Since "Heroes", Laomouzi has completely bid farewell to the golden stage that once had the distinctive brand of the local era, and the audience's slot has changed from belittling and smearing their own local culture to achieve themselves, to only pursuing the embroidered pillow of flashy commercial giants. The starting point is good, and the higher the requirements, the greater the disappointment. In the endless criticism, Laomouzi has never been able to achieve a balance point between returning (conservative) and breakthrough (welcoming), and the glory is no longer, and he has become a besieged city that can't get out. and predicament. Two years ago, "The Great Wall", a "hybrid deformed child" that could not bear to look directly at it, has become a "laughing stock" for many people after a meal.
Although in recent years, through "Love of the Hawthorn Tree" and "Return", it can be seen that Laomouzi intends to go back to the old way to win the hearts of the people, but it still cannot be compared with the previous works. The classics that breed nutrition can no longer be replicated. Just like it is very difficult for our generation to make movies like "Blue Kite" and "Qiu Ju's Lawsuit", no matter how old tricks are repeated, it is useless. It is understandable to occasionally try to regain our feelings, but blindly repeating ourselves is definitely not the way out in today's commercialized era of liking the new and disliking the old.
For an ambitious old man who is unwilling to occupy a place, he should not be able to ignore the box office artistry like Tsai Mingliang or Hou Hsiao-hsien, and it is even more impossible to play a deep departure from the audience like Malick. Just when I thought that Laomouzi would walk on the "road of no return" and never look back, the appearance of "Shadow" rekindled hope. In the familiar strategy aesthetics, I put a neat martial arts dream, and I saw the possibility of having both fish and bear's paw.
Stories are often considered to be the soul and core of a movie. For example, even if there is no matter how bright and gorgeous the appearance is, without an excellent text to support, the value of a movie will be greatly reduced, and this is also after Lao Mozi turned to the business army. A place that has always been criticized. After the transformation, a series of blockbuster reviews of big productions and big casts are flashy and superficial words that appear the most frequently, like spells and nightmares that cannot be escaped.
Not an abstract stream of consciousness, on the contrary, a simplistic sense of emptiness. It is naturally good to be close to the audience in a simple and straightforward manner. Like Quentin and Finch, no one will say that they do not understand, but they lack the ability to tell stories and only do superficial skills, but they are always like the little braids of the old man. Hold on. And "Shadow" no longer makes me care about the importance of the story in Laomouzi's films as before, and the formal sense of the ultimate rise to the artistic level may make up for or cover up the lack of plot, the key is to sit Watch in theaters that deliver more audio-visual shocks.
The clear story structure in "Shadow" is like an understatement of a simple outline with a pencil. The fusion of Chinese-style artistic features with ancient style and cultural heritage of sound and painting is like coloring it. The location of (sublimation) is unforgettable. The story of "Shadow" I thought was like a game of "Gobang" played by Laomouzi. It doesn't require any brains, it's simple and clear. , the shadow is easy to distinguish, the human heart is unpredictable, and it deduces a game and confrontation about power and conspiracy.
All of them think they are scheming, but the results fall short. The treacherous and dark human nature can be seen as complex and changeable. The intention of the reversal is obvious. Although it has aroused the emotions of the audience, it is also suspected of being deliberately clever, but it is indeed a pleasing way to make the plot more layered and watchable, giving a dramatic tension with a sense of psychological contrast. . If you want to be profound and popular, grand and delicate, advanced and wise, and difficult to describe, Akira Kurosawa has only one. In Laomouzi, it is really not easy for the story to stand up.
Sound and painting are still Lao Mouzi's strengths, and Lao Mouzi's keen intuition and stunning use of color, who are studying photography, has always been a laudable advantage. From the "red period" of "Red Sorghum" and "The Big Red Lantern Hanging High" to the use of a variety of colors to imply meanings, changes and metaphors in "Hero", light has two brushes in terms of visual impact. , can be said to be the most advantageous weapon in Laomouzi's hands, like the sharp sword that Jingzhou stabbed into Ziyu's body with his back. In the interview, Lao Mouzi also mentioned that the first thing to think about before conceiving the plot of a movie is the picture, and this time the audio-visual language is more sophisticated.
Regardless of whether the design is against common sense or history, it does make people refreshing. After saying goodbye to fighting monsters in cooperation between China and the West, this time I played ink painting with Chinese characteristics and charm, which I am more good at. A particularly memorable scene is the fierce battle of shadows on one side, and the fierce ensemble of Zi Yu and Xiao Ai on the other side. The sound and picture complement each other. In the sound, it can be said to be the highlight moment with the most abundant information, which is fascinating.
The voyeuristic perspective is interesting, especially through the eyes of the mask, the thoughts and sights are both real and false; God's perspective overlooking the overall situation, like giving the picture scroll agility and vitality. The three main cool tones of grey, black and white run through the whole film, I thought it would be better if it could be lighter and plainer. Guqin's unique rhythm and timbre, click to stop, can be urgent or slow, distant and meaningful, meaningful, and the atmosphere creates a divine assist. In the battle of gossip, using softness to overcome rigidity and using yin to control yang, using slow motion processing, floating clothes and hair, splashing rain and soft body, bouncing bamboo poles and rotating umbrellas, beautiful freehand, dreamy, like a brushstroke The brush and ink, the clouds and the flowing water, are really wonderful.
The dense atmosphere is majestic, the mountains and rivers of the motherland, between the light and shadow, are like ancient humanistic paintings of landscapes. It's a pity that there are two points that don't match it. First, the lines are too modern and colloquial, which is a bit inconsistent; the actors are both evil and righteous, like crazy, some superficial and thin, and the fresh meat is still a little tender. An important piece is as crazy and devoted as Bell. Deng Chao plays the role of two very different people. His acting skills are still online, which is awe-inspiring. It is a pity that the two important pieces, the real body and the shadow, are mobilized. Xiao Ai feels that there is still a lot of value that can be tapped and played. Lao Mouzi's martial arts dream is not a continuation of the traditional martial arts mode and tradition similar to Xu Haofeng. There are very few fights in the film. Except for the tricks between umbrellas and knives, almost all of them are killed by one move.
In the final analysis, it is based on the Western drama conflict. On another level, it is very intuitive to realize the cruelty and accuracy in the aesthetics of violence. Laomouzi seems to have done a simplified subtraction process for everything, cutting out all the trivial details that he feels are irrelevant, and eliminating them all (such as relationship deepening, density of tricks, image characterization, and causal foreshadowing), just like a single stroke of writing , strong and powerful, in one go, just like the "shadow" in the poster, without any hesitation, whether to buy it or not is a matter of opinion. The first half is slowly advancing, and the second half is a little eager for success, and the rhythm is chaotic. It would be better if there was a reasonable division of priorities.
The sneak attack by the umbrella, the oxygen tank and the pretentious posture are a bit dramatic, but seeing the appearance of Qingping when she died, the viewing experience before and after has been counteracted accordingly. As a stage play, all problems will be solved easily. The film ended abruptly under Xiao Ai's terrified expression, leaving an ending that the audience can freely imagine. The mantis catches the cicada, and the oriole is behind; , true and false, and false and true. With a little calculation, Laomouzi is nearly seventy years old, and he doesn't have any feeling of being old. Shaking, compared to the previous harshness, is now more inclusive.
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