Only the River Flows, Zhu Yilong's latest movie, had two showings in the Cinemasia film festival in Amsterdam and I picked the second showing, because the first one was late at night on Friday and the second a much more comfortable Sunday afternoon. The second showing also had a Q&A listed on the program, and I enthused to ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mumblemumble about this, saying "I'll have to think of a decent question to ask that isn't just 'What was it like working with Long-ge?'" She told me that in a similar situation during a film festival showing in Germany, the Q&A turned out to be a prerecorded Zoom call, so I assumed it would be the same here.
It was not. The director Wei Shujun showed up at the end with an interpreter, and fielded a bunch of questions with flair. There were a lot of stylish young Asian women in the audience, and half of the questions were in Chinese.
Why did he pick the Albert Camus quote at the beginning? He got a laugh because he'd forgotten the exact words, but the gist was that he wanted to signpost the absurdity of the story at the beginning. I think he used the word 'absurd' (or whatever it is in Chinese) three or four times in all.
Why did Ma Zhe insist on smoking when that would have been so bad for the baby? This made me laugh, and the director apologized for the bad influence but it didn't feel like a heavyhanded moment, and he added that it was both a stylistic and a historical touch.
Then I screwed all my courage to the sticking place and asked my question, which was along the lines of “In this role Zhu Yilong seemed to play a very interior character - was that due to your direction?” My head was red as fire during this but the audience lights were still low, good for me.
Wei Shujun said that Zhu Yilong had read the book and arrived on set with a specific idea of how to play the character, and they worked on it together. They rehearsed a lot, even for moments that might look spontaneous or like they would only need one take, because they kept adjusting how many words Zhu Yilong would say and how much movement he would show. Basically wanting to do a lot with very little. Also because film is expensive, they couldn’t shoot a lot of takes. He mentioned the moment Ma Zhe discovers the suitcase under the bed, and the moment he lies down on the bed, as examples.
My thoughts on the movie: I didn't fully get what the story was doing, and possibly that was the entire point, but I really enjoyed it anyway. Seeing it in a slightly dilapidated theatre (my chair seat cover was ripped into shreds and so was my seatmate's) added to the ambiance and the vibe. There were a lot of beautiful little human moments as well as stylish set pieces, and I thought Zhu Yilong absolutely pulled off the minimalist, interior acting that still made me feel intensely connected to his character. Also I'm glad I went into this movie unspoiled because I feel like that's part of the experience, watching it unfold, so I'm hesitant to give any details.
I want to see it again and I'll watch it on the Spanish streaming site I mentioned earlier. As a first experience of seeing Zhu Yilong in a theatre, this was a total joy.
mumblemumble about this, saying "I'll have to think of a decent question to ask that isn't just 'What was it like working with Long-ge?'" She told me that in a similar situation during a film festival showing in Germany, the Q&A turned out to be a prerecorded Zoom call, so I assumed it would be the same here. It was not. The director Wei Shujun showed up at the end with an interpreter, and fielded a bunch of questions with flair. There were a lot of stylish young Asian women in the audience, and half of the questions were in Chinese.
Why did he pick the Albert Camus quote at the beginning? He got a laugh because he'd forgotten the exact words, but the gist was that he wanted to signpost the absurdity of the story at the beginning. I think he used the word 'absurd' (or whatever it is in Chinese) three or four times in all.
Why did Ma Zhe insist on smoking when that would have been so bad for the baby? This made me laugh, and the director apologized for the bad influence but it didn't feel like a heavyhanded moment, and he added that it was both a stylistic and a historical touch.
Then I screwed all my courage to the sticking place and asked my question, which was along the lines of “In this role Zhu Yilong seemed to play a very interior character - was that due to your direction?” My head was red as fire during this but the audience lights were still low, good for me.
Wei Shujun said that Zhu Yilong had read the book and arrived on set with a specific idea of how to play the character, and they worked on it together. They rehearsed a lot, even for moments that might look spontaneous or like they would only need one take, because they kept adjusting how many words Zhu Yilong would say and how much movement he would show. Basically wanting to do a lot with very little. Also because film is expensive, they couldn’t shoot a lot of takes. He mentioned the moment Ma Zhe discovers the suitcase under the bed, and the moment he lies down on the bed, as examples.
My thoughts on the movie: I didn't fully get what the story was doing, and possibly that was the entire point, but I really enjoyed it anyway. Seeing it in a slightly dilapidated theatre (my chair seat cover was ripped into shreds and so was my seatmate's) added to the ambiance and the vibe. There were a lot of beautiful little human moments as well as stylish set pieces, and I thought Zhu Yilong absolutely pulled off the minimalist, interior acting that still made me feel intensely connected to his character. Also I'm glad I went into this movie unspoiled because I feel like that's part of the experience, watching it unfold, so I'm hesitant to give any details.
I want to see it again and I'll watch it on the Spanish streaming site I mentioned earlier. As a first experience of seeing Zhu Yilong in a theatre, this was a total joy.
