. This new generation of Japanese sword and halberd films released in 2010 did not make much waves in China at that time. At the moment of 2020, it is completely reduced to a hard disk movie. Incense is unknown in the deep alley.
For some older generation movie audiences, this film will cause serious discomfort. For example, as the hero representative in the movie - the role of justice, some of the thirteen assassins like to gamble, some like to go to prostitutes, and some are masculine Women take it all, and some are simply working for money... Such a heroic image would have been spit on a few spit, and then scolded a few hooligans and scum 30 years ago.
Thirteen Assassins is one of about dozens of action movies to watch recently. The reason for choosing this type of film was originally because I wanted to collect some information on the masculinity of the film in the context of the film, but later I found the male hero image that is disappearing more and more in the film.
Among the action movies that have been watched, if they are simply classified by region and time, there are probably the following: Shaw Brothers martial arts films, Hong Kong police and bandit films (including anti-drug, young and dangerous, action comedies, etc.), early Japanese swords and halberd films, Chinese traditional martial arts and new martial arts, Hollywood crime films, Marvel DC's sci-fi universe, etc. When examining the setting of traditional action films, there are often the following elements: the heroic image of the stalwart, the righteous mission given to the hero, a clear contrast between positive and negative characters, and the outcome that justice must win. From the perspective of viewing experience, the main emotional factors include the refreshing feeling of violent fighting, the excitement of blood-broken bones, the resonance of characters when they struggle and make choices, and the pleasure of justice winning. All of the above constitute the main cognitive and emotional feedback when watching hero action movies.
Looking at the shooting timelines of these dozens of films, the heroic images in the films have undergone an obvious differentiation process. On the one hand, this differentiation stems from the improvement of film practitioners' cognition of the world and the advancement of photography technology, but on the other hand, it cannot be ignored that the audience's cognition of characters is also undergoing profound changes.
The heroes in the early Shaw Brothers films and Japanese sword and halberd films are all in line with traditional morality and even have the image of an ancient gentleman. Their behavior must be bound by etiquette, and their character cores mostly include benevolence, heroism, loyalty to the monarch, and love for the people. Such a heroic image is like a demigod walking among the human body—the character of a god in a human body is almost perfect.
Since about the 1990s, the hero image in the movie began to become civilian. For example, in Jackie Chan's kung fu comedy, the hero in the movie may be a gangster from the street. Another example is the image of the reckless hero shown in some gangster films. Although the movie hero at this time was still the perfect character of God, his behavior began to have a human touch, and he seemed to be close to the crowd.
With the disgust of the mainstream moviegoers (such as the post-80s and 90s) in recent years for the hero's pure and magnificent deified character, the heroes in the movie have also begun to truly step down from the altar, and even anti-hero images have appeared. "Joker", which just won the best actor from the Oscars, also found a reasonable reason for the blackening of the hero, while "Thirteen Assassins" shows the persecution of others in a direct and unreasonable way. Heroic violence. In a sense, the extreme of the hero is the tyrant. When the power that people give to heroes is squandered by a character flawed hero with a noble sense of purpose, it is no different from a tyrant.
In fact, the change of hero image is not an accident. Changes in the worldview of moviegoers give this transformation a realistic basis.
The mainstream consumer groups of movies are generally concentrated in young groups between the ages of 20 and 30, that is, the post-90s generation in the current society. The special growth experience of the post-90s generation has created their unique movie viewing taste. When they were young, they accepted the baptism of the great hero in the movie, and deeply worshipped the charm and brilliance of the hero. In adolescence, he experienced the civilianization of the hero image, and found that he had the possibility of becoming a hero. But this possibility was broken when they gradually entered the society.
The development of modern networks from PC to mobile can be described as an epoch-making breakthrough. For the first time, it has brought the daily lives of two people in the northern and southern hemispheres closer in a real sense. At the same time, it also narrowed the distance between heroes and mortals. The post-90s have experienced a series of events that seem like black swans, such as star drug use, teacher molestation, professor plagiarism, and even businessmen can become presidents. The continuous occurrence of these events and the accumulation of quantitative changes have changed the cognition of some people. That is, a hero is also a human being. He can have the noble mission required by a hero, but also have the narrow-mindedness and selfishness of a mortal. Just as there must be darkness under the light, there must be a dark side of human nature in the glorious hero image. Therefore, whether it is mainstream commercial films such as "Train to Busan", "Joker", "The Grandmaster", "Knives Out", or some low-cost art cult films, the dark side of the characters is properly enlarged (this kind of The portrayal inevitably has exaggeration that caters to the audience's taste, which is not necessarily a good thing).
Are the audiences we meet today becoming more and more superficial, some film critics say? Don't want to think?
Actually not. For the current mainstream viewing groups, they have seen too many civilian heroes on their mobile phones, and they have also seen too many broken heroes. It's not that the audience has become superficial, but that some superficial tricks don't work for them anymore. The post-90s and even post-00s are the most diverse generation in the world so far. Especially after 00, they have been immersed in the information ocean of mobile phones since childhood, and they have seen too many bizarre things. They are directly or indirectly exposed to various complex and even bizarre characters in the eyes of the older generation. The traditional playful ingenuity to hide their shame and refuse to welcome them can no longer satisfy them, and they will even be disappointed. They recognized the complexity and diversity of human nature far earlier than the older generation. A hero is just a trait of a person's character, not the whole. Therefore, the differentiation of heroic characters is a matter of course or even an inevitable trend.
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