The premise of film criticism is to fully interpret the work. For the film "Return", if the film critic only expresses the viewer's subjective impression, or compares the film with other works of similar themes or Yan Geling's original work, or even just talks from the director himself, it will deviate from the film. Fundamentals of Criticism.
This article attempts to interpret "Return" in detail from the following aspects:
First, the use of light and color.
Zhang Yimou, a photographer, is actually very sensitive to light and color. For example, the ubiquitous red in "Red Sorghum" and "The Big Red Lantern Hanging High", which audiences relish, has become a classic. "Return" is also an excellent work with a masterful use of light and color. After the rumbling of the train wheels at the beginning, in the darkness, Lu Yanshi (played by Chen Daoming) flashed his dirty, gray face, and then a strong light shot into the dance studio, illuminating the people who were rehearsing "The Red Detachment of Women". The female dancer, and gave a few close-ups of Dandan (played by Zhang Huiwen) in red. Dandan's high-spirited face glowed brightly, in contrast to the gray-faced Lu Yanshi. In just 1 minute, the film uses red-black, light-dark to explain the different positions of Lu Yanshi and his daughter Dandan, and also reflects the black and white concept of right and wrong under the background of a specific era, for Dandan For a long time, the exclusion and even hatred of his father Lu Yanshi created a reasonable social environment.
Similar arrangements are repeated in the film. For example, in the scene where Lu Yanshi sneaked back and wanted to enter the house but did not enter, the camera repeatedly switched between Feng Wanyu (Gong Li), under the lamp where Dan Dan was, and the dark shadow where Lu Yanshi was, showing the three Different psychological activities also imply that the door can never be crossed. Dandan stopped Lu Yanshi for a while, and the warm light was only on Dandan's face. Lu Yanshi was still in the dark, only using a little reflection to illuminate his outline. On the one hand, it emphasized Lu Yanshi's sensitive identity and location. On the other hand, he created a kind of safe environment with semi-darkness, which created the possibility of Dandan taking the initiative to talk to his father. After Lu Yanshi left, Dandan walked through the dark stairs and informed the surveillance personnel in the shadows across the road. The dim, cold light shone on Dandan's face, and the visual language related to black was transferred to the previous one. Dandan, who has always been in the light, suggests that her selfishness has begun to do evil, which is an ominous omen for the subsequent tragedy of the film. After Lu Yanshi returned from his rehab, he stood in the sun in the utility room and talked to Director Li (Yan Ni) of the street office. At this time, standing in the shadow was the guilty Dandan.
The color grading of the film focuses on highlighting bright colors such as red and blue, while other colors are weakened, giving people a subjective feeling of being yellowish and darker. This is not only conducive to substituting the audience into the past, but also implies that the poor and turbulent. The depressed spirit of the people of the age. Like many of Zhang Yimou's works, red has a special meaning in the film. For example, adults dress in dark colors. Only a young girl like Dandan wears bright red dance clothes, but after becoming a female worker in a woolen factory, she also wears a maroon jacket, and later a dark red coat. The figurative expression of the socialization of the characters symbolizes Dandan who gradually loses his passion and tends to become more lifelike.
Second, the movement of the lens.
Except for "If You Have Something to Say", the camera movement style of Zhang Yimou's literary films is always more cautious, not as dazzling as Jiang Wen's works. For example, after Dandan's whistleblower came home, a quick shot was shown on the bedding that Feng Wanyu had prepared for Lu Yanshi, followed by Dandan's panic and grievance, and a slow shot was shown on Dandan's expression. These few shots are not complicated, but they are very suitable for Dandan's subjective and objective perspectives, which are in line with the emotional characteristics of a teenage child, making the audience feel that she is afraid of her beloved Wu Qinghua because of her father. Anything goes wrong; imagine how frivolous it would be to apply a quick shot to the two grown-up protagonists.
Equally superb is the scene where Lu Yanshi came from the station exit and wanted Feng Wanyu to remember her. At the beginning, the camera showed Feng Wanyu holding the "Lu Yanshi" sign, indicating that it was from Feng Wanyu's point of view of picking up people, and then Lu Yanshi walked down the overpass, walking towards Feng Wanyu with hope, and even stopped in front of her. For a few seconds, Feng Wanyu subconsciously thought that he was blocking her line of sight. She looked in other directions, and took two steps ahead of Lu Yanshi. At this time, Lu Yanshi stood behind Feng Wanyu and looked at her. Two people appeared, and then they fought back. The audience's eyes crossed the axis, looked from Feng Wanyu's side and behind, and moved out with the disappointed Lu Yanshi. At this time, the perspective changed to start from Lu Yanshi. The editing and follow-up of this section captured the audience's psychology. When Lu Yanshi walked in front of Feng Wanyu, the audience cared about Feng Wanyu's reaction, but after Feng Wanyu didn't recognize it, the audience cared about Lu Yanshi's. reaction. The movement of the shots is arranged according to the above rules, so that the audience's heart is always attached to the development of the story. In this shot, the two coexist for only a few seconds, and then staggered, which is embarrassing.
Art films with historical themes must always be restrained, and the use of moving shots should not be just to create visual effects, but must always consider the overall situation of the narrative and serve the narrative. In The Return, limited techniques are used selectively to make the storyline accessible and understandable to the audience.
Third, the processing of sound.
A very important difference between film art and TV series is that in many cases, silence is better than sound, and it is not necessary for the actors to speak out, but for the audience to understand. For example, does Feng Wanyu know that it was her daughter Dandan who reported on Lu Yanshi? Of course, I know that when Feng Wanyu witnessed her daughter's whistleblowing, the film was silent, but later Feng Wanyu coldly threw a sentence to Dandan, "Just dance your Wu Qinghua well." The audience was not surprised by this. , which confirmed that Feng Wanyu knew. However, she clearly knew and didn't expose it in front of Dandan, so it seemed meaningful. Maybe Feng Wanyu didn't know how to tell her daughter, after all, her daughter grew up in a specific social discourse and was shaped by the times. Or, Feng Wanyu has despaired of human nature, just like Master Fang who has repeatedly appeared later, she is powerless in front of such villains in this era. Such meanings require the audience to ponder on their own. If Feng Wanyu said it on the spot, it would break the space for imagination and interpretation.
For another example, did Dandan play Wu Qinghua in the end? Of course not, we saw that she was just an ordinary fighter on the stage, and she was a fighter in the second row, which was far from her wish. When the camera shows that the seat where Feng Wanyu should be sitting is empty, we will know that Dandan lost the hearts of the protagonist and her mother at the same time, and the plot that she no longer dances and is coldly treated by Feng Wanyu is reasonable. However, from beginning to end, Dandan, who did not act as Wu Qinghua, did not say a word, and her voice was drowned in the high-pitched music of "The Red Detachment of Women". Did she cry to the labor propaganda team about the trouble? Did she blame her mother? we do not know. The muting here, acting as a sort of omission, helps to delay the rhythm of the story. Because these plots that seem to cause conflict between characters are actually false climaxes, which are just Dandan's perspective. The real climax, namely Feng Wanyu's amnesia and Lu Yanshi's attempts, is still on the way.
On the other hand, voices are not the same as voices, and background voices are sometimes much better than the characters themselves speaking. For example, when Lu Yanshi sneaked back and was talking to his daughter Dandan on the stairs, the noisy voice from the downstairs prompted him to leave behind the agreed time and place and hurriedly leave, so that he would rush him away. It's more logical, because it was Dandan who stopped him in the first place, and Dandan was curious about her father who left her at the age of three. In the last episode of the film, "Many Years Later", Lu Yanshi accompanies Feng Wanyu to the train station to "wait for Lu Yanshi". The train station broadcast in the background sound directly reminds the changes of the times, which is much more natural than the characters themselves.
Fourth, the plot design.
There is no doubt that the core of the story is that Feng Wanyu has amnesia, or to be precise, she is the only one who can't remember Lu Yanshi. In order to remind Feng Wanyu of herself, Lu Yanshi tried six times, but all failed. However, these six attempts can be seen to be carefully designed, with different connotations, and should not be entirely attributed to the original work.
The first time was when Director Li of the Sub-district Office announced to Feng Wanyu that he was Lu Yanshi, but Feng Wanyu did not accept it. Director Li is a symbol of power, but it fails when it comes to Lu Yanshi. Feng Wanyu's resistance to power is not for no reason. Through Director Li and Dandan's remarks, we know that the recurring Master Fang is the representative of power and the perpetrator.
The second time was the aforementioned Lu Yanshi walking out of the train station, hoping that Feng Wanyu would remember her. However, this seemingly natural way is not the language of that era. For Feng Wanyu and everyone else, formal texts such as documents and letters are more real, not only because they have a sense of ritual, but also because they relate to Lu Yanshi, etc. The fate of ordinary people. I stand in front of you but you turn a blind eye, this is the absurdity of a certain era.
For the third time, Dandan took the remaining group photo and "introduced" Lu Yanshi to Feng Wanyu. Dandan cut out Lu Yanshi from all the photos in the family, as if this person didn't exist at all. This was a higher level of destroying a person, and it also caused Feng Wanyu's long-term resentment towards her daughter. The vacancy in the photo symbolizes Lu Yanshi's 20-year absence from mainstream society and family. This almost destructive vacancy cannot be filled by a recovered photo.
The fourth time was when Lu Yanshi borrowed the name of repairing the piano to play their old tunes. Lu Yanshi reached out and touched her face, but she was full of fear and resistance to the face in front of her, and bounced off Lu Yanshi's hand. Through the context, we guess what Master Fang did to Feng Wanyu, which made her particularly excited about the man who had intimate behavior. This is an era when reputation and self-esteem are so high that a woman's instinctive fear of patriarchy has even evolved into a morbid nervousness.
The fifth time was Lu Yanshi reading the letter, but helplessly found that he had become a "believer". The absurdity of the story is further deepened. This is the first time that Lu Yanshi has been with Feng Wanyu face to face for a long time after his return, but Feng Wanyu's heart is always on Lu Yanshi in the letter. At this point, both Lu Yanshi and the audience had to completely accept the fact that Feng Wanyu no longer remembered him.
The sixth time was for Lu Yanshi to find the recurring Master Fang. Dandan danced back to the ballet. The bright red dance clothes seemed to have the power to travel through time and space. Lu Yanshi stood beside the smiling Feng Wanyu, and in a trance, the family was complete again. But when Lu Yanshi wanted to cover Feng Wanyu with a quilt, Feng Wanyu reacted violently again. This directly led Lu Yanshi to find out what Master Fang she was talking about, and bring a spoon to him to settle accounts, but found that Master Fang was taken away by the task force long ago. And return.
In the process of these six attempts, the main line was that Master Fang's violation of Feng Wanyu was constantly uncovered, and Lu Yanshi kept walking into the years and memories of his absence, but an equally important line was Dandan's growth and transformation. In the third attempt, Feng Wanyu asked Lu Yanshi "who is he", Dandan only said "Lu Yanshi", but after the fourth attempt, as Dandan completely admitted what he had done, he poured out his heart Feeling guilty, Dandan also called "Dad" for the first time. The process of Lu Yanshi's constant attempts and searches is also the process of Dandan's gradual bridging of the gap with his parents, especially the process of understanding and accepting his father. As an important lesson for the youth of that generation, kinship and family are rejuvenated under tragic circumstances.
Fifth, the performance of the actors.
Gong Li often has excellent performances in Zhang Yimou's works, full of natural and simple beauty. In "Return", Lu Yanshi sneaked home for a while. Feng Wanyu, who was at home alone, had a certain premonition. After finding the note that Lu Yanshi had stuffed in from outside the door, she slowly put down her hand covering her mouth and stiffened. He went to the door to pick up the note, and hurriedly opened the door to look around. Gong Li added a few close-ups of her face to this action, and portrayed Feng Wanyu's torment, tension, guilt and other complex emotions in a wonderful way. Combining the following, we know that due to what happened with Master Fang, Feng Wanyu harbored a kind of guilt that she could not face and could not resolve, which to a large extent caused her to not remember him. Gong Li shows the complexity and tension of this character very well.
Chen Daoming's performance has always had a restrained power. The role of Lu Yanshi is generally more reserved. The actor needs to express his feelings and emotions through subtle changes in expressions and movements, and a restrained performance is more in line with the character's temperament. Of course, there are also parts of concentrated outbreaks. During the fourth attempt mentioned above, Lu Yanshi shed tears for the first time. Previously, he had always been warm, reliable and indestructible in front of his wife and daughter. This time, it was unexpected. The bitter cry in the movie released the sadness he had accumulated for a long time, and strengthened the subjectivity and tragic color of Lu Yanshi's character. In fact, Lu Yanshi was more able to drive the plot forward than Feng Wanyu, and Chen Daoming managed to guide the audience into the play without being deliberate.
The other characters are also more successful. Dandan, played by Zhang Huiwen, is unpretentious and expresses her emotions appropriately. Director Li, played by Yan Ni, is capable and strong and kind, and Fang's wife, played by Ding Jiali, also contributed the most intensive, noisy but also thought-provoking rant.
To sum up, "Return" is a very good historical-themed literary and artistic film in the past ten years. It is not inferior to the earlier "Tangshan Earthquake", and it also forms a certain thematic correspondence with Feng Xiaogang's "Youth". Complementary. The drama of the film reaches its climax in the ending scene, when Lu Yanshi replaces Feng Wanyu and holds the sign "Lu Yanshi". There is a sense of absurdity of riding a donkey to find a donkey. It also implies that Lu Yanshi continues to live by Feng Wanyu's side in other capacities. It's a comfort to the audience.
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