Korean Movie + Zombie Fighting
Virus theme + theater opening
Yoo Ah In + Park Shin Hye
......
Occupy the "Timer Time" of the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's emergency support policy for the film industry, the "Location" that the Korea Film Promotion Committee issued 1.33 million 6,000 won movie coupons to stimulate the market, and the success of "Train to Busan" and "Kingdom" Afterwards, local and overseas audiences were full of expectations for this type of movie, "Human", but "Alive" abruptly played a good hand to the ground.
Although "Alive" has created a series of theater attendance records during the epidemic: the number of viewers on the first day exceeded 200,000, the number of viewers on the next day exceeded 150,000, and it successfully exceeded the million mark in 5 days, setting a new crown epidemic in South Korea in February. The highest record since the highest level; before the release of "Peninsula" starring Jiang Dongyuan, it accounted for more than 80% of the box office, and successfully counterattacked "Pure White" to the top of the number of viewers and the number of screens.
However, corresponding to the high attendance rate, the reputation of movie watching has been declining all the way.
"Alive" is Zhao Yiheng's first independent directorial debut. Previously, in the American films "August Burning Ash", "Lower Man" and some more familiar Korean films "Suspect", "The Crying Man", "So Beautiful" and other works, He has served as co-writer, co-producer and assistant director, covering the range of action, romance, crime, comedy, thriller and even R-rated movies.
It can be said that director Zhao Yiheng is an experienced person who mixes movie genres.
In "Alive", the one-man drama in which the hero struggles to survive, the disaster group scene shot from a distance, and the romantic atmosphere of the hero and heroine looking at the building from afar, are enough to show the director's ability to capture grand scenes and emotional details.
However, the film's sense of fragmentation and distortion far outweighs its merits.
one. Empty Character Motivation: Why Live
For Junyu, the male protagonist played by Liu Yaren, the film has created a happy family for him. His father is quite literate (there are many paintings in the house as decoration), and his salary is acceptable (the apartment is large and Junyu has game equipment. It is also quite eye-catching), the mother's temperament (love hugs in Junyu's imagination), the housekeeping (the house is clean and tidy, and leaves a note and envelope for the son when going out), and a cheerful sister, is the standard happiness. Hele's middle-class family setting.
And Junyu himself is not a "depressed" fat house. With faded silver hair, a positive tone, and a way of survival that can entertain himself, he persisted in isolation until the 15th day. Until he was tempted to eat the "Last Supper" by an advertisement, heard the call for help from a family whose life and death were unknown on the phone, and watched the whole city explode and cool in silence, he put on the center of the living room that he wanted to end his life. rope.
Junyu, who learned of the disaster through game chat, walked to the apartment window. Among the panicked and chaotic fleeing crowd, he found a woman standing on the steps looking around - she was holding a knife, but her worried expression overshadowed her fear, her hair was loose, and her standing posture revealed determination.
She rushed down the stairs and hugged her daughter in the disaster. The girl's violent convulsions only tightened her mother's arms, and the mutant bite did not make the blade in her hand fall.
Seeing this scene, Junyu fell to the ground. At that time, he was only amazed at the horrific scene. Later, when he finally got through to his mother's phone, he realized that the grief was greater than the despair of death.
"Be sure to live" is the signal from his father to Junyu, and it is also the only voice that can evoke the hope of life in the hell of death.
For the heroine of the story, Jin Youbin, it seems that "alive" is related to the plant that shares drinking water. The director obviously hopes to enrich her tenacity and kindness with this feature - but during the viewing of the movie, Xiao Hua has always been there. Such a question: Does this plant really need that much water?
The Korean female "Bei Ye" who can make traps, shading tents, hoard food, survive in the wilderness, and even fight at close range, more often only exists as a tool for the hero's life.
It appeared to prevent the hero from committing suicide, and the communication was to help the hero build hope. When he broke through the siege downstairs, he got the hero's secondary attack. When he was in distress on the eighth floor, he also got out of the predicament alone and the hero reached the last minute rescue. rooftop.
When the audience thought she was omnipotent, Jin Youbin was knocked into a coma, giving the male protagonist a chance to "save the beauty" from a distance;
When the audience thought that her fighting value had dropped, Kim Yoobin jumped out of the apartment again, decisively defeating her memory of being afraid of heights due to her injury. (At that time, the expression of Xiaohua is also shown in the picture)
These forced plots for the heroine, which seem to be climaxing, actually weaken her sense of humanity and presence under the theme of "alive". Just like that plant that is constantly being watered is crying out for its owner: Stop it, director!
two. Unbalanced Narrative Rhythm: How to Live
In addition to the imbalance of the functions of the two protagonists, the director also chose to replace the "adventure" world vision with a "lonely" personal perspective, so that the one-man show of the little people in the closed space occupies half of the description of the disaster. In this one-act stage-like performance, Yoo Ah-in contributed charm beyond the overall quality of the film.
The film starts from the main character Junyu's apartment bedroom, a computer that is on standby 24 hours a day, a room where the curtains are tightened to see the sun, and an alarm clock to wake up in the morning. The first thing to open your eyes is to call your mother and the first thing after washing Things are opening the fridge, gaming instead of breakfast, connecting to friends online...
Just like Junyu's upward smile at the vanity mirror, senior gamers and contemporary young people are struggling to maintain the "up" attitude in the "mourning" atmosphere.
After Junyu survived alone for 15 days, he turned on the music and danced around the house with his wireless headphones, seemingly routinely. The only window in the bedroom was shimmering with dusty light in the backlight. He was slightly stooped. The back is no longer as strong as the limbs, the dry and slightly parted lips reveal a bewildered heart, and the frantic shaking of the head is more like a soulless clockwork puppet.
When Junyu rotates to the door that looks like a single-person cell, the green fog in the bedroom and the red refracted by the tape in the living room create a blurred space. In this dreamy atmosphere, Junyu "reunites" with his family whose lives and deaths are unknown outside the apartment.
Youbin stopped Junyu who gave up hope. Junyu also accidentally rescued Youbin who had tied the ropes. The moment he was looking for death, he also found the same kind for survival, and he also helped himself to break through the exit on the day of helping others. This rather moving picture was downplayed by the director with one shot, which discounted the supposedly profound relationship between the two protagonists.
Also forced to open are four action scenes in "Rampant" that are ten times weaker than "Train to Busan". Liu Yaren's two survivals alone and the joint escape after joining Park Shin Hye showed a lack of cleverness and distortion. No matter the actor's moving line design or counterattack skills were not well presented, the director's ability to dispatch large scenes Obviously not confident.
On the other hand, Jun Yu, played by Liu Yaren, as an otaku with almost zero combat skills, has to face the unknown external environment alone with a timid and shrinking attitude, holding his breath, clenching his teeth, stepping on his feet, picking up his fingers that fell off the ground, stiff fingers, The single-player scene of groping in the dark with a subjective and objective switch, such a detailed personal close-up can better set off the terrifying atmosphere.
three. Awkward Lyrical Ritual: What Are You Living For?
I don't know if it is because of the co-creation with foreign screenwriters, "Alive" did not grasp the warm sensational ability of Korean film and television works.
For example, the originally estranged father-daughter relationship in "Train to Busan" is gradually reflected as a sacrifice willing to exchange his life; for example, in "Kingdom", the prince is facing his father and emperor who are already bloody, but his childhood father's gentle and loving kindness emerges in front of his eyes. looks like. The daughter wants to live for the father, and the son wants to live for the country. This is the most sympathetic tear of the audience.
In the bridge segment that highlights the "friendship" between the hero and heroine, the director uses a split screen to show that they cook ramen differently at the same time. The mutually exclusive dialogue and consistent actions sublimate their tacit understanding in the light comedy, but this rich family The "ceremony" of the taste has always lacked a little warmth and sentiment that enhances the theme of "survive", so the friendship they are about to entrust their life to is not so logical.
In the last half hour of the film, the director set up a villain for the hero and heroine's survival: another survivor who unexpectedly appeared on the 8th floor, this tool man also quickly exhausted his functions as expected. Although he has a more steadfast living goal than both male and female protagonists - to keep his zombie-like wife from starving - his speed and deliberate way of taking the lunch still makes this sensational plot collapse. .
We want to live with plants, but human beings are more fragile than rhizomes; we believe that technology changes our lives, but wireless earphones are not as good as wired ones. A fluke is not just an idea, it's also stealing the Last Supper. Living is not only a note, but also overcomes the shortcomings of fear of heights. Telescopes can only observe the environment, but cannot detect the dangers of people's hearts.
In general, the story of "Alive" has expressive ambition and lacks narrative power; the scene has a majestic momentum, little control and scheduling. Xiaohua recommends Liu Yaren's heavy fans to watch.
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