Adapted from the prose collection of the same name by writer Li Juan, the 8-episode mini-series "My Altay" is currently being broadcast on CCTV-1. Pictured are stills from the series.

Reporter Wang Yan

After days of tossing and turning and a night of terror, Zhang Fengxia didn't care about the awkward journey at the moment. But the Mongolian grandmother, who had never met her before, blurted out: "You have to live a bright life even if it's bumpy." The speaker's tone was indifferent, and it was not just the people in the story who were touched.

Adapted from the prose collection of the same name by writer Li Juan, the 8-episode mini-series "My Altay" is currently being broadcast on CCTV-1. In the story, Li Wenxiu, a Han girl who grew up in Altay, pursued her literary dream in a big city but repeatedly hit a wall. She returned to her mother who ran a small shop and lived like a herdsman. Gradually, she approached the locals and discovered the beauty of Altay. As a support project of the National Radio and Television Administration's network audio-visual program creation and dissemination project, this is the first network drama broadcast in the prime time of CCTV-1, and it is also a work that has successfully entered the main competition unit of the 7th Cannes TV Festival. Netizens commented that it has movie-level picture quality and can become a "cyber oxygen" for young people in the Internet era: under the 4K ultra-high-definition lens, the valley is green but shining with golden light, the Kazakh boy on horseback, the Han girl with flying skirts, the flocks of sheep, the running horses, the bright and pure vitality penetrates the image, and the remoteness of Altay is depicted in a fascinating way.

However, in the eyes of the main creators, "My Altay" is not just a tourism promotional film. When it was popular, this newspaper reporter talked to the main creators of the play, listening to them sort out the creation of two different systems from prose to drama, and reviewing the Altay story that is distant and close, and always has a broad character in the exquisite pictures.

A layer of optimistic rendering of "not following the trend"

"Spring in Altay is very short. The ice and snow just began to melt in April and May, and summer is coming in the blink of an eye. Spring in Altay is also very special. The hay left over from last year is still flourishing and docile to the earth." Director Teng Congcong's memories are full of visuals. A year ago, the crew shot from winter to summer in northern Xinjiang. When the wind in Altay passed through the spring wilderness, they filmed the calm and lovely in the trivial life, and the peace and ease in the vast nomadic life, "like what flows in the book."

Books, or words, are the origin of this creation, but they may also be shelved under another judgment.

Li Juan's original work is a collection of essays, without a clear narrative main line, and lacks the dramatic conflict that film and television creation usually values. But Teng Congcong believes in the preciousness of it: "Li Juan has a unique perspective on the world and a sense of life. We made "Altay" to introduce various stories from the vast Chinese land to the audience."

The uniqueness of the writer lies in the delicate and rich observation and description, and the unique lightness of the heavy, which coincides with Teng Congcong's concept. "The lack of material life and the hardship of the living environment may be objective, but if the creation is to exaggerate the difficulties, the story will be roundabout and boring." The director said frankly that compared with the dilemma of "giving directly", she would rather add a layer of "non-roundabout" optimistic rendering to the image.

Therefore, the heavy labor and migratory life in the play are daily, but they are also portrayed as the fun and dignity of the herders' lives. The lines describe it as "that is a grand festival." Therefore, the protagonist Li Wenxiu experienced deception and bullying when she worked in the city, lived in a leaky tent in the valley, and kept company with the occasional passing mice, but the girl was always excited. She hung up plastic bags of different sizes, and the water from the sky leaked into the tent and dripped into the bags, from high to low, forming a fun scale in the girl's heart. It is precisely because of the deep admiration for this tenacious power that can turn suffering into abundance that Li Wenxiu's mother Zhang Fengxia was portrayed as a very brilliant character in the play - all the destined ups and downs and loneliness were calmly dissipated by her free and vigorous life energy.

A creation stripped of "utilitarianism"

Teng Congcong is a newcomer in the drama industry, but "My Altay" is not her directorial debut. Four years ago, because of the movie "Send Me to the Clouds", she won multiple nominations such as the Best Director of the Asian Newcomer Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival and the Best Screenwriter Award at the China Film Golden Rooster Awards, and the film industry has attracted attention. What people don't know is that as soon as the salary was received, the newcomer in the film industry turned around and sent an email to Li Juan to discuss copyright. For "My Altay", she has been fond of it for a long time and spared no effort.

Qi Kang, the current chief producer of the series and general manager of iQiyi Canran Studio, and Teng Congcong are classmates. In his chat records, the first time they discussed "Altay" dates back to 2018. "At that time, I was not a series producer, and she did not have the copyright. No one was rushing to do the project, it was purely out of appreciation for the text." Looking back now, the lack of "utilitarianism" is precisely the key to the final completion of the series.

Back to the initial research and judgment of the project, commercially, it is not a movie, there is no theater income, and it is not like a long series that can spread the cost. The mini-series of 8 episodes is undoubtedly an adventure. In terms of creation, prose adaptations with high artistic standards and strong stylization will face more challenges in image expression. Someone asked Qi Kang why he was willing to take risks, and the answer was consensus and empathy. Innovation in a relative sense is the consensus of creators; the yearning for idealism and attention to life in "My Altay" are the empathy that creators believe can be achieved with the audience.

The next step is to go to Xinjiang, to Altay, to really feel the mountain wind in the text. "If there were no two field trips, we might not be able to touch the texture and feel of life in the original book." Teng Congcong said that during their days in Altay, they met a group of enthusiastic, straightforward, simple and resolute local people. From them, Teng Congcong and another screenwriter Peng Yining jointly picked out the characters in the original book - the protagonist mother and daughter, the mother Zhang Fengxia is bold and free, and the daughter Li Wenxiu is straightforward and cute. There are many relationships between mother and daughter, between man and nature, and between nomadic culture and urban civilization.

Batai's character image is not much in the book. In the small town of Bagua, the creator made friends with a veterinarian. He was a Kazakh boy who had received modern education and was engaged in horse breeding. "He shared his love story and professional experience, and he was in high spirits." The driver met in Fuyun County was named Batai. He had a simple personality, but as long as he held the steering wheel, he would be indescribably domineering. The people they have seen and the things they have heard are integrated by the creators, and the Batai in the play is created. He has a close relationship with horses. He is a young man who was born in the forest grassland, rooted in the mountains and snowfields, and has a flesh-and-blood spirit with the world.

The shooting days were also slow. Teng Congcong said: "Waiting for the wind to come, waiting for the clouds to clear, waiting for the sun to rise and set, is a very pleasant thing for us."

A "high information density" movie feeling

After the broadcast of "My Altay", the movie feeling became the most common comment on the Internet. The "native HDR" shooting and production process and the specially original music with ethnic style are all talked about by netizens. In the view of the main creators, including pictures and music, the movie feeling is actually reflected in the "high information density" audio-visual language. If the beautiful scenery of the sky and the earth is fascinating, then the strong sense of presence established by audio-visual is the space that locks the eyes and arouses imagination.

In the play, the young woman in the confused youth period is interested in literature, but she doesn't know what to write or how to write. The teacher told her to start from the most familiar place, "to love, to live, to get hurt". In the house rented with the herdsmen, she asked her grandmother who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, her mother was an educated youth from Jiangsu, and her grandmother was from Shenyang, "I was born here, am I a Xinjiang person?" On the day when the door was blocked by heavy snow, she wrote the words "There is no line of footprints leading to my home". The process of returning, returning home, colliding, and integrating is repeated in her. "The essay was completed around 2000, and we went to collect folk songs in 2020. After 20 years, the Internet era has irreversibly changed the lives of the younger generation, and so have the herdsmen." Teng Congcong said that she was attracted by such collisions and integration, and also had more thoughts on the theme of her hometown.

In the audio-visual woven by "information density", some viewers noticed the name of the heroine. In the original work, Li Juan wrote in the first person. In the play, the literary young woman is named "Li Wenxiu", the same as the character in Jin Yong's novel "White Horse Roars in the West Wind". Teng Congcong admitted that it was her personal "small tribute". In the writings of martial arts masters, Jiangnan has many good things, but in the end it is exchanged for the farewell of beautiful girls, "That's all very good, but I don't like it". The director hopes that the female characters in the play are open and free and easy, "They may not be nomadic people, but they have the chivalry and heroism to dare to travel the world, have the ability to choose their own way of life, and take the first step from rejection to freedom".

It is also in the experience of abundant information that the 8-episode mini-series has the possibility of leveraging the long-tail effect. Ma Yili, who plays the mother Zhang Fengxia, once said: "The two months in Altay were like a dream. I hope everyone can have the opportunity to stay away from the hustle and bustle and go there to dream." Now, netizens have responded positively and enthusiastically. Read a good book, chase a good drama, and go to a good place-this is probably the most ideal appearance of a film and television drama.

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