Almost all those who have watched the original novel of "Lu Fang Yanzhi" said that the film was not modified well, but in the age when reading is not easy, most of my friends still give "Return". Positive reviews. I haven't read the original novel, and I haven't used Baidu to understand what the original text says, so there is no way to compare. But I think, no matter what the novel is about, how good it is, as a literary adaptation of a movie, it should be judged by the movie.
Before judging, I asked myself two questions, one is whether one’s age and experience are enough to comment on the quality of "Return" involving the Cultural Revolution and history; the other is what is the evaluation standard, and whether the evaluation of Zhang Yimou’s films should be higher than the requirements for ordinary movies. ? Or to extend it one step further, is it the standard of "Three Shots" and "Golden Armor" or the standard of "Alive"? This article may be a bit sharper. I think Director Zhang should still be strictly required. After all, he has film resources that no one else can match.
On the whole, I think "Return" shows an overall high level of production and some highlights, but it is still a mediocre movie that avoids the importance and ignores the importance of it. It seems to be pasted with the gorgeous label of history and literature, but it is a Spring Festival Gala sketch. Story level. The protagonist’s motives are so thin and deliberate due to the lack of the necessary preconditions, and the love for each other is not touching. And the reciting information mixed with reciting confession, the personalized image of the protagonist at the end of the film did not stand up. The "Amnesia" story line that occupies most of the movie's main body has twists and turns and is not advancing enough, and most of the plot is procrastinated and repeated. The daughter's secondary line that should have been interspersed is even more contrived, just like a vase.
The script of "Return" is obviously thoughtful, but how many thoughts can be presented in the end has become a problem. Regardless of whether the first half of the film seems to be too deliberate and coincidental, it is the awakening memory that occupies the main content of the movie. It seems that there is no hierarchy and progress. Perhaps from the perspective of the script arrangement, the main creator is still trying to make this part look neat. It can be seen that the different methods of awakening memory still have a progressive level, from simple and elementary finding organization to playing piano that can supplement character information, and finally to mediation. The contradiction means that the daughter will go home and release her own feelings. It should be said that the script is still ingenious.
It is a pity that the overall narrative rhythm of "Return" is too slow, resulting in a lack of rhythm between the entire episodes, which makes the narrative progress buried deep in the story not well presented. In terms of film effect, even though it is playing the piano, It is reading the letter, and it is to find an organization to testify one after another new method, but for the audience who desire the story, most of them are invalid and long repetitions.
The main thread of the story is that Lu Yanshi patiently and meticulously awakened his wife’s memory, but the film failed to explain the two people’s previous love story. Secondly, there is also a lack of specific personality traits in the character image. Love is a lively interaction between people. It has been ignored as a symbolic rightist and wife. Because of the lack of personalization, although Chen Daoming and Gong Li act well, they are difficult to impress.
It is precisely because the two people's emotions and personalities lack basic explanations, it drags down their representation of history and a certain group. Without the freshness of love, this made the station meeting of escape and decision in the opening chapter of the Cultural Revolution flirty, and made Lu Yanshi's series of actions to awaken his wife's memory after his return was too active. A tie and symbolization and sense of history may be Zhang Yimou's own view of characters, but what the sense of history is is the summation of countless personal destinies in the great age. When the individual is ignored, history is also discounted.
The monotony of the main line can actually be compensated by the secondary line, which is the clue of the daughter Dandan in "Return". But despite the gimmick of the latest generation of conspirators, Dandan's plot is superfluous in all likelihood in the movie. Except for the political meaning of dancing and the symbolic passages, the daughter hardly helped the film positively, and the whole character was twitchy and awkward from positioning to personality. At the beginning of the movie, I met my father almost never before. The daughter was so righteous and leaped to the station after the Cultural Revolution to meet. Her daughter was so empathetic, and the characters seemed fragmented and unreliable. You know, the daughter who grew up with ten years of catastrophe and mutilated family, doesn't it seem too wishful thinking to grow up and heal herself as if there is nothing wrong. According to the setting of the relationship and identity of the characters at the beginning, the daughter should be unwilling, and the sadness towards her parents is even greater than the care, especially the strangeness and alienation from her father. This kind of human contradiction and pain have been avoided and dealt with lightly. Up. With the creative resources of "Return", I think this is definitely not a mistake, but a consistent attitude.
As a historical and humanistic masterpiece of the Cultural Revolution, the attitude of "avoiding the most important but not the least" is actually the biggest problem of "Return". We will not discuss whether the reflection on the Cultural Revolution and human nature will lead to abortion of censored films. To give a simple example of processing that should have been in the climax of the movie-when faced with an explosive father, Dandan tried to avoid the weight by saying "I am still young, he beats my mother with a rice spoon", which is understandable. But when Lu Yanzhi, who had been in exile for twenty years after life and death, failed to awaken his memory to his wife, and his family was not affectionate, he finally learned the truth about Master Fang. A middle-aged man who is burdened with a heavy life is aware of the mental suffering his wife has suffered, so he will definitely not go to Master Fang to ask for an explanation, let alone hold an aluminum alloy rice spoon.
Even if we ignore rationality, tolerance, and many unreasonable things, would it be possible that if the food spoon is held in our hands, it will be forgotten because the other party has also been arrested, and the accumulated contradictions will disappear? Does the belated justice need not be manifested? , Has everything been thrown away to history? This is to avoid the serious and the light, the suffering of exile is covered by "saw the tornado", or to avoid the heavy and the light. The evasiveness throughout the article can only be interpreted as Zhang Yimou's own values as a vested interest in the system. I believe that viewers who have experienced that period of history or not, as long as they have great sorrow and pain, will definitely not think like this.
In the end, let's just say a few words about the hypothesis of the "Return" story. If you can't face history directly, you should at least face humanity, and add the necessary foreshadowing before the escape passage of the film, explaining who Lu Yan is, and the basis of his feelings for his wife and wife. He also explained clearly why Lu Yanke deserves the trust, sympathy and care of the audience and his wife.
Throwing away the high God's perspective of the Rainy Night Stairs, whether it is to cut into the farm and escape from the subjective perspective of Lu Yanzhi, or to tell a more life-like description of the two mothers and daughters who depend on each other for their lives. When the plot progressed to the Cultural Revolution, the biggest change must have come from the state of his daughter Dandan. Dandan's affection for his father should have a gradual change, and the important nodes in the middle should best be unified with the main clues of amnesia. Lu Yanzhi's way of awakening his wife's memory and paragraphs should be clear and concise, paying particular attention to the rhythm of the ups and downs. In the second half of the story, efforts should be made to distinguish the transformation of the scene-when Lu Yanshi realized that through his own efforts he still could not recall his wife's memory, he should have a significant transformation in motives and methods. If you insist on using the open and sad ending, the plot should be combined with reality and fiction, and grasp the sense of the times and the changes in the mentality of people around you. If this is the case, "Return" may be more moving.
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