I have been thinking about a question these days - what is the reason for a director who has just suffered a box office failure to make such a turnaround within 3 years, and it is almost an unprecedented Jedi counterattack. Aside from the strong commercial marketing strategy that runs through the film, I prefer to focus on the film itself, rather than external factors, in the pursuit of this power.
The propaganda says that "Let the Bullets Fly" is a commercial film, but in fact it is still an uncompromising Jiang Wen author's film. Only this time, Jiang Wen's writing of personal feelings and self-intentions in the film based on the author's perspective has regressed. Regression means compromise and giving up, which is a derogatory term. But at the same time, retreating is also a tactic, a verb, and the key between advancing and retreating lies in grasping and adjusting the scale.
But the good news is that Jiang Wen only took a small step back this time. First of all, from the perspective of the author's style and artistic expression, this "Let the Bullets Fly" has not received any comments on related art and academic systems beyond physiological perception. On trivial and superficial expressions such as jokes", "hormones", "laugh points", and "urine points". And this once again confirms a rule, that is, if the external aesthetic is too strong, it will weaken the tension of the internal aesthetic.
So "Let the Bullets Fly" is not a masterpiece, it has shortcomings. The biggest shortcoming is nothing else, but the regression of Jiang Wen's ability to use the film's own storytelling ability in the past - the ability to tell stories through film images, music, structure, and editing has been weakened to the extreme, and it has regressed to the point where it needs to rely on a large number of lines to present. the lowest level.
This kind of regression is an obvious and naked compromise for the market and audience, because the aesthetic taste of the vast majority of Chinese movie audiences is cultivated by TV dramas rather than movies, and the core of the narrative method of TV dramas is a large number of dialogues. And the lines, so the audience's attention and pondering on the lines and dialogues far exceed the film language itself. And this just proves why "The Sun Rises" was a big box-office failure, and why the poorly made Feng's New Year's New Year comedy has been a box-office winner every year.
Therefore, this time Jiang Wen took a step back to meet the needs of the audience. As a result, a large number of sexually suggestive meat jokes, Stephen Chow-style nonsense dialogue, Zhao Benshan-style car wheel reels... and other lines collide everywhere, which greatly satisfies the audience's pleasure in watching the movie. And also launched the Sichuan dialect version, using the unique sense of humor of Sichuan dialect to further enhance the expression of the film's lines. Although the Sichuan dialects spoken by the actors in the film are varied and of varying levels, but at the same time I have to admit that Jiang Wen's trick is indeed different. Every sound.
Of course, this discussion of film language and narrative methods has long gone beyond the understanding and attention of ordinary audiences, and belongs to the category of experts, scholars, and film critics who have nothing to do. Because the current Chinese film market and audience are like a long-term horny woman, they need a man like a beast, not a gentle man. And this person is Jiang Wen.
Therefore, Jiang Wen's step backward this time not only did not attract the attention of the audience, but instead won a lot of appreciation. And the end result of this small step is a giant leap forward in business. Because even though the film still has flaws in narrative structure, character motives, plot foreshadowing, etc., at least it has approached the audience and explored the audience's aesthetic taste. Combined with Jiang Wen's unique personal charm and brand influence, the film won a good start at the box office, drawing a near-perfect ending for Chinese films in 2010.
If we saw a wise Jiang Wen in Jiang Wen's past works, then this time we see a wise Jiang Wen, because "retreat as progress" is not something everyone can say and do. , Because if you can't get your hair back, you will turn around and you will be an abyss.
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