She studied architecture but had a "movie dream"
If she had chosen to keep her job, her life would not have been as hard as it is now.
If she had stayed in the architectural design company under the ministry in the capital, she would have been able to make a name for herself and earn a lot of money - mixing up the level of a director and opening her own architectural design company, with power and money - and all of her colleagues in the past have done the same. I'm not sure if I've ever seen this before, but I'm sure I've seen it before.
Later, she quit her job to design exhibitions, and is also a leader in the industry. "If you hadn't left, you'd be a rich woman by now." She was often told this by her friends, who were sorry for her.
But Yu Lei insisted on pursuing her dream of directing, and was willing to give up everything to do so. Even in this line of work, she has not yet made a name for herself.
"The important thing is that I'm happy." On August 7, in an exclusive interview with this reporter, the Huangshi-born female director said with a smile, "A movie is a dream, it's a whole world, and I'm responsible for making it and completing it. In this process, I feel happy from the bottom of my heart, which is much more important than what fame and fortune."
This is Yu Lei, a Yellowstone woman floating in Beijing.
The girl who studied architecture is addicted to movies
Yu Lei was born in 1973 in Huangshi, her father is a surgeon, her mother is a civil servant. As far as I can remember, from childhood, her parents were very lax in disciplining her and her sister. In her words, it is laissez-faire.
"When I was a child, I loved to read comic books and other extracurricular books, as soon as the school is out of school to read, my parents not only do not stop, but also pay for me to subscribe to, such as the "Fuchun River Pictorial"." Thanks to this, Yu Lei was hooked on literature, movies and the like early on, and was hungry for the world of art.
At the time, many of her peers were confined to a small mental space by piles of textbooks and heavy homework, both inside and outside the classroom, and were both envious and jealous of Yu Lei's freedom.
"So I'm lucky." Years later, Yu Lei recalled these to reporters with happiness on her face.
Yu Lei spent her three years of high school in Huangshi Eighth Middle School. At the book and newspaper stand under the bell tower, she was y attracted by magazines such as Global Screen and Popular Film, "At that time, most of the breakfast money and pocket money given by my parents were used to buy these books." These entertainment magazines, which were very rare at that time, became Yu Lei's movie teacher, leaving the spark of her dream in her young heart.
In 1990, Yu Lei graduated from high school. As there were no film colleges enrolling in Huangshi, she eventually chose to study architecture at Wuhan University of Technology. The only thing she remembered from her college days was going to the movies. "There are a lot of audio and video stores around the school, pay two or three dollars to watch a few movies, four years of college at least watched more than three hundred, are European and American classic films." Yu Lei said.
Later, Yu Lei was assigned to work in an architectural design company under the former Chinese Ministry of Machinery, and her preference for movies became more and more fervent. In her view, being an architect and being a director have something in common - they are both creative endeavors that require brainpower and creativity.
She directed a Shaolin Kung Fu promotional film
In the architectural design company, which is part of the central ministry, Yu Lei stayed for only three years. "Every day from eight to five, bland and tasteless," recalling that period of her life, she used the word "confused" to summarize, "always feel that there is something surging inside, in fact, it is buried in the heart of the movie dream for a long time.
1997, the first time I saw a movie, it was a movie.
In 1997, Yu Lei quit her job. In order to settle down in the capital, she first found a job as an exhibition designer. At the first Beijing Auto Show, she was responsible for designing a booth for Renault, which achieved good results. Later, she has done exhibition design for Siemens, LG, Huawei and other brands, and became a well-known designer in the circle.
"This line is very lucrative, if you continue to go on, very promising." Yu Lei told reporters. But with her and her friends in the capital to work together, said more directly, "If she did not leave, it would have been a rich woman."
In 2000, to the surprise of many people, Yu Lei once again broke with her stable life style and paid her own way to attend a full-time directing course at the Beijing Film Academy. "A stable life gives material enjoyment, but my happiness can only be my movie dream." She said.
The refresher class consisted of more than 20 people, all of whom were film and television industry practitioners, except Yu Lei, who was an outsider. In order to catch up with her classmates, she made up for missed classes and actively participated in various practical activities. During this period, she wrote and directed a microfilm called "The Knife", which tells the love story of a philosopher and his wife, and asks about the inner world of people, causing quite a stir in the college.
In 2001, Yu Lei adapted Turgenev's novel First Love into a 22-minute microfilm titled Low Fever, which was successfully shortlisted for the first Independent Film Festival. The male and female protagonists in the movie are both students of the Beijing Film Academy, and most of the cast and crew are her classmates from her further education class. After the movie was screened at the festival, the impact of the movie was average, but it made Yu Lei earn a lot of self-confidence. "Afterward, I invited the whole cast and crew to a big dinner, and everyone was very happy." She recalls.
In 2002, Yu Lei was admitted with honors to the master's degree program in film and television advertising at the Beijing Film Academy's Fine Arts Department, under the tutelage of Wang Honghai, later vice president of the Beijing Film Academy. During that time, the two teamed up to shoot a two-year promotional video for Shaolin Kung Fu, which was in the process of applying to become a World Intangible Cultural Heritage site. The film was later broadcast on UNESCO and other public occasions, and played an important role in the world's understanding of Shaolin Kung Fu.
Like a lost child finding a home, Yu Lei, who has been wandering around Beijing for many years, feels strongly that "I'm finally on the right path, and this is what I need."