2024-02-14 06:35:52
“Today I went to watch “Mr. Red Carpet”. The schedule was very low, with only one show a day. There was no exaggeration or reversal of the plot, but I still felt good. It came from an emotion of sinking and thinking. In the collective inspiration and happiness After that, everyone still has to face their own life propositions, and these problems are endless loops.” Henan audience Douzi wrote the above comment.
“Mr. Red Carpet” directed by Ning Hao and starring Andy Lau will be released during the 2024 Spring Festival. This movie regarding “communication barriers” has become a metaphor in reality – there was no explosion during the lively Spring Festival, and the box office and film schedule were both average. At the bottom.
When it comes to the “crazy” comedy of multi-threaded narratives, Ning Hao is by no means inferior. The films he directed, such as “Crazy Stone”, are both authorial and popular in the market, making him a domestic backbone with both commercial and creative capabilities. However, “Mr. Red Carpet” has made up its mind from the beginning not to be noisy. “We have no shortage of very lively films, and I am tired of them myself. I want to shoot two calmer ones.” Ning Hao said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from “Daily Economic News”.
Andy Lau: Ning Hao, will you film me as a crazy star with bad taste?
“Mr. Red Carpet” finally chose to be released during the Spring Festival in 2024, which is a helpless compromise. Ning Hao knows: “In a benign movie market, movies should be entertainment delicacies on the weekends, rather than specific consumer goods during the holidays. Spring Festival The competition is huge, and there really is no good way.”
“The competition for the Spring Festival is very fierce every year, so how can I put pressure on this film?” Ning Hao said with a somewhat self-deprecating tone. “I don’t have much pursuit of box office. My expectation is that “Mr. Red Carpet” communicates with the audience. The best artistic communication is like this. If you like this kind of film, just come and watch it.”
Ning Hao can’t say what kind of movie this is. “It’s hard to describe when it’s in an artistic direction. It’s just a feeling.” But the motive for its birth is simple – an agreement between Ning Hao and his “bo Le” Andy Lau.
In 2006, “Crazy Stone” was born with the funding of Andy Lau’s “Asian Rising Star Director Project”, which was also the beginning of the relationship between Andy Lau and Ning Hao. From then on, Ning Hao had a strong desire in his heart: he wanted to create a unique work for Andy Lau, a movie that might truly show his unique charm.
Being in the whirlpool of the entertainment industry, Ning Hao’s reaction seems a bit slow. He doesn’t like to socialize and doesn’t gossip. Andy Lau is one of the few friends he has maintained close contact with, and both parties have been looking for opportunities for cooperation.
Until a bold idea flashed in Ning Hao’s mind: Why not let Andy Lau play himself in the movie? He is a dazzling star in his own right, and his story, his experiences, and his emotions are all enough to form a fascinating script.
“I am a realist director, and Andy Lau is an actor who grew up under the influence of Hong Kong culture. Most of the characters he plays have what we think of as a ‘shell’, realismthemeThere are relatively few. Ning Hao said frankly: “It doesn’t seem appropriate to let Andy Lau interpret the market image that Huang Bo is good at.” Therefore, why not let him play his true self and show a real image of a Hong Kong star? “As more and more Hong Kong actors move north to develop their careers, this kind of cooperation seems natural to Ning Hao.
There is no director who doesn’t like telling stories. Ning Hao has always maintained a habit of telling the story to the audience in a fascinating way. He would say to every new director: “Put down the script and tell the story once more to see if I can be moved.” He once participated in the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival. During this period, he specially flew the screenwriter to Xiamen to meet with Andy Lau. In two hours, he vividly told the prototype of “Mr. Red Carpet”.
After listening to the story, Andy Lau was stunned for more than ten seconds, and Ning Hao understood that he had concerns. In his career, Andy Lau’s closest role to his true self was as a filmmaker in “Sister Peach”. Playing a Hong Kong star was so real that he had doubts regarding how he should act. “Isn’t it too crazy?” Andy Lau asked: “Or will it be full of bad taste and irony?” Ning Hao was not sure at the time, so he might only tell him that he needed some time to think regarding it and explain it with more detailed content.
Andy Lau is not the kind of star who gets a script and performs it step by step. In the credits of Mr. Red Carpet, he not only stars but also serves as a producer. He and Ning Hao discussed how to better present the film and how to perfectly display the emotion and connotation of the story. “Andy Lau is a creative star. He has created many things himself and mastered many themes. He is fully capable of becoming an excellent director.” Ning Hao praised Andy Lau as the true “King of Films”.
My thoughts become ego, and my emotions become hostility. “Mr. Red Carpet” is an exploration of communication.
Part of the movie comes from life, and the other part requires breaking conventions and re-creating.
In Ning Hao’s view, Andy Lau’s seriousness, hard work and competitive qualities are real, while other plots in the movie are more fiction and creation. The synopsis of the story of “Mr. Red Carpet” has revealed a joke that reflects reality: Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau (played by Andy Lau) has been in the movie industry for 40 years and has always aspired to become an actor. He decided to collaborate with director Lin Hao (Ning Hao) on rural-themed films, which earned him international fame at film festivals. To this end, Liu Weichi went deep into the countryside to experience life, personally solicited investment, and refused to use a stand-in. This triggered a series of ridiculous farces that made people laugh and cry, and also showed the various aspects of the entertainment industry.
The director is at a loss to attract investment, which reflects the current real situation in the film industry: creative funds are limited. Although laymen such as coal bosses, real estate bosses, and financial bosses do not understand movies, they have a large amount of funds and have become indispensable in the film production process. A missing part. “Is this rare? You must have seen similar people.” Ning Hao said.
After the Internet has invaded everyone’s life pervasively, the form of communication has changed accordingly. In 2022, the number of daily active users of Douyin will reach 700 million. One in every three people in the country will open Douyin every day, and short videos will fill everyone’s life.
There is a scene in the movie that comes from Andy Lau’s own confusion when he came into contact with short videos. The young video director not only asked Weichi Lau to imitate scenes from classic movies, but also asked him to speak Internet slang like “老铁666”.
The conflicts and discomforts in various real-life situations constitute the core of “Mr. Red Carpet” – communication. “Everyone’s communication is becoming more and more emotional, and people are labeled without even saying a few words. Emotions confront emotions and turn into hostility.” Ning Hao noticed, “The Internet has intensified these emotions, and everyone’s self-awareness will Finding a community in the online environment has indirectly gained recognition, so it has turned into many conflicts between communities.”
In 2006, “Crazy Stone” became a pioneer in a new type of domestic comedy movies. Ning Hao has always insisted: “What I shoot is not comedy, but the absurdity of life.” Since then, “absurd comedy” and “black humor” have become Ning Hao’s biggest labels.
Few audiences have caught it. Starting from “Heart Blossom Road”, he tried to explore a more restrained film form that leaves room for space.
In “Mr. Red Carpet”, Ning Hao deliberately reduced the movements, and the photography and editing movements were all weakened. Therefore, following watching the movie, many viewers’ first reaction was that the movie was too boring. For Ning Hao, he has just returned to the early days of his creation – the concise state of “Green Grass” and “Incense” before “Crazy Stone” became famous. “We have no shortage of lively movies, and I’m tired of it myself. I don’t want to keep wandering in the areas I’m familiar with.” “You use relatively few actions to express, but the amount of information cannot be less. You have to express a story clearly and put it into context.” Come up with the theme. There are less than 400 shots in the whole movie, so it needs to be presented at a reasonable pace.”
“If artistic creation is the same, what’s the difference between it and work?” Ning Hao asked. In his creative habits, one main character is enough for a movie. It would be troublesome if there are too many stars coming and going in the crew. Therefore, in “Mr. Red Carpet”, Ning Hao simply stepped up and acted as the director. . “If I don’t act in a self-deprecating movie, who will?”
Movies are forced to become life, but creation becomes more and more free
It is difficult for Ning Hao to predict what his style will be in the future.
“They told me where to adjust my style in the future, but I think something that can be completely controlled by myself is not called style. In other words, no matter how you change it, it still has that thing in it, which is called style. Belongs to you.” Ning Hao said that this style, like a person’s voice, is a unique brand that belongs to him and cannot be copied or imitated.
In life, Ning Hao seems a bit boring. He thought for a moment, but still mightn’t answer what his hobby was. The “Daily Economic News” reporter met Ning Hao on a golf course in the suburbs of Beijing. “I have never played golf. This is the house of a friend of mine. He usually has no use for it, so I use it as my home.” I have written a lot of things in my studio. There are too many chores when I go back to the company, so I try not to go there.”
Ning Hao had a dull sense of alienation. After the film was completed, he suddenly discovered many real events that might correspond to the creation of the film. I always watch a movie belatedly following everyone says it is good. He joked that he didn’t know much regarding the industry and didn’t know many actors, and he even tried his best to know as little as possible.
This insensitivity also makes him always seem a little passive when faced with life choices. He said that movies had gone from being a job to something that was increasingly invading his time, and was finally forced to become his life. Just like life, if you don’t know which way to go, you can’t choose anything.
“You don’t choose life.” Ning Hao murmured, and his mentality towards movies began to become complicated. “Movies are a macro concept. When you find something that excites you, you must still be very passionate. I don’t care if it is a movie, a painting, or a novel. The form does not matter. That thing makes you excited. Just do it. The urge is still there, but the threshold is getting higher and higher.”
Many scripts that Ning Hao has written for 10 years have not yet been filmed because it is difficult to find the most suitable way of expression. If given the opportunity, Ning Hao always wants to pick it up once more.
After 2010, following filming “Golden Robbery” and “Heart Blossoms”, Ning Hao began to reduce the frequency of directing work and became a producer and supervisor. In 2012, he established Bad Monkey Pictures, and in 2016 launched the “Bad Monkey Seventy-Two Transformations Film Project”, which aims to support young directors and establish a creative cluster.
He doesn’t have so much mundane work to do now. He delegates the company’s work to his colleagues. Today, Ning Hao basically only focuses on creation, directing and producing. The director’s dilemma of needing to raise funds in “Mr. Red Carpet” has never happened to Ning Hao. In this regard, Ning Hao is very lucky. His creation is healthy and it is difficult for him to be disturbed by the outside world.
Ning Hao once set a goal for himself to retire before the age of 40, but it took him a long time to realize this wish on the day of the interview. “I want to have more freedom and more time for myself. If I can combine creation and freedom, this problem will not exist. I feel that in one dimension, I am becoming more and more free.”
He also had more time to think regarding things like whether he thought he had become mature or not mature enough. Recently, Ning Hao reflected on the films he shot in the past. He felt a sense of incompleteness. He described incomplete films as not works, but products. “Depending on what the cognitive standards are, when the cognition gradually becomes complete, the closure of the work will appear, and the integrity of the work will also appear. It is not difficult for us to make a so-called movie. It is not difficult to make a complete movie.” It is difficult to make a movie. We have to slowly close the incomplete parts of ourselves. Every director hopes to have a complete work.”
(Source of article: Daily Economic News)
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