If one day, you leave school, if you are in school, you have made friends, you are confused about what you want to do in the future, you have encountered one or two teachers who have influenced you, at a certain moment, you recall your youth, full of will be the arc of life.
It is the kind of blue-purple, dazzling like daytime.
" The Half of It " made Jiquan collectively climax because of the director: female, Chinese, lesbian; female protagonist: female, Chinese, suspected of lesbian; female lead: female, Chinese, once an abandoned baby. These labels fill the film with drama. Labels are a good thing, for communication. For works, most authors don't like it very much, especially low-yield authors. This is like the wave-particle duality of light, which is a pair of paradoxes: light is first and foremost a particle, but its trajectory is a periodic wave. The protagonist, Ellie Chu, is first and foremost a suspected jerk, but she also encounters love and friendship from different genders during her teenage years.
"Unfortunately", " The Half of It " is not a gay movie, it is a regular kid's youth movie with simple characters and common plot.
The plot is very simple, and it is a new film, so I will try my best not to spoil it.
No problem teenagers; no fights; no murders; no pornographic news; no illnesses, car accidents, amnesia; no entanglements; .
Some are all adolescence, things that only adolescence can have: the ignorant affection of local male classmates, the lonely thoughts of single-parent precocious girls, the lonely heart of school flowers, the publicity of limelight teenagers; silent and frustrated parents, lively families , and the elusive church; it is about these ordinary people and scenes, but there is a flickering line that has been grasping your heart, asking you to open the chapter of your life with the protagonists.
Tell a story well, create a few characters, express an attitude, and leave a few famous scenes. With these 4 points, it is enough to be an 8-point movie. 80% of movies don't do that.
*1. This is not a love story, but a story about having the courage to chase who you are*
Whose youth is not confused? The younger you are, the more sensitive you are to the three questions of philosophy.
The director chose a relatively closed town, the last year of high school graduation, with 2-3 main characters and a few related characters, telling the story of a period of youthful schooling, when everyone was overtly and secretly following along. Be willing to face the reality and the story of your own struggles.
The person who cursed the infidels repeatedly in the opening chapter is the father in the sofa and the mother who refuses to improve the formula.
But it seems that it is only during adolescence that the confusion about who you are is so justifiable, and it is allowed to be confused so naturally without being evaluated.
After becoming an adult, confusion will be labeled as "crazy", "middle-aged frustrated", "conservative and simple" and so on.
Nor will he say that Plato, Camus, and probably will no longer read the novel, and then be saddened by the plot.
The director gave up all the settings of the drama, and used each detail to advance the story. There are tight and loose shots, and there are many fine settings for the split. It is quite like a person with artistic skills. Remarkable.
If there is really a director’s shadow in the heroine’s story, you can see that she was confused about whether to study science or literature in high school. Maybe she chose science against her original intention at the time (Wu Siwei, before directing “Face”, Got a master's degree in computer science at Stanford and worked as an engineer at Microsoft), so it's teased in the movie.
I remember when I was studying a long time ago, at the University Film Festival, I heard a female director in school, she said that when she was young, she wanted to go abroad, and she always pretended that she wanted to study business and make a lot of money. Filmed. Then tell us that what you really want to do will keep scratching your heart, no matter how many times you go around, it will come back.
Maybe someone will interpret whether this is a polyamorous love story, or who is in love with whom, and who has fallen in love with whom. Stop kidding, how many people you liked in adolescence really stayed in your adult life.
It doesn't matter at all.
The important thing is that they have come and told you what is friendship, what is youth, what is mutual support, what is the beginning of love, what is infatuation, what is tacit understanding, what is dislike at first I like it very much and then I don't like it, what is it that life can still be like this. And you, you have to solve the problem of who you are, just as he and she also have to solve their own problems.
As the director said, this is not a story that everyone gets what they want. I think it's a story for everyone.
*2. No one is perfect, but the characters in the film have their own cuteness*
Here is a girl who is self-disciplined and self-respecting, strong and determined, filial and powerful, but she also has her own chaotic and selfish side; she knows that doing so will hurt the unsuspecting girl, but she quietly becomes a hit. In other words, she just vaguely felt that something was wrong, but she still couldn't help accepting this task.
There is also a kind and honest, brave and innocent, self-aware and ignorant, reckless and delicate boy. He has a clear self-knowledge in the pursuit of biological instinct, so he entrusted this task. However, the plot did not develop as he expected, but he was following his heart at any time.
There is also a charming and intelligent, sad and gregarious, dull and sensitive, weak and strong girl, she has been in the clouds, indecision, indecision in reality, heart and performance, just like what everyone really encounters Reality. We are all decipherers of fate, and in the real world, we don’t have a God’s perspective like watching a movie. We struggle with truth, representation, and illusion, and long to be known.
There are also a group of troublemakers, stunners, gossip squads, Yan Dang, parents who are not so much like their parents, and children who are not so like children. The main line of the film's story is clear, and the characters are not too greedy to chew. Most of the writing about the parents is used on the heroine's father, so I can calmly set up the role of the father from beginning to end.
And the existence of these four people, plus a few other seemingly non-existent people, has made the life of this town and the growth of everyone jump out of this town. These stories happen in every corner of the world. These lovely people could be someone close to us.
This may be the fascinating part of this movie, because the audience will use their imagination to guess what these 3 or 4 protagonists will become when they grow up.
*Three, love is granular, not only family, friendship and love, it makes people grow*
Every love is complex and diverse. I heard Kang Yong talk about "The Granularity of Emotions" before. I think there's love too, which is the best bit of The Half of It .
It gives the granularity of love: between Paul and Ellie, there is a kind of comrade-in-arms friendship, also called comrades in arms, because of a common goal, apart from the ruthless flow of water that everyone understands, they also dig trenches together. Love; between Aster and Ellie, there are two "poets" that resonate with interest, and they can also be called confused friends, because there are common unsolved mysteries; between Paul and Aster, they are imaginary lovers to each other; Paul and Mr. There is a sense of acceptance and mutual assistance between Chu, because they care about the same person, they have found the action force to shoulder their own responsibilities bravely, can they be called peer brothers, and even Trig has an appreciation for Ellie, or the public The idol's appreciation for another potential dark horse.
I believe that it is the director's intentional and deliberate pursuit to capture the level and diversity of love and to make love appear in various forms. If the audience feels it, you do it.
That's why I'm glad " The Half of It " isn't a gay movie. Being gay is not a form of love, nor is it a classification. Just as the toilet is divided into men and women, it does not change its essence as a toilet, squatting or sitting is the form of the toilet.
When we know the granularity of love, our tolerance will be much more. Every pair-wise relationship has its granular attributes, and there is no need to label it, nor do it have to draw conclusions and stuff it into the three narrow spaces of family, friendship and love.
If you insist on labeling, go ahead and coin new words.
*4. There are many moments, which are footnotes of youth, confused and clear, vague and innocent*
I've been thinking about the role of the philosophy teacher who wrote "Others is hell" on the blackboard in this youth film.
She seemed to be the first to know Ellie's true emotions and thoughts, the only objective bystander.
Perhaps because she is a philosophy teacher, she sees clarity, sees innocence, filters out confusion, filters out ambiguity.
She talked to Ellie like an adult, an equal conversation, not condescending or serious.
She's the mirror of these teens, so she doesn't let the film fall into chaos. Because in fact, if you think about it carefully, no one of the 4 people has a 100% clear feeling about the other person.
In the minds of philosophy teachers, these will gradually drift away with the passing of youth.
Our youth will eventually pass away. When the trajectory of life becomes clearer and clearer, you will surely miss the confusion and ambiguity of your teenage years.
Because, it means that there may be other possibilities in your life.
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