On the evening of June 23, Jia Zhangke posted a still in his personal circle of friends: a robot in a chef's uniform, looking at him naively. He wrote: Don't answer. 
The answer was revealed in "The Last Director of Earth", the first work of the domestic series of short films "The Big World Gacha Machine", which was launched on the B station that day. In the film, Jia Zhangke and Ning Hao starred together. The film sets the story in the near future. The film has become an intangible cultural heritage application project, and the two directors have tried their best to compete for the intangible cultural heritage heir.
Why do you want to make such a sci-fi movie? Recently, the director of "The Last Director of Earth" Xu Lei accepted an online exclusive interview with The Paper. Our topic is started by Xu Lei's first big screen debut "Sherlock on the Plain", which will be released at the end of 2019. "One month after the release, the epidemic came, and my work basically stopped." Xu Lei said.
"Writing this story is also to ease my anxiety"
The Paper : For the interview, I specifically watched "Sherlock on the Plains" again, and also checked some information. I would like to know your work status and mentality after the release of this big screen movie?
Xu Lei : Forget it, a month after the film was released, the epidemic came, and my work basically stopped. My state of mind is relatively flat, and it feels good to be alive. After I get used to the setting of the epidemic, it doesn't seem to be that bad. It feels especially like when I was in school, when there was always a teacher in charge, I felt very happy after class, and now I am also very happy when I can go out to have a meal with my friends. Of course, it can't be said that he did nothing, wrote the script, and also made two short films to practice his skills.
Surging News : The epidemic has continued to recur in the past two years, and so far, the operation of cinemas in Beijing has not fully recovered to the state before the epidemic. As a filmmaker, what do you think?
Xu Lei : The epidemic has a great impact on the film industry. I haven't been to the cinema for a long time, which gave me the illusion that watching a movie is not just a necessity. I used to think that watching movies was just as necessary as eating and sleeping. It seems okay to not watch it now, which reminds me that movies are really just a form of entertainment.
Xu Lei : I had an interview with a magazine earlier, and I also asked about my views on the film industry. Originally, I rarely thought about the industry. It was too big. Since people asked, I also thought about it carefully. At that time, I thought, will movies die like other entertainment, or art forms? Just like our national quintessence, of course, Peking Opera has not disappeared, but has gone into decline. It has changed from a popular art to a relatively niche art form today. Movies have been popular for a hundred years, and without the epidemic, movie theaters have also been hit by streaming media. Now, will this be a turning point? Will movies continue to be popular in the next hundred years? At that time, these wild thoughts filled my mind, and then I wrote such a story, also to ease my anxiety.
The Paper : In "The Last Director on Earth", both directors Jia Zhangke and Ning Hao acted in their true colors and played themselves. Did you follow them both when you were writing the script?
Xu Lei : Actually, I already knew Director Ning when I wrote this script. Because we live relatively close together, we sometimes meet together, have a meal and chat for a while. I told him the idea in advance, and he thought it was funny. That was in 2020, probably in the summer, and then I started writing the script. After writing the script, I went to work on other things, and this matter was put down. In 2021, we will talk about this again, and we will shoot it if we don't.
The Paper : At this time, did you contact Director Jia Zhangke?
Xu Lei : Yes, that's when I really asked Director Jia. Although I wrote the script according to Director Jia Zhangke, I was also prepared that he would not act. After all, he was playing himself. I don’t know how people think about this, and the way of jokes and ridicules in the script I don't know if people will accept it. Later, through the introduction of Director Ning, I contacted Director Jia and sent him the script. He quickly replied that there was no problem. I said that if there is something wrong with the script, we can change it again. He didn't make any comments, and readily agreed.
The Paper : How will you and these two industry seniors meet for the first time? Introduce us.
Xu Lei : A meeting? We actually met before the camera started, and we didn't talk about the specific shooting, just chatted. The two of them have known each other for a long time. They were very friendly when they met, and talked about their recent health conditions: How high is your blood pressure? How high is my blood pressure? Whoops, then your blood pressure is higher than mine, so you have to pay attention... Haha, in short, it's a topic of middle-aged men (these topics later appeared in the movie lines, reporter's note).
Surging News : Jia Zhangke's "Old Man" and "Three Gorges Good People", and Ning Hao's "Crazy Alien" have quite a lot of sci-fi elements, and they form a considerable background endorsement in this "The Last Director of Earth" . I think that's the strength and character of The Last Director on Earth, and it's also the challenge you put forward in writing and directing. Talk about on-set stories.
Xu Lei : Hey, if you say that, I have to think about it. Yes, the rocket launch in "The Good Man in Three Gorges" is also very sci-fi. Let me put it this way, I didn't think about the past works of the two directors at the time, maybe they were too familiar. Speaking of connection, our art teacher this time, Liu Qiang, is also the art artist of "The Old Man of the Mountains and Rivers" - the movie was shot in Australia, and he also designed the future part. This time, we also learned from his experience at the time and chose a more retro-style sci-fi sense.
Xu Lei : Teacher Liu Qiang and I have repeatedly discussed this issue. What does the future look like? Is it made to look very futuristic at first glance, or is it made to look like it is not out of touch with the present? At the time, I also thought about an art style that was more cyberpunk. Later, I thought, in fact, this story is not a particularly hard science fiction thing, the future is just a story background, so that everyone can basically enter the plot. The setting in the movie story is about 40 years later, and 20 years have passed in the 21st century, but when we think about it carefully, it seems that there is not much change from 20 years ago.
In fact, if you watch the British drama "Black Mirror", its art design is not too exaggerated, it just adds some sci-fi elements on the basis of contemporary, we probably have the same idea this time. Of course, for me, I have a selfish motive. I want to try the special effects when I make a sci-fi film, so I added an artificial intelligence robot. But this robot did not participate in any major events, and it was all about life elements such as pots and pans. Both directors are from Shanxi. They eat pasta, old vinegar, Fenjiu, old songs, and robots together. The sense of confusion is still very high. Funny.
Xu Lei : Yes, sometimes I want to make a film from the 1980s, and I also look for some films from that year to watch. I was surprised to find that there were tall buildings made of this kind of glass in many cities at that time. I think that era was almost half a century ago, but it is not as backward as we think now. And the trend is reincarnation, so this time we look for some retro feeling in terms of visual style.
The whole film was shot around the Anaya community in Beidaihe, based on a setting: the quality of life in the future will definitely be very good, everyone will not be short of money, and they will live in a very clean and tidy world.
The Paper : Insert a question, whose sci-fi works do you prefer?
Xu Lei : I like the American writer Vonnegut very much. Although many people do not regard him as a serious literary writer, I still like to read his works, especially those short stories.
The Paper : In the movie, Mao Ning and Yang Yuying sang the song "Heart Rain" together from the beginning to the end, and introduced the selection of the songs in it.
Xu Lei : In the first scene at the beginning of the film, Director Jia was performing how he made "Xiao Wu". There is this song in "Xiao Wu", and we reproduced the scene, including the art and the actor's modeling, and we also found two very similar actors to play the role. For the filming of "The Last Director of the Earth", we bought the copyright of "Heart Rain" and bought everything, so we will use it a few more times.
Xu Lei : I know the two directors very well. They are my idols. I probably know all the films they like. Director Jia mentioned Mr. Fei Mu in many of his books and mentioned "Spring in a Small Town"; Director Ning said in an interview that he liked the list of films, I remember "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" and "Shaolin Temple". In the script, I "did" with "Shaolin Temple" this time (laughs), and chose three Shaolin-themed movies in the 1980s in a row. At this point, I may have "interfered" with Director Ning's personal choice. His character in the movie is that he likes to watch martial arts movies.
In fact, the bridge section of "A Train Into the Station" was decided after we finished filming. My design at the beginning was that the two of them were fighting over the movie screen and then it was cut to black, "finished". This point is still very difficult to ponder, what kind of movie do you want to make them, and finally can agree on? "Once Upon a Time in America"? "godfather"? But no matter how great these movies are, it seems that they are not suitable for such a unity after many disputes. After much deliberation, let’s go back to the “Arrival of the Train” in the silent film era. Needless to say, the significance of this movie is not much to say. We chose a Schumann tune “Kinderszenen” (Kinderszenen) for the background music – two old people sitting by the sea , they had their own childhood, and the movie also had their own childhood, and the movie led them back to the good old days. Not only does the ending feel nostalgic, but it also brings out hope.
The Paper : Actually, you know a lot about Shaolin-themed movies, so I probably guessed your age. Can you introduce yourself, how did you get on the road of making movies?
Xu Lei : I am a post-80s generation born in 1982, and I am also a middle-aged person. First of all, I am a movie fan. I liked watching movies when I was a child. I studied business administration in college. After arriving in Beijing, I realized that movies can become a career and a choice for making a living. When I was 30 years old, I was still a migrant worker working in an insurance company, living a nine-to-five life. I quit my job that year and wanted to be a director in my life.
Before "Sherlock on the Plains", I also made some short films. In 2014, the short film "From Taipei to Shenbei" I wrote and directed was selected for the Shanghai International Film Festival, which should be my first work. When it came to "Sherlock on the Plains", we started talking about this film. In fact, when I was looking for an actor, I didn't think about my dad. Is it my mom who suggested that he should try it? Later, it was true that the actor did not find it ideal, so he simply let him try it. Anyway, let others screw it up, it is better to let yourself screw it up (laughs). My dad refused at first, but he reluctantly agreed after he patiently read the script. In the movie, he played Chaoying, but his real name is Xu Chaoying, and the three brothers in the movie are all starred by their real names. The film was shot in my hometown, Hengshui, Hebei.
Xu Lei : The directors of us didn’t actually talk much, and we didn’t know each other very much about what the other was shooting, and we basically shot back-to-back. Everyone's style is different, and everyone's concerns are also different, so it's just an individual's play. As for the filming, some of the concerns may be the same.
Surging News : In the past two months, Netflix's "love crash" has fermented online. They are all sci-fi-oriented works. Based on your directing experience this time, how to go about domestic sci-fi films in the future?
Xu Lei : This problem is too big, and the science fiction film is too big. I am still very interested in science fiction. The new script I am working on is also a science fiction theme. I will shoot it when I have the chance.
how to say? I think the world is quite sci-fi now. I didn't expect that I would still encounter the epidemic... In addition, the experience of filming this short film is also very sci-fi to me. Ten years ago, you told me that , I will become a director, and I can also let directors Jia Zhangke and Ning Hao appear in my own films, I will definitely say don’t talk nonsense.
do you know? Recently a person from our village left the earth. This also makes me feel quite sci-fi - in the Shenzhou 14 spacecraft, there is an astronaut who is from our village. I never thought that someone in our village can leave the earth and go to space in this life? But now this has become a reality. Using this topic, I think that while Chinese filmmakers are benchmarking Hollywood sci-fi films, our country's aerospace technology is also benchmarking NASA. The two are actually related. American astronauts have already landed on the moon, and now we are also working on this matter. With this foundation, the future of Chinese science fiction films will definitely be a direction for our efforts.
A still photo of Jia Zhangke in the circle of friends.
Reminiscent of the recent news that the 500-meter-diameter "Sky Eye" Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) built in China has received some cosmic signals fermented in the market - and Hawking's "don't answer" extraterrestrial civilization message "Last lesson" . What is Jia Zhangke talking about?The answer was revealed in "The Last Director of Earth", the first work of the domestic series of short films "The Big World Gacha Machine", which was launched on the B station that day. In the film, Jia Zhangke and Ning Hao starred together. The film sets the story in the near future. The film has become an intangible cultural heritage application project, and the two directors have tried their best to compete for the intangible cultural heritage heir.
"The Last Director on Earth" poster
There is a funny scene in the film, Jia Zhangke is devastated by the intelligent robot housekeeper recommended by Ning Hao. Jia Zhangke, who is originally from Shanxi, thinks he knows the true meaning of making noodles, but he does not want a robot but has a set scientific ratio of noodles and water (mixing process). Humans and machines thus hold their own words and go their own way. In the end, looking at the bowls of noodles covered on the dining table, human beings collapsed...Why do you want to make such a sci-fi movie? Recently, the director of "The Last Director of Earth" Xu Lei accepted an online exclusive interview with The Paper. Our topic is started by Xu Lei's first big screen debut "Sherlock on the Plain", which will be released at the end of 2019. "One month after the release, the epidemic came, and my work basically stopped." Xu Lei said.
Director Xu Lei (middle) on the set.
【dialogue】"Writing this story is also to ease my anxiety"
The Paper : For the interview, I specifically watched "Sherlock on the Plains" again, and also checked some information. I would like to know your work status and mentality after the release of this big screen movie?
Xu Lei : Forget it, a month after the film was released, the epidemic came, and my work basically stopped. My state of mind is relatively flat, and it feels good to be alive. After I get used to the setting of the epidemic, it doesn't seem to be that bad. It feels especially like when I was in school, when there was always a teacher in charge, I felt very happy after class, and now I am also very happy when I can go out to have a meal with my friends. Of course, it can't be said that he did nothing, wrote the script, and also made two short films to practice his skills.
Surging News : The epidemic has continued to recur in the past two years, and so far, the operation of cinemas in Beijing has not fully recovered to the state before the epidemic. As a filmmaker, what do you think?
Xu Lei : The epidemic has a great impact on the film industry. I haven't been to the cinema for a long time, which gave me the illusion that watching a movie is not just a necessity. I used to think that watching movies was just as necessary as eating and sleeping. It seems okay to not watch it now, which reminds me that movies are really just a form of entertainment.
"The Last Director on Earth" stills
The Paper : I noticed that you are the writer and director of "The Last Director on Earth". Did your thoughts on the cinema during the epidemic trigger the idea of this film?Xu Lei : I had an interview with a magazine earlier, and I also asked about my views on the film industry. Originally, I rarely thought about the industry. It was too big. Since people asked, I also thought about it carefully. At that time, I thought, will movies die like other entertainment, or art forms? Just like our national quintessence, of course, Peking Opera has not disappeared, but has gone into decline. It has changed from a popular art to a relatively niche art form today. Movies have been popular for a hundred years, and without the epidemic, movie theaters have also been hit by streaming media. Now, will this be a turning point? Will movies continue to be popular in the next hundred years? At that time, these wild thoughts filled my mind, and then I wrote such a story, also to ease my anxiety.
The Paper : In "The Last Director on Earth", both directors Jia Zhangke and Ning Hao acted in their true colors and played themselves. Did you follow them both when you were writing the script?
Xu Lei : Actually, I already knew Director Ning when I wrote this script. Because we live relatively close together, we sometimes meet together, have a meal and chat for a while. I told him the idea in advance, and he thought it was funny. That was in 2020, probably in the summer, and then I started writing the script. After writing the script, I went to work on other things, and this matter was put down. In 2021, we will talk about this again, and we will shoot it if we don't.
The Paper : At this time, did you contact Director Jia Zhangke?
Xu Lei : Yes, that's when I really asked Director Jia. Although I wrote the script according to Director Jia Zhangke, I was also prepared that he would not act. After all, he was playing himself. I don’t know how people think about this, and the way of jokes and ridicules in the script I don't know if people will accept it. Later, through the introduction of Director Ning, I contacted Director Jia and sent him the script. He quickly replied that there was no problem. I said that if there is something wrong with the script, we can change it again. He didn't make any comments, and readily agreed.
The Paper : How will you and these two industry seniors meet for the first time? Introduce us.
Xu Lei : A meeting? We actually met before the camera started, and we didn't talk about the specific shooting, just chatted. The two of them have known each other for a long time. They were very friendly when they met, and talked about their recent health conditions: How high is your blood pressure? How high is my blood pressure? Whoops, then your blood pressure is higher than mine, so you have to pay attention... Haha, in short, it's a topic of middle-aged men (these topics later appeared in the movie lines, reporter's note).
"The Last Director on Earth" stills
The people in the play had their own childhood, "the movie also has its own childhood"Surging News : Jia Zhangke's "Old Man" and "Three Gorges Good People", and Ning Hao's "Crazy Alien" have quite a lot of sci-fi elements, and they form a considerable background endorsement in this "The Last Director of Earth" . I think that's the strength and character of The Last Director on Earth, and it's also the challenge you put forward in writing and directing. Talk about on-set stories.
Xu Lei : Hey, if you say that, I have to think about it. Yes, the rocket launch in "The Good Man in Three Gorges" is also very sci-fi. Let me put it this way, I didn't think about the past works of the two directors at the time, maybe they were too familiar. Speaking of connection, our art teacher this time, Liu Qiang, is also the art artist of "The Old Man of the Mountains and Rivers" - the movie was shot in Australia, and he also designed the future part. This time, we also learned from his experience at the time and chose a more retro-style sci-fi sense.
"The Last Director on Earth" stills
The Paper : Speaking of art, how do you define the visual texture in "The Last Director of Earth", after all, this is a science fiction film.Xu Lei : Teacher Liu Qiang and I have repeatedly discussed this issue. What does the future look like? Is it made to look very futuristic at first glance, or is it made to look like it is not out of touch with the present? At the time, I also thought about an art style that was more cyberpunk. Later, I thought, in fact, this story is not a particularly hard science fiction thing, the future is just a story background, so that everyone can basically enter the plot. The setting in the movie story is about 40 years later, and 20 years have passed in the 21st century, but when we think about it carefully, it seems that there is not much change from 20 years ago.
In fact, if you watch the British drama "Black Mirror", its art design is not too exaggerated, it just adds some sci-fi elements on the basis of contemporary, we probably have the same idea this time. Of course, for me, I have a selfish motive. I want to try the special effects when I make a sci-fi film, so I added an artificial intelligence robot. But this robot did not participate in any major events, and it was all about life elements such as pots and pans. Both directors are from Shanxi. They eat pasta, old vinegar, Fenjiu, old songs, and robots together. The sense of confusion is still very high. Funny.
"The Last Director on Earth" stills
The Paper : Recently, I was watching Huang Jianxin's debut film "The Black Cannon Incident", including his later "Dislocation", which is a science fiction film, a science fiction film that does not set a future scene and is completely shot at the moment.Xu Lei : Yes, sometimes I want to make a film from the 1980s, and I also look for some films from that year to watch. I was surprised to find that there were tall buildings made of this kind of glass in many cities at that time. I think that era was almost half a century ago, but it is not as backward as we think now. And the trend is reincarnation, so this time we look for some retro feeling in terms of visual style.
The whole film was shot around the Anaya community in Beidaihe, based on a setting: the quality of life in the future will definitely be very good, everyone will not be short of money, and they will live in a very clean and tidy world.
The Paper : Insert a question, whose sci-fi works do you prefer?
Xu Lei : I like the American writer Vonnegut very much. Although many people do not regard him as a serious literary writer, I still like to read his works, especially those short stories.
The Paper : In the movie, Mao Ning and Yang Yuying sang the song "Heart Rain" together from the beginning to the end, and introduced the selection of the songs in it.
Xu Lei : In the first scene at the beginning of the film, Director Jia was performing how he made "Xiao Wu". There is this song in "Xiao Wu", and we reproduced the scene, including the art and the actor's modeling, and we also found two very similar actors to play the role. For the filming of "The Last Director of the Earth", we bought the copyright of "Heart Rain" and bought everything, so we will use it a few more times.
"The Last Director on Earth" stills
The Paper : "The Last Director on Earth" will undoubtedly make the audience laugh out loud, but you made a very deep ending. At the end of the film, Jia Zhangke preferred "Spring in a Small Town", while Ning Hao liked watching "Shaolin Temple". Talk about your idea and the shooting of this episode.Xu Lei : I know the two directors very well. They are my idols. I probably know all the films they like. Director Jia mentioned Mr. Fei Mu in many of his books and mentioned "Spring in a Small Town"; Director Ning said in an interview that he liked the list of films, I remember "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" and "Shaolin Temple". In the script, I "did" with "Shaolin Temple" this time (laughs), and chose three Shaolin-themed movies in the 1980s in a row. At this point, I may have "interfered" with Director Ning's personal choice. His character in the movie is that he likes to watch martial arts movies.
In fact, the bridge section of "A Train Into the Station" was decided after we finished filming. My design at the beginning was that the two of them were fighting over the movie screen and then it was cut to black, "finished". This point is still very difficult to ponder, what kind of movie do you want to make them, and finally can agree on? "Once Upon a Time in America"? "godfather"? But no matter how great these movies are, it seems that they are not suitable for such a unity after many disputes. After much deliberation, let’s go back to the “Arrival of the Train” in the silent film era. Needless to say, the significance of this movie is not much to say. We chose a Schumann tune “Kinderszenen” (Kinderszenen) for the background music – two old people sitting by the sea , they had their own childhood, and the movie also had their own childhood, and the movie led them back to the good old days. Not only does the ending feel nostalgic, but it also brings out hope.
"The Last Director on Earth" stills
Recently, someone in our village left the earth, "this is quite sci-fi"The Paper : Actually, you know a lot about Shaolin-themed movies, so I probably guessed your age. Can you introduce yourself, how did you get on the road of making movies?
Xu Lei : I am a post-80s generation born in 1982, and I am also a middle-aged person. First of all, I am a movie fan. I liked watching movies when I was a child. I studied business administration in college. After arriving in Beijing, I realized that movies can become a career and a choice for making a living. When I was 30 years old, I was still a migrant worker working in an insurance company, living a nine-to-five life. I quit my job that year and wanted to be a director in my life.
Before "Sherlock on the Plains", I also made some short films. In 2014, the short film "From Taipei to Shenbei" I wrote and directed was selected for the Shanghai International Film Festival, which should be my first work. When it came to "Sherlock on the Plains", we started talking about this film. In fact, when I was looking for an actor, I didn't think about my dad. Is it my mom who suggested that he should try it? Later, it was true that the actor did not find it ideal, so he simply let him try it. Anyway, let others screw it up, it is better to let yourself screw it up (laughs). My dad refused at first, but he reluctantly agreed after he patiently read the script. In the movie, he played Chaoying, but his real name is Xu Chaoying, and the three brothers in the movie are all starred by their real names. The film was shot in my hometown, Hengshui, Hebei.
"Sherlock on the Plains"
The Paper : "The Last Director on Earth" belongs to the series. Did you directors have a unified style after the script and filming started?Xu Lei : The directors of us didn’t actually talk much, and we didn’t know each other very much about what the other was shooting, and we basically shot back-to-back. Everyone's style is different, and everyone's concerns are also different, so it's just an individual's play. As for the filming, some of the concerns may be the same.
Surging News : In the past two months, Netflix's "love crash" has fermented online. They are all sci-fi-oriented works. Based on your directing experience this time, how to go about domestic sci-fi films in the future?
Xu Lei : This problem is too big, and the science fiction film is too big. I am still very interested in science fiction. The new script I am working on is also a science fiction theme. I will shoot it when I have the chance.
how to say? I think the world is quite sci-fi now. I didn't expect that I would still encounter the epidemic... In addition, the experience of filming this short film is also very sci-fi to me. Ten years ago, you told me that , I will become a director, and I can also let directors Jia Zhangke and Ning Hao appear in my own films, I will definitely say don’t talk nonsense.
do you know? Recently a person from our village left the earth. This also makes me feel quite sci-fi - in the Shenzhou 14 spacecraft, there is an astronaut who is from our village. I never thought that someone in our village can leave the earth and go to space in this life? But now this has become a reality. Using this topic, I think that while Chinese filmmakers are benchmarking Hollywood sci-fi films, our country's aerospace technology is also benchmarking NASA. The two are actually related. American astronauts have already landed on the moon, and now we are also working on this matter. With this foundation, the future of Chinese science fiction films will definitely be a direction for our efforts.
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