1905 movie network feature Let’s start with a report from 20 years ago.
The first case of "hepatitis B discrimination" occurred in Anhui in 2003. The relevant media followed up on the incident and published an article "Anti-Discrimination Claims of Chinese 120 million".
The article quickly caused social effects, and finally in early 2010, the relevant state departments issued the "Notice on Further Regulating Enrollment and Employment Examination Programs to Safeguard the Enrollment and Employment Rights of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen Carriers", and hepatitis B patients and hepatitis B virus carriers finally ushered in the spring.
After 20 years, the film based on the incident and starring in it has finally been released.
But the film is not purely a re-enactment of the original event. "The final result it presents may be a little confusing to everyone, but all the original starting points are still about a character." In an interview with 1905 Film Network, the director said his original intention of creation.
The post-80s director, who graduated from the Beijing Film Academy and made commercials and documentaries, later joined the team and served as an assistant director for other works. Finally, 10 years after graduation, he developed the urge to create his own films and began the creation of "More than Endless".
At least this creation is a "more than endless" for him.
01.
In 2007, Wang Jing graduated from the Beijing Film Academy, and she always wanted to shoot her own work, but she was not in a hurry. "I was wondering what kind of movie would be my first film."
In the process, he thought about making a story related to himself, about coming to Beijing in 2003, maybe a story about Beipiao, "but I would feel that this thing is not satisfied. China is so big, if it is just a personal story, it is not representative enough." Until one day, when the producer Tang Yan, a veteran former media person, talked about the media story of that era, "I think it may be a good entry point."
This career setting opened Wang Jing’s desire to create, "He is originally an observer to observe society, and he is also a participant, participating in this society. And the core of the story itself is an idealism."
After Wang Jing finished filming "Children of Jianghu", he quickly threw himself into his own creation. The first draft was completed in early 2018, but everyone was not satisfied, "It was released at that time, and after we watched it, we didn’t want to output too much homogeneous content." Although everyone was frustrated, they readjusted their state and began to create another draft.
Although the creation has been slowly adjusted from the original North Drift to the current state, for Wang Jing, "I always want to tell a story of self-doubt, which is the growth of people." Eventually, in the movie, Han Dong (Bai Ke, played) will ask himself if he is suitable for this matter when he encounters difficulties. "This kind of emotion is actually very similar to the emotion I had when I first arrived at Nortel. I tried to’translate ‘this emotion from me to this character."
02.
Producer Jia Zhangke believed in the story from the moment he decided to start creating the project.
For Wang Jing, Beijing in 2003 was the beginning of a realization: "I had just come to Beijing to attend university and was a stranger, but I lacked the unique emotion of the social atmosphere and the relationship between people at that time. Director Jia was very excited to share with me a lot of things about their time."
In 2003, it seemed to be very far away from everyone, but it seemed very close. Wang Jing still remembered that when he and Jia Zhangke were preparing "Mountains and Rivers", they saw a lot of video footage, "There is a period in my impression around 1999, everyone is in good spirits, they are all in suits and shoes, I will think they are very far away from me, but I think it will only be more than ten years."
During the preparation process, Wang Jing couldn’t help but lament that China’s development speed was too fast, which seemed to be only a few years away, but from the clothes of the public and the architecture of society, "We often wonder how we can not wear gangs."
The entire art team had put a lot of effort into this, especially at the moment, it was already difficult to find a traditional newspaper office, but the team went to the major newspapers to collect news, and still found a lot of details. Almost every table, even if the audience could not see the whole picture, there was a story behind it and the reporter.
Almost every detail of "More Than Endless", Wang Jing tries to bring the audience back to 2003 as much as possible.
In addition to art and styling, he incorporated a lot of rock music into the soundtrack. It was all his memories in 2003. At that time, there was a term in Beijing called "new sound of music". Suddenly, a new rock band would appear, everyone would like it, and there might be a new band the next day.
"Every day brings new surprises and possibilities, which was a very beautiful side of that era." And the Joyside song "If There Is A Tomorrow" was once again translated into Chinese, and "If Tomorrow Comes" became the theme song of the movie.
03.
The song by the band Joyside was placed at the end of the credits, becoming a kind of "burner" of emotions, which seemed to give the audience and characters a chance to release it on the same frequency.
But as Wang Jing said, there is no right or wrong in the movie, I just want to make the story clear.
The two seem to be contradictory, just like in the movie, Han Dong found Huang Jiang (played by Zhang Songwen) because of his friend Zhang Bo (played), hoping to withdraw the manuscript. The other party was furious and said, "As a reporter, you must not let sympathy lead you by the nose. Compassion will only affect your judgment."
Looking back at the ending, this sentence seems to have become a false proposition, but from the perspective of the original intention and expression of the film, it seems to have become a key.
Wang Jing boasts of being a rational person. "From my perspective, I think that before a person has the ability to think rationally, he should first have the most basic emotional ability, which is called empathy."
When Wang Jing designed the character Han Dong, he did not pursue the growth aura of the character too much, and used the regular highlight moment to perfect his character arc, "He is a flat arc character, from the beginning to the end, he believes in one thing."
It’s just that in the process, "we try to get him to doubt, and then we get rid of the self-doubt."
Therefore, Han Dong and Huang Jiang had two completely different attitudes towards the handling of the "hepatitis B examination" matter, but they were not right or wrong, but at the point of conflict and confrontation, Huang Jiang may have sympathy for these people, but reason will make him deny this sympathy. "This may be a kind of inertia in the face of such things because he has been in the industry for so long."
In a scene in the movie, a senior reporter from the newspaper said to Han Dong, "In fact, many reporters have been working for a long time, and they have purely regarded journalists as a profession, not an ideal. I hope you are not."
And when the movie ends, Han Dong will return to the newspaper office. Will his journalistic ideals continue to support him, or will they change? Will Huangjiang be affected after this incident?
"No one will become another person. I also believe that if the story continues to develop, Han Dong will become a better Han Dong in the future, and Huangjiang will also become a better Huangjiang."
This is also another topic that Wang Jing wants to talk about in "More than Endless", idealism.
04.
In order to make this movie, Wang Jing did a lot of research.
He called hepatitis B carriers "comrades-in-arms," and after several interviews, he found that he had simplified the issue. Although the topic was brought up frequently in those days, and later policies and regulations were put in place to support them and give them back strength, as if they had more confidence, but the reality was not. On the contrary, "when they faced a status quo that seemed difficult to change, they chose not to resist."
Just like in the movie, when Han Dong returned to the water station and hoped to use his own strength to justify their names, the other party said, "It has nothing to do with you."
The voice is powerful, but the emotion is powerless.
The concentration of this emotion moved Wang Jing fiercely, "I hope it can be fully presented in the movie." The movie was almost shot smoothly, only the content of the final interview with the hepatitis B patient was reserved for the last shooting by Wang Jing.
It’s just that at the end of the movie, emotions gush out and there is a result, but Wang Jing doesn’t give a real answer, "" More than Endless "has no answer, I think if a movie wants to give an answer, it will fail completely."
Nowadays, the movie is officially released, and some people like it, with a score of 7.4 on Douban; others dislike it and feel that it is very different from such news-themed movies.
However, for Wang Jing, compared to the premiere at the Venice International Film Festival three years ago, he was so nervous that the smartwatch frequently reminded him that his heart rate was too fast. This time, it was more of an excitement.
Because many viewers have been paying attention to this movie for a long time, they finally have the opportunity to see the real face on the big screen, and they go to Wang Jing’s Weibo to leave a message, going to "trial".
"I think this word is very meaningful. Everyone will watch a movie with their own subjective judgment, but a movie is a movie. Whether the audience likes it or not, everyone criticizes or expresses their own feelings, which is a very happy thing for the film creator."
