Zhang Yimou, who is almost old, has worked hard for two years to create, and put "Shadow", the story of the Three Kingdoms period, on the screen. On the basis of a simple narrative, Director Zhang made a bold attempt to combine Chinese ink landscapes and shapes. The idea is integrated into the film, forming a unique picture style, which is very different from other films released by colleagues. But the successful picture style did not improve the quality of the film, it just overridden the story and concealed the lack of quality of the film itself.
A "continued" full of golden armor
The prototype of the story of "Shadow" is "Three Kingdoms Jingzhou" originally written by Zhu Sujin. After taking into account the authenticity of the story and the possibility of creation and revision, the story is just like the golden armor in the city, and the story is put aside completely, and it is just borrowed. The body of history tells the story, and the two films are actually very similar in general. In essence, they both tell the entanglement of human desires and original sin. They are both Shakespeare-style tragic stories, and the two films also committed crimes. Same mistake - picture over story
In "Man", the national teacher used delicate and complex art design to attract people's attention. The whole film is filled with yellow, which symbolizes imperial power. Both the costumes and the utensils are designed to be very restored. The artistic elements in the game are fully reflected, and the saturated beauty overflows from the screen little by little, reflecting the splendor and grace of the ancient royal family, and showing the oriental aesthetic system. In "Shadow", this skill was turned to photography. Director Zhang tried the color presentation style of the picture, using a lot of achromatic, high contrast and low tone, and a background similar to ink to show Chinese painting is beautiful, and although the presentation of the beautiful pictures is very eye-catching, it really makes people feel like the host.
The movie "Shadow" tells the story of the shadow and the body, and the explanation of the relationship between the two can be said to be very brief. The empty lines and simple rivalry can only make me feel the general change of the relationship between the two, and it does not reflect the The extraordinary complexity and entanglement did not establish the completeness of the characters in the story. Everyone just leaned on the simple purpose to exist, and the large and complex scenes became the main part of the film. The same is true of "Full". Although it has a "Thunderstorm"-style story system and character structure, after composing a complete film, the story still feels very empty, and it is only visually stimulated. A large number of wars and aesthetic displays make the story become It's boring, and the characters in the movie only account for a small part, which reduces the value of the movie's own narrative, and the "diorama"-like picture viewing is the first place, which greatly reduces the audience's evaluation of the movie .
Second, the grief of form
Returning to the form, Director Zhang hopes to make a breakthrough in photography by using black-and-white grayscale similar to ink painting, and a softer texture to create this story, but what is really presented on the screen is completely different from what the audience expects. The concept of Chinese ink painting is completely reflected in the background texture of the picture. It is as jerky as the art setting board of a drama film. The story is completely surrounded on the stage, but the picture texture is still clear with a sharp digital texture. , the rhythm of the film is also tense and intense, which makes ink and wash, which uses "artistic conception" to shape the image form, lose its meaning and become a slave of form. The so-called "ink and wash" only serves the picture, and does not participate in shaping the beauty and narration at all, and cannot feel the atmosphere. The beautiful experience that should be brought to us is only the feeling of depression and killing that "heavy ink and heavy writing" brings to us.
Compared with the same level, Hou Hsiao-hsien's "Nie Yinniang" does not bring the tone and color of the picture closer to the ink painting, but combined with the rhythm, atmosphere, and naturalistic shooting method, it is more attached to the "artistic" aesthetics of ink painting, which is more in line with the characters. The state of mind, back to the film "Shadow", just borrowed the corpse of "ink painting" and returned the soul of "low-key".
3. Speculation on screen language
It is not difficult to analyze why we use this "ink and wash low-key" shooting, because Director Zhang is not only an excellent artist, photographer, and director, but also a successful businessman and opportunist.
Go back and look at Director Zhang's recent works, such as "The Great Wall" and "The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling", which are not only excellent film narrative works, but also bold technical creation attempts in China. Using digital technology, Director Zhang not only restored historical events. The world created an overhead world, creating a "spectacle" of images that stimulated the audience, allowing the audience to experience fresh excitement on the screen. Pay for the film, so only by looking for breakthrough points in the existing market can we create greater benefits.
"Ink and wash" is Zhang Yimou's breakthrough point. Chinese films have never seen a story with ink and wash as a carrier, and "ink and wash" as a "Chinese painting" has not yet appeared in the picture of a feature film, but in the European film system, there has long been a picture of The texture is close to the attempt of oil painting, so no matter whether the film is successful or not, and how the image quality is presented, this bold attempt by the national teacher is understandable, and it has indeed consolidated the position of the national teacher in the creation of domestic films. The meaning of creation is highlighted.
Fourth, shape people or shape hearts
Back to the story itself, "Shadow" should tell the story of the shadow and the master, focusing on shaping the entanglement between the two and the characters' desire and grayscale. The recovery of Jingzhou is just the main background of the story, and the most important part of the story. The scene should be the final duel between Shadow and the Lord. I didn't expect that in the early stage, it was just a brief description. It was completely overshadowed by the scenes of the duel in Yinyang Town and the recovery of Jingzhou. It was completely putting the cart before the horse. It is completely unworkable for characters to rely on war scenes alone. It is necessary to support people through detailed and specific action lines and the portrayal of characters. Only with details can characters be shaped. However, grasping the beard and eyebrows and taking it with you with a single wave of the pen cannot make the character image. And the relationship between them is made profound.
The so-called shaping people or shaping the heart is to say whether the characters are shaped by the storyline or by the details of the characters' behaviors and habits.
Using stories to shape characters, although it can make people alive, it lacks a sense of vividness, as if everything is forcibly pushing the characters forward, as if they are chasing after the results, and shape the characters with personal behavior and action habits, The character that can make people feel is participating in the story from the heart, a person who is alive and standing.
And the lack of completeness is blamed on the director's methods. The design of the characters is too one-sided and not three-dimensional, the audition method is not strong enough and specific, and the behavior of the characters is not brought to this result. It is not advisable to pay attention to the effect of the picture Yes, the combination of audition and performance and characters can bring the most vivid image of people to the audience.
No matter how lacking in audition or story, "Shadow" cannot erase its significance and value as a breakthrough film. This is a bold attempt of Chinese film aesthetics in the form language of picture, and Zhang Yimou's extraordinary performance. We need such breakthrough films, whether in form, language, photography methods, etc., we need to break the creative method that relies on "plagiarism" Hollywood shooting, and build a language form belonging to Chinese films, in order to continuously promote the innovation of Chinese films And development. (Finish)
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