The pure and true love in the green age, the sudden look back after more than ten years, the parting of life and death, the memories that cannot be erased, these themes were originally very sensational and very tearful things. However, for an ambitious creator, sensational themes are more like a two-edged sword. How to tell a touching subject in a non-conventional way is the biggest challenge.
To make matters worse, the reason for separation of life and death turned out to be a terminal illness! Oh my god, a girl with leukemia, a tearful smile, a suicide note to a teenage lover - is there anything more cheesy than this?
Xing Dingxun didn't believe in this evil, and rolled up his sleeves to remake this youth novel that made all the tears of boys and girls. Although he was an assistant director of glasses, unfortunately he did not learn glasses' interesting narrative angle and delicate expression style. However, he has one thing that glasses don't have -- boldness. Let it be three seven twenty one, shoot it and talk about it!
It is estimated that it was the same courage that Xing Dingxun dared to remake Yukio Mishima's "Haruyuki". I wouldn't be surprised if he does a remake of "Norwegian Wood" someday, but that's off topic.
Because of the title, the storyline, I didn't have high expectations for this movie. However, I still secretly hope that Xing Dingxun can give me a little bit of surprise and tell an eight o'clock story in a moving and refined way.
He almost succeeded.
To say the biggest contributor, still has to be the director of photography Shino Tiansheng. He succeeded in bringing the gripping visual style of Spectacles' work into the film. The warm light and shadow, like the faint nostalgia of childhood memories, tell this story eloquently. The small town that seems to smell the smell of sea water, the sunshine on the campus, the silhouetted boys and girls on the island, these shots are all excellent. One of the episodes that moved me the most was the first time Ritsuko played the tape--she slowly closed her eyes, the passers-by and the background all seemed to be melted, slowly losing focus and turning into warm light and shadow , a drop of tears, slowly across her face.
At that moment, I was truly amazed in my heart. Reorganize, dissect, and refine the conventional plot, dig out the most touching part, and show it to us with the most beautiful images and sounds. We will eventually realize how, in our day-to-day mundane life, we rush through, symbolizing and conceptualizing precious memories. The love of a boy and a girl is separated from yin and yang because of a terminal illness - if it sounds cliché, it may only be because it is false. If the core of the tragedy can be visualized in the purest way, our numb and unmoved hearts will eventually melt.
From this point of view, Xing Dingxun almost found the right angle.
From the first shot, the dark room in the rainstorm, the backs of the two people, and the murmured dialogue seem to have nothing to do with love, but touch the weakest part of the heart. In the faint piano sound, the room without light, the leaves outside the glass window silently trembling in the rain, the window seems to have become a symbol of love, the future of two people.
The girl asked in a weak voice, "Are we going to make it?" The
boy replied in a firm voice, "Going to make it."
It seemed that all the promises about love in the boyhood were frozen in this moment full of symbolic meaning. in the lens. They may eventually be betrayed and forgotten with time and fate. But at that point in time, the courage to love and the belief in commitment to eternity were always so beautiful and pure.
In fact, the first two thirds of the film are pretty good. The cross narration of reality and memory, the scattered narration and splicing, made me secretly applaud. The appropriate choice of subject matter, sacrificing a little plot fluency in exchange for emotional resonance and expression style, may really be the correct method. In fact, no one would complain about such a story, even if it was told a little more jumpingly. Style, unconventional style, is the key.
It's a pity, in fact, from the middle of the film, you can already see that the director's narrative rhythm has lost its balance. Large sections of memory images are related to various details. If repeated to a certain extent, it will always make people tired. After the heroine was sentenced to a terminal illness, stereotyped narratives and performances began to appear in large numbers. The performances became artificial and the rhythm changed. It is a slow, tedious and futile sensationalism that never reaches the emotional peak it wants to reach. Of course, there are still some flashy clips, such as the wedding photos of young boys and girls, and the heroine running downstairs in the blurred background after learning of the patient's death. Those clips still give us some very warm feelings. It's a pity that these interesting episodes are eventually overwhelmed by stereotyped imagery.
In fact, if the director were a little bolder, cut out more unnecessary narratives, forgot the cheap tears, and concentrated the limited expressive force on the core of sadness - love, and the promise not to be betrayed by life and death, maybe it would really succeed . But the fact is, in the last hour, I was very exhausted -- to be honest, the hero and heroine, who played the tragic men and women in the terminally ill, were also very exhausted.
The result: When the male protagonist finally came to Australia and talked with the indigenous people about the center of the world, the rest of the dead, which should have been a moving episode, my nerves could no longer be moved. When the ashes of a certain woman disappeared in the wind, and the red earth slowly engulfed the little backs of the two people, I was not moved at all. The only feeling is: man, it's finally over.
It's a pity that if the director had the audacity to abandon some unnecessary sensationalism and intensify those strong, symbolic shots, replacing the cliché story with moving, even jumping segments, he really might have succeeded. It's still a little bit worse after all. The cliché sensational works and the touching style works are really only one step away.
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