As early as a few months ago, I had no interest in the film "Young You" -because of the starring role and the subject matter, I had already subconsciously marked the film with some kind of label, and it would not be in my viewing. In the sequence, there is something like "prejudice" that everyone has.
However, with the many positive reviews that came out before the release (end of June), and the fate of the eventual temporary withdrawal, I wanted to watch it instead...
This weekend, the tentatively scheduled "Youth of You" "Airborne" theater has won good box office results and a good reputation. After watching it, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief and say "I live up to my expectations" .
It is also a "pan-youth" type of film. In my mind, the target film for this film is actually last year's "Dog Thirteen" , but in the current public opinion environment, I also agree to use "Youth of You" to correspond to last year's film. "I'm Not the God of Medicine": While the film itself was well-made, the film's victory in box office and word of mouth was ultimately due to the victory of "realistic themes".
At present, our market is so lacking in popular movies that people can see "pain", so that every time they appear, they are spoiled by the audience.
[Friendly reminder: There will be spoilers below. 】
If the cooking skills in charge are not good, no matter how good the ingredients are, it is nothing but a waste of money. Fortunately, "Youth You" has a very good team, from the front to the backstage, to jointly support this "cruel youth" story.
The most intuitive and most searched is the "acting skills of male and female protagonists".
I don't like to pay attention to actors very much, and I also lack a systematic understanding of the growth trajectory of so-and-so, but as far as the performance in this film is concerned, Zhou Dongyu is really able to "cry" .
If it is the same cry, we may be able to shush "tears to deceive sympathy", but Chen Nian really contributed all kinds of fancy crying in the film.
There is sympathy that hesitates to speak, there is panic and panic, there is humiliation of depression and resentment, there is weakness and shame, there is sympathy for the same disease, there is resentment that swells with blood, and there is daze that is about to die... Can act crying It doesn't mean everything, but Zhou Dongyu, who has already passed the school age, can combine his own characteristics and advantages to interpret Chen Nian to this end, which is indeed commendable.
As for Yi Yangqianxi, it is slightly inferior to Zhou Dongyu's level, but considering his "traffic niche" background and his attitude towards transformation, he is less than 20 years old enough to say "the future can be Expect".
The actors don't lose their chains, the behind-the-scenes team will still shoot, and the foundation of the film will not be too bad no matter what.
The two things that impressed me most about "Youth as a Younger" are "restrained rhythm" and "close-up shots" : the former shows that there is not much violence in the whole film, and it does not blindly pursue sensory stimulation that fits the theme; the latter It is shown in the film that he especially likes to take close-ups of concave shapes, or defocus or side shots to highlight the characters.
The most typical scene is at the end, Chen Nian and Liu Xiaobei are looking at each other from the window of the detention center. The two have no lines at all, they just look at each other with changing expressions to release their emotions. You have me and me on the window (screen). There is you... and many explosive and infectious scenes in the whole film are completed in a similar context.
The biggest advantage of "Youth as a Teenager" is that it captures the pain of "school bullying" and the realization of "juvenile and adulthood" , which belongs to another victory of "realistic themes", so I still want to talk about this feeling.
Many people's understanding of "school bullying" may still be at the level of "body/language scolding and insulting" such as slapping, cutting hair, punching and kicking, greeting the whole family, etc. Although the film adopts and shows the most easily identifiable And the way of bullying that spreads, but in fact, more and more "invisible" bullying is everywhere , including social, online and so on.
Seeing someone pouring ink on Chen Nian's chair but keeping silent, posting about Chen Nian's mother's dilemma in the online chat group, making fun of Chen Nian and saying that he also wants to buy a mask, etc., whether it is the direct perpetrator, indirect helper, Bystanders who stay outside, they are more or less part of the bullying.
For example, if a classmate gives you a nickname you don't like, and he calls it out, you're upset, someone laughs next to you, and your friend doesn't laugh but doesn't make a sound. This constitutes a very mild and typical verbal bullying. - What's even scarier is that such things become habitual, and teens with a general lack of empathy often can't tell the difference between "joking" and "bullying."
Just like the old police officer Lao Yang in the film said to his younger generation Zheng Yi, "A group of boys beat people to death without knowing that they would kill people", the public's blurred understanding of the boundaries of bullying is only a matter of time. The beginning of tragedy.
Therefore, some people feel that "the causes and consequences of bullying are not fully explained" in "Youth of You", I don't think it is necessary.
The matter of "bullying" can't be taken for granted in the first place. Sometimes it's simpler than "little souls bully honest people". Maybe it's just because you're not gregarious enough to be bullied... And in the film Such a context has been sufficiently given, and even if there is no formal explanation, the audience can guess the general ins and outs.
Moreover, "Youth as a Younger" is not sloppy in the corresponding details. The number one bully Wei Lai does not have too many scenes, but through these contents, it is enough to outline the image of a girl with a twisted heart and a stern look. She is The perpetrator of the bullying incident is also the victim of the original family. After reluctantly reaching a "reconciliation", if Wei Lai did not use his "value system" to reconcile with Chen Nian and further stimulate the other party, he would not have There were subsequent surprises.
Seeing Wei Lai being thrown to death, I didn't have the slightest sense of revenge, but only lamented "tragedy after tragedy" .
At the same time, the design of the relationship between Chen Nian and Xiaobei is very unique, smart and reasonable.
First, they are all weak "bullies" . Although their living environment is different, their situation is similar. They are the same lack of love, the same humble and powerless, and they are equally slaughtered in front of the more powerful "majority". Their chance encounter and acquaintance are based on mutual licking of wounds. Pity each other .
Second, they can both act as "protectors" for each other . Xiaobei can use his unrestrained identity as a gangster to deter the bad students who bully Chen Nian, and Chen Nian can use her excellent grades to give them a hope of "going out", which is why "you protect the world, I Protect you" and "I don't count as a loser if you win".
In the end, they are still "survivors" who hug together to keep warm , which needs no further explanation.
Having said that, a more subtle and acute problem lies ahead: deception, compromise, distrust and transition between teenagers and adults.
Regarding this point, I think "Youth of You" gives a relatively pessimistic answer.
There are no ideal (let alone exemplary) parents in the film : Chen Nian and Xiaobei's fathers are both completely absent, and their mothers have their own flaws. The poor Xiaobei's mother is willing to buy meat buns for her son. Nian's mother, Zhou Lei, always expresses her concern for her daughter in her own way - of course they love their children, but their personal lives have long been fragmented, and they give their children more burdens and pains.
As for the other parents who appeared briefly, they also had various problems with their children, such as doting, beating, scolding, and neglecting their children .
There is also a lie in the movie that almost all of our generation have heard, that is, "you will be free after the college entrance examination."
Before the college entrance examination, it used to be a good word to paralyze you and me to forget our fatigue for a short time; after the college entrance examination, especially when we left the campus and entered the society, we realized that this was just an anesthetic with a shelf life.
"Youth of You" has done a good job at one point. It only regards the "college entrance examination" as a key element of the narrative, and does not add drama or distraction. According to our "habitual thinking", the story of the college entrance examination is almost over, but the college entrance examination in the film is just the beginning of the climax scene : along with the opening of the test paper, it was an excavator who dug up Wei Lai's body. While preparing for the next day's exam, Chen Nian was faced with the investigation of "suspected murder"...
I see this kind of development as a kind of crushing and ridicule of the adult world to the youth world . After all, the latter is "too clean and too pure" for the former.
Of course, the two are not completely opposite in the film, because there is the role of Zheng Yi.
As a young police officer, Zheng Yi is caught between the underage Chen Nian and Xiao Bei and the early adult Lao Yang(s) . In front of him he taught quietly, prudence, and thoughtfulness.
Zheng Yi can be seen as the third teenage protagonist in the film. He pursues the truth and is impulsive and reckless. In order to prevent Chen Nian and Xiao Bei from doing black and white "addition and subtraction", he does not hesitate to violate the rules many times and challenge The two young men had already agreed on an alliance.
Lao Yang, who also knew the truth, praised Zheng Yi after the dust settled, and said meaningfully to him: "One is a gangster, the other is a good student..." He didn't finish his sentence, but we have already After understanding his choice, he will be wrong, so that Chen Nian will have a brighter and broader future.
In the adult world, it is more full of periods, not full of exclamation marks and question marks like teenagers-Zheng Yi's "unformed", which leaves some room for reconciliation for the audience.
When Chen Nian and Xiaobei appeared again at the end of the film, they were already adults. We can't know what kind of "adults" they will eventually grow into, but when we see that Chen Nian will accompany a girl who has something to do home with, and when we see that Xiaobei is still silently following behind Chen Nian, we will eventually feel sorry for the world . Hope more .
Just like the sentence that flashed by in the textbook: We live in the gutter, but some people still look up at the stars.
[You are also welcome to pay attention to my official account "You Love Comment Area". 】
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