There are two kinds of movies that make people cry, one is a sensational cry at eight o'clock, and the other is a cry that shocks the soul. "Homecoming" and "Mom, Love Me Again" are the former kind of crying. And in "Titanic", the violinists were still playing when the ship sank and in "The Shawshank Redemption", Andy stepped out of the sewer, opened his hands to face the heavy rain, and it was the latter cry. Compared with the latter, the emotion of the former is relatively cheap.
Of course, compared with the obvious tearjerkers like "Mom, Love Me Again", Zhang Yimou's "Return" is simple, restrained, and has the beauty of blank space in Chinese ink painting. If it is replaced with tear-jerking, it is likely to be another "Tangshan Earthquake"! It's a pity that no matter how literary the film is, it can't hide the flaws of the story itself.
Although wrapped in the pain of the Cultural Revolution and the "sugar-coated cannonballs" of redemption, "Return" is essentially an upgraded version of "Love in the Hawthorn Tree" and a middle-aged version of pure love story of bosom friend. It tells the touching story of a man named Lu Yanshi, who had been away from home for several years after being criticized during the Cultural Revolution. After returning home, he found that his beloved wife had suffered from amnesia, and he still stayed with him for the rest of his life. This most touching story in China of "there is true love in the world, there is true love in the world" can be found everywhere in the magazine "Friends". I casually published an article on Baidu: "This is a fake father's love! Pick up the mother and daughter in the abyss", the story is about a middle-aged man named Wang Shuqiang, who has known a divorced woman Yu Shumei for a month and a half Later, it was discovered that Yu Shumei's daughter was suffering from a rare Langerhans cell histiocytosis and was completely paralyzed from the chest down. His stepfather, who never entered the house, was willing to support the mother and daughter. Everyone, please make up your mind, if Zhang Yimou moved this story to the screen, would he also cry and blind many people?
Zhang Yimou said that he wanted to make a story, but it could be the return of a Chinese master director. Why is it such a bosom story? Rather than a story comparable to "Red Sorghum", "Alive" or even "The Lawsuit of Qiu Ju"? In his conversation with Jiao Xiongping, he revealed that his filming of "Return" was purely unintentional. At that time, "The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling" was being filmed, and Yan Geling's "Lu Criminal Yanshi" had just been written. He needed to make a decision immediately whether to buy the copyright of this book. After reading 400,000 words in one night, he decided to make this movie. It's a pity that he turned Yan Geling's "Lu Criminal Yanshi", a story full of legend, into a bosom friend story with a literary accent. Fans who don't go to the movies will regret it, and they will regret it even more if they do.
Some people feel sorry for Zhang Yimou, and attribute the "sensation" of the Cultural Revolution in "Return" to film censorship. Zhang Yimou himself said in an interview that he was afraid of failing the film censorship, so he simply filmed the story of Lu Yanshi's return after the Cultural Revolution. I'm afraid that I won't pass the censorship, so I don't shoot it. How can I hear this, how can I feel that I have no morals! Master Zhang can't "charge into battle" for Chinese movies, so he doesn't force it, but since he knows that he can't pass the trial, why do he still make a castration story? There are so many good stories, is it because the money is too much to spend on making a movie that has nothing to do with the original in the end?
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The following complaints involve spoilers, so read with caution:
When everyone was excited about the train station scene at the beginning of "Return", I was It's full of suspicion! Feng Wanyu, played by Gong Li, has already discovered that her daughter colluded with the "enemy" in the rain, so don't worry, if she goes to see Lu Yanshi, she will be followed and become a bait to catch Lu Yanshi? Perhaps, she loved Lu Yanshi too much, thinking that even if she met once, it would be fine to let him escape, but since she loved Lu Yanshi so much, why did she not open the door after a long struggle at that time? Is it just to bury a burden on "Dad, Mom didn't lock the door after you left..."?
Let’s talk about Lu Yanshi, played by Chen Daoming. He was not cautious at all in labor camps for many years. When he saw someone guarding the door of his house, he even went to his house. Aren’t you afraid that there will be an enemy lurking in the house? Knowing that he wanted to keep a low profile, he had been hiding under the bridge, but when the man who arrested him came, HOLD couldn't stop and shouted his daughter-in-law's name. Lu Yanshi, didn't you think that a daughter-in-law who didn't open the door for you might not come to see you at all? I can only think that you love Feng Wanyu so much that you lose your mind. So this unstoppable episode is to bury a burden for "a man who can live with a daughter-in-law who has lost his memory is irrational"?
Let's talk about the two's daughters, in order to be the heroine, she betrayed her father, but unfortunately, not only did she not get the upper hand, but her mother stopped seeing her from now on. Such a dark-bellied and ambitious girl is obviously the reincarnation of the evil queen. After becoming a female textile worker, she should have hated her father for the rest of her life. Later, she "lived happily with her parents". Is this personality change scientific? ? So, is the appearance of the black-bellied daughter a burden buried in order to make the movie "climax at the beginning"?
But director, you have buried so many burdens, making this family of three look like "If you don't die, you won't die!" Isn't this really the plot of a soap opera?
At the end of the movie, when I watched the white-haired Lu Yanshi and the curly haired Feng Wanyu, watching someone in the snow who could never be reached, I couldn't help thinking in my mind: Lu Yanshi is totally fine. Tear off the small sticker on the door "No. 5 will meet Yanshi", or "Meet Yanshi tomorrow" (it's good to let my wife always have hope for tomorrow~) But in order to create a chance for myself to walk with Feng Wanyu every morning , it has always been wrong. But is the daughter of the two really not worried about the safety of the two old people? On a snowy day, I even let my old father ride a tricycle with my old mother to pick up the station. After all, this girl is still a black belly!
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