This charismatic film became a huge hit after its release in 1990, becoming one of the top-grossing films in the United States. Since then, when it was screened in Europe, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan and Hong Kong, it also broke the local box office record and won the 1990 Oscar for Best Picture. The reason why this work is so popular with audiences lies in its dual achievements of thought and art, as an American critic put it: "A film combines the elements of comedy, suspense, scientific fiction and romantic legend, etc. It's rare to have a successful combination."
The film is ingenious in structure, novel in style, plot twists, and concise in language. As far as the subject matter is concerned, it was originally a very common one, but it was just a remake of stories such as "Purpose Money to Kill Your Life", but the writers and directors used a unique and ingenious artistic structure to make this ancient and outdated subject glow with new brilliance. , which is refreshing to the audience. Using Sam's techniques such as "Out of Body" and "Yin and Yang are separated and cannot communicate", not only aroused the strong interest of the audience, but also triggered many interesting plots, which were both unexpected and reasonable; both twists and turns, Again and again. For example, Sam's undead always guards Molly's side, expressing his love and attachment to her many times, reminding her to beware of the villains in disguise, but unfortunately separated from the yin and yang, and not known to Molly, that's why Sam's undead is prompted to go. He asked Oda, a psychic consultant, to convey his affection and concern for Molly through Oda's mouth, but this was difficult for the world to accept. Another example is that Sam's undead waved his fists and feet angrily many times to beat his murderer Rovelli and the mastermind Gal, but because they were separated from Yin and Yang, his fists and feet had no effect on Yang people, so they prompted Sam to go to the subway in the subway. It was only after the death-defying ghost learned the ability to actuate objects in the world with his mind that he avenged his deep hatred. These seemingly ridiculous plots are very reasonable.
The director of the film also changed the tradition of the past, and did not treat the soul of a person after death as a bloody, unrecognizable ghost or a terrifying weird image, but treated it as the character's original face, the difference. It's just that his body is dead and can be seen by other characters, while his soul is still alive, walking, talking, thinking, and feeling, but it can't be seen by other characters, can hear. For example, after Sam was shot by a murderer, his soul was detached from his body, but his undead image was still exactly the same as before, and he stood by watching Molly cry while holding his body. His undead can perceive everything in Yangshi, but the people of Yangshi (other characters) cannot see him.
This ingenious artistic structure not only pushes the plot forward and is quite fascinating, but also creates a new and unique style: there are elements of realism, and elements of romanticism, symbolism and expressionism; There are both tragic and comedy elements, and at the same time, the elements of thrillers and romance films are integrated, forming a mixed and orderly, strange but not strange, fresh and smooth, colorful style. The above is a masterpiece in the style of American Liaozhai.
What is even more commendable is that although the film shows the entanglement between Yin and Yang, and it is difficult to communicate with each other, the language is very concise. The director did not explain and explain anything to the audience in language that was divorced from the characters, but with the help of the characters. The transformation of image and plot to communicate the communication between the play and the audience.
From the perspective of content, the film has a clear theme, rich connotations, and evokes associations. In the most superficial sense, it clearly expresses the common theme of "good will be rewarded with good, and evil will be rewarded with evil", but in a deeper sense, with the help of ingenious plot structure, it not only reveals the evil in the play The despicable psychology and modalities of the perpetrators also mobilized the audience's sense of participation, allowing the audience to conduct a profound moral judgment on the perpetrators psychologically while watching the film. For example, when Gal wanted to withdraw a huge amount of money and tried to find the customer's deposit password from the computer, he was extremely anxious, and suddenly saw the computer typing keyboard beating on its own, and then the words "Murderer" appeared on the screen. , he was terrified. The audience agreed that this was the inevitable psychological reaction of the perpetrator's "guilty of being a thief", but also agreed that it was Sam's undead, and believed that Sam's move was "well done! It should be so!" At the same time, he suddenly found that the items in the room were shaking violently, and the books fell to the ground, and he was so frightened that he was too frightened. In this regard, the audience not only agreed that it was caused by Sam's undead, "It should be so!", but also agreed that it was caused by the illusion of the murderer. Especially when Sam's undead was fighting with these two bad guys, he used his mind to create an animal body, which frightened the two bad guys into a panic and fled in embarrassment. In the end, one of them was run over by a car and the other was stuck on the broken glass window. And when their souls were dragged into hell by the demons of hell, the audience applauded. From this, we can realize that it is not only the characters in the play who are punishing the perpetrators, but the choreographer subtly mobilizing the audience's sense of participation, forming an invisible moral court, allowing the audience to continuously conduct moral judgments on the perpetrators as the plot develops. Judgment, mockery and flogging. Through the subtle reveal of some psychology of the people in the play, the director unknowingly prompts the audience to associate with the real society, which further expands the realistic meaning of the film. As one American film critic put it: "The Spectre is an allegory of the struggle between good and evil in the contemporary world."
Through the ingenious structure of "Yin and Yang are separated, it is difficult to communicate", the film vividly and forcefully expresses another touching theme - love until death. The Los Angeles Times commented on the film: "In our increasingly fragile and unpredictable world, 'Ghost' is truly captivating: it shows a lover who haunts him even after his death. Beside her lover, protect her from being victimized, and try to convey to her the love that he could not express to her before his death." In today's unhealthy social atmosphere where people are greedy, intrigue, and adopt a glass of water on marriage issues, Kind ordinary people yearn for truth, goodness and beauty, social justice, and pure love, and "Ghost" just satisfies this aesthetic ideal and requirement of ordinary people, no wonder it will cause such a strong sensation.
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