Finished watching The Golden Armor.
I believe that people who have seen this film can't help but compare this film with the famous domestic bad film "The Banquet" that was staged before. Yes, as the two most eye-catching domestic films in 2006, they are constantly changing between each other. Under the premise of dismantling the stage and escalating the war of words again and again, there are many jaw-dropping coincidences in the content of the film. For example, the films all take place in the imperial palace under the historical background. There is a wily king, a scheming queen, a poor prince who was teased by the two of them, and a maid who had an ambiguous relationship with the prince but could not end well. , the climax of the story takes place at dinner, and the entire film sucks astonishingly, etc. But I think many people will think "The Golden Armor" is better than "The Banquet" because the former has one more prince than the latter. As for the comparative comments of the relevant characters of the two films, I think there will be online soon, and you can refer to it at that time. I will only complain about the "Golden Armor".
The first thing to review is that I have a very bad habit, that is, whenever a new film is shown, I always hesitate whether it is necessary to spend this unjustly expensive money to go to the theater, so I download a gun version of the handle first. The quality is off, and I think it's not bad before going to the theater. The advantage of this is to ensure that my coins can be heard even if they are hit in water, instead of throwing them into the cesspool and splattering all over. The disadvantage is that every time I watch it, I can hear it. After reading the content, no matter how good or bad the film is, there is no interest in going to the theater. This is very contradictory. I finally thought of a good way to get the best of both worlds, that is, before watching the gun version, turn off the lights, and then adjust the sound to "cinema mode", just like watching in the theater. ,Ok.
As I mentioned above, I was often complacent about being a little clever like this, and it wasn't until I watched "Golden Armor" that I realized I wasn't humble enough. Perhaps Director Zhang also realized that for him, good actors and production teams come and go, and what is really hard to find is a good script. But such a thing as a script is not like a diploma. He can be met but cannot be obtained, and it cannot be bought with a little money. what to do? Of course, this is not a problem for Director Zhang, who is good at using his brains. Shakespeare, Guan Hanqing, Cao Yu, dramatists from ancient and modern China and abroad, how many masterpieces have they left us? Aren't these so-called masterpieces just for us to spoil? Since "The Banquet" dares to claim to be the Chinese version of "Hamlet", then my "Golden Armor" should be advertised as a modern version of "Thunderstorm". In the near future, and local things will be more easily accepted by the Chinese audience, and it will be easier to achieve success. But Director Zhang just forgot that the adaptation of a famous book is not a copy of a famous book after all. If there is nothing new, can we just read the original book directly? Who would want to pay to watch movies that are so nondescriptly adapted that they know the ending at the beginning? In the film, Chow Yun-fat has a line to Jiang Chan's mother: "Twenty-five years, I thought I would never see you again..." The two words I almost blurted out at the time: "Shiping." Just imagine, if Even the lines have to be copied from famous books, so what surprises can we expect from him? Anyone who has graduated from high school knows that there is an excerpt from "Thunderstorm" in the high school textbook. It says that Lu Shiping's eldest son was brought up by Zhou Puyuan, so that he didn't know his mother when he saw his mother. ", it is logical to think: This woman must be the biological mother of the prince, so that the suspense in the second half of the film is no longer "What does this woman have to do with the prince?" It becomes "When will the prince be Do you know that she is your biological mother?" As a "mysterious woman" who was not even mentioned in the first half of the course, her identity was discovered only in her second appearance, which must be said to be a major failure of the film's plot design. Frankly speaking, I don't expect Director Zhang to reach Hitchcock's level all of a sudden, but at least professionalism should be there. As one of the gold medal directors in China, this accomplishment is really embarrassing. But having said that, with this failure, it is not surprising that the prince later found out that the woman he had had a relationship with for a long time was actually his own sister, and the original work was reproduced. Looking at the whole film, it is like reviewing the high school texts, except for a little intimacy.
The second sin is the tragic complex. I do not deny that, compared with comedy, tragedy is more likely to arouse the audience's sympathy and sympathy. However, the so-called tragedy must kill all the characters to be considered complete? On this point, "Golden Armor" and "Night Banquet" once again reached a consensus. The result is that it is far-fetched and far-fetched. The ending that could have left some hope must also be strangled. It's like they were the executioners. In fact, there are many ways to move people, and the carnage-like ending is the most clumsy (suddenly reminded of "The Shawshank Redemption").
Sin three, exhibitionism. Although Director Zhang's pursuit of beauty is recognized by everyone, especially beauties, is it necessary to deliberately dress up so revealing in a costume tragedy? Not only that, but in "Golden Armor", he even used too many lenses to close-up the upper bodies of several actresses. I really don't know whether Director Zhang wants the audience to watch the movie or watch the people, especially unacceptable. Yes, Gong Li has a shot that is actually exposed! Could this be what Director Zhang called "internationalization"?
Sin four, Oscar complex. Looking at it now, the success of Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" at the Oscars is really a thing that does more harm than good. He seems to have given the director of the mainland a wrong signal, that is, only the nation belongs to the world. Conversely, what the world accepts is only our own local things, so from "Hero" to "House of Flying Daggers", to In the later "Promise" (vomited again), Feng Dao, who professed that he would never make costume films, couldn't hold it in any longer. He disarmed and surrendered under the temptation of Oscar. No style, nondescript film. However, I personally thought that such a film would not win an Oscar. The reason is very simple. The successful model of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" cannot be replicated. For example, a person eats big fish and meat every day, and it will be very refreshing to eat wotou pickles once in a while, but once he is asked to eat only wotou pickles in the future, I am afraid it will be difficult to accept. The reason why it is a blockbuster in foreign countries is that it brings something unprecedented to Americans, which makes Americans feel very fresh, and the shortcomings of this film are caused by this strong sense of freshness. Covered up, but once the same film is presented in front of you, the freshness will be gone, but without the freshness, what will be left of these films that cannot even please the Chinese audience? As the saying goes, if you don't sweep a house, how can you sweep the world? The result of the Handan toddler can only be to throw away even the original things, make use of strengths and avoid weaknesses, and find ways to make breakthroughs on the basis of retaining their original style, which is the right way. (What I am most worried about now is: Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" succeeded again at the Oscars...)
Chinese movies are indeed struggling a bit now, and the most typical phenomenon is that they are scolded as soon as they come out. So much so that some directors complain that the Chinese audience is not tolerant enough, and worry that it will be very unfavorable for the development of Chinese films in the long run. In fact, this contradiction is easy to solve, as long as the director can recognize who he is, it will be fine.
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