This director needs to apologize

Chapter 376 Something big happened
The spiritual story told by An Xixi immediately reminded Chen Yiming of a landmark work in the adventure genre in his previous life, the 1995 movie "Game of the Brave".

Although the name contains the word "brave", it sounds like a standard adventure movie, but it is actually a warm movie that uses an adventure shell to wrap the core of family love. It is precisely because of this that this movie has won global recognition. Popular among all age groups, in 1995, a year when masterpieces were released one after another, it ranked among the top ten at the box office of the year, and gained a high reputation that is rare among commercial films.

In the past, adventure movies often set their stories in mysterious unknown worlds, under the sea, fantasy or the future, or in inaccessible wilderness, attracting audiences by satisfying human beings' most instinctive curiosity and thirst for knowledge.

"Game of the Brave" unconventionally places the main stage of the story in a real city that is familiar to the audience. It reverses the setting of traditional adventure stories and allows unknown strange objects to "arrive" into the world for some reason.

If this is the case, the core of the movie is not a qualitative change, and it is still a spectacle-type visual stimulation for the audience. The real contribution of this movie is to explore for the industry a big movie that can stably produce family narratives by changing skins. frame.

The plot of the movie is not complicated. The protagonist is an introverted and withdrawn boy. He is bullied and feels sorry for himself. He also has a serious gap with his father. He only lives in his own little world.

By chance, he got a weird flying chess set, and he found the only girl nearby who didn't dislike him to play with him. Unexpectedly, this flying chess set was a portal connecting to another world, and once the game started, it had to be played to the end. , can't stop in the middle.

The two children had not taken two steps before the boy was sucked into a different world by the flying chess. The girl was so frightened that she dropped the dice and ran home. The chess game was interrupted and the boy disappeared.

The boy's father abandoned his career in order to find his son, and passed away early in grief and pain. Decades later, the house was rumored to be haunted because of the weird flying chess, until a pair of siblings moved in with the adults.

Naturally, the younger brother followed the mysterious voice and found the flying chess piece. The child's reaction was the same after so many years. The younger brother invited his sister to play chess together. As the dice was thrown, the chess game that had been put on hold for a long time restarted, and this The chess players were gathered together at once.

After the two siblings each experienced a big adventure, it was the missing protagonist's turn to throw the dice again, and he was able to return to reality from another world decades later.

The protagonist has been struggling to survive in a different world for decades, and now he has turned into an unshaven savage-like uncle.

If you want to get the three people's lives back on track and completely get rid of the nightmare of flying chess, you must muster the courage to finish the game, so the protagonist leads the two children to find the girl who ran away.

A childhood friend reunites in middle age, and the current situation has changed beyond recognition. Although the protagonist was sucked into a different world and suffered a lot, the girl who stayed in reality also had a hard time. Decades of guilt and pressure made her look worse than the male protagonist. When she reached her teenage years, she did not dare to move with her relatives, did not dare to make friends and fall in love, and became a witch-like existence in this community.

The protagonist learns about his father's love and regret for him, while the female chess friend finds the courage to start over. The four of them return to the old house to finish the game.

First it was a house, then a neighborhood, and finally it was zoomed into the city. The stage of adventure continued to expand. During this period, they saw all kinds of strange creatures, experienced various hardships and challenges, and of course made a mess in the real world.

The ending is naturally HAPPYEDNING. The two pairs of children across time and space cooperated to end the chess game, re-sealed the creatures from the other world, and at the same time each gained valuable growth.

With the help of the power of flying chess, the protagonist goes back in time and returns to the night when the adventure began. This time, there is no more cowardice and misunderstanding in his heart, and he bravely runs downstairs and throws himself into the arms of his father.

"Jumanji" is actually a story that explores the relationship between father and son under the guise of adventure. There is a saying in China: "Embrace the grandson but not the son." It means that a father cannot spoil his son. This principle is the same abroad.

The protagonist's father is strict, rigid, enterprising, and responsible. He is very strict with the protagonist's education. The latter's lying behavior at the beginning was severely criticized by his father, who directly announced that he would be sent to boarding school.

After being sucked into a different world, the protagonist had to force himself to grow up because he could only rely on himself. There he met a hunter who had been chasing him for decades. It happened that the hunter looked like his father. Exactly the same.

So the protagonist's resentment towards his father lasted for decades. He suffered a serious injury in order to avoid getting along with his father. However, fate made his father always accompany him, love and kill him in another way.

The restarted chess game is also the process of the protagonist regaining the courage to face his responsibilities. At the end of the chess game, he finally stopped escaping and bravely faced the hunter who had been hiding in Tibet for decades. Before returning to the other world, the hunter said: It captures the words that the protagonist's father failed to say to him until his death, "You finally became a man."

Breaking away from the influence of the movie's visual effects and re-constructing the relationship between the characters, this movie is actually not a typical adventure movie. There are many things in its underlying structure that don't make sense.

For example, the origin of the entire adventure and the origin of the weird flying chess was briefly mentioned, because the adventure is just the spice of the story, and the father-son relationship is the main meal, so it was simply skipped.

Another example is the hunter's weird behavior. It's not so much a test of flying chess as it is the protagonist's inner demon. Only in this way can he explain his Schrödinger-like marksmanship and inexplicable lines. The time rewind at the end is a change in the way a family film is handled. A pure adventure movie would definitely be a dead end if it was done this way. Doesn’t this mean two hours of wasted time? But it is very consistent in "Jumanji". When the protagonist rediscovers his father's love, not looking back is a dead end. The distraught audience will definitely send razors to the crew.

An Xixi described the concept of his debut novel as an "intellectual adventure". In other words, it actually depicts growth. This idea is actually quite new in this time and space, and there are almost no similar works.

The reason is also very simple. After all, movies use images to tell stories. Physical exploration can rely on scenery and special effects, but how to present spiritual exploration?
Just imagining it is not enough, the audience must be able to understand and relate to it. If it is an original and completely subjective intention, how do you let the audience relate to it?

Two hours at most, even one hour to explain the setting may not be enough. Can the movie still be watched if it is shot like this?
The reason why Chen Yiming thought of this "Game of the Brave" was precisely because its framework perfectly suited An Xixi's needs. He changed "Go on an adventure" to "Come on an adventure", thus eliminating the trouble of explaining the setting. Creatures from another world come to the real world, while satisfying the audience's sense of empathy and curiosity.

Setting the main subjects of the adventure as four "children" avoids the problem of adventure motivation. As for children, it is normal to be curious and ignore the consequences. Who doesn't hate cats and dogs?

At the same time, the patch of time and space made up for the shortcomings of the young actor's acting skills. The success of the original film is inseparable from the amazing acting skills of the lead actor Robin Williams. It is his existence that makes the whole adventure more enjoyable. Restricted to play in the children's playground.

In contrast, "Home Alone", which is entirely starring children, also has the theme of facing fear and no longer escaping, giving people the impression of an elongated "Tom and Jerry".

The subsequent failure of "Jumanji 2" also confirmed this truth. When the protagonist who drives the story is set from an adult to a real child, the underlying logic of the movie suddenly becomes untenable. It is natural for children to grow up. It is very unpleasant for adult audiences to sit in the cinema and receive this kind of education.

Only by exploring the growth of adults can we resonate with the audience and affect their emotions. Isn't there a saying that a man remains a boy until he dies?

This series in the previous life was not restarted until 2018. The production team of the third part finally recovered the successful experience of the year. The setting of the protagonist group is similar to the middle-aged otaku and otaku in the first part. People with "unsound minds" who only grow older but not wiser have their own problems in dealing with the world.

The underlying logic was solid, and the visual effects were sincere. Therefore, the movie was very successful after its release, earning nearly 10 billion U.S. dollars in box office worldwide, and an old IP was successfully resurrected.

From a professional perspective, the third film is actually a step back compared to the first film.

Although the special effects technology has improved, due to cost constraints, it still has the texture of a game CG. Without the emotional foundation of the first part, it is difficult to say that the realization of the different world of Ludo is outstanding.

The concept of the story is also lowered, taking a big step back from relationships to individuals. The characters are no longer emotionally bound, and the entire adventure process has truly become a visual level-breaking game, not much different from other popcorn commercial films.

After thinking about it in his heart, Chen Yiming told An Xixi "Game of the Brave". Of course, it was only the outline of the story, and the details were skipped. Thirty years later, what kind of "adventure" can attract contemporary audiences? The resonance requires careful research and polishing, and cannot be decided in a moment.

After Chen Yiming finished speaking, he looked at the girl with an expression asking for praise, but the latter's performance was somewhat beyond his expectation.

An Xixi lowered her head and rubbed the palm of her left hand with her right hand. Chen Yiming understood this somewhat, which meant that she was hesitant about something.

Weird, there is nothing to hesitate about. He already said it before telling the story. "Game of the Brave" is just a reference. Its narrative structure is worth learning from. He didn't force the girl to shoot this directly. He didn't even think about the magic modification. Not exposed.

Chen Yiming also followed the cat and leaned forward, turning his face to look at the girl's face. But before he could fully meet his eyes, he felt a strange touch on his left cheek, and it seemed like an illusion.

Frozen for a moment, Chen Yiming continued to raise his face to catch An Xixi's gaze like a normal person. This time he received a response. His eyes were as bright as morning stars, with the gravity of a black hole.

Measured in millimeters, the two of them lowered their heads and straightened their waists to bring them closer to each other. This posture was actually quite anti-human, but Chen Yiming didn't feel tired at all.

Just when they were about to get together, the doorbell suddenly sounded, and then the door was opened with a "beep", and a strong figure rushed in with a sound like wind.

"Yi Ming, something big happened!"

(End of this chapter)