The North Film Festival, Broadway MOMA, saw the big screen for the first time. It is said that it is telecine, and I have some doubts about the effect after seeing it. But because the screen is small and the seat is far behind, I'm not sure if it's a problem with the theater equipment.
Then I went to Wukesong Yaolai to watch it again, and confirmed that it was the problem of version production. I have to say that the conversion is very bad, the overall brightness becomes lower, and most of the dark details are basically invisible. The most intolerable thing is that the music and sound effects track only appear on the right side, because sitting in the front row makes the whole viewing process very uncomfortable. Not to mention the surround sound and subwoofer sound that should have been very well-made, all of which are gone. Simply put, it does not reach stereo, it is a 1.5 channel. This is a blockbuster sound effect that Chen Kaige requested that theaters with sub-standard bass should not show when it was released. The transformation this time is really a waste of time.
Just talk about the content. There is a surprise, this version is actually different from the domestic release version and the Japanese version that I have seen before (the major structure is the same as the Japanese version). From memory, as follows:
After the director's name was revealed, it was King Qin who went to see the old man played by Liu Zhongyuan - the grandfather of the little emcee who asked King Qin all day long, "Have you forgotten the great wish of Qin's predecessors to rule the world?" There is no version. The domestic version only has the latter part, which also led the audience to question who the person who fell on the bed was;
When Lu Buwei went to see his mother, there were a few more close-ups of the mother teasing her;
In the main hall, the scene where Lu Buwei gave up the prime minister had more scenes where the King of Qin and the envoy Han sat on the ground and had a conversation;
Connie told King Qin that a Korean princess would be a relative. This edition is more detailed. There was a scene in which King Qin did not appear at the ceremony after Empress returned to her mother, and he was very dissatisfied. But this part has little to do with the whole film;
Before the confrontation between King Qin and Yandan in the main hall, there was an additional scene shot of King Qin entering the palace at night;
Yi Shui's farewell, instead of the calm and sad atmosphere in the two editions, is replaced by Jing Ke and Gao Jianli drumming and dancing;
...
What's puzzling is that some music has been removed from this version. Zhao Guocheng's destruction and the final assassination, these two major scenes that require music rendering, have no music. I don't understand it.
However, the processing of sound effects and ambient sounds is more delicate. At the beginning, when King Qin condolences to the wounded general, the military song of Qin State appeared. During the Yan Kingdom period, the singing and dancing in the street market could be heard from time to time. There are also some scenes with very evil laughter, and the absurd temperament of the whole film is more prominent.
The different editing attempts in the three editions should all be made to make up for the shortcomings of the original script, but this problem cannot be solved through editing. The core of the problem lies in the characters: in terms of roles, the transformation of the King of Qin is the most solid, and the original idealism is being encountered After the impact of the palace coup, he became insidious and cunning;
Zhao Ji is an angelic figure, and as an ideal character, it is basically established;
Jing Ke put down the butcher's knife after encountering the incident of the blind girl. It cannot be said that there is no such extreme situation that the characters have changed, but the film has limited ink, which seems far-fetched.
Qin Wuyang was full of confidence before, and immediately after entering the Qin Palace, he seemed to be a different person. It was only due to the psychological oppression brought about by the majestic buildings of the Qin Palace, which was a little unconvincing.
Despite the flaws, the film tries its best to construct a grand picture of the intertwining and collision of the love of children and the righteousness of the country, great ideals and petty selfish desires. It is unique in the exploration of domestic themes and the excavation of human nature. The outstanding photography, art, and costumes have created the best texture in Chinese history-themed films. Chen Kexin praised it for "even the dust has the breath of history."
Let the audience return to history, this kind of strong sense of substitution has never been seen since then, except for "Famous Name" and "The King's Feast". Because the vivid restoration of an accurate historical atmosphere requires the creator's high literacy and firm will in this regard. Of course, it means a huge capital investment. In today's impetuous age, most creators won't bother with that anymore.
As far as the three versions I have seen, each has its own merits and regrets. They all missed some essence, and there were situations where the plot before and after was abrupt and lacked attention. Would love to see a full version cut from the original script.
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