Huai Xie Jin from the Shanghai Film Festival: His films are the best textbook works for understanding China | Director | Film
Director Xie Jin is a generation of masters in the history of Chinese cinema, and also one of the film directors who have achieved outstanding artistic achievements and revitalized their artistic vitality since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Director Xie Jin became famous in Shanghai. During his 75 years in the film industry, he always held a belief that he would lead Chinese films to the world stage. Therefore, he spared no effort in proposing to hold an international film festival in China and served as the chairman of the judging committee for the first Shanghai International Film Festival Golden Earl Awards.
2023 marks the 100th anniversary of Xie Jin's birth and the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Shanghai International Film Festival. The Forum on Commemorating the Centenary of Xie Jin's Birthday, a masterpiece of the times, was held on June 16th at Shanghai Cinema. Famous filmmakers and film critics, starting from Xie Jin's classic works and artistic life, shared the artistic philosophy and film spirit of this film master who transcended the times.
His works have been left behind
In the view of Xi Meijuan, Vice Chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and Chairman of the Shanghai Federation of Literary and Art Circles, exploring Xie Jin's position and significance in film history, sharing Xie Jin's spiritual appeal and personal charm, and providing new inspiration and fate for current film creation, is the best tribute and tribute to Xie Jin.
Xie Jin's adherence to realistic themes, a people-centered creative orientation, and his demands for the ideological content, artistic passion, and contemporary style of his works are valuable experiences left for contemporary literary and artistic workers. Xi Meijuan remembers that the people's artist Qin Yi once said, "Although Xie Jin has left us, his curtain of art will not fall. He is a star, which will not only forever freeze on the movie screen he loved throughout his life, but also forever shine in the brilliant artistic sky of the motherland."
Recalling Xie Jin, director and producer Wu Siyuan has endless stories to tell. He remembers that in film exchange activities, Xie Jin was particularly fond of speaking, and everyone loved to listen to him. "His speeches were very attractive and reasonable, and I still remember his golden line. When people discussed what a good movie is, some talked about art, some talked about photography, and Xie Jin said, 'What can stay is a good movie.'"
Director, screenwriter, and producer Huang Jianxin found that the Douban rating of Xie Jin's films has been increasing recently, with several exceeding 9 points. "With a score of over 9, he is now known as a 'miracle film' by young people, indicating that his works have survived."
"He has directed films that involve so many styles and styles, which is unparalleled in Chinese cinema. He is a hero who constantly climbs in the field of film art." Director Shi Xiaohua is the deputy director who followed Xie Jin for the longest time. What impressed her the most was Xie Jin's saying, "A golden cup or a silver cup is not as good as the reputation of the old hundred surnames." "This is not only deeply confirmed in his actions, but also proven by time."
When Xie Jin passed away, Huang Jianxin, as the then president of the Chinese Directors Association, came to Shanghai to attend the memorial service. Although he arrived very early, the scene was completely crowded. "I heard different dialects in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, and even Northeastern dialects. The audience spontaneously came from all over the country, hoping to bid farewell to Director Xie Jin. I squeezed in desperately and saw his smiling portrait hanging in the hall. Tears streamed down everyone's faces. In that moment, I felt the greatness of a true artist."
Director Wang Tong's work "Silent Hill" won the Best Picture award at the first Shanghai International Film Festival, and Xie Jin was the chairman of the Golden Jubilee judging committee that year. Speaking of this Bole, Wang Tong sighed, "His movies go towards his heart, not towards his eyes."
In order to cultivate new talents for the film industry, Xie Jin founded Hengtong Star School. Director Chen Sicheng recalled his experience of being selected by Xie Jin to enroll in Shenyang and was still somewhat flattered. "I really want to take the time and space shuttle back to campus to ask him for advice."
Director Zheng Dasheng believes that despite a wave of popular new trends in film and criticism of the outdated Xie Jin model, looking back in recent years, he has found that the ups and downs of discussions have turned into droplets. "His works stand firm like reefs," he said
His movies play a role in cultural exchange
Xie Jin is a person who dares to innovate, and he was the earliest person in the film industry to visit abroad after the reform and opening up. For the first time in Chinese cinema, filming was set overseas. He went to Nara, Japan for filming and also visited the former site of Sendai Medical College where Mr. Lu Xun studied. Huang Jianxin revealed that the first scene he set up in Hengdian was Guangzhou Street in Xie Jin's "Opium War", and it was only after the influx of crew that Hengdian became a film and television production base.
On the stage of the Shanghai International Film Festival, the topic of Xie Jin further broadened our horizons. Many filmmakers from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and even overseas came to miss this old friend and good drinker with a sense of intimacy. In their stories, they bring out stories of Xie Jin and cultural exchange. His films are an important bridge and a window for many foreign filmmakers and audiences to learn about China.
Producer and producer Jiao Xiongping introduced that he learned about Xie Jin's films during his class on Chinese film history in the United States. When watching "The Wrangler", everyone kept shedding tears, and the boys in the class fell in love with the female protagonist Li Xiuzhi. "Under the Confucian ideology he constructed in the film, the traditional Chinese society with ideals and noble morality resonates greatly."
Honorary Professor of the Department of Comprehensive Cultural Studies at the University of Tokyo, Toshihiro Kamiyama, moved from modern and contemporary Chinese literature to the field of Chinese film research due to the influence of Xie Jin's films. He introduced that in the 1980s, "Furong Town" was shown for 20 weeks in a cinema in Tokyo, which was the highest grade and specialized in art films, setting a record for that year, which was not achieved by European and American films before. "The influence of 'Furong Town' in Japan is particularly significant, and it has also established the market position of Chinese art films and Chinese films in Japan."
At the first Chinese film retrospective exhibition held in Italy in 1982, 120 Chinese films were screened, and Jian Jian Wenjun watched Xie Jin's "A Storm" there. "Although this movie tells the story of the popularization of marriage laws in the 1950s, I really feel that this is a typical Shanghai style movie. I had already watched some Shanghai films from the 1930s and 1940s and found that they are in the same lineage."
This year, Hou Xiaoxian's "City of Sorrow" was hard to come by at the Shanghai Film Festival, and the award for this film at the Venice Film Festival was also related to Xie Jin. "Director Xie was a judge at that time, and we later learned that during the review, Director Xie said a lot for" The Sad City ". It was his footfall that changed the history of Taiwan, China film," said Jiao Xiongping.
"I didn't have the opportunity to study abroad in China. I learned my Chinese by watching Chinese movies," said Kazuma Bunjun, whose Mandarin is so fluent that it's difficult to tell if he's Japanese. At that time, there were no subtitles for Chinese films, so young students such as Yajima translated the manuscript by themselves, and then asked an old expert to correct the text and subtitle, "I translated Red Detachment of Women best, Youth and Stage sisters also translated". Yajima recalled that in the 1980s and 1990s, there was more communication between Japan and China, but Japanese audiences did not know much about China. "When we wanted to understand China, the best textbook was Xie Jin's works. To understand modern Chinese history, watching Chinese movies was the best and most convincing way, with Xie Jin playing a significant role."
