It is now the peak period for return trips during the Spring Festival travel season. As a big city, Qingdao has a particularly large number of return passengers at the train station.
"Hey, Haozi! Haozi!"
At a glance, He Xin found the guy in the bustling crowd who, although wearing a mask, was still as eye-catching as a fat-headed fish.
"Axin!"
Ning Hao rushed over and asked, "Is Director Guan here?"
"I just arrived yesterday and asked about our film. I was told that registration will close at the end of the month."
"Ha, that's just right!" Ning Hao said with excitement. In fact, he was also most worried about not being able to catch up with this Hong Kong International Film Festival.
When the two of them walked out of the crowded train, the guy took off the mask covering his face, took a deep breath of fresh air, and sighed: "The air here is still fresh, I can smell the sea!"
He Xin smiled and pointed to the south: "One hundred meters ahead is the beach. Of course you can smell the sea!"
"real?"
This is the first time Ning Hao has come to Qingdao, and it is also the first time he has heard that there is a train station built on the seaside, especially in a big city like Qingdao.
"Of course it's true. This place is blocked by a house. If you take a few steps forward, you can see the sea. Do you see it? In front of that building is the Zhanqiao Bathing Beach, Qingdao's famous Huilan Pavilion, and the Zhanqiao are all there.
side."
He Xin is now considered to be half familiar with Qingdao.
"Let's go and have a look!" Ning Hao dragged him to the beach, nagging: "Children like us who were born on the high loess slopes have a natural yearning for the sea."
Maybe one hundred meters is an exaggeration, but it does take less than five minutes to walk from the train station square to the seaside, and the Zhanqiao Beach is the most representative landscape in Qingdao.
It is a semicircular bay with Little Qingdao on one side and Bada Gorge on the other. A long trestle in the middle extends to the center of the bay.
"It's so beautiful! And the air is good, unlike in the capital, where the air is always smelly!" Ning Hao leaned on the railing and looked at the beautiful scenery, sniffing like a dog.
He Xin smiled and said, "Then you can move here."
"That's not okay. Just because I like it here doesn't mean I can move here. Just like I like painting, I don't necessarily have to do it because it can't support me. In fact, life is like this. You don't necessarily have to do it.
Go choose what you like best."
Yo!
I didn't expect this guy to be able to say such philosophical words, which made He Xin immediately look at him with admiration.
Then I saw him pointing in the distance and shouting excitedly: "Hey, there are warships there!"
He Xin knew without looking that there were several retired small warships parked in an artificial harbor next to Little Qingdao. He casually said: "That's the Naval Museum over there."
"So you can still go up?" Ning Hao said quickly.
"Since it's a museum, maybe it's okay?" He was a little unsure about this.
It should be said that the equipment of our country's navy is still relatively backward these days. Unlike more than ten years later, those 052D shield ships, including aircraft carriers, 055 large cruisers, nuclear submarines and other big killers, are like dumplings.
Therefore, he has no interest in the few small boats currently parked on the dock of the Naval Museum, such as submarine hunting boats with only a few hundred tons, or old frigates with more than a thousand tons.
But Ning Hao was different. It was probably the first time for this guy to see a warship with his own eyes. He was very excited. He was surprised and said: "There are people! I saw someone on the warship. You can go up and visit. Let's go and have a look."
look."
He Xin checked that it was still early and Guan Jinpeng was probably still on the set at the moment, so he simply acted as a temporary tour guide and took Ning Hao to the Naval Museum and the nearby Little Qingdao Park.
When the two of them strolled to Huiquan Dynasty, the country bumpkin looked at the five-star sign without blinking, and said with envy: "After all, the crew is from Hong Kong, they are rich enough! They can actually live there.
five star hotel!"
He Xin glanced at him and said, "Director Guan lives here! However, when you are filming in two years, you might be able to stay in a five-star hotel."
The guy shook his head like a rattle and said, "I don't dare to think about this. As long as I can make a living in this industry."
Also, at this time, Ning Hao might never have dreamed that he would be able to become a top domestic director in the future, and his Bad Monkey 72 plan single-handedly turned him into the godfather of directors.
This process sounds like reading a novel about the golden retriever next door.
"Director, this is the director of "Incense", Ning Hao!"
"Oh, hello, Director Ning!"
Seeing Guan Jinpeng take the initiative to reach out to him, Ning Hao, who was a little embarrassed, hurriedly smiled, bent down, held the other person's hand with both hands, and said: "Director Guan, hello! I don't dare to call myself director in front of you.
Just call me Xiaoning!"
Although He Xin had already introduced to Guan Jinpeng before that Ning Hao was still a college student studying at Nortel, but when they first met, he was still a little surprised by the young director in front of him with a simple and flattering smile.
In fact, he did this for He Xin's sake from the beginning to the end. As an old-school director, he has never been able to watch movies shot on DV. Film is king.
He didn't care about the quality of the movie, but he was more looking forward to what kind of performance He Xinhui would give as a monk in this DV movie.
"Have you brought the film?"
Guan Jinpeng is very busy. He not only has to supervise Li Miaoxue's "Landscape of Love", but also prepares for the TV series "Painting Soul" in cooperation with CCTV. During this time, he has been traveling around Hong Kong, Qingdao, Shanghai, and Suzhou. For example,
I have only been in Qingdao for two days this time, and I will fly back to Hong Kong early tomorrow morning.
So, after a brief exchange of pleasantries, he went straight to the point.
"Bring it." Ning Hao hurriedly took out a burned CD from his bag.
Guan Jinpeng took it and looked at it. It was an ordinary DVD disc with the word "incense" written on it in marker.
The moment he put the CD into the machine, Ning Hao, who was sitting next to him, leaned forward slightly and stared at the TV screen without blinking, his whole body tense.
If being able to participate in the Asian DV Film Competition of the Hong Kong International Film Festival is a big test for him, then now it is a preliminary test. If he fails, he will not even have the chance to take the big test.
Not only was he nervous, He Xin's mood at this time was also a mixture of nervousness and anticipation. The scenes shot before the Spring Festival were still vivid in his mind. He thought he had tried his best, but he just didn't know what the final effect would be.
At the beginning of the film, there is a country road running across the screen, gray sky, snow-covered land, and an unexpected dead tree with a crooked neck.
Then, a tricycle passed by on the road, and the driver sang a high-pitched folk tune. There was also a monk sitting in the car, wearing a tattered cotton hat.
Guan Jinpeng, who was sitting with his legs crossed and a relaxed expression, couldn't help but his eyes lit up when he saw this scene. He was not an ordinary viewer, but thought that a senior director had his own unique understanding and aesthetic of movies.
The opening of this film shows the desolation and dilapidation of the countryside in northern Shanxi vividly with just a few strokes.
He subconsciously glanced at Ning Hao, who was looking nervous, with a hint of admiration in his eyes.
Nanxiaozhai Village is a village where every household raises and kills sheep.
There is a dilapidated temple in the village, and there is a monk in the temple who looks a bit different. He speaks a little awkwardly and looks very pious, but he can smoke, eat greasy and meaty instant noodles, and occasionally look at people with dishonest eyes.
The sheep butcher's sister.
The monk believed in Buddhism. He repeatedly emphasized that the whole village was slaughtering sheep, so there must be a temple. He believed in karma and his own profession. Believing in Buddha could protect his livelihood.
Then, the Buddha statue collapsed. The monk became uneasy and tried his best to repair the Buddha statue to ensure his livelihood and belief.
He first went to the Religious Affairs Section of the county's United Front Work Department. The person in charge excused himself by saying that he had no money, but there was no shortage of funds for the church's renovation because the church had given him a gift.
The monk went to his second cousin again. Although the second cousin who ran the hair salon seemed to be a rich man, he didn't ask for a loan because the hair salon was not a serious place.
The monk again thought of his prosperous elder brother. His big temple in the county was really grand, but his people were stingy.
Then, the monk was begging to raise money and was caught by the police. When he met some ladies who wanted to donate money to him, he didn't take it because he thought the money was dirty.
At this point, the monk finally degenerated. He started setting up a fortune-telling stall, but was beaten up by gangsters.
By chance, he used a 12-yuan Buddha statue on a street stall to pretend to be a treasure consecrated by a monk from Mount Wutai, and finally defrauded him of 3,000 yuan.
But when he had finished casting the gleaming new Buddha and was feeling very satisfied, the government told him that the temple must be demolished to build roads.
The design at the end of the film is very clever: in front of the temple wall with a large word "Demolish" painted on it, the monk stares into the distance, and chanting is played from the loudspeaker. The picture gradually changes to a long shot. This is an empty shot, not taking pictures of people, but
Facing the bleak yellow land...
When the subtitles started to scroll on the TV screen, there was silence in the room. Ning Hao sat there anxiously, waiting for the final verdict, not daring to speak.
He Xin, on the other hand, was in a daze. Although most of the scenes in this 90-minute film were very familiar to him, the feeling of watching the finished film now was the same as when he watched "Bicycle" and "Little Children".
"Tailor", or even "Lan Yu", the feeling is the same shock!
Is Ning Hao's level at this time already comparable to Wang Xiaoshuai, Dai Sijie and Guan Jinpeng? He couldn't help but turn his head to look at Director Guan sitting next to him.
I saw that Lao Guan's face was full of surprise at this time. He stood still for a few seconds and actually stood up from the sofa while clapping his hands.
"good, very good!"
Ning Hao, who stood up next to him, looked flattered. He kept rubbing his hands as if they had nowhere to put them. He, who was always sharp-tongued, didn't know what to say at this moment. He just kept mumbling: "
Director Guan, my film, uh, uh..."
Guan Jinpeng looked at him with surprise, shame, and even a hint of complexity. To be honest, he didn't think much of him from the beginning, but at this moment he had to admit that the young man in front of him used his works to make a living.
He slapped himself in the face.
He should be very familiar with the works of the so-called fifth and sixth generation directors in the Mainland. Although Ning Hao's film is still relatively young in some details, his unique aesthetic and storytelling
The way the story is told is different from any fifth- or sixth-generation director he knows. It is a completely new narrative style and technique.
To say that he is the seventh generation would be an exaggeration, but it is obvious that this young man's future is worth looking forward to!