This director needs to apologize

Chapter 181 Little Figures in Contemporary History

Croce, the Apennine historical philosopher, famously said that all history is contemporary history.

Croce's original intention is that people always observe and understand history from the present standpoint and use the present as a reference.The reason why past history can arouse people's interest and concern is that it is directly related to people's current lives.

Chen Yiming feels that this sentence also applies to the field of film production, especially films with historical themes.

However, due to its literary and entertaining nature, the film's focus on "history" is far inferior to its concern for "contemporary".

As for the character of Mulan alone, there were film and television productions as early as 1927. In the past 90 years, the well-documented film and television series have already exceeded double digits.

The image of Mulan in the play all reflects the characteristics of the times and society at the time of production. The appearance on the screen is that of an ancient person, but the core of the interpretation is all contemporary thoughts.

If we stick to the historical details and set the background of the story in the Northern Wei Dynasty, there will be an unavoidable problem. The war between the Xianbei people of the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Rouran nomadic tribe further north in the film will look very awkward to contemporary Chinese audiences.

If it is a long-running TV series, this awkwardness can be greatly reduced, because the narrative rhythm is slower, the details are more, and the foreshadowing is longer.

In a movie, due to the time limit, this awkwardness is not only difficult to reduce, but will be further amplified.

In order to fight against the awkward feeling stemming from the subconscious, the audience has no choice but to give up the substitution, fix themselves in the third party's God's perspective, watch the scene, the story and the excitement.

The audience cannot be immersed, which is simply an apocalyptic disaster for feature films. This means that the actors' meticulous interpretations are directed at blind people, and the emotional value contained in the film will be completely destroyed.

If it is a visual effects blockbuster, 30 yuan of the 25 yuan ticket price is for special effects, and the audience will not be picky about the weak plot and dry emotions.

Unfortunately, costume historical films do not follow this rule.

With this kind of subject matter, the audience claims that they only want big scenes, but their inner requirements for plot and emotion are not low at all.

Because this is Chinese history, if you choose to consume it in the public sphere, you must pay a price.

In addition, there is another hidden danger, that is, the film involves elements of minority people, which is tantamount to frantically testing on the edge of danger. If you are not careful, you will get into trouble.

This is not influenced by the will of the film's creator, just like the "idol brother" who is coerced by die-hard fans to be the enemy of the world. When a phenomenon-level issue arises, its volume and scope will always expand unexpectedly.

Chen Yiming's scalp went numb thinking about it, so he decided to skip this metaphysical question for the time being and think about something more detailed and specific.

He recited the original poem silently and imagined it in his mind.

Without hearing the sound of the machine, what does this machine look like?
Buy a saddle in the West Market. The saddle here should be a saddle.What did the saddle look like during the Northern and Southern Dynasties?Soft or hard, low or high, are there any stirrups, and if so, are they one or two?
Buying a horse, a saddle, a bridle and a whip, but there seems to be no mention of other equipment. What weapon should Mulan use, a knife, a sword or a gun? Should she carry a bow and arrows on her back?

There are so many kinds of equipment, and they are all bought, which shows that Mulan does not always have them at home. If she can use them all without training, then Mulan is a weaver girl or a beater girl. It seems to be completely different from the first impression in the poem.

Looking at it this way, in the Disney cartoon, Mulan is portrayed as a mischievous tomboy, which is really a logical adaptation.

The new energy spreads to the gold watch, and the cold light shines on the iron clothes. It seems that the soldiers at that time were wearing iron armor.

Twelve rounds of honors are awarded, and hundreds of thousands of talents are rewarded. The honorary officer system seems to be from the Tang Dynasty. It appears in the Yuefu folk songs of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, which seems to be a time travel.

However, he thought again that after the Yuefu poems were handed down, many literati and poets in the past dynasties made revisions. Perhaps the current version of Mulan Poetry was a revised version by the Tang Dynasty people.

Speaking of Khans, isn't Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, also the "Khan of Heaven"? There's nothing wrong with that.

This is the twelfth rank of Cexun. If you think about it carefully, it is really unreasonable.

You must know that the twelfth rank is already the highest level of reward in the Shangzhu Kingdom. It is really unimaginable that such an award would be awarded to a civilian general who has led troops outside for 12 consecutive years.

This is different from the 7th level technical sergeant in the contemporary army. In ancient times, the honorary officer was directly linked to military power. Referring to the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties, only the commander-in-chief of the Shangzhu Kingdom who defeated the army and returned to the dynasty could receive it. Generals at all levels below the commander-in-chief, It is absolutely out of the question.

So there is only one reasonable explanation here, which is that the twelve chapters of Cexun are the same as the emperor and Mingtang in the previous two poems, both of which are literary figures of speech.

Maybe Mulan had been promoted in the army, but it was definitely not a senior general, but mostly a middle- and lower-level officer.

This can also be seen from the panic at the beginning of the companions. The same group of people fought for 12 years without much damage. It can be imagined that the intensity of the fighting was not very high.

Moreover, it has been 12 years since the expedition. It is obviously not a proactive campaign, but has a stronger meaning of guarding the border.

From this point of view, Hua Mulan actually belongs to the border garrison. She has served for 12 years and made a lot of achievements, so she went to the capital to express her merits before returning to her hometown.Finally, it’s hard to imagine what kind of makeup it would be like to have your hair on your temples by the window and your hair in the mirror.

Chen Yiming went over Mulan Ci several times and found that he had more headaches.

The epic feeling he pursued not only failed to materialize, but was weakened by his own analysis.

Speaking of the epic feel of costume blockbusters, there is actually no fixed routine or standard. Different directors naturally have different presentation methods.

But all in all, the general path is always the same.

First of all, you need to choose a magnificent background of the era, and the protagonist is a small character involved in it. It can be recorded in history books, or it can be completely fictitious.

Under the background of the times, this little person will achieve great achievements that are not belonging to a small person due to various chances and coincidences.

Then, out of Western-style humanistic ideals, the little people either use their bodies to cause trouble and end the war, or they retreat bravely and return to the ordinary. In contrast, the big people fight for power over and over again, leaving a lingering sense of irony and fate.

It needs to be pointed out that historical costume blockbusters are actually a Western concept. Although China has filmed ancient history in various movies and TV series since the end of the last century, it has not actually gone its own way.

When Ridley Scott makes "Kingdom of Heaven", the protagonist will be a little blacksmith.

Similarly, when Peter Jackson filmed "The Lord of the Rings", the first protagonist was the hobbit Frodo, who knew neither martial arts nor magic, not the chosen king Aragorn.

Both great directors know that there are big and small, contrast and foil, so that the epic feeling can have a sense of reality.

If there are all big people on the stage, it will be difficult for the audience to empathize and empathize. As a result, the emotions of all the characters are floating in the sky.

Only when little people do big things, in other words, diaosi counterattacks, can the audience feel happy.

Chinese costume blockbusters have obviously not been able to grasp this creative rule. In other words, the heroic view of history upheld by ancient Chinese historians has made history books focus on emperors and generals, which is inherently unfavorable to the restoration of small figures in ancient times.

When great Chinese directors create ancient characters, they often tend to emphasize more on the human side of the hero, that is, dragging the big man down from his height to show his other side that is close to the audience's psychology and not recorded in history books.

"Hero" and "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin" in previous lives were both handled in this way.

In "Heroes", there are only the world-famous assassins and the lonely King of Qin. The other common people, officials and soldiers are all decorations of different colors on the background wall, with dark colors and blank spaces in the thick colors.

At the same time, the Imperial Master was not willing to create facial expressions of symbols, so he used various methods to give several characters an ordinary side.

The end result is ubiquitous nagging. The hero does not become approachable because of a little humanity, but more like a psychopath who is incompatible with ordinary people.

"Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin" is even more extreme. The poet directly interprets the protagonist King Qin as an ordinary person, letting Li Xuejian play the role of a loveless child with many problems in his native family.

Strictly speaking, this is no longer a costume blockbuster, but a drama "Thunderstorm" in ancient costumes.

The two great directors forgot that a great era without heroes can still be considered a great era?
And the reason why heroes are called heroes is that they don't follow the crowd and can do what others can't do?
Why focus on speculating or even fictionalizing the ordinary side of a hero? Why not just portray the ordinary people around a hero?
A blank sheet of paper makes it easier to draw, right?
Chen Yiming's original idea for Hua Mulan was to create a civilian female general in the context of a big era.

However, after carefully analyzing Mulan's words, he came to the conclusion that Mulan was just a garrison soldier. She had been guarding the border for 12 years after leaving home. When she retired, she was only a middle-level and lower-level officer. She might not have fought in many wars. Her main job was actually patrolling. Stand guard.

In fact, it is not impossible to film the characters of the Border Guards, but if it were filmed in ancient times, there would be a high probability that the audience would angrily demand a refund.

Chen Yiming had to rack his brains to reshape the character and add something extraordinary to the little character Mulan.

Just like in "The Lord of the Rings", Frodo looks like a loser, but in fact he has a great adventurer grandpa who has friends all over the three worlds, and this grandpa has noticed Frodo's tenacity very early.

Also in "Kingdom of Heaven", the director arranged for the little blacksmith to have a big knight and a wild father at the beginning, and then decisively let the father receive the lunch, leaving the little blacksmith with a title and subordinates as capital to stir up trouble.

This design is not about the inner aristocratic thoughts or blood theory of the two directors, but simply to make the story logically reasonable. If a small person wants to leave his name in the big era, he needs adventure and opportunity.

The key to mobilizing the audience's emotions has never been the martial arts secrets under the cliff, but the result of the little protagonist growing up and becoming stronger. Due to the time limit of the movie, it is understandable to speed up this process.

So Chen Yiming made an unconstrained analysis and created an additional problem for himself that was difficult to solve.

(End of this chapter)