director of the millennium

Chapter 53 How can the cello have suona energy?

With the main actors of the crew of "The Undertaker", Wu Yuan began to travel back and forth in funeral parlors in first-tier cities in China.

Not just the actor, including himself, also needs to learn a lot about the mortician.

Zhang Guorong, Li Xuejian, and Chen Hong will play the role of undertakers, so the three of them have to follow several masters to personally experience the difficulty of this job and understand some of the living habits of undertakers.

This is a test of the actor's insight.

The so-called "experience life" is actually a process of observation and feeling.

A good actor must have keen observation skills and be able to capture all the details of the object being observed if he wants to act in a certain profession.

It's a bit like the police in this respect.

Fortunately, today's actors are still dedicated and professional.

In order to play Cheng Dieyi well, Zhang Guorong was able to learn the singing style of Peking Opera from his master and perform the soul of everyone in Peking Opera.

Not to mention Teacher Li Xuejian, he is willing to sacrifice everything for his acting career, just to play every role well.

Although Chen Hong is married to a great director, she still loves the profession of acting and is willing to study seriously.

The way the three of them worked hard to adapt to the work of "undertaker" made Wu Yuan, who was used to seeing the popular actors in his dream, quite moved.

Sure enough, no matter what the circle is, it is still relatively pure at the beginning.

After experiencing this for more than half a month, Wu Yuan took the time to talk to Zhang Guorong.

The two of them stood next to the white wall of Baoshan Funeral Home in Shanghai, leaning against the wall while smoking the Marlboro that Zhang Guorong brought from Hong Kong Island and chatting.

Wu Yuan frowned, took a sip of Marlboro with some disgust, and looked at Zhang Guorong with concern.

"Zhang Sheng, how are you feeling during this time? Are you stressed?"

In the past ten days, we have seen a lot of unpredictable things about life and death.

There are husbands and sons whose wives jumped to their deaths but were not sad at all; there are elderly people who hanged themselves before being discovered long ago; there are also young girls who meet unkind people and are ruthlessly killed by a suitor who cannot love them...

Of course, the ones I saw the most were the family members who were crying heartbroken and regretting their mistakes.

Wu Yuan was afraid that Zhang Guorong would feel uncomfortable psychologically after seeing too much of these things.

In fact, he took out the script of "The Undertaker" in order to let Zhang Guorong understand that death is not a liberation, and only by not being afraid of death can he live a better life. He wanted to give him a journey of spiritual healing.

By the way, go to Europe to get some prizes.

But before the movie was filmed, there was a wave of shock and baptism of death. Now Wu Yuan is also a little worried that Zhang Guorong will not be able to withstand it.

"Hey, Director Wu, you underestimate me."

Unexpectedly, Zhang Guorong smiled brightly, and said in a relaxed tone: "Actually, there will be some pressure at the beginning. I saw too many undisguised emotions, and the heart-piercing cries of the family members. I really felt uncomfortable." .”

"I also clearly feel that life is really too fragile."

"But there is a saying in your script that death is a door. When life comes to the end, it is not an end, but a transcendence and a move to the next journey."

"I saw the embalmer cleansing the deceased's body, changing clothes, describing the face, doing everything he could to help the deceased return to his original appearance, and help the deceased cross the door of death with dignity."

"I can also understand that this job is not only a set of procedures, but also to give the dead the last dignity of life, and it is a relief to the living."

Wu Yuan nodded in understanding, but he was complaining in his heart, "Who asked you about your feelings about the career of an embalmer."

However, seeing that Zhang Guorong was in a good mood, and there was no depression or low pressure at all, it seemed that his psychology was not going astray. Wu Yuan then smiled with relief: "That's OK."

"By the way, have you suffered from stomach problems again these days?"

"Hurry up and find a hospital for an examination, cooperate with the treatment carefully, and cure the disease before the movie starts."

"I don't want my leading actor to be sick while filming."

Wu Yuan's tone was very calm, but Zhang Guorong could hear concern in it.

He nodded with a smile: "I went to see him. The doctor just suggested that I get more rest, have a regular routine and diet, and I'll be fine in half a month."

"We are experiencing life now. Our schedule and diet are very regular, so we will definitely be able to take good care of ourselves before starting the machine."

But now, these actors are following the life rhythm of the mortician completely, every day is like going to work in the office, highlighting a rule.

"Yeah." Wu Yuan took a last puff of the cigarette and extinguished the Marlboro in his hand. He couldn't help it anymore, and said with disgust, "You Hong Kong actors like this cigarette."

"It smells like feet when you smoke it!"

"I'll get you a few packs of Huazi tomorrow, but you still have to smoke Huazi if you smoke, it's enough!"

"Haha." Zhang Guorong was amused by Wu Yuan. He raised his eyebrows and put his hand on Wu Yuan's shoulder: "It's good to pull it if you have it!"

"Let's go, I have to learn how to restore the body in the afternoon."

After finishing speaking, the two walked shoulder to shoulder into the funeral parlor.

Walking halfway, Wu Yuan frowned, suddenly remembered something, and stopped in his tracks: "By the way, don't learn your cello."

"I thought about it seriously, but I still need to change the setting of the hero."

"We Chinese people don't have any cello plot. When I set it up at the beginning, it was a little too casual."

"The male protagonist should be a suona player."

"In the beginning, he played suona in a Peking Opera troupe in the capital. Later, the troupe disbanded and he couldn't make ends meet. Then he returned to his hometown and became an embalmer by mistake."

Suona, as a wind instrument in Chinese traditional culture, has a long history and unique timbre, and is deeply loved by people.

In Peking Opera, suona is also one of the literary instruments and plays an important role.

However, when most people think of Suona, the first thing they think of is not Peking Opera, but weddings and funerals!

As the saying goes, "Suona is the king of all kinds of musical instruments. It is either ascended to heaven or worshiped in the hall. When the music ends, people leave, and people leave tea to cool down."

“When the suona sounds, thousands of people admire it, accompanying you in your birth and seeing you in death.”

"I don't know the suona sound at first, but I'm already a person in the coffin when I hear it again."

When he was writing the script for "The Embalmer" before, Wu Yuan didn't expect this, so he directly used the characters from the original version.

But recently, experiencing life in a funeral home, he suddenly remembered that in terms of Chinese funeral culture, since music is used as a metaphor, the suona is more reliable than the cello!
Yes, the original "The Undertaker" inserted three famous songs on several specific occasions.

They are Beethoven's "Ode to Joy", Brahms's "Lullaby" and Bach and Gounod's "Ave Maria".

Especially in the movie, "Ave Maria" played by Dawu for the president has a low melody, and when paired with the scene of Dawu playing the violin against the background of snowy mountains, it is one of the climaxes of the movie and is very beautiful.

However, I, Huaxia, have my own national conditions here!

Zhang Guorong held a suona and turned his back to the snow-capped mountains to sing "The Big Funeral" and "Cry at the Fifth Watch" which were shocking and made the soul tremble. It was not bad at all!

As soon as the suona rang, the picture of "funeral" engraved in the DNA of the Chinese people would immediately come to mind.

For a film about Chinese morticians and funeral culture, Wu Yuan felt that using the suona as a metaphor for the male protagonist’s change in mentality is more appropriate than the cello!
And it can also add a metaphorical line to the hero.

Suona actually represents the hero himself.

He was originally a suona player in a Peking Opera troupe. From a Peking Opera performer to an undertaker, his career and mentality have undergone earth-shaking changes.

And the musical instrument in his hand has also undergone baptism and transformation, from playing music for the living to mourning the dead.

The instrument itself has not changed, the suona is still the suona, but the musicians who play it have brought completely different music after their mentality and identity changes!

This is also in line with the original intention of the birth of "music" in human society, which is to share and convey human emotions of joy, anger, sorrow and joy, and resonate with them!
When the player's emotions and mentality change, the music played will also change along with it.

This also tells the audience that the male protagonist is still the same male protagonist, and the suona is still the same suona, but the mentality is different, and everything has changed.

Wu Yuan thinks this is very good, it has both depth and metaphor.

"Zhang Sheng, can you play suona?" Wu Yuan looked at Zhang Guorong with burning eyes.

The corners of his mouth twitched slightly, and Zhang Guorong smiled awkwardly: "No."

"Then go and learn. You don't need to be very good at it. Just learn a few songs commonly used in Peking Opera and funerals!"

The director is the biggest!

Even if the director wants to change the plot temporarily, the actors can only listen.

Zhang Guorong gritted his teeth, nodded and promised: "Okay, I will start learning suona tomorrow!"

　"Life Events" is not easy to integrate into "The Embalmer", and the box office is so high, it will definitely be filmed separately in the future.

　　
　　Suona is a very magical musical instrument, which can play both joy and funeral music, depending on the occasion it is used. Using such an instrument as a metaphor for the male lead, who loves music, is much better than the "cello". , this is also a special metaphor that only Chinese culture can have.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)