The film tells about a theft project, the project manager is called Macau Pu; there are several project members, including Quan Zhixian, Ren Dahua and Li Xinjie; the project goal is a yellow diamond called Tears of the Sun; the project cost is unknown, the project benefit is unknown, and the project risk is extremely high.
The scenes in the film are gorgeous, star-studded, and the plot twists and turns fascinating, but in my opinion, there is still a big gap between this film and "Steal the Day" or similar, such as "Eleven Arhats".
This article takes the film as a project and analyzes its shortcomings and problems. Deficiencies refer to non-obvious mistakes, but there is still a lot of room for improvement in narration and shooting; problems refer to the obvious mistakes in the film, Of course, including the factors caused by the editing of the film when the mainland introduced it.
Let's talk about the shortcomings first, there are mainly 5 points:
1. The opponent is too confused.
The film is to tell the contradiction. Usually, a film will be mixed with many contradictions, but usually in order to serve the main purpose, a main contradiction will be highlighted, which constitutes the main narrative line of the film, and the composition of this main contradiction is the counterparty, in other words It is the opponent of this Treasure Alliance.
At the end of the film, the narrative context is a bit confusing, because it does not clearly describe who the main antagonist is. WeiHong, Hong Kong police, South Korean police or Macau security?
I believe that after watching this film, many people will think that the ultimate opponent is Wei Hong, because the film ends when he is killed. Usually it is not wrong to think this way, although the death of WeiHong will lead me to another question, my point is to see who killed the main opponent, if the person who killed the main opponent is not the protagonist of the movie, Then the hatred of the protagonist is not rewarded, so the narrative logic of the film is not over, or it is not complete. This problem arose in this film. WeiHong, as the main antagonist, was killed by someone who was first an undercover agent and then a policeman, who must not be the protagonist. The problem brought up by this narrative arrangement is that Wei Hong does not seem to be the main opponent, and the film does not have an answer in the end, so the opponents in the film are a group of people, and it is not clear who is the main one.
2. The description of the opponent is too little
. The playback time of the film is given priority. Therefore, it is necessary to fully describe the front and back characters or the main and secondary characters in a very small amount of time, so that there is sufficient material for the development of the plot. The confusion of opponents in the film is actually because there is too little foreshadowing for the description of these opponents.
The richness of the film lies in this treasure-hunting alliance, which brings together many master thieves from South Korea and Hong Kong, each with extraordinary skills and different temperaments, and hidden emotions, betrayals, suspicions and other auxiliary lines. It is very difficult to explain clearly.
It is not easy to return and it is not easy to return. In order to serve the plot of the film, the opponent must be properly described to pave the way, otherwise everything will appear too easy or too incredible.
In the film, the description of the opponent who stole the heart of the sun is the most, but there is nothing outstanding.
Such as the frequency lock when entering the door, it seems that the lock is a very low-energy design; another example is the safe, it is not easy to open the safe in reality, but this scene in the movie is too bloody, and Li Xinjie's listening to the sound to unlock the lock, I really see it Too slow, and her actions of scolding Quan Zhixian as a stinky bitch are too unqualified, it can only prove that her business is not good, and she is anxious to scold her mother.
Wei Hong, who seems to be the main opponent, is like a dragon, but the description is all legends, but after showing his face, he is just blindly reckless.
The lack of foreshadowing results in the limited height of the plot, which loses the basis of narrative logic at the climax of the plot, so that the plot ends in haste and cannot go further.
3. The lack of description of the main characters is
limited by the length of the film, not only the opponent did not make it clear, but even the main characters did not make it clear. For example, Macau Park and Peixi, their emotional mainline drives the development of the plot and runs through, but the antecedents and backgrounds of these two people are told in very small clips without positive description. So in the end, I can only watch Macau Park tossing and turning on the air-conditioning rack, watching Pei Xi love and be loved without knowing it.
Judging from movies like Europe and the United States, a movie needs to control so many main characters, and it needs to take advantage of the situation well. That is, by selecting the image characteristics of the actors in the eyes of the public to save the description space in the film, this is very particular about the selection of actors by the film director. For example, if the popular Quan Zhixian is selected, then the male and female protagonists Macau Park and Paixi should choose more popular and skilled actors to play the roles, otherwise they will be top-heavy in character creation.
Hong Kong actor Ren Dahua actually meets this standard, but unfortunately this is a Korean film, so he can only drive to Huangquan.
The choice of the main characters is unreasonable to take advantage of the situation, and they are not described in the film, so the characters are very thin, and they can only use very small reasons, often just excuses to push the plot in one direction, and such methods often cause The plot seems awkward and unnatural.
4. The plot is too blunt
and the lack of character description will make the plot less vivid. All the films are about the feelings of the characters. Therefore, people are the basic starting point. When people explain clearly, they will vividly interpret the plot when they encounter things; and if people do not explain things clearly, they can only act when they encounter things. Even if the performance is good, in the eyes of the audience, it will Acting, not lively enough.
For example, there are many contradictions in the aggregation of the Treasure Hunting Alliance in the film. As the project manager of Macau Park, many people are actually dissatisfied. Ren Dahua has his own ideas, although it is not clear whether he knows that Macau Park is the son of his original partner. But obviously he doesn't trust Macau Pu; let alone Poppy, he originally wanted to kill Macau Pu, and brought more Pei Xi from Macau Pu. Go with Paige. These plots have nothing to do with the overall situation, and many viewers will not delve into them, but after the major flaws appear, they have to be thought-provoking. Such as these master thieves, why do they not want to fail when they act when they are suspicious of Macau Park? The plot developed to the point that everyone in the alliance reacted at the same time, they were tricked, and then they fled one by one. This is actually too blunt, and it does not correspond to the title of the Treasure Hunting Alliance at all. Seeing them being questioned by the security guards or being pushed to the ground during the chase, I feel insulted as a viewer. Does this movie just let me watch the content of the police catching the thief?
Another example is the plot of Ren Dahua hijacking the casino. This is completely unnecessary in theory. They just need to hold Tiffney. They shouldn't follow her Show Hand so quickly, and they shouldn't jump on the table to grab it. I took it as soon as I saw it, and as a result, he and Chewing Sugar died, and they died quite miserably.
Another example is the scene in which the Korean police killed the Hong Kong police in front of WeiHong. There was no foreshadowing and it was extremely bloody, but WeiHong finally killed the Korean police who helped him, which made the plot become a quadratic of the bloody, I think the only one. The explanation is that WeiHong didn't let him kill the Hong Kong policeman, so he got angry and killed him too, otherwise there's no explanation.
Movies with too blunt plots have to use small excuses to check and fill in the gaps one by one. For example, Jun Zhixian eavesdropped on Pope’s speech, so he also secretly ordered a fake Tears of the Sun; The plot of the father, etc., some can justify themselves, echoing the beginning and the end, while others seem to be stubborn, and the green and yellow are not connected.
5. Lack of unity when characters leave the scene
The Treasure Hunting Alliance should emphasize the tacit cooperation and unity among the members, and this film was filmed at the beginning of the filming that the members were estranged and ill-conceived. Later, after being betrayed, it appeared to be scattered and without combat effectiveness. From this point of view, the plot is too much. It's thin and has no flashes of human change, so it seems that the film is very general.
What I want to explain here is that when the characters leave the scene, there must be no lack of unity. After all, the film is called the Alliance for Treasure Hunting, and the meaning of the alliance needs to be highlighted.
After the incident was exposed, the members of the alliances fled with their lives, holding their heads and wearing them. They were completely unprofessional and very unprofessional. I even felt that the director did not design well when fleeing, but just perfunctory the audience, relying on the number of actors, Let them go one by one.
Among them, only Ren Dahua's appearance showed the style of such films. Unfortunately, the Korean director did not have a long-term vision, so he only robbed a car and died in a sea of fire before driving too far.
Poppy's escape is even more absurd. He, Andrew and Peggy all the way. They escaped from the police car that was being held. There were only two policemen in the car, two men against two policemen, and left a gang of women. This woman is Poppy's lover and counts for great use. But Poppy still ran away, nearly drowning Peggy.
These plots make the meaning of the alliance disappear, and the feeling of watching the stills cannot be understood at all. The so-called thieves are also right, but here there are only selfishness and mutual suspicion.
The alliance is not like the alliance, and the opponent is not like the opponent. It is not clear whether to steal diamonds or take cash. The confusion of these narrative logic makes the final effect of the film unsatisfactory, and also widens the distance from similar films in Europe and America. .
Let's talk about the problem of the film, it is also 5 points:
1. The location of the heart of the sun
has become the focus of the film twice, first in the Macau casino, and then in the temporary residence of Park in Macau, South Korea. And both of these focuses have problems.
Let’s talk about Macau Casino first. Macau Pu, the project manager, is actually a blacklisted guest of the casino, so for some reason he knows many of the secrets. Judging from the plot, this blacklist seems to have been won by Macau Park himself.
In the project he initiated, all the thieves swooped on the two safes in Tiffney's room, while he worked secretly in the casino's treasury room. He must have never seen a Chinese shadow puppet show, otherwise he would not have made this move so naively, as if he was afraid that others would not know about it. The question is, how did he know it was in this place, and so precisely? Of course, it can also be understood that he already knew, but he didn't say it, so why didn't others know, and everyone else fell for him. Or maybe it's easy to steal the diamonds here, so there's no need for such a big fight. Macau Park is not completed by one person, at most, someone has passed through the gate before, causing a certain amount of interference.
Afterwards, Macau Park went to South Korea to trade with WeiHong and put the diamonds in the lampshade. This move is also very strange. The reason why it is said to be strange is because it is too rough. Two people came in, and both Peixi and Jun Zhixian discovered it. The diamond's hiding place was discovered, and the probability of getting it was 100%. Such a screenwriter can really be regarded as a saint.
2. What is Macau Park in the end?
According to later plot additions, it turned out that he and Wei Hong had a revenge for killing his father, so the yellow diamond was just a bait, and revenge became the ultimate goal. But the film doesn't seem to show any arrangement of killing his father to take revenge. Did he forget? Or is the screenwriter too rough?
So assuming he wasn't trying to avenge his father, then why?
In order to avenge Pope for killing him back then? But he shouldn't know about the rope, this is just an inference, and it seems that he doesn't really want to take revenge;
in order to avenge Ren Dahua for not helping his father? Can't see this too?
So is it money? The investment cost of this project is not small, all of which are paid by him. In the end, the diamonds are obtained, and they can be exchanged for a large amount of cash, but he prefers WeiHong, so it seems that he is not trying to make money?
So what is the picture? Don't pursue it, I don't want to understand it anyway.
3. How did Pope know that Paige wasn't dead and went back to Korea with her?
When the two shameless men left, Peggy was handcuffed to the car and fell into the sea with the car, in danger. In the end, it was the disguised Macau Pu who rescued her. The video did not say whether she fainted in the sea, nor did it say how Macau Pu performed her stunts to rescue her. In short, after seeing Macau Pu coming to save her, the video jumped directly to the point where she was wearing A dress with a very prominent figure wakes up, with a good face, a plump figure, and a concave and convex shape, which is coveted.
It stands to reason that Poppy, the shameless man, should think that Peggy has already fed the fish. But he even passed a note through a child, connected with her again, and went to Korea together. This plot is really rough.
It should be said that Pope's portrayal was very unsuccessful, and the film symbolized it. In his own words, "I am a thief", so don't talk about anything else, only things, or money, by the way, steal some feelings and get a Feminine or something.
This kind of person is usually rarely depicted as a positive character in the film, but it is very good to describe it from the negative side.
4. There are two places pretending to be diamonds in the yellow diamond and zirconia
film, one is for Pei Xi, this is written clearly; the other is for Jun Ji-hyun, this is written in secret, and both of them went to Jun Ji-hyun Here it is. When Pope deceived Jun Zhixian to get the "yellow diamond", Quan Zhixian gave him another fake one out of distrust. Therefore, Poppy was chased by Andrew for a long time, and finally the diamond was crushed by the motorbike that rushed over. The problem was that when Quan Zhixian threw the fake goods from the ventilation duct to the roof of the elevator car, why was it not broken?
5. After the appearance of the mysterious character of WeiHong's death
, all the mysterious veils were taken off, and he even looked like an ordinary person. This has to be said that this is the mystery of the movie. However, in this film, after the mysterious character Wei Hong appeared, he was constantly challenging the audience's IQ, especially his death in the end.
Wei Hong, a terrorist who would die even if he saw his tattoo, finally came to the pier alone to hunt down Macau Park. Can this be logical?
In fact, after the Hong Kong police officer was killed by the Korean police officer, I had an ominous feeling. I felt that this WeiHong was a second-hand. Really WeiHong did not negotiate when he committed second-hand, and without braking, he went all the way until he died.
I really can't figure out how such a person can be the boss, and how to make so many of his subordinates follow him to the death. It can only be said that there is no second in this world, only more second.
The whole review shows that the film has gorgeous visual effects, a strong cast, and an attractive storyline. So this work, which has the shadow of many European and American blockbusters, should be regarded as a Korean director trying to shoot a blockbuster such as Zhang Yimou.
View more about The Thieves reviews
