Lin Chaoxian shoots "Breaking the Wind", focusing on youthful blood
1905 movie network feature For a male Hong Kong director in the Mesozoic era, it seems a very common choice to earn experience from police and gangster films. From the early and then the hot Academy Awards, Lin Chaoxian has shown talent in analyzing the complex personalities of both police and gangsters, as well as the motives of good and evil behavior. He let Jay Chou and Nicholas Tse fight for life and death in a big gun, and let Wu Yanzu and Zhang Jiahui fight in the profound and profound soul. In this world full of life and death decisions and good and evil judgments, Lin Chaoxian has his own set of mental methods.
However, there are quite a few people in the Hong Kong film industry who are good at police and gangster movies. However, Lin Chaoxian’s wit and calm took another path. The appearance in 2013 was really amazing. It made Zhang Jiahui’s best actor temperament shine again, and made Peng Yuyan, who was already getting stronger and stronger, fight to a new height. It also made the Chinese film industry see a different movie at that time: the heavy background of the boxing champion in the late twilight, the warm fermentation of family ties, and the strong inspirational energy of focusing on a competitive sport.
Seemingly following this line of thinking, Lin Chaoxian shifted his perspective from MMA to bicycles. In terms of the film’s concept, he also created a word called "Breaking the Wind" and set it as the final title. He was afraid that the audience would not understand and spent a lot of effort to explain its meaning everywhere: The so-called Breaking the Wind is actually breaking through the air resistance. It is a character who has made a lot of effort and sacrificed a lot in a bicycle team. In Lin Chaoxian, the inspirational object is younger, and the male protagonist is positioned as an all-male god. Peng Yuyan and Cui Shiyuan, even Dou Xiao, the spare tire of 10,000 years of bitterness, put on tights and practiced big thick legs. He said that it is normal to choose handsome guys to sell men’s colors. There is no reason to choose ugly ones to play in order to avoid the idol effect.
Although the strong men spraying hormones all over the screen will make some nymphomaniacs feel overwhelmed, Lin Chaoxian’s brilliance is that he can inspire some good-looking male actors to inspire extraordinary fighting spirit. When filming "Guild Wars", Zhang Jiahui said that one of the things he hated the most in his life was fitness. He even thought it was childish and ridiculous for a man to use his muscles to win respect. But there was no way. With the younger and stronger Peng Yuyan there, he couldn’t lose too much. After all, he was also a generation boxer. As for Peng Yuyan, he was lucky to seize this opportunity to self-sculpture and use devil training to prove his sincerity, but instead concealed his mild and mundane performance.
While "Guild Wars" is about a midlife crisis, "Breaking Wind" is more focused on youthful blood, says Mr. Lin. He has not seen the youth films that have been popular in mainland theaters in the past, including those starring Peng Yuyan. He believes that youth in "Breaking Wind" has its own unique selling point: "Peng Yuyan is very popular and has a good figure. Sometimes it is easy for people to sell his figure, but my interest is not here, but I think his biggest selling point is his fighting spirit." And the biggest success of "Breaking Wind" is that when you watch Peng Yuyan talk about love, you may have a little different opinion, but when he rides a bicycle and starts to attack, you will quickly turn around and applaud.
That’s a good story.
The original intention is very small and the cost is very large: thousands of drivers cooperate to shoot, breaking the collarbone is too common
Lin Chaoxian now likes to wear a pair of black-rimmed glasses and speak slowly and slowly, but his police and gangster movies are not small in scale, and there is no shortage of violent externals and abusive internals. He is also a sports fanatic in life, and cycling has been his hobby for more than ten years. When Lin Chaoxian was addicted to this sport, he thought of making a movie with this theme, but the technology at that time was limited and the actors were not suitable. Now that conditions permit, the movie that was originally conceived as a very low-cost movie has become bigger and bigger: traveling around snow-capped mountains, crossing deserts, large scenes and large teams, many people are injured and injured, and finally the car crash is regarded as normal.
1905 Movie Network: You said before that you wanted to shoot the theme of bicycles more than ten years ago, but you failed to make it. What are the specific conditions?
Lin Chaoxian: At that time, film was used. If you were shooting bicycles, you had to use a lot of rolls. This was a cost issue, and the cameras at that time were also very cumbersome and inconvenient to operate. But this is a small problem, because it was difficult to find investment in this kind of theme at that time, because there were no successful examples. So at that time, I thought of a very small and small cost drama, which is completely different from now.
1905 Movie Network: But now we see that the production scale of "Breaking Wind" is still very large, including deserts, snow-capped mountains, highways, and many other scenes, with a large geographical span.
Lin Chaoxian: Because different scenes require different methods of riding bicycles, I like riding bicycles very much. Although it is not a competition type, it is just leisure, but I love this sport very much. So I think if I have the opportunity to make a movie about cycling, I will put all the elements into it. Different competition scenes and different rules will have different challenges. For the performance of actors, you can also challenge their will.
1905 Movie Network: In this way, the cost will increase a lot. In terms of manpower and material resources, which one is more expensive?
Lin Chaoxian: Of course, we have to fly the whole team to many places, and we have to find many professional cyclists in each place, and we also use a lot of photography equipment, so the cost is really not small. Each race requires at least 200 to 300 people, and there are more than 1,000 people in several places. Of course, the cyclists who come to help are also people who love cycling, and they don’t get particularly high compensation for doing this. Everyone wants to participate.
1905 Movie Network: Have you counted the number of times the crew members were injured this time?
Lin Chaoxian: The number of times is a lot. More than 80 people in the entire crew were injured, and 7 or 8 of them had broken collarbones alone. Basically, during training, they all fell a little numb, just like when you fell for the first time, it felt very serious. After a few falls, you feel that it is just a skin injury, and it is not a big deal. In real competitions, if it is a world first-class competition, there are not many accidents, because their skills are very good. The most accidents happen when going downhill, and everyone is chasing time and fighting hard.
Don’t sell your body, sell your fighting spirit: I want to take out the best things of Peng Yuyan
Many people think that Peng Yuyan must have a self-masochistic tendency just after filming "Guild Wars" and then "Breaking the Wind" with Lin Chaoxian. Anyway, there is no shortage of devil training. When Lin Chaoxian lobbied Peng Yuyan to join, he said: This time I just ride a bicycle and fall in love, and I won’t be seriously injured by others like "Guild Wars". As for whether I will be seriously injured by myself, I don’t dare to guarantee it. Sinister! But on second thought, it was just Zhou Yu playing Huang Gai. Peng Yuyan’s choice of this path is still very smart, because now many people say: If you want to be as sexy as Peng Yuyan, you still need a bicycle.
1905 Movie Network: Why didn’t you find professional athletes to star in the movie?
Lin Chaoxian: They don’t know how to act. In the past, some famous athletes retired. At that time, they heard that they were going to film, but they didn’t. Acting is another matter.
1905 Movie Network: When did you talk to Peng Yuyan about the project "Breaking the Wind"?
Lin Chaoxian: After filming "Guild Wars", I went to shoot "The Magic Police". I talked to Peng Yuyan about this when filming "The Magic Police". I didn’t lie to him, I just told him that this time I don’t have to fight others like "Guild Wars", and this time there is still a lot of love. Of course, I didn’t tell him that the final shooting was even harder than "Guild Wars". In fact, he didn’t have any big problems. I told him at that time that he wanted to play a cyclist, so he should be mentally prepared to pay a lot.
From "Guild Wars" to "Breaking Wind", you seem to be very good at using male color to create some jokes.
Lin Chaoxian: You see Zhang Jiahui kissing Peng Yuyan in "Guild Wars". This is what happens in real life. When two people fight fists so fiercely, it is easy to bump into each other. This is something discovered in the real world, and we will feel very interesting as an outsider. Like Peng Yuyan crashing the car, the clothes are so thin that they will definitely break when the car crashes. If you have watched the game, you will definitely see such a scene. We didn’t force it. I think Peng Yuyan’s role is very cute and interesting. He is a very cheerful young man, so I think it should be enjoyable and happy. Also, Cui Siyuan, Peng Yuyan and the others massaged each other, which is also what happens in real training. The whole drama is about friendship. It is inevitable that such a situation will occur when we are young.
1905 Movie Network: Some people say that Lin Chaoxian’s filming of Peng Yuyan is like Wang Jiawei’s filming of Liang Chaowei. What do you think of this statement?
Lin Chaoxian: I really want to bring out his best stuff. Now that he is very red and has a good figure, sometimes it is easy for everyone to sell his figure, but my interest is not here. I think his biggest selling point is his fighting spirit. I will get to know him slowly, and I hope everyone can get to know him as well as I do. Maybe everyone’s starting point is different.
Real fight, real ride, real speed: the bicycle has no special effects, and the competition is not the protagonist
Compared to "Breaking Wind" and "Guild Wars", the interpretation of the sports competition part is more difficult. Fighting can rely entirely on the body language of two people, plasma and makeup, but it is not easy to shoot a bicycle race with courtesy, and if you are not careful, it will turn into a dull live event. In "Breaking Wind", Lin Chaoxian’s visual control of the sense of speed is excellent, and the rhythm of the competition is also maximally cinematic, but he smiled wryly when he said this: You ask me how to show speed? That is, they really have to ride very fast!
1905 Movie Network: What do you think is the most important thing when interpreting a bicycle race in film language? How to visualize the sense of speed in the race?
Lin Chaoxian: In fact, the most important thing is that they really have to ride very fast. It is not like a car. I can also have sound effects and motion on the camera to help you feel fast, but it is not actually going fast. But bicycles can’t do this, because bicycles have no sound. No matter how much your camera moves, it is still a small bicycle, and its visual impact must not be better than that of a car. So you must have real speed. We have to shoot 3 to 4 kilometers for each shot. In the first 1 kilometer, you can’t get up at all. Only after 1.5 kilometers can you. Then you have to control the formation, including the plot that is going to happen in the play. So every time the actors have to ride very fast.
1905 Movie Network: Cycling has a complex and detailed set of competition rules. If the audience wants to learn some professional knowledge before watching the film in order to understand the content of the film, what do you think are worth introducing?
Lin Chaoxian: Actually, I don’t think this is necessary. The simplest thing is that everyone should see what happened to the protagonists, what strategies they have, and what accidents happened. We are just nervous about the protagonists, and see how they solve the problem. Instead of you understanding everything that happens in the whole game. It’s just that we consulted a professional coach every detail when filming the game. This is my attitude towards movies, but audiences don’t need to have this attitude.
1905 Movie Network: When filming the game, how did you distinguish it from the live broadcast of the game on TV?
Lin Chaoxian: The real competition usually takes a few hours. It is impossible to be very nervous every second during these hours. Most of the time is the performance of the athlete’s endurance, and they will not attack until they cross the line. If you don’t like cycling, watching cycling competitions will definitely suffocate you. Although I like cycling very much, I also ask the coach to help me arrange the competition strategy very objectively. I will see which strategies have more visual effects and which ones can stimulate the audience in rhythm. I will watch this matter very calmly.
"Guild Wars" spirit of youth film: young people also need to cheer up
When discussing the significance of competitive sports in "Breaking Wind," Lin Chaoxian always avoids the subjectivity of this element. He believes that sports are just a carrier, not the protagonist of the story. The red tape on the field can be completely forgotten by the audience. What he wants to express is actually the story of the characters. Although the characters of "Breaking Wind" are much younger than "Guild Wars", and many historical accounts are slightly less full, this is precisely the change Lin Chaoxian made in "Breaking Wind". The 50-year-old director is to make a movie for young people to see.
1905 Movie Network: Are there any real sports stars as blueprints for the protagonists of the film?
Lin Chaoxian: Many characters have archetypes, such as the relationship between Cui Siyuan and Lian Kai, which is the relationship between Hong Kong world champion Huang Jinbao and his coach. Huang Jinbao met his coach at a low point in his life. At this time, the coach found that Huang Jinbao was very talented and helped him solve his problem. Huang Jinbao rode 100,000 kilometers in two years. This is the story of Cui Siyuan in the movie. There is also the role of Wang Luodan. There is a female driver in Hong Kong who actually had an accident during a race and broke three ribs, but she still got up, caught up, and finally recovered a champion. I feel it every time I see this clip, so I put it on Wang Luodan.
1905 Movie Network: Compared with "Guild Wars", "Breaking Wind" is more youthful, and compared with "Magic Police", "Breaking Wind" is also more sunny. In terms of the overall tone of the film, what makes you want to make such a youthful and inspiring movie?
Lin Chaoxian: "Guild Wars" I am talking about the midlife crisis, which is to cheer up middle-aged people. After finishing it, I felt that I had never made a youth film, so I decided to use the spirit of "Guild Wars" to make a youth film to cheer up young people. The market needs this kind of film. Maybe there are changes in mentality. I used to be more depressed, and I feel a strong impact on things. It has been almost 8 years since "Witness", and my life has reached another stage. The creation of each stage will reflect your different life experiences, which are all closely related.
1905 Film Network: How do you see the current prospects for sports-themed films in the market?
Lin Chaoxian: I don’t think it’s necessary to see "Breaking Wind" as a sports movie. The spiritual communication between this movie and the audience mainly depends on the experience and mentality of the characters. In fact, sports are just a means. I think everyone can ride a bicycle when they are young, which is a test and tempering of their own will. It is just a background. Of course, I also hope that there will be more movies of this type in the future, so that everyone can have a very excited mood when they walk out of the cinema.
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