Entertainment: Start with the villain in the competition

The name is a bit foreign.
At first, Jia Zhangke thought that Wu Zong was a film with the flavor of Western art films, which was created by secondary processing after imitating some foreign literary films.
However, when he turned to the first page of the script, this idea was completely overturned.
Dirty gray snow falls on the dilapidated and backward low-rise bungalows, the street office of the urban-rural junction with the architectural style of the 1990s, the big red slogan painted with paint on the wall, and the approaching on the muddy road. , a pickup truck broadcasting advertisements with loud speakers.
Although the construction of various scenes did not strictly explain the background and location of the story, it made Jia Zhangke know clearly that this story took place in a rural area in northern China.
The backward atmosphere exuding a strong local flavor instantly brought Jia Zhangke into the story.
The focus of the picture is from the big to the small, and the auto repair department transformed from the dilapidated three-story bungalows entered the picture.
Pulling through the gray wall sprayed with advertisements, the camera shot through the hole in the broken window, in the form of a long shot, and pulled the picture into the auto repair department.
A greasy, unkempt repairman slowly emerged from the repair port under the van, with both hands half clenched in the air, he did not change his clothes immediately after walking out of the repair port 23. , but after a brief period of confusion, he walked to the workbench and took off his work clothes covered in oil.
This is the protagonist of the movie – the tree.
“Have you repaired it for others?”
On the side, a man like a boss asked with a frown.
While taking off his overalls, Shu said in a rather complacent tone, “Come on, let him go.”
Although, the tree’s tone revealed very certainty and complacency.
However, his hand never fell, as if he was always holding two glasses of water, never letting them hang down. He seemed complacent but at a loss.
The tree is such a person.
He always seems to be so absent-minded, and his words are full of confidence, but his hands are always like this, just like he is in the village.
Just this first shot, two words flashed in Jia Zhangke’s mind.
It’s awkward.
No, it’s just awkward.
This kind of awkwardness is not due to errors in the movement of the mirror and the setting of the scene, but entirely from the protagonist ‘Tree’.
This is a feeling that Wu Zong described secretly from every detail. He deliberately set the character’s characteristics like this.
And this awkward feeling even made Jia Zhangke feel at a loss.
Moreover, just by closing his eyes and going through this script, Jia Zhangke could clearly feel the real scene in the countryside.
“This Wu Zong…”
Jia Zhangke lit a cigarette and took a deep breath, secretly startled.
He has seen too many scripts. As a big boss in Chinese literary films, he can judge the quality of the whole movie by just watching the beginning.
Ghost.
Jia Zhangke sighed in his heart.After sighing, Jia Zhangke finally let go of his heart.
Being able to write an opening of this quality, and the camera movement and scene switching in it are used so smoothly, it can only show one thing.
That means Wu Zong really knows how to write scripts!
Moreover, the quality of this script is still very high!
Rest assured, Jia Zhangke was impatient, and continued to read the script, wanting to see what kind of story Wu Zong, a genius, could show him.
Just like that, Jia Zhangke didn’t come out of the room for a whole day, and he didn’t even bother to eat lunch!
In the first half of the movie, various images of the protagonist “Tree” are depicted, which makes Jia Zhangke breathless.
The pair of arms that were always half raised and the fists that were always half clenched made him feel like a stone was pressed against his heart.
What made him feel even more depressing was that Wu Zong actually put this depressive and awkward atmosphere on the big wedding of ‘Tree’, and carried out a concentrated explosion of emotions.
Marriage is originally one of the most important moments in a person’s life, and it is a great joy in life.
However, Wu Zong chose this time to completely detonate the oppressive and dull atmosphere.
It also completely exposed the darkest side of the task of “tree” to the audience.
With the end of the scene where Jia Zhangke wasted half a pack of cigarettes, the movie entered the second half.
But in the second half, Jia Zhangke really called Wu Zong a genius!
After a very unhappy wedding, the tree seemed to be a different person, the light in his eyes completely dissipated, as if he had turned into a marionette, a sad walking dead.
However, the turning point happened precisely at this moment.
The ‘tree’ seems to have the superpower of prophecy.
And with the birth of this unbelievable ability, the tree, which had always been unpopular in the village and was regarded as a laughing stock, suddenly became a “half-immortal” in the village and was respected by everyone.
This magical realism twist made Jia Zhangke’s skin crawl.
This is really unbelievable.
What he was talking about was not the script, but Wu Zong!
Jia Zhangke never expected that Wu Zong would be so bold that he used an absurd and magical technique beyond reality to give the ‘tree’ a seemingly ‘new life’ turning point!
It’s really amazing!
And this magical absurdity, until the end of the movie, Wu Zong did not give a final explanation.
Instead, it uses a blood red that contrasts extremely strongly with the northern snow-capped fields as a filter, giving an open ending to a wild run in the field.
It seems that the ‘tree’ gained a ‘new life’ because of a sudden fable ability.
However, Jia Zhangke could tell from the tree’s still restless hands and dull eyes that he had never been reborn.
After that wedding, the tree died.
Maybe he is really dead, maybe he is crazy, maybe he is blind.
After reading the whole script, Jia Zhangke felt that it is not so much that the “tree” “died” at a certain time.
It might be better to say that he never lived.
“Huh—”
Jia Zhangke, who had read the whole script, let out a long breath of dull air, and the feeling of depression in his heart could not be dispelled for a long time.
Turning around, the ashtray was already full.
Before he knew it, he had actually smoked two full packs of cigarettes from morning to night.
He also finally understood why the ‘tree’ in the script loved smoking so much.
It’s not because he likes to smoke, but because if he doesn’t smoke, he won’t know how to put his hands together.
But when you think about it, it’s actually quite sad.
There is nowhere to put your hands, so you can hold a cigarette.
But if life has nowhere to rest, what should we do?
After a full ten minutes’ delay, Jia Zhangke finally got out of the mood of the script, picked up the phone at hand and called Wang Ding.
“Hello, Mr. Wang.”
“I’ve finished reading the script. When are you going to start filming?”
“Oh, it doesn’t matter about the remuneration, but this movie must be entrusted to me to shoot.”
“It’s not that I, Jia Zhangke, are talking big. No one else can make this film except me.”
“Okay, then I will wait for the good news.”
Here, Wang Ding, who was listening to the beeping busy tone on the phone, had a wonderful expression on his face.
After thinking for a long time, he still didn’t understand why, so he simply called Wu Zong.
“Hello? Zong? What did you write in your script? Do you know what director Jia Zhangke said just now?”
“He actually said that the salary doesn’t matter?!”
“Are you his lost son?”.