grandpa had said to him before his death. One day, he received a phone call from an old friend and wanted to see him.

The movie Guo Zhaoguan tells the story that in a village in Zhoukou, Henan Province, an old man named Li Fuchang accidentally got the contact information of an old friend, and decided to ride a motorcycle and tricycle to take his little grandson to the countryside for the summer vacation and travel thousands of miles to visit his old friend Han Yutang. Li Fuchang was beaten to the right when he was young, and he survived with the help of Han Yutang.

The National Photo Gallery is positioned as "China Rural Highway Film". At first, Meng Huo wanted to make it into a road movie. He wondered what would happen and who he would meet if his grandfather really went on the road.

On June 20 18, at the 2nd Pingyao International Film Festival, "Guo Zhao Guan" won the Fei Mu Honorary Award, Best Director and Best Actor.

Director, actor Yang Taiyi, and founder of Lvliang Literature Season Jia are at the exchange meeting before the film "The View of National Zhaos" is released.

Investing 400 thousand, making movies sometimes has little to do with money

Most of the films in the National Photo Gallery are non-professional actors. For Meng Huo, even if the investment in this film far exceeds 400,000, he will not consider professional actors, because this film is not like that. Yang Taiyi has stage performance experience and won't get stage fright, but because of this, he will have a sense of stage when he starts shooting. Meng Huo's method is to shoot more and chew more, so that Yang Taiyi can find his own rhythm of speaking and then adjust it constantly. He will also let the staff secretly take photos of Yang Taiyi's private state with their mobile phones, and then show it to him to let him know how to go in life and how to go when making a movie.

Meng Huo was at the scene of the shooting.

For a 77-year-old amateur actor who has no performance experience, the long lines in the movie are a great challenge. But Yang Taiyi has a good memory and he works hard. During the interview, Yang Taiyi told me the story of "Crossing Zhaoguan" for more than ten minutes in strong Henan dialect.

Meng Huo's last play was also his first feature film My Friend, which was a fiasco at the box office and lost millions. The lesson he learned from it is that he can't do things that he can't control completely, such as the break of the capital chain, he can cope with it himself, and he can't hope for luck. When filming My Friend, a company was willing to invest money. As a result, it opened, but the company quit. Meng Huo didn't want to give up, so he filmed during the day and called everywhere to borrow money at night. 5 thousand and 10 thousand are not small, so he quickly took it. Finally, the film was barely finished, but the box office was a fiasco.

Crossing Zhaoguan has a total investment of 400,000 yuan, which was also borrowed by Meng Huo from relatives and friends. After filming My Friend, he had no money.

"At that time, I owed a lot of money and couldn't sleep all night. I have been thinking, should I continue to make movies or switch to other things? " Meng Huo said. Although a bunch of rotten projects later found him, he refused.

The resident crew of the National Photo Gallery is *** 12 people. Now Meng Huo thinks that it might be very effective if Friends is not performed by a regular crew of so many people, but by a small crew like Guo Zhaoguan.

20 16, executive director of JASON ZHANG Dali film studio. The film crew is less than 20 people, all of whom are played by real people in real environment, and the shooting is very slow. This shooting method suddenly inspired Meng Huo. "Making movies sometimes has little to do with money."

The last trip in life should have a sense of ceremony.

For the name "Guo Zhaoguan", many people's first reaction is "Guo Shaoguan". The name of this film comes from Meng Huo's experience of helping people shoot videos at Mei Lanfang Grand Theatre when he was in college. At that time, what was sung on the stage was an excerpt from Crossing Zhao Guan.

The crossing of Zhaoguan was related to Wu Zixu, a doctor of the State of Chu. According to legend, King Chu Ping acceded to the throne and listened to rumors. Wu Zixu got away with it when his father and brother were killed. On the way to escape, I passed Zhaoguan, a place with dangerous terrain and high security. It is difficult to go to the sky after Zhaoguan, and Wu Zixu turned white overnight.

"Life is like crossing Zhaoguan, crossing Zhaoguan Tongguan, crossing Tongguan and crossing Jiayuguan Shanhaiguan. It's sad." This is Li Fuchang's line in the movie "Crossing Zhao Guan". The characters in this movie are all in the "Zhao Guan" where they live, such as the bankrupt youth, the driver whose truck broke down, the old beekeeper who made sound by the voice generator, and the dying old friend.

Meng Huo said that Wang Hongwei, an actor who played many Jia movies, told him after watching the movie in Pingyao that the old man played by Yang Taiyi was a very real image of China people, which he had not seen on the screen for a long time.

Yang Taiyi might not have experienced so many firsts in his life if he hadn't filmed Zhao Guan. For example, last year's Pingyao Film Festival was his first trip, and in April this year, he followed Meng Huo to Beijing for the first time. On April 9th, at the opening ceremony of the Lvliang Literature Festival, he read with famous artists such as surprisingly, Ouyang and Zhao Tao for the first time.

Yang taiyi

In Crossing Zhaoguan, the main plot is that Grandpa Li Fuchang rides an electric tricycle and takes his little grandson to Sanmenxia to meet an old friend. The electric tricycle is reminiscent of david lynch's Uncle streeter, and the setting of three generations of grandparents is reminiscent of Kitano Takeshi's Summer of Kikujiro.

In the movie, Li Fuchang thought of the reunion of old friends decades ago and immediately decided to go. In Meng Huo's view, there is no need to give any motivation for this setting. "What motivation is greater than wanting to do something I want to do most before I die?" Meng Huo said.

I asked Meng Huo why Li Fuchang wanted to visit his old friend in Sanmenxia, so why not let him go by bus or train? Instead, he wants to drive an electric tricycle like the story in david lynch's Uncle streeter. Meng Huo explained that there was actually a hint in the movie, which was related to his little grandson's motion sickness, but more importantly, he went back to that year. The original script said that I walked 500 kilometers in six days and seven nights, but it was deleted when editing.

Another reason for not choosing more convenient means of transportation to visit friends is that for the elderly, he is not a greedy person. When he walks slowly, he can think and calm down. Li Fuchang rode a tricycle to Sanmenxia on the first day. The car broke down. He comforted his grandson: "I can't go today, I will go tomorrow." He is never in a hurry and takes his time.

"Nothing is more important to him than this," Meng Huo said. "If he goes to Zhoukou to see his second grandson, he will definitely go by car, because it has nothing to do with looking back on life, but a very clear purpose. Then it is clear why the old man walked so far in this film. He needs to walk slowly through such a road and look back at his life. "

"Maybe this is his last trip. He should have a sense of ceremony. " Meng Huo said.

Yang Taiyi told me that when Pingyao Film Festival gave him an award last year, the host asked him what he thought. He said he dared to have any feelings. Making a movie and winning an award is something that an old farmer never thought about in his life.

Yang Taiyi said that Henan TV contacted him and wanted him to play a TV series. Asked if making movies was fun, Yang Taiyi said with a smile, "It was fun, hehe".

"Make a contribution to China's film and television culture." When asked if he would continue to make movies, Yang Taiyi said seriously.

"I hope he is healthy," Meng Huo said when asked if he would ask Yang Taiyi to film again if he had the chance.

The experience of dying in the country is completely different from that in the city.

In Guo Zhao Guan, there is a memory. Li Fuchang's cousin is a mute. When he was young, his brother and his father had a quarrel. Drinking pesticides in a rage, people are gone.

"This kind of thing is too normal in the countryside." Meng Huo said with a drag on his cigarette.

On New Year's Eve, Meng Huo's next-door neighbor, a woman under 30 years old, just came home from a bath in the village and saw her husband who was good at playing mahjong before the end of the year. The two began to get angry. The man said, "It's fucking boring to live with you. I am dead! " "Then, he took a pesticide bottle to drink medicine, but it was empty. When the villagers came, they shivered, laid him a quilt and pulled him on a motor tricycle to pump his stomach.

At this point, only the stunned wife was left in the yard. So far, Meng Huo still doesn't know what this aunt does. Is it fear or sadness? Suddenly, she opened a bottle of pesticide and drank it. Meng Huo remembered that at about eight o'clock, the Spring Festival Gala was about to begin. At home with his sister, he saw his aunt who had drunk pesticides walking in front, shouting the name of his youngest son as she walked. This is a voice of panic that penetrates people's hearts.

"I didn't drink, I scared her!" The man said. The aunt was immediately pulled out of the village, but it didn't take long for people to get cold.

Meng Huo said that what happened next might be written into his future movies. That night, the young people in the village went out to help move the man's TV and other valuables to another empty house and lock them up for fear that the woman's family would come and smash things. At the same time, there are two people standing at the east entrance and west entrance of the village, keeping informed whether the families of the deceased have come here at any time.

Guo zhaoguan stills

A family suicide with a bit of an own goal turned into an incident in two villages.

The family of the suicide woman, men, women and children in the village, came with two or three tractors and shovels in their hands. The scene is tense. The whole village here can only offer them tea and water to make amends. Fifteen-year-old Meng Huo ran back and forth. He saw the dead woman's father-in-law in the hall, helping his dead daughter-in-law comb her hair.

"I think if you see her in the afternoon and say hello to you, it will be gone at night." This sudden death made Meng Huo feel ridiculous.

"Your experience of death in the country is completely different from that in the city. Because you will often face funerals, coffins and cemeteries directly. If you go down to the ground, there may be several graves in your own field. Where have you seen a knife in the city? All the dead people are in the funeral home. Everyone is far away. There is a dead man in the community. You have no idea. " Meng Huo said.

In Meng Huo's memory, he had too many moments to face the body directly. For example, he saw with his own eyes how grandma died, how dull his eyes were, and there was no oil left. In the years of preparing for "Guo Zhao Guan", it happened that my grandfather and my best friend died, prompting him to think about life and death. He felt that these death experiences should be put into movies.

In Meng Huo's view, it is impossible not to be afraid of death, but just because he thinks a lot about death, it makes him more determined and wants to know why he wants to live. For example, do you want to make a commercial film or something related to your heart when you are alive?

Country life is boring, but you can't forget me because of boredom.

At the end of the film, Li Fuchang finally met an old friend who was seriously ill in Sanmenxia Hospital. The chat between them was simple, "Why are you here?" "Did you come by car or how?" "I came to see you, my son is still waiting for me, and I will come to see you tomorrow." In a few words, the conversation that happened when I visited my old friend stopped here.

"You really meet a person is enough, in other words, just a minute or two, but before he died, he also took the initiative to tell his son that he must give you a call, which is very severe. If you really want to stay for ten days and a half, it is wrong. " Meng Huo thinks this simplicity is very real.

This short minute condensed the way that generation got along. On the afternoon of May 9, Meng Huo listened to the writer Ge Fei entitled "What does the disappearance of the countryside mean?" In Lvliang literature season. Suddenly, he had a new understanding of his films, and he found the particularly important value of films. Before, he always said that he wanted to keep the image of his grandfather's generation.

Guo zhaoguan stills

"Those of us who are on the train, or those who are chasing this train, are staring at this train. No one wants to stop and get out of this train to see the distance. There are still so many people who have been completely forgotten. " Meng Huo said.

Li Fuchang was forgotten, and they were not in the news. In Meng Huo's view, these people are our spiritual and emotional homes. We actually come from there, but we have forgotten them. Meng Huo thinks this is a particularly terrible thing.

Meng Huo's generation also had direct contact with Li Fuchang, but for the generation after him, whether they were born in Beijing or Zhengzhou, their hometown village was not their home. "They don't know that there are such a group of people who live in this world in this way and then finish their lives. Twenty or thirty years at most, these people may never appear in our sight again, completely forgotten and buried in the soil. How terrible. "

Many viewers say that this movie is about the feelings of grandparents and grandchildren or the philosophy of life and death, but now Meng Huo feels it is more important to look back at some people who have almost been forgotten.

"I sometimes want to bye bye, I which beautify? You tell me where to beautify? Just like the fate of the dumb, this is caused by the patriarchal clan system in rural areas, and I have also presented these. " Meng Huo asked.

The paper windmill on the movie concept poster not only symbolizes the beautiful side, but also has its dark and cruel side in rural life and ethics. Therefore, some viewers criticized Meng Huo for beautifying the countryside.

In his view, many people don't understand the countryside. They regard the countryside as a free space that they daub at will, and then daub the ugly distortion of human nature on it. Creators need a background when discussing human nature. For example, Lou Ye likes to put it in the city, and some people like to put it in the country. Although Meng Huo doesn't think that what he presents is a completely real country, he says that he hasn't seen a film closer to the country than Guo Zhaoguan.

"Everyone thinks that the countryside is naturally associated with backwardness and ignorance, so once we shoot some people and put them in the countryside, it will be particularly right, and the village will be ugly. I don't think so. When I returned to the village, I felt very comfortable. If that's the case (backward and ignorant), why do tens of thousands of people return to the village every Spring Festival? "

Many of Meng Huo's young children work in cities. Every time they go home, they feel that rural life is boring, but their emotional support is still in the countryside.

"I must be bored, but being bored doesn't mean you can forget me." Meng Huo said.