Due to the busy filming of "Immediate Rescue", he has not had time to participate in the promotion of "Heartbeat", and the interview with "Phoenix" is also to build momentum for the promotion of "Heartbeat", which will be released today.

After a brief greeting, the interview then got to the point.

Phoenix.com: Congratulations to Director Lin, "Heartbeat" will be released worldwide today.

Lin Yuquan: Thank you!

Phoenix.com: After the release of "Hurricane Rescue", almost the whole world thought that you should shoot a similar action movie or a type of movie that you are good at, but you chose to shoot a love theme like "Heartbeat" that has never been involved, why is that?

Lin Yuquan: Actually, there are not many reasons, I don't like to repeat and repeat, I always hope that my next movie can bring me a fresh feeling, when I saw "Heartbeat" in the bookstore, I was immediately attracted to it, and after reading it, I immediately said to myself, this is the movie I want to make, I can shoot it if I want, it's as simple as that.

Phoenix.com: But if Director Lin makes other movies, such as "Wild Tales 2: Hundred Clans", the box office will definitely be very high, but limited by the subject matter, it is difficult for "Heartbeat" to reach that height at the box office.

Lin Yuquan: It's true, but when directors choose their own works, they don't just consider the box office. Spielberg, after filming "Jurassic Park", a movie that created film history at the global box office at the time, did not shoot "Jurassic Park 2" in full swing, but chose to shoot "Schindler's List", why is this?

And "Schindler's List" not only achieved a very high box office, but also won 7 awards at the Oscars, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. In hindsight. Did such a choice fail? Of course. This is just a very special example, in fact, for directors, as long as they achieve their set goals, they are considered successful, and the goals of each film are often different.

Phoenix.com: Some people say that the gold medal is the only criterion for measuring the success of people in the sports world, so what kind of goal do you think is to meet your success standard, is it the box office?

Lin Yuquan: Heh, there is no single standard. The box office is often just one of the factors, everyone has a different opinion, in my opinion, the biggest success of a film is to feel satisfied as a director, followed by winning people's love, and then the box office. Your own liking is always the most important, not only the director, but each of us should also have such an attitude when evaluating a certain movie, what others say, whether the box office is good or not, whether it has won awards or not, it doesn't matter, we ourselves are the direct feelers of whether the movie is good or not. If you are completely mobilized after reading it, others will think it is rubbish. Then you think it's garbage or something, so the most important thing is that you like it.

Of course, if the box office is not important, it must be fake, no director wants his movie to be bad at the box office, just to say that as a director, he cares more about his satisfaction with the movie and the audience's satisfaction with the movie, and the box office can be very good at this time. And if you stand in the perspective of investors, it is impossible for any investor to say that the box office is not important, and the word investment must mean that he expects you to give him returns, of course, there are exceptions, but rarely, at least for the vast majority of investors, if you ask him what is most important in the movie, he will definitely tell you that it is the box office.

Doesn't it seem that I'm greedy, well, I'm a greedy person, I want my movies to be satisfied, and I hope that my movies can win people's likes, and I also hope that my movies can have a good box office, but these are very difficult to control, and the only thing I can do is make good movies.

Phoenix.com: This is not greed, but Director Lin's strict requirements for yourself, and what you said is also very reasonable, but for many small-budget films, especially low-cost literary film directors, their films can't be released in theaters at all, can't be seen by more people, and can't get the box office, how should this situation be treated, is it enough for the director to be satisfied? For example, Wang Xiaoshuai's "Left and Right", which won the Silver Bear Award for Best Screenplay and the "Special Attention" award at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival, suffered a box office fiasco after its release this year, with a total box office of only more than 1 million.

Lin Yuquan: No director wants his box office to be bad, and this situation is indeed discouraged for directors, but why is this happening? I think this is actually a problem of the general environment, why some films have a high film schedule, while others have a low film schedule, the reason is very simple, because the attendance rate of films with high film schedule is higher, and the theater's film schedule is coordinated according to the self-regulatory market itself.

After all, it is up to the audience to judge and choose, should even the audience's choice be denied? It is free to go to the theater to watch movies, and what movies the audience wants to watch is the free choice of the audience, and others have no right to interfere. And it can bring higher income for the operator, for the theater operator, all the films are his products, and anyone who runs the theater will do it.

Phoenix.com: But small-budget films, especially small-budget literary films, are inherently unable to compete with big-budget commercial films, which is unfair to them.

Lin Yuquan: So what should be done?

Phoenix.com: Many directors have mentioned the support of France's cultural policy for literary films, pursuing a concept of "cultural exception", believing that film is not only a commodity, but also a cultural carrier, and that films cannot be operated in full accordance with the rules of the market economy, but should pursue another set of artistic logic and standards.

Today's France is well-deserved as the most developed country in the world for art films, with the world's largest and best-run art cinema chain, and the number of screens screening literary films has accounted for 20% of the country, not only showing literary films, but also involved in the distribution of literary films.

Lin Yuquan: I understand what they mean, but this is for art films, why are small-budget commercial films not screened in theaters, in fact, there are also box office dark horses in small-budget films, and small-budget films can also be made good-looking. Cinema managers are not fools. Many small-budget commercial films are not played. It means that there must be quality problems with them, and if you shoot them well, what if you don't let them go? This part of the film should look for problems from itself, rather than accusing theaters of not scheduling films.

Speaking of literary films, what you mentioned is the problem of the general environment I mentioned earlier, France is the birthplace of films, has a strong artistic atmosphere, and has a large number of audiences who have watched literary films for a long time. But the situation in China is completely different, there is no such atmosphere in China now, although there are fans who love to watch literary films have been calling, but such fans are actually very few compared to mainstream audiences.

For theaters, it is indeed the responsibility to let the audience have more choices, but theaters as operators also need to support themselves, a large theater in a prosperous area only costs millions of dollars a year, in this case, how can it be possible to abandon commercial blockbusters that can bring more box office and choose to screen literary films with a narrow audience? The world is realistic. It's also cruel, and the theater chain is trying to survive. has to make money and put what to put it, in the face of survival, the theater chain's artistic feelings for movies have long been gone.

As for the establishment of art cinemas, at present, the country has not even let most people develop the habit of going into the cinema to watch movies, in many third- and fourth-tier cities, the attendance rate of many commercial blockbusters is extremely unsatisfactory, the establishment of art cinemas is really a very luxurious thing, at most in a few first-tier cities gathered a small part of the audience, and it will be less pitiful, even so it is estimated that it is difficult to maintain the operation of an art cinema, and more importantly, is it meaningful to only establish a few art cinemas? There is no point, the dilemma faced by literary films has not been solved fundamentally, and it still cannot recover costs only through the box office like commercial films.

In addition, there is also a problem that cannot be avoided by establishing an art cinema chain, that is, for films, in my opinion, although there are many films produced in China every year, there are not many of them that can be regarded as real literary films, and there are even fewer literary films that can be called good literary films, many of our literary film directors can't even tell the story, how to support the normal operation of an art theater chain, it must be introduced all over the world, but this is obviously unrealistic, all overseas films that enter the theater distribution in China need to pass the approval of China Film, the annual quota is extremely limited, and even the number of commercial blockbusters cannot be satisfied, so how can we introduce literary films.

Fundamentally speaking, to solve the problem of literary and artistic film screening, the state needs to give policy support, and the other is to cultivate a group of literary and artistic film viewers, but the former is not realistic to expect the state to support it generously, and the latter is more important, but it is difficult to achieve in a short period of time, at least I don't see the possibility of achieving it in ten years.

Phoenix.com: Director Lin, what you said is very reasonable, but literary films always need people to shoot, and people are needed to build art theaters or give more screenings to literary films, right?

Lin Yuquan: Yes, indeed.

Phoenix.com: Will you do it? Director Lin: Your Shuguang Cinema Line already has more than 30 theaters, and each theater has a theater to screen literary films, which is also a large number.

Looking at the beautiful female reporter with a serious look, Lin Yuquan suddenly couldn't hold back, he accepted the interview with Phoenix.com to promote "Heartbeat", but the current topic has completely deviated from "Heartbeat", and looking at the posture of female reporters, there is a tendency to break the sand pot and ask to the end, well, he knows that he probably met a young woman who loves literary movies, and what's worse is that the other party's questions are very tricky.

To be honest, it is not difficult for him to take out a theater for each theater to screen literary films for a long time, and he can afford to lose with his net worth, but the question is why he did it.

If it is said that it is to be seen by more audiences, this is not tenable at all, and after the film is released, the audience can watch it online.

And if it is to support literary films, not to mention that his own strength is extremely limited, it is a drop in the bucket to improve the difficult situation of literary films, and it is impossible for him to lose money every year to do such a thing that does not make much sense in his opinion.

This is especially important, no one's money is scraped, he is not too rich to have nowhere to burn, and his annual expenditure on charity projects such as building schools is a huge amount.

And the most important point is that he was not moved by the literary films currently shot in China, it is true that the literary films of Jia Zhangke and others have a good presentation and have certain artistic value, whether they focus on social reality or the themes of marginal characters. However, in his opinion, there are very few good literary films made in China, and literary directors talk about feelings. Talk about art. will think. Pursuing too much artistry in the image and ignoring issues such as narrative structure, and not even understanding a simple story, is such a movie a good movie?

At least in his cognition, this is not a good movie, Lin Yuquan has always believed in a truth, a good movie can arouse the audience's emotional resonance, but none of the several domestic literary films he has watched in the past two years have done this, and the problem of story and rhythm makes it difficult for people to have the desire to watch the movie. Hope. And how to impress the audience?

In fact, literary films are not impossible to shoot good-looking, fun, there are many literary films in Europe and the United States while talking about art, the movie is very good-looking, and then reaped good box office results, in this regard, at present, among the domestic literary and artistic directors, only Zhang Yi can do it, and Hong Kong's Chen Kexin and Xu Anhua The two directors also do a good job, combining business and art very well.

When creating "Ocean Paradise", his core guiding philosophy for Xue Xiaolu was not to deliberately sensationalize. When realistically expressing the life of autistic people, it incorporates a certain amount of fun. First of all, it is necessary to make the audience want to watch. hope, and then be touched in the movie, and then transmit positive energy.

If you don't even have this, then when you choose to shoot such a movie, you should have a clear judgment on the goal of the film, maybe such a film can win awards at foreign film festivals, but you don't want to expect a good box office in theaters, let alone blame theaters for scheduling films and accusing the audience of aesthetic problems because of poor box office.

Of course, Lin Yuquan must know that for the film industry itself, supporting literary films is also an indispensable part of its own development, but this is not something he should worry about, he does not have that kind of feelings, nor does he stand at that height.

As a commercial film director, especially as the boss of Shuguang Film Company, Lin Yuquan is more concerned about the fact that there are very few directors and screenwriters in the domestic film field who can make and write commercial genre films well, which restricts the development of the film industry and Shuguang films to a large extent.

The only thing that can compete with Hollywood blockbusters is the excellent local commercial films, which is common all over the world, and even France, where art films are highly prosperous, has a box office market share of just over 20%.

Therefore, unless domestic literary film directors can make innovations, handmade literary films will be completely crushed and crushed by the industrial system of Hollywood blockbusters, and eventually the film market will fall.

Baodao is a good example, with Li Yu, Hou Xiaoxian, Yang Dechang, Cai Mingliang, Zhang Aijia and other internationally renowned art masters, but the market share of Baodao's local films is only a few percent all year round, and by 2006, the share of Baodao films in Baodao has fallen to 1.62%, what a trivial number.

Now in addition to making his own works, he also hopes to tap more excellent directors and screenwriters, he hopes that Shuguang Movies can produce more Ning Hao, Xiao Yang, and of course, in terms of TV series, he also hopes that there will be more Gao Xixi, Kang Honglei, Liu Meng, Wang Wanping, Lan Xiaolong, and Liuliu.

As for the support of literary films, he doesn't have the time and energy for the time being, and if he can't achieve the effect he wants, he doesn't bother to pay attention to it, the sense of social responsibility is not reflected in supporting those literary films that only talk about their own feelings and ignore the feelings of the audience.

It's just that what he said inevitably seemed to be ruthless in his treatment of literary films, which was likely to cause criticism from literary directors and literary youth.

However, such a thought was only a flash, and the corners of his mouth immediately turned up slightly, did he need to hide his thoughts in this matter?

"If there is a good literary film, Shuguang Cinema will naturally give a good schedule, not to mention a theater, more is no problem, but in the end, it still has to accept the test of the market, and of course it will continue to be screened if there is an ideal attendance, and if not, why not give other films a chance? As a theater, its most important responsibility is to let more audiences see the films they want to see. Lin Yuquan said calmly.

The beautiful female reporter of Phoenix.com frowned: "Then Director Lin, have you ever thought that in the future, you may also make a niche literary film, and Shuguang Film may also invest in the production of niche literary films, and then that movie will also be unable to be better released in theaters because it is labeled as literary and artistic." ”

"I didn't think about it, because if I or Shuguang Film made a film that reflected the theme of reality, I would definitely not make a film that only talks about feelings and writes about reality, but does not take into account the story, editing, rhythm, and picture.

In fact, many movies are both commercial and artistic, only the distinction between good-looking and bad-looking, of course, realistic themes should be made, but you should make people want to watch. hope, emotions can resonate with it. If this can be done, and there is a good creative lineup, how can the theater managers not give the film schedule unless they are fools, at least the Shuguang Cinema Line will give such a movie schedule.

So don't worry about why you don't schedule literary films, but reflect on whether the films you make can be liked by the public, if you say that you don't need the public to like them, then why should you schedule films. In addition, small-budget movies should not be expected to have too high a film schedule, if you don't have a good publicity, and if you don't have a good creative lineup, how can you attract the audience to watch the movie, if you don't have enough audiences, how can the theater give you the same schedule as the blockbuster, it's definitely a waste of resources.

Low-budget movies were originally released in a few theaters first, and with good word-of-mouth and good attendance to promote theaters to give higher film scheduling, this is how it is operated all over the world.

For literary films, I think that in a short period of time, don't pin your hopes on the establishment of art theaters, the idea is very beautiful, but if you can't shoot the effect that the audience wants to see, it is impossible to solve the dilemma with a few literary film lovers. Rather than hoping for art theaters, it is better to be practical and make a fuss about online video and DVD distribution, in this regard, my dawning network can help everyone, and if fans and audiences can't even pay to watch or buy DVDs online, how can you expect them to go to the theater to support, the price of movie tickets can be much higher. Lin Yuquan smiled and looked at the time on his wrist: "Okay, let's hurry up and talk between us, I'm going to check the preparations for the movie premiere later." ”

Lin Yuquan is really not interested in continuing to talk about the topic of literary films with the other party, there are too many filmmakers discussing where the domestic literary and artistic films are going, but there is no substantive action at all, and naturally there is no effect, even the literary director himself has no idea of seeking change and reflection, just blindly criticizing and shouting slogans, it is foreseeable that this situation will continue for a long time.

Even though the female reporter was quite unwilling and wanted to continue the topic of discussion about literary films, after Lin Yuquan made it clear, she had to turn to the topic of the movie "Heartbeat".

Time flies.

"Director Lin, last question, what are your expectations for the box office of "Heartbeat"?"

"I don't expect anything at the box office, I hope everyone can like such a small and fresh love movie." Lin Yuquan said with a smile.

"Whew." When he walked out of the café, Lin Yuquan breathed a sigh of relief and said to Xiao Ran beside him: "Don't arrange an interview with Phoenix Network in the future." ”

"Okay, boss." Xiao Ran nodded, he was also furious in his heart, and he was very dissatisfied with the female reporter who was holding on to the topic of literary films just now.

"Well, let's go, go to the Dawning Cinema." Lin Yuquan said that he couldn't wait to know the audience's reaction to "Heartbeat". (To be continued......)