How does director Lu Yang face many controversies when ＂The Wind Rises in Longxi＂ ends？
Special feature of 1905 film network +Ma Boyong++,"The Wind Rises in Longxi" has been highly anticipated since it was announced by the project official, but it has been controversial since it was launched.
The drama is set in the troubled times of the Three Kingdoms and Zhuge Liang’s Northern Expedition, and revolves around Chen Gong and Xun Xu, two spies of Shu State, telling the story of their unsung heroes who fought wits with Wei State and fell into difficulties and obstacles.
The wind rises in Longxi, dressed in the costume of the Three Kingdoms period, to show the spy war, political struggle and the fate of the little people in the chess game. The audience can see historical legends, strategic wisdom and love and friendship between people.
However, on the first day of the show’s broadcast, the ratings were not good, and there were mixed opinions. After the closing ceremony, the Douban score rose against the trend from 7.7 points at the beginning to 7.9 points. Facing all kinds of controversies, Director Lu Yang accepted an exclusive interview with China’s film reports and made an exclusive response.
"The Wind Rises in Longxi is easy to understand."
Luyang read Ma Boyong’s original novel in 2014. He was attracted by the novel’s focus on the vision of small people in the context of the Three Kingdoms period. "It tells the story of people like us. Although small, we are trying to find faith and the story of small people like us. Such stories will always impress me."
Five years later, the producer Xinli Film got the copyright of the novel and asked him to cooperate and adapt it into a film. Lu Yang wants to keep the volume of the original work to a greater extent, and does not make too many choices and deletions in content, characters and clues, hoping to remake the novel into a longer series.
Soon, Jin Haishu, the screenwriter of "Father’s Identity" and "Foxtrot Spy Shadow", finished writing the script. He was good at creating spy war themes. After reading the script, Lu Yang liked it very much and decided to direct it. In the next three or four months’ shooting cycle, he tried his best to create this story in the most meticulous way.
Most historical dramas focus on the story of "emperors and generals", while "The Wind Rises in Longxi" focuses on the "ten thousand bones" buried by historical dust in "one great achievement and ten thousand bones wither".
"They are in a turbulent era, and I hope such stories and characters can bring us strength and faith." Just as Lu Yang directed before, it is also concerned about the individual situation. Shen Lian, a Royal Guards on the battlefield of Shura, and Chen Gong, The Infiltrator, who experienced multiple crises, are both small people who are involved in the tide of the times and struggling to save themselves.
Chen Gongxian sneaked into Wei as an undercover of "Bai Di". After breaking the "Candle dragon" plan successfully, he returned to Shu smoothly and had to deal with internal and external tests. This resourceful and ill-fated spy role is a great challenge for the actor Chen Kun.
Some viewers think that Chen Gong, as an undercover character, needs a mediocre appearance to be easy to hide, but Chen Kun looks a little outstanding and is not suitable for interpretation. Lu Yang disagrees with this view.
Because Chen Kun is so handsome, Lu Yang made him "more grounded and more in line with that era" in terms of styling, including showing his skin color after sun exposure and the change of his beard. When he worked as a master book in Tianshui, Wei, his beard was refined, and after a series of events, it was rougher.
"Chen Kun performed very well, in line with my imagination of this role. He has his unique taste. This is not a spy who can easily save the day. Chen Kun can present the fragility, inner fear, hesitation and the firmness and belief beyond all this in a character harmoniously. "
"The Wind Rises in Longxi" connects the plot contents of 24 episodes in series with 24 different scheming concepts, and the plot is full of ups and downs. It is difficult for the audience to guess the intentions and real thoughts behind each insider in the play for a while, and the information is very dense.
For the ordinary audience, does "The Wind Rises in Longxi" seem to be brain-wasting? Lu Yang responded, "I think this drama has no threshold, that is, it belongs to a story that is easy to understand. But if you do something else in the middle (you may not understand it), it is really not the content of an accompanying class, and you still need to see it. "
Lu Yang insisted on not shooting water injection scenes and waste scenes. "If a story, a movie or a drama can be picked up after you leave for 5 minutes, it will be unnecessary for 5 minutes. What are you doing with it? This scene has no effect on the main plot. You can understand the following scene with or without it, and I will definitely cut it. "
"I will always consider the feelings of the audience."
"People are the most important, and everyone deserves a million dollars." In "The Wind Rises in Longxi", Zhuge Liang’s lines, which are people-oriented, respectful of life and full of modernity, express the core values of the whole drama and the creative principles of Luyang all the time.
Whether it is this kind of realistic theme, or this kind of costume and fantasy theme such as Embroidered Spring Knife, Lu Yang said that although the background of the times is different, the story is told in different types and forms, and the inner nature of the work remains unchanged. "It is always about people and life."
Since the first director feature film "The Blind Cinema" won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Director’s Debut Award in China in 2010, Luyang has gradually become the mainstay of domestic young directors in more than ten years.
At first, he joined the bad monkey 72 into a new support program; In 2021, he took the lead and directed the Spring Festival blockbuster A Writer’s Odyssey, which further promoted the industrial development of visual effects in China.
Now, he has also started to support new directors, participated in the evaluation work of different venture capital associations, and served as a producer for new works such as Embroidered Spring Knife Shadow of Mountains and Rivers.
"It’s really not easy. Everyone is a creator, and there must be a proper limit. We should discuss with them, but don’t interfere with their creative ideas."
He embraces the technological innovation of movies and pays more attention to the exploration of content. "About new content, new methods to explain the theme, and whether there is new significance. We need to have adaptive means and technologies so that these contents can be presented to the audience as much as possible. "
Lu Yang and his partner in the first film are still filming together. He has always made himself feel fresh about his creation. "The state of filming for the first time is still there. We don’t want to change this point. Don’t forget why we made a movie in the first place."
After The Wind Rises in Longxi, Lu Yang still has a bunch of new films waiting for him: Embroidered Spring Knife 3, Assassination of the Novelist 2 and projects that have not been officially made public.
"I will always consider the feelings of the audience, that is, how to make this story more effective, better looking and more touching to the audience, but not to fill in the blanks, not to know that there are these empty spaces or these materials, so we will cook these dishes. We (and the audience) are equal exchanges, not to fool, but to tell the audience a story that at least we really believe. "