I still remember that more than a year ago, I learned about the movie "Roadside Picnic" through the critics of the villain, and learned about the young director Bi Gan. After listening to the film review, I watched it with eager anticipation. After watching it, I was at a loss, but when I combined the analysis to recollect, I suddenly understood too much, and some things require a process of learning. of. . . And to this day, this film about memories has completely become my memory. I ushered in a brand new dream, a forgotten memory. First of all, I want to say that I don’t particularly like "Last Night on Earth", and I really like the director’s previous work. Although "Roadside Picnic" has flaws in this way, it is better than it has aura, a kind of author. The unique observation of the long-term living environment and the natural sensitivity to images, so as to carry out a kind of exploratory display, and his love for movies together constitute a substance called aura.
The biggest problem with "Night" is that it loses this layer of spiritual energy. The inside is indeed more solid and better, but the taste is much lighter. It is more like a gorgeous tool cast by skilled craftsmen after precise calculation and arrangement.
The name of the film is taken from a collection of short stories by Chilean writer Roberto Polano. It seems that I want to set the tone of the movie from the beginning of the title, a mysterious and romantic night. The story of the movie is simply the story of a man looking for a woman, although in the first half of the movie, the director deliberately breaks the linear narrative and creates the touch of "dream" with completely detached fragmented stories. After all, dreams There is no logic like this. The clues of the various details in the first half almost all match up with the long shot that started in 70 minutes. After watching it, I really feel clever, but the design is too heavy. The many characters appearing in the film are simply classified as men and women. Luo Hongwu is the protagonist in the film. He undertakes the entire "exploration" task in the story. What he is exploring after all, my understanding is that he is exploring emotions.
The friend Baimao, the child killed by Wan Qiwen, and the child in the dream can be understood as the same character (through clues such as apples, table tennis, etc.), as the protagonist's "family" and "friendship" sustenance.
The images of the heroine Wan Qiwen, the barbershop proprietress and the two in their dreams are also the same characters, which can be understood as the protagonist’s "love" sustenance.
The two characters are opposed to each other. The character of Wan Qiwen appears with the element of "water". A dark green dress, the deep kiss by the pool and the usual dampness in the southwest. She represents the mystery, cowardice, and cowardice in love. Gentle and tender, he didn't dare to escape when facing the "villain" and chose to kill the child.
The role of the barber shop proprietress is accompanied by the element of "fire", dynamic dancing games, burning torches, and dyed red hair. She is passionate and passionate, and she elopes like a lunatic when facing her lover.
Through two diametrically opposed character images, a complementary relationship is formed to finally complete the motif of "love" and "family affection," which seems to involve the "Oedipus" complex. But if it is really a dream, so neat and clear, this is indeed an over-design problem, so this can only be a "dream". If it can be more irrational and emotional, it may be closer to the real dream. . But in fact, directors like Bi Gan may not want to say as much as they want to shoot. It seems that how to present and how to construct the image is the most important thing. I have always felt that he is a fascinating director, he likes to pay tribute, and this work is no exception. But this work is made with the styles of many masters. It can even be said that the tone of the whole work is to pay tribute. This is really not what an author director should do.
Tarkovsky's image movement and various details are full of tribute (jitter like "Stalker", spirit like "Flying to Space", retrospect like "Nostalgia", flying like "Mirror"), Wong Kar-wai's style The character setting is similar to the fascinating temperament (the hero and the hero who can’t ask for it), the broken narrative and black style of David Lynch, the static aesthetics of Hou Xiaoxian, the natural mysticism of Apichatpong, Hitchcock The clues like "Victorius" are laid out. But is the addition of these 5 masters equal to Bi Gan? I don't think anyone wants to see such a result. Of course, the audiovisual language of this movie is extremely good.
Thanks to Lin Qiang's soundtrack, the repeated use of the main theme deepens the sense of substitution of the image and draws the viewer into the dream situation more powerfully. And consciously amplifying the environmental sound effects is what I really like. The sound of water pattering, the tearing of teeth and apples, and the burning flames. This kind of sound aesthetics has fully improved the audibility of this work.
In the video, in the first half of the non-linear narrative, a large number of scenes adopt fixed positions, and use mirrors, reflective glass, stagnant water and other objects to express figures and expressions. Among them, there is an indoor dialogue scene, and even more. Using repeated zooming between the back and the portrait on the glass to replace the traditional front and back switching is undoubtedly a very clever way. The duration of the lens will always be more emotional than the repeated switching. The tearful scene of the white cat eating an apple draws emotions and tension to the deepest point. This approach is closer to Cai Mingliang's style.
After entering the 70-minute long shot, the protagonist began his exploration in the dark. At this moment, the image began to enter a complete long. After there is no cost limit, Bi Gan took his favorite long shot shooting to the extreme. , Filming vehicles, drones, they use everything to create the industry’s ultra-high level 60-minute long shots. The breadth and depth are amazing, and the scheduling is extremely precise, even horses that are accidentally crazy. Can be retained in a special posture in the long shot. The integrity of time and space is preserved to the greatest extent, and through 3D this method, the depth of field relationship between the subject and the foreground and the background is emphasized, and a sharp sense of depth is emphasized. Good to fully experience and seek in the dream. The use of light is extremely restrained, as in the previous work, natural light is used a lot, and only a lot of light tubes are arranged in this part of the stage. In this part, the light tube that appears as a background scene is indeed a bit eye-catching, but its purpose is also to emphasize the dream. The color is biased towards dark green, just like the song "Dark Green Night", dark green has a more dreamy feeling, and it can highlight the inner anxiety of the protagonist in the process of searching and the space in the dream. Leave. The extraction and use of natural elements are equally excellent. In conjunction with the humid environment of Guizhou, the place with a trace of natural dreams is increasingly exuding dream-like magnificence. The flowing water droplets, the standing flames, the floating smoke, and the moist ground fully magnify the texture and aesthetics that the image should have. The "Four Elements" that Tarkovsky is proud of are passed down in his hands, not only to pay tribute, but also to chase him. Bi Gan is a person who admires "time". He is so obsessed with clocks and watches. He loves the soil that has been eroded by time and loves to explore repeatedly in the flow of time. This is his greatest characteristic. In addition, he used more symbols this time, and there are many kinds of spherical objects, many of which explode in the image, but they seem to be referential. I am still amazed by Bi Gan's "dream-making". The entire video is polytuned in "Roadside Picnic" and fully evolved. But the essence is still the same video poem, the mysterious atmosphere that was originally reflected is destroyed by Bi Gan's proud poem, and it returns to the poetic origin again. Based on a smoother and more complex long lens, blurring reality and dreams, and sticking to each other, the theater is where the protagonist’s dream begins, and so are we. He is really an extremely lucky person, and his debut work went to the world, and received the attention and recognition of the entire industry. With just the second work, he received the help of many people in the industry. Tang Wei is willing to play at a low price, and Zhang Aijia is unhesitating to help this young director,
In spite of the pressure of cost, this film has developed a brand-new publicity method and has received many negative criticisms. Also because of this publicity method, this film has affected a considerable part of the audience that does not belong to the audience group, and suffered bad reviews. It is predictable. I don't want to deny anything. This is normal.
But I believe there will still be many people who understand as much as I do, that China has the preciousness of such a young filmmaker. He is not necessarily the future of Chinese film, but the future of Chinese film will definitely have his place.
He may still need time to prove that he is creative. In addition, I really want to eat wild grapefruit now.
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