How to make young people and foreigners fall in love with opera? Shanghai film industry launches discussion
Chinese cinema was born with the filming of the opera clip "Dingjun Mountain". Since then, opera has been accompanying the development of Chinese films for more than a hundred years. Opera stories, performances, music, etc. are all deeply embedded in the blood of Chinese films. With the support of the Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation, the "Research on Chinese Opera Films in the New Era" and Teng Junjie Opera Film Seminar jointly organized by the Shanghai Film Critics Society, Shanghai Film Association, and Shanghai Theater Academy Film School were held in Shanghai on May 25 Held at the Huashan Road Campus of the School of Drama.
How can opera stage performances be presented on film? How can China’s excellent traditional culture be innovatively integrated with new technologies? The participating experts discussed a series of opera films created by national first-level director Teng Junjie as examples.
Teng Junjie has directed a total of 8 opera films, including 6 Peking opera films such as "Farewell My Concubine", "Xiao He Chasing Han Xin Under the Moon", "Cao Cao and Yang Xiu", "Zhenguan Grand Event", "Catch and Release Cao", "Suolin Bag", as well as Shanghai Opera The movie "Daughters of Dunhuang" and the Kunqu Opera movie "Handan Ji". In his view, opera film creation should be audience-oriented and consider the aesthetics of today's young people. Liu Haibo, a professor at the Shanghai Film Academy of Shanghai University, found that the Shanghai Opera movie "Daughters of Dunhuang" was watched with gusto by young people because this new life theme resonated with new audiences.
"Daughters of Dunhuang" uses a lot of real scenes, the carriages, props, etc. are all real. The actors are dressed in fashionable clothes and only use singing to convey the emotions and plot, giving this opera movie the flavor of a modern musical. There is a highlight scene of the "Three Fives" in the film. Shen Jiayi, a professor at the School of Communication at East China Normal University, noticed that in this scene Teng Junjie changed part of the stage version of the arias to recitals, and the actor scheduling also echoed the expression of the stage space, without cutting out the program. , and conforms to the rhythm of the film's narrative.
When preparing for the filming of "Farewell My Concubine", Teng Junjie went to Shanghai Cinemas and other places to meditate alone, integrating himself into the role of Peking Opera, and imagining how cinema audiences would enjoy the film's narrative and audio-visual enjoyment. Writer, translator, and film critic Zhao Jianzhong believes that considering issues from the audience's perspective is also a characteristic of Teng Junjie's opera films. "He started from the aspects of film photography, image narrative, character scheduling, character expression, stage art, video effects, etc., and used film modular techniques and the latest technology to enhance Peking Opera, thereby presenting the effect of the fusion and superposition of opera aesthetics and film aesthetics. , to promote Peking Opera movies abroad.”
"The key to classics lasting forever is how to innovate." Huang Yiqian, associate professor at the Shanghai Film Academy of Shanghai University, found that young audiences can also find resonance in "Cao Cao and Yang Xiu". With young wings, opera film creation can fly higher ,farther. Wan Chuanfa, a professor at the Shanghai Theater Academy and vice president of the Shanghai Film Critics Society, believes that the opera films directed by Teng Junjie respond to the requirements of the current new era and have found an effective way to modernize traditional opera films. For example, in "Catch and Release Cao", the scene when Chen Gong, played by Wang Peiyu, goes out uses film scheduling. When Cao Cao goes to kill someone, he not only retains the original gait of the opera stage, but also has a film aesthetic effect, combining the stage scene scheduling with the film. Scheduling is effectively combined. "This in-between aesthetic is between tradition and avant-garde, and is an appropriate transformation of the integration of opera performance and camera."
Huang Wangli, a professor at the Shanghai Theater Academy Film School, believes that Chinese opera and Chinese films nourish each other, and film technology has always been the support that opera films are looking for. For example, Fei Mu wanted to use a film to record Mei Lanfang's "Hate of Life and Death" because he wanted to explore the shooting of Chinese color films. In Teng Junjie’s series of opera film creations, allowing young audiences and world audiences to see the beauty of opera also relies on the exploration of 3D, 4K, 8K and other technologies. “Looking back at the development of opera films in the new era, we cannot avoid technological development. Influence on opera films.”
In addition to his film works, Teng Junjie also authored the book "Tribute and Forward: An Introduction to New Peking Opera Film Creation", participated in opera film lectures, launched film-related derivatives, etc., promoted opera films to go abroad and spread overseas, forming an industry-wide Exploration on the chain. "Shanghai should have its own styles and works of opera films, to build on the past and inspire young creators to create better works." said Cui Yi, producer of Shanghai Shangshi Film Co., Ltd. and a national first-class director.
At present, the survival situation of opera movies is worth thinking about. "The investment in feature films often costs tens to hundreds of millions of yuan, while the cost of opera films is pitifully small." According to Zhu Feng, president of the Shanghai Film Critics Society, the "low cost" has led to shortcomings in Teng Junjie's series of opera films. , but every film still has "new tricks", and it is commendable to insist on continuous innovation from technology to art. In the Kunqu Opera movie "Handan Ji" shot three years ago, artificial intelligence was used to create a one-and-a-half-minute segment, which was also the first domestic film to use this technology.
"Opera movies are my career, and I will continue on this road." Teng Junjie still remembered that he and director Zheng Dasheng discussed the genre of opera movies three years ago, and the final conclusion was two words, "very Disaster". "We have a common understanding that opera is a treasure and a rich ore. We hope to use new technologies and new mining methods to unearth more of it and give it more possibilities. Young people may not have been to the theater, but they must I have been to theaters and used movies as a bridge to expose young people to Chinese opera and help them find wonderful feelings. Then I go back to the theater to watch physical performances and feel the irreplaceable breath of opera. This is my ultimate goal. "
