Screening and Meet-and-Greet with Cast & Crew of Brief History of A Family, A Film Shortlisted for the Forward Future Section
At 5:00PM on April 20, 2024, the screening and meet-and-greet with cast & crew of Brief History of A Family, a film shortlisted for the BJIFF Forward Future section was held at Jackie Chan Cinema (Ciyun Temple). Lin Jianjie, the director and screenwriter, Lou Ying and Zheng Yue, the producers, Zhang Jiahao, the director of photography, Zu Feng and Sun Xilun, the actors, as well as Ah Lang, the editor-in-chief of magazine Movie View, came to the screening to interact with the audience. Wang Yao, a programmer of the BJIFF Forward Future Section and assistant researcher of China Film Culture Institute, Beijing Film Academy, served as the moderator of the activity.
Meet-and-Greet with Cast & Crew of Brief History of A Family
Wang Yao
Brief History of A Family is the feature debut of director Lin Jianjie. The film focuses on the hidden pain of a growing family and tells the story of an accident that makes two boys with very different personalities, Yan Shuo and Tu Wei, become friends. As the friendship deepens, Yan Shuo gradually gets familiar with Tu Wei’s parents, who turn their sympathy to love for Yan Shuo, who lost his mother and is abused by his father. Yan Shuo becomes a frequent guest of Tu Wei's family, and his father’s control over him becomes tighter. Late at one night, Tu Wei's family receives the news that Yan Shuo's father dies unexpectedly. How can they respond? Is the death of Yan's father just an accident as being described by Yan? The fates of the four people are intertwined...
Poster of Brief History of A Family
Producer Lou Ying first shared a letter from the leading actress, Guo Keyu, who was unable to attend the activity on the site. Through the letter, the audience felt her professional ethics for the character. Although she was not present, she always focused on the activity.
Site of Meet-and-Greet with Cast & Crew
During the question-and-answer session, the audience displayed active thinking from diverse perspectives; the panelists gave in-depth interpretations to express their emotions and speculations. The cast and crew not only talked with the guests from an academic perspective to explain the profound significance of the film, but also answered the audience from multiple aspects such as creation and practice.
Audience: The director’s soundtrack is quite unique, including classical music, game sounds, electronic music, etc. I’d like to ask for your thoughts on sound processing? Was it partly influenced by Michael Haneke?
Lin Jianjie: Music is a part of the characters, and it exists as if being "cheating" in many works. Music is very important in the track of the house, with each character should correspond to a different musical genre. On the issue of Haneke, it was not reference. In fact, they didn’t talk much about Haneke during the creation, although the crew and I all like Haneke’s works, so it can be considered as a subtle influence.
Audience: Mr. Sun Xilun, how do you understand the motivations of the characters in the film?
Sun Xilun: The actor must first refer to the director's explanations for the perform. It was by chance for my character since I suddenly found that the friend's family was very harmonious. Therefore, I had an emotion that was difficult to explain.
Ah Lang, the editor-in-chief of magazine Movie View, spoke highly of the film Brief History of A Family. He believed that the film pulls the audience into the "fourth level of creation", which is in line with the trend of international film creation. The film is a surprising work that depicts grassroots people like heroes just like the life itself. Through the film, we can feel that in most families, life seems very harmonious; however, there are thousands of different problems hidden behind.
Ah Lang: Does Yan Shuo really exist, or is he just the one imagined by the couple? In the clip of Yan Shuo's 16th birthday, many subjective shots were given, so does Yan Shuo exist in real life?
Wang Yao: Maybe from Yan Shuo’s perspective, there are also “parents of other families”, so does Yan Shuo or Tu Wei’s parents not exist?
Lin Jianjie: During the script creation, the characters all do exist. However, at the filming stage, I also perceived the ambiguity in the text. When writing the script, I took these interpretation spaces into consideration, so I kept the characters in a space between the real and the imaginary.
Wang Yao: I’d like to ask about the director’s considerations on the cast selection?
Lin Jianjie: Mr. Zu Feng knows all the skills of playing the character in the script, as if it were written specifically for him! I watched Ms. Guo Keyu's film See You Again and I thought she was very suitable for the character. After reading the script, Guo Keyu said that she felt like walking through a thick fog. The audition footage by Sun Xilun really gave me a desire to watch this character, which is very important for an actor.
Wang Yao: The performance style of Brief History of A Family is unusual. How do actors maintain active communication with the director and continue to make more stylized performances?
Zu Feng: When I read the script for the first time, I felt that that it was clear and concise, and the text was full of a sense of suspense. During the filming, I was not sure whether I could restore the mood and atmosphere of the script, so I could only try my best to interpret it. I watched the film once in Berlin, and surprisingly there were a lot of humors.
Sun Xilun: It is my first time to make a literary film, and I should be a freshman in this field. The style of the entire script is relatively smooth. Because I don’t perform art films very often, the process is also more challenging for me.
On-site Exchange by Zu Feng
Wang Yao: Producer Lou Ying, do you have any production experience to share as for the international co-production project?
Lou Ying: First of all, we should start from the story itself. The story of Brief History of A Family itself is suitable for the international content; secondly, in terms of funding, international funds have also provided considerable assistance. Therefore, we need to consider from both the production and creation, and have discussions based on specific projects. If young filmmakers think it’s necessary, we can continue to communicate after the screening.
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