Film director, playwright and producer Zhao Yiqing was born in 1981 in Luyi, Henan Province, and now lives in Beijing. He began to publish his literary works at the age of 16; he has been exploring the art of video and poetry for many years, and has published a number of novels in the national public newspapers and magazines, such as Modern Youth, Shanghai Novels and Shandong Literature, etc.; he used to engage in the occupation of reporter and creative director of an advertising company; in 2011 he finished the shooting of his first film "The Woman Behind the Man". In 2011, he completed the filming of his debut movie "The Woman Behind the Man", which attracted attention in the industry after its release in 2012. His first feature film was praised as a "genius" director in the industry for completing the filming and production in a "very short time with very low cost and very few resources".
Chinese Name: Zhao Yi-Qing
Foreign Name: ZhaoYi-Qing
Nationality: Chinese
Birthplace: Luyi, Henan Province
Date of Birth: 1981
Occupation: Director, Playwright, Producer
Graduated from Nanchang University
Representative Works: The Man, The Woman Behind
What's Behind the Man? The Woman Behind
Biography
Young filmmaker, director, playwright and poet Zhao Yiqing was born in 1981 in Luyi, Henan Province, into a strict family of rural doctors. The harsh discipline of his early years created a free-spirited heart and freewheeling mind, and he showed his talent for literature and art at an early age. Rebellion against the exam-oriented education in school gave him the habit of independent thinking and an explosive creative style. In 2011, he finished the shooting of his first movie "The Woman Behind the Man", which was written and directed by himself, and officially started his movie life.
Life experience
New director Zhao Yiqing: the poetic rivers and lakes of the movie
Mo Yan, Liu Zhenyun, Jia Pingwa, a large part of the great writers who shocked China's literary world are from the countryside. In the field of culture and art, movies are often referred to as noble art because of their unusually high cost compared with other art forms such as poetry and music, and it seems that people born in the countryside are not very suitable for making movies. However, young film director Zhao Yiqing said, "My greatest fortune in life is that I was born in the countryside, and my greater fortune is that I grew up in the transition from an agricultural civilization to an industrial civilization. Without the countryside in China, Chinese art may develop in terms of avant-garde and diversity, but it will lose its warmth. Would you rather embrace a gaudy zombie or a crude village girl?"
Zhao Yiqing added: "Mo Yan is a peasant hero! I will be the Mo Yan of the movie industry and will go further than Mo Yan because I am very talented and bad at the same time! In the age of the Internet, where criticism, slander and attacks have become normalized, being bad is more likely to keep me on my toes!"
Zhao Yiqing added: "I am proud that I did not go to film school and kept a good artistic seedling growing wild!"
These words of Zhao Yiqing made me very interested in his growth experience, and I was determined to conduct an in-depth interview with him to restore the life trajectory of a movie director from the countryside. I didn't realize that Zhao Yiqing was either avoiding or ignoring the interview, as if the reporter wanted to take his blood. I've followed up with him many times and eventually became friends with him, and only then did I gradually gain a more comprehensive understanding of him.
Pharmacy - comic books - dreaming of the wilderness
Zhao Yiqing's great-grandfather was an enlightened rich farmer, and his grandfather was a well-known and widely respected doctor. When Zhao Yiqing's father was a student, he was a man of great character and ambition! Bad times came, looking at his father's head of reactionary academic authority hat and grandfather's head of rich peasant hat, Zhao Yiqing's father sad, these two hats in advance of the reimbursement of his bright future. After a couple of setbacks, Zhao Yiqing's father went to medical school and reluctantly became a country doctor -- as a delayed generation, Zhao Yiqing's father put his own grand dreams on his children, which directly led to the harsh, almost cold, discipline of the young Zhao Yiqing.
China is entering a new era under the wise leadership of the Party Central Committee! A few years later, Zhao Yiqing, the son of a country doctor, was born, and at a time when the whole country was in a frenzy of reform and opening up, Zhao Yiqing began his miserable childhood as if he were trapped in a prison cell. His father did not strictly limit Zhao Yiqing to go out to play, most of the time in his early childhood, Zhao Yiqing sat alone in the corner of his father's pharmacy, over and over again looking at his father's "gift" to him hundreds of comic strips spent silently. Only in his sleep was he able to run and jump in the wilderness!
School - camera - language classroom
Six years old, Zhao Yiqing doll in elementary school. For the first few days, he was very happy. From home to school you have to cross a long village street, Zhao Yiqing doll very much cherish the free time on the way to and from school. Especially when he came home from school, it was often the case that the neighboring children had already arrived home to finish their bowls of rice, and Zhao Yiqing had only just reached the middle of the street.
Entering the third grade, all the textbooks were no longer new to Zhao, but the torture of math class continued unabated. His uncle, who worked at the county hospital, brought home a DSLR camera, and the nine-year-old Zhao Yiqing couldn't get enough of the heavy thing, searching through the viewfinder for the compositional experience he had gained from years of watching comic strips, and thrilled and touched by the vivid images that flowed past his eyes! From then on, playing with the camera was Zhao Yiqing's main hobby until he went to college.
Since elementary school, Zhao Yiqing's talent and love of writing has been appreciated and encouraged by almost every language teacher. More than one teacher said that Zhao Yiqing would become famous and successful in literature. But as the social and cultural conditions changed during his growth, Zhao Yiqing had a new way of thinking about and pursuing his future - in fact, the comic strip in his childhood and the camera in his teenage years, two companions that had long played an important role in his life, had long since sown the seeds of his dream.
"Go north -- go north -- go to Beijing, where there is the biggest stage in China, where there is air more suitable for you to breathe!" The majestic cry rang out in Zhao Yiqing's heart!
Beijing - his heart - the road to the movie
In 2003, during the most tense period of the SARS epidemic in the capital city, the train carrying Zhao Yiqing The train carrying Zhao Yiqing pulled into Beijing's West Railway Station. Walking out of the station, looking at the crowd of people wearing masks and taking a deep breath of the air, which might contain the virus, Zhao Yicheng felt great! He felt that for a big director, he had to have a sense of sadness! The reason why he chose to enter the capital during such a dangerous period was because it was favorable to find a job.
Before he made his debut, Zhao was in a situation where he was severely handicapped in terms of funds, equipment and personnel because the investor had broken his contract. Some experienced industry insiders claimed that only a talented director could complete a movie under such conditions. In the face of skepticism from many sides, Zhao Yiqing started the movie under extremely poor conditions with four trusting staff members, most of whom were non-professionals or invited friends to make cameo appearances. Under Zhao Yicheng's coordination and comprehensive scheduling, the filming process was unusually smooth. The only problem that arose during the entire shoot was that the cameraman was panning to the right when Zhao directed him to pan to the left, which took less than five seconds to solve - the root of the problem was that Zhao's directive meant that the camera handle was to be panning to the left, whereas the cameraman habitually interpreted it as the lens panning to the left. Ten days later, the movie pre-shooting not only completed successfully as planned, Zhao Yiqing also left money to more grand in the hotel invited everyone to get together for a meal, considered a banquet. A few months later, the film named "The Woman Behind the Man" completed post-production, successfully passed the censorship to obtain a public release license, by the China Film New Rural Film Distribution Company national distribution.
The success of the first production under the humble conditions allowed the outside world not only to understand Zhao Yiqing's artistic attainments as a director, but also to see his ability to control the project as a producer, which in turn brought Zhao Yiqing investment in new projects. However, Zhao Yiqing is not in a hurry to start shooting new works, but invests a lot of time in careful preparation! For Zhao Yiqing, a director with connotation, experience and vigor has money, it is the same as a hero equipped with a sword, he will jump on the horse and whip to open up a world of light and shadow belonging to him, a poetic jianghu of false drama! Zhao Yiqing said: "Although I decided to make waves in the commercial flood, I ask myself to create a spiritual core of every work that is no less than a poem. For me, the process of commercialization of the film is to open up and walk through the poetic rivers and lakes! This is my life, and my life!"
Personal Works
Zhao Yi-Qing completed his directorial debut in 2011 with "The Woman Behind the Man", a movie focusing on the life and psychological plight of divorced women, with strong humanistic ideas and social values, and boldly explored and experimented with video expression, which has been officially released by Cinema New Rural Film Distribution Company nationwide.
In August 2013, Zhao Yiqing's patriotic microfilm "Love of Diaoyu Islands" was released on Youku and received wide acclaim. Against the backdrop of the Japanese government's "island purchase" drama, the movie shows the innocent friendship between a Chinese boy and a Japanese girl. The Japanese girl, Shinjung Masumoto, is an autistic child who settled in China with her father and sister, and she has a good friend named Zonghua who is also an autistic child. One day, Shinjung runs away from home because of Zonghua's "dream", and Zonghua and Shinjung's sister, Yoshihira, chase after her. On this special journey, Shiajing and Zonghua break through their own difficulties and realize the sublimation of their lives.
Selected reviews: "A tribute! The first time I can't help but shed tears because of a movie." -- "This movie is like a mirror that allows good people to see their loveliness and evil people to discover their shamefulness!" "The director uses the weakest characters to express the grandest themes." -- "Thoughtful and innovative, so patriotism can be so warm!" "This is the best patriotic movie I've ever seen!!!"
Directed by Zhao Yiqing, the poetic documentary "North Film Studio" expresses concern for the overall cultural environment of Chinese cinema through the historical changes of a film studio. The film's poetic narration is profound, and Beethoven's "Symphony of Fate" was chosen for the soundtrack, making the movie even more shocking with its apt fusion of sound and picture. In the film, there are both verses supporting reforms, such as "The history that is praised is not standing for a thousand years/but to be reborn in the midst of change", and cautionary expressions, such as "The sorrow of heroes is not to be rejected by the people/but to be degraded by the ills of the marketplace", which, on the whole, expresses the idea that The optimistic attitude of "North Film Studio/You will be gone/I want to believe that this is not a lost migration" has been well received by industry insiders.
In January 2014, director Zhao Yiqing's new film Noble Heart of a Child was officially released. Focusing on migrant children, the film tells the stories of eight children from three different backgrounds, reflecting the innocence and goodness of children in a complex social environment, inspiring the public to reflect on their own souls, and calling on society to protect the rights of children.
An audience member sharply commented on the movie: "In just twenty minutes, the kindness, sincerity, tolerance and friendship of the children's world and the desire, violence, deception, betrayal, greed and selfishness of the adult world are shown to the fullest!" At the end of the movie, the plot of the little beggar and six migrant children paying New Year's greetings to the homeless man together is shocking!
The film's seven lead actors are the oldest at ten years old and the youngest at only five. These urban children, who live in more privileged families, went to the bottom of the social ladder and the middle of nowhere and other difficult environments to shoot the movie, and at the same time, while accomplishing their performances, they were also y educated on the realities of growing up.
Film Opinion
Genius director Zhao Yiqing takes a look at the 10 major diseases of Chinese cinema
Interview: Third-rate artists make a living by imitating and repeating the experience of others; second-rate artists accumulate experience and repeat themselves; first-rate artists actively reject and abandon experience, and constantly create amazing strokes with their talent and spirit of exploration. First-rate artists often display the qualities of genius, which is evident in Zhao Yiqing, who has "produced a feature-length film quickly with zero experience and under difficult circumstances, and has been hailed as a genius director by industry insiders"!
China Economic Net: Hello, Mr. Zhao! We know that you have never been on a movie set before you made your first movie, is it because you didn't have the chance?
Zhao Yiqing: It's not that I didn't have a chance to get into the theater, it's easier than taking a piss to get a chance to work as an actor or crew member in a theater! Anyone who squats in front of the North Film Studio for a week should get a chance to get into the theater, and almost every day there are cars from the theater pulling people in there.
CHINA ECONOMY NETWORK: So why didn't you get into the theater to gain some experience?
Zhao Yiqing: Only craftsmen need experience. I know how to be a director, I don't need to go into the theater to learn experience. Experience is the propeller of technical progress, but at the same time it is the natural enemy of artistic progress, and the more experience an artist has, the sadder he is. I want to be a creative director at the level of an artist. I think the more experience you have, the heavier the burden on your subconscious mind, and the more experience you have, the more you become a burden to the artist, and the more experience you accumulate, the more you pile up graves for yourself. I believe that many people who want to be a director enter the theater not to learn experience, but to meet the opportunity, but how many opportunities can the theater give you? Even if you become an assistant director, you are just passing messages for the director, just like a human speaker. Many people have been working as an assistant director for more than ten years, but they have not been given the opportunity to be a director. This is because everyone in the industry knows that an assistant director is only assisting the director in implementing his creative intentions, and is not able to talk about the practice of artistic creation, not even as much as a lighting technician's influence on a movie. Instead of accumulating burdens and waiting for hopeless opportunities on the set, it is better to work in the community and gain more life experience.
I personally think that for young people who want to be directors, the probability of getting opportunities in the society is greater than in the crew. At the same time, with the love of film outside the film and television circle, there is less interference with the information involved in the relationship of interest, it is easier to see the problems of the film and television circle.
China Economic Net: What problems do you think exist in China's movie industry?
Zhao Yi-Qing: Chinese movies are running fast in a morbid state, and there are many problems in the industry at the same time, which can be listed in 10 items at random. For example, the producers are dishonest in the process of financing through social channels; the project executives are too many and too many; the themes of the films are generally not of a high standard; there is no novelty in the contents; the publicity mode is tacky; the directors and actors are too much involved in the public activities as artists, and they are too close to the utility; the quality of the compositions and soundtracks is weak, and the number of outstanding movie composers is very few; the quality of the movie critics is low, and they cannot guide the movie public opinion fairly and objectively; the number of influential distribution companies is too few. The number of influential distribution companies is too small - almost ten, right?
China Economic Net: Not enough, just nine.
Zhao Yi-Qing: Let's add another one: the audience's taste is too low. The audience's low taste spoils movie creators, and when very bad movies also do well at the box office, the filmmakers use even less effort!
China Economic Net: Do you think these problems will change in a short time? How should these problems be solved?
Zhao Yi-Qing: I think an industry's pathology can't be corrected by taking a shot to alleviate three points like a cold, nor can it be restored to health in a week. The solution to a large number of problems in the current film industry requires a longer process, and filmmakers should reflect more and make more changes on their own, and should not rely on or blame government authorities for everything, and should not consume their energy on these aspects. Personally, I think the movie policy is suitable for the current Chinese situation, and does not impose too many restrictions on movie creation. If a dancer attributes his or her bad dancing to the stage being too small, even if he or she is put in a square, he or she will not dance well. While clearly recognizing the problems that exist in the current film industry, I try to do my best to avoid them in my projects and works. At the same time, I believe that these problems will gradually improve within the entire film industry as the audience's taste demands improve and the market becomes more standardized and other external factors contribute.
China Economic Net: Since there are so many problems with Chinese movies, why is the box office still so good? Not only is the annual box office on the whole trending toward more than 20 billion yuan, but movies with box office of more than 1 billion yuan have been appearing time and again!
Zhao Yiqing: I personally think that the high box office of Chinese movies has little to do with the movies themselves, but mainly due to the development of China's economy, the people have money in their pockets for cultural consumption, and among all the cultural consumption, the movie consumption is the most enjoyable in the feeling of many people, so more people go into the cinema.
China Economic Net: After the economic development, why do people have to go for cultural consumption? Can you explain this further?
Zhao Yiqing: As highly intelligent animals, human beings live in two worlds, one is the real world and the other is the virtual world. I believe that even the most stupid person in the world has dreamed and fantasized about a certain situation. His dream, or some situation he fantasizes about, is his virtual world.
After obtaining material and physical satisfaction or release in the real world, people need to obtain spiritual and emotional satisfaction or release in the virtual world, and movies are a good way to bring people directly into the virtual world -- of course, online games are also available -- and the people who play online games are the ones who play the virtual world. -Those who play online games are potential viewers of movies, and when they get tired of playing games, or when the state regulates games more strictly, I feel that a large part of them will go into the cinema to watch movies, and the other part of those who don't watch movies will probably be sent to drug rehab. From the number of up to hundreds of millions of game fans can be seen, China's movie market has just shown a little bit, the future will be even more amazing, the emergence of box office more than 2 billion films has been reasonable, should not be far away. But at the same time, with a large number of high box office projects to earn a pot full of at the same time, the loss of the movie project will be more and more. I'd like to suggest to stockholders around the world that if you want to become a billionaire, get your wallet and come to China to invest in movies! It will either make you lose all your money or make you a rich man quickly! Definitely exciting but not illegal, you are not gambling, you are in the cultural industry!
China Economic Net: In other words, although there are a lot of problems in China's movie industry at present, the development prospect is still very good!
Zhao Yiqing: Very good!
China Economic Net: Thank you, Mr. Zhao, for the interview, and I wish you good luck in your work and keep making excellent works!
Zhao Yiqing: Please don't wish me good luck in my work, there is no time when my work is not smooth, solving problems is originally part of the work. As a reporter of China Economic Net, please wish China to change from a big country in terms of movie quantity to a strong country in terms of quality as soon as possible, and may Chinese movies become popular in the world as soon as possible! I will make persistent efforts to realize your second wish!
Media Interview
Movies: a comprehensive entertainment with public welfare and commercial value
Editor's Note: With the accelerated pace of economic development and social transformation, China's divorce rate has been rising rapidly, especially in many economically developed cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, where the rate has even exceeded 30 percent. 2012 has witnessed the emergence of a new trend in this long-standing social problem that has attracted attention from all walks of life. Since 2012, this long-standing and intensifying social problem, while attracting attention from all walks of life, has shown a tendency to spread to rural areas. 2012, a movie focusing on the divorced women's group, entitled "The Woman Behind the Man," was released nationwide by China Film New Rural Digital Movie Distribution Company (CFNRDC) and triggered a lot of deep thoughts from the audience. A few days ago, the director of the movie, Zhao Yiqing, was interviewed by a reporter and gave an in-depth explanation of the relevant issues.
Reporter: The style of your movie is very artistic, but the main distribution area is in the countryside, do you think the audience in rural areas can understand or accept your artistic expression?
Zhao Yiqing: Personally, I think that farmers are more profound than people living in the city, and they are closer to the essence of art.
Reporter: What do you think is the essence of art? Why do you say that farmers' thoughts are more profound than those living in the city?
Zhao Yiqing: the essence of art is the truth, goodness and beauty and the creative expression of these three, the truth, goodness and beauty is recognized by everyone in the human nature of the *** existence of positive emotions, people feel happy, safe, is the basis of the sense of happiness. Oh.
Reporter: "The Woman Behind the Man" focuses on the plight of divorced women's groups, and in the film you mainly display the life and psychological plight of this group through artistic means, hoping to inspire the audience to think for themselves. How do you see this social problem in reality?
Zhao Yiqing: This is more of an economic issue than a social one. During the writing of the script and the preparation of the film, I checked a lot of information about this issue and contacted relevant social organizations, and I found that the biggest pressure on this group is economic hardship. They can bear the psychological loneliness and depression, but the economic pressure of food, clothing, housing and transportation, as well as the economic pressure of disease treatment is not something they can bear just because they are willing to bear it. These economic problems that have to be solved form the most direct compulsion on their lives, which in turn form and aggravate their psychological difficulties.
Reporter: With the increase in the scope of population mobility and the acceleration of the pace of urbanization in rural areas, the concept of life in rural areas is also changing rapidly, the divorce rate in rural areas has also been a rising trend, I believe that your film will further play a positive social value. What is your attitude towards the social value of the movie?
Zhao Yiqing: Movie is a very strange thing, it is a collection of many kinds of pure artworks, but it is not a pure artwork. The performances, music, and fine arts covered by movies all belong to the category of art officially recognized by the academia, but a movie can't be called a work of art because it has strong commercial demands. A poem or a sculpture can be a work of art, the artist only needs to be talented to create them, and the material cost of creating them can be as low as chipping wood into a brush and making clay. But to create a movie, in contrast, requires a high material cost. Therefore, although the movie is a collection of works of art, filmmakers need to realize commercial value through the movie in order to continue their artistic creation.
As a kind of cultural consumer product, the main cultural value of a movie is not, or should not be, embodied in cultural entertainment, but in cultural education -- educating and guiding viewers to revere truth, goodness and beauty, to strengthen their beliefs in life, and to enhance their confidence and courage through easy, simple, audio-visual enjoyment. Even if it is a disaster movie, or a so-called "murder and martial arts" movie, it should reflect a positive value orientation. If a movie fails to do so, no matter how high the box office is, it can only be said to be a box office success, not a good movie. Therefore, the social value of a movie is embodied in both spiritual value and commercial value, and the spiritual value will have a positive effect on the whole society, which I prefer to call public welfare value.
Reporter: Your first film was released in rural areas of the country, not commercially in urban theaters, do you personally value the commercial value of the film?
Zhao Yi-Qing: I personally value the commercial value of movies, and I will vigorously realize the commercial value in my future film projects.
Public welfare action
Currently, the society is facing a "crisis of integrity" and "moral laxity", the young film director Zhao Yiqing initiated the "exchange of business cards to do good" public welfare action, which will contribute to the development of the society. "public welfare action, will play a positive role in building a civilized and harmonious society.
The reporter learned that the "exchange business cards, to do good" public service action, is Zhao Yiqing design and initiated the people's self-help participation in the public welfare model, to promote the integration of interpersonal relations in society, to enhance the social atmosphere of morality at the same time, so that people in need of help have more opportunities to get help. By wearing the "red and blue floating ring", two strangers who do not know each other can meet each other on the street, stop and shake hands naturally to say hello, exchange business cards and then go their own way. Then through the business card information contact, meet to use their own convenient time **** with the discussion and to do a good thing. Zhao Yiqing said: "Red symbolizes the sun, blue symbolizes the sky. Red and blue floating ring by a red ring and a blue ring from the center of the knot, advocating the public with the sun's passionate spirit of dedication, the sky's broad tolerance of sentiment to actively participate in public welfare actions." The production and wearing of red and blue floating ring is very flexible and simple, by the public who are keen to participate in public welfare actions to complete the use of their own side of the ribbon, string and other materials.