——"Kung Fu Dream" film critic
Hanke. Luo
Purely said from the film's point of view, "Kung Fu Dream" is a pretty good movie. Judging from the movies released now, it is one of the few movies that is worthy of the ticket price.
However, the evaluation of a movie should not only be based on the market reaction, or the analysis of well-made and beautiful pictures, but also its content and concept, or whether the movie is likely to leave a name in the history of movies.
If you look at it like this, "Kung Fu Dream" is still waiting for the fire. As a genre film produced by a Hollywood assembly line, the film's hard indicators have basically passed the standard. Individual elements, such as the excellent pictures of the location, the rendering of Chinese market life in the details of the story, and the Chinese philosophy when learning martial arts and enlightenment are all Items that give extra credit to the movie. However, the shortcomings are also shown through these details. The character setting and storyline of the whole movie are very illusory, like a Chinese story imagined by an American sitting at home. In their eyes, Chinese people can do a little bit of hard work, even a property uncle who repairs sewers is a peerless master, even His English is also very professional; Chinese children are tall and mighty, and they are brave and fierce. Under the guidance of strict teachers, they are ruthless to any opponent and must be killed; China's scenic spots are always hidden dragons and crouching tigers, so travel On the top of the mountain like a resort, there will always be some monks who do nothing but practice martial arts.
Of course, this is just a movie. For the sake of drama and selling points, the screenwriters are bound to make some unreasonable assumptions, and this is the usual way in Hollywood. When their protagonists appear, they must be inconspicuous or unlikable little people. People are bullied, or they don’t know what it means; when they are bullied and rise up to resist, there will be a noble person in the plot to help him rise to a height that he has never reached; finally, after a lot of hard work, he finally completed an impossible task. At this time, the protagonist has grown up and gained the long-awaited respect, and the "noble master" has also obtained the sublimation of human nature, and even the villains are often convinced, they will shake hands and make peace, they will be thoughtful, Meeting and laughing away from enmity - of course, if the story wants to have a sequel, there are usually dark shadows flashing in the light tail - for example, the big villain's friend or another minor villain will appear unyielding , or a vicious look at the protagonist, and the whole story ends abruptly.
The success of "Kung Fu Dream" in the United States is a victory imagined by the Americans; and the Chinese also like this movie very much, which is another kind of victory - that is, the obscenity of Chinese culture winning the world. In the movie, China's economy is developing rapidly, foreigners can no longer get along in Detroit, and have to go to Beijing to start a new life; they envy Beijing's high-rise buildings, Beijing's spirit, and even their children are bullied by Chinese children; However, Chinese culture is so gentle and refined, like the little girl in the movie who is not allowed to associate with black children, and the refusal forced by her parents is so decent - and she is also an artistic girl who plays the violin, her parents are sitting in the senior In the car, like all the parents of the upper class, it seems so unattainable; China's victory is also reflected in the enlightenment of learning martial arts. Chinese children are not only physically strong, but also surprisingly successful in karate, and China's ability to overcome rigidity with softness is also the highest purpose of winning in the movie. .
Although the English name of the film is "The Karate Kid", which translates to "The Karate Kid", this is only because the storyline is remade from the 1984 film of the same name. At that time, a Japanese karate master taught American boys, but now it is changed to Chinese The master taught American kids -- and beat Chinese karate practitioners with Chinese Kung Fu in China.
The logic of the Chinese audience is: no matter who wins, it is China's victory - either the Chinese or the Chinese martial arts.
Of course, this movie is not as simple as the storyline of a children's movie. From the perspective of symbolism, it is still a political and economic imaginary reference of some Americans. The U.S. economy is gradually not as good as China’s, at least in terms of development speed and market demand; therefore, new Americans have to come to China to find better opportunities; however, new Americans cannot compete with China’s new forces, even to a certain extent They were oppressed; therefore, the Americans went to find the advantages of Chinese tradition, and through unremitting efforts and concentrated study, they finally used the advantages of Chinese tradition to defeat the powerful new Chinese forces-because they abandoned China's traditional advantages, they lost miserable.
Moreover, at the end of the movie, the defeated boys turned to Jackie Chan's gate - this implication seems to be that China's new power, no matter how beautiful it is now, will inevitably pick up the defeated new power in the future after being defeated by the new foreign power. traditional advantages that they have abandoned.
This is the imagination of the Americans and the obscenity of the Chinese - in fact, this movie is the biggest winner.
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