Tiny Times is famous, and the good and bad views around Tiny Times seem to be tit for tat.
An important reason for people who say that movies are not good is that they are not critical enough, and even rise to the level of backward values. People who say that movies are successful, such as Jing M.Guo fans, think that movies cater to their tastes and the box office is very successful.
In fact, the two views are not necessarily tit for tat. If we admit that culture should be pluralistic, then the artistic form of movies should also be pluralistic. It can be said that Tiny Times is not critical enough, but at least there is no naked preaching. A movie will certainly embody some values, but it cannot be easily judged by some values unless it goes beyond the bottom line. In this age of spiritual confusion and difficulty in integration, Tiny Times is a reflection of reality, and it is difficult to judge by right or wrong.
Similarly, the box office success of Tiny Times can't explain how good the film is. On the contrary, as a genre film and a fan film, it has too many shortcomings, so we should learn from similar films. This movie is far from the similar movies in Hollywood. More importantly, it doesn't even follow some basic success routines. Next, I will talk about "criticism" and critical realism in Tiny Times in detail.
Critical realism is a term of literary criticism, which originally refers to works that criticize reality, but does not point out how to change reality. According to this standard, it seems that many literary and artistic works can be labeled as critical realism. But if so, "criticism" is too easy. Critical realism originally came from literary theory, so I took it from literary theory.
Liberal literature can be divided into dystopia and critical realism. Dystopian literature rejects the macroscopic construction of holism, believing that it will eventually make people lose their freedom. Critical realism directly criticizes the reality of illiberality and involves the anatomy of the system that causes illiberality. Dystopian literary works present problems, and criticize realistic literary works for pointing to the deep-seated reasons of the problems.
The vast majority of mainland works can only be said to have reached the dystopian level. For example, andrew chow, who criticized Tiny Times, said that Xiaogang Feng's personal tailor was good because it was critical. As we all know, Wang Shuo's early novels, the screenplay for Xiaogang Feng and even the presentation of films are all representatives of dystopian literary works, and they are really only a few steps away from the so-called criticism.
It can be made clear here that there is no basis for judging a film by so-called "criticism" under the overall literary and artistic environment in the Mainland. Let Xiao Dai play such a role, and watching movies is really high.
Jing M.Guo, a famous writer, directed Tiny Times, which opened the era of China's adaptation of bad films. Since then, I don't know how many well-known IP-adapted film and television works have taken to the streets again and again, which seems to be unconsciously continuing this tradition. To say how bad Tiny Times is, let's simply say it from three aspects.
One is acting. Is there any acting in it? Let's not talk about this, but Guo Caijie is actually not bad, which is the best performance. The fact is, from the beginning of this film, she was gradually known by mainlanders.
Second, the theme concept, in fact, this is nothing to spray. After all, it is a fan movie. Many people spray this film with three incorrect views, which is really incorrect. But if you have read the original novel, you can understand that director Jing M. Guo only perfectly expressed the values in the original novel in the film, but I think director Jing M. Guo still failed. He wants to show the complexity of society and the sinister heart. Although it is a controversial topic, he obviously has no such life experience.
Third, the story. Although it is a fan movie, fans can't see the inexplicable daily life of several female hosts. At least, they can eat snacks, develop several movie storylines, and even satisfy the audience with several dog blood plots. But there is nothing. Only director Jing M. Guo inexplicably expressed his understanding of friendship, and m-girls sang Auld Lang Syne together. If you say that's his face.
But aside from all this, I personally think Tiny Times is a bad movie in the public sense, but it is really a good movie for fans. At least for the fans of childhood, talking is better than nothing. Personally, as a fan of Band Four, although I think the movie sucks, it at least satisfies my desire for IP movies. You can say it's a bad movie, but you can't say that all the people watching this movie are idiots, radish and cabbage, and everyone has their own hobbies. Respecting everyone's hobbies is also the most basic quality.
The most intuitive advantage of the small era is that it provides a large number of exquisite and eye-catching handsome men and women. Some people may think it's great. Who doesn't pile up handsome men and beautiful women? But in fact, there is really no domestic film and television drama that can achieve this exquisite and eye-catching level. Even domestic youth idol dramas and idol movies are almost blank types lacking excellent works. The domestic film and television industry has not been very good at making idol films and youth films, either boring or full of rigid main melody sermons, or imitating the oriental fashion sense, or making a fuss without heart and brain. Hunan Satellite TV's wonderful TV series Meteor Shower is the most vivid embodiment of this phenomenon. Jing M.Guo's Tiny Times is undoubtedly a textbook-level work on how to make an idol movie. Obviously, Jing M. Guo knows that few handsome men in China can really show exquisite fashion beauty, and clothing, makeup and hairstyle should also truly reflect the exquisite taste of fashion, and there should be no sense of shanzhai. Beautiful women should have their own characteristics, and handsome men should be unforgettable. They should also be accompanied by slow-motion appearances and pictures of various bare muscles to enhance the audience's impression. Of course, beauty is only the basic condition, and it must be beautiful enough to fit the identity and personality of the role, which is a great test for the director's vision of choosing actors and the skill of directing actors' performances. Jing M.Guo did a good job. Take the handsome guy in the film as an example. They are not only handsome, but also handsome. Gu Yuan is rebellious and stubborn, Gong Ming is mature and steady, and Zhou Chongguang is cynical and naive. The fact that the handsome guys in the film can arouse such a wide and enthusiastic response from the audience itself shows the great success of this film as an idol film and a commercial film.
Jing M.Guo's well-conceived, mature and steady, excellent director style is also commendable. The narrative of the whole film is smooth, the characters are vivid and lively, and the jokes are one after another. No scene will make people feel bored, and the long shots that are often used are also very stable and smooth, and the design is exquisite, which is very rare for a cross-border newcomer director. Although there are many handsome men and beautiful women in the film, Jing M. Guo did not make the love triangle common in domestic film and television dramas conspicuous and create contradictions. Instead, he left the emotional pointer firmly on friendship and the main line of narrative on Lin Xiao's career struggle. The love drama is only subordinate to the friendship and career struggle of the four sisters, and has never usurped the role of the host, so that the female friendship has enough scenes to show all kinds of warm, interesting and touching fresh energy. When the four sisters drown their sorrows in wine and revel on Christmas Eve, when Nanxiang stands on the stage of the show and expresses her gratitude to the sisters, I believe that most female audiences will be moved and feel "I wish I had such sisters".
In addition, the film is not "showing off wealth" as some critics say, and it is not "morbid". Jing M.Guo's views on matter and the relationship between matter and emotion in his films are realistic and eclectic. Passion for material things and love for famous brands is one of the pursuits of people in this material age, and there is nothing wrong with it. Jing M.Guo just showed it normally in the film, without being too materialistic and showing off his wealth, or even emphasizing the life of getting something for nothing and partying. On the contrary, both the rich second generation Gu Li and ordinary people Lin Xiao and Nanxiang are working hard to find opportunities, show their abilities and create their own "small times". They even expressed a certain degree of contempt for Gu Yuan. Gu Yuan was given hundreds of thousands of credit cards by his family through Guli's mouth, which is absolutely positive and inspirational. Give another small example to show that movies are not about showing off wealth. Lin Xiao broke Gong Ming's cup, but when he bought it, he found it was too expensive to buy. If it is to show off wealth, it will definitely emphasize this amazing price to "show off", but the film deliberately avoids the price figures to keep a low profile. Obviously, Jing M.Guo is very measured about what scale to use to represent the material in the film.
What I find most commendable about Jing M.Guo's directing technique is that he gives the film a comic tone, so that the plot is always wrapped in excellent fun and joy, and the audience unconsciously smiles when watching the movie. Some people criticize this film for being distorted, false and artificial, precisely because they don't understand the comedy style of this film. Jing M.Guo doesn't want to tell this story in a realistic way, which may be too cruel and boring. It is expressed by romantic, dreamy and childlike cartoons. Isn't the handsome guy in the movie like coming out of a comic book? Isn't Gong Ming's stiff appearance like a robot and all kinds of strange quirks a typical cartoon character style? There are some funny little details in the film, and the expression is completely comic. When Lin Xiao found that the representative sent by the school to talk about the fashion show was Gu Li, the camera paused here for a few seconds, only the squeak of workers cleaning the glass outside the window. If you want to add a black line to Lin Xiao's head and draw a crow flying by, it will be a cartoon. And when Zhou Chongguang politely asked Lin Xiao if he ate ice cream, and then put a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth, Lin Xiao popped up a word "eat" in his mouth, which was an awkward pause, and the sense of joy was completely comic. This kind of joy is rare in domestic commercial films, which is also the reason why the film can make young viewers laugh in the cinema.
Finally, talk about the voice-over and lines of the film. Some people say that the voice-over of the film makes the plot appear fragmented and fragmented. I didn't feel this way when I watched the movie, and is there any inevitable connection between the voiceover and the fragmentation of the plot? "Beijing meets Seattle" and "To Youth" have no voice-over. Isn't the plot still fragmented? Isn't Jing M. Guo Weimei's voice-over much better than the boring voice-over and crosstalk subtitles of some domestic blockbusters? Moreover, these beautiful voiceovers and lines in the film also have feelings and thoughts worth remembering. Let's listen to Zhou Chongguang's impromptu speech on the stage. "We live in a vast universe, with cosmic dust and galactic light dust floating all over the sky, and we are even smaller than these. You don't know when life suddenly changed direction and fell into the darkness as thick as ink. You were dragged into the abyss by disappointment, you were dragged into the grave by illness, you were trampled to pieces by setbacks, you were laughed at, satirized, hated, resented and abandoned, but we always kept hope in our hearts, a beating heart that was unwilling to give up. We are still working hard in great despair. This feeling of not wanting to give up, they became little stars with boundless darkness. We are all small stars. "
Isn't this the most gorgeous and simple inspirational declaration of our time? Praise the little age! Praise Jing M.Guo!