When Auld Lang Syne was released in Berlin, foreign media used the word "epic" to describe it. It should be said that the director Wang Xiaoshuai has this ambition, and the symbols of the times are everywhere in the film. From the educated youth returning to the city, cracking down on family planning, the wave of layoffs, going out to sea, and demolishing everywhere, there are many wonderful stories about China families under the wave of reform. The director cuts in from the angle of losing independence, which can be described as four or two.
The common fault of Wang Xiaoshuai's previous works is that the narrative is too straightforward. Although it is a literary style in Green Red and I 1 1, a movie with a long time span must be dramatic enough to attract the audience. So in Forever, he disrupted the narrative order and used many flashback shots. Even so, there is not much blank space in the film, and the second half is so long and procrastinating, which is completely the shooting method of TV series.
The director set up suspense in many places, for example, in the first picture at the beginning, young Shen Hao looked back from time to time, as if something had happened behind him. A few seconds later, the camera moved over. It turned out that he was looking at the young Liu Xing, which was a clumsy shooting technique. In the plot setting, the director first kept the audience's appetite alive, editing the picture of Wang Liyun committing suicide in the hospital and Li Haiyan suffering from a tumor together, and finally leaving the secret of Shen Hao and the mixed-race of Shen Moli, but the handling methods were all much cry and little rain, which was not as surprising as expected. The young man first calmed down in the bathroom, then hesitated in the car, and then went upstairs to confess the past to the Liu couple. What a good grandmother!
What's more, Shen Hao's words basically exposed the lines of the whole movie, and used several words "nine" and "I feel a tree growing inside my body, which is about to burst me", which is the level of words and sentences used by junior primary school students. Wang Xiaoshuai's movie lines are generally between literary style and vernacular, with few words. To put it mildly, it is plain and natural. In fact, the language is very poor and there is no chewing.
Of course, the biggest problem with movies is that the director's creative motivation is suspicious. Just like living, the misfortune of Fu Gui's daughter and son is directed at the authorities and that era, which really makes people feel helpless and angry. However, the direction of eternity is vague. In the first half, Wang Liyun was forcibly pulled by Li Haiyan, the workshop director and good friend, to induce labor, which was the personal injury of the state machine, and then Liu Xing was pushed into the water by Shen Hao and drowned. This is a personal feud between the two families, but in the second half, the story developed into a feud between the two families, which means that the director has directly degenerated from his previous reflection on his family's times and personal destiny to a bloody drama of family ethics seeking reconciliation, and he has forgiven everything in advance.
This is not surprising. Whether in the 1980s or 1990s, or even now, history is only a nostalgic background in Wang Xiaoshuai's films, and his inner feelings of intellectual youth are beyond words. Historical symbols such as "The River of Babylon", the ball with black lights, bell bottoms, electric cookers, stoves, enamel pots, etc. are used more skillfully in Wang Xiaoshuai's films, but what remains unchanged is the sadness of youth.
In his early films, he preferred "Red Girl". In "Seventeen-year-old Bicycle", the nanny is wearing a red skirt, red high heels and painted red lips, which is the object that Xiao Gui longs for. In Green Red, the girl who visited the prison at the end of I 1 1 put on a big red cotton-padded jacket and became one of the young memories.
Perhaps what I saw and heard when I was young was too unforgettable, or maybe I was disappointed before. Another obsession of Wang Xiaoshuai is to show the beautiful girl who has been defiled. In "Seventeen-year-old Bike", Gao Yuanyuan played a middle school girl who followed a gangster. In Xiao Jian's view, she is vain. In Green Red, a local youth was trapped by lust, raped a girl he liked and was sentenced to death. In I 1 1, an educated youth girl was raped and pregnant, and her brother killed her. In these films, the director's perspective is hidden in the body of a thin teenager, constantly lamenting and singing elegies.
This is also the edge of Wang Xiaoshuai's films with taboo history. Why can't you shoot that kind of stirring power and emotion? Because the surface is a reflection on history, but the core is the desire of teenagers to be saviors.
The obsession that "a good girl is suffering" almost evaporated in the films before Wang Xiaoshuai, but became "a good man is suffering" in Auld Lang Syne. The deep affection for parents and the director's conscious recognition make the film look uncontrollable. On the one hand, it beautified Liu's, on the other hand, it arranged a sensational happy ending, which was limited to the short-lived affection of parents. It can only be said that it was a pity.
Although the script and ideas are badly damaged, Auld Lang Syne will still hit people's hearts at some point. After all, it is Wang Xiaoshuai's affectionate work. Liu He lives in a seaside town that no one knows, but they can't get rid of their past nightmares. It is really "three turns around the tree, with what branches." They are a group of people who live in memories and get lost.
It is said that director Wang Xiaoshuai is often made to cry by actors' performances when he is filming. The actor played by Liu and the actor played by won the best actor award in Berlin for this film. Their performance is "Forever Soul". Wang Jingchun and Yongmei tacitly conveyed a Chinese-style relationship between husband and wife, which was indifferent, dull and vicissitudes, with a restrained poetic and aesthetic feeling.
Successfully transformed Liu's cowardice into kindness. He has a very happy face. Fortunately, his eight-character eyebrows were covered with sad faces, his beard was unshaven, his skin was dark and his voice was hoarse. At first glance, he is a working people.
There are four scenes in Wang Jingchun that impressed the author: First, drinking peanuts, at first, drinking a little wine with alacrity, and then drinking it insipid, and Wang Jingchun's expressions and gestures paused at different times; Second, I carried my relatives through the tunnel to the hospital twice. The first time I showed the feeling of panic and loss, and the second time was the firmness of "I can't let her die"; The third is to send Molly away and cry with a "wow"; The last scene was when I learned that Molly had a baby. At that time, the expression on her face was really like what Bo Huang said, "Every wrinkle has a play", which explained the sense of gain and loss in detail.
Wang Liyun created by Yongmei is strong and quiet, and the excellent image temperament of the actor idealizes the traditional women in China to some extent. In the film, Wang Liyun said that "I'm tired" was the most important thing. The most emotional scenes were repeated tears, grievances during abortion, sadness after surgery, forbearance when laid off, depression and crying after losing children, and calmness and clarity when learning the truth. This role has both heartbreaking weakness and gentle motherhood. Yongmei looks dignified and generous, and she can handle herself and her character's feelings. For example, in the rainy season in Bangkok, Buyilan is a capable strong woman with a wrist; In Chinese Divorce, Shirley is an independent and strong divorced woman. In Nie Yinniang the Assassin, she presents the wealth and beauty of the Tang Dynasty. In Forever, she lost her intelligence and gained a good wife and mother, which is really hard to get.
As played by Ai, the author's impression of her still stays in "Da Zhai Men". Li Haiyan's character is better in the later period than in the earlier period. He didn't look like a workshop director in charge of thousands of people in the early stage. It may be because of his hairstyle, but by the end of it, he was sad enough. The way Al Liya looks at Shen Hao at the dinner table is really the eyes of an old man whose spirit is on the verge of collapse.
Shen Moli added a little tension to Liu He's blank love life. Jasmine painted with red lips and dressed in red is still the projection of desire in Wang Xiaoshuai's films, but this time, it is the protagonist himself who refuses. Qi's performance is as angular as ever, and a few burning eyes give great power to the film.
Besides, mature actors such as Li Jingjing and Jacky are very steady. Among the young actors, Roy's performance is better than Du Jiang's, at least he doesn't play.