A few minutes later, the staff brought Zhang Xinyi and the others in. Zhang Xinyi and her group of three, in addition to Zhang Xinyi and her assistant, there was also a man in his thirties.

Zhang Xinyi was wearing a beige long skirt, and she looked like a mature woman from a distance, but her movements and behaviors were still indifferent. When she saw Zhang Ran, she jumped over and jumped, stood in front of Zhang Ran and smiled and shouted, "Teacher Zhang!"

Zhang Ran smiled and said, "Oh, this isn't my second sister! What wind has brought you out?"

When Zhang Xinyi heard Zhang Ran call her second sister, she laughed and said, "The southwest wind blows me!" She waved her hand, called her assistant over, took a small bag from her assistant, and handed it to Zhang Ran, "Teacher Zhang, this is the tea I bought for you." Then she accepted a big bag from the man beside her and said, "These are some snacks I bought for the crew staff."

Zhang Ran said to the deputy director next to him: "Take this bag of snacks and share them with everyone." He gave a large amount of the men beside Zhang Xinyi and asked, "Who is this?"

Zhang Xinyi quickly introduced: "This is director Guo Ke. Guo Ke, this is Teacher Zhang!"

Guo Ke said hello to Zhang Ran very respectfully: "Hello, Teacher Zhang! I am Guo Ke, a director and a fan of your movie. It is really a great honor to see you."

Zhang Ran smiled and nodded at Guo Ke, saying, "I heard that your accent is from Sichuan?"

Guo Ke immediately said: "Yes, I'm from Rongcheng."

Zhang Ran laughed and said, "Then the three of us are fellow villagers!"

After a few simple greetings, Zhang Xinyi expressed her purpose: "Teacher Zhang, I came here today to ask you for trouble. There is a movie I want to ask for the release of Century Peak. It was not a movie I made, but I sponsored it. A documentary "Twenty-Two" that survived the current life of "comfort women", was made by Director Guo. The movie received the Dragon Blog in May last year, but because there was no distribution fee, it was a documentary with this kind of theme, and no company was willing to release it. I want to invite you to come forward to see if Century Peak can be released."

Zhang Ran was a little surprised. In his impression, Zhang Xinyi was a carefree and silly girl. She didn't expect that she would participate in a movie with such a theme. Zhang Ran was definitely willing to help with such a movie, but he didn't know the director and didn't know what kind of mentality he created, so he said, "Let's do it this way, let's talk in detail in the evening. You can stay here, stroll around, and come to find me at night!"

Zhang Xinyi immediately said: "We won't go anywhere, just wait for you in the crew, so that you won't run away at that time!"

The rest of the crew laughed when they heard Zhang Xinyi say this, and Zhang Ran laughed loudly, "Our crew has a cafeteria over there. You can go over and eat some fruits, drink some cold drinks, and have dinner together in the evening. After dinner, we will talk."

After dinner, Zhang Ran called Zhang Xinyi and Guo Ke to the room and talked to them about the release of "Twenty-Two". Zhang Jingchu made tea for them and asked them to sit and chat slowly. Zhang Ran didn't like to talk nonsense, so he said directly: "Tell me what's going on with your movie!"

Zhang Xinyi turned to Guo Ke and said, "You made the movie, let's talk about it!"

Guo Ke immediately started to tell that in 2012, he saw a news report and began to pay attention to victims of the "comfort women" system. He filmed the first documentary short film. At that time, there were 32 "comfort women" survivors in China, and the title was "Thirty-Two". In 2014, when he decided to bring all the stories of survivors to the screen, there were only twenty-two left because some elderly people died, and the title of the film changed from "Thirty-Two" to "Twenty-Two". Australians who served as the post-production of "Thirty-Two" at that time were very interested in Guo Ke's ideas and hoped to invest in "Twenty-Two". However, when the filming was about to be filmed, the two sides had different ideas. The other party felt that they should not shoot so many elderly people at once. First of all, it was a cost issue. Secondly, more than 20 protagonists in a movie are rare in world movies, so the other party quickly withdrew their investment.

When he was desperate, Guo Ke sent a self-deprecating message in his circle of friends, saying that his mother was willing to sell the house and support him in making this movie. Zhang Xinyi left a message below, asking him with concern what happened and whether he needed help. In fact, Guo Ke was not very familiar with Zhang Xinyi. He was the heroine when filming "Sweet City", but when he was filming "Sweet City", Zhang Xinyi was the heroine, and Guo was the Chinese coordinator. Once, when Zhang Xinyi heard Guo Ke talk about the phone, he asked him if he was from Sichuan. Two fellow villagers exchanged it for a while. After receiving Zhang Xinyi's message, Guo spent a day editing a text message, including, what I was doing and what difficulties I encountered, can you lend me 1 million yuan? The text message was edited and deleted, and re-edited, and clicked to send it at the last moment. Not long after, Zhang Xinyi replied to him, no problem. After the meeting, Zhang Xinyi transferred the money to Guo Ke's account that night. Three days later, Guo Ke set out to shoot.

Speaking of this, Zhang Xinyi couldn't help saying, "I heard that he was going to sell his house for filming. I thought it was too serious. If I could help me, I would help. When I met, he was very nervous and his face turned red. He told me that he wanted to make a documentary about "comfort women" to truly record the living conditions of the last 22 elderly people. After listening to these, my first feeling was that you can do it? How do you know that there are 22 left? How do you know what their living conditions are like? Guo Ke quickly took out various historical documents, information about interviewees, list of staff, etc. After listening to the things he talked about about the elderly, and being deeply moved by the preparations for the movie "Twenty-Two", I felt that I must help him."

Guo Ke added: "I really thank Zhang Xinyi for this matter. Without her support, this film might not be able to be filmed. After the filming of "Twenty-Two", I wanted to add producer Zhang Xinyi to the opening, but she refused. She said that she did not invest in this work, nor did she want to make money. She was completely helping, saying that she was the producer, was not suitable."

Hearing this, Zhang Ran had a general understanding of the whole thing, and was quite moved. He looked at Zhang Xinyi and smiled and said, "Xinyi is so whispering, giving people a silly feeling, but in fact he is very soft inside and very righteous!"

Zhang Xinyi said, "Teacher Zhang, are you praising me or scolding me?"

Zhang Ran smiled and said, "Of course I'm praising you! You are really doing something extraordinary when you can fund such a movie and run around for this. As a teacher, I'm proud of you!"

Zhang Xinyi didn't expect Zhang Ran to say this and was slightly stunned, then smiled: "Teacher Zhang, then are you willing to help us?"

Zhang Ran smiled and nodded, "You can even pay millions to fund this movie without hesitation. How can I, as a teacher, not help?" He looked at Guo Ke with a happy face and said, "Tell me about this movie, how did you shoot it, and what did you think?"

Guo Ke knew that Zhang Ran wanted to listen to his creative philosophy and briefly talked about it. Before going to the interview, Guo Ke felt that it was like a normal documentary. But when they started filming the first old man, they threw away all the scripts, feeling that there was no need to use this thing, and they should truly reflect the current life of the old man. In the movie, the old man did not reveal his "scars" or cried to the camera about the pain deep in his heart. There were no dramatic plots and conflicts in the movie. Only the old man was the most restrained and gentler daily life.

After hearing Guo Ke's statement, Zhang Ran knew what kind of movie it was: "In fact, there will be moral dilemmas in shooting works of this kind. Many people will think it is secondary harm or even selling pain. In the United States, there were film critics critics for allowing the public to enter the cinema to take care of the theme of the Holocaust. The movie caused even more controversy in Europe. "Haota" director Longzmann criticized Spielberg for introducing the theme of the Holocaust into commercial consumption, using dramatic techniques and Hollywood realist violence to reproduce the fact that the Holocaust cannot be reproduced. Godard also had a similar view, and had scolded Schindler's List many times.

But I don’t agree with their point of view. History requires people to remember. How can you keep history if you don’t record it? If people forget this history, that is the greatest blasphemy to the victims. I don’t dare to see Godard now, because the movies I’m making now contain the content of the massacre. Godard may scold me, and I will scold him. I am afraid that this old man will be angry at least, so I will simply stop seeing him!"

When Zhang Xinyi and the others heard Zhang Ran say this, they all burst into laughter.

After they laughed, Zhang Ran looked at Guo Ke and said seriously: "In the history of film, there was a movie that caused a huge debate because of one shot. The famous Italian director Gillo Pentekevo made the movie "Zero Point Zone" in 1959. After it was released in France, it aroused the anger of Jacques Rivet, a critic of the "Movie Manual". The film depicts an Italian girl trying to escape in a concentration camp, but she eventually chose to commit suicide. When Rivet criticized the protagonist for committing suicide, the director's panning shot was morally despicable, because after presenting piles of corpses in the concentration camp, the shot was pushed to a high place and landed on an angel sculpture with open arms. Rivet believed that this was a blasphemy to the deceased.

This criticism was lasting, and later European criticisms of Schindler's List and "Beautiful Life" were a continuation of this storm. I agree with Rivet's point of view. In the face of serious subjects such as the Holocaust, any tiny camera action is not innocent, and the artist's intentions must be clear. In the face of such serious subjects, artists must give up neutrality and give way to a moral standpoint. In the face of humanitarian disasters, artists have no room for moral maneuver.

Lu Chuan's "Nanjing Nanjing" is this problem. He believes that it is more artistic to use the Japanese soldier as the protagonist, but in the audience's opinion, his position is problematic, so he scolds it very much. For any director, you must think carefully about the subject matter of shooting. What is your shooting angle, what is your position, the use of audio-visual language in the movie, etc., you must think carefully about it and try to do every point as well."

When Guo Ke heard Zhang Ran say this, he couldn't help but ask: "Director, are you having something wrong with our movie?"

Zhang Ran shook his head and said, "I think the angle of choice is very good after listening to your description. However, this movie is not suitable for the Spring Festival and New Year holidays. Audiences are generally unwilling to watch particularly heavy movies during holidays, so it is better to be in the summer season. There is still one year from now to next summer season. I think you can settle down and see if you can do better. As you said just now, there were twenty-two old people when filming, and now there are only more than ten left. This movie may be the last documentary to interview them directly, so I think you have the responsibility to do the best movie. If you need financial and technical support, we can provide it."

Zhang Jingchu, who had been listening to each other, added: "Zhang Ran decided to shoot this movie after Zhang Chunru committed suicide in November 2004, but he had been preparing for it for ten years before he dared to do it. He felt that he had the responsibility to shoot such a subject."
Chapter completed!