The story behind "Old Boy"

"Chopsticks Brothers" Xiao Dabao is holding his guitar, and Wang Xiaoshuai is wearing a Michael Jackson dance suit and standing on the talent show with his legs slightly crossed.

Amidst the squeaking sound of the microphone, the judges all had their guns and sticks in hand: "One of you is a wedding host and the other is a barber, right?" "Do you two know? "Among all the contestants, you two are the oldest." "Do you think you can become famous?"

The two looked at each other, then turned back and winked politely. Bend up and say nothing.

Forty minutes later, the screen went dark and the lights came on. The real-life "Chopstick Brothers" - Xiao Yang, who plays Xiao Dabao, and Wang Taili, who plays Wang Xiaoshuai - are still standing with their legs slightly crossed in a movie restaurant and bar in Dongcheng District, Beijing. The theater was packed with fans.

The popularity came so violently. The 42-minute short film "Oldboy" has been uploaded to the Internet for 11 days and has been played nearly 8 million times. On various movie websites, this online short film received high scores that are rare for domestic films. The lyrics of the ending song written by Wang Taili have become signatures of countless people.

"Life is like a ruthless carving knife/has changed our appearance/will it wither before it blooms/I have a dream..." The lights dimmed again, 30-year-old Xiao Yang and 41-year-old Wang Taili The ending song "Old Boy" was sung a cappella: "Youth is like a flowing river/Once gone, there is no time to come back and say goodbye/Only the numb me is left/Without the passion of the past/Look at the flowers floating all over the sky/Withered at the most beautiful moment / Who will remember / this world has been here before? ”

Goodbye, young man

In 2009, Xiao Yang received a call from Wang Taili, and the always jovial Wang said very seriously. : "Michael is dead! We don't have much time. We can't stay numb anymore.

Let's do something."

Both of them, who are 11 years apart, are both Michael. As a fan of Jackson, Xiao Yang began to write a script, telling the story of Xiao Dabao and Wang Xiaoshuai who were no longer young and regained their youthful dreams. "The youth trajectories of Michael and our generation coincide with each other. When he was most glorious, we were the most youthful and romantic; when his career suffered setbacks, it happened to be when we entered society, and our original values ????collapsed. Become a young man; finally he passed away, bringing an end to our youth: Goodbye, boy!"

Wang Taili found the Japanese singer Takuya Ohashi's "Thank You", wrote the Chinese lyrics, and polished it for a month. "I was sitting on the subway thinking about the lyrics. I couldn't stop my tears from flowing, but I was afraid that others would see me. When I came across youth and dreams, I felt like this was right!"

1993, 24 Wang Taili, 20, came to Beijing for the first time from his hometown in Shandong with 500 yuan in his pocket. "I just wanted to learn singing and become a singer, but I didn't know where to learn. I carried a big denim bag and walked from Beijing Station. It was the peak tourist season and I walked to Dongdan. I finally found a small hotel to stay in. The next day I didn't I knew what I was doing, but I didn’t know who to look for, so I came here."

First, I rented a university dormitory for 6 yuan a night, and then rented a house for 100 yuan a month. "It was completely built. The bricks are full of cracks, so wide!" In winter in Beijing, Wang Taili slept on the door panel with his clothes on, tightly wrapped in quilt, but still freezing.

He finally touched the teacher's door and handed over the aquatic products brought from Qingdao with a shy face. They had already melted. The teacher asked him to sing but did not teach him. "Because I may not be good at singing."

Wang Taili said to the female classmate who was having dinner with him: In order to become a singer, I can sell my kidney! The female classmate never spoke to him again. "Maybe you think I'm too stupid? I thought at the time that if I couldn't be a singer, then what's the point of living? I didn't know what the reality was like."

The 500 yuan was finally spent. , Wang Taili had to go home. After a while, I came back again, took singing classes, found teachers who accepted apprentices, and learned to sing in several places. In the end, I ran out of money and went home again, repeated several times.

His father, who resells large machine tools and equipment, felt that Wang Taili was not doing his job properly and always wanted him to go back and take over the business. "That business is quite profitable. Some state-owned factories are about to collapse. I can find someone to buy them for tens of thousands of yuan and sell them for one or two hundred thousand. But I don't like this thing, I really don't like it." In the "Three Stripes" Brother In contrast, Wang Taili felt like a failure since he was a child and was beaten by his father every week, even until he was in his twenties. "I like music, and I have to prove it to my dad."

At this time, in 1996, Xiao Yang came to Beijing from Chengde, Hebei Province, and applied for the High School Affiliated to the Central Academy of Fine Arts, but failed. Against the advice of his family, 16-year-old Xiao Yang decided to repeat his studies in Beijing for a year. He shared a house of a few square meters with three classmates, and one of them had to sleep on a cupboard. I finally passed the exam in the second year.

“The children in our school at that time had eyes that were different from others and were often half-crazy.” Xiao Yang said that in their next class, more than 40 children had more than 20 cases of depression. , dropped out of school one after another. "When I was about to graduate, I thought, don't let me suffer from depression. At that time, I saw Duchamp's words, which probably said that a person's greatest work of art is his own life. I decided not to be a painter, but to change my career and study film." He passed the exam. Graduated from Beijing Film Academy, majoring in advertising.

In 1997, Wang Taili came to Beijing again. His dream of becoming a singer had been shattered. He thought that he could do something related to music. I had 1,800 yuan, 600 yuan to buy a digital pager, and 300 yuan to pay the rent.

"There are still 900 yuan left, until today."

Chopstick Brothers

Wang Taili, the owner of a cultural company, was sitting in the cafeteria of the Central Academy of Fine Arts eating. When he was about to leave, he thought of an advertisement on his hand. : I have to find someone cheaper and make more money from it. He casually asked the boy wearing glasses across the dining table: "Do you have any classmates who can shoot commercials or something?" The boy thought for a while: "I know a guy from Beijing Film Academy, Xiao Yang, he can."

It was 2005. Xiao Yang, a senior majoring in advertising, inexplicably got his first chance to shoot an advertisement, and the contract was signed in his dormitory. "Oh, glue~piece~, oh, Wang~gang~, wow, hundreds of thousands of funds! I couldn't sleep the night before, I was so excited." Xiao Yang's voice trembled.

The boss Wang Taili accidentally bumped into a good friend and good friend. "He is young, mature and very down-to-earth. He works very well together."

It is said to be a cultural company, but in fact it is just an intermediary company for performance endorsements. "Inverting people is similar to inverting machine tools, but I like the content more." Wang Taili didn't like this job, "You have to pretend to be a grandson!" He made his voice thin and slender, making a shy face and bowing his head: "Always prepare A lot of information, things are still messed up."

My father always said, you have to engage in industry, "You can't see or touch these things." When he was at a low point, Wang Taili would wonder if he had made a mistake. Well, this job doesn’t seem to be close to my ideal. Sometimes he would say like his father: "I have to do some business! Industry!" I once went to inspect the restaurant market.

After graduation, Xiao Yang shot commercials, and gradually became famous. I often encounter clients whose nostrils are turned up in the sky, and they will say: "You have to give me the feeling of filming "The Chronicles of Narnia"!" "Oh, I can't explain it to him in two days and only a small amount of money."< /p>

In 2007, Wang Taili and Xiao Yang got together and each invested 10,000 yuan to shoot a 6-minute funny MV "Memoirs of a Male Geisha". The two named themselves "Chopstick Brothers" when they were eating, which means Chinese characteristics, simplicity, and inseparability. Wang Taili, who disguises himself as a woman, is extremely funny. After the MV was released, it quickly became popular. "Chopstick Brothers" became Internet celebrities and won several Internet awards. Later, he filmed a tragic MV "Where Are You", which included many action scenes, but was not very popular. The two like this kind of cooperation so much, but they still have to work, so this can only be a joke.

In April this year, China Film Group and a certain website will cooperate in the production of the "11 Degrees of Youth Series" and invite the "Chopstick Brothers" to join. This is a short film project. Ten directors are asked to shoot youth films, each of which lasts about 10 minutes. They thought about that story about Michael.

Who will remember that he has been in this world

It is not a new story, but it touches the softest place of many people: Xiao Dabao who loves to sing and Michael who loves to learn to dance Wang Xiaoshuai likes the school beauty. The two went from hostility to reconciliation, and finally planned to show off their skills in a school theatrical performance together. As the costumes were set and cheers erupted, the wires were cut. Many years later, under the pressure of life, the two men, no longer youthful, participated in the talent show to continue the unfinished show.

"This film is like our own performance, fulfilling our own dreams. Like the characters in the film, we are not doing our jobs. I practice guitar, and he learns to dance." Xiao Yang explain.

Even the filming process is similar to that of "Oldboy": because Michael died, we went to a talent show together. "11 Degrees of Youth is also like a talent show." Both inside and outside the film. Not favored by others. "Most of the people who come to film 11 Degrees of Youth are senior people and celebrities in the cultural circle. We have only filmed some short films and commercials, and we are very disliked by everyone."

The story was not short to write, and it took thirty or forty takes. minute. "The investment is only more than ten minutes, and we are required to shorten it. Then we can only advance the money ourselves."

A team of more than fifty people shot for 16 days, and many people did not want to be paid. Except for the heroine Yu Beibei, no one else is a professional actor. In the end, hundreds of thousands were invested. "All the money was invested in the decoration of my home." Xiao Yang said with a smile.

BP machine, Arctic soda, middle-parted hairstyle, the most popular songs of the year "Star Lights Up", "Xiao Fang", "Sixteen Years Old"... The first half is a lively spoof, and the second half It is the tearing between reality and dreams. Every time Xiao Yang and the editor finished making changes, they would look at each other with tears rolling down their cheeks.

Wang Taili’s father had lymphoma. He came to Beijing for chemotherapy and seemed to be almost cured. "After he said it, he must see the film I made." Unfortunately, Wang Taili's father passed away before the filming was completed. "He has seen the previous two movies and they were too funny and he didn't like it." Wang Taili thought that his father would like this one. Maybe, he will finally understand his son's choice, maybe, he will be proud of it.

"Dreams, like classics, will never fade with time, but become more precious!" This sentence at the end of the film and on the poster has become the signature of many netizens.

Xiao Yang said: "Actually, our generation was very happy when we were young. There is no comparison with previous generations. But when we face the society, the pressure is too great. Housing prices may be too late a year later. Twenty or thirty years. Once you are calm and calm, you are afraid of being left behind by this era. Fifteen years ago, you may have had various ideals, such as writing poetry, becoming a scientist, or painting... Now They only care about one thing, how much money you make. The more this value affects us, the more we miss our youth.

"

Wang Taili is very happy that his company has suspended its business, "You can't really do things well if you don't like it. "Nowadays, there are many calls to discuss cooperation every day. "We are easier to work with. We do everything ourselves, including acting, singing, directing, editing, writing lyrics, and composing..."

One of his happiest things First, my 10-year-old daughter can already sing all his songs.