Above the main hall of the Qin Palace, green curtains were hung all over the main hall, and the King of Qin and Can Jian shuttled among them.
It seems that every director has his own unique style in the use of color.
Zhang Chu had previously filmed "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and Li An was a master of color mixing, but although the characteristics were distinct, there were not many changes.
Zhang Yimou, on the other hand, used color to the extreme.
Different colors have different meanings. Zhang Yimou used five colors: black, red, blue, green and white to set the tone of the entire movie.
Among them, black is the representative color of the Qin Dynasty, symbolizing the authority and loneliness of the King of Qin, as well as the solemnity and might of the Qin soldiers.
Red is the color of blood, symbolizing the soldiers and people who died in the war. At the same time, red also symbolizes desire, suspicion and jealousy.
Blue is the color of the sea, representing reason and calmness. It also symbolizes the careful mind of King Qin and the chivalrous minds of Can Jian and Feixue.
Green is the color of life, symbolizing dreams and hopes, and is the love and home that Can Jian and Feixue yearn for.
White is the cleanest color, symbolizing purity and holiness, as well as emptiness and death.
Strong colors, if used improperly, can easily give people a chaotic feeling.
In the hands of Zhang Yimou, the use of color and expression are just right, which does not affect the plot of the story at all, and makes the artistic effect and plot progress complement each other.
In addition, in addition to color, the film also incorporates a large number of traditional cultural elements.
At the beginning of the story, the scene where the King of Qin summons Wuming uses the famous chimes from the Qin and Han Dynasties. In the melodious sound of the bells, Wuming slowly walks up to the palace, but is murderous at every step.
In addition, in the subsequent plot, the scenes also take place in chess halls and libraries that represent the essence of traditional Chinese culture, and elements such as Go, Guqin, and calligraphy are also inserted.
For the fight scene between Zhang Chu and Li Lianjie in the chess hall, the crew also specially invited Mr. Xu Kuanghua, the successor of the Zhejiang style guqin and the president of the West Lake Qin Society.
The rhyme of the piano and swordsmanship are combined, and calligraphy and swordsmanship are mutually mysterious.
Things that were originally unrelated were cleverly combined.
It is rare to incorporate so many different types of elements at the same time in previous films.
Because everything will eventually be shown in the camera, too much and too much complexity will inevitably affect the audience's attention.
But Zhang Yimou perfectly combined them and presented them.
Zhang Yimou said that movies are a kind of cultural export. What he wants to do is to let Chinese culture go to the world through movies.
The integration of these traditional elements, combined with the use of color, the composition of the picture, and the processing of reality and reality, make each shot form a long scroll with the characteristics of traditional Chinese culture.
In addition, Zhang Yimou also used a very unique technique in terms of narrative structure.
The whole story itself is actually very simple, it is to assassinate Qin.
But the story was drawn from different perspectives and evolved into three stories.
The first is the story Wuming told King Qin.
Wuming, the chief of the Qin pavilion, was summoned by the King of Qin because he got rid of the three assassins of Zhao State. He told the King of Qin how to get rid of the three assassins.
Use the misunderstandings between Can Jian, Feixue and Chang Kong to break them one by one.
First, Wuming found the duel in the sky.
This duel took place in a chess hall. Amidst the rhyme of the piano, the two stood for a long time and launched into a wonderful duel of ideas.
Until the moment when the strings of the piano were broken, the mind returned to reality, Wuming stabbed the sky with a sword, cutting off the silver spear.
This duel also shows the philosophical thoughts of the ancients. Although martial arts and qin rhyme are different, they have similar principles and both emphasize the realm of great sound and beautiful sound.
Therefore, this is actually no longer a fighting in the simple sense, but has been sublimated to a person's spiritual realm.
Later, Wuming brought the silver gun to the library, and he used a plan to alienate Canjian and Feixue.
The scene in the library uses a bright red color that fills the screen, full of suspicion, jealousy, and hot blood.
The red library surrounded by the arrows and crossbows of the Qin army, the old man in red clothes with cinnabar ink soaked in the library and his students, as well as the red love-hate entanglement between Can Jian, Feixue and Ruyue.
The story told by Wuming is full of desire, suspicion, jealousy and hatred.
Next is the story speculated by King Qin.
Ordinary people may believe the stories told by Wuming, but King Qin is not an ordinary person after all.
He is a person who can see through the other person's mood from the flame of the oil lamp.
The story Wuming told was false, and King Qin soon found out.
He also pointed out to his face that he was not afraid that the Wuming Society would suddenly draw his sword and assassinate him.
In the eyes of King Qin, Can Jian and Feixue were upright and magnanimous. They were definitely not villains. Such bloody love would never happen to them.
The story speculated by the King of Qin has a blue tone. Changkong, Canjian, and Feixue sacrificed their lives for justice, deliberately sought defeat, and gave their lives to Wuming, just because Wuming could successfully assassinate Qin.
The blue tone also shows the magnanimity and wisdom of King Qin as a heroic leader, and he has the demeanor that a king should have.
He did not look at his assassins with hatred, but with admiration, and sincerely lamented their chivalrous mind.
King Qin finally realized the highest state that Can Jian wanted to convey to him through calligraphy: no sword in his hand and no sword in his heart, which is called peace.
Finally, there is the true story told by Wuming.
King Qin's feeling was right, but he only guessed part of it, not all of it.
The part I didn't guess right is the sublimation of the story, from the narrow love and hatred between family and country to the well-being of all people in the world.
The person who changed the direction of the plot was Can Jian. In the process of studying the true meaning of calligraphy and swordsmanship, he reached a state of returning to his original nature and gradually became enlightened.
One person's pain is no longer pain when compared with the pain of the world. The hatred between Zhao and Qin is no longer hatred when compared to the world.
The seven kingdoms have been fighting for the hegemony for years, and the people have already been suffering. However, only the strongest Qin Kingdom can end the war quickly.
If King Qin is killed, the war will last longer and the world will never be at peace.
However, there are very few people who have such thoughts as Can Jian.
Feixue didn't understand him, so she didn't talk to him for three years.
Wuming was the same as Changkong and Feixue at the beginning, vowing not to give up until he succeeded in assassinating Qin.
Before he met the King of Qin, Can Jian gave him the word "天下", which caused a change in his thinking during his subsequent conversation with the King of Qin.
They gave up trying to assassinate Qin and also lost their lives. After that, King Qin unified the six countries and ended the war.
Zhang Chu used to think that telling stories should be straightforward, and the same goes for making movies. The story should be presented in the form of pictures through continuous shots.
However, after seeing Zhang Yimou's shooting techniques, he realized that a mortal like him really couldn't understand the world of a great director.
But I couldn't help but be affected by the picture he painted, and was deeply shocked.
The blade of the broken sword cut across King Qin's neck, and the king and the knight stood opposite each other.
Can Jian doesn't look at King Qin. Through the camera, he can feel that Can Jian is struggling in his heart at this moment.
Kill the King of Qin, avenge Feixue's father, and eliminate a major enemy of Zhao State, but the world will continue to be in endless war from now on.
If King Qin is not killed, Feixue will not forgive him, and the State of Zhao will always be under the threat of the State of Qin and may perish at any time, but the world will be unified and the people will no longer have to suffer from wars.
King Qin's reaction was also one of shock and surprise. He probably couldn't understand why Can Jian would give up when success and fame were so close.
It's just that Can Jian didn't give him the answer to solve the doubts in his heart. The answers to all these mysteries have to wait for Wuming's arrival.
"Okay, stop!"
Zhang Chu walked out from behind the green curtain. He was still satisfied with the battle just now.
Walking behind Zhang Yimou, Zhang Yimou asked someone to take over the camera before he could speak.
"How about it?"
Zhang Yimou was very satisfied, but after reading it, Zhang Chu felt that it was a little bit lacking.
"Okay!"
Zhang Yimou smiled and said: "Your standards are too high. If I want you to be completely satisfied, I have to find another master like Li Lianjie."
In the last shot on the monitor, all the green curtains in the hall fell to the ground.
"Director Zhang, what's the symbolic meaning of this?"
Zhang Chu feels that these great directors like to make things mysterious and always add some personal stuff in the shots. It seems that if they don't do this, they won't show their cleverness.
However, I have to admit that these pictures do look very beautiful.
"Green represents dreams and hopes. The sudden fall to the ground naturally represents the shattered hope of Can Jian and Feixue to reunite and retreat to the world. We are in troubled times. As long as the war does not end, there will be no real peace."
That’s awesome!
Although Zhang Chu felt confused when he heard it, it sounded very reasonable.
"Do you think ordinary viewers can understand it?"
Zhang Yimou was stunned for a moment. This question really touched the deepest part of his heart. Then he smiled bitterly and shook his head. It was obviously unrealistic to expect every audience member to have such a high level of artistic appreciation like him.
The artistic conception he wants to express and the profound meaning contained in each color change are destined to be highbrow and understated.
It is basically foreseeable that after this "Hero" is released, it should have a similar ending to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".
After watching it, the audience felt that it was not enough.
However, Zhang Yimou is also trying his best to make up for it in other aspects, including an all-star lineup, a more grand world view, and many big scenes.
Probably hoping that these added commercial elements can win back the hearts of the audience.
Zhang Chu didn't say anything else. His mission on the crew had basically been completed.
Chen Daoming also told him yesterday that he had nothing more to teach him.
In the future, he will have to rely on himself to understand. The most important thing is the accumulation of experience.
The next day, Zhang Chu and Xiao Ma left Hengdian. It was now early September, and there was still one month before the launch of "Infernal Affairs".
Zhang Chu wanted to go back to the capital to stay for a few days.
I settled down in the capital, but I have been wandering outside for more than half a year, and I have no chance to use the house.
