Old boy

I used to be angry

I am from Chengde. At the age of 16, I was admitted to the High School attached to the Central Academy of Fine Arts. At that time, it was a big deal.

My dream at that time was to be a painter.

One into the school, startled, look at the level of fourth grade students, it is too high. In addition, the lifestyle of my senior brothers and sisters is an artist, which is completely different from what I have experienced before. Back in my hometown, I was very confident and rarely doubted myself. When I first arrived in Beijing, I was really shaken.

After graduation, most of my classmates went to the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and I chose film. One is that I feel it is more direct to express my heart with movies than painting. The other is that I feel a little afraid to continue painting.

Why? Because painters create independently and rarely interact with each other, their spirit is particularly lonely. In addition, artists have to greatly enlarge the feeling of the moment, which is a very painful process. In our school, every year out of a mental illness, a grade lower than my class, 40 people found more than 20 melancholia, which scared me, want to change a circle.

The administration of my Alma mater was completely collegiate, which gave us a lot of freedom, so I learned how to play the guitar, the harmonica and, of course, drink.

At that time, our school was near the art museum. At that time, Beijing was undergoing major demolition and construction, but everything around us was still quiet. The deepest feeling at that time was that Beijing was so big and I was so small in comparison.

I shaved my head and went to movie school

After applying for Beijing Film Academy, a senior brother said, it is very dark there, you do not have to find someone to spend money, can not take the exam. Well, he said it sooner. I thought, this is no chance, take advantage of the holiday to shave a bald, home ready to repeat school, in Beijing for four years, actually did not go to university, really do not know how to tell my family. Unexpectedly, I was admitted, and admitted to the top, the shooting script I wrote was later included in the school entrance exam textbook.

In the first year of studying film, I felt very bad, because from the perspective of artists, I felt that filmmakers were very insecure. Everyone in the Academy of Fine Arts was studying knowledge, the staff structure was relatively simple, and there were many kinds of people studying film, so I was very surprised: why are these people so poor in aesthetic quality?

In fact, as time goes by, I will understand that movies include many links, so it is not necessary for everyone to have such high aesthetic quality. I majored in advertising, and what I wanted most at that time was to graduate early and make more money by shooting more advertisements.

Throw everything away for life

After graduation, I went to an advertising company, which is my major partner. I can't say I don't like shooting advertisements, but as you know, advertisements express the will of others, and there are many restrictions, so it is impossible to express yourself. In addition, Chinese customers are not mature enough, they finally pay for advertising, hate to fill it full, don't give the director any room to play. In foreign countries, a client can only ask for three requests for a director, while in China, the client will ask for at least nine requests.

Willing to do advertising, most are fast moving consumer goods, customers want to sell the goods as soon as possible, quickly return the cost, which makes the advertiser can not be leisurely, say is not want to say. But to make money, you have to listen to your customers.

When I was at my hardest, I slept only three to four hours a day, often flying to Hefei in the morning and back in the evening, rushing to the computer room to cut films after landing, then flying to Shanghai the next day and Guangzhou the day after tomorrow, working on several films at the same time, but how could I rest when I watched the rising housing prices?

Advertising, where most people make it into the middle class and the top few make it into the rich, is, on the whole, slightly better than making movies. But the industry also has a ceiling. Young directors have few opportunities and can only take on any job, which makes it difficult to form their own brand and get big contracts.

I worked like crazy, year after year, until 2009, when I finally bought my own house and settled down, I began to think that people should do something meaningful with their lives. From then on, I made a plan to shoot a short film every year and upload it to Youku.

Look back at the youth of a generation

For two consecutive years, the videos I shot have won a good reputation on Youku. Therefore, when Youku, China Film and Chevrolet Cruze jointly created the "11 Degrees of Youth Movie Tour", they thought of me and provided a fund.

I used to shoot commercials and videos at the same time. I used the money I made from commercials to support my videos. I could only shoot a few minutes of short films. That's when I heard the news of MJ's death.

I'm not a MJ fan. I knew he was a good singer and dancer. I usually just laugh when I see him on the news, but his death was a shock to me. Because he seems to be the landmark of our generation's youth, in my heart, he will not die, just like the street in front of your door, you pass it every day, and suddenly one day disappeared, what will you think? Once thought forever things, so collapse, which makes you realize the impermanence of life.

At that time, Wang Taili, the partner of the film, called me and said, MJ is dead, we can't do this anymore.

This led to Old Boy.

It was a very hard summer, and we revised the script while shooting. In order to shoot the scenes of our youth memories, we found an abandoned middle school, where there were piles of mosquitoes and lights, at least 50 degrees Celsius, and Teacher Wang Taili's wig was burnt on fire. For an upside-down shot, the cameraman dived under the fish tank, suddenly saw a crack in the glass and ran out. Almost at the same time, the whole tank burst, shattering the glass and pouring down several tons of water. If he had reacted slowly, he would have been crushed inside. Everyone in the crew was sunburned for the outdoor scenes.

But, we do not complain, because we are in the lost youth witness, our generation from a better living conditions, the environment is more relaxed, but to the society, but found that the pressure is so big, looking at the change of house prices day by day, almost no hope, we do not understand, employment, marriage, giving birth to children...... How is it that the most mundane of life's ideals are so difficult for our generation? We don't even have time to dream, so how can we not to look back at their youth, how can we not revisit those dreams and vows of youth?

Say something for our generation

When the video was aired on Youku, many netizens left comments saying, "I watched it with tears in my eyes." I suffered so much and had no income, but the text message from the crew was: Thank you for giving me such a meaningful summer.

Why does' Oldboys' make people cry? Because it said a few words of truth for our generation, the world gave us too little place to speak, everywhere is the voice of others, in their opinion, we 70, 80 after this generation is silent, in fact, we live quite not easy, but we with whom to say? And if they did, who would listen?

Sometimes I go to church, and I long for that eternal peace inside me, but how can I forget the troubles around me, what is happening to my generation?

Some viewers feel that Old Boys is full of irony: the most beautiful girl marries the worst husband, the most cultured man, but marries the most worldly wife. Love, beauty, hope, etc., are trampled underfoot. On the surface, it makes a mockery of traditional values, but it is not. When we are in the campus, the world we see is very beautiful, full of idealism, but when we get out of the school gate, we suddenly find that everywhere is cold competition for survival, everyone is trapped in it, unable to break free. Generation after generation of young people have fallen from heaven to earth, and it is this huge drop that makes people doubt and reflect. Is the reality of those beautiful things broken, how can you complain that we do not value them?

I want to keep doing this, and hopefully one day make a real movie. If there's anything I can hope for in the future, it's that when I'm old, my passion will still be alive.