Dialogue with the director of Despair ｜ Breaking 100 million in two days, he responded to the controversy!

Special feature of 1905 film network Once again, the actor brought a movie to "New Year’s Eve".Since the release of the new film, the box office has exceeded 100 million, which has opened the first prize for the film market in 2023, and comedy has still become the "killer" in the schedule.

The director can’t be underestimated. The dramas and movies that he once relied on have given this IP a new vitality, and it is also a simultaneous creation, which has opened up a new mode of "film and drama linkage" in the mainland film and television market.

In the following six years, he had a lot of ideas, but he was always "almost out of breath" until he quarreled with his wife and had the idea of "Desperate Husband".

Now the story finally meets the audience, but it is difficult to have a perfect play in the world. The sharp topic wrapped in Desperate Master has debates on issues other than creation. No matter whether the audience’s evaluation is polarized or not, at least the work has "seen the world" and its mission and value can be complete.

Put aside the outside world and return to Zhang Qi’s creative world.In an exclusive interview with the 1905 film network, he talked about the creation of the story, the quarrel that caused it, and the woman who accompanied him in his creation.

01

In the words of Zhang Qi’s wife, describe the living condition of the male director, "especially with ideas and strong desire for control, typical male chauvinism."

It is inevitable that there will be some bickering and quarreling between husband and wife. In a quarrel, the other party throws a sentence, "One day, change you to a place where our women are the masters of the country, and you can try it again."

This complaint distracted him, and the filmmaker’s keen sense of creation seized it. "Maybe this can make a story." So, he immediately called several partners and slowly spread the idea.

With the progress of the times, there are few intuitive examples of "men are superior to women" in society, but after careful study, this unfair phenomenon is either male chauvinism and hidden between many lives and jobs.

In addition to the scriptwriting team including Zhu Zhu and Tian Xiaowei, Zhang Qi’s wife became the absolute consultant of this film.

The whole screenwriter team is trapped in story creation, and it is often difficult to jump out of the office to look at it. "From the story outline to the breakout outline, and the later version of the manuscript, every manuscript is invited to female friends including my wife. On the one hand, it is to ensure the standard of discretion. On the other hand, we don’t want many imaginary scenes to be groundless or illusory to the audience. "

Compared with the politeness of others, Zhang Qi’s closest pillow person is not so easy to talk about. "I often ask her an idea, and she often throws it over with a pot of cold water. At that time, I was depressed and even angry. I felt that she didn’t understand at all and was very unprofessional."

However, after calming down, Zhang Qi gradually realized that this kind of "cold water" is necessary, and it is precisely because the other party is the closest person that the content will be directly pointed out.

02

The script of "Desperate Master" was created in 2019, and the film started in 2022, which lasted for three years."In recent years, we have been taking detours and trying to make mistakes. When we can’t go on at different intersections, we find that we are wrong and come back."

In Zhang Qi’s impression, there have been many versions of Despair, and there was a very "flying" expression. At first, everyone felt that once they reached the fantasy world, they would let go of their creation and write whatever they wanted. "In that world, a woman had a remote control in her hand. If a man disobeyed several times, she would turn him into a pool of water. There is also the expulsion of men into the street, and a group of people are warming themselves under the overpass … …”

The plot of this whimsy is very high, and it is also very graphic, but in the China film market, it is "inappropriate, inappropriate and inaccurate."

In the creative process, Zhang Qi repeatedly grabbed a keyword, "proper limit"."What we want to express is that men and women are equal in personality. Only when they are equal can we have a better family, and then there will be a better social phenomenon."

In the final movie, in a different world, the woman is the master outside and the man is the master inside.Women fight hard in the workplace, while men need to dress up when they go out, paying attention to make-up, and the costumes are very colorful. It seems that this kind of creation pushes all settings to the extreme and makes seemingly symbolic expressions, but the whole process is from preparation to boot, and Zhang Qi is entangled again and again.

"At that time, I discussed with the staff including producer, art and makeup. Simply in another world, women still wear women’s clothes, and men still wear suits and ties, just reversing gender rights." After thinking about it, Zhang Qi decided to let the audience clearly feel that this world is an illusory fantasy world in a more direct way in the way of the current movie.

Therefore, from the outside, Zhang Qi reversed the dress styles of men and women, including letting men do some beauty-loving behaviors such as makeup and skin care. From the film production, he realized it through the different frames and the different colors.

03

Getting a man pregnant has become a very eye-catching plot setting in Desperate Husband.In fact, this plot design is one of the keys to the smooth shooting of this film.

By the time the script was written in 2021, Zhang Qi and the screenwriter team had written many versions, but the result was either "rejected" by his wife, or other friends didn’t react much after reading it, or he took the script to the employer. Everyone thought it was ok, but something was always missing.

"Desperate Husband" hopes to make everyone put themselves in the other’s shoes and give all women the respect they deserve. "We have summed it up for a long time and realized that if even women have not experienced giving birth, why do you talk about putting yourself in the other’s shoes?"

Zhang Qi thought that once she went to the hospital to choose scenery, she saw that there was an experience bed in obstetrics and gynecology, which could make people feel pain from 0 to 10 through current, and the highest level was the pain of women during labor. He found that there will be men who really feel the experience, and through the sense of body, they can intuitively understand that it is not easy for their wives to get pregnant and give birth to children.

"Maybe you can’ pick up’ the original idea?" As early as 2019, when Zhang Qi first created this concept, but everyone failed to get over this hurdle at that time, thinking that it was difficult to explain this phenomenon with physiological knowledge, he gave up.

Can anyone really care about the scientific basis of this matter?After all, the world we live in is an imaginary world. Zhang Qi quickly sent a message to the people around him to confirm, and almost all of them got the results of "I don’t care", "What’s the matter?" and "I want to be pregnant."

The hurdle that once stood in front of Zhang Qi was washed away in an instant by these replies. "So the whole project quickly advanced."

However, the script was not smooth sailing. Until the boot, Zhang Qi was still hesitating for various settings.

In particular, the key mysterious man in the movie, Zhang Qi hopes to be like a "God" in the movie, which will make the other world more convincing. "This idea was also put forward in the script discussion stage, but it was not taken out again until the boot."

But time is pressing. Who should play it, male or female? A series of questions followed. "After thinking about it, I still feel that it is a man, and there is a feeling of self-review. If even this mysterious person becomes a woman, it would be too preaching. I still hope to unite with each other and let everyone know how men and women should get along. "

In the end, Zhang Qi found the role.

04

At the end of the film, Hu Tienan, played by Chang Yuan, returned to reality. Did he really change the male chauvinism in the early stage of the film?

Zhang Qi didn’t give a clear answer, but Li Jiaqi’s wife Xu Weiwei chose to divorce him, and he began to pursue this beautiful woman again.

Zhang Qi took many detours in his creative process, but he knew very well that it was impossible to change the deep-rooted idea of male chauvinism through a film. "Frankly speaking, I can’t say that it doesn’t exist by brainwashing everyone with a movie."

He just hopes that this story will really satisfy women and make men realize that the past is wrong. "I think this is progress."

As for Zhang Qi’s male chauvinism, "I dare not say that I have completely changed, but I have reflection."

The three-year creation of the film has also made him understand his wife’s difficulties better, and the bickering between them has also been significantly reduced. "I hope there will be less in the future, and now I have made such a film that satirizes and criticizes male chauvinism. If it is still the same as before, isn’t it a slap in the face?"

The origin of the story is a quarrel with his wife, and the rationality of the story is constantly exchanged with each other during the creative process, but until now, Zhang Qi has never shown her a positive film.

"I won’t let her watch it. I just hope that after the movie is released, I will take her to the cinema and watch the movie with the ceremony of two people."