In "Those Years, The Girl We Chased Together" (hereinafter referred to as "Those Years"), Shen Jiayi has a line to point to. She said that there are many things in life that are futile. Speaking of this, I suddenly remembered that the futility here is not only about mathematics, nor is it boring learning, it also includes many things in life, such as campus love. Looking back to understand, it has also become the annotation of the main line of love, a sigh.
Some people say that more than 90% of college couples will break up after graduation. Otherwise, when men fall in love, they are helping others to support their wives. Correspondingly, when a woman falls in love, it is to train and educate men so that they can become good husbands to others. It all sounds reasonable, love is like an online game, boring and gaining experience, but it seems a bit nihilistic to say that, and it is vaguely pessimistic. What is love? Faced with this film, it became a primary issue. Friends who have seen the film have always been suspicious. She couldn't believe it. How could Ke Jingteng be so stupid that he didn't dare to express his sympathy? Just like in the movie, from the outsiders' point of view, they were obviously already alright. If you need to catch up, it is obviously superfluous and set up a trap.
Judging from the love scale of the hero and heroine in the film, even though "Those Years" has many inappropriate scenes, it can only be a pure love film. The two of them just stroked their shoulders and held hands, but did not touch the restricted area of the Thunder Pond. As for the crazy kiss, that's just a good imagination. Even the exclusivity that is easy to appear in love is solved by itself in the movie, everyone can chase after each other, and they are still good friends.
Since Ke Jingteng has an autobiographical element of the Nine Swords, perhaps, starting from the otaku nature of the Nine Swords, it will be much easier to understand the film. The movie chose a lot of interior spaces, classrooms, rooms, college dormitories and even the basement of a fight, all of which confirm the essence of the house. Compared with the banyan tree on the rooftop of "Nine Drops of Wind", the student days of "The Girl We Chased Together in Those Years" seem to be a bit boring. Except for the study competition, other things are rarely mentioned in the performance (the university is especially excessive). No matter how impulsive and free-spirited Ke Jingteng is, he is always closed (conservative) in his heart. Everyone else liked Shen Jiayi from the beginning, but he didn't behave accordingly. In the face of Shen Jiayi's initiative, he has always been cowardly, timid, unconfident, and habitually attacked by childishness. Perhaps, he has never been able to understand that what he loves is actually an imaginary Shen Jiayi. In front of a perfect mirror, he will always feel imperfect.
From the youth films of new Taiwanese films to "Blue Gate" and "Midsummer Light Years", "Those Years" seems to have gotten rid of the traditional confusion of youth and orientation. The movie is reminiscent of Korean sex comedies in many places, but the storytelling tone is approachable from start to finish, with occasional exaggerated scenes. Whether it's Angry Birds, Crazy Pistols, or Cowboy Escapes, there's a peculiar effect of this kind of exaggeration that you'd suspect is heavily made up. But who can deny that sex is the most annoying thing in adolescence? Plus, there are so many learning scenes in this movie. That's all, the school thing has probably been talked about for the most part.
The film has an excellent reference, that is, "Nine Falls" in 2008. Both films adopt the story structure of falling into reminiscence, unfolding and ending with rituals, echoing the beginning and the end. School uniforms, baseball, Zhang Yusheng and small groups. In fact, there is no saying that they are like each other. After all, they are all youth past events that happened at the same time period (1994 to 1996). The slight difference is that "Those Years" has a time span, and the protagonist has gone through middle school, college, and adulthood, while "Nine Falls" is just a standard high school past. In my opinion, although there are many knives in the name, the nine knives did not make the movie fall into "How many knives do you have in your youth". When it comes to those routine things, Yang Dechang has long established a monument. It's not that there is no "youth cruelty" in the youth film, it loses. On the contrary, "Those Years" resolutely abandoned this kind of ambitious pursuit, and focused on love. As for homosexuality, which has become a common problem in Taiwanese films, there are jokes from quadrupeds to hexapods in the film, which are quite humorous.
If we discuss the meticulous script, editing techniques, sound processing, etc., it is also the director's first feature film work, "Nine Falls" is indeed better than "Those Years" in terms of film language. But on a popular level, "Those Years" also has some ingenuity, such as the one-strand way of chasing women, and the different types of classmates. Every story must have a fat man, obscene AV and water bottle details, which always make people smile. Many youth films pretend to be tragic and try to leave the audience depressed, but "Those Years" is optimistic and positive, and a bit more open-minded. This reassurance is even more difficult when one considers that it has extended into the adult world. How many people would sincerely bless an old love? How many people will reflect on their naive and ridiculous? In this impetuous age, too many people feel good about themselves, denounce their exes, and hate those bad memories. After all, selfishness, self-defense. Of course, the corresponding voice of criticism must be like this: the nine knives are too ideal, and what you don't get is always the best, how can there be such a congeniality and pretentiousness... After all, they still don't believe it . In those years, those things you always knew but didn't know, the youth projected on the screen, how much can you see yourself? 【International Herald Tribune】
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