Interview with director Wang Xiaodi: Choose someone you also respect as a partner, and each other is willing to maintain the respect of the other party

In 1998, when the cartoon "Magical Auntie" was first released, the little boy Beanie, wearing an orange vest, white T-shirt, and blue shorts, stubbornly came to Grandma's residence in the countryside of Keelung and embarked on a series of adventures about ghosts, about family affection, and about childhood. After 23 years, the classic restoration version of "Magic Auntie" recently launched the 23rd anniversary digital restoration fundraising plan, attracting more than 5,000 people to participate in the grand event and raising more than 10 million yuan.

Once again, as if time flies, some things have not been mentioned and will not be forgotten; And when it jumped in front of the screen again and was discussed, I found that it was the nostalgia shared by the crowd, of which there were mixed sorrows and joys, and only director Wang Xiaodi, who was in it, understood best.

After the fundraising was over, he left a sentimental message on the fundraising page, saying: "It is the fourth day of fundraising, at home watching the numbers rush upwards, suddenly sad from it, crying." I hope that the partners who worked hard to create but left early, Aunt Wen Ying, Shi Shuyong and Huang Liming, can see that after 23 years of separation, everyone cares for and supports "Magic Auntie"."

All tears are thoughts. That's the deepest thought that "Magic Auntie" brings to this generation, about home, about empathy, about those who must be remembered in life.

That generation of women really had magic

On the day of the interview, Mr. Xiao Di was dressed in a khaki shirt and came in high spirits. He sat on the side of the studio, smiled and said "Hello everyone" in his own vibrato, and then talked leisurely, slowly, and methodically.

Regarding the first sentence of "Magic Auntie", he said that the original of this animation was Huang Liming. More than 20 years ago, with a fascination with the story, just creating, just dreaming at any cost, Xiao Di said, looking back, the pure and flawless belief at that time, to some extent, was a kind of ignorance, and it was too late to consider whether to do an animation in a year, and it was too late to worry about whether the cost of mortgaged the house cost more than 4,000 million yuan was recovered, and it was planted head-on.

"I often say that it was really the period of my life with the highest pain index." Teacher Xiao Di mentioned that the story of "Magic Auntie" comes from Huang Liming's observation of her mother and her daughter getting along, and in those details of coming and going, there are real contradictions, family mediation, and real care.

Every grass and tree in the story comes from the weaving of the details of life, the affection that grows out of the land, like a big tree, standing there, you always silently feel that there is some obstacle, but without it, you will eventually lose the shelter - a lot of family affection, at first with rebellious resistance, but looking back, it is all tortuous love.

(Extended reading: Interview with Wang Xiaodi: "Full of emotions and immature, so it is called home")

Many years ago, after the end of a screening, Teacher Xiao Di led a group of people out of the venue, and not long after, a girl came up with a bang and said, "Director, I don't think your grandma is strong enough." A slight stunned, Xiao Di teacher did not have time to answer, the girl said: "When my grandmother cooks rice, the ants on the ceiling will fall into the dish, my grandmother said, that is more nutritious, so it does not matter; Also, when there are cockroaches at home, my grandma directly hits them with her hands."

Teacher Xiao Di relayed it with a smile, and nodded his head frequently, "I believe that there are many such grandmothers, and what Huang Liming wants to describe, Huang Mother, their generation of women, is really magical." Magic comes from the quenching of chai rice oil and salt in life, as well as shouldering food and clothing and livelihood, washing rice, cooking, child-rearing, and running the family to almost the top of the earth, a generation of women in the bumpy but refined life, growing their own form, holding a spatula as a magic wand, while scolding and caring, pulling up the children who are waiting to be fed.

Their stories are neither legendary nor romantic enough, but in Huang Liming's pen, there is magic hidden in the sense of life. Director Xiao Di said that after going through the hardships of war, changing dynasties, curled up in a silent society, to live the life of the big era into a daily life, it takes a fortitude beyond your imagination - and most of the magic aunts are born in such a big era, they always have a way to do their best wisdom, with partial feelings, strange magic weapons, live very freely.

The picture | stills from "Magic Auntie"

"What I've experienced myself is Aunt Wenying." Once when we were filming, Cai Can suddenly burped and couldn't stop, and Aunt Wenying came out and asked, "How about Ann?" Seeing that Cai Can had to burp non-stop, he asked her to move a chair to sit, and Aunt Wenying took a cup of water herself, took a sip, and then without warning, she spat all over Cai Can's face, which frightened her, and the hiccup was good." Teacher Xiao Di told the story, there were layouts, scenes, characters and events, people could not help but hold their breath and concentrate, silently asking questions in their hearts - and then, and then?

Then, it is the wave of the story that can advance the mind, leaving Teacher Huang Liming to collage brick by brick about love, with witty and humorous packaging, to send these empathies and empathies to distant places. Xiao Di teacher once participated in the post-screening discussion in San Francisco, after the end of the group stopped by the side of the road to chat, a little boy passed, stopped to poke the director's leg, with a timid voice said "I like your movie", at that moment, the story seems to have crossed the region and time, beyond the boundaries of language and culture, well passed on, well undertaken, at the same time, also good to be liked.

(You'll love: The driving force behind the Plantagoram!) Interview with Wang Xiaodi: "Someone denies you, it is the beginning of your growth")

Not being there, in fact, is another kind of existence

Asked about picking up this work again after 23 years, what is the different experience? Teacher Xiao Di fixed his mind, as if he was collecting some emotions, and after about half a second of thinking, he said, "I think the biggest feeling and emotion is that I will never think of a day when Teacher Huang (Huang Liming) is gone, Teacher Shi (Shi Shuyong) is no longer there, and Aunt Wenying is also gone."

About farewell, it is a continuous process in life, it will not say goodbye today, from then on the clouds are light, it will be in a certain invisible grassland in the heart, spread into a lake, usually seems to be peaceful, but there are always some moments in the year, will drop a few stones, the lake reflects those images, with bursting thoughts, turned into tears - and that tear is not completely sad, is a leisurely sigh, as if to tell." Dear you who have arrived far away, I miss you so much."

And "Magic Auntie" is the moment of ripples for Xiao Di Teacher.

"My job has always been teamwork, and the first thing that touched me the most was, of course, the story of Huang Liming, she didn't write animation, she usually made a lot of production, and occasionally wrote the script, but there are too many real and valuable moments in this script, including the song - one by one, leaving, with the joy of growing up, you have beautiful wings and your own ideas." 」 As he spoke, Teacher Xiao Di hummed the melody, as if Shunshi had turned the words that had not yet been spoken into words that were not yet too late to be sung.

Life has a gathering and a separation, I also understand this truth, but you give me the most beautiful memories in this life, I am afraid that I can't give you the best.

Then, Mr. Xiao Di talked about the cartoonist Mai Renjie, the arranger Shi Shuyong, and Aunt Wen Ying, who injected flesh and blood into "Magic Auntie" with their profession, let humor lead the story, let the symphony background, let the voice give life to the characters, and let those things that are difficult to achieve in limited funds be formed. If the entire "Magic Auntie" animation is a deep family letter written by Teacher Huang Liming, then the entire production process is also a long love letter written by Teacher Xiao Di and these amiable and lovely people.

Looking back, I asked Mr. Xiaodi, about childhood, growth and memories, what do we need to remember the most, and what do we need to feel the most? One day, he said, he saw a physical explanation, saying that the so-called quantum mechanics, which is verified by delayed experiments, is actually a future thing that determines the past.

"Although I can't say whether the past determines the future or the future determines the past, but at a certain age, you will see that they all have wonderful echoes, I think childhood is that many traces of your later growth are buried there, so whether the past knows what you will encounter in the future, so first help you bury what you need in childhood, or on the contrary, I think it is not so important." 」

So what really matters? Teacher Xiao Di mentioned that what is important is that when you encounter something in your long life, who is with you at the moment, and he will extend to make you feel more.

Looking back and translating Xiao Di's words literally, the most important thing is the word "now", the person who accompanies you, the connection you feel, and the subsequent ripples caused by those connections, these things form your past, lead you to find the future, let all the memories be sung and wept, and let any future with or without their existence be expected and expected.

(You'll love: How do you do it "live in the moment"?) Focus on the present moment and don't worry too much about the "past" and "future")

Home should be at ease, but also must work hard

When it comes to home, Xiao Di opened his mouth and said that I was so lucky. Regarding the life partner Huang Liming, he said that we have been partners for so many years, the relationship is habit into nature, gradually becoming the core of each other, deeply aware that there are many stable forces in it.

"I think home should be quite comfortable, unless you have any special experience, otherwise few people will need to define home in life." 」 Two years ago, director Xiao Di came with zhi theater and also asked "what is home", he smiled and admitted that in fact, a long time ago, he was not willing to talk about home, because he knew that there were too many things in it, or contradictions, and filming sometimes faced those glaring eyes and rendered it.

After a few years of such a thing, now talking about home, for Xiao Di teacher at this moment, has become comfortable.

Feel at ease, but if the family wants to talk seriously, let's still distinguish it - do you want to talk about the original family, or with your partner?

Teacher Xiao Di said that the original family may indeed give you all kinds of tests, because blood is thicker than water, because who pays everything for whom, so there are very complex and thick feelings in it, "even sometimes that kind of emotion, ah, is others and even yourself can not bear and understand, there are many challenges, expectations, conflicts, pulls, but in short, they are still your first box of treasures, take it with you, and lay the foundation here for all the skills you need to use in the process of growing up."

What about the family you form? He laughed and said that after most of the love period has passed, it is the beginning of your mutual adjustment, and before you are comfortable, you have to work very hard.

"I'm lucky enough to have a cherished relationship with each other, a good relationship, or rather, the two of them can talk very well, almost in the state of each other's best friend." 」 That's why I often say that the person you want to form a family, it is best that you have Respect in your heart, don't have that feeling of 'good, let him do', you really have to have Respect, so that you will also be willing to maintain those places where he makes you respect." 」

(Recommended reading: Interview with Xiao Yuchen, co-founder of Taiwan Bar: "Finding interest" is a myth, and interest should be "created" through action)

Life is about someone who can see through you before you

Teacher Xiao Di speaks, often leaving blanks, that is, a sentence is not finished, but you know what it means - that is, the details of all the stories, do not need to be clarified one by one, in the story you will understand that all that you want to say, has long been self-evident, this is the most interesting place to talk with Teacher Xiao Di - the words are not finished, you already know, this story, what he wants to say.

So the blank space in the movie, not full of words, the open-ended ending, is also revealed in the dialogue with director Xiao Di. For example, the following two stories talk about two teachers who have had a deep influence on him.

The first junior high school class instructor is a strong female teacher, while leading the junior third class, he is also teaching in the north one, and it is conceivable that he is the best teacher in the entire junior high school. The teacher teaches mathematics, strictly, and on weekdays, she wears a close-fitting cheongsam, neatly and neatly, and does not smile.

"At that time, I had just been assigned to the class, and I was still feeling sad about the separation, so I often looked out the window in a daze during class, and the teacher often threw the chalk and yelled: "Look at me in class!" 」 Teacher Xiao Di smiled and described the details, as if 50 years were only a moment, and everything was still fresh in his mind.

Not long after that, he said, his math scores improved by leaps and bounds, and the teacher asked him if he wanted to improve like this, or did he want to transfer to his class? "I said yes, but I didn't expect that the math was good at that time, just that chapter was good, and when the geometry part was over, the grades fell again, so I wanted to start playing, not reading, the teacher was very angry with me, I was also very angry with the teacher, I remember that there was a long time before graduation, we didn't care about each other very much." 」

Before the end of the third year of junior high school, he wrote a long family letter, declaring that he would give up the joint examination and enter the Tamkang Middle School girls' basketball team to practice.

"On the day of the graduation ceremony, the teacher came up to me and said, 'Wang Xiaodi, come here. I followed him all the way, through the campus and the teaching building, when the whole school was crowded in the auditorium, and there was no one in the teaching area, and I wondered all the way, what exactly was he going to say to me, and what disaster did I run into?" Finally the teacher took him back to the office, sat down, and asked, "Didn't you take the joint exam?"

The boy who refused to take the joint examination said in a muffled voice, "Yes, I am going to play basketball", and the teacher lowered his head and did not say a word for a long time. Teacher Xiao Di of the third grade lowered his head, thinking that he did not know what lesson he was going to be taught, tentatively looked up, only to find that the teacher had red eyes, paused, and said: You, it's a pity, you go.

"You, it's a pity, you go" - just this sentence, lingering in Wang Xiaodi's high school for three years, while playing ball while understanding: what exactly does the teacher want to talk about? Who's sorry? Is it me?

"It was because of this sentence that I first began to think about what I would do in the future, when the basketball team of Tamkang Middle School wanted to guarantee the physical education department, but the problem was, I didn't want to be a physical education teacher, so if so, what would I do?" 」 Teacher Xiao Di said that sometimes there are some people in life who can see your invisible self earlier than you.

"Neither my father nor the coach thought that I would actually raise my hand and say that I would stop playing basketball, I think it was this teacher Ye who brought me a lifelong influence, if it were not for her, I might never have wondered what I was going to do except play, I might be a bad physical education teacher now." 」

(Interview with Yingxuan On the episode: Interview with Xie Yingxuan: 40 years old, single, independent, not necessarily a common group portrait of "this generation of women", don't rush to put the label on)

I am what I am, not what can be defined by wearing a skirt or not

The second story takes place in the second year of Xiao Di's visit to the United States to study acting research.

In an acting class in his second year of graduate school, the teacher asked everyone to invest in a role and perform improvisation, when Mr. Xiaodi was assigned to a female role, he said that he had a big resistance at that time - he just didn't want to play a girl.

Firmly saying that he "doesn't want to", for Mr. Xiao Di, is almost liberating the long-wrapped self from the past single gender identity, and rebounding from the emotions that always feel that they are "wrong" and the incomprehensible situation of others.

"I always felt like a liar, and this state kept accumulating until I went to the United States to read books, and the rebellion of 'I don't want to play a girl at this time' really broke out." 」 But I don't really know what to do if I get because of it, but I just don't want to bow my head." Teacher Xiao Di mentioned that after a few days, the teacher took the initiative to ask him to dinner, and the two of them found a bench in a corner of the campus to sit down and nibble on the sandwich in their hands together.

"At that time, I was still thinking that whatever he said was useless," he laughed, saying that he had never imagined that the teacher was bringing questions rather than persuasion.

Teacher: "Do you think you will act?"

Xiao Di: "Of course it will."

Teacher: "OK, you will do things, but you don't do them, so you want to be less?"

So you want to be less？ It was like a sudden downpour that broke through the invisible transparent curtain on top of him and asked in the most understated sentence, "Hey, Wang Xiaodi, do you want to narrow yourself?" Silent and half-dazed, the question hovered on the side, the two sat shoulder to shoulder, did not look at each other, just silently ate the sandwich in their hands, patted the remaining bread crumbs on their hands, Xiao Di turned his head to the teacher and said: Good, teacher, I act.

"After the performance, it's over." Since then, my life has opened a big knot, and this thing [about gender] has never affected me since." Teacher Xiao Di's eyes shone brightly, as if he saw him in his early twenties, the aura on the stage suddenly appeared, reconciled with himself, and began to be willing to embrace his different self.

"After that, I knew that I was who I was, and I wasn't going to wear a skirt or not, and whether I played a girl or not could be defined. Whether it's happy, sad, or difficult, it's all me, so if I want to learn more, know more, and experience more, then I have to work hard, not limit myself. So since then I've rarely explained myself, and I can do anything with all my might, and I'm getting more and more comfortable."

(Interview with Yingxuan Next episode: Interview with Xie Yingxuan: Gentleness can be to know how to refuse, other people's life issues, you should not help him face)

Once magic is believed, it does exist

From childhood, growth, choices, family to partners, Xiao Di teacher talks about almost everything, with attention to detail, and actively embraces every story in life. From the description, we can find that the subtle changes in life, as well as the emotions intertwined between people because of the encounter, in his pouring and translation, are three-dimensional enough as if you are present at the scene.

And many things happen, are remembered, relayed, remembered, to some extent mean that they have never disappeared, just like "Magic Auntie" traveled through 23 years and came here - and what is remembered has never disappeared; Once magic is believed, it does exist.

In the future, when it is obtained and implemented all the way in life, it can be called life. Teacher Xiao Di said that in summary, in my own life, there are several good things happening: "The first is that I knew very early on what I wanted to do, why I did such a hard job of filming, and I continued to do it for decades, because I liked it, I wanted to do it well, and I knew how I could do it better.

And the second, he said, was someone else in the eye. "If you're often unhappy, think about it, are you so focused on yourself that you always feel like who isn't smiling at me and who's doing it?" If you always see yourself and don't see others, then the tension of the world becomes too great in your eyes; But if you look farther and see that different people have different difficulties, even the most difficult person for you, you can see the insecurity expanding in him, in fact, everyone has their own difficulties."

When your world is outside of "yourself", then life will be more relaxed, happiness can be shared, sadness can resonate, frustration can be empathetic, you can give strength from more places, find strength, expand strength.

"The third is good health." Even if I am old, I still have to say, "Before I got cancer, I was a very good person, and I can say that I haven't used it a few times." But after getting cancer, one thing I learned is that each of us, really know, the longest time to accompany you in this life is your own body, so don't always take it for granted, you must leave some time for him, talk to him, thank him, do more things for him, because the body is the friend who has been with us the longest."

To sum up life, it is nothing more than to find what you love, to have others in your eyes, and to be truly with your body. It is not difficult to say, but many people spend their whole lives on the path of pursuit.

Life is measured in ten years, and when the 7 is about to unfold, how do you see the next ten years? Teacher Xiao Di said that he is planning to grow old with some friends, to grow old and be good together, the most important thing is to grow old together, even if you enter the 7th decade, there are still things in your heart, loved ones, tomorrows to look forward to, the past of attachment and the days of endless conversation.

"I don't think it's better than this, everyone find a place together, live nearby, have friends together, have their own space, it will be very happy, talk and laugh every day." 」