Movie Director

A producer’s job is to put different teams together to work out a shooting plan. What is the job of a movie director? A movie director is a story teller. He/she decides how you are going to understand a story. Depending on his/her mood, Romeo and Juliet's tragedy can be presented as a comedy. That is such an unparallel power, I think this power is even more interesting than the mysterious force (some firmly believe) that draws the evolution plans of human beings (PS1).

I am very impressed with subtle and complex matters a movie director has to consider when creating a scene, a segment of story and orchestra the complete movie. For example, one of the movies she was involved is about the story of the Brothel house in ShangHai in Chin Dynasty (PS2). To re-create the room the girl lived at that time, she said, “What can be seen, can be touched doesn’t tell you the personality of the dweller. But the invisible does”. I start to think what people would make out of me when seeing my empty home in Beijing.

A lot of her works show quite a few ties with Japanese culture (She published her first novel when she was 18 years old. I haven’t been the No. 1 fan of her novels but I read regardless). Nevertheless, one scene she described was in a small village in Hokkaido, where the annual film festival takes place. There is a mamasan who is running her own bar. She was a talent artist and originally wanted to go to the art university in another city when she was young. However, she decided to keep her father accompany and work in a small local firm when her mother passed away.

The mamasan described in early days, old men often brought young men the hostess bar, so the young guys can learn how men interact with women. However, no one is doing it now, the young male generation is weak and unmanly. I cannot help but think, wow, this is really an very important training that a young man should acquire. Without it, most men don’t really know how to treat women right. The rare few who do know the tricks are already spoiled.

PS1. I had lunch with a colleague, in which I started my favorite conversation topic recently, how human being and bacteria evolve together. My colleague then turned a straight face saying if I feel there is a plan for us to become what we are today? I said no, and it doesn’t bother me if the start of life is a complete accident. Can someone tell me why I should be worried?

PS2. The brothel house in ShangHai was patronized by wealthy business men. At that time, people got married really early, so sex is not the real thing they sold but romance. The brothel house was where those wealthy men seeking love. The girls were raised like ladies from good families. Their personalities were not twisted too much that they did have feel for men. The patrons had to work hard to win the ladies heart. They teamed up like a family, where parties were usually thrown in the brothel house. Probably it is very similar to the French nobles’ hangout, the prestigious ladies’ saloon in 18th Century France.