When you don't try to fool the audience, the audience won't let you down. Ip Man is a very attentive film, and the good intentions of the screenwriter and director can be seen everywhere, so after its release, it also has a good box office of course.
The success of "Ip Man" is that they not only told us a good story (a story of an exciting national hero, presented through various audio-visual means), but also showed us the flesh-and-blood characters ("Fear" Wife's hero and Japanese translator who is not a lackey). They subverted the traditional images of heroes and traitors, making it novel and enjoyable for the audience to watch.
From the story level, the film can be clearly divided into two stages, one is before the Japanese army came, and the other is after the Japanese army invaded. In these two stages, the narrative style and character performance of the film are different.
In the first stage, the tone of the film has always been brighter, the characters are exaggerated and funny (Master Liao's angry face when he went to Sha Danyuan), and the dialogue is sometimes funny and almost childish. This makes the film lighthearted and fun.
At the beginning of the film, we can see the director's good intentions, he tried his best to build us the image of a new good man. Most of the time, Ye Weixin keeps Ye Wen at the edge of the picture, neither arrogant nor deliberately prominent, making people feel calm and gentle. And the use of fixed lenses is often used to shoot, which is in sharp contrast with the film's other main character, Jin Shanpao. Most of Jin Shan Zaw's shots are moving, rising and falling, pushing and pulling rapidly, which undoubtedly shows his irritable and rude character. Moreover, when Ye Wen was in the same picture with some people taller than him, the camera often lowered slightly, which made him a little more humble and tolerant. So far, as a representative of a new good man, Ip Man has started to flash in the hearts of the audience with perseverance. Calm and elegant, as the most powerful boxer in Foshan, he never fights hard, loves his wife and listens to his wife's words, like a spring breeze in April.
Hildfield often said that to write changing characters, let the characters actively make choices rather than passively accept them. Therefore, every detail that Ye Weixin set up in front is meaningful.
At the beginning of the film, when Ye Wen and Master Liao were fighting, Master Liao was beaten to the ground, and Ye Wen suddenly punched him, but they all hit him in the air. Then the two flicked their shirts and parted with a smile on their faces. And when Master Liao was killed by Sato, Ye Wen stood up and challenged ten Japanese martial artists. Ye Wen used the same style of play, but his moves were full of murderous intentions, and every punch was full of Ye Wen's actions. The anger of a Chinese against the invaders.
In the competition between Ye Wen and Jin Shan Claw, the two weapons that Ye Wen chose were completely irrelevant to bloodshed and tyranny. For the first time at Ye Wen's house, he picked up the feather duster in the vase. As a result, their competition was also high school with the golden claws holding a big knife aimed at Ye Wen's head, and Ye Wen used a duster against his armpit uniform, which was full of jokes. It is also full of the taste of life, making Ye Wen's image more plump and lovable. The second time was a long bamboo pole, still an ineffective weapon. At the end of the film, before Ip Man competes with the Japanese generals, Ip Man gives an explanation of martial arts through a voiceover. The core of martial arts is benevolence, pushing oneself and others. The Japanese occupy the rivers and mountains of the people and slaughter the people. They are not worthy of learning Chinese martial arts. Therefore, the film can actually be divided into paragraphs unrelated to Japanese and paragraphs related to Japanese.
In this second stage, the director used low-saturation photography, which was often close to black and white, making the whole picture appear dilapidated and desolate, which coincided with the situation in Foshan at this time. Before the fall, no matter how everyone fought and quarreled, it was their own business, and it could be deconstructed with a kind of exaggeration that was almost laughable, but the relationship with the invaders was indeed a confrontation with clear barriers and no room for the slightest ambiguity. Ye Weixin's director is very sophisticated.
The second character highlighted in the film is Li Zhao. Li Zhao's identity is a traitor. In the past, this was an identity that was not intended to be criticized and vilified in the film. But in Ye Wenzhong, Li Zhao was shaped in the direction of a person. "I also have a family to support, I'm not a lackey!" Even at the end, Ye Wen and Sanyuan won the competition, and Li Zhao, who was so excited, shouted "I'm a Chinese".
At the beginning, Li Zhao was a gangster policeman who liked to shake his mighty face in front of the neighbors. But it is definitely not a bully policeman in the traditional sense. He was humiliated by Ye Wen grabbing a gun in the restaurant, and then Ye Wen competed with Jin Shan Claw, and he hurried to maintain order. "Striving for our Foshan people." At this time, he was just a Foshan native who was strong with everyone. So the audience will never hate him, only helpless and knowing smile.
And even after he became a traitor to the Japanese, we still wouldn't hate him. He asked the Chinese to compete with Japan, and he also weighed the value of a bag of rice for them. In order to prevent Ye Wen from being murdered, he hid him at home, but he was beaten by Sato because he claimed that he could not find Ye Wen. And when he limped home with a pile of things, the first thing he thought was to give food to his family. The disabled brother, the young sister, the old mother, at this time we remembered his words, "I also have a family to support, I am not a traitor." We will immediately forgive him, forgive him for his helplessness in order to survive, and further have a strong impact on him. recognition.
Moreover, in the film, Li Zhao concealed many radical dialogues for Ye Wen in order to protect Ye Wen while translating. When Ye Wen rushed out to protect the factory and offended San Yuan, he said, I will not teach you kung fu even if I die, but Li Zhao translated it, Ye Wen said that he would consider becoming a teacher. The difference between Ip Man's words and Li Zhao's translation forms a strong dramatic tension and is gripping. It also made everyone's recognition of Li Zhao further.
In fact, when we watch the whole film, we will find that there is no hateful Chinese in the whole film. Even if it is the golden claws who have become bandits and robbed everywhere, and the master Liao who loves face and refuses to admit defeat, we can absorb their mistakes as our own people's little disputes and jokes, but we will not hate any of them from the bottom of our hearts. . This is also a brilliant part of Ye Weixin’s narrative. We put all our feelings on one side. At the end of Ye Wen and San Yuan’s competition, we will identify with Ye Wen more and the Chinese represented by Ye Wen, so we can’t wait to hope that Ye Wen Victory. represent our victory.
And Ye Weixin also complied with the people's heart and gave the audience a Hollywood-style happy ending. A good man will be rewarded, and a good man will never die. In fact, my least favorite scene in this drama is the end. Why do I feel that this ending is grafted, so many Japanese soldiers with live ammunition, such a vicious Sato, Ye Wen almost had to die. The first time I saw it, Ip Man was shot in the shoulder, slowly fell down, upgraded to slow motion, and then raised the camera to music and shot the sky straight. I cried a lot at the time, thinking about how a commercial film would end like this now, and before I even finished crying, I watched Ip Man being held in his arms by Xiong Dailin and rushing to Hong Kong.
I don't know how powerful the audience's mind is. Maybe there will be legends in the world. The real Master Ip Man has indeed started his own business in Hong Kong and compensated for the last world-famous Bruce Lee. But this ending is really embarrassing, I don't know if it is a big concession that Ye Weixin made to the audience.
The people filming are serious, and the people watching the show are the most affectionate.
Clearly, I was distracted and divided in this review. I'm embarrassed myself after writing this whole bunch of junk.
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