In the past ten years, screenwriter You Xiaoying has heard her mother talk about the story of a grandparent and grandchild in her choir countless times on the phone. The grandson with Down syndrome was brought by his grandmother to participate in choir activities and mingled with the elderly in the choir.
In You Xiaoying's mind, the figures of this pair of grandparents and grandchildren gradually unfold into a family picture with a cruel but gentle background. They are a pair of brave warriors who fight against the injustice of fate with vivid tenacity, and they are also the precious spiritual strength in the face of adversity that is rare in this era.
You Xiaoying has always been good at writing family dramas, with sharp and unique perspectives and observations in her delicate writing. "Love and Family" tells the fierce collision and warm perseverance of love and family concepts between generations, deeply digging into the warmth and light deep in human nature, which won her a number of honors including the Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Screenplay; "My Sister" tells the painful struggle and difficult decision between the burden of family affection and self-yearning after the loss of her parents, which triggered the public's deep questioning of family, responsibility and self-worth, and won the box office champion of the period with 860 million yuan.
Poster of "Little Me"
"Little Me" takes a special family as the starting point, revolves around the growth of a disabled child Chunhe, and focuses on depicting the core supporting role of the family in his life. It shows the intergenerational transmission and tenacious dedication of female characters such as grandmothers and mothers in the family. At the same time, it explores the difficulties and responses of families in the face of special situations, as well as the complex and deep emotional bonds between family members.
In the film, the special teenager Liu Chunhe experienced a summer of "growing up". He became independent from his family, "learned" from society, loved and got hurt, got closer to the world, and accepted himself more. As a teenager from a disadvantaged group, he got rid of the stereotype of waiting to be redeemed in the traditional sense. The film closely follows his self-awareness and emotional appeal as a human being, abandons curious voyeurism and sympathy, and faces fragility and unbearableness, presenting the real texture of life.
Two weeks after its release, "Little Me" has grossed over 600 million yuan, earning enough tears from the audience. At the same time, various topics ranging from the actors' acting skills to the protagonist's experiences and the choices made by the characters in the film have been on the hot search list many times, sparking social discussions.
During the release of the movie, screenwriter You Xiaoying accepted an exclusive interview with The Paper, interpreting in depth the inspiration for "Little Me", family and character creation, the integration of social issues, and the creative process.
Screenwriter You Xiaoying
【dialogue】
Put special difficulties into the daily life
The Paper: The script was inspired by the true story of your mother’s choir. What was the most touching thing that inspired you to adapt it into a movie?
You Xiaoying: I listened to my mother telling their story, not just once or twice a day, but every day. From the time the child was born until he was a teenager, he had always been with his grandmother. So this was an uninterrupted ten years, and this pair of grandparents and grandchildren always appeared in my mother's stories to me.
I can't help but imagine how they get along. I think we are actually lacking stories like this, about how to face adversity. In fact, many people are going through a period that is not so smooth right now. I think maybe this story can give you some inspiration and cheer you up.
Stills from "Little Me"
The Paper: Among the various cases you came across while writing this script, which ones were the most impressive?
You Xiaoying: I met this grandparents and grandchildren, and also met many children with physical or intellectual disabilities, including autism and cerebral palsy. I remember in the early stage, a mother told me that after she gave birth to her child, she knelt down in the temple once, either kowtowed or slapped herself. She would ask the Buddha if she had done something wrong. I didn't dare to write this scene in the script, it was really too heartbreaking.
This mother is a very capable professional. When this happened, she told me about her mental journey. She said that everything in her first half of life was controllable, but since she gave birth to this child, everything has become out of control. Then you have to face this loss of control, get used to it, and then little by little pull back the lost life. I think this point is very touching to me.
The Paper: Unlike traditional films that focus on people with disabilities, this time the narrative focuses on the shaping of the entire family. It is also equivalent to showing three generations of women, including grandmother, mother and Yaya, from Chunhe's perspective. Why did you have such considerations?
You Xiaoying: Back to the family, the rehabilitation of all these disabled children, after writing about the support of hospital doctors in the first chapter, the next chapter will write "Compared with hospital treatment, family treatment is a longer-term process for all disabled children to grow up", it must require the investment of the whole family to support the life of this child. So when I structured this story, I would focus on the creation of this family relationship.
Stills from "Little Me"
This family is supported by the role of "mother", which is an intergenerational transmission of support from mother to mother. The mother supported Chunhe's life before, and the arrival of the grandmother is actually a kind of support for the mother. When she takes care of her grandson, it is not the traditional "intergenerational relationship", but there is a kind of intergenerational transmission in it.
Therefore, regardless of the actual environment or the family issues that I am interested in myself, I am more willing and obliged to explore the relationship between the survival of such a child and his family.
The Paper: Family dramas require a solid texture of life to make people believe in the characters’ situations and relationships. What are your thoughts on this? How do you balance particularity and universality?
You Xiaoying: We designed this character to balance these two aspects. In the whole play, the mother's seriousness is often followed by the grandmother's "unreliable" appearance to dilute it. Otherwise, the tension in the whole family would be suffocating. The grandmother is a very important pusher to break this suffocating feeling. She is the one who pulls the two of them out of that state. This is very important.
I think family is both a power field and a battlefield, but it can also be the most peaceful harbor we can finally reach. It is such a comprehensive feeling.
So when writing about such a family, the special features are ranked relatively low. I intentionally don't focus the camera on the kind of deliberate display. For example, when you see the family eating at the table, the camera is telling the mother what you are going to do, and the picture briefly passes Chunhe using his hands to peel eggs with great difficulty. You can see that this child eats in this way, including his mother dressing him. You can find that these most daily actions are so difficult for him. This is all our design, which is to put the difficulties of the lives of special people in an atmosphere that everyone is accustomed to.
Stills from "Little Me"
The Paper: In Chunhe’s family, his father is actually present, but he is invisible in the movie. Why is it handled this way?
You Xiaoying: Indeed, from the script stage, the father was almost in a state of being present but speechless. This is related to some observations we made during the research process. We found that men are not as strong as women when facing such changes in the family. Including the father of a family I know, when he found out that his child had this situation, he chose to go overseas for a year and a half. I asked him if this transfer was really necessary or just his escape. He was silent for a long time and admitted that he didn't know how to face such a child at the time.
I think in some of our previous narratives, the phenomenon of women's aphasia exists. In this family, I chose to make the father "aphasic" because I wanted everyone to see the contrast between the mother's resilience and the father's absence.
A summer of love and transformation for a young boy
The Paper: Chunhe's summer experience involves not only his family but also Yaya. Why did you choose this girl when she approached him in the beginning and then withdrew from him in the end?
Stills from "Little Me"
You Xiaoying: In the film, Yaya is first of all a "full-time child". Like Chunhe, she is also a young person who has experienced this summer. If Chunhe is in a state of anxiety about whether to leave, Yaya is actually in the same state.
She has been a full-time child for a year and is no longer used to getting along with her parents. At the same time, as a very healthy person, unlike Chunhe who is trapped by his own body and his mother, Yaya is trapped by her own confusion and some external factors. So when she saw Chunhe, she was also curious. At the same time, she saw that Chunhe had a very clear direction and a very strong motivation for his future and his life, while she herself seemed to be in a fog about life, which made her appreciate Chunhe's vitality and enthusiasm very much. Including the books she saw Chunhe read and the poems he wrote, it was also a shock to her. So she couldn't help but get close to him, to explore him, and even to explore out of curiosity.
But when Chunhe really felt this kind of thing, and there were these throbbing and emotions between the two, and they wanted to talk about whether it was possible to develop a serious relationship further, Yaya was actually afraid. This is a very normal state for an immature girl in her early twenties. At first, because of her personality, she was more enthusiastic and forward-looking, but when she was afraid, she would quickly shrink back.
The Paper: There is a very important line in the movie, "They think I only need to eat, drink, defecate and urinate." Further desires are rarely seen. How are these needs observed and considered?
You Xiaoying: This is a point that almost everyone mentioned during the survey. They also talked about their love lives, and many of them had girlfriends. Of course, when they want to move forward, they will face many obstacles, not to mention starting a family. Even if they walk out of this room and into the public, whether they can withstand the strange looks from others is daunting.
I remember a scene that left a deep impression on me. When a boy was telling me a story about a girl he liked, his father suddenly interrupted him and said, "Don't even think about it. It's impossible." The boy was also very excited. He stood up and asked, "Why is it impossible?" He was so angry that he was shaking all over. Not to mention others, even in the eyes of parents of cerebral palsy patients, they don't seem to have emotional desires.
The Paper: There are several dream scenes in the film that are not portrayed in a realistic way, but how did you consider showing the inner changes of the characters?
You Xiaoying: I think this summer was a time for this boy, from experiencing the impulse of death to slowly feeling the various collisions with the world around him, and finally completing his own growth and transformation, including getting hurt. This is also very important for Chunhe. Teenagers will always experience frustration and torture during adolescence, regardless of their will. The skin-tearing scene is a ritual of his transformation. He uses this method to tell everyone that he has thrown away the past and truly opened himself up.
Before the shedding scene, I wonder if you noticed a detail. The poster he tore off actually had a mirror underneath. Although this boy appeared to be very gentle and even optimistic, he must have had moments when he couldn't bear to face himself. So he used a racing poster to block the mirror, not wanting to face his physical defects. But when he tore off the poster, he also completed a transformation this summer, which was a very important ritual for him.
Stills from "Little Me"
Willing to "offend" the audience for the sake of valuable expression
The Paper: In the previous film, Wish You Happiness!, the mother told her daughter, who was in a comatose state, that she "wanted to give up." The mother this time is not perfect either, and these contradictions are exposed. What is the significance of writing about these mothers?
You Xiaoying: I think they should be seen. They are not not meeting any expectations. Instead, we are too accustomed to a certain kind of "Virgin Mary"-like glory, as if the mother's dedication should be taken for granted. But when I gave birth to a child, including in the process of taking care of the child, I really collapsed. That kind of collapse will make your heart flash with "malice" for a second or two, thinking that my life would be so much better without this child. However, I have always said that such things are "judged by deeds, not by heart". Chen Lu may have had these terrible thoughts in her mind for a second or two, but what she did was still everything a mother could give. She saved up that stack of train tickets, and she knew every child in his class.
We cannot expect a woman to be great and glorious every second. I hope there will be more mothers and women who don’t have to be so “perfect” on our big screen.
The Paper: One scene that left a deep impression on me was when Chen Lu gave birth and Chunhe went to the hospital to see the child. It seemed to be a casual scene, as Chen Lu was helped to go to the toilet and she said she couldn't urinate. This kind of embarrassment of a woman after giving birth has rarely been shown before.
You Xiaoying: Those who have been mothers may have a deep memory of the embarrassment. When I first got out of bed after giving birth, I really felt like I was going to die. It just so happened that Teacher Jiang (Jiang Qinqin) had also experienced that process, and she acted very realistically. The details of life are these "rough edges". The main conflict point of that scene was that Chen Lu's reaction hurt Chun He again after he went to hold the baby, but these details before that happened to make the character more realistic.
Some people would say that she was too much when she pushed Chunhe in the past. You have to consider what kind of state she is in now. A mother who has just given birth is very angry, just like a lioness who has just given birth to a cub. No matter who takes her cub, she will have a stress reaction immediately. I think this is a mother's instinct. We also tried very hard to keep that scene.
Stills from "Little Me"
The Paper: In the film, the mother made the choice to give birth again. It seems that this is a kind of harm to Chunhe, but also another kind of protection? Or is it a choice for this woman to redeem herself?
You Xiaoying: This is the majority of people we met. I remember a mother told me that after she gave birth to her second healthy child, she realized that being a mother was not that tiring. This sentence touched me deeply. So no matter what the choice of the characters in the movie is, I think the discussion it triggers is good.
The fact that there are different voices about the movie first means that everyone has seen it. I think this is the most important thing. The existence of this movie allows our society to make some preparations and be ready to welcome them. It is not about asking them to "integrate" into us, but about letting them have their own place in the entire society. I think this is very important.
The Paper: Over the years, some of the characters you wrote have made choices that offended some viewers, such as the choices made by Yaya and her mother this time, and Anran's choice at the end of My Sister, which also caused a lot of discussion. Were these controversies foreseen during the writing stage?
You Xiaoying: There must be a certain level of awareness. Because you will hear someone tell you that he feels "uncomfortable" after reading this. But I will still weigh whether this discomfort is what I need. Of course, I don't deliberately want to challenge this kind of thing, but I think the things I try to preserve are important and necessary. Once you express something, there will always be a risk of some people understanding it and some people not understanding it. Expression will bring the risk of being misunderstood. But if this expression is valuable, I am willing to take a little risk. After all, there are still people who are willing to see such expression.
The Paper: Your works always feature a comparison of the situations and choices of women of different generations, as can be seen in Love and Family, My Sister, and Wish You Happiness! In real life, how do you feel about the increasing attention and recognition of female-themed films?
You Xiaoying: I think women today are seeking a freer state. Including the many female works we saw in 2024, there are new female protagonists. The desire to break free from shackles and bondage is becoming more and more clear. What we show is no longer the awakening that started with "negative numbers". Today's film and television works may already start with new female issues and new female struggles.
Just like my grandmother's scarves, she used to try to cover her scars, but in the end she showed them, showing her scars. I think people are becoming more and more open. This openness not only shows their beauty and loveliness, but also allows us to admit our fragility and the dark side of ourselves, the dark and claustrophobic things in our hearts. We are no longer afraid to take them out and put them on the table to talk about our fragility, even our unbearableness.
We admit that we are not perfect and we don’t need to be a “perfect” woman. I think this is becoming more and more prominent in the overall creative trend nowadays. The result is that more and more new images are being seen by the audience.
