1980 My literary era

From the time he was studying at the Institute of Literary Studies, Lin Weimin felt that Qu Xiaowei had something to do with prodigalism.

Of course, Lin Weimin had read some of the comments in the newspapers. Not to mention his prophetic advantage, even if he knew a little bit of economic common sense, he would not dare to publicize this view.

What is the most fatal part of the argument that it is better to rent than to buy?

Not counting inflation and currency devaluation!

The interest rate on bank deposits is high now, but it was even higher in the past few years. The annual interest rate was 18%. Can you believe it after 30 years?

What now? The annualized interest rate for a three-year long-term deposit is only 9%. The current trend is that interest rates are falling every year.

However, as an emerging economy in China, rising housing prices are a major trend.

One is ebbing and the other is ebbing, and it is nonsense to say that renting is worse than buying, at least at this stage.

"You, please stop listening to that boy's nonsense!"

Lin Weimin gave everyone an in-depth analysis of housing prices, and then warned Yao Shuzhi in a serious tone.

Everyone expressed their belief in his remarks.

"No wonder you've been hoarding houses these past few years." Yao Shuzhi muttered.

"I really can't afford the royalties. I can't just let the money depreciate in the bank!"

Everyone felt sour after listening to his words, just because of the high royalties, right? It’s just your royalties, right?

A few days later, Zhang Yimou returned from Italy, which triggered another wave of media reports.

This time "Raise the Red Lantern" won an award in Venice. It is not as influential as the one in 1987, and there is no need for Zhang Yimou to take the film around the world to participate in film festivals.

He returned to Yanjing for several days of interviews, and made an appointment with Tong Zhonggui to visit Lin Weimin's home.

"The great director is here!" Lin Weimin joked with a smile when he saw Zhang Yimou.

Zhang Yimou smiled a bit shyly and said, "Teacher Lin, please stop making fun of me."

"Golden Bear and Silver Lion, as a great director, you are well-deserved!" Lin Weimin said sincerely.

Zhang Yimou waved his hand to show modesty.

The novel "Honey and Concubines" was recommended to Zhang Yimou by Lin Weimin. Now that the movie has won the award, Zhang Yimou certainly has to express his gratitude to Lin Weimin.

"No need to thank you. I'm happy to see you and Xiao Tong succeed each other." Lin Weimin said with a smile.

After saying his thanks, Zhang Yimou talked about his participation in the Venice Film Festival.

"Raise the Red Lantern" was in post-production at the end of last year. In fact, there was a chance to participate in the Berlin Film Festival in February and the Cannes Film Festival in May, but Zhang Yimou had to wait for half a year. I participated in the Venice Film Festival, of course there is a reason for this.

In 1988, Guo Feng invested in Hou Hsiao-hsien's "City of Sadness". The film was shortlisted for the Venice Film Festival that year. The chairman of the jury of that Venice Film Festival was the great domestic director Xie Jin.

After the opening of the film festival, Guo Feng and Hou Hsiao-hsien came to Venice to participate in the film festival. When Guo Feng saw Xie Jin expressing his love for his family and country, he burst into tears because of Xie Jin's deception. Not surprisingly, "Sad City" won the Venice Golden Lion Award that year, becoming the first Chinese-language film to win this award.

Xie Jin felt that he owed Venice a favor, so he decided to bring Zhang Yimou to Venice with "Raise the Red Lantern" this year.

With the foundation laid by "Red Sorghum", Zhang Yimou is regarded as a VIP at major film festivals around the world.

It's a pity that he only won the Silver Lion this time, which was a bit disappointing. Zhang Yimou didn't care much about it.

After years of experience, he has developed a somewhat indifferent nature.

During the more than half a year he was waiting to attend Venice, he was busy tinkering with the next movie.

As a director, Zhang Yimou is a very hard-working person. Over the past year, he has collected the copyrights of several novels. In addition to thanking Lin Weimin for his help in recommending "Wives and Concubines", he also wanted to ask Lin Weimin what he thought of his preparation. Views on selected works.

One of the scripts Zhang Yimou took out turned out to be "I Am Your Father" by Wang Shuo. According to him, he bought it from Wang Shuo for 10,000 yuan.

"Don't think about "I Am Your Dad". You will be at a huge disadvantage filming something with this theme." Lin Weimin clicked on the script and said.

Lin Weimin also saw Liu Zhenyun's "Chicken Feathers in a Place" among a pile of scripts. This novel was published in "Contemporary".

"Are you planning to film "Chicken Feathers"?" Lin Weimin asked.

Zhang Yimou said thoughtfully: "It was originally planned to be filmed, but we changed the background of the story from Yanjing to Chongqing. I also went there before the film festival, but I never found the feeling. So I am a little hesitant now..."

As he spoke, he pulled out a copy of "Chinese Writers" from several scripts and said: "Teacher Lin, there is a good novel in this issue of "Chinese Writers", very vivid, and I think it has the potential to be adapted."

Lin Weimin flipped through the copy of "Chinese Writers", glanced at it twice, and said, "Is this "The Litigation of Ten Thousand Family"?"

Zhang Yimou became happy when he heard this, feeling as if he had met a confidant, "I knew you would understand my thoughts!"

Lin Weimin said with a smile: "The content of "The Lawsuit" is good, and the story contains many elements that can be developed. Adapting a novel into a movie requires not only high-quality novel content, but also room for adaptation."

Zhang Yimou nodded and said excitedly: "You are absolutely right. This is the advantage of this novel that I like."

"Then let's make this one!"

"good."

Tong Zhonggui couldn't help but sigh as he watched Zhang Yimou decide on his next work under the influence of Lin Weimin's few words.

Teacher Lin’s influence on Yimou is really great!

After deciding on the work to be photographed, Zhang Yimou was eager to try it.

"Has the screenwriter been decided?" Lin Weimin asked.

"Nope."

"Let me recommend someone to you. Do you know "Ben Ming Nian"?"

Zhang Yimou nodded, "I know, the film directed by Xie Fei has won awards abroad."

"The original work of "Ben Ming Nian" is called "Black Snow" and was written by Liu Heng. He wrote the script well."

If Teacher Lin can say that the script is well written, there is no need to doubt his creative ability. Zhang Yimou thought to himself and said, "Okay, then I will contact him later."

Later Liu Heng became Zhang Yimou's literary consultant and worked as a screenwriter for him on the work "Ju Dou". However, due to Lin Weimin in this life, Zhang Yimou did not film "Codename Jaguar" or "Ju Dou", so There is no intersection with Liu Heng.

Liu Heng previously recommended Han Zhuangzhuang to star in "Ben Ming Nian", and this time Lin Weimin recommended him as the screenwriter of "Wanjia Litigation", which can be regarded as returning his favor.

Zhang Yimou and Tong Zhonggui stayed at Lin Weimin's house for more than two hours before leaving after lunch. Zhang Yimou was satisfied when they left.

I came to Teacher Lin’s house once and solved another problem for a work.

"Yimou!" Tong Zhonggui called him.

"What's wrong?"

"Do you feel..." Tong Zhonggui's tone was a little hesitant.

"Do you feel anything?" Zhang Yimou asked.

"Do you feel that you are a little dependent on Teacher Lin now?"

Tong Zhonggui is not sowing discord, just because he looks at the problem from the perspective of a third party other than Lin Weimin and Zhang Yimou, so he can clearly see Zhang Yimou's current mentality and the reasons for his series of actions.

Tong Zhonggui's words made Zhang Yimou stand stunned on the spot.

He froze there for a while, and the images in his mind kept flashing through his interactions with Lin Weimin in the past few years, all of which were due to Lin Weimin's selfless help.

He couldn't help but smile bitterly and said: "Teacher Lin really helped me too much, and I developed this kind of dependence unknowingly."

Listening to his words, Tong Zhonggui also felt something in his heart.

Indeed, as Zhang Yimou said, Teacher Lin was of great help to him. He supported him in making movies, looking for investment, choosing scripts, and selecting screenwriters. Teacher Lin helped with all the most important tasks in the film production process.

No one else would be able to refuse this kind of help, right?

Tong Zhonggui thought this in his heart and felt that his words were a bit redundant, "Forget it, it's me who talks too much."

Zhang Yimou laughed and said, "What's wrong with such dependence? Others can't rely on you even if they want to!"

Tong Zhonggui nodded, this is quite right.

The next day, the first thing Lin Weimin did when he went to work was to sign the publishing contract for "Promotion".

More than five months have passed since "Promotion" was published in "Contemporary" in May. At that time, the aftermath of the third Yanbing Literary Award was still unsolved.

With "The Thief of Officials" in front of him, and the award-winning event that just passed, Lin Weimin's purpose of publishing this novel at that time was obvious, so the novel caused an uproar in the domestic literary world as soon as it was published.

Not to mention the various social phenomena and objects that Lin Weimin ridicules in his novels, from the work itself alone, the completion quality of "Promotion" is very high.

When future generations mention Chinese satirical novels, the first thing that comes to mind will always be those classic works from the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, such as "The Travels of Lao Can", "The Scholars", "The Strange Current Situation I Witnessed in Twenty Years" and "The Flower of Evil".

In modern times, there are also works by famous figures such as Lu Xun, Lao She, and Zhao Shuli.

But in the years of reform and opening up, satirical novels seem to have become lonely.

It’s not that there are no writers writing novels of this type. On the contrary, there are still some writers who persist in creating novels of this type. However, there is a problem in the works in recent years.

The words are clear and the pen has no hidden edge.

This comment is also a common term used by many critics when commenting on satirical and condemning novels in the late Qing Dynasty. To put it simply, it means that the writing is too straightforward, too exaggerated, not subtle enough, and lacks the tact and insight of the literati.

This is also the most difficult problem to avoid when creating satirical novels and condemnation novels.

If you want to expose, satirize, and condemn, you will inevitably become too straightforward and exaggerated.

Lin Weimin exposed and satirized many strange phenomena in this society in "Promotion", and was extremely naked when writing about the calculations and struggles between characters.

But when dealing with these plots, he is very rational and objective, and does not involve personal emotions. This avoids plot distortion in the novel to the greatest extent and makes the atmosphere of the novel more real and peaceful.

Even if the characters in the story fight fiercely, it will not affect the reader's reading, let alone make the reader feel that the novel is exaggerated and unrealistic.

Lida, a well-known domestic literary critic, wrote an article in "Literary News" in July, praising "Promotion" as "the pinnacle of contemporary Chinese satirical novels."

Such high praise has shifted the focus of many people's attention to the novel "The Official Promotion" from "gratitudes in the literary world" to the novel itself, and has also made many people truly realize the true value and significance of the novel "The Official Promotion".