Shortlisted for the best documentary at this year’s 60th Golden Horse Awards, “Shaking Mountains and Rivers Shaping the World”, directed by Lin Zhengsheng, who won the best director at the Berlin Film Festival, immersed nearly 400 viewers in the musical world of bard Chen Mingzhang through the lens.
The two attended a preview event together on October 19. Lin Zhengsheng emotionally shared the origin of the documentary: “Chen Mingzhang sings so many songs that are related to this land and the modern historical development of Taiwan. It is regarded as a tribute to Taiwan. Give it a gift!” I also hope to have the opportunity to bring the work into the teaching materials of junior high school students. “Leave something for the children, just like Teacher Chen teaches music, and pass on these music about Taiwan.” Chen Mingzhang, who watched the movie with tears in his eyes, also led the audience to wave the red flag in their hands after the screening and shouted the important lyrics in the song “Shaking Mountains and Rivers”: “Arm up the troops!” The magnificent momentum shocked the theater.
Chen Mingzhang, who has many classic masterpieces, won the Best Soundtrack Award at the Nantes Film Festival in France for his film score “Love in the Wind” when he was 31 years old. “Love in the Wind” was not only an opportunity for him to collaborate with the famous Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, but also Director Lin Zhengsheng’s introduction to Chen Mingzhang’s music: “When I was 27 years old, I made an appointment with several classmates from the directing class to watch “Love in the Wind”. After watching it, I was amazed. From the images to the soundtrack, the whole movie was immersed in the atmosphere of local life. We saw Chen Mingzhang, who scored the film’s soundtrack, in the credits at the end of the film. He was completely unfamiliar to us. We didn’t even know who Chen Mingzhang was, and we had never heard of his music!”
In this way, the name Chen Mingzhang came into Lin Zhengsheng’s field of vision. Later, the two became neighbors and met to chat and drink from time to time. Lin Zhengsheng shared that the happiest thing is that whenever Chen Mingzhang has new musical inspiration, he will go downstairs with his guitar and play to him: “After getting along like this for a long time, I thought I should shoot a documentary about Chen Mingzhang and introduce the Chen Mingzhang I know. Let more people know about it.”
“Mountains and Rivers Shake the World” was shortlisted for the Golden Horse 60 and competed with other Chinese film masters Xu Anhua, Tsai Ming-liang, Zhao Deyin and Wang Bing for the best documentary. It can be called the most competitive award this year.
The film not only features interviews with many important figures in the film and music circles, but also includes the stories behind many popular songs written by Chen Mingzhang, such as “Chasing Chasing”, “Wandering to Tamsui”, and “You Are Our Baby”. . Chen Mingzhang, who claims to have “studied in Taiwan”, gets all his musical nutrients from Taiwan, including Yueqin, Nanguan, Beiguan, Gezi Opera, as well as the diverse singing music of aboriginal groups, creating music unique to this land. Taiwan has not yet become independent. With these four words of music, I am already making independent music.
Chen Mingzhang modestly said that he walked step by step and did not learn a lot of things at once: “Fortunately, I have the theoretical basis of the entire West, so I came back to find things from Taiwan and slowly summarized them. It took about four years. Ten years. I’m very happy to be able to use it in movie soundtracks or my albums. This land needs to be explored more deeply.” In the film, there is an interview with rock singer Wu Bai who played music with Chen Mingzhang when he was young. He also said: “I think he is digging deep and digging, what do we have, what do I have, what am I? This is Chen Mingzhang!”
The documentary film “Shake the Mountains and Rivers to the World” is produced by Between Us Video Production Co., Ltd. and directed by Lin Zhengsheng, who won the Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival. It took four years to shoot and records Taiwanese music master Chen Mingzhang’s forty years of bringing Taiwanese music to the world. Life story, in his creative process, from international film scores to songs and stage plays, the music production process invites the audience to enter Chen Mingzhang’s heart and life. “Shaking Mountains and Rivers Shaping the World” will be released nationwide on November 17.
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