I am not talented, but because of the endless interest in the Chinese history of the alternation of the Han and Jin dynasties, I have read Chen Shou's Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian of the Three Kingdoms, Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and watched the CCTV version of the Three Kingdoms. Romance countless times, I have listened to Professor Yi's The Complete Works of the Three Kingdoms, and I have played all the Three Kingdoms-themed games of glorious glory. So I can never miss this "masterpiece" of director Wu.
2 hours, the curtain ended, I laughed. I read all the comments about this movie before watching it, so I was mentally prepared, but I still laughed.
To be sure, the film has given a little boost to the Chinese film industry, which is moving in the dark.
First of all, I would like to say that this film is a domestic film made in China. Even if the writers, directors and actors come from three places on the Taiwan Strait, this film has always been branded with the traces of mainland films. So starting from this, the final effect of the whole film inherits all the congenital deficiencies of domestic commercial films.
Why have most of our domestic commercial films in the past ten years failed to achieve the success we imagined one after another, but instead received a flood of bad reviews? What are we missing and what is wrong?
First of all, I think it is the degree of development of the film industry. The level of a commercial film depends on the level of the film industry in the entire country where the producer is located. We have to admit that we are still a weak film country, really weak. Our film industry level is far in the United States, India, Britain, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, Poland, South Korea, Belgium, etc. After that, the number of films produced every year is very limited. Under this premise, we cannot expect our commercial films to achieve any breakthroughs in the world, because it is impossible, the entire foundation is weak, and we cannot expect to spend a lot of money, please Celebrities and Mentoring can achieve the success of a certain film.
To give an inappropriate example, this is like China in modern history. It suffered repeated defeats and lost land and land. It was not because other people's boats and guns were strong. With the Westernization Movement and the number one navy in Asia, it was still the same in the end. bankruptcy. The reason for the failure is very simple. You are not on the same platform as others, and your entire modern civilized social system has not yet been established.
The same is true for Chinese films today. The entire commercial film foundation has not yet been established. The number of domestic films produced every year can be counted. There is only one professional film school in the country (hundreds in the United States, dozens in the United Kingdom, and other powerful countries). More than a dozen studios), the film companies are only talking about the government-run China Film (I don’t need to list foreign companies), there are very few actors with professional quality, there is a scarcity of original scripts, other types of film talents are scarce, and all kinds of film resources are scarce. With such a foundation, we will never be able to make a good commercial film. We cannot put the cart before the horse. Movies can’t be made well just by spending money.
The short-lived brilliance of our literary films in the 1980s and 1990s was due to the accumulation of our previous decades and the eruption after repression. First of all, I am very sure to take the business road, this is an inevitable trend, but the key is how to go. We modern Chinese people like to be quick and quick in doing things, and we start running before we learn to walk. For now, shooting something like Chibi is like a Chinese movie. In reality, it is still too difficult, because there are too many things to control. We should start from simple things, shoot urban, rural, close to life and higher than life. There are several Chinese directors who still do it. very good. Not all countries have filmed The Lord of the Rings, Godfather's. Money, stars, and stunts are superficial. What really determines the quality of a commercial film is a country's film heritage. We are watching a literary film.
Literary and artistic films, small-budget films are easier to control, but in recent years, we have also fallen in this area, and even Iranian literary and artistic films are stronger than us. First of all, we don’t have pure artists. Second, we don’t have a cinema chain for literary films like Europe, Japan, and Taiwan. Third, our shooting subject matter is strongly limited. This makes our literary and artistic films on the verge of death, and a country without good literary and artistic films certainly does not have good commercial films. Film powerhouses will have many independent producers and literary film companies, and the films they produce have influence and respect for mainstream films to a considerable extent. These are still blank in our country.
Back to "Chibi", the first thing is the positioning. After watching it, my biggest experience is that the entire production team has a vague positioning of this film. It should be said that they did not know what their own film was after they finished filming and editing. What, what kind of ups and downs should be accounted for.
Director Wu Da is well-known for a long time, but I have reservations about his other works, except for the Hong Kong-flavored "The True Color of Heroes".
China Film Company asked John Woo to shoot such a special subject, but I really don't understand it. When it comes to historical films from big studios, apart from Hollywood directors, the most famous are two Japanese directors, Akira Kurosawa and Shinji Fukasaku. Unfortunately, both of these two masters passed away, otherwise the chairman of China Film, Mr. Han They should be paid a lot of money to shoot this theme. With the Japanese people's familiarity with the history of the Three Kingdoms, I believe Chinese moviegoers will be satisfied.
It's a pity, I hired a pure-bred Hong Kong-made, half-hearted Hollywood action film director, Mr. Wu, so such a "Chibi" was shown to the national audience.
One of the things I hate the most is that nowadays, domestic directors always have to play the banner of impacting Hollywood or a film festival in Europe before making a film. Regardless of whether you are overbearing or not, the first thing you should do is to satisfy the Chinese audience. The people of the world are satisfied, the Chinese audience doesn't give shit, you still count on the Academy Awards, you think Americans don't understand movies, you really treat foreigners as fools, no matter whether people understand your history or not, at least people are better than you Learn more about what a good movie is.
Considering the so-called North American box office, this movie, which is deeply concerned with the likes and dislikes of the American people, was presented to us under the leadership of Director Wu Da, and we all laughed.
I guess the positioning of this film should be a historical drama that is as popular as possible. Unfortunately, for the reasons I mentioned above, this film has become a nonsensical but not funny costume comedy. We all laughed not because it was really funny. , our laughter is more like a kind of sympathy, a kind of helplessness, a kind of self-entertainment.
But the first ten minutes of the film were really good. To tell the truth, when I watched the first ten minutes, I was really surprised by Director Wu's performance. The smooth and fast-paced narrative was convincing, the use of camera shots, and the scheduling of scenes. The performances of the actors (Cao Cao and Kong Rong in the first five minutes) should be said to be beautiful and wonderful. Unfortunately, as soon as Prime Minister Cao entered the army, I laughed.
First of all, the characters are really speechless. All the characters are cartoon-like. The good and evil are too clear. The military strategist, politician and poet Cao Mengde has become a perverted and pornographic old uncle. Zhang Fei is the dwarf leader in The Lord of the Rings. Zhao Yun He is a knight in the CCTV version of Jin Yong's drama, Guan Yu is a small retired cadre who serves the people wholeheartedly, Liu Bei is a teacher You Yong who forgot to wear a police uniform, Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang's image is too subverted, and I can't find a suitable description.
I think the basic quality of a director is to create characters. I don't know if Director Wu really thinks that way, or is he lacking in ability. The characters in the film are like cartoon characters drawn on paper, and they are powerless. If you really are If you want to spoof or subvert, please do it thoroughly, don't be so half-hearted. But I don't think Director Wu actually wants to subvert. His understanding of all the characters is basically the same as that of elementary school students who have played the game of the Three Kingdoms. In fact, he has not subverted anything. The civil servants and generals in the film are like the half-orc army in the Lord of the Rings. From the image to the style, they are not like humans. The characters of the whole film are like a copycat version of the Lord of the Rings. From this, I can see that Director Wu is indeed limited in his abilities. Of course, I can't blame him. I can't expect a director of a Hong Kong-made action movie to be able to make a character of the Three Kingdoms.
Not talking about characters and history, but some basic narrative methods, Director Wu's performance in this film seems to make people speechless. Disappear from the seat and proofread the flute for the children. You want to show that Zhou Yu understands the rhythm and won't use such a blunt method. This is just a small example. Director Wu Da has been dragging on these unrelated plots throughout the whole story. From this point of view, he wanted to make a joke, but he didn't do it thoroughly. I'm afraid he didn't even know he wanted to shoot. what.
War scenes, soldiers' formation, water battles, I really don't want to talk about it anymore, Director Wu, watch "Shadow Warrior" and "Braveheart", you will be better than now if you make a copy of it, the soldiers you shoot Like construction workers, you shoot generals like foreman.
As for the rest of the film, I don't want to go into details. The only female character in the film that I think is more outstanding is Cao Cao's concubine, which is really on time and feels right. I won't mention the other two.
In short, this film failed, and I say that many people will object because it has a good box office, but I want to say that with the current state of the film market in China, this situation is very common, because China has only one film company and one theater chain. , it dominates the national cinema for a month, and it is strange that the box office is not rich. When I say it's a failure, I judge a movie as good or bad. There are many reasons for the failure, mainly the film industry foundation, followed by the director culture and technical level, actor selection and so on. But we still have to see the positive side. At least it is another exploration. Although it fails, it does help Chinese movies. Of course, this does not mean that the majority of moviegoers will expect a movie like Chibi.
The Chinese film industry, which is advancing in the dark, will continue to explore, but at least I hope it is taking the right path. His primary and main purpose should be to satisfy domestic moviegoers. Please learn from Director Feng in this regard. It's a pity that a director can make one film a year. If China can produce ten films of Director Feng's level a year, the level of China's film industry will also go up.
Personally, I hope that Chinese films will get better and better, and this article inspires them.
At the same time, as the seventh major art, film has been endowed with countless graces, love and expectations. Chinese filmmakers should treat it kindly.
March 19, 2009 with Leiden
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