王宝崎/Baoqi Wang
Confession follows an old man who, while fortune-telling for his grandson’s name, catches wind of an omen predicting a death in his village. As paranoia takes root, he becomes consumed by the belief that his grandson is the one marked for death, leading him into a quiet, desperate waiting game with mortality.
8/9/20265 min read
So that the producers have the maximum information about you, who are you?
Baoqi Wang (b. 2004) is an emerging Chinese director and screenwriter. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Radio and Television Directing (with a concentration in Film and Television Production) from the Shanghai Visual Arts Academy.
Wang’s artistic vision lies at the intersection of social realism and magical realism, consistently exploring socially conscious themes while infusing contemporary narratives with a touch of the surreal. During his academic career, he was commissioned by the Songjiang Municipal Government to write and direct the short film The Wild Ferry and Whispering Pines (Ye Du Song Yin), which received critical acclaim and official coverage by the Songjiang Federation of Literary and Art Circles.
How many years have you been making movies?
Throughout my four years at university, I’ve worked on films as a director, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and actor.
What was your first experience making movies? Did you study at a film school or did you learn on your own?
I studied filmmaking at Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts. In my freshman year, I made my first short film. It was a magical realist love story about two fictional characters from a play who had to fall in love with each other overnight so that the play's script would work. The shoot took place mainly in the school's theater. What impressed me most was the lighting issue. Due to the venue's constraints, we could not rig any lights from the ceiling. So we collaborated with the theater's lighting department and placed our film lights on the catwalks above the stage to achieve the wide master shots. Looking back, it was quite dangerous. However, thanks to that risky move, our short became one of the best in our cohort, and it also made many people notice me as the director who was bold enough to take such risks.
What budget did you have?
Confession involved many scenes, a large cast, and some big set pieces, so I ended up spending around 150,000 RMB.
Is it a self-financed project?
Yes, it was a self-financed project.
Any anecdote that you can tell us about the filming?
This was my first time making a film in my hometown and also my first time making a film with my family. At that time, the whole village was going through a period of major change, just like the setting of the film. Because of the local land policies, everyone was rebuilding their houses one after another, so I was practically carrying my camera and shooting on a field of ruins. The most important scene in the film, a march through the mountains, was originally full of dilapidated rubbish piles. When my mother learned that we would be shooting there, she went alone one morning and cleaned up all the garbage. I found this incredible and was deeply moved at the same time. So for me, it was a very impressive filming experience.
If you had unlimited budget. Which actor and actress would you like to work with?
I would very much like Chen Shufang, who starred in the film Little Big Women, to play the grandmother; Wu Nianzhen, who starred in A One and a Two, to play her son; and Chen Yiwen, who starred in A Sun, to play Qiangzi. They are three of my favorite actors, and I believe they could all better understand the family upheaval and the characters' situations in the film.
Your favorite movie?
My favorite film is A Brighter Summer Day, directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang. I think this film brilliantly captures the failure of idealists within Eastern families. This keen observation of society greatly impresses me, and at the same time, it makes me nostalgic for my childhood.
Tell us 3 filmmakers that you like.
My favorite directors are Edward Yang, Alice Rohrwacher, and Roy Andersson. I greatly admire Edward Yang's screenwriting and his use of mise-en-scène, Alice Rohrwacher's audiovisual approach to magical realist films, and Roy Andersson's handling of the relationship between characters and space.
What is the scene that has impacted you the most?
What impressed me most in the film was the very first scene, in which the grandmother came to a psychic to have her grandson's name chosen. In this scene, we recreated the time when my grandmother took me to have my name chosen when I was a child. We also researched the actual beliefs in the village and used elements from Taoism and the I Ching to enrich the whole setting. We used real statues of deities and borrowed many items used for worship from the villagers. Every villager who came to see the set felt it was profoundly sacred. In this scene, the actors and the camera coordinated beautifully, giving the images a mysterious religious atmosphere.
If you could do a remake of a movie, what would it be?
I would really like to remake the film The Backrooms. I love thrillers, and I also think this film could explore more of its backstory within the main narrative.
Did you have light designs or did you shoot with the same light as the location?
We used candlelight, firelight, and natural light in certain specific scenes, and we also designed lighting for the majority of the scenes.
Can you explain the process of working with a cinematographer?
Because I was very familiar with the entire shooting location, I had already completed both 3D and hand drawn storyboards for the whole film right after finishing the script. When scouting locations with the cinematographer, we discussed and revised everything based on my storyboards, which allowed the entire shoot to be completed smoothly within three days.
Did you have any problems when shooting?
The biggest issue we faced during production was during the rain sequence. The water truck malfunctioned, causing the whole crew to wait for almost an hour, which seriously hindered our filming progress.
And in terms of sound? Neighbors, flushing, cars?
We didn’t have any trouble with noise from neighbors, cars, or flushing, since we shot in a quiet village and picked low-activity hours. Despite having many extras, we used directional mics and kept the set under control, so the recording was clean. Later, in post, we added some birds, chickens, and geese to fill in the missing ambient sounds.
How was the producer-director relationship?
One of the producers on the team, Tong Yu, has become my girlfriend. We had previously worked together on a documentary shoot. When she heard the script for Confession, she was the first to join my production project. Another person who impressed me was my executive producer, Tianyu Ma, who also served as my art director. Due to the limited crew, she took on a heavy workload on set. I remember one night when we were shooting very late, and it was almost dawn, she was still preparing the next day's call sheet.
And working with actors? Tell us about this process, how do you work with the actors?
My lead actress is a well known television actress in China. Although she is advanced in age, she is very energetic. After I explained a scene to her, she could fully understand what I wanted. However, when her performance was not strong enough or there was a problem, I would usually ask her to watch the playback on the monitor so that she could see what kind of performance I needed. For actors without much experience, I would demonstrate part of what they needed to perform in advance to help them understand.
Do you have any other project in progress?
I have another short film project that is currently in the script stage. It is about a zookeeper who wants to die. He hallucinates an orangutan that looks extremely human and talks to it every day. Finally, one day, he kills the orangutan, which is a projection of his own delusion.
