【zero】
In July 2019, I saw "The Days of Betrayal of Big Brother: Filming is not for the sake of art, and there is no triumph in the film" , and regarded it as the best of the year.
In this article, the famous screenwriter Lu Wei's evaluation of the three major directors, Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, and Wu Yusen-are not people who can write well scripts .
These words are full of the arrogance of literati and are very interesting. Because of these words, I have the following article.
【one】
In 2006, Wu Yusen asked Lu Wei to write the script of "Red Cliff". Reed reads the information and uses the script to reconstruct the Three Kingdoms. In the end, the script was not adopted, and Wu Yusen personally made the knife. In the film, Xiao Qiao shouted to the horse "Mengmeng, stand up" from his hands. The movie is about grand history, but the audience laughs frequently in the cinema. Reed said that an epic was made into a cartoon by Wu Yusen.
As someone who has written the two masterpieces of "Farewell My Concubine" and "Being Alive", and has also worked with three directors, these words come out of Lu Wei's mouth and naturally have their weight.
So, these three directors who can't write well scripts always insist on writing scripts by themselves, and don't like fake hands with others. Is it because of self-inflation?
In my opinion, it may not be.
Kurosawa Akira , regarded as a master , once said: "If you want to be a director, then write the script. You only need paper and pen. Only by writing the script can you know all the details of the structure and the movie. Essence."
The script, the foundation of a play , is the foundation of the worldview of a movie. It is also inevitable for the director to be obsessed with the worldview of his own work.
Up to this moment, Wu Yusen has filmed more than 40 movies, and participated in half of the screenwriters. Before "Red Cliff", any one was enough to calm the scene.
Therefore, "Wu Yusen can't write scripts well", Lu Wei can say, you and I can't take it.
【two】
So why did Wu Yusen write "Red Cliff", which should have been an epic script, into a "cartoon" with laughter and embarrassment?
I think, in addition to what Lu Wei said, the author's own literary accomplishment is not enough to control the work, you can also borrow a line from Director Wu's own movie——
There is a type of director who, no matter how many movies he makes in his life, he is actually only shooting the same movie in different forms.
(Is this a kind of nostalgia?)
When filming "Red Cliff", Wu Yusen, who was already at the peak of his creation, was obviously of this type.
Director Wu's works include the romantic and romantic "Across the World", the heroic "True Color of a Hero", and the tragic "Blood on the Street".
These movies may be different, but there is always an emotional element (motif) that runs through them.
That is the feeling of "heroes cherish each other ."
And Wu Yusen directly expressed his most beloved "motif" in a movie. Not only did he write the best script of his life for this movie, he also dedicated his "violent aesthetics" . The pinnacle of technology.
"Bleeding Duo".
——Wu Yusen's film collection is a masterpiece, and it is also the best film he has ever made.
It is very dangerous to give this conclusion. If you accidentally lead the war, after all, Director Wu has also filmed "The True Colors of a Hero". In terms of influence, it is unmatched in Hong Kong films.
But it’s one thing to have influence first; it’s another thing to have quality first.
In all fairness, this is not a contradiction.
【three】
Movies are an art that connects "sound, light and shadow" , so you can't say that, only by telling the story well can you be a good movie.
In the same way, just telling the story is not a good movie.
Since I regard "Blood Two Heroes" as director Wu Yusen's career high, I must let everyone know how great this movie is in "sound, light and shadow".
Everyone knows that there are several "tags" in Wu Yusen's movies:
Double guns, standoffs, white doves, churches, slow motion, infinite bullets...
These "tags" are available in "Blood Two Heroes", and they are mixed and matched with each other, matching the plot and atmosphere, and appear in the most perfect form when they are needed most.
Wu Yusen's violent aesthetics is a kind of expressive art that guides the audience's emotions and expresses the emotions of the characters.
Whether it is endless bullets or slow motion of gunfire erupting, it is not to simply let violence stimulate the audience's senses, but to allow the emotions of the characters to be more directly conveyed to the hearts of the audience.
In "Blood Twins", the aggressive action settings are no less impressive than "Hot Detective", but the display of violence is more condensed than "The True Colors of Heroes".
One example is a sniper assassination scene in the middle of the movie.
This is a great show that seamlessly cooperates with action design, picture composition, detailed portrayal, music and sound effects, and emotional guidance, sublimating Wu style violence aesthetics.
In the movie, the killer played by Chow Yun-fat wants to assassinate a gang boss in a dragon boat race surrounded by heavy police and gangs.
The director used a contrasting montage to push the atmosphere and effect of the assassination to the top:
In this scene, the evaluation is only in eight words: moving clouds and flowing water, relax and relax!
The graphics, soundtrack, and action design are all concise and restrained, but they put the audience's eyeballs and emotions into the director's control.
This is the performance of director Wu Yusen's "skills" and the reason why some movies make the audience "attractive", while others make people "play."
【Four】
The "script" of a movie's quality often determines the lower limit, and the upper limit that can be reached depends on the "director."
Lu Wei said that Wu Yusen could not write the script well, but I dare say that the script of "Blood Two Heroes" is not only not bad, but also very well written.
Many people know that "The True Colors of Heroes" is full of major creators who project themselves in it——
Before that, Yusen Wu made a bunch of "bad movies", Ti Lung was the "outdated star" of Shaw Brothers martial arts movies, and Chow Yun-fat became a "box office poison" after moving to the big screen...
Therefore, the plot of the story carries the "emotions" of the creators themselves. Therefore, the performance of the actors is particularly entertaining, because it is themselves.
Three years later, when filming "Blood Two Heroes", the main creative had already opened up, so the film reflected more of the "emotions" of the main creative, but the "values" of the director.
For example, the killer Xiao Zhuang played by Chow Yun-fat, as a person who is on the verge of death every day, but he is not extreme, indifferent, or cruel, but a sentimental and righteous person.
He believes in "justice" and can understand the suffering of others——
He believes that "friends can't care about everything", even if they have just experienced a betrayal——
For a child who was shot on the road, he preferred to delay the time to escape and send her to the hospital for rescue. It is even necessary to see the child out of danger before he is willing to leave.
As a policeman, Li Ying, although reckless and upright, is rough and fine inside, able to penetrate the enemy's exterior and see his essence clearly.
They are like two reflections inside and outside the mirror, seemingly opposite and contradictory, but in essence they are the same.
The director expressed his recognized values to the audience through these two characters .
Except for the protagonist, the match has not fallen. For example, the killer manager played by Zhu Jiang——
For the sake of friends, you can be severely injured, you can think of yourself as a dog, don't need life, and don't need dignity.
What kind of spirit is this?
-"Chivalrous"!
An old spirit that has even been ridiculed and out of touch with the times.
In the movie, the director laughed at himself countless times, and what he insisted on has gradually been forgotten by the public.
Does the statue of Our Lady, shattered by the villain in the gun battle, show us the collapse of "morality" and "human heart"?
Are you also reprimanding the harm that violence brings to the world?
The insistence on values, the scolding of injustice, the praise of friendship, what the director wants to express in "Blood Two Heroes" does not make the audience feel greedy.
On the contrary, they are more like a hemp rope that is tightly kinked together.
This is not only because of the director's skill, a good script should be remembered.
The so-called classics must be able to withstand the test of time.
"Blood Two Heroes" is an old movie 31 years ago, but even if it is replayed today, it will not be outdated in the slightest.
This is the same as some truly beautiful emotions and persistence that will not deteriorate due to the passage of time.
So, as people who eat melons, dare to follow the trend and laugh at Wu Yusen for not being able to write the script?
(Manual dog head)
『End』
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