The film "The Insider" tells the story of a performance company owner and underworld leader who was betrayed and colluded with prosecutors with no background and background, acting from an outsider to an insider, and completed the story of revenge against the political, business and media gangs.
The ingenious part of the narrative of this film is that the prosecutor changed from an outsider to an insider, and in the middle passed An Shangjiu's first revenge failure, which constituted a plot reversal. But has this film, which exposed the collusion between the political, business, literary, and criminal circles, completed the victory of just values? otherwise! I'll put it aside for now and talk about the comments at the end.
Let's talk about the narrative first. In addition to "reversing the plot", director Yu Minho also likes to use echoes (it also appeared many times in "The Ministers of Nanshan", you can read the film review I wrote). For example, Prosecutor Wu was called an outsider when he was a police officer, and in the end he became an insider of an interest group. There is also Prosecutor Wu who said to Wen Finance that dried squid is hard and unpalatable, and editor Li used dried squid as a metaphor for the scandal at the end of the film. It's probably more than that.
After talking about the narrative, talk about the audiovisual language. The film also has some obvious features in the use of audio-visual language, such as the use of mirrors and glass. French psychologist Lacan Jacques has a set of psychoanalytic theories, which are used in film criticism as a "mirror" theory. This set of theory is broad and profound, but in practical application, mirror is often expressed as illusory, addicted to non-self. Mirroring is emphasized in several places in the film. For example, An Shang looked in the mirror for a long time to admire himself and hoped to be noticed by the public, and then the focus returned from the mirror image to reality, indicating that this was just an illusion and it was difficult to realize (ironically, he was indeed noticed by the public, but the situation was not what he imagined). There are also mirrors in the criminal trial room of the Prosecutor's Office, and the reflection of the windshield of the front of the car when the bank president jumped off the building, and the glass door of the bookcase of the prosecutor's boss's office, which reflects the kneeling prosecutor, and When An Shangjiu pinched Editor Li's neck, he saw his face through the broken glass from the window.
Another use of virtual reality contrast is lens zoom. From the picture-in-picture zoom to the editor-in-chief background, the prosecutor appeared, and An Shangjiu tortured Wen Finance and zoomed repeatedly. If these zooming treatments were only used to explain the scene and the appearance of the characters, there was not much expression, then at the end of the film, the prison iron bars constituted The frame of the picture changes from the virtual to the real and then pushed to the distance with the real silhouette of the prisoner editor Li. What does the virtual and real changes formed by this continuous zooming represent? It is estimated that on the one hand, it is to brew a sense of mystery, after all, it was transferred from the end credits to this piece, so the brewing effect is obvious; on the other hand, I hope that the director wants to create a suspense - after all, is this game true? Is it over (remember that Editor-in-Chief Lee had a dinner date with Congressman Kim of the new party, and also proposed to replace the pawn of Congressman Zhang)?
In addition to the virtual and real changes, the use of color in this film also has some characteristics and ideographic effects. For example, the environment in which An Shangjiu tortured Wen Finance was relatively dim, but the color temperature was warmer. When An Shangjiu became the target of abuse, he was in a very bright closed space. The light and dark turned black and white. Another example is the editor's office. Normally, the desk should face the window and use natural light to work, but in the film, it is facing the window, which means that editor Li has a ghost in his heart and is afraid of facing the sun. What's more ingenious is the copybook "No Regrets My Heart" hanging on the back wall, which is a very clear and meaningful contrast.
There are also some very dramatic use of light and shadow colors, such as the dialogue between An Shangjiu and reporters in the title sequence. There is also the "prison cell" environment of editor-in-chief Li at the end of the film. In terms of color, when An Shangjiu went to seek revenge for the editor-in-chief, the ever-changing neon outside illuminated his face, creating a complex "face", expressing complex feelings for his beloved eldest brother, and The grim expression of imminent vengeance.
For the camera position and movement, there is also an ideological place in the film, which is at the end of the film. The camera first took an overhead shot, then slowly, the camera was lowered and panned until it reached the level with editor-in-chief Li, and then slowly pushed into a close-up, panned to the side and back, and finally lowered to a look-up position. But I think this whole movement would be better in one shot, and it can complete the ambush of a conspiracy and the creation of a sinister atmosphere in one go. There are also two very "weird" but wonderful shots in this process: Editor-in-chief Li has two shots that look directly at the camera. The reason why it is strange is that in a movie, the camera cannot be exposed, so the actors generally do not look directly at the camera. But the wonderful thing is that these two direct glances just gave the audience an eerie feeling.
Why is it spooky? Let's go back to what I said earlier, the suspense buried in the narrative of this film! Has justice triumphed? Let's combine the various virtual and real shots and complex color contrasts of this film, the real and the fake, the fake and the real. This game was broken on the surface, but in essence it was just a change of actors and another game to continue to collect money, bribe elections, and deceive the people.
A gang of political, business and literary black people confuses the public, confuses black and white, controls the current situation, and plays with the interests of the country and the nation. However, what is even more frightening is the numbness and helplessness of people. Even if you know the truth, how can you face the truth. The so-called truth is only enough to talk about after dinner. It is very realistic that people only care enough about their own interests, their own interests in life, and even just their right to live. What's more terrifying than darkness is being completely blind! It is no wonder that editor-in-chief Li of the black media drug media changed from begging for the people's life to fooling the people as pigs and dogs. Ordinary people in this game are afraid that they will never be able to squeeze in and break!
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