Zhang Yimou's letter pushed Gong Li to the world. Why did it cut off Shi Ke's star path?

What angle should we look at Red Sorghum?

As Zhang Yimou's first film, this film won the Berlin Golden Bear Award before its birth. Judging from the awards, the film is undoubtedly a success. It's just that there are many stories hidden behind this movie.

0 1 Let's go back to the original time. In the first few years, Zhang Yimou was a photographer. He shot many works and won many awards. His composition is bold and his lens design has a unique charm. The success of Yellow Land greatly inspired Zhang Yimou's enterprising spirit.

In photography, Zhang Yimou has expanded to the ranks of first-line photographers, so try directing. The next step is to choose a notebook. When Zhang Yimou saw Mo Yan's Red Sorghum, he secretly decided: This is it. Zhang Yimou kept looking for Mo Yan, hoping to get the copyright of this work.

At that time, Zhang Yimou had just finished filming "Old Well", and his tanned skin and worn-out feet in the scorching sun made Mo Yan feel more cordial and looked like the production captain in the village. The simple and honest image has been favored by Mo Yan, who is determined to give this play to Zhang Yimou to shoot. Later, Mo Yan mentioned the idea at that time, and Zhang Yimou also said that Mo Yan at that time was like an accountant in their team.

Cooperation has made a good start and needs a good background. The drama "Red Sorghum" needs the same background as the name, and it needs a large area of sorghum fields. After Zhang Yimou divided the required areas, he signed a contract with each household, and after selecting the seeds, he waited for the sorghum to grow well before starting the machine.

As a result, I didn't expect that even if I was urged, half of sorghum still chose the wrong seeds. The right side is obviously short of height because of neglect of care.

Zhang Yimou was in a hurry, and Zhang Yimou tried to stop work 15 days to ripen sorghum with chemical fertilizer. Zhang Yimou hired a cart to pull a few tons of fertilizer, and every fellow villager pulled it to the ground. I thought this would be solved, but Zhang Yimou and his party stumbled across that these fertilizers were not used in the fields. The villagers walked around with fertilizer and returned home. Those fertilizers became guests under the bed of their hometown.

Obviously, the villagers didn't take filming seriously. This incident attracted the attention of the county leaders, who called an emergency meeting of the villagers who planted sorghum and asked everyone to complete it as a task. This is the beauty of sorghum in the film.

After watching fellow villagers sow seeds, Zhang Yimou began to study role-players. All the other roles in the play have been decided, but the actor of the soul character "my grandmother" has not been decided yet.

There were five golden flowers in China opera at that time, among which Shi Ke and Wu became popular when they were students and became calendar girls. Jin Lili and Alice Chan also have ways to make money. Now the famous Gong Li was the one who envied the other four people at that time. In terms of appearance, Gong Li's facial features do not conform to the aesthetics of that era, and belong to the "plain-looking" type among the five people.

At first, Zhang Yimou took a fancy to Shi Ke's appearance and dress. Compared with Gong Li, Shi Ke dresses up in a foreign style, and her figure is more in line with the description of "big breasts and fat buttocks" in the article. From the appearance, Shi Ke is completely the image of Jiu-Er, and Zhang Yimou's choice of history can be said to be certain. But one person recommended another person to Zhang Yimou, namely Gong Li, Shi Ke's classmate.

When Mo Yan first met Gong Li, he felt that this thin and small student seemed to be very naughty. It's just that when people come, we can't just let them go back, so we reluctantly decided to let Gong Li give it a try. After dressing up, Mo Yan felt that Gong Li's image was a little charming. During the audition, photographer Gu Changwei also took the part of Gong Li empty, only four or five seconds.

But those few seconds became the reason why Gong Li was chosen. In Zhang Yimou's mind, Gong Li's temperament is completely inconsistent with Jiu-Er, but he can perform such a performance that conforms to the characteristics of the characters, which is worthy of the name "Heaven rewards diligence".

Zhang Yimou has been leaning towards Gong Li, while Shike is still in the dark. One day, when she saw that Gong Li was reading the script of Red Sorghum, she said, "Why do you also watch Red Sorghum?" I didn't expect my role to become someone else's bag.

A few days later, Shi Ke received a letter from Zhang Yimou. "It turns out that the hero is an actor named Liu, which is in line with your image. Now it's Jiang Wen, and your images don't quite match. I hope to cooperate again in the future. "

This is the greatness of Zhang Yimou. To tell the truth, Shi Ke didn't take the play seriously at that time. In her eyes, this is an ordinary opportunity. Zhang Yimou didn't care about Shi Ke's apology, but as we all know, Shi Ke was robbed by Gong Li and cut off by someone who was not as good as himself, and Shi Ke's mood became more and more agitated.

Looking at the letter again, Shi Ke felt too unsightly, and all the words seemed insincere. In a rage, Shi Ke tore the letter into pieces and threw it into the trash can. Things on Shi Ke's side are over, because Shi Ke has also participated in many works since then. Although not as famous as red sorghum, it is not bad.

Actors in place, scenes in place, stories in place, Zhang Yimou's first directorial work was completed in stumbling.

1At the end of 987, the Film Bureau sent Chen Kaige's king of the children to Berlin for a competition, which was very popular at that time. Even Hadl, the then chairman, praised the film, but Chen Kaige decided that his film was more suitable for Cannes, so he voluntarily gave up the competition.

It was because of Chen Kaige's abandonment that the Film Bureau had to look for a new film to participate in, and the just-finished Red Sorghum became the best choice.

Seeing this film, Hadl appreciated it very much, which became a milestone for China films to enter the international market. After winning the prize, Red Sorghum was released in China. In that era when the ticket price was only a few cents, the ticket price of Red Sorghum was as high as several dollars, even as high as 10 dollars.

Every show was full and finally won more than 4 million box office. This sudden success also prompted Zhang Yimou to go further and further on the road of directing.

The success of the conclusion always comes unexpectedly. Zhang Yimou's Red Sorghum is not only a milestone in his career, but also a milestone in China films.

In this film, Zhang Yimou won not only artistic and commercial success.

I also gained a beautiful relationship.