In 2012, the disaster commercial film "Skyscraper" produced and released by CJ Entertainment, through top special effects technology and mature Hollywood-style narrative mode, successfully obtained 5.18 million movie viewers, and became the first movie watching in Korea that year. A local movie with more than five million visits!
This disaster film directed by Kim Ji-hoon and starring Korean actors Xue Jinggu and Sun Yezhen mainly tells the story of Christmas Eve (that is, Christmas Eve), caused by the influence of air currents, the artificial snow plane crashed into Tower Sky (Twin Towers), which caused the building. Chaos and an unstoppable fire broke out inside. Kang Young-ki, played by Xue Jingguo, is the leader of the Yeouido fire brigade. He was ordered to enter the building to rescue the trapped people. However, the restaurant manager Xu Yunxi, played by Son Yejin, was trapped in the building due to various accidents along with other characters in the movie. Inside the restaurant. In the end, under the rescue of firefighters, Xu Yunxi and his party were rescued, but Captain Jiang Yingji died because of this. This movie uses this story to show the audience the complicated aspects of human nature that people show in the face of disasters.
This mainstream commercial film that expresses humanity through disasters has a prototype story from the "Fire Skyscraper" starring Hollywood actor Paul Newman in the 1970s, so the whole film is very similar to "Fire Skyscraper" in the story frame.
Therefore, when watching this "Skyscraper", you can clearly see that it uses a Hollywood-style narrative model and a specific plot structure. However, under the Hollywood-style narrative model, the characterization of the characters in the film, the expression of class differences between the characters, and the satire of government officials all reflect the local characteristics of Korean movies. Therefore, I call this kind of movies with Hollywood narrative as the framework and Korean movie characteristics as the core as Korean-style commercial films. Typical Korean-style commercial films include "Han River Monster", "Horror Live", and "Busan Tour".
Of course, compared with the movies I mentioned above, the biggest difference of "Skyscraper" is that it is a Korean commercial film with obvious advantages and disadvantages! Let's talk about the advantages first, which is also the key to this movie's commercial standout! The first thing to talk about is the special effects of this movie. As we all know, with the development of modern technology, special effects account for an increasing proportion of a movie. Especially for disaster movies like "Skyscrapers", a good special effects production team is needed to control the disaster scenes in the movie. control. In the world, the top special effects production companies Industrial Light & Magic and Weta Digital are all in Hollywood, so when shooting commercial blockbusters in other countries, most of them will choose to cooperate with Hollywood. However, this disaster film with an investment of 13 billion won did not choose to cooperate with Hollywood special effects companies, but was independently completed by the South Korean special effects team. The final effect of the film is also comparable to Hollywood commercial films on the whole. What impressed me most about the special effects of the overall movie was the beginning of the movie, that is, a set of overhead shots transitioning from the Bund of the city to the distant view of Tower Sky, and then gradually saw the full view of Tower Sky from the perspective of Li Dahao. During this period, the first impression of the entire Tower Sky to the audience is real and spectacular. With the continuous advancement of the overhead shots, the details of Tower Sky continue to be enriched, and the realism it brings to the audience is continuously enhanced!
The second is Korean expression in the Hollywood narrative mode. The so-called Hollywood narrative model mainly refers to the three acts of the traditional structure of Western drama, namely the beginning, the development, and the climax. Specifically in the film: the first act is to explain the background of the fire and the main characters in the movie; the second is that after the fire, the people in the building try their best to escape and the fire brigade headed by Jiang Yingji enters Building, rescue the trapped people; the third act is to rescue Xu Yunxi and Wu Bingwan, Jiang Yingji sacrificed himself. At the end of the third act, the bridge where Jiang Youngki detonated explosives before the building collapsed was a classic Hollywood "last minute rescue"! However, in addition to the above-mentioned narrative mode, the film has Korean characteristics in terms of character shaping and expression. For example, at the character shaping level, Lee Da-ho raises his youngest daughter alone; the cleaning lady can go to college for his son. Apply for wages in advance; the lady's cynicism towards "upstarts"; President Zhao forcibly activated the protective system in the building in order to minimize the damage. On the expression level, through this disaster, through the portrayal of the roles of different classes, the complex side of human nature is portrayed; through the image molding of the upper class and government officials, it expresses the creators’ reflection on the realistic level. It was repeatedly expressed in subsequent Korean movies.
Compared with the advantages, the shortcomings of the film are mostly reflected in the specific aspects of the film, that is, the role modeling, story logic, and screen editing of the film. For a film work, whether it is commercial or artistic, the shaping of the role is the first priority. Sid Field mentioned in his book "The Basics of Film Script Writing" that "(character) is the inner foundation and the cornerstone of the film script"! In the first act of the film, the director introduced the main characters in the film in turn through parallel montages, and connected many characters through Tower Sky, and finally achieved the effect of a group of characters. But in the middle of the movie, most of the characters created in the early stage are in a state of "saved", lacking the subjective initiative of the role, and the later stage of the film lacks in-depth shaping of the role (except the protagonist). This makes the early group portrait shaping seem a bit redundant. In terms of character creation, "Han River Monster", also a disaster film, performed very well. The movie "Han River Monster" connects the whole story through the protagonist Kang Doo and his family. During the period, the plot is mostly driven by the choice made by the Kang Doo family, that is, the subjective initiative of the characters, and the characters of the protagonist Kang Doo and his family members are all derived from it. Deeply portrayed.
From the audience's point of view, the biggest shortcoming of this film lies in the lack of rigor at the plot level and the imperfect details of the editing. For a disaster commercial film for the general public, professionalism and rigor are essential parts. For example, in the movie, Yun Hee, the restaurant manager, took Hannah (the hero's daughter) to escape the fire by taking Hannah (the hero's daughter) instead of looking for other safer methods when the escape route was destroyed. In addition, as a large-scale production with an investment of up to 13 billion won, the screen editing of the film was not perfect, which caused a sense of fragmentation in the viewing. The most obvious is that when Yoon Hee and Hannah failed to enter the elevator, the scene of the movie jumped from the security card swiping to the slow motion of the elevator door closing gradually.
Generally speaking, although the overall production of this Korean-style commercial film in 2012 is not perfect, it is not concealed. The top film special effects, mature commercial narrative mode, and the depiction of human nature all made this film excellent in that year. The box office performance and good audience reputation. At the same time, with the continuous improvement of the industrialization of Korean films, high-quality commercial films are emerging one after another, which makes the international influence of Korean films continue to expand.
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