Wang Ying's "Smoke" is a purely American life, and the characters in it are not Asian. Wang Ying uses a way that does not reveal a trace to make the relationship and emotion between the characters emerge. This introverted and implicit way of expressing emotions is naturally an effect brought about by Wang Ying's Chinese background. The film uses a narrative in sections, but follows the chronological order, without reversing the order of events, deliberately complicating and dramatic the plot (such as "Pulp Fiction", "Tongtian Tower"), and the overall style is extremely simple, click to the end, leave everywhere White, love is off the table. The screenwriter of "Smoke" is the writer Paul Oster, and part of the style of the film may come from the screenwriter. Unlike Hemingway's telegraph-style concise dialogue that brings a bit of a cool feeling to film noir, the concise impression of "Smoke" mostly comes from the relationship between the characters in the film and the way in which they deal with emotions.
Cigar shop owner Ogi (Harvey Keitel), writer Benjamin and black boy Rasheed are the three main characters of the film, and the plot starts from these three people. These three people have one thing in common: they are all caught in the vortex of the relationship between their parents and their children. Augie’s ex-wife told Augie that their daughter (probably his daughter) was taking drugs, and Benjamin became depressed because of the loss of his wife and child in an accident. , Rashid is looking for his biological father. The three of them, including the old man behind, have a broken relationship between family blood and emotions. This break brings an unbearable pain in life, and repairing this broken bond is an important driving force for the film.
The relationship between the three people and other people constitutes a ukiyo-e painting of human feelings in the context of Brooklyn. Michael Haneke's "Unknown Code" uses a cold, concise image to describe a picture of human nature in Paris. The social background in "Unknown Code" plays an important role and is one of the key objects described in the film; the social background in "Smoke" also has an indispensable effect on the account of the characters, but the presentation of social relations is not the film’s The point is that the director is more concerned about the emotions between the characters, and the attention formed by the social background can be reduced to zero. It only provides a true and convincing background.
The relationship between the black boy and the writer Benjamin is like a father and son. Benjamin is the true father of Rashid for most of the time in the film. He is Rashid's support and patron. The relationship between them, Rashid's encounter with his biological father, Benjamin and Augie (friendship), etc., the emotions between these people, under the lens of Wang Ying, are less distorted and dramatic than usual in beautiful movies, and more oriental. The charm of beauty.
The overall style maintains a style that is obviously different from that of Hollywood, but the ending is the same as the ending of the classic Hollywood narrative: the character's problem ends. In an interview with the director, he claimed that another work "A Thousand Years of Prayer" was deeply influenced by the Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu. The oriental sentiment of "Smoke" also has some similarities with Ozu's movies. The way the ending is handled, the problem is ended, and there is more deliberate warmth. This is a typical Hollywood way. Oriental or European movies will not adhere to this creed so strictly. The opening shows that it was produced by Miramax. Subjectively guess that this kind of ending is required by the brutal, crude, and enthusiastic Weinstein brothers. They believe that a warm ending is what the audience wants to see.
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