Millennium director

With the main actors from the "Encourage" crew, Wu Yuan began to travel back and forth to funeral parlors in first-tier cities in China.

Not only the actors, but also himself, need to learn a lot about the embalmer.

Zhang Guorong, Li Xuejian, and Chen Hong will play the role of undertakers, so the three of them have to follow several masters to personally experience the difficulty of this job and understand some of the living habits of undertakers.

This tests the actor's insight.

The so-called "experience life" is actually a process of observation and feeling.

A good actor must have keen observation skills and be able to capture all the details of the object being observed if he wants to act in a certain profession.

This aspect is a bit like the police's behavior.

Fortunately, today's actors are still dedicated and professional.

In order to play Cheng Dieyi well, Zhang Guorong was able to study Peking opera singing and manners seriously with a Peking opera master and perform the soul of Peking opera masters.

Not to mention Teacher Li Xuejian, he is willing to sacrifice everything for his acting career, just to play every role well.

Although Chen Hong is married to a great director, she still loves the profession of acting and is willing to study seriously.

The way the three of them were working hard to adapt to the work of "Encourers" made Wu Yuan, who was used to seeing those popular actors in the dream, quite moved.

Sure enough, no matter what the circle is, it is still relatively pure at the beginning.

After experiencing this for more than half a month, Wu Yuan took the time to talk to Zhang Guorong.

The two of them stood next to the white wall of Baoshan Funeral Home in Shanghai, leaning against the wall while smoking the Marlboro that Zhang Guorong brought from Hong Kong Island and chatting.

Wu Yuan frowned, took a sip of Marlboro with some disgust, and looked at Zhang Guorong with concern.

"Zhang Sheng, how are you feeling during this time? Are you stressed?"

In the past ten days, we have seen a lot of unpredictable things about life and death.

There are husbands and sons whose wives jumped to their deaths but were not sad at all; there are elderly people who hanged themselves before being discovered long ago; there are also young girls who meet unkind people and are ruthlessly killed by a suitor who cannot love them...

Of course, the ones I see the most are the family members who cry heartbrokenly and regret it.

Wu Yuan was afraid that Zhang Guorong would feel psychological discomfort after seeing too many of these things.

In fact, when he came up with the script "The Embalmer", his original intention was to make Zhang Guorong understand that death is not liberation. Only by not being afraid of death can we live a better life. He wanted to give him a journey of spiritual healing.

By the way, I’ll go to Europe to get some prizes.

But before the movie was filmed, there was a wave of death shocks, and Wu Yuan was now a little worried that Zhang Guorong would not be able to withstand it.

"Hey, Director Wu, you underestimate me too much."

Unexpectedly, Zhang Guorong smiled brightly and said in a relaxed tone: "Actually, it was a bit stressful at the beginning. I saw too many unabashed emotions and the heartbreaking cries of family members. I felt really uncomfortable. .”

"I also clearly feel that life is really too fragile."

"But there is a saying in your script that death is a door. When life comes to the end, it is not an end, but a transcendence and a move to the next journey."

“I saw the embalmer cleansing the deceased’s body, changing clothes, describing the face, doing everything he could to help the deceased return to his original appearance, and help the deceased cross the gate of death with dignity.”

"I can also realize that this job is not only a set of procedures, but also to give the deceased the final dignity of life and to comfort the living."

Wu Yuan nodded in understanding, but he was complaining in his heart, "Who asked you about your feelings about the career of an embalmer."

However, seeing that Zhang Guorong was in a good mood, and there was no depression or low pressure, it seemed that his psychology was not going astray. Wu Yuan then smiled with relief: "That's OK. 6̾̾"

"By the way, have you had stomach trouble again these days?"

"Hurry up and find a hospital for a check-up, cooperate with the treatment seriously, and cure the disease before the movie starts."

"I don't want my leading actor to be sick while filming."

Wu Yuan's tone was very calm, but Zhang Guorong could hear concern in it.

He nodded with a smile: "I went to see him. The doctor just suggested that I get more rest, have a regular routine and diet, and I'll be fine in half a month."

"We are experiencing life now. Our schedule and diet are very regular, so we will definitely be able to take good care of ourselves before starting the machine."

But no, now they, as a group of actors, completely follow the pace of life of an embalmer. Every day is like working in an office, highlighting a pattern.

"Yeah." Wu Yuan took one last puff of cigarette and put out the Marlboro in his hand. He couldn't bear it anymore and said with disgust: "Why do you Hong Kong actors like this cigarette?"

"It smells like feet when you smoke it!"

"I'll get you a few packs of Huazi tomorrow. If you want to smoke, you still have to smoke Huazi. That's enough!"

"Haha." Zhang Guorong was amused by Wu Yuan. He raised his eyebrows and put his hand on Wu Yuan's shoulder: "It's good to pull it if you have it!"

"Let's go, I have to learn how to repair the body this afternoon."

After saying that, the two of them walked into the funeral home arm in arm.

Halfway through, Wu Yuan frowned and suddenly remembered something and stopped: "By the way, stop learning the cello of yours."

"I thought about it seriously, and I still need to change the setting of the male protagonist."

"We Chinese people don't have any cello plot. When I set it up at the beginning, it was a little too casual."

"The male protagonist should be a suona player."

"At first he played suona in a Peking Opera troupe in the capital. Later the troupe disbanded and he was unable to make a living, so he returned to his hometown and became an embalmer by accident."

Suona, as a wind instrument in traditional Chinese culture, has a long history and unique timbre, and is deeply loved by people.

In Peking Opera, suona is also one of the musical instruments and plays an important role.

However, when most people think of Suona, the first thing they think of is not Peking Opera, but weddings and funerals!

As the saying goes, "Of all the musical instruments, the suona is the king. It either ascends to heaven or worships in the hall. When the music ends, everyone disperses and leaves to cool down their tea."

“When the suona sounds, thousands of people admire it, accompanying you in your birth and seeing you in death.”

“I didn’t recognize the suona sound when I first heard it, but when I heard it again, I felt like I was in a coffin.”

When he was writing the script for "The Embalmer" before, Wu Yuan didn't expect this, so he directly used the characters from the original version.

But recently, experiencing life in a funeral home, he suddenly remembered that in terms of Chinese funeral culture, since music is used as a metaphor, the suona is more reliable than the cello!

Yes, the original version of "The Embalmer" inserted three famous songs on several specific occasions.

They are Beethoven's "Ode to Joy", Brahms's "Lullaby" and Bach and Gounod's "Ave Maria".

Especially the "Ave Maria" played by Dawu for the president in the movie has a low melody, and the scene of Dawu playing the violin against the background of snowy mountains is one of the climaxes of the movie, and it is very beautiful.

However, China has its own national conditions here!

Zhang Guorong held a suona and turned his back to the snow-capped mountains to sing "The Big Funeral" and "Cry at the Fifth Watch" which were shocking and made the soul tremble. It was not bad at all!

As soon as the suona sounds, the "funeral" scene engraved in the DNA of the Chinese people can immediately come to mind.

For a movie about Chinese morticians and funeral culture, Wu Yuan felt that using the suona as a metaphor for the male protagonist’s change in mentality is more appropriate than the cello!

And it can also add a hidden line of metaphor for the male protagonist.

Suona actually represents the male protagonist himself.

He was originally a suona player in a Peking Opera troupe. From a Peking Opera performer to an undertaker, his career and mentality have undergone earth-shaking changes.

And the musical instrument in his hand has also undergone baptism and transformation, from playing music for the living to mourning the dead.

The instrument itself has not changed, the suona is still the suona, but the musicians who play it have brought completely different music after their mentality and identity changes!

This is also in line with the original intention of "music" in human society, which is to share and convey human emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, and joy, and to resonate with them!

When the performer's emotions and mentality change, the music played will also change accordingly.

This also tells the audience that the male protagonist is still the same male protagonist, and the suona is still the same suona, but the mentality is different, and everything has changed.

Wu Yuan thinks this is very good, it has both depth and metaphor.

"Zhang Sheng, can you play the suona?" Wu Yuan looked at Zhang Guorong with burning eyes.

The corners of his mouth twitched slightly, and Zhang Guorong smiled awkwardly: "No."

"Then go and learn. You don't need to be very good at it. Just learn a few songs commonly used in Peking Opera and funerals!"

The greatest director!

Even if the director wants to change the plot temporarily, the actors can only listen.

Zhang Guorong gritted his teeth, nodded and promised: "Okay, I will start learning suona tomorrow!"

"Life Events" is not easy to integrate into "The Embalmer", and the box office is so high, it will definitely be filmed separately in the future.

The suona is a very magical instrument that can play both joyful and mourning music, depending on the occasion in which it is used. Using such an instrument as a metaphor for the male protagonist, a music-loving mortician, feels much better than the cello. , which is also a special metaphor unique to Chinese culture.