Self-taught film director brings cinematic dreams to big screen
Print Edition
FOR director Liang Xuan, the release of his animated film “Big Fish and Begonia” is a dream come true — literally. The film draws from several ancient Chinese myths, but Liang says the story is based on a dream he had more than a decade ago about a young fish that flies into the sky.
The story of Liang’s entry into China’s film industry also has several seemingly fantastical qualities to it.
Liang, a native of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, applied to study film directing at the Beijing Film Academy, but was rejected twice. He was, however, accepted to Tsinghua University to study thermal energy and power engineering. In 2003, he dropped out to pursue his goal of making movies with his friend and creative partner, Zhang Chun.
It took Liang two years and more than 10 rewrites to complete the script of “Big Fish and Begonia,” an epic fantasy that touches on themes of life, death and rebirth. The movie earned over 500 million yuan (US$74.6 million) in its opening days, and has been widely praised for its spellbinding animation.
Shanghai Daily recently spoke to this self-taught director about his film and his unconventional career path.
Q: Your major at university is totally different from what you’re doing now. How can this big change happen?
A: Film is an industry. Besides professional skills and creativity, you need to know how to write a good story, arrange a good shot, find a good team, raise funds and persuade famous people to work with you. All of these required rational thinking, and this is what I learned from my studies.
Q: This film was inspired by one of your dreams. What are they about mostly?
A: There are a lot of interesting and weird things in my dreams, such as unicorns, cats, Burmese boas. I also once dreamed that I was playing games with a leopard. The spots on the leopard’s body became people’s eyes. It seemed that my close friend had become this leopard and I traced him to his hometown. There have been so many fantastical dreams, and I write them down in case they were forgotten.
Q: There are many Chinese elements in the film, such as traditional clothing and settings based on traditional buildings in Fujian Province. Did you take references from materials or interviews when you worked on this film?
A: Yes, we did. We stayed in Fujian for around one month to get a close look at an old building. No matter the stories or the scenes in the film, we hoped all of them would have roots in real China today, or in its history.
It’s very important for audiences to be familiar with what they see in the film. We also combined what we saw in reality and what we imagined to create something new.
There are many ancient buildings and practices that are not well-preserved in the country. We hope to tell the audiences that they used to belong to China.
Q: Did you study Chinese fairy tales and philosophy like the “Classic of Mountains and Seas” and “In Search of the Supernatural” when you set the figures in the film?
A: We had some supporting characters in the film based on figures from the fairy tales.
China has over 5,000 years of history and there are so many old books that you cannot finish reading them in an entire lifetime. There are many interesting things in the “Classic of Mountains and Seas,” some of which are hardly visible. For example, Di Jiang (a bird in the fairy tale) has two bottoms, four winds and six legs.
Q: Were you under a lot of pressure after you founded your team to create animated films?
A: Actually no. It took us only 10 days to complete our first production. We were making that to participate in a competition and we won a prize that supported us later. The purpose was very simple and we could satisfy our desire to create, which was a very happy process to us. We were also very satisfied when we got positive feedbacks from viewers online.
Q: Were you upset when you were rejected by the admission of Beijing Film Academy?
A: A professional institute has its standards. I worked hard to study professional knowledge and learn the skills of filmmaking. If you really have a passion, you can study anywhere.
Q: Can you share something about your hometown and childhood?
A: I was born and raised in the city of Liuzhou in Guangxi which suffers floods every year. You can find scenery based on this place in the film.
When I was about three or four year old, I was living in a forest as my grandfather was head of a forest school. This experiences provided me with a close connection to nature and freedom from many restricts.
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