tearjerker director

Chapter 1293

Dong Binger's Nie Xiaoqian is on fire.

It has been kept secret for so long before, so it is naturally impossible to continue to keep it secret after it is released.

Even if it hasn't been officially released yet, some things can be released.

When the poster of Nie Xiaoqian played by Dong Binger was released, it can be said that it was completely convincing.

At the same time, film critics' evaluation of the film has further pushed up people's expectations for the film.

Famous film critic Du Xianghai wrote: "This is really a perfect commercial film!"

Yes, before the millennium, if domestic films were called commercial films, it was really not a compliment, because the domestic market had not yet formed at that time, and domestic films were mainly literary films.

After all, what kind of commercial film is a commercial film without a market?

But now it's completely different, and the audience is no longer a noob who doesn't understand anything. How can a commercial film be called perfect?

"All the elements that make up a commercial film are in this film approaching perfection:

It has to be said that director Li Yi is a master in casting, with a vicious vision.

From the point of view of actors and character settings, naturally needless to say, I believe that as soon as Nie Xiaoqian and Ning Caichen come out, the image of the two is almost fixed. In addition, Yan Chixia, who is unrestrained, simple and kind, is androgynous The dryad grandma, and even some supporting roles such as the female ghost Xiaoqing, the county magistrate, etc. are all vivid, vivid on paper, and will not be forgotten after watching the movie.

The art props, costumes, etc. are all very elegant, and even the special effects. In this film, the special effects do not pursue the big scenes like the current mainstream, but they highlight the effect of the film just right.

Special effects are never the bigger the scene, the better, because the special effects are only for the plot of the movie.

Besides, Nie Xiaoqian's hair bun and Ning Caichen's scholar towel can be said to be absolutely exquisite, and I can even predict bluntly that when "A Chinese Ghost Story" comes out, all future "female ghosts" and "scholars" Styling will be shrouded in its shadow.

The costumes inside are neither the thick and realistic opera style in traditional costume dramas, nor the exaggerated and vulgar styles that are full of chemical fiber gauze, but simple, elegant and ancient, which can be said to be very in line with the movie "classic + legend". " style.

Let's talk about the soundtrack, which is definitely a highlight. "The Road Follows the Boundless", "Don't Come at Dawn", and "Tao Dao Dao" alone are amazing. The lyrics fit perfectly with the corresponding plot, and the style is grand and distant, melancholy and romantic. In today's era, it is impossible to copy a genius work.

Let's talk about the plot. The plot is the best part in my opinion.If I ask you now, what kind of movie do you think "A Chinese Ghost Story" is?Is it a tragedy, or a comedy?Is it a romance movie?Or a ghost movie?Or is it a more relaxed entertainment film?Different people may answer completely differently.Because the style of the film itself is a mashup.As an audience, your emotions will always be drawn by various elements, fascinating, without a moment of wandering, and at the same time taking into account the aesthetic taste of most ordinary audiences.The atmosphere of this movie switches freely among three distinct styles: romance-funny-horror!
These three elements overlap and blend with each other like a thousand-layer cake, and they are very natural. They run through the plot and are very, very balanced. This not only requires the kind of commercial film to be meticulously crafted for the "industrialization" of the script, but also the kind of Leaky "talent".

Let me talk about "funny" first. I think the so-called "funny" element has always been an iconic and popular style of Hong Kong Island movies, but it is also quite difficult to describe.In Hong Kong-produced films, first, everyone wishes to know martial arts, and second, wishes that everything must be funny, but there are very few people who are truly funny.It is much more difficult to make people laugh decently than to make them cry. Many so-called jokes adhere to the funny style of "clowning" and "Xiasanlu", or they are unrestrained nonsense and playing popular memes.

Although director Li Yi is also a director from Hong Kong Island, he did not follow the rules in "A Chinese Ghost Story", nor did he make jokes purely for the sake of being funny. The funny or humorous elements in "A Chinese Ghost Story" not only promote The role of the plot and character creation, and revealing cunning and irony, after watching the film, you will remember a lot of people laughing and funny, but it is not the kind of plot that is simply funny for the sake of being funny!

For example, at the beginning, Ning Caichen and the onlookers' "dummy challenge", and later Ning Caichen entered Lanruo Temple by mistake, and was coaxed by two swords to make a "love & peace" declaration; The wolf lights up three lamps to walk at night and recites Tang poems for courage, but the lights go out in an instant amidst the howling of wolves; or when he first met Nie Xiaoqian, "Miss, why are you so heavy, I can't hold you!"

Of course, I think the most classic one is the part of "a scholar who doesn't know the truth finds an inkstone and kills a room full of ghosts". The audience who were just scared to pee by these zombies felt very sympathetic to these poor little ones at that moment, and that Duan Ning Caichen went to sue the officials, that exaggerated county magistrate, this scene of corrupt officials extorting bribes was very interesting, and the sentence "retire for free" was really impressive.

And the most admirable thing is that a movie that is already so witty and magnificent, you can hardly imagine that it can be made so romantic and glamorous.The so-called "ancient romance" in the minds of our contemporary young people is actually a very modern product, and it can be said to be vividly displayed in this film-from the small pavilion in the water, the beauty in white playing the piano on a moonlit night, to the song "Ten Mile Pinghu is full of frost" In the sky, every inch of blue silk is worrying about the beautiful years. Looking at the moon and protecting each other, I only envy mandarin ducks but not immortals.

At the beginning, I thought this widely circulated "ancient poem" of love was an ancient poem, but it turned out that it was actually an original film!

Of course, I believe that the beautiful "underwater kiss" scene that young people will never forget after watching it!

Even better, compared to the original version of "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio", the relationship between Ning Caichen and Nie Xiaoqian is driven by "virtue", this "A Chinese Ghost Story" highlights the role of "love and desire": Ning Caichen When he fell into the water, Xiaoqian stretched out her jade feet to pick him up; in the bathtub of Xiaoqian's house, Ning Caichen saw Xiaoqian who was half naked, and was kissed by Xiaoqian in the water, fascinated; When we met at the kiosk in the water, Xiaoqian said that she was going to pass the door tomorrow, and she lay softly in Ning Caichen's arms...

So far, the relationship between the two is Xiaoqian's initiative, but these extremely fragrant plots will not make her frivolous, but charming and pure.At the same time, I can even bluntly say that the passionate scene between Nie Xiaoqian and Ning Caichen in the film is the most beautiful among all the "sex scenes" I have ever seen. "And "beautiful" and a ritual-like holiness.

Therefore, those artistic directors really should learn more, sometimes, it really doesn't mean that the more you reveal, the more "desire" you have!
All of the above, it can be said that it is difficult for any audience to say: "It's not good-looking" when the movie is so good!
Throughout the past 30 years, it can be said that there are very few who can achieve the ultimate in all elements of the movie!

Of course, is this movie really just a purely commercial movie?

With my in-depth understanding of the film "A Chinese Ghost Story" and related materials, especially after I read the original "Liao Zhai", I feel that the connotation of this film is not only that, but there are many ideas under the shell of a commercial film. To express something that has been ignored by the public for so many years.

what is it then?First of all, the whole movie has a strong "doomsday plot"!
Yes, apocalyptic episodes!
From the beginning of the road to killing, the two sides of the killing are just one party stealing the other party's wallet, so a killing is staged.

The point is that the murderer didn't have any other attitude towards it, as if it should be like this.

In the county town, this chaotic world is filled with indifference and depression, barbaric gang members, soldiers, etc., are all about money.

Xinyi is worthless here. The owner of the inn, the owner of the paper shop, the owner of the painting shop, etc., these people are all incomparably unified in setting, and even the county magistrate is also "death for money!"

Except for money, other things here, including etiquette, righteousness, and shame, seem to have become worthless. Coupled with the rampant demons in Lanruo Temple, it portrays a disorderly and chaotic ancient end times.

Therefore, Ning Caichen will appear so precious in such an end time where no one cares about etiquette, justice, honesty and shame, as bright as a firefly in the dark.

Besides the opposite of the role, most people think that the protagonist of "A Chinese Ghost Story" is the female ghost Nie Xiaoqian, but in fact, the whole movie, whether it is the main perspective or the director's emotional projection, falls on the Confucian scholar Ning Caichen.What the director wants to describe is not a cute and poor scholar, but an image of a "Confucian man" who still sticks to himself in the end of the world.

Yes, although Ning Caichen has no power to restrain a chicken, the so-called chivalry does not lie in the strength of martial arts, but the ability to "help each other when the road is injustice" and "despite tens of thousands of people, I will go for it" is a chivalry.At the beginning, Ning Caichen was so small and desolate. Later, when he learned the truth and swore in front of Xiaoqian's grave, Ning Caichen was so tall and shining with his mortal body against demons and Dao, and to save Xiaoqian from reincarnation.Therefore, corresponding to Ning Caichen's difficult and lonely journey in the wind and rain wilderness at the beginning, he who has evolved into a chivalrous man carries Xiaoqian's ashes, and Yan Chixia rides a horse in the wind and rain wilderness.

And Yan Chixia, Ning Caichen's auxiliary character in completing "Xia Dao", is a typical Taoist figure, or the image of a Taoist swordsman.He is capable but detached from the world, even cynical.

But Yan Chixia not only bears the force value of the righteous side, but also a key figure in the plot that connects the two worlds of Yin and Yang, "humanity" and "ghost way". The director expresses the core thought through his mouth from time to time: In fact, people and ghosts are not the same There is no innate distinction, ghosts can be better than humans, and humans can be worse than ghosts.At the beginning of the plot, the sword light and blood shadow, the world without warmth and order even more hints that the end of the world under the director's lens is actually a real Shura hell.And in the last days, people who abandon human nature and choose animal nature are real ghosts!

In fact, when the theme is revealed to this point, we can easily discover the core of the tragedy of "A Chinese Ghost Story".This is Nie Xiaoqian's real life experience.

While watching the movie, I couldn’t help but think about a question: It’s no problem that the tree demon grandma needs to suck human blood to practice, but since she is so powerful, why should she raise two girls to seduce innocent passers-by while they are having sex? Do you want to start?Just lock it with a tentacle and eat it.However, Xiaoqian, a female ghost who seems to have "superpowers", still mainly uses the body and sex to deal with victims.If we put aside the fantasy setting and look at the essence through the phenomenon-an evil old woman controls a few girls in her hands and asks them to seduce men to have sex with her at night-in fact, this is a typical prostitution.

However, Nie Xiaoqian, who has been reduced to prostitution, is not at all like the kind of woman who deals in flesh and blood. She is more like a lady of a family. The passers-by in the past lived a miserable life, and they were still given to the powerful "Master Montenegro" as a gift by grandma.

The film clearly writes that she is the daughter of an official family, died on the road, and her soul was controlled by the tree demon.However, the strange thing is that this official never came back to bury the ashes of his beloved daughter.If we combine the background of the previous troubled times, we know that Xiaoqian's life experience is the epitome of countless miserable women in every troubled time.

The real Nie Xiaoqian in the world may be a lady of the official family, but her father and brother were killed or died in war, and her family was scattered. She, a weak woman, could not escape the fate of being robbed and sold, and finally fell into prostitution and lived a miserable life. Life.

I don't know how many such characters there were in the troubled times of ancient times!Look at the daughters of noble families in Wuhuluanhua, the noble lady of Chang'an in the chaos of the late Tang Dynasty, the princess of the Northern Song Dynasty in the shame of Jingkang... the peerless beauties watered by poetry, books, rituals and music are like famous flowers in a greenhouse, which need civilized care, but when The end of the world is coming, gentlemen can still choose to fight to the death or just to survive, but these women who have lost the protection of their families can only be slaves, concubines and prostitutes, just like those exquisite civilizations being torn apart and trampled by barbarism.

Therefore, "A Chinese Ghost Story" is essentially a story of "Confucian and Taoist heroes save the wind and dust".If we put aside ghosts and gods and return to the human world, it will be a cruel and helpless story: In the troubled times of "the weeds are covered with blood, and the wolves are crowned with wolves", a scholar who has the ambition to save the world but struggles helplessly in reality, and A woman who was born in a family but fell into prostitution met in the rivers and lakes, shared poetry and admiration for each other.

The scholar hated himself for being incompetent and unable to save the country, but he thought that at least this woman must be saved by himself, so with the help of his friends, he went through all kinds of hardships to sell the girl who was about to be sold to the bully (probably a traitor who sold himself to the enemy for wealth and status, and wanted to take over The loyal minister who died adhering to the festival) was rescued by the girl, but in the troubled times, everyone is precarious, and the scholar cannot give the girl a home and a stable life. The two can only reunite after a short love. Discrete, forget each other in the rivers and lakes, and never see each other again.The bones are like a mountain and the surname is forgotten, it is nothing more than the son and the red makeup!

In this way, you can deeply feel the powerlessness of life in the wind and rain.People can't get rid of the times. Every ordinary person struggles hard in the world for their dreams. As a result, a big wave of the times hits and nothing is left. So some people drift with the tide and sink, and some people still stick to the light but have to fall into the depths of their hearts. Painful, so that the beautiful things in those people's hearts, such as youth, love, integrity and virtue, generous ambitions, and chivalrous spirits, are fleeting like dreams, becoming more and more blurred, leaving only the once teenagers in the rough and boundless Walk alone on the road of the world! "

(End of this chapter)