Not surprisingly, Bi Gan and his "Last Night on Earth" set off Cannes and became a hot topic in the city. Like Roadside Picnic, "Last Night on Earth" will probably be the kind of movie that divides the audience. Whether you like or dislike this kind of film, sometimes it is like treating religion. It is difficult to explain with logic whether you believe or not. It is an instinctive feeling and a momentary thing.
It is also difficult to describe such a movie. If the film work is the communication between the creator and the audience, then "Last Night on Earth" almost gave up language communication with you, and does not intend to give you space for discussion, just press you firmly. Flirting and teasing in the seat. If there is a plot, it can be summed up simply: On the longest night of the winter solstice, Luo Hongwu, played by Huang Jue, returned to Kaili, and when he met an old friend, he remembered the past, and all his memories were blurred in the shortest night of the summer solstice 12 years ago. . Before that dazzling super-long shot, there was a confusing or even depressing emotional splicing. The director's consistent online aesthetics improved the audience's tolerance for the rambling plot, but it was still a test.
The fascinating place in the film begins with the long shot of a dream like a dream in the middle of the film. Luo Hongwu in the film came to Dangmai to find Wan Qiwen played by Tang Wei, walked into the theater and put on glasses to watch the film, and the audience of the theater also entered. 2D to 3D audiovisual conversion. At this moment, the movie returns to the interpretation of the dream, and it also turns into an alienation of memory. People follow Luo Hongwu's footsteps, go through mine tunnels, mountain villages, go up and down stairs, and even leap into the air, completing a dream with a dream Chinese encounter. In this incredible long shot, it is difficult for the audience not to pay attention to the subtlety of technology, but it will still be wrapped in a huge sense of immersion. In this dream narrative, the plot buried in the front is vaguely pieced together into "because so", white The cat, Wan Qiwen and their mother appeared one by one, but they were still weightless between understanding and puzzlement.
I believe that there will be many movie fans who will go to the theater repeatedly and try to find out the complex story lines hidden behind the pictures. It is also absolutely certain that in Bi Gan's world, his characters are also related to each other, and there is a self-contained one. the grand "universe". In the two works, there are almost the same core events: the childhood shadow of the mother's departure, the grief of the teenager who died of a friend, and the dog-blood love that robbed the eldest brother of the woman, each of which is not new, and has also been used by too many classic movies. explained. But frankly, until now, I don't care about the truth of this "universe", and I'm also very skeptical about whether the text behind the image can provide greater thinking value and perceptual shock than serious pursuit of story content.
In this long long shot, full of ingenuity, the rotation of the ping-pong paddle creates the illusion of flight, the watch representing eternity and the intertext of fireworks symbolizing eternity, billiards, red hair, apples, every detail like the composition of poetry Words, separate chapters into a text. The most exciting thing is that the film finally falls back to the fireworks that are set off. Reminiscent of the vague reminders of the fireworks sellers before, the length and the short, the loose and the tight, the virtual and the real are all freehand. In addition to the poetry of the independent text of the scene, its perspective also reflects the dream. From the perspective of initially following Luo Hongwu to the momentary separation when flying, the subjective and objective transitions smoothly: we can never see in our subjective world. himself, but in memory and dreams, it is God's perspective that sees his existence, and this strange audio-visual experience aggravates the charm of this scene.
"Earth" is literally "playing a ghost", but it does achieve a "dream like a dream". Bi Gan has a layer of perception that is transparent beyond logic, which makes people wonder whether it is due to diligent thinking and understanding, or just by chance. It is presented: All the conditioned dharmas are like dream bubbles, like dreams and illusions, like dew and like electricity, and they should be viewed as such.
Chinese artistic creation has always advocated "writing to convey the Tao" and "song to express the will", and the text itself is the carrier until calligraphy has become an art of its own. Taking an inappropriate metaphor, Bi Gan's "Last Night on Earth" is like Wang Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface". People appreciate the 21 ways of writing "zhi", but they have long forgotten the content of the article. "Earth" makes the image itself the story and the technology itself the content. Bi Gan used all means, including 3D, to cut and confuse time, forming a dream boundary. If there is Wong Kar Wai's shadow, the long shots of the 3D part are completely marked with their own labels, and they quickly establish their own style. For a director who is less than 30 years old, this kind of arrogance and bravery is not enough to encourage and tout. pass.
If there's any doubt, "Roadside Picnic" feels like a long trailer for "Last Night on Earth." Its long shots are beautiful, but the convoluted structure is exactly the same as "Roadside", except that the wading across the river in the previous work has been upgraded to flying with arms. Its narrative structure, expression content, and even details elements are all There are too many similarities, but this time, with the guarantee of production cost, "The Last Night on Earth" perfectly presents the effect Bi Gan wanted in art and photography, allowing his talents to be released, and Hou Hsiao-hsien faded away. The romantic style adds to the sophistication of Wong Kar-wai. "Earth" is like an upgraded version of the hardcover version of "Picnic". The poetic style has retreated, the Zen style has increased, and the industrial sense has boosted the expression of his personality.
If there is anything else that makes people curious, it is how to keep new ideas when technology becomes content. Is "Last Night on Earth" the middle point or the end point? However, a director can always keep you full of expectations, isn't that the most interesting thing about him?
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