Original title:

Farewell to the Yangtze River: Another panoramic view of China (theme)

Across 6300km of beautiful mountains and rivers, documentary films witness the changes of coastal residents' lives (subtitle)

Wen Wei Po intern Zang Yunjie reporter Wang Yan

The documentary film "Farewell to the Yangtze River", which stretches 6300 kilometers upstream from the Yangtze River, witnessed the changes of life of the residents along the river, and the magnificent and flowing panorama unfolded slowly. At the end of the film, director Zhu Neiliang finally made up for the regret that he failed to shoot the "first drop of water at the source of the Yangtze River" ten years ago - farewell to the Yangtze River, farewell to the old people, and farewell to China.

The 1000 people hall of Shanghai Cinema City was full early the night before last. The Japanese director Takeuchi Liang exclaimed, "I didn't expect so many people", which won warm applause and cheers from the whole audience. One of the main characters in the film, the beautiful Tibetan girl Sim, was even more excited to tears at the scene. "Shanghai is too special for me". Fan Lixin, director of Invisible Summit and Earth: A Miraculous Day, also came to the scene, and two famous documentary directors from China and Japan exchanged their creative ideas and shooting experience. Fan Lixin said that he "cried for three times" in watching the film, and praised Zhu Neiliang for his keen observation and profound humanistic care, recording the changes of several characters along the Yangtze River in the past ten years, showing the life changes and emotional stories of ordinary people in the macro context, "Taking time as a yardstick, it is a very advanced shooting method to record the entire era and the individual and spatial changes in the era.".

Looking back ten years, we will return the world to a more modern and real China

As a Japanese director who has lived in China for many years, Takeuchi Liang's lens not only captured the magnificent scenery of the Yangtze River, but also the real life and moving stories of the people of many ethnic groups along the coast. With a strong sense of life and the true feelings reaching the hearts of the people, Takeuchi presented to the world a panoramic China that is both magnificent and flowing.

When "Farewell to the Yangtze River" was released in Japan earlier, it set the first place in the box office of Japanese literary and artistic films. Many Japanese audiences were attracted by the new perspective of China's development and change in the new era in the film, and were intensively reported by many Japanese mainstream media. The film makes the world realize a more modern and real China. It not only promotes the cultural exchanges between China and Japan, but also deepens the mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples. It has important cultural influence and significance.

Compared with the Great Chronicle of the Yangtze River World created ten years ago, when director Takeuchi filmed the Yangtze River again, he inevitably felt that "things are neither human nor human". Ten years of social changes are engraved on every hero. The changes are gratifying. For example, after ten years of environmental control, the water in the Yangtze River has become clearer; The construction of dams and other water conservancy projects generates electricity for flood control, which facilitates shipping and travel; The poor mountain villages that used to be closed have become new villages with white walls and high tiles; Chongqing baggage carriers are becoming the last generation of "Bangbang" in China. The changes are also deplorable. For example, some villages are hard to find along with river governance, and ancestors' hometown traces and youth dreams are gone with the wind

Immersive shooting, telling a warm and moving story

In most documentaries, the director is often required to act as a "bystander" and try to avoid getting involved in the life of the filmed person. However, in "Farewell to the Yangtze River", Zhu Neiliang, who has settled in China and now speaks fluent Chinese, breaks the routine of documentary films and directly enters the camera with his own clue.

From the perspective of shooting, Takeuchi's director has his own consideration: "Ordinary people will fear the camera, but if I also enter the camera to talk with people who were originally targeted, then they will be more natural." He thinks: "In fact, no matter whether the director is on the camera or not, interference with the target cannot be avoided. Since interference has already formed, it is better to do it in the end."

This is the story of Zim. Ten years ago, in the Napa Sea Scenic Area of Shangri La, Sim, only 17 years old, was holding a lamb in his arms and shyly asked every visitor to take photos with the lamb. When Zhuneiliang heard that Zimu had never traveled far, he decided to take the Zimu family to "Shanghai, the most modern city in China at the end of the Yangtze River", despite the opposition of many people in the film crew. Ten years later, when Takeuchi Liang found Sim again, she had become the decent owner of Shangri La B&B, and successfully realized her dream in those years.

Fan Lixin's words also expressed the feelings of many viewers: "When I saw this section, I couldn't help thinking, if Zhu Neiliang didn't take Zimu to Shanghai at that time, what would her life trajectory be like?" In parallel time and space, no one knows Zimu's life trajectory. Whether a documentary should interfere with the lives of the subjects also varies, but it is certain that "Farewell to the Yangtze River" This may be the real contribution of the film.

The director is an outsider for the shooting object of the documentary, and a director from Japan is an outsider for the people along the Yangtze River and the coast. But it is this identity of an outsider that gives Takeuchi a clearer perspective of the onlooker, leading the audience to jump out of their different living environments, break the conventional thinking mode, and more purely empathize with the characters in the film.

At the end of the roadshow, the humorous director shouted to the audience: "I heard that the box office of Chinese films in the first three days is very important, and friends who support documentaries should remember to bring friends to the show on May 24." Zhao Ping, the director's wife and film producer, said that I believe this documentary film full of warmth and tears can move more people.