Obviously, the sword that Wong Kar-wai has honed over the past eight years is full of ambition. This international director, who is good at describing the psychology of characters and the sentiment of urban petty bourgeoisie, is determined to catch up with the craze of co-productions this time, and he is determined to make a splash in the Lunar New Year.
Ye Wencai is a popular kung fu film theme in recent years. Wong Kar-wai won it early and was the first director to prepare in the film circle. But because the terminally ill patient with procrastination continued to suffer from terminal illness, he gave up his perfect debut opportunity to Wilson Ye and Donnie Yen.
Compared with the "Ip Man" series, which has already made the audience preconceived, "The Grand Master", which has whetted the audience's appetite, is a pseudo-kung fu film with a broken style.
Close-up and slow motion
In traditional Hong Kong-made martial arts films, close-up and slow motion are also essential medicines in action design. The tiger's footsteps and the majestic movements of the hands can both describe the action moves to the audience through close-up and slow motion, dismantle the movements, help the audience to grasp the key points in the fast fighting, and appreciate the beauty of Chinese martial arts.
Close-ups and slow motion are the necessary components of Wong Kar Wai's urban films, but in this play, I have to complain, there are really too many close-ups and slow motions. In addition to the feet and palms that you can see in every fight, there are also many cigarette butts, train chimneys, tea cups, foot basins and the like.
Wong Kar-wai also has a special feature of using mirrors. All the people photographed do not have foreheads, and everyone has a close-up of the yin and yang faces. Of course, this also completely highlights the acting skills of Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi. I have to say that in addition to Tony Leung's electric eye, which is Wong Kar Wai's ace, Zhang Ziyi is also very prominent this time. Zhang Ziyi's ability from the beginning of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is that she can play any supporting role as the main character. Her thin twitching eye bags and slightly quivering Adam's apple made "The Grandmaster" renamed "Miss Gong Er".
The concept of north and south
Wang Jiawei hyped the concept of "north and south" in the full text. From the moment Master Gong held Ye Wen, he took out a piece of cake and said, "The martial arts are divided into north and south, so is the country also divided into north and south?" This is politically correct lines. The North-South concept is also used in the film, which nakedly conveys Wong Kar-wai's ambition to unify the mainland market.
Ye Wen represents the Southern (Fang) school of martial arts in Foshan, while the Gong family, who often faces life-and-death disputes such as "is there anyone" in the family, represents the Northern (Fang) school of martial arts. economic representative. Such a text narrative is the unification of rigidity and softness, south and north. For Ye Wen and Gong Er, the north and the south are the tender feelings secretly in their hearts, and the veneer conveys the heart in one third of a second; for Mr. Gong and Zhao Benshan, the difference between the north and the south is the hometown in their hearts that they cannot go back to. Open nationalist feelings, unavoidable humiliation of bereavement.
In the southern part, Wong Kar-wai used the concept of "rain (water)". It rained heavily at the beginning of the fight, and then in Zhang Zhen's part, he shot an inexplicably contrasting rainy night fight almost in parallel, which was used to set off Ip Wen's "steady" and "" Benevolence". (The short-brimmed hat that Ye Wen wears all the time can be understood as Ye Wen's personality. In the rainy night, everyone was soaked and drenched, revealing an ugly look, but he was wet but dry. With a face, it implies that he is alone. The brim of the hat is so narrow, implying that he only wants to cultivate by himself, and does not want him to cross.)
Except for the rain that has been falling, a very Wong Kar-wai-style metaphor has been used several times: Ye Jia’s iron in the rain The door, reflecting the figure of Ye Wen's robe, rippled. This ripple is not only the waves in Ye Wen's heart, but also the ups and downs of Ye Wen's life, but also a metaphor for Ye Wen's attitude towards life that overcomes rigidity with softness.
In the northern part, heavy snow appears in every scene. In addition to the visual effects, the heavy snow also represents the persistence of the Gong family. Master Gong's generosity of martial arts, Gong Er's protection of the family. In addition, there are two scenes that deserve to be discussed separately. One is that after Ye Wen and Gong Er made a confrontation, they sent a letter to convey their love. At this time, there was a very rare panoramic shot, Gong Er was standing in the snow with his back to the camera. Wang Jiawei, a person who likes to lean around to see other people's pores, is willing to use such a far lens, it is obviously a rhetoric, expressing in Ye Wen's heart, Gong Er is a sacred and snowy existence. Everyone has such a piece of snow in their hearts. The person in the snow may not be the person next to you, or even you have only seen him once, but there will be snowflakes floating in this corner forever. Another special snow scene is an interlude in the story after Gong Er's death, comparing Gong Er's sluggish image of smoking a big cigarette in a smokehouse with her practicing boxing in the snow, no matter whether this can no longer move forward in life How unbearable the woman looks now, but her innocent heart has always been pure and soft like a piece of snow.
hint of drama
In addition to the scene comparison, Wong Kar-wai will not miss a single scene in his performance of the opera. In the film the drama also shows the difference between North and South.
Zhang Zhilin's godlike casting is definitely the most suitable for this role except for Leslie Cheung, which is more charming and meticulous than Bai Xiaonian in "The Wind".
In Cantonese Opera, it is the male androgynous male who sings Hua Dan, but in Peking Opera, it is the masculine female singing the beggar.
At the end, Gong Er said to Ye Wen that if he had studied drama with his temper, he would sing "A Dream in the Garden" if he was tired of singing "The Female General of the Yang Family". It is also the use of drama to suggest that he is tired of the martial arts life of fighting and killing, and wants to return to a woman, and there are some romantic stories of life and death, but there is no turning back.
Film type
Obviously Wong Kar-wai wants to make a biographical film. The story uses a lot of historical facts and is narrated by Ip Man from birth. Like a ghost that travels through time and space, standing in front of you and telling you about your life.
I remember a joke to teach everyone how to write the lines of "Wong Jiawei", which is to add special number symbols to some daily meaningless actions. For example, "April 16, 1960, one minute before three o'clock in the afternoon, you are with me, because of you and I will remember this minute.", "When I was closest to her, the relationship between us was The distance is only 0.01 centimeters, I don't know anything about her, but six hours later, she likes another man."
In "The Grandmaster", Ye Wen also remembers the chronology of major events in his life very clearly, but this At one time, although there were still a lot of voice-overs in the narration and scenes, Wong Kar-wai did not use the concept of time without restraint, but used a lot of network and Weibo language to systematically provocative lines. Every dialogue between characters is like a passage of quotations from Chairman Mao before speaking during the Great Leap Forward, and every character is like a book of "Proverbs" and a "Appreciation of Xie Houyu". Let's go back to his conversation. As a result, the Gong family is like an excellent teacher of the year. Every time they talk to Ye Wen, they are full of deep meaning and inspiration, and finally end with their expectations and messages for Ye Wen.
The characters have a very clear location and background introduction, and the ins and outs of each main character are clearly explained. This should be dominated by Zou Jingzhi's academic style of play, but it is different from the "Ip Man" series. Although the characters Living in a specific history is a swaying little person in the turbulent history, but important historical events are not explained in a large space. The historical background of the fall of Manchukuo and Foshan only brought passive character actions, but did not participate in the main plot. It is significantly different from the "Ip Man" series, which highlights Ip Man's arrogance in resisting foreign invasion, and mainly relies on the background of Japanese invasion. Obviously, although there are some differences in the style before and after "The Grandmaster", it is still a Wong Kar Wai-style art film that expresses the emotional journey of the protagonist's personal inner world.
Wang Jiawei's taste is
like mutton, with a very strong personal style. People who like it especially like it, and people who don't like it will never understand, but no matter who it is, he can smell him from a radius of 800 miles. Like the sunglasses he himself always wears, the thoughtful character language and the repetitive personalization of the plot builds Wong Kar-wai's personality.
Flickering light, slow movement of characters, close-ups of prominent eyes and details, few and unclear language, fatalistic colors, lonely and stubborn beauties, and roles that live in the past and cannot move forward are the fixed postures of Wong Kar-wai's films.
The most obvious one is Gong Er talking to himself to the wall when he entered the Taoist way, which is consistent with the most talked about bridge section in "In the Mood for Love". There is Zhou Muyun's wandering in Ye Wen's eyes, and the loneliness of peach blossoms in Gong Er's eyes.
In addition, in the first half of the film, although almost everyone's face is indeterminate, only Ye Wen's face often has double shadows. Every time it is when Ye Wen faces a major choice in life, it symbolizes Ye Wen's inner hesitation.
When Mr. Gong brought Gong Er into the Golden Tower for the first time, Gong Er's elegant dress, fair face, and refreshing hairstyle were immediately different from those around her who were dressed in gold, silver, grease and powder. There was no need to speak, Gong Er. The character and image come alive.
It can be noticed that Gong Er's face in the first half is the only one that is clear and bright, which shows that she is different from any "people in the martial arts" who seek advantages and avoid disadvantages and wander in the arena. She is not only the only female character in the whole film, but also the More stoic and brave than any man. She has fixed principles and indestructible goals in her pure heart ("The Gong family has never lost, the Gong family cannot be without people"), so her face is clear.
The Image of Material Representation
Wong Kar-wai's films are the representative of the petty bourgeoisie, whether it's a can of pineapple in "Chongqing Forest", a ticket in "In the Mood for Love", or a button in "The Grand Master" The wonderful ingenuity of material representing the feelings of characters.
The fur coat was prepared by Ye Wen for a date with Gong Er in the north, but he was helpless. In order to survive, the impoverished Ye Wen had to pawn off his fur coat. It was Ye Wen's painful choice between spirit and material, love and bread. But pawning off his coat doesn't mean he's giving up his persistence. He secretly hid a button, which is a last resort and uncompromising, and it is his last tender nostalgia for the utopia of beauty.
The last time he met Gong Er, Gong Er, as an explanation, solemnly returned the button to him, which was the final conclusion of their relationship.
Although this film is still full of strong Wong Kar-wai style, with fine workmanship and excellent actors, any tricks that pass by are old and respectable actors in the drama world (for example, Jin Shijie only has one line, Xu Jinjiang only participated in a group photo, which is Only Wong Kar Wai has the appeal), but it may be because the film takes too long to shoot and the material is too much to express the content, the space is limited, it may also be because Wong Kar Wai has tried unfamiliar subjects, and it may be because Wong Kar Wai The ambition to transition from an art film director who portrays delicate emotions to a commercial director who captures the mainland market is too obvious (Zhao Benshan and Xiaoshenyang are the two major failures, especially Xiaoshenyang. Since he came out inexplicably, the tendency of the whole film, The rhythm has completely changed, the pseudo-wuxia film completely tore off the last disguise and turned into an out-and-out Wong Kar-wai-style film), the whole film is a bit confusing (Zhang Zhen's insignificant scenes make people still not satisfied).
Every shot and every paragraph is wonderful and can be tasted carefully, but after the combination, it loses its luster. I hope this is the result of the hasty release of the producer rather than Wong Kar-wai's own mistake.
But whatever the reason, the release of the draft version of "The Grandmaster" this time disappointed Wong Kar-wai fans.
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