"I'm Zhang Yimou, I'm going to tell those critics with this movie: Umbrella can kill you!"
When I told my pen pal earlier that I was looking forward to Laomouzi's new work "Shadow", I said that I looked forward to seeing the spiritual tribute to Akira Kurosawa's "Shadow Warrior". As a result, after watching "Shadow", I wanted to slap myself in the face - if Akira Kurosawa knew about it, sooner or later Laomouzi would be taken away (of course, some Zhang Yimou's national teacher fans may not be convinced. So let's make it clear first - not all movies about the plot of the master's stand-in are paying tribute to "Shadow Warrior", otherwise all domestic horror films that use mental illness to explain supernatural phenomena are paying tribute to Hitchcock's "Psycho" There are many movies whose plots involve the master and the substitute, including dramas, comedies and tragedies. There is "Dictator" in the United States, "Double King" in South Korea, and even a TV movie "The Emperor of the Tang Dynasty" on CCTV more than ten years ago. Its protagonist is very similar to the protagonist in the first half of "Shadow". But the value of "Shadow Warrior" is not only in the concept of "master substitute". Through Akira Kurosawa's powerful scene scheduling and the detailed interpretation of all actors, "Shadow Warrior" presents the conflicts of various ethnic groups in Japan's Warring States Period from the perspective of a stand-in, as well as the sublimation of the awareness of the unknown thief who served as a stand-in in the Warring States Period. "Double King" seems to have some points of "Shadow Warrior" in the plot. Shen Yun, and as one of the fifth-generation directors who take Akira Kurosawa as an idol, Zhang Yimou does not talk about the depth of his thoughts, at least he can get a bit of true biography of Master Kurosawa in terms of image aesthetics... Well... But this Akira Kurosawa's worship What kind of audio-visual experience did the actor bring us? Let’s watch the first half first, don’t complain about the slow motion of various advertising styles, and don’t care about the uneven performances of the actors. Forgive those who can forgive, but the props setting is really unbearable. Before, Laomouzi played the hanging Weiya flying knife and shield springboard in "The Golden Armor of the City", and played bungee jumping to give people heads and large scissors on the city wall in "The Great Wall", and now he "invented" what kind of umbrella... Actually In the film, this weapon composed of sharp blades and bamboo poles is quite majestic just looking at the shape, and the way it can be used is really weirder than I imagined. Either men and women have to twist twice like a woman holding an umbrella and then swing it to kill the enemy, or just use it. It was built into a spinning top and slid on the smooth road, and a general who was demoted to a commoner was specially arranged to lead a group of sissy death row prisoners. With these weapons, they staged an oriental costume version of "Inglourious Basterds"... Not to mention the source of art In the history of Akira Kurosawa, even the imaginative Tsui Hark, old monster Xu, would not dare to think like this... However, if you survive the first half, you and I will be pleasantly surprised to usher in the magical second half, with all kinds of reversals. Sudden but no lack of foreshadowing, the conflicting relationship is intricate, so you can't imagine that everything before this is so awkward, just look at this second half, the level is comparable to that of Du who also paid tribute to Akira Kurosawa
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In this complex relationship of killing each other, Laomouzi can be said to have something to say: the lord recruits a substitute - "I was recruited", the lord wants to kill the governor - "the rabbit died and the dog cooks" The governor kills the lord - "I am much better than you" Now, why should I listen to you?" Substitute to kill the governor and the lord - "The people are too scary later, I don't kill them, they will kill me at any time" Madam - "You should still be the melon eaters."
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Just watching the second half of the rampage, I actually had a question, "Was this film made by Takashi Miike?" Coincidentally, Takashi Miike previously remade "Thirteen Assassins" directed by Kudo Eiichi in 1963, which was deeply influenced by Akira Kurosawa, but "Shadow" is more similar to this film in aesthetic style; The Tao of Fu Hua Dao reminds me of the stage setting of the play-in-play in "The Ghouls" that Miike Takashi made after. After a nuclear fission-like reversal in the second half, "Shadow" has finally become a cult film disguised as an art film, and it also conveys a completely different theme and attitude from "Shadow Warrior". Although "Shadow Warrior" also ended in tragedy, the audience felt positive energy in the stand-in who was obviously expelled but still died for the protagonist, so this "sorrow" is actually tragic and solemn; in "Shadow" The substitute survived the final killing, but he was no longer as lonely and indifferent on the outside and simple homesickness on the inside. After the baptism of the power struggle, he also became a puppet of power. And Laomouzi's situation when shooting and creating is also very different from that of Akira Kurosawa. Akira Kurosawa in 1980 has been out of film for five years because of his poor creation. Fortunately, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas (you read that right, those two Hollywood names) admire him. Director) to provide financial assistance, and only then did Akira Kurosawa shoot the first color film "Shadow Warrior" in Japan (he had previously filmed "Dersu Uzala" with people from the former Soviet film industry). But unlike Akira Kurosawa, who is like a phoenix, Zhang Yimou is really not a person inside or outside. The throne of the master has not yet been firmly established, and he has been criticized for several blockbuster commercial blockbusters in ancient costumes. Above, at the cost of taking over the project "The Great Wall", but "The Great Wall" lost the box office and was scolded, and then took up this riskier "Shadow", I am afraid that Laomouzi will collapse and shout "His eldest uncle and his second uncle are his uncles, and the high table and low bench are all wood." Under this premise, it is not surprising that Laomouzi was forced to become China's Sanchi Chongshi. However, Laomouzi has been infected with artistic bacteria after all, no matter how nonsensical "Shadow" is, it still reflects some of his allusions to the current situation. The official suppression of the masses’ freedom of speech has finally had a counter-productive effect. When the social operation encounters an emergency, the system cannot properly solve the problem due to its own limitations and the negative feedback from the masses; the new generation of fashion culture and the old generation’s conservative thinking seem It is difficult to continue to run in, and when many social problems emerge, the new generation representing the new face of the country unfortunately becomes a target for public opinion to vent. Just in time for this year's National Day, the three popular movies have a common keyword, "shadow".When the country is peaceful and peaceful, everyone is a shadow of a prosperous world; when the world is in turmoil, can we survive as independent individuals? It seems that even Zhang Yimou, who has always been responsible for promoting national culture, cannot restrain his doubts about his mission and his disappointment with the land he has always loved. Our Chinese culture and even Chinese society are really going to feel the crisis!
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