news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

every year at the pingyao film festival, there are some controversial new works by young directors, and this year is no exception. for example, after the premiere of "don't take the composition seriously" directed by ma lanhua in pingyao, many extremely extreme comments emerged on douban. viewers who liked it gave it five stars and said it was a "magic film that will be a hit", but not audiences who liked it gave it one star and said, "this movie should be rated and no one over six years old is allowed to watch it." such huge differences of opinion have caused "don't take the essay seriously" to be dubbed "the most bizarre film of this year" by many film critics.

"don't take composition seriously" is ma lanhua's first work. it tells the story of the overly serious teacher ma who learned how to teach composition with the help and encouragement of ma xiaohua, a poor student. when we found ma lanhua and showed her the current controversies the film has encountered, she herself was relatively calm and said that she had seen the comments, especially the many pertinent comments, which inspired her a lot. as for the title of "no. 1 monster film", she accepted it calmly, which shows that her style has been seen by many people. regardless of success or not, at least she is trying to do something new and different.

the film is indeed innovative in style. in terms of art, photography, character line setting, etc., it has a strong retro feel, and even has the flavor of a children's stage play. the combination of real-life performances and dynamic visual effects makes people feel like watching a fantasy novel. little book. there is no ambition in the story, but more about children's lives and the importance of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude. the actors in the movie are basically amateurs, and most of them are children, which undoubtedly greatly increases the difficulty of filming. among them, the actor ma yixiang, who plays the composition teacher, is ma lanhua's father in real life and is a composition teacher himself, forming an interesting intertext inside and outside the play.

malanhua responded to some curious questions from the audience in pingyao.

ifeng entertainment: you have seen a lot of feedback from the audience in the past few days after the movie was released. how did you feel?

malanhua: it’s a mixed blessing. it’s true that i didn’t think too much about it when i was filming. at that time, i mainly wanted to reflect my life as a “scumbag” when i was a child, and also add some discussion and reflection on exam-oriented education and propositional composition. because i didn’t take the adult audience into consideration when i was creating it, but after i came to pingyao, it was still mostly adult audiences, so i heard a variety of different feedbacks. but i am very happy to hear these voices. as a director, i need to listen to more opinions to decide how to go in the future.

ifeng.com entertainment: what do you think of the evaluation of "weird movies"? where do you think this weirdness in your creations comes from?

malanhua: this evaluation is very interesting. i like the word "weird" very much. weird means something different. the definition of "weird" in society comes from breaking the rules and bringing insecurity. so some people will find it novel, and some people will find it offensive. this is normal. maybe the information i received since childhood was very mixed. i read all kinds of movies and books at that time, and i accepted all the old and new ones. this has caused me to have a relatively open mind since i was a child, thinking that everything is interesting. as an undergraduate, i studied a lot of film history, theater history, and psychology. slowly, i came up with my own creative concept, which is: "holding on to the past and facing the future." it requires both innovation and understanding and inheritance of the past/roots. in fact, it is very similar to the theme of this year's pingyao film festival, "this handful of dirt". my previous short film "the fourth duke of the song dynasty makes a trouble with the forbidden soul" is a combination of mérieux and peking opera, with modern and contemporary art superimposed on it. recently there has been a lot of discussion on the internet about what art is. in my opinion, anything can be art, including a banana on the wall or a urinal on the floor. there should be no clear boundaries between life and art, nor should there be clear distinctions between various media. therefore, i hope to integrate new and old art forms more in my creation and create new chemical elements. "don't take the composition seriously" also continues this creative model: this time it uses the performance form of chaplin's silent comedy, and also adds the sense of the times and atmosphere of old chinese movies, plus the mongol derrian elements as well as pop art. but i didn't randomly combine and arrange them, but i carefully selected the elements that would produce cremation and decomposed and refused them. for example, pop is very suitable to be placed on campus, because there are many posters, blackboards, fonts and other elements on campus. the influence of mondrian is reflected in the blue globe, red pennants and red, yellow and blue clothes worn by children in the office.

ifeng.com entertainment: so do you think it was difficult to shoot the entire film, including production?

malanhua: since this is my first time making a feature film, it will definitely be difficult. because resources are very limited, i asked many family members and friends to help me, and also asked my father’s students to be young actors. everyone wants to participate because they find it interesting. there are only about 10 people on our set per day at most. as for the more than 30 children in the movie, they all contributed their summer vacation time to act for us. in the scene you see, there are children doing homework. they are really using the filming time to do their summer homework. when the children's performance is performed upstairs, the parents are waiting downstairs. both parents and children find this meaningful and fun. sometimes i would get anxious and angry on the set because it was so difficult to photograph children. but when i get angry, i will apologize to everyone. children's emotions come and go quickly, and the laughter and laughter are gone. after the film was finished, it was shown twice in primary schools, and the response was particularly good. the children were laughing so hard that they were so happy. seeing the children so happy makes me feel that all the difficulties are rewarding.

ifeng entertainment: is the entire shooting cycle fast? was the communication with the young actors smooth?

malanhua: because we caught up with the epidemic in nanjing during filming, we stopped for a while, and then resumed filming. in short, it took about a month. photographing children must be particularly difficult. moreover, children actually understand everything. they know that they are here to help you, and as directors, they have to serve you diligently. therefore, we should not specifically control these children, but try to encourage education and communicate with them more. let them combine their own personal experiences and immerse themselves in the character's psychology. therefore, i will try to give them as little complicated instructions as possible and encourage them to express themselves more. this will stimulate their enthusiasm and creativity, and also increase uncertainty and surprise. just because they are blank sheets of paper, they can draw many different patterns.

ifeng.com entertainment: your father plays the role of the composition teacher in the movie. this is a bold choice. is this a decision you had in mind from the beginning?

malanhua: yes, i thought about it from the beginning. as a teacher of primary school students, his classes are of a performance nature, and he can really get along with the children, understand them, and encourage their personality development. i thought that since he fit the image of a teacher that i wanted to create, i might as well just ask him to play the role. it just so happened that he had also acted in my previous short film. as a teacher, he has a strong word memory ability, and his paragraphs are basically not ng and are very smooth. another important point is that many of the children present are his students, and he can also help calm the children's emotions. so even if the children don't listen to me, they will listen to teacher ma. in the early stages of filming, he will help the children open up and relieve tension. slowly the atmosphere improved and i became a part of the children.

ifeng.com entertainment: there is a teacher in the movie played by zhong meimei. why did you think of casting him?

malanhua: comedy comes from contrast. zhong meimei’s short video has a strong sense of contrast. a child can make the class teacher come alive. i thought of the math teacher in the story. his prototype came from a teacher in my junior high school who was very harsh on me. my memory and fear of him needed a sort of self-resolution. but in fact, he is just an ordinary person, happy when he is not in class. this reminds me of a version of ibsen's "a doll's house" i watched a few years ago. in that version, the husband was played by a dwarf patient, but the wife was played by a very tall actor. but even so, the role of the husband has always lingered strongly on the stage. this made me understand that this teacher’s sense of oppression against me did not come from age or appearance, but from a spiritual level. so i asked a child to play the teacher this time, just to strengthen this contrast.

ifeng.com entertainment: from what i hear, you really didn’t think too much when you first started making this film, but the track of domestic children’s films is indeed very difficult. do you feel that you have narrowed the path?

malanhua: i don’t necessarily want to take this path. after all, this film was made three years ago. later, i completed my master's degree and worked in the industry for a period of time, so i gained a lot of new understanding of movies. i think the definition of movies changes every decade. ten years ago we didn’t have short videos, but now ai has come out, and people in the industry should look at this change with an open mind. my understanding of movies may be quite different. i think anything can be a movie and anyone can make a movie. movies should be more open and free. it's very free to create in this state of mind, but it's true that you won't think very carefully. now that i am more mature, i have also gone to various major factories to sharpen my skills. as a director, you really have to consider more things, you have to clearly define your position, and you don't have to choose a track that makes you narrower and narrower. i definitely hope to take a more commercial route in the future and cater to a larger audience. in fact, i just finished a short film in the later stage and i am already heading in this direction. but no matter what i shoot, my film philosophy will never change, which is what i said before, "holding on to the past and facing the future."

ifeng entertainment: if more audiences of different ages see this movie in the future, what do you hope they will see from it?

malanhua: there will definitely be audiences of different ages watching this movie. i can't control what they see. everyone's experiences, aesthetics and tastes projected in movies are different. i hope to evoke the childlike innocence and empathy of the adult audience for the poor students in school, while at the same time telling children not to be too pushy. if hope can produce any meaning, i think it may be that there are more "ignorant teachers" who can restrain their authority and bend down to talk to students. adults need encouragement and tolerance just like children. some insurmountable difficulties are actually not that important.