Early mornings in the south are often foggy. A father carried his son's schoolbag and went downstairs, drove his car to the door of the unit, turned off the radio to listen to the radio, and waited for his son who was still lingering upstairs... This is the TV series "The Disappearing Child" " at the beginning, the daily life of the protagonist played by Tong Dawei. Before Yang Mo disappeared in the original novel "Sea Anemone", Yang Yuan lived every day like this.

"Gone Child" poster

This is also the daily life of Bei Kebang, the author of "Sea Anemone". When discussing the interview time, Bei Kebang asked if he could start before six or seven o'clock in the evening, because when the time came, he had to pick up the children for self-study and after school. After the child entered junior high school, Beikebang had more time of his own. At this point in the past, he was "fighting three hundred rounds with the child".

In terms of parenting, Bei Kebang has a lot of confusion. He has always wanted to write a story about growing up, about education, and about the child itself. But this idea has not been implemented for a long time, and he suffers from having no formed ideas. Beikebang still lives a life of going downstairs early in the morning to warm up the car, listening to the radio and waiting for the child to get off, and then scolds the child for dawdling, and then sends him to school.

One day he had a whim, what if the child didn't go downstairs? "Sometimes I often imagine some very dangerous situations. In fact, there is no danger at all, but you can imagine that something happened to the child." Following this line of thinking, it seems to grow up with what he has always wanted to write about. The story can be screwed together... The beginning of the suspense novel "Sea Anemone" was born.

"Sea Anemone" Book Shadow

"Sea Anemone" is Beckerbon's first novel and his first film adaptation. The novel has been serialized on Douban since April 2019. It tells three cases in three story lines: a thrilling case of missing children, Yang Yuan's son Yang Mo disappeared in the corridor; young girl Lin Chuping was drugged while sleeping at home in the middle of the night. The case of invasion; the tenant of Lin Chuping's house hid the body only to falsely claim his father's pension. Three seemingly unrelated cases are intertwined and entangled with each other. The protagonists of the story seem to be adults, but after reading it in one breath, you will see the author's writing intention slowly emerge at the end. This is a child-themed story.

In January 2020, a few days before the epidemic began, Beikebang went to Beijing to hold a brief meeting with the main creative team to communicate their understanding of the novel. The story and characters of "Sea Anemone" have officially begun to move to the screen.

Regarding the script, Beckerbond did not participate too much. First, he doesn't usually watch domestic dramas, and he is not good at film and television adaptation and has no experience. On the other hand, he is also busy writing new works. "Professional things are left to professional people. After all, writing scripts and novels are somewhat different." In the choice of actors, Beikebang is only familiar with Tong Dawei, "This role fits the actor very well, and Yang Yuan is also a relatively main role."

"Gone Child" stills

More than two years have passed, and this summer, Beckerbang saw the world he wrote on the screen and turned into the TV series "Gone Children". He started chasing from the first episode, "2 episodes a week, and the remaining 5 days are all waiting in pain", and finally he paid for the direct finale.

Bei Kebang felt that the overall restoration of the drama was not bad, "It's definitely not perfect, but it's much better than I expected. After watching it, I still feel very melancholy and a little reluctant to part with it."

"The characters are almost the same as I imagined. I didn't feel anything when I saw the pictures of these actors, but when they moved in this picture, every actor was very kind." The background color of some characters is still there. The difference is different, but Beikebang thinks it's good to be self-consistent. "The character's personality, behavioral logic, and the temperament of the entire play are still very integrated. It does not mean that it will be better if it is completely restored. The play itself is a re-creation. ."

"Gone Child" stills

The environment of the whole episode and the restoration of the text made Beikebang very amazed, "For example, the environment of the community, the stairs, and the Xu family of the Yang family, the indoor environment of the two of them is almost exactly the same as I imagined, here should be I spent a lot of thought, and there are some signs, the name of the primary school, the name of the middle school, the name of the station, and the Honglian Building. I was very surprised when I saw it, and it felt like a fictional southern city in a novel." The production team thought, "You can completely change a dialogue, just use a ready-made scene. Now I don't know if it's a special effect or a prop, and the price is quite high." Some key dialogues are basically exactly the same as the novel, "he said. I know what he's going to say next."

However, such a careful "examination" will inevitably see some regrets. "How should I put it, there is a little lack of self-confidence in the temperament of the play." Beikebang expressed very euphemistically. He felt that the explicit or compensatory means (such as psychological monologues, voiceovers, and repeated flashbacks) of some of the characters' behavioral motives in the series were redundant. However, he believes that there are objective reasons for this, "On the one hand, it may be that the number of episodes and the duration of the series are determined when the series is designed, but the volume of this novel may not be able to reach, so there will be some repeated occurrences. editing." He also mentioned that perhaps the director considers the audience more and is worried about the problem of incomprehension.

If you have read both the novel and the series, the key point of the whole story is the "moving door panel". The drama's presentation of this place is not as suspenseful as the novel. Beikebang guessed, "The three stories in the novel are independent in the early stage. They are separated, and the space and time relationship between each other is not clearly stated before the three lines converge, so when the last three stories are connected because of one point, the reader will think, ah, so it is. But if the series does the same , the series will be too fragmented, and it is not acceptable for most audiences, so it is necessary to connect the three story lines as soon as possible. Therefore, this layer of suspense itself is weakened because of film and television. "

"Gone Child" stills

"Sea Anemone" is the first time Beikebang has written a long novel, and it is a suspense theme. It took him eight or nine months to straighten out all the details and logic. Just integrating this beginning into the story took two or three months to conceive. He wrote a very detailed outline before finally starting to write.

The title of the novel "Sea Anemone" does not seem to be related to the main story itself, but after reading it, you can check the meaning of "Sea Anemone", and you can understand why it is used as the title of the book.

"The sea anemone is a carnivorous animal that grows in water. It belongs to the cnidaria. It is an order of the subclass hexagon coral. The brain does not have the foundation either. Although the sea anemone looks like a flower, it is actually a predator, and its dozens of tentacles have a special kind of stinging cells that can release toxins.” Baidu Encyclopedia explained the creature.

"Gone Child" stills

The ending left by Beckerbon is open-ended, and readers will have different opinions on whether they believe in the reasoning of the police.

"From the reading order of the plot, it is a reversal, but from the point of view of the purpose of writing this story, it is what I want to write in the end, that is, everything before is to pave the way for such an ending. This setting It must be dark, but this is not the whole of a character, it is just a flash of thought. The ending song of the play is called "Yi Nian", and I think the word 'Yi Nian' is particularly good. All the characters do in one thought. between."

[The following is the self-report of Bei Kebang]

Growth environment is a problem, but human nature is also a problem

Because after having a child, I also have some ideas about the current educational system and educational environment, and I want to write a story about the growth of the child. I'm not a chicken boy, but sometimes others may look like I'm a little bit more, let's see who I'm comparing with.

I'm not as good as Yang Yuan in "The Sea Anemone". He is a very kind and tender person who accepts reality, removes his ego, and regards family as the most important thing. His character in this aspect is actually I am more yearning, so I will write about him.

Before becoming a father, I always thought that a child is a blank sheet of paper, and everything is influenced by parents or other circumstances, but I gradually discovered that this is not the case. A child is not a blank sheet of paper, some things are It is brought from the blood from the genes, so you can't not interfere with this child, but you can't interfere too much, so this dimension is difficult to grasp.

"Gone Child" stills

I imagined some extreme situations and set up a few styles of children, but there may be a lot of child styles in my mind. Originally, I wanted to express many characteristics in one child, but I think it may not be possible. It was suitable, so I was divided into three people, one was Yang Mo, one was Yuan Wu, and the other was Xu Enhuai.

Yuan Wu is actually a child. They have some contrasting relationship with each other. For example, in the family environment, Yuan Wu and Enhuai are the opposite. Yuan Wu is controlled and wrapped in love, and finally he is passively lost. The care of the family, but Xu Enhuai is just the opposite. She was abandoned by love, and she must take the initiative to find love and a family.

After Yuan Wu lost traction, he tried to make choices for himself, but his behavior was demented and chaotic, but he was destructive because he was an adult, as if his mother died, He changed from a newborn baby to an adult overnight. He has the power of an adult, but he does not have the control of an adult.

Xu Enhuai is the opposite. She does things very precisely and orderly. Her growth seems to be very long. If someone pushes you to do something, or someone pulls you to do something, you will feel that time has passed. It's quick, but when you need to face something alone, face the night alone, it's a long time. Xu Enhuai often draws the curtains. There are many such scenes in the play. The dark night outside the window seems to be very long.

They are a pair of opposite characters, and in the nature of their roles, Yuan Wu and Yang Mo are opposite pairs. Yuan Wu never fights, and what he says is what he says. He fell into a kind of mental predicament, but Yang Mo never turned back and pursued what he wanted with enthusiasm and sincerity.

I want to say that the environment in which people grow up is a problem, but the essence of people is also a problem.

If Yang Mo lived in a family environment like Yuan Wu, would he become someone like Yuan Wu? Actually not. Humans are born with character. So in the end, when Yuan Wu and Yang Mo stayed together, Yuan Wu saw another possibility of his own growth from Yang Mo. It is clearly written in the novel that if he was a so-called bad boy like Yang Mo when he was young, maybe he is a different person today.

"Gone Child" stills

As for Xu Enhuai, she was in the age group of fourteen or fifteen years old. If she was a little younger, such as twelve or thirteen years old, she would not have the ability or the mind to complete this task. If she was a little older, say sixteen or seventeen, she wouldn't have done this, knowing the seriousness. It was at such an age that it was possible for her to do this, which was a very childish prank.

She is very naive. When she saw the possibility of those thoughts that flashed in her mind, such as Yuan Wu doing bad things, she thought that Yuan Wu killed his father, and knew that she Her father did something like that, she longed to leave the family, and Yang Mo asked to take him out to play... Putting all these things in front of her might form a chain reaction, her mother left her original family and went to Looking for a more suitable family, she has always hated her mother, thinking that you can do this, and so can I. She had a bit of anger in her.

When these things are stacked in front of her, like dominoes, she starts to push the first card to see if the latter can fall. In fact, if she is sure that Yang Mo will disappear and die in the end, she may Wouldn't do it, she's just not quite sure. This is the mentality of a child.

She imagined that she could fit into that family perfectly, but in reality if she were a little older, she would understand that it was impossible, right? Even if everything goes as she wishes, it is impossible to adopt her in the end.

I had some doubts when I finally wrote the ending, and took some careful thought, and I wanted the reader to be the portrayal of the last character, just how you look at this character, what she is. For various reasons, I was a little worried that readers might not be able to accept a particularly balanced opening, and the two possibilities were equally divided, so I chose a pseudo-open ending that tends to be cruel.

"Gone Child" stills

In the end, some of the police's arguments were easy to overturn, and I only made a small overthrow. During their second barbecue, Xu Enhuai told Yang Yuan that the winter jujube was stuck in his throat, which overturned the police's argument that he grew up in a dark environment. Neighbors thought it was her mother who was harming her, but in fact it was just her mother's fault. I just want readers to understand that maybe some of the police's inferences are wrong, but I can't refute them all, so I leave some possibilities.

One of the places in the play that I feel is particularly good. Once, Yang Yuan took Yang Mo home. Yang Mo sat in the car and looked out the window. The windows went up and down, up and down again. I think it's very good. Opening and closing a car window is something a child would do, and his eyes are a bit mature, like an adult's melancholy eyes. No matter how tired a child plays, or how he fights and makes trouble, it's not too serious, but if he often silently looks into the distance by himself, it will attract attention. And Xu Enhuai was doing it day after day and night after night. What she was thinking might be terrifying.

What I want to say at the beginning is that the education issue has triggered some extreme imaginations. If some children do not interfere at all, they will do unimaginable things because of their immaturity. Yang Yuan may feel that his son is naughty and can't handle it well. At least some moments, he will think that his child may go down the wrong path. But on the whole, it's fine. In fact, it's not easy for a person like Yang Mo to grow into a bad person. He's not like Yuan Wu. He may not have made great achievements, but he is mentally healthy. As a parent, I think this is already very important. Satisfied.

My own favorite thing about this story is the uncertainty at the end, but now I think the inclination is a little too obvious. But maybe this way the audience will be more receptive because it's more explicit. A novel I wrote recently, "The White Bird Falls into the Jungle" is really open, not pseudo-open, and I don't even know how it is.

"The White Bird Falls into the Jungle" Book Shadow

There are still works like Edgar Allan Poe's novels

I started reading novels when I was in junior high school. At that time, martial arts novels were still at the tail end of the trend, and they were about to die. However, many people still read them. I just read a lot of Jin Yong's novels. I had an idea at that time, I also want to write novels, but I know that I won't be able to write to the level of Jin Yong's novels, which are too complicated, have many characters, and have a huge historical context, so I just moved my heart a little bit.

Later, a classmate who read widely, recommended Edgar Allan Poe to me. He was very shocked after reading it. He read to me "The Fall of Usher", and I was also shocked after listening to it. I realized that not everyone in this world writes novels that way, and that there are some people who write novels that way, and to be so sincere to write something totally incredible, and especially shocking, I feel like I can do it again.

A mood I had in my youth has always been with me, but I was a very obedient child. I grew up on a normal trajectory. When I got to college, I tried to write some novels, but I didn’t finish them. I wrote them casually in some notebooks. Give up at some point.

The Fall of the House of Usher

Before I went to the Douban Essay Competition in 2017, I didn't write anything that could be called a serious novel. My major is mechanical design, and I haven't done a day of work related to my major after graduation. I became an animator halfway through because I realized that this era may not be an era of reading. Animation is also a form of self-expression, but it’s just a transition from words to pictures.

In the end, I want to make my own thing. Animation is very suitable. First of all, it is visual, and secondly, it is completely controlled by you. When you direct a film, you have to measure many other factors, but animation is not necessary. It is a kind of curve to save the country, but in the end, it could not go far. Now I don't do animation design at all, and I don't do it in my spare time. I have sold all my computers at work. It's not a pity either, because there's not much achievement in animation either.

Later, when I saw the call for essays, I had this idea. Luckily, I won an award and gradually began to focus on writing. Later, the story of "Sea Anemone" was finished, and the response was OK, and there was news from the film and television side. This was a direct trigger for me to write full-time.

Before writing, I also opened a company in my hometown. The idea of starting a company is very simple. I just want to be free. I don’t want to make a team bigger and stronger. rather tired.

In the past, I had contact with the society through work, and had contact with many different people. I had some experience and experience. It is not that the work itself was helpful to me, and it might be the same for other jobs. It is possible to write some background settings - for example, Yang Yuan is a designer.

I have always been disgusted with categorical things. If I determine in advance what form I will use to write a story, I will probably not be able to write it well. Genre novels are actually a result of marketization, that is, if you divide a pile of books into this pile and that pile, the probability of each book being discovered increases, but in fact, many excellent novels may be very suitable for your taste, but Hidden in genres you don't pay much attention to.

The writer who influenced me the most should be Keigo Higashino, who prefers "Malicious" and "Secret".

"Malicious" and "Secret" book movie

The biggest advantage of his novels is that his writing is relatively friendly. His feeling of stating from the perspective of a character feels like telling a story in your heart. It is very close, and the reader will completely enter this character. He pulls this character Coming to your eyes, I also write in this way.

"Sea Anemone" has two timelines, each with two narrators. One is the current timeline, which is the timeline of Yang Mo's disappearance, one is from Yang Yuan's perspective, and the other is from the perspective of police officer Xiang Yi. The second timeline is a week ago, from Lin Chuping's perspective and Yuan Wu's perspective. In the final reversal, only these four people are speaking, and there is no fifth person. Readers can only see what they see and think only what they think, including all perceptions and opinions.

I feel okay after writing full-time, because there is no pressure from other people, but I am not as happy as I imagined, because I think writing is still quite hard work. On the one hand, it takes a lot of time to reconcile with family affairs. On the other hand, I am a novice in writing after all. How to deal with the adjustment of mentality between writing and reality is also very difficult. Sometimes you will make yourself very depressed because you have to write a scene or a plot.