Hu Mei: The story of A Dream of Red Mansions has haunted me all my life
2024-08-19
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Poster of "A Dream of Red Mansions: A Perfect Marriage". Photo provided by the film crew
How do the stories of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai connect with the values and pursuits of contemporary young people?
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"The stories in those gardens have entangled me throughout my life." Director Hu Mei has different feelings when watching "Dream of Red Mansions" at different ages, but she also noticed that there are fewer and fewer young people around her who are willing to calm down and watch "Dream of Red Mansions".
"I want to bring Dream of the Red Chamber to the screen in my lifetime, so that it can become a social hot spot again more than 200 years after its creation. As long as people pay attention, some will pick up the book again."
At the end of this summer, the movie "Dream of Red Mansions: The Golden Marriage" was released, directed by Hu Mei, starring Lin Peng, Lu Yan, Bian Cheng, Zhang Miaoyi, Huang Jiarong, and with Guan Xiaotong as a special guest.
How to present the original novel and the sequel of Dream of Red Mansions with 120 chapters in a 120-minute movie? How to connect the stories of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai with the values and pursuits of contemporary young people? Director Hu Mei recently accepted an interview with China Youth Daily and China Youth Network. She took "love and conspiracy" as the theme of the movie and told a love tragedy. "The yearning for love and freedom of life in Dream of Red Mansions is a sentiment that everyone will resonate with no matter what era."
The rebellion of "The Golden Marriage" was completed by the creator and the character together
Hu Mei started preparing for the film of Dream of Red Mansions in 2006. "Film language requires plot conflicts and dramatic conflicts. Dream of Red Mansions tells the fate of more than 1,000 characters. The film must have the ability to 'make sand into mud', extract the story and present it on the screen in a dramatic and visual way. I was very conflicted and couldn't bear to throw away any part."
Hu Mei said that it is impossible to fit the entire Dream of Red Mansions into a two-hour film, and the film adaptation must make a lot of choices. In order to stick to the theme of the original work, the director and screenwriter deliberately chose the love story of Bao, Dai and Chai as the main line, and unfolded the narrative from the perspective of young people, hoping to give the classic story new vitality and a sense of the times.
The story of Bao, Dai and Chai is the main plot of "A Dream of Red Mansions".
In the original novel, "the previous alliance of wood and stone" refers to the love oath between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu. "Wood" refers to Lin Daiyu's previous life as the fairy grass "Jiangzhu", and "stone" refers to Jia Baoyu's previous life as the attendant of the magic water. He was also the incarnation of the stubborn stone left over from Nuwa's repairing the sky into the spiritual jade. "The golden marriage" symbolizes Xue Baochai's "golden lock" and Jia Baoyu's "spiritual jade", referring to their marriage.
"The title 'A Perfect Match' is an irony of the perfect match." Hu Mei said frankly that the theme of the film is that this is a perfect match that is admired and stipulated by the world, while young people are rebelling against it.
The hidden thread of the movie is "conspiracy": the entanglement of economic interests and family power constitutes a high barrier that prevents young people from freely pursuing love.
Hu Mei externalized and magnified the plot of "Jia's embezzlement of Lin's property" which was not clearly stated in the original novel. "Even if the original novel did not explicitly state it, it is in line with the logic of Dream of the Red Chamber. This is also the first time that 'Jia's embezzlement of Lin's property' has been clearly reproduced in the form of film and television."
In the film, Baoyu becomes a monk alone, Daiyu dies miserably, and the lovers never get married, which is full of tragedy and rebellion. How does Xue Baochai, one of the three characters, achieve her own "rebellion"?
"In every aspect, Xue Baochai is a nearly perfect traditional female image, but in the original novel, she is not rebellious." In the movie, on the wedding night, Baoyu lifted the veil and saw Baochai, his eyes were full of surprise, and Baochai's eyes were full of tears. The original novel did not write that Baochai cried, and Hu Mei said that this was proposed by the actor who played Baochai on the spot. "She cried a little bit of her rebellion, showing her dissatisfaction and self-pity for her fate of a golden marriage."
We hope young people will rediscover the original works and feel the charm of classic masterpieces.
At the beginning of the movie "A Dream of Red Mansions Part One", the ending of "Baoyu becoming a monk" is told in flashback. The line in the original novel "It is like the birds flying back to the forest after eating all the food, leaving the earth clean and white" is reflected in the film.
In the classic plot of "Daiyu burying flowers", the camera moves from near to far, from the peach blossoms to the vast perspective, and the audience can see the snow-capped mountains in the distance, which is very different from the scene in the original novel where Daiyu cried and mourned in the closed garden. "This just coincides with the opening of the film, as if forming a literary echo."
The coexistence of peach blossoms and ice and snow was an inspiration that the creative team accidentally got from reality. The team went to Linzhi, Tibet to shoot materials about peach blossoms. The peach blossoms were like a sea, spreading to the mountains, and snow-capped mountains could be seen in the distance. The concept map of "Daiyu Burying Flowers" was born.
When selecting the actors, Hu Mei hoped to respect the age at which the boys and girls first fell in love in the original work. In the process, she hoped to plant a seed in the hearts of the young actors so that they could nurture the little flower and let it grow into their characters.
Hu Mei mentioned that most of the young actors went through a long period of closed training, which allowed them to read the original novel, watch other TV dramas adapted from "Dream of Red Mansions", and listen to scholars' explanations about "Dream of Red Mansions", so as to be immersed in classical culture. "It took them a year to walk into this Grand View Garden. Creation is not static. During the filming process, the camera was used to capture some improvisational, vital and fresh things."
She wants to convey to the audience: Don't believe in any external constraints, use your youthful energy and vitality to bravely pursue the beauty you want, and live your own unique life, not a life forced by others.
"We made Dream of the Red Chamber to dedicate to young people who are going through their youth, to tell them that these true human emotions are invaluable, worth cherishing, and worth fighting for your own love."
At the premiere of the film Dream of Red Mansions, an audience member asked Hu Mei if she was worried about causing controversy in the remake of Dream of Red Mansions. She responded that causing controversy was "just what I wanted". The motivation for creating the film was to hope that Dream of Red Mansions could return to the hot topics of reality again, and to hope that more young people would go back and reread the original novel after watching the movie to feel the charm of the classic.
"It is said that there are a thousand Hamlets in the hearts of a thousand people. Similarly, a thousand people have their own different interpretations of "Dream of Red Mansions". In this case, let this version remain here. It doesn't matter even if there are regrets. I hope that it can inspire more and better works related to "Dream of Red Mansions" in the future." Hu Mei said.
China Youth Daily·China Youth Network Intern Reporter Dana Reporter Shen Jiequn Source: China Youth Daily
(Source: China Youth Daily)
