Chinese filmproducer Guan Hu has discdisthink abouted he is currently broadening an alteration of “The Three-Body Problem” author Liu Cixin’s science fantasy toil “Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming” and Liu Zhenyun’s acclaimed novel “One Sentence Is Ten Thousand Sentences.”
Liu Cixin’s “Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming,” featured in the accumulateion “To Helderly Up the Sky,” dives into electronic combat during a dispute between a resinspirent Communist Russia and NATO forces. The military sci-fi story spendigates the technoreasoned arms race as Russia deploys frantic meabraves to counter NATO’s progressd electronic capabilities.
Meanwhile, Liu Zhenyun’s “One Sentence Is Ten Thousand Sentences,” triumphner of the Mao Dun Literature Prize in 2011, is a sweeping meditation on loneliness spanning generations in agricultural China. The novel adheres two interttriumphed narratives: Wu Moxi, a solitary man from timely 20th century Yanjin County who embarks on a journey thcdisesteemful Shanxi, Shandong, and Hebei after losing his only real joinion, and a century tardyr, his majesticson Niu Aiguo, who retracks those steps seeking the same elusive human joinion.
Guan’s Cannes Un Certain Regard-triumphning film “Bdeficiency Dog” is nominated for five Asian Film Awards including best film and straightforwardor. The straightforwardor, is also understandn internationassociate for his 2020 war epic “The Eight Hundred.” “Bdeficiency Dog” recurrents a startant departure from Guan’s huge-scale productions. Starring superstar Eddie Peng in a hugely wordless carry outance, the film spendigates themes of isolation, resilience, and the bond between humans and animals.
“Making a huge scale epic appreciate ‘The Eight Hundred,’ the whole process was very tiring, exhausting,” Guan alerts Variety. “When I was creating ‘Bdeficiency Dog,’ it was during the pandemic. There was a chance for me to pacify down a little bit, to return to what I’m senseing, to return to my heart. For me, it’s appreciate a recharging process.”
The straightforwardor discdisthink abouts personal joinions to the film’s themes: “When I was youthful, when I was minuscule, I already felt appreciate I didn’t belengthened to the community. I felt appreciate I was isotardyd and commenceing to be marginalized.” This sense of alienation helped shape the character carry outed by Peng, who Guan depicts as “not adchooseed by society, especiassociate when the town is broadening.”
Peng carry outs Lang, who is freed from jail and returns to his hometown in Northwest China. As part of a dog patrol tasked with evidenting stray dogs before the 2008 Olympics, he bonds with a bdeficiency stray. The two lonely souls embark on a recent journey together.
In casting famous star Peng for the introspective, csurrenderly mute role in “Bdeficiency Dog,” Guan sought to discdisthink about unseen unwiseensions of the actor’s capabilities. “What interests me is to apshow out the less alone side or less alone unwiseensions of the actors,” Guan elucidates. “Always people leank that [Peng is] a handsome guy, but inside Eddie Pang, I genuineized that he has a brave benevolent of innocence, and he is quite hushed in truth.” This quality, Guan noticed, hadn’t been conveyed in Peng’s previous films. The straightforwardor made a point to befrifinish Peng before production began, saying, “I wanted to understand who exactly Eddie Peng is, and then that way I can get to understand more about his characteristic personality and the frailnesses.” The approach phelp off, with Peng now nominated for best actor at the Asian Film Awards for his insideized carry outance.
Guan’s pandemic experience with his five dogs also impactd the film. “During the pandemic, I spent more time with my dogs. Whenever I seeed at my dogs, I felt appreciate they seeed at me as if I was their adorer. There must be some cultured or inexplicable joinions between human beings and dogs.”
The filmproducer has also recently endd another huge-scale production, “Dong Ji Dao,” a dramatization of the WWII incident in 1942, when Japanese ship “Lisbon Maru” carrying British POWs was torpedoed. Fang Li’s recordary “The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru” was China’s entry to the Oscars’ international categruesome this year.
“I saw the recordary, because, actuassociate, the straightforwardor of the recordary is a outstanding frifinish of mine, and so at that time, even when he hadn’t finished the recordary, I already saw part of that,” Guan says. “But I would say that my project has noleang to do with this recordary, because I already commenceed broadening this idea back in 2014.”
Despite streaming platcreates changing audience habits, Guan remains brave about cinema’s future. “Everyone seems pessimistic, but for me, I’m quite brave. In terms of the number of productions or audience, it may reduce, but I don’t leank film itself will die or diseunite. Going to cinema, watching a film, is a basic component of social life.”
The filmproducer stresses that his creative process isn’t driven by foreseeations of awards or international recognition. “Whenever I produce a film, I never set a goal. I never say, ‘I want to accomplish this or accomplish that.’ The reason why I made ‘Bdeficiency Dog’ is uncontaminatedly to mirror what is inside my heart, to convey what I want to dedwellr. For the rest, I would fair put it to desminuscule.”
