The background of the Cultural Revolution, the educated youth who went to work in Inner Mongolia, and the nomadic group coexisting with wolves, these basic settings have not been destroyed because the director of "Wolf Totem" is from France, or there are four screenwriters (including Chinese screenwriter Lu Wei) , on the contrary, constitutes the core and most solid narrative structure of the film version. Chen Zhen's relationship with his partners and with the wolf is based on this background. However, the film does not seek to highlight the background of the times. In the limited exhibitions of the times, there are no obvious signs of the times except for the walls with distinctive slogans and the clothes of the characters. Obviously, let's get down to business, highlighting the relationship between wolves and people and the interaction between people, wolves, and grasslands is the key to the film.
From the past masterpieces such as "The Bear's Tale" and "Tiger Brother and Tiger Brother", one can most intuitively feel the power of director Jean-Jacques Arnold to establish a microscopic world, bear or tiger, in the film of this Caesar Award winner It is not a mere "animal kingdom" documentary object, on the contrary, it is an absolute protagonist that transcends the human role. In "Tale of the Bear", humans exist as intruders in the world of bears. "Tiger Brothers and Tigers" focuses on two tigers, followed by the perilous world around them. At this point, "Wolf Totem" seems to be the most likely to give people the illusion that this is another setting made by an animal. At least on the surface narrative, "Wolf Totem" is not like this.
The film edited 2,000 hours of wolf-related material to show all kinds of wolf expressions we see now, including staring, drooling, screaming, etc. The lens group is added with special effects to create a realistic wolf. Sex grassland, and even specially built a wolf base for special training, to strive for the real feeling of the picture. This makes "Wolf Totem" distance itself from the blockbuster that mainly relies on special effects. It is said that Jean-Jacques Arnold refused to make "The Fantasy Drift of the Youth Pie" for this film, which makes people think. Even so, what this "Wolf Totem" builds is not a world purely based on the perspective of animals or the sense of animal subjectivity. A ruthless "socialized" space that engages, even dominates. In "Wolf Totem", the paradise can no longer be seen. Human beings revere the wolf as a totem, and at the same time, they also experience the threat brought by the wolf pack. Chen Zhen kept the little wolves in captivity, but he still has to lose them in the end. This is a self-evident symbol. Under the digital carrier of the film, the clean and dust-free grasslands, yurts, and hospitals constitute a certain degree of imagination. In this era, people and their feared wolves are separated by economics or desires, and eventually move towards the opposite of the "wolf totem". Is it awe or cowardice and distrust? Are instructions from "superior" more persuasive than human nature? These questions cannot be answered easily.
In the background of the times, the economic interests highlighted by Bao Shungui have become the main source of threat to the "wolf" group and even the "wolf totem". Together with other scenes of devouring the wolf group, it has become the most obvious source of current topics, and Abba, who sits on the grassland, can almost be regarded as the symbol of the "wolf totem" in the world. The survival attitude of revering Tengger and coexisting in harmony with nature has fallen into reality, and will inevitably be fully invaded. Chen Zhen and his little friends, wrapped in it, are not only the supporting roles of the wolves in the play, but also the dust in the natural ecology.
Of course, the weakness of the film is also obvious. The abrupt love line, the close-up of explosives with strong new words, and the basically foolish 3D effect, together with the long production cycle, become a gray shadow, dragged in a pile of "sincerity", "truth". After the comment of "temperament", it became the footnote of the 2015 Lunar New Year file. What kind of balancing role the four screenwriters played, outsiders have no way of knowing, whether "Wolf Totem" is much higher than the blockbuster of the same period or is just a sincere "step away" . When the spectators retraced the literary text of "Wolf Totem", they found that they were still full of doubts about whether there was such a "wolf totem" worship in the Chinese people. A not-so-perfect but "sincere" film The film, built on a premise that is said to be non-existent, is about national character, but it is in the hands of French directors and becomes a "product" of multinational film capital. It is really "you lose if you are serious".
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