This version is directed by Polish director Agnieszka Holland. She was already a well-known director in the world before she directed the film. After checking the information, most of the scenes of this film come from some scenic spots in the UK: the interior scenes of the entire Misselthwaite Manor are basically taken from Allerton Castle, and most of the garden scenes in this film come from Fountains Hall. This makes the scenery of the film look very beautiful, and the overall feeling is very big, which is also a feeling rarely found in other versions. The main actors in this film are basically all British, and several of them are very famous. The movie theme song "Winter Light", composed by Zbigniew Preisner and sung by Linda Ronstadt, has now become a classic, and was later covered by many artists including Sarah Brightman.
Perhaps it is because I have read the original work, coupled with my love for the original work, which makes me more like watching and searching for film and television works adapted from "Secret Garden", and at the same time, I am more concerned about the restoration of the original work. The following will also try to analyze the comparison between this film and the original.
This film is basically correct for Mary's character display, including Mary's character characteristics in the early and late stages and the character changes between them. Perhaps it is to make it easier to understand. This film makes "crying" a clue to Mary's character transformation. From the beginning, her parents didn't know she cried until she finally knew she was crying (the 1987 version of Mary started crying, but That's because someone else threw her doll away). The film starts with Mary's self-report and ends with Mary's self-report at the end, but the psychological description of Mary is not many.
Kate Maberly plays Mary in this film, and this is also her first film. The acting skills are not bad, the person looks very beautiful, and she played Mary this time is quite good. However, it always feels a little too deep before and after, and her words and deeds are a little bit not like what she should have at her age.
Heydon Prowse plays Colin in this version, and he has acted in such a movie. It should be said that he is the most satisfying character in the whole film. He is very accurate with the role of Colin, and he performs the character characteristics of Colin in the original very well, and his appearance is also very beautiful and lovely ( But many people are surprised when they see him when he grows up, hehe). Compared with several other versions, this version of Colin, although somewhat different from the original in plot, is undoubtedly the most in line with the original in character.
This edition of Deacon lacks a lot of the natural spiritual feeling he had in the original book. Although he is basically the right age, he doesn't seem to be as good as the older ones.
This version of Mr. Craven has become younger and beautiful, and he is also a more accurate character in this version.
Since I started watching this film after watching "Harry Potter 1," I always felt very cordial when I saw this version of the housekeeper Madame Medlock, and later found out that she was from the "Ha" series of movies. Maggie Smith, the actor of Professor Middle McGonagall. Unfortunately, this version of Mrs. Medlock is the character I am most dissatisfied with in this film. This version casts Madame Medlock into a staid and unreasonable person. In the later stage, she always thinks that Colin is healthy and tries to prevent Mary from seeing Colin, and she can't see that Colin is getting better. , Always insisting that Colin's body is still very weak. In fact, in the original book Madame Medlock is neither a villain like Dean Mingqing ("Little Princess"), nor is she an authoritarian and rigid person like Miss Rotmeier ("Heidi"). Mrs. Rock is actually more empathetic. Although she was a little defensive against Mary when she first discovered that Mary and Colin were together, perhaps because of distrust, she was a little defensive against Mary, but later saw that all of this was good for Colin. I won't interfere in this matter anymore. The description of Mrs. Medlock in this film is a great misunderstanding of this character, and it is another mistake in this place after the Japanese animation version.
That's all about the role. Let's talk about some plot issues. There are many changes to the original work in this film, although from the point of view of film creation, some changes are allowed. But judging from the evaluation of foreign movie fans, the changes to these places are also mixed.
For minor changes, for example, Mary’s parents died of the earthquake instead of the plague, and Mary found the garden key in the dressing box instead of under the leadership of the robin (but such a change, let the robin In this film, it is completely reduced to soy sauce), there shouldn't be any major problems for film creation. In terms of major aspects, the film has made obvious changes in several places.
For example, the relationship between Mary and Mr. Craven: In this film, Mr. Craven becomes Mary’s uncle, and Mary’s mother and Colin’s mother are twins. The purpose of such a change is to allow Mr. Craven to see the shadow of his wife in Mary (very traditional routine: the daughter looks like a mother, and the twins look very similar to each other), so that Mr. Craven has the first feeling Will fall in love with this girl, which also makes it easier for Craven to meet Mary's various requirements and is willing to favor Mary in reason. This is a setting made to enhance the dramatic effect.
The original friendship between Mary, Colin and Dickon is just a very pure friendship. But the film makes Colin and Mary have such an ignorant feeling of love, and the film does this more clearly than the 1987 version. This point is quite controversial among movie fans abroad. Of course, the original work can indeed allow people to deduce this kind of entertainment, but it depends on the screenwriter's grasp of what it can be.
Another controversial change in this film is "magic". The original "Magic" is only Mary's method to encourage Colin, but this film makes "Magic" a certain embodiment, even letting Mr. Craven go home has become a call to rely on a few children using magic. Up.
This film is the second film and television work adapted from "Secret Garden" I watched outside of the Japanese cartoon, and the original cartoon did not leave much impression because I watched it too early, and this film became the first to me. Works that left an impression. Although the film is indeed inferior in terms of loyalty to the original, it is undoubtedly the best in terms of visibility, so it is still a good film.
PS: After reviewing it, we will consider the other versions and finally give this evaluation to this version of the "Secret Garden" movie.
Finally, some questions related to dubbing are mentioned. There are two Chinese dubbing versions of this film: one is the Chinese dubbing included in a certain VCD released in China in the early days (the information of this dubbing version is unknown), and the other is the version that was broadcast on Zhongyang 6 in 2007. The dubbing quality of the VCD version is not very good. Here Mary’s voice always sounds too mature, while Colin’s voice sounds very weird, but compared to the dubbing of the cartoon, this version of the dubbing does a good job of translation. . The version broadcast by CCTV cannot be commented because I have not watched it.
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