The biggest feature of My Big Fat Greek Wedding is that Cinderella and Big Frog are mixed together at the same time. Not only that, it even made a vulgar story of "older youth on marriage" take on the mission of cultural integration, and lead the audience to travel through the troubles and happiness of the little people with a humorous but not deliberately funny plot. From the beginning to the end, the film is full of tolerance for the ordinary and shortcomings, without the slightest pretentiousness. This humble artistic style is so prominent that the emotional issues that were originally very important in light comedies are relegated to the second place, but I clearly remember that the long-lost invigoration and joy have been continuously advancing with the story of the film.
Any form of fusion has a one-sided nature and is always accompanied by conflict and friction. Moreover, it is always one of them who compromises first and accepts the other party with a tolerant attitude to make integration possible. You can't imagine that two equally strong and conservative cultures will easily surrender to their opponents. Contrary to our belief that the more mature and ancient civilizations are more inclusive, Americans seem to feel that their young and diverse cultures are the most receptive.
The Greek culture shown to the audience in the film may be very fresh in the eyes of Americans. But in the eyes of any Chinese, these things are usually like talking about their own lives. There is such a "tacit understanding" between two completely different civilizations, which I did not expect. The huge family life of the Greeks is familiar to the Chinese who pay attention to the clan and family. When Ma Qi, a family member of all sizes, is in battle, the cohesiveness of sharing the same honor and disgrace as well as the exclusiveness of the outside world are even more familiar to Chinese people. The most interesting thing is that the two ethnic groups are similar in their attitudes towards marriage. The film’s heroine Tora’s marriage was resisted by her parents not only because it violated the three chapters of the family’s covenant (marry a Greek; give birth to a group of Greek children; then feed everyone until the end of life), but also on a deeper level. The reason is that this is Tora's own choice, she did not seek the opinion of the family in advance. From this we can see that marriage is not just a personal act in the eyes of the Greeks. It is at least responsible for the rise and fall of two families and affects the interests of a group of people. It is an out-and-out "collective act." This is similar to our Chinese tradition of marriage and marriage thinking of "combination of two surnames is good. Americans who admire individuality may only cast a curious and incomprehensible look at this philosophy of life, but never know that this kind of survival wisdom cast in time can be found in different versions of different civilizations. annotation.
Experience tells us that a work that shows culture will definitely focus on portraying the soul character that embodies this cultural trait. The character in the film who is responsible for this mission is Torah's father Gas. Gass is first of all a typical image of a father, with a strong "lovers complex", but he still doesn't know how to express it. The film uses a lot of space to show the affection between father and daughter but does not use a sensational dialogue. The director even deliberately put them in a state of opposition between emotions and values. However, this approach to the father-daughter relationship did not make people disgusting, but aroused the audience's empathetic attention. The film opens with Gass coaching his daughter in the rain, and then draws the curtain off during his wedding blessing for Torah. Together, they outline a sour and sweet love between father and daughter. Secondly, Gass is also a supporter of the "Greek civilization supremacy" and has an extraordinary sense of superiority in his own national attributes. He is keen to trace every English word back to its origin in Greek, and declares that there are only two kinds of people in the world "Greeks and those who aspire to be Greeks". Such people in life may be regarded as the object of ridicule, but in the film, Gas has become the biggest obstacle to his daughter's love and marriage. As a key role leading the continuous development of the plot. The success of the character processing of Gas will directly "determine" the artistry of the entire film. The reason why I say this is because the film "I" is a comic effect of ridicule the differences between cultures. Many of the characteristics of Gass can also be easily exaggerated as a burden until it is portrayed as an "artistic model." However, the director wisely avoided this most tempting trap, and insisted on the understanding that includes tolerance until the end of the film. This kind of artistic "self-discipline" seems easy to say, but it is not. Just imagine what the effect would be if the same subject matter was handed over to the "Ferrari Brothers"? Of course, you may laugh more freely, but you will never feel the timeless aftertaste that this film gives you.
In addition to the fresh style, the performance of the main actors in the film is also remarkable. The first thing that needs to be clarified here is that the judgment of the performance itself is actually a topic with blurred boundaries and chaotic standards. It is also common for us to approve too many exaggerated performances as wonderful performances. The author believes that aside from the pure technical part, a successful performance should be able to show the true form and temperament of the character to the maximum. If this assumption is true, then the performances of most actors in the movie can be judged as wonderful. Throughout the whole work, there are many characters, but no one, including the protagonist, uses "exquisite" acting skills to elevate his artistic image. Instead, he prefers to use a "rough" performance method at the expense of "damaging" the image. The price is to pursue a simple and innocent beauty. The result of this choice of performance style is not only an increase in the authenticity of the story, but more rarely, the disappearance of the "barrier" with the audience makes the emotional communication on and off the screen extremely smooth.
"The inspiration of art comes from life, and the life of art comes from reality", these are two famous sayings that have almost been uttered badly. However, in the face of the choice of interests and the temptation of reputation, artists tend to bow to the rules of the game faster than the audience. The commodity attributes of movies have made Hollywood's high-investment and high-return marketing methods a golden rule. The "Gadfly" that flashes from time to time not only makes those blockbusters gritted their teeth and hates, it is also difficult to really shake something. My Big Fat Greek Wedding will always be only a few anomalies and cannot replace the mainstream of Hollywood. The difference is that it can make People enjoy the pleasure of winning the lottery.
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