Hong Kong Film Archive held a screening event of "Collection Selection" in February, and the word "Chivalrous Girl" was caught in the brochure. Although I am not a fan of Hong Kong martial arts, the name "Chivalrous Girl" has been heard for a long time. There is no excuse. The entire viewing process is a wonderful feeling, 180 minutes, basically every minute brings me a different viewing experience, nervous, excited, amazed, shocked, and completely speechless until the last 30 minutes. After the film is over, I am already I bowed my head and worshipped Hu Jinquan.
Followed by a post-screening talk, Mr. Pu Feng from the Archives introduced the background of the film and analyzed the structure of the film. This film is adapted from Pu Songling's "Strange Tales from a Liaozhai", which amazes me. Although I haven't read Liaozhai in its entirety, I still have some common sense in its story characteristics. However, there are no real ghosts and ghosts in the whole film. There are only a few places where the characters deliberately The ghost effect and rumors created, I guess this should not be the original appearance of the story of Liao Zhai. After listening to the introduction, I realized that the original story is indeed quite different from the original story. After listening to the original story, I was even more surprised.
The original story was actually a love triangle. In addition to having a male-female relationship with Yang Huizhen, Gu Shengzhai also had a male-male relationship with Ouyang Nian. Yang Huizhen and Ouyang Nian were jealous of each other, but it was only later that he found out that Ouyang Nian turned out to be a fox. The original description of the homosexuality is as follows: "One day, a young man came to ask for a painting. His appearance was very beautiful, and his intentions were quite embarrassing... After that, he came once every three or two days. It is unimaginable that in Pu Songling's time, the plot of homosexuality was written into the story, so bold, and modern adaptation The movie has to delete this paragraph, whether this is the progress of the times or a retrogression.
In addition to deleting the homosexual plot, the original book also did not explain Yang Huizhen's background, and the film added elements such as the imperial court, Dongchang Fanzi, Zhongliang Hou, etc., adding a layer of meaning to the word "Xia", which also has a lot of Articles are available. The loyal officials were framed, and the chivalrous women were protected by two generals and escaped all the way to avoid the pursuit of the imperial court. This kind of plot is really similar to the current situation. I won't go into specifics, you know.
There is no dialogue for more than seven minutes at the beginning of "Chivalrous Girl". It is all about scenery rendering and character movements, plus the background music of guqin. It seems that everything is ready to go, and the story unfolds so slowly. The most impressive thing is probably photography. From far and near, from left to right, the high and low angles are switched quickly, and the lens is zoomed and changed at a rapid rate. The photographer seems to be afraid that the audience will not know his existence, playing with the lens recklessly. In addition to photography, another major feature is the soundtrack. The sound of the piano is very loud.
Mr. Pu Feng said that Hu Jinquan did not seem to put his mind on the narrative of the plot, and how the story develops is not important to him, what matters is the feeling of the picture, the so-called aesthetic effect. Of course, I secretly thought that Mr. Hu was also unique in the narrative. In the first half hour, the horror atmosphere of a ghost movie is completely created, the ruined temple overgrown with reeds, the tinkling of temple bells, the "just right" thunder every time, plus the scholar-this usually appears in the gods. The elements in ghost films and the suspenseful atmosphere are simply perfect. Silly scholar + gorgeous female ghost, what a traditional Liao Zhai element, so at first I really thought that Yang Huizhen was transformed from a female ghost.
But if the story really develops like this, I am afraid it will be lost in clichés, but fortunately there is Ouyang Nian. Ouyang Nian's appearance is completely a gentleman. There are several close-ups of eyebrows. Although his whereabouts are mysterious, it has never aroused my suspicion of this person. Even until I hurt Shi Xiazi in the rain, I always thought that maybe Yang Huizhen and Shi Xiazi were the villains. My hindsight is entirely because Director Hu's ability to control the story and the character design of the characters are amazing. It can be said that it is a cliché that breaks the traditional pros and cons.
Director Hu made enough of the suspenseful elements of the story, and it took about an hour to reveal the source of the whole story. The highlight here is the editing. The transition between memory and reality through dissolve is wonderful. Next was the famous Battle of Bamboo Forest. The editing features of martial arts action films began to develop since then. Until today, the bamboo forest is still the first choice for many martial arts films. A piece of green is already very eye-catching, and coupled with the wisps of sunlight leaking through the gaps in the branches, the scene is so beautiful that the audience can watch it comfortably. Yang Huizhen and General Shi were invincible, and finally bent down from the top of the branch and rushed down, killing the enemy with a deadly sword.
Ouyang Nian died too quickly and unjustly. It's a pity that such a beautiful man was injured so badly by Yang Huizhen's darts a few times, and when he saw him later, he was already a corpse.
The scene of the first battle in the ancient temple is so dark, to be honest, I really can’t tell the difference between friend and foe. The contrasting light at the end also implies that this battle is not the final boss-level duel.
After the battle of the ancient temple, Gu Sheng laughed wildly all the way and showed his strategy to the audience. This episode was too miraculous, and made the audience who did not know the reason to be laughed at by him. Later, Mr. Pu Feng said that Hu Jinquan seemed to show the audience " How did some ghost effects in A Chinese Ghost Story come about? The two films are inseparably linked, including the part where a woman plays the piano to attract scholars to go on a date, and how similar they are. Hu Jinquan was not satisfied with the filming and production of "Qian", so he did it himself, imitating everywhere, but showing his personal characteristics everywhere. He is really a very cute director.
Gender inversion is also worth mentioning. A weak scholar who makes a living by painting, when he encounters a glamorous chivalrous woman in white, he is naturally fascinated. Although the woman is dressed in white (symbolizing virginity), her expression is open everywhere. She even uses the sound of the piano to evoke an inexplicable one-night stand with the scholar, and she is still shown in white after that. The chivalrous woman holds a sword (symbolizing the male genitals) and has superb martial arts. When encountering an enemy, the scholar can only retreat behind the chivalrous woman to avoid it. However, the scholar was not resigned to his inferiority, and through his own "scheme" (just a little cleverness), he regained his dignity and excellence as a man. The most embodying thing is the frantic laughter that lasted for a few minutes, as if regaining appreciation and regaining the status of a man, so happy is not something ordinary people can experience. But later he found the corpses all over the place and Yang Huizhen was gone, but he immediately became "fascinated", and called out "Miss Yang~Miss Yang~" everywhere. Exhausted. The most subversive is the scene where Yang Huizhen left the baby in Gu Sheng, and no matter how absurd and unreasonable "Yang Huizhen was still fighting desperately before, without the appearance of being pregnant, a baby was born in a blink of an eye", it is just that "Women leave their children to men, but leave them alone" is enough to cause controversy. Looking at today's society, most of the romantic men leave women to fly away after a one-night stand, but they don't know that the genders in this film are so reversed, That scene was rather like Eleanor in "Fried Rice", who went to see Robert's theory of "Anita won't leave after eating", and threw out a sentence, "Tell me, how much does it cost to let him go". How can such an active attitude of a woman, such a way of subverting the traditional patriarchy, make me not amazed, delighted, and applauded.
If the story ends here, it can be regarded as a relatively happy ending. I probably give it four stars, but the last thirty minutes surprised me greatly. It is no exaggeration to say that I was in the last thirty minutes. I have been watching it with my mouth open and my eyes wide open. It was so shocking that I almost jumped out of the theater and yelled, "The movie can be made like this!"
The English translation of A Touch of Zen began to make people confused, a little Zen? But the whole story is about martial arts, dueling of good and evil, love, etc. What does it have to do with Zen? The answer lies in the last thirty minutes. Every time the monk appears at a critical juncture, knocking the bad guy to the ground with ease, followed by low-angle shots, the monk's face overlapping with the dazzling sunlight, at this moment, how can one not give people a god-like sense of existence! No wonder those who were defeated by him bowed their heads and worshipped him as if they had lost their souls.
The final battle in the desert, in my opinion, is the most crucial battle in the whole film. It is in sharp contrast with the narrow and dense bamboo forest before. In an empty and desolate desert, only the golden yellow of the sun, but not as vivid as the bamboo forest. green. This kind of battle is not a competition of martial arts or moves, but a contest of mind. The monk Baimi was a little sparse. He didn't expect to be deceived by the sinister villain, but he slowly walked to the top of the mountain and sat quietly under the sun. The sun formed a circle of light of Buddha statues behind him. With the music effect, that moment was really incomparable. The human heart is born with the intention of turning to the Buddha. Even the villain was blinded, and everything he saw was the reverse color effect (for the first time in many years I saw the reverse color effect on the screen, you can imagine my shock). The final transcendence, focusing on Zen, I think it is the most successful sublimation of the film.
After watching the movie, I couldn't come back to my senses for a long time. I was immersed in the world of martial arts, Buddha and Zen created by Hu Jinquan and couldn't get out. I thought that words would never be able to describe the wonderfulness of this masterpiece, and the reason for it can only be experienced by the viewers.
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