More than a safe landing

Film inspired by real-life event makes top 10 list at China's box office, Li Yingxue reports.

Starring Zhang Hanyu, Ou Hao, Du Jiang and Yuan Quan, The Captain had earned nearly 2.72 billion yuan ($383 million) by Wednesday since it hit theaters in China on Sept 30, joining the list of the top 10 films of all time at the country's box office.

Even though the winning blockbuster of this year's National Day holiday week was My People, My Country, The Captain's daily box-office takings have surpassed the anthology since Oct 5, and the gap between the commercial performance of the two films has narrowed since, according to box-office tracker Maoyan.

"We tried different ways to get the audience's attention, from the selection of the cast to the budget for special effects, and I'm glad it worked out," says Hong Kong director Andrew Lau.

Born in 1960, Lau started to direct films in 1990 and created the Young and Dangerous series. His works also include the Infernal Affairs trilogy, Initial D and The Founding of an Army.

The Captain is based on a real-life event in which Sichuan Airlines pilot Liu Chuanjian managed to land an Airbus A319 safely after the cockpit window broke at an altitude of nearly 10,000 meters en route to Lhasa, Tibet autonomous region, from Chongqing on May 14, 2018.

It's one of the most miraculous emergency landings in Chinese civil aviation history as the plane lost most of its automated controls and the co-pilot was sucked out of the plane due to sudden decompression.

Liu managed to regain control of the plane and made a successful landing in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, saving all 128 people on board, including nine crew members.

Lau recalls seeing the news story when it broke, and last September, he received a phone call from Yu Dong, president of the Bona Film Group, inviting him to be the director of the film adaptation of Liu's story, but he was surprised by the yearlong deadline for the film's release.

"Usually a film like this would take two years to shoot and make, including the postproduction period, which normally takes a year," says Lau.

After accepting the challenge, he immediately started to prepare the script and study the special effects. Shooting started on Jan 3 and took another three months to finish. The details of how the crew members operated the plane gained the appreciation of civil aviation authorities. Lau says his team interviewed and consulted different people at both airports, including staff members of control towers and runways.

"Thanks to the staff from the airports in both Chengdu and Lhasa. They provided us with a lot of help and also all the information we needed to replicate the actual scenes," Lau says.

A model of an Airbus A319 was built for the movie. Lau says he wanted the audience to feel how real it was.

"People told me to make the inside of the plane wider because it would be easier to shoot, but I insisted on the plane design being similar to that of the real aircraft," he says.

Lau says he used to be a cinematographer, so he used his experience and skill to manage the shoot in the narrow space inside the plane. The original event took place over the course of around half an hour. To make a cinematic portrayal of it, Lau asked the scriptwriter to add more obstacles in the captain's way while landing the plane back in Chengdu.

"The clouds in the film are like a monster that stops the plane from flying back home, and the entire crew needed to fight together with determination," he says. "I want audiences to feel like they are sitting on a roller coaster to experience the whole landing process."

Lau complimented the cast's performance, not only those in lead roles but also those who played the passengers on the plane as they dealt with the emergency.

"The cast members created an atmosphere similar to the real situation inside the plane," he adds.

It has been a busy year for Lau. Two other films, The Bravest and Line Walker 2, produced by him and released this year, made 1.69 billion yuan and 698.6 million yuan, respectively.

"It seems that I finished three films at the same time, but they just happened to be released close to each other," Lau says.

Switching his role from director to producer, Lau says the move allowed the director more space to share his own experiences.

"There's an art to communicating with different directors and I'm still learning," he adds.

Contact the writer at liyingxue@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Global 10/24/2019 page14)