Among the criticisms of "Coming Home", the most common is that it deliberately pulled away from the background of the times, did not dare to face history directly, and relieved social pain with little love. The love between Feng Wanyu and Lu Yanzhi is steadfast, and the two are infatuated enough. This is imposed on the character from the beginning by the creator, and the character becomes a symbol for executing orders. However, they did not change until the end, nor did they expand their relationship with the characters. The most popular love scenes have to go from love at first sight to twists and turns. In order for the audience to resonate with the characters' encounters, empathy can only be achieved with a sense of identity. However, "Coming Home" bluntly explained this setting to the audience at the beginning, and whether you accept it or not, they will start crying.
I don't know when Zhang Yimou was so keen to make the audience cry. "Coming Home" is reminiscent of another mainland director Feng Xiaogang in dealing with sensationalism , such as his "1942" or "July 28th Tangshan earthquake" . The sensational way of "Coming Home" is very similar to that of "July 28th Tangshan earthquake" and so on, both of which are sensational with bitter feelings. With each sentimental music, the retro push camera gradually draws closer to the sad face of the character. In the atmosphere of tears and sadness, the audience should cry.
Sensation is not a bad thing, as long as it is good, the audience will also buy it. It's just that the sensational way of "Coming Home" is really not advanced, and it is always the same tricks repeatedly, relying on the suffering of the characters to arouse the sympathy of the audience. As everyone knows, good sensationalism should be moved by resonance, and sadness and tears should be caused by being moved. And a film does not even have a few main characters portrayed, instead of enriching the role through the plot, it can only rely on the actor's own cultivation to enhance himself. Crying may be followed by crying, but it's hard to talk about being moved.
If you measure "Coming Home" by the standard of popular drama, you will find that it is far from reaching the standard. "Coming Home" does have the basic elements of a popular drama: a pair of lovers in love, a strong resistance, a feeling that has always stood the test and has been in love with each other. Such a setting is indeed a popular drama. However, "Coming Home" is not so "popular" compared to classic popular dramas.
Following the conventions of popular dramas, their stories will have more twists and turns, more hardships, constant accumulation of emotions, and greater emotional outbursts. Although it is clichéd, it is indeed very practical, and it is easier for the audience to buy it and be moved by it. In terms of plot capacity alone, "Coming Home" is not full. The whole film is very small and simple. There are few incidents and it is repeated all the time. It's like recognizing each other, picking up stations, and reading letters. This kind of constant repetition didn't give much impetus to the plot and character changes. The film doesn't have much thrilling and touching pop drama style. Among them, only the first scene of the pick-up scene was brought out by the drama conflict. The four groups were all running and cross-edited together to create a sense of tension. This is a scene that makes people feel very dramatic. Most of the time, you can see that the creator is working hard to convey the love between the two, but it is always superficial.
"Coming Home" is not a bad film, nor is it Zhang Yimou's worst work, but it is far from talking about "Coming Home". (
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