Golden Goblet Awards Main Competition Film | THE HEDGEHOG: Adding a Warm Hue to a Melancholic Story

On the afternoon of June 20, the film THE HEDGEHOG, which was nominated for the Golden Goblet Awards in the main competition unit of this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival, held a crew meeting. Director Gu Changwei, original author and screenwriter Zheng Zhi, starring actors Ge You and Karry Wang attended the meeting, sharing the creative inspiration and production experiences of the film, creating a lively atmosphere of interaction.

New collaboration sparks new chemical reactions

In THE HEDGEHOG, Ge You plays Wang Zhantuan, the uncle of Zhou Zheng, played by Karry Wang. Due to past encounters, Wang Zhantuan becomes the eccentric character in his grandmother’s tales, a concern for his elder sister. As Zhou Zheng grows up, his parents always warn him to stay away from Wang Zhantuan. However, faced with life’s choices and fate, these two individuals trapped by life accompany each other, warming each other’s hearts. From adapting the original short story into a film, to the actors’ interpretations, the creative team collaboratively influenced each other, forming a marvelous chemical reaction.

THE HEDGEHOG is adapted from the short story Xianzheng（仙症） created by Zheng Zhi, who also served as the screenwriter for the film. This isn’t the first time Zheng Zhi’s work has been adapted for screen, but for him, this is the “most special”, and the one he feels the deepest connection to. The highlight lies in how Director Gu Changwei added a touch of warmth to this originally melancholic story.

Speaking of the creation process, Gu Changwei pointed out that finding a comfortable position within the environment for each individual, and being able to fully experience the process belonging to oneself, is important for life, and the same applies to the characters in the story. Therefore, THE HEDGEHOG focuses more on the value and meaning of individual existence, as well as their choices. In this process of choice, they must face the environment they are forced to confront.

In his “Era Trilogy”, including THE HEDGEHOG now, they all involve “illness”, but he said he didn’t want to create a “metaphor of illness”. It is important that each person is an individual, and will be different from another, which is exactly the interesting part of life, where a series of individuals will be linked into a wonderful story. These films essentially focus on the challenges encountered in individual life processes, and how to find a way and a goal to achieve the future vision.

Thirty years after FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE, Ge You and Gu Changwei collaborated again. The mode of cooperation between the two has changed. Ge You said: “At that time he was a photographer, and we didn’t discuss acting. This time we had to discuss acting because he was the director.”

Asked about his feelings about working with Ge You, Karry Wang said he was a little nervous before starting shooting, but quickly got prepared for the role after joining the group, and gained a pleasant and meaningful experience. At the meeting, Karry Wang called Ge You “Uncle”, recalling Ge You’s help to him, he exclaimed: “Uncle’s attitude towards performance is really worthy of us young actors to learn. He thinks about it every day, thinks about how to perform tomorrow’s scene, and also gives me a lot of advice.”

Pure state for creation

At the meeting, the main creators mentioned a room several times: Room 2609 in the hotel. During the filming of the movie, including the director, screenwriter, and performers, the members of the film crew would go to this room every day to discuss creation and exchange insights on the script and performances. With this room as the focal point, the main creators immersed themselves in a pure state for creation, constantly exploring and thinking about ways to improve.

When preparing for a scene where singing on the street is required, Ge You wore a hat and mask to the square and sang with passers-by to experience it more realistically, and he was not recognized. In Ge You’s impression, Gu Changwei’s style is calm, giving actors a wide space to play freely, and also giving them stronger motivation to perform well. This does not mean that Gu Changwei does not have high demands on performance, but that he chooses to give actors more freedom to try different forms of performance.

To make the character Zhou Zheng’s “stuttering” more natural, Gu Changwei gave Karry Wang a book introducing different types of stuttering. Karry Wang also put in a lot of effort for this, reading books, watching videos to learn, and carefully considering the characteristics and degree of stuttering in each scene.

It is in such a serious and dedicated environment for creation that THE HEDGEHOG, a high-quality film that has been shortlisted for the main competition unit of the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival, was finally completed and presented to us by the creators.