"You are the smartest child on this earth" "Tsinghua Peking University is just a process, not a goal" "Life is like archery, dreams are like archery targets, if you can’t even find the archery targets, what’s the point of pulling the bow every day?"… This is the line in the movie "Galaxy Tutoring School", and it is also the "education scripture" that Deng Chao and Yu Baimei want to share with the audience the most. Starting from their own growth experience and parenting experience, they began to pay attention to the most anxious education topic for Chinese parents. The movie cannot answer every audience’s questions, let alone give a standard answer to family education, but as the original intention of the two directors, "We hope to inspire others and provide a way of thinking, so that the audience can think about it after watching the movie."
The most important thing is to talk about Chinese people’s own emotions
Reporter: "Galaxy Cram School" did a lot of roadshows before its release. How did it feel to communicate directly with the audience?
Deng Chao: The roadshow did harvest a lot of tears this month. When I took the movie roadshow, I really didn’t expect so many audience members to share their tears with us, even including their own secrets that have been hidden for many years, so I was very relieved. One audience member said that she was the "Director Yan" in the play, working as a teacher in a boarding school and bringing out many good students. She told her daughter at the scene that no matter what you choose in the future, my mother will be gentle to you. Then she kissed her daughter’s forehead, turned her face and said to her mother, I know how hard you have worked for me, and I understand you more and hug my mother. Such sharing is everywhere.
Yu Baimei: The roadshow is approaching 30 cities, and Deng Chao and I both have a particularly profound feeling. We made a movie, hoping that the movie could move the audience, but we didn’t expect that the audience would always give us emotional baptism during the roadshow. So many audience members stood up one after another and shared their emotional stories in tears. This process has benefited Deng Chao and I a lot, and it has also made us understand why we should make movies and how we should make movies in the future. It turns out that telling our own stories is not so important, but telling Chinese people’s own emotions is probably the most important thing.
Reporter: Who first came up with the idea of making a film about education?
Yu Baimei: About seven or eight years ago, we wanted to make a film about education, but on the topic of education, we started longer. Because we are friends who have been together for 20 years, we often talk about each other’s growth, and we have some similarities. We were not top students when we were young. My father and his mother asked us a question, which was almost exactly the same. We said that we were children of ordinary families, and no one in the family engaged in art. Why did you do this and finally exceeded the expectations of parents? We were also confused.
Later, when we summed up, we found that it may have something to do with our family education. We are lucky to live in a family that other students envy, and our parents support us to follow our dreams. In addition, our fathers are more independent thinkers. So the "always thinking, always thinking" in the movie, not admitting defeat, and pursuing dreams are all things that benefit us all our lives. At the same time, when we start to be fathers, we want to turn ourselves into connectors and pass on the educational feelings we received from our parents.
There were many times when we talked about writing about our growing up feelings, such as the counterattack of a scumbag. When I was a child, my grades were okay, but I didn’t reach the level of a scumbag. This part of the material should be attributed to Deng Chao. In the movie, Ma Fei was about to be expelled from school, and his family begged for mercy. This is his story.
The original intention of filming originated from the fact that I started being a father
Reporter: How do you understand happiness education?
Yu Baimei: First of all, neither Deng Chao nor I are education experts. This movie is just a father who has many views on education. For us, any education method has advantages and disadvantages, but instead emphasizes whether children’s brains are constantly changing during the learning process. Whether it is exam-oriented education or quality-oriented education, if it is only one-sided implementation, and parents do not understand the true meaning of education, there will be problems. What is the true meaning of education? The movie attempts to give our opinion, for example, we believe that life must know its own goals, to be better requires some focus, need to pay for the dream, pure happiness may be a bit one-sided, so we believe that always let children have the ability to think and believe in children, is the most important in family education, and this is also some of the shortcomings that often occur among our parents.
Deng Chao: Our original intention for making a movie originated from being a father seven or eight years ago. From our parents’ education to us, including when we saw our wife discussing what school their children went to in various groups, her anxiety was the same as everyone else’s. During the roadshow, we found that the topic of education was like opening the gate, and parents had a lot to say and were very confused.
Yu Baimei: A parent watched the movie and felt very touched, "Ma Fei became an astronaut because he has talent, but my son has no talent." I said you didn’t understand, Ma Fei is missing a string, if his father didn’t believe him, who would have talent? Deng Chao and I have an idea that we are both people of average intelligence, and it is our parents who believe that we can do things well and encourage us to work hard for our dreams.
Reporter: When it comes to the topic of education, many parents feel very anxious. How to relieve this anxiety?
Yu Baimei: If it is only for the college entrance examination, it may be very anxious. But what we are most anxious about is whether he has a good mind and dreams. We both have an immature opinion. We think that the competition in this era is not very fierce. Why do we say that? Because in our life experience, many people in the industry we have encountered do not like this industry so much, so what is the intense competition for those who really like this industry? As long as the child likes this, he can easily PK other players.
Reporter: Nowadays, many parents will sign up their children for many classes. Director Deng Chao, will you give etc., Xiaohua classes in your life?
Deng Chao: Turn cram school into an interest, this is what we have been talking about. No matter how energetic a school teacher is, it is impossible to do everything for every child. But parents can do it, because it is the final tenderness. You only face your child, and what he likes is very important. In fact, many parents have not thought about it. They are just waiting and seeing, and they are also very anxious and confused. They sign up for classes, and the children are full for a week. So it is very important for couples to talk about what their children like and find the target.
Reporter: Do you talk to your children?
Deng Chao: I’ve been talking about it. Children are very fickle. He likes this one now, and he likes another one in half a year. It doesn’t matter if he changes, as long as he is interested. Wait, he likes to play basketball, and he plays basketball by himself when he sees it. There is no need for parents to say it at all. He found that happiness and kept improving.
Reporter: "Galaxy Tutoring School" and your first two works have undergone a major change in style. Some people say that Deng Chao has become more profound. Do you agree?
Deng Chao: In fact, different themes will be handled differently, or they will become assembly lines. "The Breakup Master" and "The Villain Angel" are our two most important piers. Without these two piers, there would be no "Galaxy Tutoring School" now.
In order to express the original intention, keep the film length 147 minutes
Reporter: In this movie, there are many links between small characters and major events, such as the Asian Games torch, the 1998 catastrophic flood, and even the space flight. Why is this handled?
Yu Baimei: Although we thought about this movie for seven or eight years, we never made it because we felt that our previous ability was not enough to control it. Our first movie was released on the same day as "Transformers 4", and at that time we felt the power of industry. So in the second movie, we consciously improved our industrial level, but in the improvement, we may have imitated too much, resulting in a certain degree of acclimatization. By the time of the third movie, we wanted to improve better and summed up the previous experience and lessons.
I have also participated in the study in the United States organized by the Film Bureau, and I have seen firsthand how Hollywood makes movies. This time we have also formed an international team to approach Hollywood or catch up with Hollywood. For example, if we want to shoot the Asian Games, we have to make the Chinese audience feel that it is the Asian Games. Thanks to our art teacher, there are more than 1,000 people and more than a dozen teams in the Torch Relay scene. The clothes of each team are historically real, including the kindergarten team, the old man’s suona team, the dragon and lion dance team, the tax and public security departments, as well as the run-up team and the garland team. These details enhance the enjoyment of the audience watching the movie. Including the Xinhua Bookstore and the post office in the background, they only appear in the camera for 0.05 seconds, regardless of the cost, just to be invulnerable.
Reporter: Deng Chao played the father in the film this time, and the age span is particularly large. The actors who played your son have changed three, but you did it alone. Can you talk about it from the perspective of characterization?
Deng Chao: First of all, the look, from his most youthful look in the Asian Games Torch Relay to his old makeup, his hair is thinning, and the changes in the middle should be trustworthy, without any sense of inconsistency. This character has magic, and I have been experiencing other characters for a short time, but this time I feel that Ma Haowen is in front of me every day, and not just on the set. He comes from our parents, from our children, and from our combined 84-year-old life experience and the feelings poured into the preparation process over the past seven or eight years.
Yu Baimei: As soon as Deng Chaoyi put on makeup, I said, he looks too much like my dad, and it’s like the moment I first thought my dad was old. When he finished his look, I cried. I’m sure this is the right look. He is the father image in the eyes of most Chinese people. His physical movements are also very good. There is an encouraging movement in the film. Ma Haowen frowned, bent his arm, and patted his son’s shoulder hard. This is the most intimate movement of a Chinese father and son.
Reporter: This movie is 147 minutes long. Why is it so long?
Yu Baimei: Our editor is the editor of "Wrestling! Dad". After he cut it, the publicity team suggested that it be compressed by 20 minutes, because there will be more films and the box office will be better. He asked us what the original intention of making this film was. If it was for the box office, he was completely sure to cut 20 minutes; but if it was to express our opinion, it would not be able to cut it. Because if this film is cut by 20 minutes, the story is not lost, but the loss is the expression. So what else can we say? Just 147 minutes.
Our reporter, Li Li
