1.
The film is narrated with Shujuan as the first point of view. This entry point is very unique. Telling the story from her point of view has a cruel taste of childish innocence. In the last scene, Shujuan recalls the fourteen hairpins (entering the church). Fourteen in total) The scene of walking into the church with graceful and graceful manners, the thousands of styles are frozen in one frame, and the incense disappears with a cloud of smoke, which makes people sigh and sigh.
2.
In terms of character creation, there are two small details that I think are handled well. First, the female students do not allow the fourteen hairpins to use the toilet, and the girl who was pushed and shoved was shot to death by bullets. This plot setting made Meihua and several others in the fourteen hairpins feel guilty emotionally, and their consciences were condemned. Second, when the Japanese soldiers broke into the church, the female student knew that it was too late to hide in the cellar. In order not to implicate the fourteen hairpins, Shujuan decided to go upstairs in a panic, which made Yu Mo and others keep in mind. These details have more or less enriched the image of the characters, added the flesh and blood of the characters, and also played a role in promoting the plot, which is a relatively good place.
But beyond that, the rest of the characterization is overly masked and imposed a subjective view of right and wrong. Perhaps it is the relationship between the script, the fate of the characters is still a little bit far from directing people's hearts. The movie has erected almost all the images of Chinese people. It is a collection of truth, goodness and beauty. Of course, these may be based on the original work, but the movie is a movie after all. Due to the limited space, it must be light and heavy to highlight the highlights. Since the movie is called "The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling", it should feature the Thirteen Hairpins as the protagonists. The Chinese people in war are worthy of praise. Felt a little overdone. When the concept of good and evil is deliberately moved to the screen by the director, and there are too many positive characters, it distracts the audience's attention and weakens the shock of the image of the thirteen hairpins.
There are already a lot of characters in the movie itself, more than a dozen female students, fourteen women from the Qinhuai River, a group of National Army Yu Yong headed by Instructor Li, Father John, George Chen, Mr. Meng and the Japanese. Except for the Japanese, almost all of them are positive images. The overly obvious division of justice and evil, as well as the large-scale eulogies, greatly reduced the authenticity and credibility of the characters, and also drowned out the characters worthy of highlighting in the Thirteen Hairpins, leaving everyone behind. In my humble opinion, the image of the National Army does not need to be so special and can be weakened. As for George Chen, the boy in the last thirteen hairpins, I don't think it is necessary to arrange a scene where he also devotes himself to the female students. Stealing the brilliance of the Qinhuai River women is a bit superfluous. As for the Japanese, in order not to blindly vilify the Japanese, the movie created the role of Hasegawa, a Japanese. He played the song of his hometown in front of a female student. It's a complex character worth digging into, but I didn't expect that he would have lost his role and was stillborn. And even with this role, "playing the piano" somehow imitates the taste of "The Pianist" and "Schindler's List". Painting a tiger is not an anti-dog, and there are still some problems with the character characterization.
3.
In order to achieve internationalization, half of the films are in English, and the Chinese also speak English in the films. In fact, most foreigners know the bad deeds of the Germans, but they know very little about the history of Japan's invasion of China. Therefore, if a movie wants to tell this story well, the most taboo thing is to oppose the right and wrong on both sides and impose right and wrong on the audience. Instead, it should give historical facts and leave it to the audience to judge for themselves. Unfortunately, the movie failed to do this.
Moreover, although the film wants to cater to the tastes of foreigners, in fact, it is still the delicate feelings of the Chinese people. First of all, the image of prostitutes in the hearts of foreigners is very different from the image of classical prostitutes in the hearts of Chinese people. How can the rouge of Qinhuai River be explained in one sentence from a female student? Against the background of 5,000 years, the strength and forbearance of Chinese women, the virtues, art and tenderness of Qinhuai River girls, how can foreigners understand? "The businesswoman doesn't know the hatred of the country, but she still sings the flowers of the backyard across the river." Can foreigners understand the allusions and irony behind this poem? When Cardamom said that Pu grew up handsome, he risked his death to go back to take strings and then die tragically, I thought, can foreigners understand Cardamom's hatred of being born to the wrong family and seeing Pu Sheng's hate for marriage? When Hongling gave all the money she had earned in her life to the female student and said that she wanted her to live for her, I couldn't help but wonder, do foreigners know that what she handed over to the female student is her whole life? I am afraid that only we Chinese people can understand these simple but touching emotional catharsis unique to Chinese people, because this is the cultural identity that has been deeply embedded in our culture for thousands of years, and we Chinese people's own kindness consensus.
At this point, I thought to myself, it’s a good thing to talk about historical topics, but foreigners don’t understand it and don’t buy it. It’s better to talk about problems in our real society. After all, the times are the same, and it will be easier for foreigners to understand. Instead of sticking to the Oscar's cold ass, it's better to make our own movies. One day gold will shine. So much so, why bother? It is better to ask for help than to help yourself, just like everyone counts on Bell, and asks him to "help us" again and again, starting with George Chen, then Yu Mo, then Mr. Meng, and female students. But when it came to life and death, if we had to choose thirteen, it was the Chinese themselves, who came forward one after another.
4.
In fact, the theme of the movie is not perfect, the tone of the movie is too depressing, and the most depressing part is the selection of the hairpin at the end. To put it uglier, this is a story about Chinese people fighting to die. It would be too sentimental for us Chinese to read such a story for ourselves. After all, the story ends in tragedy no matter what. So after 140 minutes of watching it, I just felt that my heart was blocked and panicked.
5.
The rendering techniques of the film are used too much, to the point of flooding. At the beginning, in order to show the cruelty of the war, the people in the war are struggling, and they spend a lot of money to move out the tanks to shock the audience. Isn't this really "Black Hawk Down"? In fact, in order to achieve this effect, it can be achieved by using more blasting effects. Tanks are all gimmicks. Immediately afterwards, in order to show the righteousness of the National Army, the scene of the bomber approaching the tank with his body uses slow-motion photography, and is accompanied by touching music. This scene gives people goosebumps. It's definitely an excellent material for patriotic education. It's just that it's so emotional when it first came up, which makes people really caught off guard. Afterwards, Instructor Li fought against dozens of Japanese by himself. Although it was very touching and hated, isn't this really "Soldiers in the City"? Is Instructor Li really not a superman? After that, the scene where Cardamom was raped made people cry, and I was so moved that I wanted to peel off the little devil's skin, but after all, this is a movie, do you have to use bloody scenes to make people cry? The large-scale sensationalism uses too much force every time, which makes people not only panic in their hearts but also feel very deliberate. Really touching and shocking, I think, it doesn't need to be like this, right?
6.
Finally, let's talk about looking for girls. I think that although Ni Ni is good, her English is clear and her pronunciation is good, but she still speaks in a too eloquent tone, perhaps because of her "Queen of England" style in her movie. But I think her performance is still worthy of recognition, after all, she is just a fledgling, and it is already very good.
Maybe my point of view is more moderate, the movie is by no means flawless, but as stated in the text, Xia Yu is wrong. But fortunately, at least the flaws do not hide the flaws, and it should be regarded as a conscience of a domestic film: daring to face up to human nature and history, this has been regarded as a solid step forward. As for the Oscar, what is the significance of winning it or not?
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