We may never actively embrace reality, but there are moments when the truth of life comes to us.
Following the hit drama “I’m Good in Another Country”, the web drama “Sanyue Has a New Job” directed by Li Mo records these unexpected moments.
01
inexorable death
“Can you tell me what it is like to die? I’m afraid…”
In the first domestic healing drama “Sanyue Has a New Job” (hereinafter referred to as “Sanyue”) focusing on “post-95” makeup artists , Xiaobin asked Zhao Sanyue this way on the Ferris wheel. At that moment, this life and the entire series, which had only been in the world for 12 years, are coming to an end, and this question seems to have to be answered.
“Sanyue has a new job” poster
The idealistic Li Mo has a clear and consistent judgment on the text – “The script contains a pure self-expression of the creator. The degree of completion may be different, but the creator’s original intention is the same.” He does not favor the Qualified service providers are difficult to move the assembly line products that are coerced by various variables.
In fact, the script of “San Yue” was polished by screenwriter You Xiaoying over the years. There are traces of time in character design and emotional expression. Establishing a relatively complete expression means thinking over and over again, all of which deeply moved Li Mo.
He also likes Zhao Sanyue, and he can even see himself in his twenties in Sanyue. In Li Mo’s vision, Sanyue must not be a “very girly” girl, she is hard and rigid, brave and straightforward, and she is full of rebellion. So, when he learned that this role will be played by Zhou Yiran, he was very happy. Li Mo said: ” I have always thought that she is a very talented actress, and she fits the role very well.”
Sanyue (Zhou still play)
Despite Li Mo’s best efforts, under the influence of various factors, the shooting cycle was still less than 60 days . With such a short shooting cycle, the preliminary research work is particularly important.
In the solemn and desolate atmosphere, people will instinctively feel fear. There is a pond next to the funeral home in Zhongshan City. The ecological environment is good, and it has a good scenery on sunny days. “In the first two days, I always thought that the pond was a place where the sun could not shine, but in fact it was only because it was next to the funeral home.” Li Mo said, “I think it may be because of the different ways of interpreting the world. When people don’t look at that pond with fear, or some kind of preconception, it’s actually a beautiful pond. I realized, it’s not how scary the atmosphere of the funeral home is, it’s just that before people enter the place, First put a ‘this is a funeral home’ symbol on it, and with a certain prejudice and imagination, everything became terrifying. “
02
Embrace the truth
We may never actively embrace reality, but there are moments when the truth of life comes to us.
There was a time when Li Mo returned to the university as a substitute teacher, giving audio-visual language classes to students in the photography department. Young people in the Internet age have their own expressions, confusion, and indifference. If we learned to reconcile with the self in our self-consciousness when we were young, then for the next generation, reconciliation with the self in the virtual world may be That’s their title.
“What kind of purpose should I have? Material life, games, and so many lively things are tempting around me. It’s easy for people to go astray. Maybe they won’t find one until five or six years after graduation. The real way to enter the society will only be found after being wasted by time. It turns out that as long as you are down-to-earth and work hard, it will be better.”
The gap between Zhao Sanyue and reality was finally broken, and she gradually realized the narrowness of herself, and all this was wrapped under a unified proposition about “death”.
“Sanyue has a new job” stills
In the play, the wife, grieving the unexpected death of her husband, decides to give the children a final chance to say goodbye to their father. In the original text, the presentation of the farewell ceremony used a lot of sound and light means, but Li Mo decided to present it with a theatrical stage, because the expression of the drama is simpler, more specific, and more intuitive. At that time, Zhao Sanyue turned into a silent tree and saw such a virtual fairy tale.
“During the whole filming process of “Three Joy”, I found that death is actually very difficult to resolve. I have no time to shed tears every day except to solve the real problems at hand. But to the audience, I still feel that you are provocative, I keep saying this with force. My daily work is to try to make the matter of ‘death’ a little more plain.” Li Mo said.
03
another life
“Just before riding the Ferris wheel, a lot of people lined up to buy tickets, did you see that? We bought the tickets and got on the Ferris wheel, slowly rising from the bottom to the top, and after seeing the most beautiful scenery, we have to slowly Go down, say goodbye to the scenery, say goodbye to the people who have seen the scenery together, and when we reach the bottom, we will give other people their seats in the Ferris wheel and let them sit in, this is death.” Later, Zhao Sanyue This answered Xiaobin’s question.
This is an expression outside the original script, and it is a line written by Li Mo and the screenwriter on the spot. It seems that this fairy tale, Li Mo is sure to finish.
“Sanyue has a new job” stills
Music has run through Li Mo’s 17 years of life. He was born into a musical family in the late 1980s, with both his grandmother and father having a place in the industry. Li Mo began to learn Guqin at the age of 3, Guzheng at the age of 4, piano at the age of 5, and was admitted to the High School Affiliated to the China Conservatory of Music at the age of 11. For a long time, he was the only boy among those students who was engaged in this major. , was loved, and started a person’s life since then.
“But in fact, life is already predictable. The current appearance of my father and teachers is my future, as if seeing myself at 40 in an instant. For a 17-year-old, yearning and curious self, It was very boring, at that time I thought about a life where I could not see a clear future. ” Li Mo said.
Director Li Mo Photography / Yu Xiang
He kept the test from his family for two years, and finally got into the directing department of the Beijing Film Academy. In his father’s consciousness, Li Mo’s choice was not just as simple as deviating from the classics, but it was probably not an exaggeration to use “rebellious”. For many years after his graduation, the father and son had never communicated, which was a kind of disappointment expression.
“It wasn’t until one day when I became a director that my parents came to visit the class and saw what I looked like when I was working, which made a little difference to me. From that day on, the relationship between my father and me eased. ” In the play , Sanyue finally reconciled with her mother.
“Sanyue has a new job” stills
What exactly is an author’s expression? Maybe it’s not just stubbornness and formality, but sincerity and affection may also be one of them.
Once, when Li Mo was filming in Inner Mongolia, he and his colleagues squatted on the side of the road while the meal was being served. A pair of mother and son happened to pass in front of them. The mother glanced at them, turned her head and said to her son: “You must study hard when you grow up. If you don’t study hard, you will do this in the future.” In retrospect, it seems that there is no emotion at all. worthy of being expressed. Li Mo said: ” I sometimes feel that my work is like a… literary point is called dream-making, realistic point is called magic, and more popularly called “jumping god”. I think it is a job that brings everyone into a certain situation , whether it is to let the audience have a different experience or enter a different world, but when the secret is revealed, it is very boring.”
There was a pair of dumbbells in front of his monitor, next to an aluminum camping water glass, and before leaving, he took out two more Rubik’s cubes from his bag. All of this is the condiment during his shooting. The de-romantic expression may not be so beautiful, but it is very sincere.
“BAZZR Dialogue with Director Li Mo”
Harper’s Bazaar:
You describe yourself as a “compromising perfectionist” What is the bottom line that you can sacrifice?
Li Mo:
I’m not a person who looks particularly like a director, and I don’t conform to everyone’s conventional image. When I really entered the industry and started to engage in film and television creation, I was very resistant at first, because I saw many people suppressing others on the scene, and I realized that it didn’t seem to be me, I didn’t want to. Make yourself that person. For a long time I was thinking: Am I going to be a director like this? Is this the only way to be a director? After actually doing some scenes, I started to realize that no, it’s not the only way to be a director, but it’s probably the easiest way to be a director. When you put pressure, or when you put these things on others, you don’t have to take on as much yourself.
Because directing is actually a job that transcends one’s own, and the questions that need to be judged, decided, and answered every day are not within a person’s ability. You can’t answer what rain or wind is blowing today, you can’t design all these things comprehensively, but when you are going to shape a work, you always feel that the thing you want to present comes from these details. When I see the working methods of my teachers, or my seniors, brothers, or senior directors who have been in the industry for many years, I think they will choose to disperse pressure or work together to deal with these problems. I think this is right. But if this kind of brainstorming and dispersing pressure will make me become a person who is not kind or considerate of others, I think this is something I am very resistant to, which may be the bottom line of what you said.
Director Li Mo Photography / Yu Xiang
Harper’s Bazaar:
Has living alone shaped who you are in some way?
Li Mo:
I think this influence has various aspects. The fact that a person has lived in a foreign country for 20 years has definitely shaped who I am today, but what are you going to say about it… For example, when I was in my early 20s, I went back to my hometown with the When friends and classmates get together, I will obviously feel that they are still better than me… I can’t say it’s naive, because I came out early, and I have to face the situation that no one protects you. How to be in a group of strangers or a In the community you are in, find your place to live, how to get along with strangers, how to spend money, how to make money, how to cherish the people around you who care about you . understand earlier than others.
There is another influence, that is, I feel that leaving my family too early, or leaving an environment with parents, will make me… How do you say that word? It is called avoidant attachment personality . Sometimes when I chat with my wife, she will say that I am like this, that I clearly want a stable, safe, or someone I really care about, whether it is a love relationship or a friend relationship, but every time you meet such a person, you always choose to push it away, or resist or be indifferent, because you don’t believe that such a person exists, but you are very eager, but you don’t want to put hope in others, because once If you have expectations, you will be disappointed and hurt. I have suffered a lot of this kind of injury in my life alone for a long time, so I have this kind of mentality, and I don’t think it’s easy to change this. But I am very happy to meet my wife, because of her, I will be braver, she is a very brave person, she has given me a lot of positive, positive and brave influences in adulthood, otherwise I think I will be more than I am now A little darker.
Director Li Mo Photography / Yu Xiang
Harper’s Bazaar:
If one day you had the opportunity to make a purely personal expression, what would you say?
Li Mo:
What is our ideal life, and what kind of life do we want to live? It’s because in urban life, when everyone is constantly chasing a certain goal, for example, I want to go to a better school, I want to go to a better company, I want a promotion, I want to increase Salary, find a better partner, buy a more expensive house, buy a better car… It seems that everyone can’t find a reason not to do it, it seems that they have to do it, it seems that they cannot help pushing themselves to become better and better. Excellent, this thing sucks.
So how do you find this way of getting in touch with you? It seems that in urban life, it is easier to get involved in consumption traps and certain workplace rules. Even if you are not involved in these two, there will be many social rules, family ethics rules, so where should we go?
Planning / Ge Haichen
Interview & Writing / Zaan
Edit/Timmy
Graphic layout/River