"Above the Cliff" became the only May Day movie that won both word-of-mouth and box office!
71-year-old Zhang Yimou has always maintained this same living habit: eat a meal of Shaanxi noodles and drink a few cups of tea every day.
In Zhang Yimou’s heart, noodles are not only a taste memory from his childhood, but also a kind of nostalgia and sentiment.
No matter how late you work every day, you must insist on walking 5 kilometers quickly!
These habits have not changed for many years.
In late April 2021, at the premiere of "Above the Cliff" in Beijing, Zhang Yimou was chatting and laughing.
The 71-year-old is wearing the trousers of a 17-year-old boy and the same style of sneakers as the 23-year-old Liu Haocun, except that he wears red soles while Liu Haocun wears black soles.
Zhang Yimou, the energetic and stylish Zhang Yimou, once again brings an innovative movie "Above the Cliff".
In the pursuit of art, Zhang Yimou has never stood still. This time "Above the Cliff" confidently enters the May Day prime time!
Zhang Yimou, who has regained his courage, took out "Above the Cliff" to tell the world: Lian Po is not old!
What kind of unique creativity does this commercial spy movie contain director Zhang Yimou?
Faced with the new changes in the film market, Zhang Yimou uses what elements in "Above the Cliff" to close the distance with the audience?
He wants "Above the Cliff" to become a movie that young audiences will love to watch. Has this movie achieved this goal?
"Cliff" itself has a symbolic meaning of "dangerous". The movie is named "Above the Cliff". The author believes that this strengthens the sense of space and makes it more readable than the short word "cliff". A bit imposing and full of linguistic tension.
Zhang Yimou, who pursues perfection, must have put a lot of thought into the movie titles.
Since it is positioned as a commercial espionage film, it has a certain momentum and allure when people mention the name. Obviously "Above the Cliff" has a certain impact, chilling and mysterious.
Quan Yong-sun's classic spy TV series "Cliff" has achieved success that is difficult to surpass, but Quan Yong-sun, who deeply loves the spy war theme, feels that it is not enough. He also appeared in the original TV series script. I took away some of the content and co-wrote it with Zhang Yimou, and this is "Above the Cliff".
The author noticed that in November 2019, Zhang Yimou announced the start of filming "Above the Cliff", and filming officially started on December 13.
This time, Zhang Yimou chose to shoot in Northeast China, and editor Quan Yong was originally from Heilongjiang.
The actors also boldly cast actors from Northeast China.
Zhang Yi is from Harbin, Heilongjiang, and the Central Street of Harbin, the center of filming, is where he played as a child; Liu Haocun is from Changchun, Jilin; Yu Hewei is from Fushun, Liaoning; Teacher Ni Dahong is also from Harbin, and his father is the actor The spy leader in the old movie "Gunshots from the Security Bureau"; Qin Hailu is from Yingkou, Liaoning; Sha Yi is also from Changchun, Jilin; "rebel" Lei Jiayin is from Anshan, Liaoning.
The screenwriter and most of the main creators are from Northeastern China, and the Northeastern scenes where the movie was shot, a pot of "Northeastern cuisine" is presented.
The author thinks that in the summer of 2020, Director Kong Sheng started filming the TV series "Mountains and Seas" and used a large number of actors from the "Northwest Gang" such as Zhang Jiayi, You Yongzhi, Huang Xuan, Reyza, and Tao Hong to play the role of poverty alleviation in the west. The play may have been inspired by Zhang Yimou.
Of course, this is just the author's conjecture. In fact, excellent directors have a spiritual connection.
Why did Zhang Yimou cast actors from Northeast China?
For a spy movie that embodies the characteristics of the Northeast region, actors using Northeastern characteristics will have a temperament that is consistent with the regional characteristics, making the film full of Northeast flavor and in line with the cold weather and cold weather created by the film. Cold people and cold hearts have the same atmosphere.
In fact, attentive audiences have discovered that Li Naiwen, Yu Hewei, Yu Ailei, and Zhou Xiaofan, the actors who play the roles of spies, are both good and evil. It is difficult for the audience to judge whether they are good people at a glance. Still a bad guy.
This is the pursuit of excellence by excellent directors, the pursuit of perfection in all aspects.
Many online articles analyze this point, but the author believes that these points are not mentioned:
Using the natural environment feature of "heavy snow", Zhang Yimou obviously borrowed from " The traditional plot of "Lin Jiaotou Fengxue Mountain Temple" in "Water Margin".
In this classic episode of "Water Margin", the falling snow plays a role in enhancing the atmosphere and promoting the development of the plot.
Director Zhang Yimou likes to use overhead shots to show snowy scenes. On the one hand, he uses the falling snow to create a tense atmosphere for spy dramas, and to create a depressing and chilling atmosphere.
On the other hand, the heavy white snow is not only a characteristic of the natural environment, but also a metaphor for the "white terror", echoing the social environment of the Northeast in the 1930s.
Zhang Yimou gave this "snow scene" multiple meanings.
As for the strong contrast between black and white color aesthetics, I won’t go into details.
Zhang Yimou, who studied photography, understands the importance of scene factors.
In order to create a real atmosphere, Zhang Yimou's team specially built Harbin Central Street in the 1930s based on historical data.
Zhang Yimou said that now that Internet information is so developed, there is no way for movies to prevent viewers from spoiling.
Although Yu Hewei appealed to the audience on social platforms before the May Day screening to avoid spoilers, many viewers still shared the plot content.
Spoiler alert, this is the biggest challenge for a suspense spy drama!
Zhang Yimou’s team simply made a subversive change to the plot. They chose Yu Heweizuo to play Zhou Yi as the undercover agent because they saw his temperament of both good and evil, so they used this actor to "confuse the audience" "Audio-Visual", halfway through the plot, Zhang Yimou simply told you that Yu Hewei was an undercover agent.
Then let Zhang Xianchen, played by Zhang Yi, go offline, and Zhou Yi, played by Yu Hewei, come online.
Let the audience know the villains and the good guys, and then through the tense plot settings, let everyone see the process of the battle of wits and courage between the enemy and ourselves. This is Zhang Yimou, who has made subversive changes to the plot.
A spy suspense drama tells you the key information of the suspense early on, and can also attract the audience to watch for two hours. This is the effect of Zhang Yimou's changes!
The key is to make the audience laugh when they are nervous. Jin Zhide, played by actor Yu Ailei, takes all the laughs.
The author really admires director Zhang Yimou for this, and it is very touching: this is a real concern for the audience. If everyone is nervous for two hours, they can’t bear it, so just add a little laughter.
It’s really not simple.
The author believes that this is the most profound and commendable aspect of director Zhang Yimou!
Did Zhou Yi, played by Yu Hewei, use a pen to draw a check mark on the movie announcement in the theater? Was it exposed?
Although he was preemptive and deceived Jin Zhide, can the wily Ni Dahong deceive him?
In fact, in this plot, the audience believes that it is reasonable for Zhou Yi not to be exposed; but such an approach is reasonable to say that the identity is exposed.
Zhang Yimou obviously knows that this way of handling will leave controversial points for the audience. I think this is the director's intention.
Of course, this is also the need of the plot. In order to protect Liu Haocun, Yu Hewei must take the risk.
In addition to giving the audience ambiguous interpretations, Zhang Yimou also used Jin Zhide's stupidity to liberate Zhou Yi.
He actually put a book containing secrets into Jin Zhide's car and successfully framed him.
But, having said that, doesn’t the wily Ni Dahong know that this is a scam?
In fact, maybe Ni Dahong is playing a bigger game.
At the end, Ni Dahong gives a pension to Jin Zhide’s family. What has he noticed?
Although he has no direct evidence to prove that Zhou Yi, played by Yu Hewei, is an undercover agent.
This place gives the audience ambiguous interpretations.
Zhang Yimou's team must have repeatedly polished the plot and given full consideration to the rigor of logic. However, some key plots showed some "flaws" that can be discussed, which caused the film to ferment in the public opinion field.
The author believes that Zhang Yimou will have such considerations.
In the end, Ni Dahong gives a pension to Jin Zhide’s family. Following this plot, another series of suspense movies will be compiled. According to this rich plot logic, there is completely enough space.
After all, among the actors, Xiao Lan, played by Liu Haocun, the youngest one, "survived" in a great way; and Wang Yu, played by Qin Hailu, also successfully escaped.
In the film, both male agents died, but both women survived.
The director showed the fearless and unsung heroes' care for women in cruel times.
So what about Zhou Yi played by Yu Hewei?
Yu Hewei said the above with a smile during the interview.
Indeed, when Zhou Yi told Zhang Xianchen, played by Zhang Yi, that Lei Jiayin had "rebelled", judging from Zhang Yi's horrified expression, it showed that Lei Jiayin's level was very high.
His rebellion brought great losses.
In the scene between Yu Hewei and Lei Jiayin in the easter egg, where the traitor is shamefully killed and Lei Jiayin steps on the car window glass, director Zhang Yimou borrowed scenes from the classic movie "The Godfather".
It is reported that the copyright of Chaplin's pantomime film "The Gold Rush" that Liu Haocun watched in the theater was purchased by Zhang Yimou. This pantomime was a film directed by Chaplin in 1925 and showed the same The story of several people fighting each other on the cliff.
This is Zhang Yimou, who pays attention to the extreme in all details.
In "Above the Cliff" we saw the 71-year-old director full of strength.
In fact, if you break it down, he has always pursued changes in each of his movies. This time, his biggest wish for "Above the Cliff" is to make young people love watching this movie, because, he I know in my heart that the current movie-watching group has fundamentally changed.
So he made a lot of changes in this drama: visual impact, atmosphere enhancement, plot reversal, injecting humorous elements, and putting in all the elements to "please" young audiences.
However, what is more valuable for Zhang Yimou is that his profound cultural heritage once again came into play, allowing him to make this film into a commercial spy film with literary and artistic temperament.
The combination of the rich body language of several talented actors and Zhang Yimou's unique lens aesthetics presents us with the wonderful "Above the Cliff".
Zhang Yimou’s change: in the pursuit of art, he always pursues innovation and change, and pursues reasonable distinction.
His "unchangedness" is to always maintain the ultimate pursuit of art and have a humble original intention.
Zhang Yimou disclosed such a detail. Many actors heard that they were going to participate in his movies and offered them discounts on the performance prices, and they respected him very much.
If people value himself so much, he has no reason to make this drama good. He is very grateful to these actors.
So we saw a "workaholic" Zhang Yimou. The 71-year-old man worked so hard, and the actors worked hard with him, so this masterpiece "Above the Cliff" was created.
"Above the Cliff" finally reached the top of the May Day box office list, which proves his success. He really made a movie that young people love.
Thanks to this noisy era, Zhang Yimou’s miracle is still being performed and comforting our hearts.
The most powerful thing about "Above the Cliff" is really not the acting skills of Yu Hewei and Zhang Yi, but Zhang Yimou's "change" and "unchangedness", these two points are the most critical!
Have you watched "Over the Cliff"? What are your thoughts on this movie?
Friends are welcome to speak freely and leave comments.