"The Wandering Earth" is a milestone in Chinese science fiction. Since then, Chinese science fiction has risen, and the first year of Chinese science fiction has set off..." and other gorgeous words, Da Cong will not repeat them here.
There is no doubt that "The Wandering Earth" , which continues to heat up in the Spring Festival this year , has wrapped up too many expectations of the Chinese people.
It is meaningless to talk about whether "The Wandering Earth" is worth watching. Such a phenomenon-level domestic film will have various perspectives and comments, and it will also be decomposed into reference-level analysis at various levels.
But no matter how it is deconstructed, Da Cong still believes that "The Wandering Earth" is another new level of the domestic film industry level this year and even since the development of Chinese films. Even if this film can see occasional detours and trial and error, I still hope The film sells well, which can give Chinese science fiction the beginning of a virtuous circle.
Because of more support, we can see more domestic sci-fi movies like "The Wandering Earth", and we can see more types of domestic film industry-level movies (this is not a moral kidnapping, but our own point of view) .
Chinese movies have never been short of good stories, and there are also good films that are well-known both inside and outside. These films have been distributed in Farewell My Concubine, Red Sorghum, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, etc., and have been recognized internationally.
Therefore, we narrowed down the layout and took stock of "The Wandering Earth" from the perspective of a commercial blockbuster, so that the reviews would be more accurate.
In 2015, directors such as Guo Fanninghao participated in the "Study Abroad Program" initiated by the Film Bureau and went to Hollywood to study. After returning to China, they decided to start a new journey in the domestic film industry. It can be said that this is a national project with strong national support for the domestic film industry.
For a movie, the best way to bring out the film industry level is the sci-fi type of movies, so at that time, hard sci-fi projects such as "The Wandering Earth" began to be put into the execution process.
1. The ambition and philosophy of The Wandering Earth.
If you want to make a movie like "The Wandering Earth", if you want to make it well, the picture effect is consistent with the current audience's psychological expectations. It cannot be solved with money, because what "The Wandering Earth" has to do is not the special effects that reach Hollywood level. So simple, but to make a science fiction movie with Chinese thinking concept.
Such core thinking requirements must start from 0, because Hollywood does not have them, and the Hollywood film industry will not tell us how to make a Chinese-style sci-fi movie.
Director Guo Fan said in the interview that the core of Hollywood's commercial films is that a hero saves the world. If it is copied, it will make "The Wandering Earth" feel strange.
As the background of such a huge event as "The Wandering Earth", if a Chinese person (a hero) is used to save the world, we will feel strange, this is not due to the inferiority of the nation, but the long-term viewing habits caused by the first come and then come, Like if you saw in the film that a Japanese person saves the earth, an Indian person saves the earth, and a Korean person saves the earth, you will feel strange.
So I think "The Wandering Earth" deals with the issue of who saves the earth is very interesting.
"The Wandering Earth" does not create individual heroes, but puts saving the earth under the premise of human beings. It only tells the pattern of storytelling, and puts it from the perspective of the Chinese people. Coupled with the reality of China's aerospace industry, it is indeed in the world. The above is one of the best, and the reality of the national conditions also adds a lot to the film's sense of substitution.
The film deals with a lot of cultural feelings on the surface, such as the Chinese cultural customs in the underground city, eating skewers, playing mahjong and lion dance, etc., as well as the shaping of the family concept between Wu Jing's father and son. Of course, family love is actually a method that Hollywood is used to. The father-daughter relationship in "Interstellar" is much more advanced than that in "The Wandering Earth".
But what makes me think that "The Wandering Earth" wins at the starting line from the very beginning is the story itself. When I read the concept of the novel "The Wandering Earth", I felt that only the Chinese could come up with such a creative idea . The setting of the earth running together, as a Westerner with a deep-rooted colonial culture concept, it is difficult to think of such an idea.
Because the Chinese people pay attention to returning leaves to their roots, their attachment and longing for their family is stronger than that of any ethnic group, so running with their family is the core value of the Chinese people in "The Wandering Earth". With such a foundation, as a The title of domestic sci-fi has already won at the starting line.
2. After talking about the concept, let's talk about the special effects that are most valued in science fiction films.
The special effects mentioned here are divided into early and late stages. For domestic sci-fi movies, "The Wandering Earth" has a more difficult start in the early stage, because from concept design to convincing, from director execution to production management, for domestic teams, Have not yet reached the mature industrialization level.
Take the multiple operation screens of the airport as an example. In Hollywood, there is a dedicated UI design team to do a whole set of designs, so that there is such a set of aviation operating system interfaces. "The Wandering Earth" also intends to do this this time. However, it is necessary to piece together employees from other departments to form a UI design team, and such a UI team is the first time in a domestic movie.
But fortunately, the improvement of the "local special effects" in the film is very great. The audience can always see the things made with heart. Many of our previous domestic sci-fi works used the UI operation interface on the screen. People who have done post-production in film and television We all know that those are all dynamic materials downloaded by a treasure, which are extremely ugly.
In addition to the problem of UI, there is also the problem of screen display. During the filming process of the crew, each monitor of the airport needs to ask a person to operate the switch or play the material content alone. In Hollywood, there are actually special Department to operate, and quite professional and easy.
But it is 0 in China, but it must be solved, so we have our own set of methodology, and if these methodology are implemented efficiently, this may really become a reference for the operation of the domestic film industry. "Wandering Earth" can also be regarded as a milestone in domestic science fiction.
In terms of post-production special effects, the crew has looked for Industrial Light and Magic (Star Wars), Weta (Lord of the Rings), and of course domestic special effects teams. At present, I don’t know how much each company contributes to special effects, but it can be done. What is certain is that this is undoubtedly a good experience and experience for the domestic main creative team.
When watching a movie, I can feel that some pictures can actually be done better, or under the foreshadowing of the previous shot, I actually want to see more special effects details, but unfortunately I didn't put them in. I believe the director must also want to Put more pictures with more texture, but the budget and team may not have reached that level of qualitative change.
3. After talking about special effects, we finally talk about the plot of the film.
The adaptation of "The Wandering Earth" is excellent. The original Da Liu's "The Wandering Earth" is more like a chronicle of the self-reported prose version. The time span is very long, and the protagonist is not prominent enough for film and television. The final conflict is placed on the human nature. On the dark struggle.
In the movie version, the characters and conflicts are strengthened, with a more visual sense, and the beginnings and transitions are more obvious, while the major conflict events are placed on the threat of Jupiter to the earth, especially the narrative rhythm and reversal of the third act, which can be said to be extremely well done. Tension.
Of course, this is not to say how great the director's personal style is. It is the first time in China to produce "The Wandering Earth" of this magnitude, which is more to reflect the maturity level of the film industry, and the director is more to control every funding Whether it is used on the cutting edge, such as the review and writing of the pre-script, the check of the pre- and post-production, whether the special effects pictures serve the story, etc.
Guo Fan himself admitted in the interview that in order to be worthy of the production team of more than 7,000 people, the budget and the audience, he is more concerned about how to make the film as accurate as possible, and the extra points for artistic depth (bringing to the film). The audience's thinking), may be the issue that the next Chinese science fiction movie should consider more.
In addition, it is strongly recommended that the film should be a director's cut version. With such a huge and epic story structure, how can it express the weight of the film without 3 hours.
I can understand that "The Wandering Earth" had to be finished in 2 hours for the Spring Festival schedule. Before that, "The Wandering Earth", whether it was storyboard editing or rough cutting, took more than 3 hours, so if you can watch it later A 3-hour director's cut version is bound to add a lot to "The Wandering Earth", and it also respects the milestone significance of "The Wandering Earth" for domestic sci-fi.
It is true that "The Wandering Earth" can do better, but as a domestic film event with a big hot spot, "The Wandering Earth" does make a good start for domestic sci-fi and even domestic big production genre films. The meaning outside the movie makes me want to support "The Wandering Earth" more, and not want to be too harsh.
The Chinese New Year is coming, the 2018 Year of the Dog is coming to an end, and in 2019, the Year of the Pig, Da Cong wishes everyone a Happy New Year! All is well! May the world be at peace! Good luck to Earth! Good luck to Chinese sci-fi!
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