If the "three uncorrected views" can be the base material of film art, then it should not be a crime of the film; if the "three uncorrected views" is only a cover for a movie, then it shouldn't exist in the movie.
(The article was first published on the public account "Movie Madhouse", WeChat ID: dianyingfengrenyuan)
A few days ago, the happy twist team attacked the theater with a new work-this time it was not an adaptation of its own drama, but a remake of an old American film into "The Richest Man in Xihong City". Shen Teng and a group of Taiwanese actors joined hands to stage the "Prosperity Force". people". After the film was released, as the box office soared, there were also civil controversies. The biggest controversy was whether the three views of the film were correct.
I haven't watched (and don't plan to watch) "The Richest Man in Xihong City". Just before the film was released, the debate about "whether the three viewpoints of film are important or not" was already unfolded. In order to express my views more vividly, the author will combine the typical film "Old Boy" in this respect to elaborate my views on this topic.
The "Old Boy" mentioned here is not a microfilm that made Chopstick Brothers famous, but a Korean movie that made a sensation in Asia in 2004. Like the previously mentioned films such as "Golden Dreamland" and "Little Forest", this movie is also adapted from a Japanese manga of the same name (the original is also translated as "Tiehan Qianglong"), which is considered an earlier well-known remake of a Japanese story in Korea Movie.
"Old Boy" and its title have a certain degree of popularity in China, mainly because of its "three wrong views". On the one hand, it is because of the various bridges in the film that break through the ethical limits (live swallowing octopus, close family relationships), etc. On the other hand, it was also because of Feng Xiaogang's comment that was "extremely abnormal and dirty, which made me instinctively refuse". But is the nature of this film really so scary? Not really.
The core idea to be expressed in the film has been almost clearly pointed out in one of the inconspicuous lines: "Even if I am not as good as a beast, don't I have a reason to live?"
In fact, the theme of the original work is far from the same, but Park Chan-wook was later adapted to make it easier for the audience to understand (friends who have read the original work can fill in the idea of how the concept is presented in the movie), but also to make the "three views correct" "The reflection on it was carried out more thoroughly. Park Chan-wook, who was born in philosophy, experienced political turmoil in South Korea, and experienced the change of times, at least before going to Hollywood to shoot "Stoke", each of his works brought his own dialectical thinking on social issues and mainstream thought.
(The following content involves spoilers)
In the film, the actor Wu Daxiu was imprisoned and framed for 15 years. After being able to get away, he embarked on the road of revenge. But in the end, he found that he was the object of revenge, and for good reasons, then the question is, who is the most hated person among him and the person who imprisoned him? The reason for Wu Daxiu’s revenge was that he found a pair of brothers and sisters who were in love, and revealed their love affair to outsiders. Some people may say that incest itself is shameless, but it violates the privacy of others and brings others. Is the hardship that cannot be shaken off right? And in this two-way revenge, no matter which side, ultimately loses a right, is to live well.
The three views are determined by people, and there are different mainstream three views in different eras and different countries. Even the Confucianism, which we despise today, was considered to be the correct value in the past. However, there is one thing more important than maintaining ideas, which is how to use the ideas you firmly believe in to live well. As another line in the film said: "Whether it is sand or stone, it will sink in the water." In the face of cruel reality, everyone will come to the same end by different paths. It can be seen that in this life, your thoughts and concepts can support you to live. how long. With this core, "Old Boy" has not been reduced to a cult film of Miike Takashi-style. Any subsequent violent movie can't surpass "Old Boy" at least at this point, including its American version-because the American version of the plot only completes revenge, nothing more.
In addition to the core of the story, the outstanding thing about "Old Boy" lies in its film language. Let’s not talk about the long shots of the fight in the corridor, this section just mentions that everyone has an impression. But the author will list four other techniques in the film: One is the use of matching editing. The principle is very simple. It uses similar things, sounds or pictures in two different scenes as the connection point for editing, but Park Chan-wook’s application is not chaotic. In order to make the editing appear natural, the second is split screen, which combines the pictures of Wu Daxiu's digging in the secret room with the pictures showing current affairs of the fifteen years, except for the time. The passage of time also emphasizes the gradual alienation of Wu Daxiu from the outside world through changes in the world; the third is the arrangement of positions. When Wu Daxiu confronts his enemy, they are in different scenes in the same scene, and when facing each other twice. The different scenes also reflect the change between the active and passive situations of the two at this time; in the end, Wu Daxiu accepted the last brainwashing, and at the end, the picture of the tape rewind through the tape recorder shows that the brainwashing is completed, and the tape recorder itself is also a part of the film. The props (and it happens to be a prop in the revenge scene in the fantasy), will not appear redundant, but also increase the narrative effect. Such a superb technique is hard to find in movies with more outrageous three views, and it may not be common in movies that conform to mainstream values.
Through the analysis of "Old Boy", the author believes that whether the three views are correct is not the key to judging a movie, the key lies in how the film expresses the three views. It's like a person's statement that opinions can be different from the mainstream direction, but at least it should be justified, not maverick for the sake of maverick. Before "Old Boy", there were also many movies involving violence, incest, pornography and other elements, but most of them were just gimmicks, eye-catching, and had no effect on the theme or the story. It’s not that movies involving non-mainstream values cannot be entertaining, but at least they must have a complete theme expression. Many film and television works that attract audiences under the banner of "challenging conventions and subverting the mainstream" are often mentioned in the beginning. , In the end, it's over. It's impossible to justify it. It's far inferior to a commercial advertisement that also promotes "maverick". If you want to make up for the lack of expression, you must at least show the talents of the creators in other aspects, such as "Old Boy", or the recent French film "Vengeance". At least the shooting techniques and director skills make the audience amazed, but some movies There is really only the gimmick of "Three Views Are Not Right".
If the "three uncorrected views" can be the base material of film art, then it should not be a crime of the film; if the "three uncorrected views" is only a guise for a movie, then it shouldn't exist in the film in the first place -this The sentence applies to any type of movies at any time and in any country, especially all the movies that have been shown in domestic theaters recently.
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