No matter how John Woo traces "Chibi" back to his childhood obsession with "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", or how he expresses his desire to make a story of the Three Kingdoms after "The True Color of Heroes", the indisputable fact is that, This time, he lost the reputation he has accumulated over the past two decades. As a director who is known for his brotherhood writing, John Woo put the narrative rules of Chinese blockbusters in front of the audience. "Red Cliff" has nothing to do with John Woo's dream. If the story of the Three Kingdoms It was his dream.
If starting from "Heroes", Chinese blockbusters borrowed the past to describe the present, and used the fearless spirit of greatly tampering with history to express the United States' call for world peace after 9/11. Indeed, 9/11 happened in one of the "Heroes" after the filming started. May, had a great influence on "'Hero', Zhang Yimou decided to raise the theme of the film to the height of world peace", Zhang Ziyi's life in the United States, so that "her opinion on this issue is very unique, saying that "Hero" will give the United States The cohesion and inspiration of a national spirit, she said that today's Americans need the myth of heroes", then it should be said that the "core globalization" narrative of "Hero" has indeed achieved a glorious victory, and to a large extent defines Given the grammar of subsequent Chinese blockbusters, "Golden Armor" is not as good at the North American box office as "Hero", whose values are complex and lack universal significance for Americans. In the narrative framework of the Three Kingdoms, the expression of the great unity and the box-office value brought by "Seeing the Dragon and Unarmor" have done a wonderful exercise for the "core globalization" of "Red Cliff" in advance. The creator is gratified that, The film's astonishing simplification of history and the emptiness of its content do not hinder this success. Hollywood's 100-year experience tells us that the film cannot sacrifice the brain cells of the audience, otherwise the cost will be heavy.
As a result, Chinese blockbusters seem to be gradually "getting rid of the limitations of Chinese history." At the same time, they might as well borrow the words of a scholar, "to have a grandiose imagination of the global pattern in the new century, and no longer try to show the 'spectacle' in a globalized China, but It is to explain a new global logic with Chinese-style codes.” In layman’s terms, it means wrapping Western values with Chinese elements. The box-office success of "Kung Fu Panda" and "Kung Fu King" in China is yet another example of this. From "The Ultimate Target" to "Wind Whisperer" in 1993, John Woo, who has experienced peaks and valleys, has used his ten-year Hollywood experience to obtain a consensus with mainland investment to shoot "Chibi" from the very beginning: internationalization. Screenwriter Sheng Heyu said that Wu Yusen's "original intention is absolutely beyond doubt, that is: there are so many good things in China, you can go and see", "Red Cliff" is "absolutely for Westerners to watch".
For this "core globalization", creators including investors have to change history on a large scale, "with some adjustments to the characters", of course, art allows the re-creation of history, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is not also between unofficial history, official history and romance in between? Chen Han, one of the screenwriters of "Chibi", was recruited by John Woo three months before the filming of the film, because as a Hong Kong screenwriter, he is familiar with the Hollywood model. "The first thing we have to do is to simplify history." In short, "Red Cliff", "It was Cao Cao who led the army south to arrest two people, Liu Bei and Sun Quan," and Cao Cao's motivation was Xiao Qiao, "so this structure is already very Hollywood." Indeed. But what is more important is the "core". Chibi is a military example where less wins more. "It depends on the strength of unity. This strength of unity has always been what I have longed for. I think there should be more care between people. It takes a lot of courage and opportunity to overcome all difficulties.” Woo Yusen said: “Depicting ancient wars is not to show that we are a warlike nation, but in fact it is anti-war in the play. I hope to use the past to describe the present.” For example, Zhou Yu, “Use music to convey his spirit of perseverance and decisive battle, hope that war will be fought with war, and hope that there will be a peaceful world like the music world, so that both Eastern and Western audiences can understand it.” Furthermore, "The story of 'Three Kingdoms' should be like the Olympic spirit, unity, perseverance, courage, as well as peaceful competition, the breath of peaceful life, and the true friendship between people." After all, "this drama invested so much , in order to convey a global message, it is necessary to take into account the different feelings of audiences at home and abroad." Anyone who has watched "Red Cliff" knows that "We will fight against Cao Jun together for a common dream" is one of the laughs of the film. As the scholar Dai Jinhua analyzed: Chinese blockbusters are "boring and monotonous because the narrative logic of the film is often a direct copy of the most powerful and mainstream logic in reality, without any questioning or criticism."
With the help of "Chibi", John Woo tried to establish Zhou Yu's dominant position in the battle of Chibi, and made the stressed Zhou "soon sympathize with Zhuge Liang." Needless to say, this concept is very reminiscent of "The True Color of Heroes", when John Woo and Chow Yun-fat were both in a period of depression in their careers, so John Woo wanted Chow Yun-fat to play Zhou Yu at the earliest, which is what he meant. Zhou resigned and replaced Tony Leung. Tony Leung's promise to play the role made John Woo feel more loyal, and John Woo often talked about "Red Cliff". The 'righteousness', the friendship between brothers." Sheng Heyu said. Chen Han said that John Woo's text "if it can succeed, another romance will be born." Unfortunately, it aggressively stepped into the abyss of failure in the context of the "core globalization" of the Chinese blockbuster, and was left empty. The ridicule of Xiabaige and Cao Cao: "What can be the result of a lost person and a failed person together?"
The complex capital structure hidden behind "Chibi" is the root cause of another alternate Wu Yusen text, and everyone who is slightly familiar with it We know that the fact of multiple capital chains determines that "Chibi" is a product of multiple trade-offs and compromises. John Woo is just a hired scene scheduler, and his role will not be much stronger than that of Hollywood directors in the golden age. During the filming of "Chibi", there was news of operational chaos and financial interruption. Think about it, "Cleopatra", which was considered a behemoth at the time, basically died from the narrative imbalance caused by the chaotic capital operation. Of course, "Chibi" will not follow "Chibi" Cleopatra's footsteps, but it has too many things to take care of, yes, in order to cater to the United States, the war scene pursues grandeur and is piled up illogically, and Japan's funds need Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to appear in the battle of Chibi that has nothing to do with them , because the latter is a historical figure that Japanese audiences like, so they are pushed in front of the camera for close-ups without being told that they are actually nonsensical. It must be noted that Zhang Yimou's blockbuster is basically only invested by New Picture Film Co., Ltd., which makes Zhang's blockbuster at least not in the narrative of "Red Cliff". For "Hero", Zhang Yimou may be the author. If the author here means having the right to speak, then the logic of capital is the only author of "Chibi".
The investment of 80 million US dollars is really a big risk. It is more like a test and bet on China's large market. It still highlights the imperfection of this market. The emergence of blockbuster films can only show that more and more capital is pouring into the film industry, but it does not necessarily signify that Chinese films have entered a new era of 'renaissance'." Dai Jinhua said. The apparent prosperity of Chinese blockbusters squeezes out the living space of low-budget films at the same time, which is an unfavorable phenomenon for Chinese films. "When the logic of capital becomes the only logic that dominates the film, and the power of capital becomes an overwhelming force, It is not difficult to find that many blockbuster films do not even seriously tell a story, but focus on setting up audio-visual spectacles or audio-visual hit points, in order to pursue selling points and box office." When Chinese blockbusters are almost the target of public criticism, when "See You" When the dazzling war scenes of "Dragon Shattered Armor" and "Red Cliff" became the narrative subject of the film, it must be said that the logic of capital does indeed show the "cultural and value poverty" of Chinese blockbusters, and "the narrative logic of the entire film has become monotonous and pale." , "The story itself replicates and strengthens the logic of capital", because the expensive visual spectacle has already overtaken the story, yes, in the era of the larger and wider the pursuit of home TV, no one is willing to spend money to go to the theater to watch a movie. A 1.33 scale black and white film, "their choice is actually the choice made by capital for them". Screenwriter Chen Han emphasized: "The audience should see "Chibi" as "Pirates of the Caribbean", it looks excited and happy, don't take it as "The Godfather", that is too strict." The problem is, let alone "Pirates of the Caribbean" "More than commercial, even "The Godfather", its high artistry did not prevent the film from "becoming the highest-grossing film in history, and "Gone with the Wind", which set the record for the most re-screenings after 3 years of release", not to mention, The quality of Pirates of the Caribbean is not comparable to Chibi, which is neither serious nor epic, like a nondescript collection of jokes.
The consequences of capital logic are naturally unavoidable. This seems to be the market operation law of Chinese blockbusters. It shows that Chinese blockbusters know the essence of "attention economics" better than anyone else. It is better to be criticized than no one to pay attention. The advertising effect is thus A theater manager gave a good explanation on this: "It is good for the market to discuss with the whole people." When scolding blockbusters has increasingly become a peculiar phenomenon of movie watching in China, "audiences entering the theater are often not interested in the movie." but to join the ranks of scolding." In Dai Jinhua's view, "this kind of behavior itself is very grotesquely integrated into the advertising chain of capital." The analysis in "American Intellectuals and Popular Culture" is playing out in China: "If you show too much respect for popular culture, you may even invite doubts about your own intellectual credentials." Basically, it's not surprising with some media In the case of saying good things, we participated in this wonderful movie The Battle of Chibi.
Originally published in the International Herald Tribune
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