"Qing Ya Ji": Guo Jingming's Aesthetic Feast
Text | Zhou Liming
About the author: Film critic, bilingual writer.
01
On December 25, the Chinese movie "Guo Jingmingyue" reached its climax.
For some people in the world, this day represents the quack landing of a certain person; for those folk beauty lovers who have come all the way from reading pictures and literacy, it may mean the rising sky of another person. Although both things require a strong belief, the latter allows you to look at it with a 45-degree angle.
"Guo Jingmingyue" is like a gorgeous slow-motion blockbuster, from early December when "Qianlang" Er Dongsheng was filmed in the bathroom on a variety show, to the producer's masterpiece (the name "I don't remember", I just remember the filming of "Red Fox" to death "Scholar" - are you playing the two male protagonists?) And then to "Cold-Blooded Banquet", which I thought was starring Yi Yang Qianxi... It feels like a gorgeous and elongated Hermes costume, sweeping the floor of fallen leaves.
And I'm like an ignorant elementary school student.
When I was fortunate enough to enjoy the first part of "Little Times" with hundreds of middle school girls, I found that my IQ was seriously insufficient. I could barely understand many of the plots, and in the "wow" exclamations that sounded from time to time, I kept tearing at my gradually graying hair, and asked myself over and over again: "What is this?"
Later, I tried "Jazz Track" twice. The first time I watched it for about 15 minutes, the second time I had to be patient and watch it for half an hour... But I still don't understand why they started fighting. So, gave up again.
Before that, I had been complacent about my film comprehension ability. For example, after watching "Mulholland Drive" once, I wrote three long essays for interpretation and evaluation.
It can be seen that, compared with Director Guo, David Lynch's so-called nightmare narrative is nothing but pediatrics. (By the way, "nightmare" is one of the words that Director Guo loves to use. I would like to pay my respects.)
02
I watched "Qing Ya Ji" from beginning to end, and I didn't doze off or go crazy.
There were a lot of things that I didn’t understand in the first hour or so. Half an hour before the end, there was such a short paragraph. The background of the story rushed over, like a hail of bullets in narrative art. For me, a Qianlang audience who is lazy and doesn't read the original book, it's like a slap in the face: Who told you not to read the original book in advance? Friends who love the original can get every point.
I regret that I didn't read "Little Times" and "Jazz Tracks", otherwise I would have deeply understood the subtleties of those two series of films. However, I still look forward to the third "Jueji", even if Director Guo does not sell the property for auction, I believe that the wealthy capital masters will actively sell the property.
On second thought, although Guo Jingming has been upgraded from writer to director and from literature to video, he may have made invaluable contributions to promoting reading and improving literacy. If you don't read books, you will feel like an idiot when you enter the theater.
"Qing Ya Ji" is adapted from the "Onmyoji" series of novels by the Japanese fantasy novel master Yumeni Tapir
"Qing Ya Ji" also made me realize a major feature of "Guo's Aesthetics". (I know that Director Guo uses the word "system", but I am afraid of writing it as "system" by mistake, so I use the term "aesthetics".)
After deep reflection after the screening, I finally realized that the narrative of "Qing Ya Ji" is first slow and then urgent, and relaxed. This is like the interspersed use of slow motion and fast motion. At the beginning, you can tell the story, using a stretched rhythm, so that you can fully enjoy the two male protagonists. At the end, the conversation suddenly changed, and the plot was shot like an arrow. Give you.
Don't we all like to use multiples when watching movies at home now? Director Guo has designed it for you a long time ago, sometimes with multiples of 0.5, sometimes with multiples of 2, so that you can both praise in cadence and applaud faster. Storytelling at a normal pace? That's really low.
I even think that Director Guo has found the ultimate secret of film art, that is, constantly changing the narrative speed, turning ordinary into extraordinary, extraordinary into flying, and then waiting for the praise of the fan group.
It is precisely because Director Guo's film narrative is not out of the norm, so the story has never been his focus. The story is just a carrier, just like a shopping bag, you can also put things in a plastic bag, but the director Guo provides LV bags, you have a lot of face when you go to the vegetable market with your back.
If you emphasize that you are afraid of being crushed and put on the top, and you are not afraid of breaking things and put them on the bottom, then you are old-fashioned. The essence of this bag is not what it contains, but the label on the outside of the bag.
This label is the three words "Guo Jingming": always besieged, never conquered.
Director Guo is good at photographing handsome guys, and even Zhao Wei speaks with jealousy. Actually, this is not accurate enough. Director Guo is best at photographing handsome guys who are not yet famous.
We know that celebrities have their own halo, and Wu Yifan from the "Jazz Track" series and other traffic, although they have been forged by the "uncanny valley", they are still themselves. The same is true for the two male protagonists in "Qing Ya Ji", who act very seriously and competently in scenes that require a strong belief to believe.
However, when a row of handsome guys appeared neatly at the climax of the film, posing in an indescribable pose, the rotten girls in the theater seemed to fall in a row. With that effect, it is estimated that even Wu Zetian would be jealous and scolded his own harem butler.
What "Idol Trainee" and "Brothers Riding the Wind and Waves", Guo Dao can mass-produce exactly the same handsome men with his own strength, and seduce the souls of rotten girls all over the world. Director Guo has more S cards than words with S in the dictionary. He can save all the stiff-faced brothers.
Some people say that Director Guo once again turned the movie into a fashion magazine. But do fashion magazines have snakes that look like dragons?
In the imagination, the fashion devil and her followers knelt down one after another, chanting words in their mouths: "No! No! We can't even shoot handsome guys as well as the fourth director."
03
If it is said that "Little Times" made Shanghai a mythical Shanghai, the female characters in it are gods and goddesses, and the male gods in it are actually immortals for you to worship from afar, then, when it comes to "Jeji" and "Qingya" For fantasy genres like "Fantasy", the level and skill of immortals have undoubtedly been greatly improved, and they have completely gotten rid of the logical fetters of the human world.
When criticizing Director Guo's works, one often makes a mistake in positioning: you measure it from a worldly perspective, but people don't want fireworks at all . Holding the fairy grass that Bai Niangzi didn't steal back then.
If you don't realize this, then you are like those more than 100 screenwriters who can only watch Director Guo keep counting the money from a distance.
In the world of immortals, everything is perfect, and the appearance of Shanxi county will never appear. Aesthetics, isn't it that everything must be beautiful, everyone is full of emotions, and at the same time, they write their emotions and anger on their faces. The expressions are like CGI special effects. Can't fit.
Chinese movies love to make special effects blockbusters. From "The Promise" to "Three Lives III" to the three-headed "Asura", there are only things you can't think of, and nothing we can't do. What I'm most looking forward to is that Director Guo moved "Little Times" to that fairyland version of ancient times and remade a four-part series. Think of the four beauties running on the elevated road and drifting past the Milky Way in slow motion. What a wonderful scene.
It is said that there are two "Qing Ya Ji", which is really too few, it should also be made into four parts. From a certain point of view, "Qing Ya Ji" is a variation of "Cold-Blooded Banquet", which is "Little Times" set in the Tiangong.
If you like Guo Jingming's previous work, you will definitely like this one, because his aesthetic style is amazingly consistent, there are male characters who are feminine enough to make a mother's love overflow, and they are so beautiful that even straight men don't want to watch more The angelic beauties at one glance all have emotional to crazy lyrical dialogues, and there are philosophical monologues in the minds of middle school students.
In short, it is like a French palace built in a new district. The Rococo carving is so dazzling that it is mistaken for artificiality to be the highest state of art.
And this, Director Guo can pat the chest of any topless actor: all of this is definitely not plagiarism, but authorized aboveboard.
It is estimated that Dream Pillow Tapir will argue: This is really not mine, this is Director Guo's masterpiece, I just provided a little inspiration.
Editor | Xu Yuan
Typography | Turner
THE END
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