Special feature of 1905 film network 32 years, 3 years, 125 minutes.The compressed fragments of life are not only a period of time that flies by, but for some people, it may be a lifetime.
These three groups of time, about the model of the times, Wang Jicai and Wang Shihua, about the director, but also about the film and every creative behind it.
When Chen Li received this project, Jude Wong just left you soon. It is more difficult to shoot the 32-year "story of keeping the island" at this node than any of her past film works.
"I am particularly afraid of hurting her (Wang Shihua)." During the interview, Chen Li kept repeating this concern to us. Chen Li is like this, and so is the actor who plays Wang Jicai.
Perhaps it was with this concern that the main creators moved forward step by step, and finally achieved this "Island Keeper", with the sentence after Wang Shihua’s reflection, "I think of many things before. Lao Wang can’t see this movie anymore. I would like to thank the directors and actors for him. Thank you for telling the story of keeping the island. "
This thank you is more important than all comments.
Director Chen Li (Photo/Yang Nan)
# First visit to Kaishan Island #
The story of Wang Jicai and Wang Shihua’s "touching China" has already been reported by various media, so how to solve the problem before shooting their stories?
"I can’t make this story into a textbook, which wastes the subject matter. I must present them to the audience." Chen Li gave himself a written pledge to fulfill a military order.
Unlike the story of shooting great men in the past, this story belongs to the present and is close to the life of every audience. Chen Li’s first reaction to "living under the sun" is like this. Only in this way can the "realism" be expressed.
Kaishan Island is located in the outpost of the Yellow Sea in China, with an area of only two football fields, and its strategic position is very important.
In the Spring Festival of 2019, Chen Li and his team decided to set foot on Kaishan Island to collect wind.
Like the movie, Bao Zhengfu is at the helm of the boat to Kaishan Island. "Today’s boat is very safe and stable, and I am still learning to sail with Boss Bao on the way." All the details in the process are slowly recorded in Chen Li’s mind, and finally they are also displayed by the camera.
The power of reality is infinite. When the ship is getting closer and closer to Kaishan Island, the rain is still sparse, and Chen Li and his party see the figure waving to them in the distance more and more clear, short and thin, but with a strong aura, that is Wang Shihua.
When the ship docked, Wang Shihua took the cable thrown out by Boss Bao, and the whole process was completed in one go. It was this proficiency that made Chen Li have mixed feelings.
In the past, when reading newspapers, all media people emphasized that their family was ordinary people. At that moment, Chen Li felt that she was looking up to her, and she was not ordinary people.
"When she reached out and pulled me ashore, my nose suddenly became sore, because those hands were full of the touch of years." Formal that shake hands for the first time, Chen Li felt that the distance between the two people was narrowed, like an old friend who had not seen for a long time, and had lived in her heart.
Walking from the shore to the residence, Wang Shihua and Chen Li explained the peach trees and grapes that Wang Jicai planted with her at that time, as well as the wells that had been the source of fresh water for both of them. All the daily necessities happened on Kaishan Island, which was also the details of these 32 years, and witnessed the step-by-step changes of Kaishan Island.
Wang Shihua didn’t tell Chen Li about the emotions of how to persist, but all the stories she told were romantic stories with Lao Wang (Wang Jicai). "Lao Wang likes listening to her sing very much, and finally she sang" The Most Romantic Thing ". She also told me how two people looked at the stars on the roof. "
The two people’s insistence on Kaishan Island has been written into romance.
# Next life #
When receiving this project, Liu Ye was not confident.
Of course, for Chen Li, she was hesitant at first. "After all, Liu Ye is a first-line actor. How can we make the audience forget that he is Liu Ye under the camera?"
Liu Ye (Photo/Yang Nan)
So, Chen Li took Liu Ye to Kaishan Island to live with him, so that he could really feel their life on the spot. Even so, he was worried at first that he didn’t play well enough, but in the days of living together, the crew and the Wang Shihua family became more and more close, and that intimacy no longer made Chen Li feel that everyone was going to experience life, but to visit relatives.
Even Wang Shihua’s daughter finally began to call Chen Li a dopted mother. In a small talk, Wang Zhiguo suddenly said to Liu Ye, "Teacher Liu, in fact, you are very similar to my father in many places." Or this sentence, all of a sudden to Liu Ye increased confidence.
After the official boot, Liu Ye will run in the shooting area every day. Because Chen Li pursued real-life shooting, he finally made a 1:1 replica of Kaishan Island in Pingtan, Fujian. For this island, the team spent half a year before and after. Even though Chen Li was advised in the early stage, many things can be done by CG.
In order to take care of the camera shooting, Liu Ye needs to measure his steps accurately. "He runs every day, and he doesn’t know how many times he falls. In addition, he is exposed to the sun, and his skin bursts at the end." Not only that, there are all kinds of mosquito bites on the island. In the end, Liu Ye spent two and a half hours on makeup, but in the end, because there were too many real scars on his body, the makeup time was directly compressed.
From the beginning of choosing an actor, Chen Li said the most, that is, let the actor "stop acting" and really become that role. A few days after turning on the phone, Chen Li felt that Liu Ye in the camera was no longer himself, but Wang Jicai.
In order to shoot this work well, Liu Ye took the initiative to find Chen Li. "If the team wants to ask for leave, you must refuse."
When the film was roughly cut out, Chen Li called Liu Ye to watch it in the computer room. At last, he was in tears and told Chen Li that he really forgot to play it.
The same is true.
In order to present a good state, I was also exposed to the sun on the island, and filming was also plain. In the movie, she had a heavy scene of childbirth. In order to interpret it, she went to several maternity hospitals to understand the process of giving birth and feel that state.
There are not many scenes, and I also live with the director. He, who has worked with Chen Li, is the first actor in The Islander. This role spans 32 years and almost bears the burden of the changes of the times in the whole movie.
Because Zray is a Beijinger with a heavy Beijing accent, he will take the initiative to propose a remake with the director whenever he doesn’t mean to say a word "Er Hua Yin".
# Touched #
On June 8th, the premiere of "Island Keeper", Wang Shihua finished watching the film for the first time.
Chen Li was worried that she would be overwhelmed by the content in the movie. "Her feelings with Lao Wang are really too deep." Everyone expected what Wang Shihua would say after the screening, but the first sentence was just a few words, "Sister, I am really touched, very good, and I don’t know what to say."
Wang Shihua and the crew (Photo/Yang Nan)
Simple, love is already in the depths, just like their spirit of guarding the island.
"You watch the island, and I watch you." This is what Wang Shihua said the most in the movie, sincere, romantic and pure. This sentence is from the real Wang Shihua’s original words.
And this sentence is the motivation for her to spend 32 years guarding Kaishan Island.
In fact, before director Chen Li and screenwriter Ding Han write, people who hesitate to do things must have motives — — What made Wang Jicai and his wife stick to this island for 32 years?
Later, from the interview and communication, it was found that they had no motivation, that is, to do one thing well.
Director Chen Li also told Ding Han not to talk about the reasons for sticking to it. Although the island has its important strategic position, they are ordinary people in ordinary posts, just like the saying in the movie, "If a person does one thing well all his life, he will not lose heart".
The film involves many scenes that look very dramatic.
For example, when Wang Shihua went to the island for the first time, he was scared silly by the scruffy man with a beard in front of him, and even filed for divorce. This is not an artistic process, but a true story.
After Wang Jicai went to the island for the first time, he told people from time to time that he met the fox spirit on the island. All this is also a story we have encountered in reality. "Wang Shihua told us that when Lao Wang Gang went to the island, he was actually lonely and afraid. He had never experienced such a typhoon day, so he had these fantasies and kept telling the story of Fox Fairy with those who went to the island."
Not only these stories, but Chen Li transplanted almost all the details of their lives into the movies. The puppies in the film are lovely and vivid for the film. In real life, puppies also exist, and they are the best companions of Wang Jicai and his wife.
During the filming, Wang Shihua visited Ban once. But that time, it was the scene that Chen Li didn’t want her to visit the class the most — — That was the scene where Wang Jicai left everyone in the movie.
"I know, in Shihua’s heart, Lao Wang hasn’t left yet, and I’m really worried about her. When she watched it at the scene, she kept crying and said, it’s too much like Lao Wang." All these details stimulated Chen Li’s second creation, so at the end of the film, she arranged a scene of waving a flag. "In her imagination, Wang Jicai came back."
The movie "Island Keeper" has finally been released, and all about the life of Wang Jicai and his wife will be truly presented to the audience. Whether it is life or art, this "Island Keeper Spirit" will eventually give everyone an inner purification.
