Chen Zhengdao: The market is improving faster than directors. This is a crisis!

"Since you follow the commercial film route, you must be able to withstand criticism. In the past, there were too many praises, which affected my character. Now I will read more negative comments and try to do better next time. This is not a compromise to the audience, but a responsibility to yourself."

He feels that "Back to 20" is smoother and more refined than "Master Hypnosis", but he also said: "Maybe the box office improvement is greater than my actual improvement."

"2014 is my 10th anniversary of acting." Chen Zhengdao spoke with a Taiwanese accent, laughed, and his small eyes squeezed into a line on his plump round face. In his fourth year of college, he filmed his debut feature film and thriller "House Change". At the age of 25, he produced "Light Years in Summer", one of Taiwan's representative works of youth films; at the age of 33,"Returning to 20" rushed into the mainland New Year's Eve. Chen Zhengdao's director qualifications are older than many "young filmmakers" in their early forties. "I guess it is a unique case in the world of Chinese movies."

Chen Zhengdao's ancestors moved to Taiwan from the mainland. He came from a good family and was independent since he was a child. He began to learn painting and shoot short films in middle school. In 1999, Taiwan had just begun to study in the United States. It was necessary to pass an application to enter the university entrance examination, and the results of cultural courses were only a reference basis. Chen Zhengdao, who is in high school in high school, just happened to catch up with the first batch of "experiments". These students did not have much pressure from the college entrance examination. Chen Zhengdao even had time to shoot short films and won an award. In the end, he didn't even take the subject examination. He was directly sent to a design junior college based on his two short films and oral test results.

After entering college, his major had nothing to do with making movies. In Chen Zhengdao's view, college was just a youthful journey. "In Taiwan, there is a small difference in the amount of money they earn after coming out between those who are good at reading and those who cannot read." During his college days, Chen Zhengdao spent a lot of time making short films, among which "Wild" was shortlisted in the 2004 Venice Film Festival International Critics Week Competition and the "Asian Style" Competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival. These experiences laid the foundation for him to later take over the filming of "House Change".

Chen Zhengdao, who debuted early, experienced success and frustration earlier than other colleagues.

After filming "Summer Light Year", he had a period of "floating". "When Taiwan's film market is so poor, it actually sold more than 10 million Taiwan dollars-the annual box office champion that year was often only more than 10 million, and it also sold copyrights from 16 countries." During that time, he often flew around to participate in film festivals in various countries,"feeling very amazing." However, during the four years he was filming in Taiwan, the market has been sluggish, and his pride has made it difficult for him to cooperate. He finally realized that he was not omnipotent, so he had to re-learn how to choose a partner and how to get along with the producers, something he didn't care about when he was in good times in his early years.

In 2008, Chen Zhengdao, who had no film to shoot, went to the mainland to develop alone, but he could not find investment in the two ambitious projects he brought. It wasn't until three years later that he received "Happiness Limit" from Pony Horse, which was a firm foothold. This year, he was exactly thirty. In 2013, he took on the filming of "101 Proposals", starring Huang Bo and Lin Zhiling. Since then, he has been called "the first post-80s director to enter the 100 million yuan club." But Chen Zhengdao was not satisfied with these two films. "The industrial output value of the mainland market continues to double, attracting a large amount of investment and business implantation. In this case, I also began to become urgent, eager to cooperate with celebrity companies and cater to the market."

Both films had poor reputation, which gave him a sense of crisis. He concluded afterwards that on the one hand, he did not adapt to the environment, and on the other hand, he did not do well. The current situation is not that bad. The key lies in the mentality. "After all, the mainland market has many advantages. It has abundant funds and can take many things that could not be taken in the past."

When he received the script for the suspense drama "The Master of Hypnosis" written by young screenwriter Ren Peng, he felt a turning point. There were few suspense movies with hypnotic themes in the past, and this will be a pioneering attempt. He told himself,"You have to make a good genre film with high budget, sufficient time, exquisite production and good actors." Finally,"Master Hypnosis" not only made a certain breakthrough in creation, but also reached 250 million yuan at the box office, becoming his personal box office high.

In the post-production stage of "Master Hypnosis", he received an invitation to "Return to 20". This is the China version of the South Korean comedy "Strange She", developed simultaneously with the South Korean version. Chen Zhengdao liked this script. He revealed that in order to make this movie, his price rose even lower than "Master of Hypnosis". Therefore, when the film company proposed to reduce the production cycle, or the sponsor asked for more implants, he always blocked it with "I'm sorry, I reduced the price." He feels that "Back to 20" is smoother and more refined than "Master Hypnosis", but he also said: "Maybe the box office improvement is greater than my actual improvement."

The best and worst era

Chen Zhengdao once said that he encountered the worst era of Taiwanese films and the best era of mainland films. But now he has revised this statement,"The worst era of Taiwanese films was the business and box office, but that was the best era of creation, and you had the opportunity to film the subject matter you wanted. The mainland is currently the best era for business and box office, but it may not be for creation."

He cited the youth film he was most familiar with as an example and admitted that although "Light Year in Summer" was immature, it truly restored his high school and college life. "No one thought of making money in Taiwanese youth films such as" Blue Gate "," Summer Light Year "and" The Girl We Chased Together in Those Years ", but because the cost was easy to control, there were many people filming them. In an era when the market is so bad, Taiwanese youth films do unpretentious things under their seemingly pretentious appearance, and the creators are sincere and brave to reproduce their youth. Nowadays, youth themes in the mainland are very profitable. Many youth films are stuffed with a lot of symbols of the times. They can't wait to use 'youth' to hit you constantly and urge you to think of that era."

He is quite wary of the prosperity of the mainland film market. "China's film market is advancing faster than directors. This is a crisis. I obviously haven't done so well yet, but the box office is already very high and the remuneration is also very high. But when your box office exceeds the quality of your movie by too much, the audience can dump you at any time."

A junior high school student told him after watching "The Master of Hypnosis" that the movie was so beautiful that he wanted to be a director himself, so he asked Chen to recommend a movie to him. Chen recommended Christopher. Nolan's "Deadly Magic", but the student stopped chatting with him after watching it. Chen Zhengdao said with emotion: "If I want to rise from the level of" Master Hypnosis "to the level of" Deadly Magic ", you need to give me ten years, and you also need to give this industry ten years. But the audience grows overnight, and it's hard for you to catch up."

Although he is a commercial film director, Chen Zhengdao is an out-and-out film youth born in the 1980s. He has watched a huge amount of films and quoted classics unequivocally. Like young literary and artistic youths in the mainland, he also mixed in "Douban" and read film reviews, including of course reviews of his own works. Although some netizens 'harsh comments inevitably made him emotional, he still tried to remain rational. "Since you follow the commercial film route, you must be able to withstand criticism. In the past, there were too many praises, which affected my character. Now I will read more negative comments and try to do better next time. This is not a compromise to the audience, but a responsibility to yourself."

Today's Chen Zhengdao is quite sophisticated in facing the media and the audience. "Back to 20" was exchanged at the screening, and some people praised him for having a "China version." Howard's potential, he quickly smiled and said: "You film critics, don't praise me!" Faced with the claim that "Korean films are a few streets behind China films," he generously responded,"At least I am still chasing them on this street." During the interview, he spoke eloquently about his views on current domestic films, but he did not forget to remind reporters at any time,"You can't write the following paragraph just now." It seems like a ginger.

Interview with Chen Zhengdao

Reporter: Among Taiwanese directors, like you, there seem to be a minority who have moved to the mainland to develop and followed the commercial route. More people will adhere to Taiwan's localized literary and artistic style. And you have also made artistic films in Taiwan. Now making commercial films is taking the initiative to transform or compromise with the market?

Chen Zhengdao: There is an ugly judgment that only I dare to say: In fact, in Taiwan, these directors are taught that films with youthful and literary styles are called commercial films. If you look at what books in Taiwan look like, what TV advertisements look like, and what roadside coffee shops look like, you will know that life in Taiwan is always very fresh, not just movies. Taking fresh flowers is like writing "Spring Festival Gala" paragraphs, it is the result of natural integration into the environment. I feel like I am an intermediate creator. Basically, the audience will like what I like, so I didn't deliberately transform it.

Reporter: You used to like Wong Kar-wai, but now you admire Tsui Hark and Chan Kexin. Is it because the latter two adapt well to the mainland environment?

Chen Zhengdao: Whether I liked Wong Kar-wai when I was a child, or I like Tsui Hark and Chen Kexin now, the routes these directors have taken are beyond my reach. If I find that there are some directors with similar styles to mine and I may become him one day, then I will not like him. There is a wonderful psychological factor in this.

I like Tsui Hark and Chen Kexin not only because they can adapt to the mainland environment, but because they have been making progress. At his current age, Tsui Hark still has new pursuits in style and technology. I admire him very much. Chan used to be able to shoot themes like "Ghost Granny", but now he can shoot "China Partner" and "Dear". He has always been paying attention to what the audience wants to see. These two directors reminded me not to consume resources. Maybe one day I can make a very successful movie, and I won't repeat it, but I will keep trying new things no matter how old I am.

My next movie is "Master of Memory", and I still work with Xu Zheng, but the content is completely different from "Master of Hypnosis" and is not a sequel.

Reporter: It is said that you have given up your efforts to be "down-to-earth" now?

Chen Zhengdao: When I first came to the mainland, I was always called a "desktop little fresh". I was eager to be down-to-earth, but later I found that it was of little significance. For example, in making a romantic movie, the most important thing is to convey "I love you" to the audience. When I made the movie sincerely, even if it had a Taiwanese accent, the audience could understand that I was saying "I love you." If I am not sincere, the film is very rough, with a lot of messy implants, and I try hard to pretend to be a mainland accent when it is obviously Taiwanese, even if I say "I love you" in Sichuan dialect, Sichuan people will not be moved.

So, starting from "Master Hypnosis", I decided not to pick up the "earth qi" of the mainland. This movie has a high concept, a strong sense of design, and a very contrived story. I was worried that everyone would find it unreal. Later, I found that the audience did not struggle with the so-called reality issues, but instead devoted themselves to the story. So, just be yourself and don't need to pander. In "Back to 20", I also expressed my views on the family relationship among the Chinese people in the world, which is not divided into Taiwan and mainland China.

Reporter: "The Master of Hypnosis" has a novel theme, starring Xu Zheng and Karen Mok. The final box office did not exceed "You at the Table" released at the same time. What do you think of this situation?

Chen Zhengdao: It is not that good movies have good box office, but that "the right movie has the right box office." I can't ask junior high school students to watch Xu Zheng and Karen Mok fight their wits after class. They may just want to see if Lin Xinxin will catch up with Zhou Dongyu. But I will not change my creative orientation because of this. China's film industry is very tolerant. If you do well, the probability of losing money is actually not high. There is no point chasing "500 million clubs" and "1 billion clubs". This is everyone's loss of the movie.

Reporter: Who inspired your career as a director?

Chen Zhengdao: Zhang Yimou's early films had a great influence on me. I am luckier than many mainland audiences. His early films were all released in Taiwan, and I watched them in cinemas when I was a child. In "Raise the Red Lantern High", I saw how he used a corner to cover the head of the male owner; when watching "Alive", I was deeply impressed by Ge You's performance and shadow puppet play. When I thought that his films were full of aesthetic design, suddenly "No One Less" appeared again, which was filmed like a documentary. The simple aesthetics shocked me for a long time. When I arrived at "My Father and Mother", he asked me to think about why reality is black and white and memories are colorful.

Reporter: For your profession, does "youth" bring more advantages or disadvantages?

Chen Zhengdao: Although I am young, I am not a new director. I have worked with Jolin Tsai, Stefanie Sun, and Eason Chan since the MV was filmed, so I have no pressure to face big stars. After filming "Master Hypnosis", almost every reporter asked me,"Do you think you can suppress Xu Zheng?" I asked Xu Zheng, and he said,"Do you think I am a river demon?" This is actually everyone's imagination of young directors. No one has ever asked me if I can live in Yang Zishan. In fact, Yang Zishan really can't live in, and she has a lot of opinions. My sense of hierarchy is relatively weak. When I was a child, my father often said to me, if you judge a person's character, don't look at whether he respects people or elders who are stronger than him. If he has a good attitude towards people below him, this person will respect himself. This education has had a great impact on me.