From a diachronic point of view, "Putting in the Name" has achieved a really big leap on the road of the Chinese blockbuster. Cruel war scenes, hot-blooded male friendship, expansive personal ambitions, dark political power and so on are the classic elements of commercial blockbusters. During the hours of watching the movie, the hormones in the audience have been surging. Compared with the previous domestic blockbusters, the progress of "The Name" is obvious.
The progress at the story level is most noticeable. The most criticized by the audience for the previous blockbusters is that their empty and weak plots cannot support the dazzling visual effects and the creators' subjective grand narrative intentions. "Form is greater than content" is the most accurate positioning for these films. "Famous Name" obviously learned the "bloody" lessons of its predecessors in this regard, which can be seen from the long list of screenwriters in the film. The film revolves around the narrative clue of "Three brothers sworn sworn names and sworn feudal affiliation with the Qing army to take refuge in the Qing army to conquer the city and conquer the land -- the contradiction between ideas and the tragic ending of the intensification of contradictions". The analysis of the film, the exposure of political power and tactics, and the flesh and blood of the characters, with distinct personalities, strongly support the brutal and bloody battle scenes in the film and the director Chen Kexin's grand narrative attempt.
Technological progress is also quite obvious. In the past, the positioning of "form is greater than content" in several domestic blockbusters, although there are reasons for their empty plots, but the wanton stacking of forms and lack of power are also reasons that cannot be ignored. The spectacular scene of "10,000 rats running wildly" in "Promise" and the "mosquito incense entertainment city" of "circles within circles" have already made people's appetites, and the comical violent aesthetics of dancing in classical dances to kill and be killed in "Night Banquet" is even more impressive. It is difficult for people to accept, and in "House of Flying Flying Daggers", the two heads of police have been fighting from the warm spring to the cold winter when the sky is full of snow. In contrast, the battle scenes in "The Name" are cruel and bloody, and within the scope permitted by the domestic censorship system, the film's brutal reproduction of the battle has been restored to the greatest extent. Among them, the attack on Shucheng was the most outstanding. The level of brilliance and cruelty was quite the style of a Hollywood blockbuster. It left behind "Myth" and "Ink Attack", which did not pay attention to details before.
However, we should not be overly complacent because of the progress of the film in many aspects. The production level of "Famous" is indeed much stronger than that of any previous domestic blockbuster, but it still cannot bear the hope of "domestic blockbuster" "Where", "Milestone of Chinese costume blockbuster" and other super titles. In a sense, "Famous Name" is very similar to the South Korean blockbuster "Taichi Flag Flying" that detonated Asia in the past few years. The two films have done a good job of imitating Hollywood, and the audience is also watching it. The blood is boiling, and the hormones in the body are surging. But after watching it, calm down and analyze it carefully, the gap between them and Hollywood classic blockbusters is still obvious, that is, the lack of an inner power that makes the audience linger for a long time. The reason is that the creators are eager for quick success. They simply think that the production of Chinese blockbusters is to skillfully put a story and theme with Chinese characteristics into the production model of Hollywood blockbusters. However, things are far from being so simple.
The biggest shortcoming of "The Name" is that the plot is too full, and the whole film is always in a state of tension and contradiction. There are two main reasons for this situation: First, Chen Kexin wanted to express too many things in just two hours. Chen Kexin tried to make an all-round presentation of the elements of brotherhood, humanity, war, and politics, so as to complete his grand narrative attempt and try to draw the audience's attention to each of these aspects; another reason is that Chen Kexin, he The desire for expression is too strong, and the whole film is always full of fierce conflicts. At a certain emotional point, Chen Kexin will mobilize all possible means to guide and control the emotional choice of the audience: close-up of facial expressions, hysterical Dialogue, vistas of tragic scenes, sensational background music... These tried-and-true techniques are used one by one. It is necessary for such emotional points to appear several times, but the effect of too many appearances is not outstanding. It can be said that every shot of the film is full of Chen Kexin's strong subjective expression spirit, and there is absolutely no consideration that when necessary, the rhythm should be put down to give the audience time for free thinking and calm analysis.
The way of civil and martial arts, one by one. Everyone understands this principle, but it is not so easy to actually implement it. The mistakes of "Famous" are exactly what Hollywood classic blockbusters are best at. Looking at the well-known commercial blockbusters such as "Braveheart", "Gladiator" and "Lord of the Rings" made by Hollywood in recent years, Their plot rhythms are relaxed and well-proportioned. In more than three hours, the tension of the plot is quite relaxed for at least an hour. This time is either used to tell some subplots or use some vivid details to better describe the main and secondary characters. . The whole film generally has two emotional points that contribute to the climax of the stage and a final climax paragraph. Pure sensational paragraphs are rare. Generally, this task is completed by the speech or sacrifice of the main characters in the final stage. This is the most reasonable rhythm control for a commercial blockbuster, which ensures that the audience can completely digest the ideas that the film wants to convey between the relaxation and relaxation of the plot, and will have endless aftertastes in the future. The mistakes of "Famous Name" in this regard directly led to the fact that although the audience continuously received strong emotional shocks during the viewing process, because they did not digest them well, their minds were full after walking out of the cinema. , but don't know how to think.
It can be seen that on the way forward for Chinese domestic blockbusters, although "The Name" has made gratifying progress in many aspects, it has not achieved a qualitative leap. On the whole, the surpassing of the previous domestic blockbusters cannot cover up some of its own shortcomings. Strictly speaking, what "Famous Name" achieves is only to successfully graft a story and theme with Chinese characteristics into the production model of Hollywood blockbusters. This is also the task that several domestic blockbusters tried to complete but failed to complete. . It is undeniable that this is a crucial step on the way forward for the Chinese blockbuster, but it is not the final one. South Korean commercial films stagnated after films such as "Flying the Tai Chi Flag" and stood still, which eventually led to a serious decline in the film industry in recent years. The teacher of never forgetting the past and the future, we should continue to walk on the basis of "Famous Name" until we have explored a blockbuster model with Chinese characteristics and Chinese temperament.
The road to China's blockbuster still has a long way to go; "Famous", it is not easy to say that I love you.
(YES Movie Club)
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