Yang Fan, this young Chinese director born in the 1990s, took courage and faith to ride on a sidecar motorcycle and began his journey around the world, just to find people like him who were born on October 5, 1990. They photograph young people who were born on the same day but have completely different lives and life dreams. You can see the wanton swagger of the post-90s generation in him, and the dreams of youth are shining brightly. As he said, "I would like to be a gentle fire, burning mediocrity gracefully and igniting the world; I would like to be the blood of Kerouac, with the liver of rock and roll, the guts of a warrior, the heart of a hippie romantic, and a miracle." "My life cannot be ordinary, so my 21-year-old life must be wonderful. In July 2012, I will embark on a round-the-world journey with a sidecar." The documentary series "Another Me in the World" looks for people from various countries who were born on the same year, month and day as me on October 5, 1990, and records our mutual dreams and colorful youth stories. ”
"You can only be young once, and you can live only once. I choose not to follow, I choose to live freely."
Looking through Yang Fan's life record, you can't see a regular resume:
Dropped out of school when he was 13 and rode 2,200 kilometers from Chengdu to Lhasa;
When he was 16, he made a documentary, and his work was nominated for the Milan International Sports Film and Television Festival in Italy;
When he was 17 years old, he wrote a book and published a 300,000-word collection "Running in the Dark";
When he was 18 years old, he crossed the Qiongzhou Strait to celebrate his coming-of-age ceremony;
20 At the age of 15, he filmed a 15-episode documentary "Season", which recorded the first season when Yao Ming took over the Shanghai Men's Basketball Team as the boss and was broadcast on CCTV
"21 years old? You can continue to write, he stepped into On the journey to find myself." Yang Fan smiled heartily. This big boy believes that his real life began when he dropped out of school at the age of 13.
"It was my dad who asked me to drop out of school. I was a top student and class president at the time. So you can imagine how irritating the reaction my dad's unconventional approach aroused." And Yang Fan's The reason why his father, Yang Bo, made this decision was quite simple: “My dad felt that boys should join a team and study in a school with a team, but at that time, schools were required to do homework and physical education classes were not guaranteed. Also, he felt that the school should at least care for the students. "At a school assembly, Yang Bo saw the principal speaking with a loudspeaker for a long time, asking the students to cover their ears and stand in front of the loudspeaker to endure it, so he followed Yang Fan. Said, we won’t go to school.
The Yang family is a family of teachers. Yang Bo’s parents are teachers, and his sister is still the principal of a middle school in Dalian. Of course, she cannot understand the decision to let Yang Fan drop out of school. Yang Bo finally convinced them with one sentence: What is the purpose of studying? What is the ultimate goal of going to college? Live for yourself, not for others to see.
"When I was young, I thought it would be a good idea to drop out of school. I don’t have to do homework anymore. My father took me to make movies. He was a director of a TV station and took me with him wherever he went to work. What he meant , this is the bottom line for my grandparents to promise me to drop out of school. In the future, if I have a skill, I will never starve to death."
On the road
"I want to be gentle. The fire burns mediocrity and ignites the world with ease; I am willing to be the blood of Kerouac, with the liver of rock and roll, the courage of a warrior, and the heart of a hippie romantic, miraculously reborn into the world."
So, Yang Fan really dropped out of school. At that time, he was an obedient and good boy. His parents were busy with work, so he read his homework and studied on his own. But this kind of self-study did not last long. When Yang Fan's primary school classmates were sitting in the first grade classroom, Yang Bo planned a hard cycling trip for him. From Chengdu to Lhasa, covering more than 2,400 kilometers of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, Yang Fan I had to ride side by side with an uncle named Zhan, while his parents drove a Jeep and captured the hardships of the journey with hand-held cameras. Along the way, they had to cross 14 rivers and visit 21 mountains with an altitude of more than 4,000 meters.
"The highest peak is Que'er Mountain, 5,030 meters. If we can't ride it anymore, we get off the car and push it. The whole person is already in a state of numbness, because altitude sickness makes your whole head become numb. Very fragile, and very slow. I remember when I climbed Queer Mountain, my mother hugged me and cried, and I said, I am finally a man."
Father and son become brothers. After returning from Lhasa, Yang Fan became his father's younger brother, photographing thousands of miles of deserts and primeval forests with his father. Three years later, at the age of 16, he was already a technically qualified television cameraman. It was also in this year that a piece of news in the newspaper inspired him to take pictures.
"There was a father who asked his daughter to get up at 2:30 a.m. every day and complete a 42-kilometer marathon. Her father wanted her to become an Olympic champion. I had a feeling after seeing this news. *Ming, there must be a lot of bitterness, a lot of pain, and a lot of struggle behind this kind of maverickness. "So Yang Fan, with the encouragement of his father, He went to Hainan to start planning his debut documentary, which he named "Running in the Dark". He liked the name so much that he later published a book series using it.
"In the early morning, on the deserted road in Haikou, two people were running slowly from a distance, their footsteps coming from far to near, and then gradually farther away, just like the father and daughter running towards their dreams. "This is my favorite shot." Yang Fan, who is also a dreamer, is enjoying this kind of loneliness.
Grinding
"His heart is 35 degrees, a little lower than Erguotou. His thick blood vessels beat violently. He drinks blood and eats it in big gulps. Pain."
It is not always smooth sailing for Yang Fan. The 18-year-old's coming-of-age ceremony was not a success.
"At that time, I wanted to hold a special coming-of-age ceremony, and I thought crossing the Qiongzhou Strait would be a challenge."
The Qiongzhou Strait is located between Hainan Island and Guangdong's Leizhou Peninsula. There is also a distance of 18 kilometers in the narrow place. In order to encourage Yang Fan, Yang Bo announced that he would accompany his son to challenge. They trained hard in the swimming pool for three months. The distance they could swim every day started from 500 meters and ended up being able to swim more than 10 kilometers. In theory, Yang Fan could go into the water. But there is a huge difference between the sea and a man-made swimming pool, and accidents seem inevitable.
"We went into the sea from Xuwen County, Guangdong. After swimming for less than half an hour, we felt a burning pain in our body. It was jellyfish. I thought there would only be one occasionally, but I didn't expect it to be continuous. It was stinging, sometimes on the arms, sometimes on the legs. After an hour, almost all the bodies were stung. Later, the people on the boat threw us survival suits, but they were sleeveless, so other exposed parts were still covered. The sting was correct. At that time, I basically screamed every 5 minutes. The most fatal time was when a sea snake scratched my face. At that moment, I was swimming at the 6th kilometer. I really can't hold on anymore."
There was no annoyance in Yang Fan's voice, and he was even very proud. The scar left by the sea snake on his forehead is still faintly visible, "handsome,"
"I stand with Yao Ming, and I haven't been compared to him." That was the last work directed by Yang Fan, which recorded the basketball giant Yao Ming's first season with the Shanghai Men's Basketball Team. In his lens, the Shanghai Men's Basketball Team suddenly rushed from the bottom of the previous league rankings to the CBA semifinals. As a witness to those beautiful comebacks, Yang Fan seemed to have integrated into this team.
When the documentary was finished, Yang Fan, who was 1.8 meters tall, was surrounded by team members more than 2 meters tall and cheered.
There was a time when Yang Fan was even a little tired of recording other people’s lives, but getting along with him for a season still allowed him to find a passion for this team, “The team has won several reversals. During the game, watching the team turn defeat into victory at the last moment made my eyes wet.
When the film is released, if the audience notices the slight shaking of the camera at the end of the game, that’s right.”
“I have a shooting schedule with dense grids that write down the shots and the required conditions and environment. After finishing, check OK in each box. This is my habit, it's obvious at a glance. Yao Ming saw it that day, looked at the OKs carefully, and finally suddenly shook my hand. We are a type of people who speak with dreams and hard work. ".