"Seeing" Chai Jing interviewed Li An-"Crouching Tiger in Heart"
opening trailer:
children, animals, water, 3D, he embarks on an adventurous film journey.
(Chai Jing) Don't you do something that you are familiar with and safe?
(Lee Ann) The less you have done it, the more exciting it is.
(Chai Jing) What kind of feeling?
(Lee An) Let's find some guilt!
(Narrator) Ang Lee, the only Chinese Oscar for best director. His works such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Brokeback Mountain", and "Wedding Banquet" have a global influence, but five years ago he chose a film industry Recognized as the most difficult subject, set off again.
(Chai Jing) Is that a very struggling process?
(Li An) Yes, very anxious.
(Chai Jing) Are you afraid of failure?
(Lee An) Fear, fear only has energy.
(Narrator) This is a fantasy story of a teenager and a tiger, and it is also a dialogue between Ang Lee and his heart.
(Chai Jing) Instead, he is leading everyone forward.
(Li An) This is the kind of innocent power.
(Chai Jing) Isn't an adventurous story enough?
(Lee An) Yes, but that is not good enough.
(Chai Jing) What did this movie make you discover about yourself?
(Li An) There is still that tiger in my heart, and I still can't figure it out.
(Chai Jing) That kind of roaring desire?
(Lee An) Like a wild beast, there is a wild nature.
"Crouching Tiger in the Heart" Chai Jing interviews director Li Ang, broadcast immediately
[01:10]
(Chai Jing) About 2007, I read a book called "The Fantasy Drifting of the Juvenile Pie". This book is very interesting. It is about a sixteen or seventeen-year-old Indian boy and a three-year-old Bengal tiger. After encountering a shipwreck, the story of drifting together in the Pacific Ocean. I still remember saying to my friend after reading this book: "This is the difference between a book and a movie. A story like this can only be written as a book, not a movie." But five years later, the movie will be released next week. , And the person who made this movie is the only Chinese who won the Oscar for Best Director-Ang Lee.
(Narrator) Shipwreck is a common theme in Hollywood movies. Survival is also a common plot of Western blockbusters. However, a seventeen-year-old boy and a 450-pound Bengal tiger were on a lifeboat together, drifting on the endless Pacific Ocean for 227 days, surviving together under mutual threats. This is not science fiction or myth. , This is a documentary subject that has never been shown on the big screen, and it is also a new work by Oscar-winning director Ang Lee-"The Fantasy Drifting of the Junior School". The film's novel of the same name was once evaluated as "it is impossible to make a movie." From beginning to end, there is almost no interactive dialogue between humans and tigers. All the huge waves and tigers on the sea need to be virtualized by computer animation. There have been many directors trying to try, but they have to retreat, and most of Lee Ang’s previous films, whether it is "Pushing Hands", "Wedding Banquet", "Diet Men and Women", or his "Brokeback Mountain", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" with the theme of ancient costume martial arts, he has always been considered the best at telling social relations and getting along with others. But in this movie, a shipwreck isolates all humans from the juvenile school, leaving only nature, animals, and self that make people fear and awe. [03:24]
(Chai Jing) Why don't you do something you are already familiar with and safe? For example, many of your themes in the past were social relations, and you were able to grasp it with ease. It contained your life experience. Why did you want to make a movie with only a boy and a tiger, and basically no dialogue. ?
(Lee An) It's interesting if you haven't done it before. (Haha) Let me make a more playful analogy. For example, in a marriage relationship, you have to be loyal. You don't need to make a movie. The fresher the better, the less exciting it is (the better).
(Chai Jing) With your age, your situation...
(Li An) It's related, it's related, and it has a lot to do with my mentality. I have been making movies for 20 years as a professional and 20 years in the industry. So in terms of what I am doing now, I will make bad movies again, and in another ten years, someone will come to me to do it. But I would worry that shooting things is boring, there is no challenge, and my fighting spirit is gone.
(Narrator) Every claw of a tiger is as sharp as a knife. It means threat and death. In order to keep a safe distance from the tiger, the boy sent a boat oar, a life jacket and a lifebuoy to build a mini raft, and tied himself to the lifeboat with a rope. At first, all he thought about was how to put the tiger to death. Later, he realized that he had only one way of life, which was to ensure the food and water for the Bengal tiger. As long as it was not hungry, he was not in danger. He can only domesticate this tiger in this way. And Ang Lee, this time also faces the most adventurous film journey of his life. Children, animals, and water are already recognized as the most difficult subjects in the film industry. This is not enough. He also challenges to try 3D shooting.
(Chai Jing) Are you afraid of failure?
(Lee An) Fear, fear only has energy. Shooting, talents will increase their vigilance. It's like the kid crossing the ocean with the tiger. He later found out that he couldn't live without the tiger. There was no such fear, no feeling of awakening him. His fear of tigers raised his spirit and increased his spirit. So that kind of mentality and mental state to raise awareness is actually the best situation for survival, seeking knowledge, and learning, so sometimes I also need a little stimulation. I am very afraid of this, I am lazy, easy to be stale, and easy to be eliminated, then of course I don't want this.
(Chai Jing) With your status in the current film industry and the respect that everyone has for you, do you still have this kind of worry? The fear of being eliminated...
(Lee An) Yes, for the audience, and for those who are looking forward to you, I must have an explanation, and I must be very sincere. I have been in a state of ignorance, a state of freshness and excitement, for you The best one to play. This is what you, as a talented person, owe the audience a favor. [06:17]
(Narrator) Ang Lee once wrote in his autobiography: Fear urges me to keep improving, because there is no stronger feeling than fear. The young man in the ocean learns in fear, how to make fishing rods, find fresh water, and fight with sharks on stormy nights, while Li Ang, in fear, also begins his unknown drifting. He said, I like to do things I don't know how to do.
(Chai Jing) You have said before, you said you touched your stomach and said, unless I feel here, I will not make a movie. Did you have it when filming this one?
(Lee An) Yes, of course there is.
(Chai Jing) What kind of feeling?
(Li An) It's very strange, one kind is very, there is a kind of curiosity about faith, and a kind of longing. There is a feeling of wanting to suffer, want to find something to suffer, and hope that the spirit can be improved. [07:11]
(Narration) In the sea, the Junior School started the process of taming tigers based on the experience gained from growing up in the zoo. He even used tiger feces to beat the tiger's morale. Slowly the tiger finally understood that in the lifeboat, Pie was the boss and he was the second. This boy is a brave face in the imagination of many original readers, but Ang Lee said that he spent six months interviewing more than 3,000 teenagers in India. What he was looking for was a silly and stupid one. Face.
(Chai Jing) You once said that when the boy first came to try out, he brought glasses, donkey and donkey, he was a bit silly.
(Li An) People have fate, really fate.
(Chai Jing) Yes, when you mentioned yourself in your biography, you also used words like silly and stupid many times.
(Li An) If things are done, everyone thinks you are very prescient and imaginative. If you can't do it, you are really stupid. Then we take the fantasy seriously, there are some innocence, some innocence, it feels silly and stupid. Then you watch a movie, and then you have a silly energy to make it later. If you are too shrewd, it may not be so interesting.
(Chai Jing) I saw that when you chose to send this boy, you said a standard, you said you wanted to find a pure face. Why is it an innocent face? Rather than being strong or smart, it seems that these two words seem to be more able to help people through difficulties?
(Li An) The so-called genius does not mean that he can act and amuse, but he is willing to devote himself to a situation where he believes in himself and can be very focused.
(Chai Jing) Do you believe this word is so important?
(Ang Lee) Of course, the movie is to believe. He doesn't believe it, how can you believe it? He falls into this category, and he tried it out after a try. [08:55]
(Narrator) Everything in the movie is an illusion. The Pacific Ocean does not exist, just the large tank set up in Taiwan’s old airport. All of this, the rainbow arc drawn by the magnificent flying fish in the sky, shining brightly In the ocean, humpback whales jumping out of the sea, including Bengal tigers, do not exist. From millions of hairs to sports muscles, it is all done by later technology, which means that the teenager of the acting school must imagine all this. Sixteen-year-old Indian child Sura is a student who has never acted in a play. During the audition, Ang Lee gave the children simple instructions for a two-page monologue, and Sura’s concentration was not interrupted at all. At the end of the chanting, he cried. Su La unknowingly moved Li Ang sincerely. From that moment, Li Ang said, "This is the kid. I bet him."
(Chai Jing) But when he was acting in this scene, because the tiger was also made in 3D, he had to face a world with nothing in front of him. How would you let him believe it?
(Li An) So I think innocence is very important, so the child in his story is a sixteen-year-old, not a twelve-year-old, nor a twenty-six-year-old. Generally, what is the meaning of your existence at the beginning? He starts to use his brains. Then you can put him through a role at this age to test, accept the natural environment, and the test of God. His innocence is very important. Then he is also very important to my innocence, because his belief in himself, the power of thought, is a kind of power in itself, there is a kind of persuasiveness, so I don't know, I think my own concentration will affect him.
(Chai Jing) What does this focus mean?
(Lee An) The enthusiasm for the movie. I don't know, anyway, one thing, I seem to be occupied, the whole body is occupied. So when I was in that situation, there were more than him, and other people would naturally enter this situation. [11:10]
(Narrator) On the set, in order to mobilize the sentiments of the faction, Ang Lee once personally played the tiger to play with the boy. The two looked at each other in silence, and walked on the ship's side. In the Pacific Ocean built by this big pool, a world constructed entirely by imagery is based only on the common belief of two people.
Sura is a boy who can never swim and has never seen the sea. He must learn to bear everything, tie heavy objects on his body, hold his breath underwater for five minutes to learn how to survive in the water. For three months, he lives every day In the huge waves of the sink, every remake, you can only rely on yourself to reset all the props, which made the drama shed tears. At the end of the filming, Sura lost 14 kilograms.
(Chai Jing) The actor himself is still an immature child. Why did you later say that in the project of shooting, he is leading everyone forward.
(Li An) That is the kind of innocent power.
(Chai Jing) Does Innocence have this power?
(Li An) Well, he doesn't want to disappoint us. So in him, so the average teenager, sometimes you can't lean on him so much. He will be naughty, he will be fragile, he is not used to it, they are still in the age of being taken care of, he is not used to carrying such heavy responsibilities. So he can come out every day to carry this responsibility, his own spirit is very precious, he will be infected with us people. We have made a lot of movies, and some of them are even tired. When you see him, you will not be tired. Then you will follow him and you will film him. In fact, the pie in your heart will come out. Everyone will have factions in their hearts, so you are pinning them on it. This is a state of symbiosis. So his state affects your filming state, so in fact everyone is doing him and teaching him, but on the contrary, they complement each other, and he becomes a kind of spiritual leader.
(Chai Jing) Isn't it you?
(Li An) It was me (laughs). Afterwards, he and I felt like one. I gave instructions, but he was the one to be seen. As for him, every day he enters the field, his mental condition has an impact on everyone. Filming, I think the most valuable thing is a kind of innocent heart [13:27]
(Narrator) The juvenile faction slowly learns to tame tigers, but they don't know when they will drift on the shore, torturing people and tigers. At this time, Ang Lee was also in a situation of incomprehension. This time, he chose to shoot this subject in 3D, wanting to explore another possibility. But in this way, the cost of the movie is as high as 50 million US dollars. The investors believe that this theme is not a commercial blockbuster and has no viewing elements. After a year and a half of struggle, Ang Lee got the budget. After the shooting, it took another year and a half to do the post-production process. The whole process was very painful.
(Chai Jing) I saw you say in the morning, you said that when you were making this film, you had suffered a lot of mental torture. It felt like you were a pie, drifting in the Atlantic Ocean without an end, then Because of what?
(Li An) It's very difficult to make a film. I can't figure it out, I don't know what the future will be. Of course there is pressure. When you have no solution, or see no way out, it feels like pie, drifting.
(Chai Jing) Then you said that you used to be decadent and wanted to give up. This, I saw in the interviews you made all the movies before, there was no such a state of decadence. What happened this time?
(Li An) Usually, if you say one year, you will stand firm, and it will pass, one year, two years, three years, four years, and sometimes it is really uncomfortable.
(Chai Jing) Have you ever worried that you might not get there?
(Li An) Yes, there are often times of weakness, but when I get up the next morning, I'm a hero again, so let's go on.
(Chai Jing) Would anyone persuade you to say that you have always been successful in making art films, but commercial films, such as "The Hulk", seem to have not made any money.
(Lee An) Hulk, I am really a martyr, and I fight with him. (Laughs) No matter, and I am not young anymore. I am also a dozen years older than "The Hulk". (Actually) older people should be smarter and smarter. [15:25]
(Narrator) Hollywood hopes that this movie's story will be more inclined to the public's taste, so it will be a simple adventure story, telling the story of how a boy conquered tigers and grew up through adventures. But is this true in the real world? This is Li Ang's biggest struggle.
In 2010, in an interview, I once met a person who traveled the world alone in an unpowered sailing boat. This person named Zhai Mo once described to me the ocean he had seen, the kind of night as black as ink, and the ocean as flat as a mirror. The loneliness made people go crazy. After entering the Atlantic Ocean from the Indian Ocean, a shark has been following his boat at a distance of about ten meters. He was initially very scared and tried to feed it with instant noodles, worrying that the shark would eat him. But later, he felt that there was a certain attachment between him and this species.
(Zhai Mo) I drive a boat, and it always floats there. There is always something, that is, an animal is with you. In fact, people and animals may not be able to communicate with each other in terms of language, but in terms of feeling, it may It is a kind of induction, I am looking at it, it may also be pondering me, this is an imaginary. [16:59]
(Narrator) But this shark, after following Zhai Mo's sailing boat for a day and night, suddenly turned around.
(Chai Jing) When it finally turned around, did you feel relieved or lost at that moment?
(Zhai Mo) I feel a little nervous, because no one will be your company.
(Chai Jing) So you said that this reminds me of a book called "The Fantasy Drifting of the Youth Pie", which Ang Lee is making into a movie. The story told here is that a big circus boat on the sea was suddenly overturned by a storm. At this time, only a teenager and a Bengal tiger escaped. In this boat, they were drifting continuously on the sea. After many days, the little child had to feed the tiger continuously, fight against it, tame it, and finally they managed to escape to a deserted island. Many years later, the reporter went to interview this child who had become an old man. The old man told him that the tiger had never existed before. That was what I imagined, because what is more terrifying than a tiger is despair on the sea. [18:00]
(Narrator) The struggle of the juvenile school is also Li Ang's inner struggle. Despair was once the emotion he was most familiar with. When Li Ang went to the United States from Taiwan when he was young, his only wish was to become an actor, which was not encouraged by society in Asian culture at that time. He studied film. In his autobiography, he said that he graduated almost six years ago and achieved nothing. He brought his children to cook at home. At the beginning, I can still talk about my ideals. Three or four years later, when people are in their forties, they are still the same. I am too embarrassed to say any more about my ideals, so I start to be a little autistic. During this period, I occasionally helped others to make films, look at the equipment, help the editor to do something, and be a dramatist, etc., but they were all ineffective. Later, I had to do some coolies, take sandbags, carry things, and other clever things, and others did it. He said that at that time, the only thing that could stand against despair was the fantasy of movies. And even if he wants to become famous, outside of the movie, he says he is still a useless person.
(Chai Jing) You think you are a useless person in reality, why use the word useless?
(Li An) It's useless. I don’t know how to use a computer. I don’t know how to use it. I don’t know how to do things in general life. It’s not that I’m a big director now, so I don’t care about these trivial things. When I was young, I was just like that, confused, not very alive, so I thought I might be living in comparison, in another space. People. It seems to be detached from this world, and I feel that it is not easy to concentrate. People are not very stupid, but they are not easy to concentrate. So, um... not very bright.
(Chai Jing) What was your state when you were in the movie?
(Li An) It seems that the soul has returned for another person. (Laughs) [20:29]
(Narrator) Ang Lee said that he has many similarities with the juvenile school in the movie, and they both faced struggles. When the teenager sent a small child, he used to want to feed the tiger in the cage and establish a relationship with him, but his father taught him a lesson and let him see with his own eyes the tiger that was kept in a cage and hungry for three days. How to eat goats. Father used this bloody way to let him know that he must not have fantasies about reality, otherwise he would die. This is just an illusion. Ang Lee was also educated by his father since he was a child. Movies are a profession that relies on illusions for a living. When he won the Golden Bear Award with "The Wedding Banquet", his father still hoped that he would change his career.
(Li An) This father teaches him many rules of survival. You can’t hallucinate, because his father is an atheist, so don’t believe in those things, and don’t believe that animals have souls (things), you Don't believe it, you will be killed if you think. So he later relied on his father's lessons to survive at sea, so my father and I have this thing. Because father and son are both men, there is a kind of tension in the masculine confrontation, which is more dramatic. [21:40]
(Narrator) So how should the story in the movie end? Is the existence of tigers real, or is it a story that the teenagers are drifting on the sea, in order to fight despair and to survive, tell them to themselves? This is a question that Ang Lee must answer.
(Chai Jing) When I was reading a novel, I thought about it, if it were made into a movie, which ending would it be? Do people accept despair more or fear more, which is more terrifying? When you are shooting, what do you tend to believe in more?
(Ang Lee) So that was the most difficult part of the film. I reshot it several times and tried different cutting methods. My main struggle was in that place.
(Chai Jing) Maybe the producer will persuade you to leave it alone, just give a popular story, an adventurous story, isn't it enough?
(Li An) Yes, but that's not good enough. I have been doing movies for 20 years as a professional, and 20 years in the industry. I have never stopped since I was a child, but my brain likes to make things, I like fantasy, and I am alone. Even dreaming is not clear from daydreaming. I attach great importance to spiritual power.
(Chai Jing) What was your attitude when you were in this film?
(Li An) It is the growth of a boy, from a boy to a man, what he needs to face. Of course his play with the tiger is very good, but his tension has a lot to do with the survival and growth of his males.
(Chai Jing) What do you want to convey?
(Lee An) It’s a kind of sentiment, I am more sentimental, so I feel that growing up, I have pain in it, that is, the loss of innocence. When I was young, I felt very pure and protected, just like his home and the zoo, but When he came out to the sea, he was not a zoo, but a wild thing, an abstract world, abstract in spirit, and a wild thing in matter.
(Chai Jing) It seems that most of your movies are about loss of innocence.
(Li An) Yes, innocence is not just a loss. Your nostalgia for innocence is a kind of feeling in itself, and I think that kind of nostalgia cannot be lost. I feel innocent. Deep down in my heart, there is this kind of friendship that you cherish the most. I think you have to keep the relationship with people. That is a kind of mental state, that is a kind of virgin heart. I hope that no matter what your living environment is, that pure heart must have a share. I think it is quite precious. I think to some extent, innocence is very important to me. I hope that in that regard, I will never grow up. [24:30]
(Narrator) This movie is the opening film of this year's New York Film Festival, but Ang Lee did not release it until three days before the opening.
(Chai Jing) Is that a very struggling process?
(Li An) Yes, very anxious. Three days ago, I was released afterwards, and I cried after seeing it. I felt like it would become, as if it could be. [25:10]
(Chai Jing) You originally said that the movie is not known to be made. In the process of making the movie, you discover your position. What does this movie make you discover about yourself?
(Li An) It's hard to tell. It's really hard to tell. I found that I want to send. I still have a yearning for faith, but I still have that tiger in my heart, and I still can't figure it out.
(Chai Jing) What is this tiger to you?
(Li An) I can't talk about this.
(Chai Jing) It's the element that you wrote in the movie dream, that keeps appearing again and again.
(Li An) Look at me as a very peaceful and gentle person, so why am I so adventurous in filming? I want to have something to do with that tiger.
(Chai Jing) That kind of roaring desire?
(Lee An) No, I can't tell, it's like a beast, it's not roaring, it's a kind of wildness. I often shoot some, which has nothing to do with me. Shooting women, shooting "Hulk", shooting this thing, I can't say it myself, only in filming, in this mental state, I will have some experience. I really want this real level, this kind of sentiment can be conveyed to the audience, and hope that it can also trigger their hearts, that is, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. (Laughs) [26:54]
(Narrator) In the biography, he said that I can handle movies, but I cannot grasp the reality. In the real world, I have been an outsider all my life. Growing up in Eastern culture, I was accustomed to coordination, but after exposure to Western art, I developed a desire for conflict, struggle and dreams. Li An said that in life, he is the tolerant Yu Xiulian, but in his heart, he is a reckless Yujiaolong. At the end of the movie, he made Yu Jiaolong jump down and introduce the unknown cloud depth. Ang Li said that he is the startling romantic feeling in my dream.
(Chai Jing) Just like your biographer said, on the surface, everyone thinks you are a good gentleman, and you don't even want to say things that offend people. You think that being aggressive will cause trouble. But your movie is full of anxiety, struggle, even anger, or... Then do you think you are a little bit contradictory?
(Li An) I think everyone has it. I just say that I am more talented. I can be specific. I can make a movie. I think everyone has it. He may not be able to express it.
(Chai Jing) Then do you think the Bengal tiger in your heart has left after making this movie?
(Li An) It's like the cause and effect of Buddhism. If you want to leave, it's best not to even think about it. The more you think, the deeper you think.
(Conclusion) Li Ang said that everyone has a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in their hearts. This Crouching Tiger is our desire and our fear. Sometimes we can’t tell it, we can’t deal with it, it threatens us, and it gives We are uneasy, but it is precisely because of its existence that allows us to remain mentally vigilant and stimulate all your vitality to coexist with it.
Because of this, the Youth Group survived, Ang Lee got the dream of the movie, and we, according to Ang Lee’s words, learned that we were not so alone in this pure illusion.
The End has an
interview video viewing address: http://cctv.cntv.cn/lm/kanjian/index.shtml
View more about Life of Pi reviews
