Watch Cui Jian Making a Movie

June Issue of HI Art, 2009

Recently, Cui Jian, my old friend, really began to make a movie named I Love You, Chengdu. The movie has three parts, which are directed by Chen Guo from Hong Kong, Hur Jin Ho from South Korea and Cui Jian respectively. The part directed by Cui features Tan Weiwei, a Super Girl. In order to show my excitement, I flied to Chengdu from Beijing, and then got to Double-King Temple on Dujiang Dam by car at night. I watched a late show there without understanding the plot, and the only thing I remember is that the heroine kept slapping the hero’s face for a dozen of times with all her strength. All people there, including drivers and servers, called Cui Jian “director”, which made me feel strange. It seemed that he had really become a director.

Twenty years ago all of us were very poor. However, we would assemble at Wudaokou as soon as night fell. In our headquarters such as “Scream” and “Happy Isle”, we enjoy rock and roll by little Punks, fruits with sharp tips, cannabis and the extremely free spirit. All in all, here we could find all that we, a group of young men, needed. Cui frequented here, too, and he was the richest among us. People grow up with his songs love his songs, but they may not remember lyrics of them. In one of his songs, there was a line “Rock is like a knife”, while more than one Punks said, “What the guy is singing?  It sounds like ‘Rock is like a kilo of steamed stuffed bun’. (In Chinese, these sentences sound similar)”

Recently, the economy falters while movie industry booms. According to Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the global box office in 2008 has reached 28.1 billion dollars, which has increased by 5.1% compared with 2007. According to European Audiovisual Observatory, in 2008, countries in European Union have produced 1145 feature-length films, an increase of 112 films compared with 2007: a new record. In China, the total revenue of movie industry in China is 8.433 billion yuan, an all-time high and a growth of 1.707 billion yuan over the same month of last year (6.726 billion yuan); then China has been included in Top 10 box office earners. The proportion of domestically produced films have exceeded imported ones for 6 years successively, and compared with 2007 when the revenue was 1.801 billion yuan, it has an increase of 762 million yuan in 2008. In 2008, we have produced 406 feature films, 16 animated cartoons, 39 popular science films and 107 digital films, with which China has become the third biggest film producer.

 Cui has pursued visual art for a long time. I spent almost a month in 1995 in the rehearsal room of the General Political Department, making a super stage backdrop for his band by his invitation. During that time he visited me frequently, talking and asking about something having nothing to do with music. Then that backdrop had accompanied him in his domestic and international performances for more than 10 years, and later it was displayed in Visual Art Exhibition for the 50th Anniversary of World Rock held in Roman Museum. Before every performance he would invite me to design the stage for his band. Unfortunately, then I was busy with works arranged by the gallery and only attended his solo concerts in Shijiazhuang and on Hunan TV. Later he said to me that he planned to make a musical play “Teach You a Lesson” and soon after that I heard that the play was performed in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Cui Jian always keeps a low profile and stands on solid ground. I believe that his film will succeed sooner or later, because films are also what he is pursuing in artistic world as well as the extension of his music.

Zhu Wei

Friday, May 15th, 2009

看崔健拍电影

《HI艺术》2009年6月刊

老友崔健这回真的拍电影了，电影名《成都我爱你》。同一个题目由香港导演陈果、韩国导演许秦豪和崔健三人分别独立制造。崔健执导的部分由超女谭维维主演。为了表示激动，前两天我专门从北京飞往成都再倒汽车连夜赶奔都江堰二王庙江边，看了一场夜戏。当时拍啥情节不知道，只记得女主角不停地扇男主角的耳光，扇了有十来遍，真打。满场连司机带茶水带方便面六十多人都导演长导演短的叫，一开始不习惯，后来才知道这是叫崔健。看来这回成真的了。

二十年前在五道口混的时候大伙都穷，但每到夜晚人们都不知从什么地方扑向这里。当时的“嚎叫”、“开心乐园”除了有小庞克们演出的摇滚乐，还有平时根本见不着的不知谁带来的特别尖的果儿，还有大麻叶子和特别自由的精神。总之，这里有年轻人最需要的东西。崔健也常来这里。在我们眼里，当时他是最富裕的。听着崔健歌儿长大的这些孩子喜欢他的音乐，但不一定能记得住他的歌词。有一首歌的词儿是“摇滚乐就像一把刀子”，不止一个小庞克和我嘀咕：“你说丫是怎么唱的，我怎么听着都像是‘摇滚乐就像一斤包子’。”

这两年经济不景气，电影票房却走高。据美国电影协会（MPAA）公布数据显示，2008年全球票房高达281亿美元，与2007年相比，上升了5.1%。欧洲视听观察所公布的初步数据显示，2008年欧盟各国共拍摄长篇电影1145部，与2007年相比，增加112部，创下了新纪录。在国内，2008年中国电影产业总体收入84.33亿元，创历史新高，比上年同期的67.26亿元增加17.07亿元，并跻身全球电影市场票房收入前10名。国产影片票房比例已连续6年超过进口影片；比2007年的18.01亿元增加7.62亿元。2008年共生产故事片406部、动画片16部、科教片39部，数字电影107部，中国成为世界第三大电影生产国。

崔健对视觉的追求由来已久。九五年的时候我曾应邀给他们乐队做了一个超大型的天幕，在总政排练场花了近一个月的时间。他基本上老来，老是聊一些和音乐没什么关系的事儿，问问这个，问问那个，后来这块幕布跟随他在国内国外世界各地转悠了十几年，还应邀参加了罗马美术馆举办的“世界摇滚乐五十年视觉艺术大展”。他每次出去演出都邀请我给他们乐队做舞美，可惜当时我和画廊合约安排得特别满，这么多年来只陪他去了趟石家庄和湖南卫视的个唱。后来他又找我聊了几回他想做一个音乐剧《给你一点儿颜色》，不久，听说音乐剧在深圳、香港公演了。崔健做人低调，做事扎实稳妥，我相信他的电影早晚会成功。因为这是他艺术追求的一部分，是他音乐的延续。

朱伟

2009年5月15日星期五