"Shadow": The ink painting is beautiful and picturesque.

Stefan 2022-01-18 08:02:02

First published on the 1905 film network

Chinese teacher Zhang Yimou brought his new work "Shadow" to the 75th Venice Film Festival today. The premiere has attracted the attention of the audience and the media. At the same time, Zhang also won the 2018 Jaeger-LeCoultre filmmaker Honor Award (Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker ), the award jointly presented by the Venice Biennale Organizing Committee and senior Swiss watch brand Jaeger-LeCoultre, designed to reward him Outstanding contribution to the original development of contemporary films. With the award and the screening of new films, the National Teacher’s visit to Venice this time is of great significance, and his smile was also very bright at the press conference:

"Shadow" is the main creator at the press conference

Zhang Yimou is the leader of the fifth generation of directors in China and one of the outstanding directors in contemporary film industry. Not to mention that Director Zhang won the Golden Lion Award, the highest award at the Venice Film Festival in 1992 with "Qiuju's Lawsuit" and 1999, "No One Less" , and forged an indissoluble bond with Venice. He also relied on 2002 in the "hero" won the Oscar for best Foreign language film nomination. Now that he is 68 years old, he is still active in the film industry. This year he brought "Shadow" to the non-competitive screening unit in Venice. Another new work "One Second" has also been completed recently. Energetic and constantly determined to innovate, he deserves to be awarded the Jaeger-LeCoultre Filmmaker Honor Award.

Director Zhang Yimou was at the awards ceremony. He cordially said that this visit to Venice feels like "returning to his mother's house."

Questions and answers at the press conference

Although "Shadow" is a martial arts film that director Zhang Yimou is good at, it is different from his previous works. As we all know, the works of Director Zhang are often colorful. However, in this "Shadow", Director Zhang deliberately used black, white and gray as the main color of the film, so that the film presents a picture of ink and water, which can be described as playing the Chinese style to the extreme. The story of "Shadow" is derived from screenwriter Zhu Sujin's "Three Kingdoms·Jingzhou". The story in the film takes place in the area of ​​Jingzhou, Peiguo and Jingzhou. Director Zhang set Peiguo's capital city in the valley surrounded by mountains and rivers, and used the endless rain to match the capital buildings with high eaves and teeth, and traced a cold-toned ink landscape map. In the capital of Peiguo, as the monarch Peiliang loves calligraphy, Director Zhang painted calligraphy on the indoor props such as screens, and the clothes were sprayed with ink, so that the overall tone is very uniform and fully integrated with the tone of Peiguo. When he arrived at Jingzhou occupied by the enemy of Pei, Director Zhang used the dangerous terrain of the Three Gorges to be the background of Jingzhou, and the extraordinary workmanship between the mountains and rivers made the city magnificent and magnificent. As for the dungeons and the drama of the bamboo forest in the movie, Director Zhang cleverly used the dark effects caused by light and yin-yang gossip diagrams to filter out the colors most naturally, truly using light and shadow props to achieve the existence of "shadow".

"Shadow" Stills: Urban Tones

"Shadow" poster: fighting scene color

Director Zhang said at the press conference: "My previous works have very strong colors, which are considered my logo, but I personally prefer the style of "Shadow" because it is very Chinese and very similar to our paintings. I have always hoped to be able to take traditional Chinese ink paintings. I have waited for many years to finally achieve it today. Now it is easy to use a computer to render black and white, as long as it is adjusted later. But it is difficult to fade the colors by shooting, "Shadow" It is through shooting, costumes, props, etc., that the beauty of black and white is achieved in material. The beauty of the ink paintings seen on the spot is actually shot, which is very interesting."

The aesthetics of "Shadow" is unparalleled, and it is hard to imagine. The 68-year-old Zhang Yimou chose to "decorate naturally" in his new creative technique, stripping off his best color and presenting it with the most difficult natural color. Ink painting, a treasure of Chinese culture, is truly commendable. However, what I didn't expect was that apart from that, "Shadow" did not have a huge scheduling scene. The golden age of gold in "Full of Golden Armor" in "The Great Wall", the thousands of horses in "The Great Wall", the flames of war in "The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling ", all disappeared in "Shadow", and the only climax of siege It is a battle against a hundred people. But even so, the battle in "Shadow" is still wonderful. The siege warship not only has a "troy" effect, but the diving equipment made of bamboo rafts and the weapon of defeating the enemy made of umbrellas also make the movie full of Chinese flavor. It can be said that this should be a brand new attempt by Director Zhang in his directing career: restraint, restraint, but inspiring.

In addition to the ink-and-wash style art, Director Zhang also used a lot of traditional Chinese musical instruments such as Guqin and Xiao as the soundtrack for the film. The interpretation of "Shadow" in this way has a special meaning. As Director Zhang said, "Chinese traditional culture is the source of my creation, whether it is Chinese culture, etiquette, morality, etc. The subject matter of traditional culture is very important in the creation of Chinese films, and China is the only one in the world. Linear development, an ancient civilization where the culture is not broken and lost. The reason why I still want to talk about traditional culture is to let young people see Chinese traditions. "Shadow" is a Chinese ink painting and a symbol of traditional culture. I hope to use it "Shadow" conveys the beauty of Chinese traditional culture to the world. "

In addition to its visual prominence, "Shadow" also has many brilliant points in its narrative. The story of "Shadow" revolves around Peiguo's general Ziyu and his stand-in Jingzhou. Director Zhang pointed out that there have always been people like avatars in China, but few people shoot them. This time I filmed "Shadow" to try this theme and pay attention to the personalities and destiny of these people. In "Shadow", not only does Deng Chao play two roles alone, he shows his greed and the integrity of Jingzhou, and the king, Peiliang, played by Zheng Kai, is also both righteous and evil. He sometimes indulges, sometimes violent, and the duality of the characters is highlighted. The two female characters in the movie are also worthy of interpretation. Xiao Ai, played by Sun Li, has profound emotional journeys and choices behind the pursuit of male power and revenge. Guan Xiaotong’s daring to love and hate, as Director Zhang said, has the character of a young man in the new era. With such a tragedy in the pursuit of power and desire, Director Zhang tried to bring realistic meaning to "Shadow".

The performance of the actors in "Shadow" is worthy of recognition, especially Deng Chao. He has two roles to play alone, playing both the strong Shunshu and the thin Ziyu. For this reason, he worked out a muscle before shooting, and quickly lost 40 pounds during the shooting, and he never used a stand-in. This may still belong to the first person in the history of Chinese film. It's no wonder that many foreign audiences didn't realize that they were played by an actor after watching "Shadow". While Jingzhou heroic fighters are bold, Ziyuyin bird of prey is vicious, and their personalities are completely opposite. Deng Chao drove the character performance of the two people, especially Ziyu’s hysteria. He acted vividly. This is very different from the comedic talent Deng Chao we usually see in variety shows. The performance is commendable.

Stills: Strong Jingshu

Weak Ziyu

Deng Chao plays two roles alone

In addition to Deng Chao's good performance, Zheng Kai's performance is also surprising. In the movie, he played the role of Pei Liang, a mantis catching a cicada. He seems incompetent but scheming. Zheng Kai's various expressions also explain the character of this character. He confessed that this is the second time he has worked with director Zhang Yimou, the first time he played the people around the emperor, this time he finally played the emperor, which is considered an "upgrade". His sense of humor made the reporters hilarious, and during the press conference, Zheng Kai was the only one who answered fluently in English, and his English proficiency was impressive.

The seemingly absurd Peiliang

As for Sun Li, although she did not have many roles, she still grasped the emotional context of the characters. Although she and Deng Chao were both husband and wife in and out of the play, she still performed a subtle difference between the two characters played by Deng Chao. . Wang Qianyuan's performance was quite satisfactory this time, but Hu Jun showed the general's style very well. Because Wu Lei and Guan Xiaotong are young, there may still be traces of their performances, but if they can cooperate with Director Zhang, the stars will be infinite in the future.

68 years old may be the age many people think is suitable for retirement. However, Zhang Yimou tried to try new things. He used ingenious methods to brush a lot in Venice, splashing out a beautiful landscape and bringing the best to the world audience. Traditional but also the most exquisite Chinese style, dotted the screen of the Venice Film Festival. It is believed that this film will also gain the favor of domestic audiences after it is released.

View more about Shadow reviews

Extended Reading
  • Mireya 2022-03-25 09:01:19

    Sun Li's Xiao Ai is really brilliant

  • Javon 2022-03-29 09:01:07

    Zhang Yimou, who is so literary, chivalrous and restrained, is actually quite sexy.

Shadow quotes

  • Zi Yu: They say a pup taken at birth can find its birthplace by tracing the scent.

  • Xiao Ai: Some things don't have a right or wrong. What's done is done.