1
If "Animal World" is a deck of cards, then Han Yan has obviously drawn a good deck.
The tense and exciting cruise ship casino, the test bench where human nature is completely exposed, the confrontation of life or death, the cool and explosive transformation of monsters and blood rush, and the high IQ gambling that runs through it, which makes people burn their heads. Billion sale.
However, a good hand depends on how you play it.
First of all, in the first hand, Han Yan chose to play some small cards sporadically, 3 of diamonds and 4 of clubs - to explain the background of the story that is not very good.
Zheng Kaisi (Li Yifeng), a young man in a small town below the poverty line , whose father died early, and his mother was hospitalized due to illness, unable to sleep for a long time.
Because I have no money, I can't pay for my mother's hospitalization;
Because there is no money, there is no way to pour out his heart to his beloved childhood sweetheart Liu Qing (played by Zhou Dongyu);
Because he had no money, he was scammed in a desperate situation, mortgaged the house to invest in him, and finally ended up with empty house and money, a mess.
The card was so tight that it was almost on the screen that "Zheng Kaisi was unable to repay the debt, so he hanged himself, and the whole play ended."
Then, just when you thought he had no cards to play, Han Yan threw out a straight straight, from 3 to K, and lined up the big pass ahead of him.
Because there is no money to pay off the astronomical debt, Zheng Kaisi's life will not improve until his death.
What can he do? only to gamble.
So he set foot on the cruise ship called "Destiny", knowing that it was illegal, knowing that the chances of winning were very small, and knowing that losing would be irreversible, he still set foot on it.
Because that dirty cruise ship is really Zheng Kaisi's hope at this moment, the spider silk through which he escaped hell, and the only narrow road to the light.
The gangster played by Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas has an aura of about 2.8 meters. He told Zheng Kaisi that if he got on the boat and won, not only would his debts be cleared, but he might even make a fortune.
Kaisi's heart was moved, and he had no chance of fighting back when he hit Shunzi. He pushed from one kind of despair to another, and in the end, he was pushed to the edge of the cliff, and it was an inevitable decision to let go.
But what if you don't win? The gang boss didn't say anything, you knew it when he said it. When you hear such words, usually nothing good will happen.
Putting life on the poker table seems like a heavy decision, but in Zheng Kaisi's view, compared with decades of dark work and hard work, it is only a short-term pain.
The tragedy of the family, the predicament of life, the enslavement of money... Compared with the comics, the movie spends a lot of space to play these loose cards, in order to use the cruelest reality, under the boat of the story that will be released later. , dragged on heavy anchors, heavy, indisputable anchors of truth.
2
After the straight was played, it basically decided the victory of "Animal World". Next, is the thrilling decisive moment.
The so-called "ship of hope" is full of despairing people. Like Zheng Kaisi, these people were all losers who were forced to the point of death by life. If you win, you can be a human again.
The content of the decisive battle is staggering, it is actually a "guessing boxing" game without any new ideas.
However, if you look at it, you will be amazed that "rock paper scissors" can still play like this!
At the beginning of the game, everyone's initial property has 3 stars and 12 cards, which are 4 scissors, 4 rocks, and 4 cloths.
The two sides of the battle play the cards in their respective hands. Needless to say, the rules are the rules of "packing scissors and hammers". If you win, you will get one star; if you lose, you will lose one star; in case of a draw, the number of stars will remain the same, but the cards that have been played will be discarded.
That is to say, the guessing boxing that follows the intention is different, because the number of cards is limited, and the rules can be followed. Whoever has just played which card, and which card is left in his hand, is of course not luck, but a brain that many people do not have.
There are three conditions for a player to be eliminated:
①At the end of the game, there are less than 3 stars (if the stars are lost, they will be eliminated immediately)
②At the end of the game, the cards in hand are not used up
③At the end of the game, there are less than 3 stars, and the cards in hand are not used up
Those who are eliminated will be thrown into a mysterious and gloomy little black house. No one knows what will happen to them in the high seas where they don't care.
Therefore, in order not to lose, you must use all the cards in your hand to keep the number of stars above 3.
Because everyone already has 3 stars at the beginning, the game doesn't seem to be too difficult, as long as you don't lose, there is at least a two-thirds chance of winning or tying each game.
However, when I actually played it, I found out that this is not the case at all.
Here, the fight is not luck, but naked desire.
A rookie who has just arrived, does not understand the "animal law" of the jungle, and can only be squeezed into slag. Because here, the biggest rule is that there are no rules, deception, use, betrayal, as long as you can win, you can do whatever you want.
That's what Han Yan meant when he changed the title to "Animal World": a lion attacked an antelope from behind, and no one would say it was insidious, not gentle enough, and immoral.
Because in the animal world, don't ask about the process, just look at the result.
Some people live, some die, it's that simple.
3
In addition to the exciting consecutive cards, "Animal World" also held back the bomb.
This pair of bombs is Wang Zhuang, and there is a clown holding a scepter on the card.
This pair of Wang Zhai seems to be where Han Yan wants to display his ambitions and talents, because this element does not appear in comics, animations or Japanese movies.
"I have a disease in my brain... This disease can't be cured by surgery and medicine."
The first line of the whole film, the director has already vaguely revealed the card. In addition to the character settings of losers, diaosi, and gamblers in the original work, he added another one- multiple personalities (or delusions).
Because of the shadow of childhood, Zheng Kaisi in the film, every time he is stimulated, there will be a clown in his heart.
When the clown appeared, the world he saw was very different. Those faces that were usually indistinguishable from real and fake, in his eyes, all turned into ugly monsters. The clown's mission is to kill these ghosts and monsters handsomely.
Presumably the director worked with Weta Digital (the world's strongest visual effects company, which has won the Oscar for best visual effects five times), and most of the special effects budget was spent here.
To be honest, Li Yifeng played the clown like a dead servant with two swords on his back and slaughtered the Quartet. Apart from the blood, he was really a bit of a middle schooler. But combined with the characters, it is not difficult to explain the director's intentions——
The so-called clowns are often those who are unsatisfactory in reality, those who fail , just like Jack Nicholson was pushed into the sulfuric acid pool by Batman, and even his face was destroyed. and the edge of madness.
The scene of the clown slashing and killing monsters in the film appeared many times when Zheng Kaisi was fighting against the treacherous and greedy people. As a psychological scene description, it attached a symbolic meaning to the film.
These are the good parts. However, this deck of cards has actually won after playing a straight straight. At this time, the king blows up, other than adding some bonuses, it does not actually play a key role in the game.
When you yearn for the clown's personality to make a 360-degree change in the plot at a critical moment, he just dances a knife and shoots a gun in the distance, shrinking in his "symbolic" world, in addition to explaining the protagonist's turbulent There is no substantive effect other than the surging psychological activities.
It's kind of like an unfired gun, an undelivered rose, an Aston Martin that hasn't hit the road -- a pity.
4
Some people say that "Animal World" is a work of Li Yifeng's transformation from an idol school to a powerful school.
Although it cannot be said that he has successfully joined the power faction camp, this is definitely his best masterpiece so far.
In this character, there is anger at the injustice of fate, numbness to life, confusion about the future, and yearning for love. Although he treats him with indifference, the pain is hidden in his eyes. Such a role has no emotional ups and downs but is readily available, and it is easy to shine.
Before looking back, he always had some deviations in his emotional control. In "Old Pao'er", there was a scene where Feng Xiaogang was drinking with his father and son. The father confessed to his son. Feng Xiaogang burst into tears and dedicated a performance of the movie king level. A good opponent played him, but he seemed indifferent.
And the crying scene in "Psychological Crime" was a little too hard. Although tears came out, it was more like a hard squeeze and lacked the feeling of distraction.
His performance in these two plays was not worthy of the Hundred Flowers Award, and of course "Animal World" didn't reach this level, but this time, he learned to handle it.
Facing the walking dead at work, the powerlessness when facing the girl he loves, the fragility and helplessness when facing An Ran's sleeping mother, the unbelievable when he was betrayed by a child, the cunning evil spirit when he turned into a clown, his performance has Layering.
As a popular artist with a very full schedule, he spent eight months focusing on filming. It is said that he only took two days off during this period. One day was because the crew was going to change, and the other day was because he was unwell to see a doctor.
In order to reflect the down-and-out character of the character, except when he was incarnated as a clown, his styling from the beginning was sloppy. And it takes two hours each time to put on clown makeup. But he himself said that the most painful thing was in the scene in the little black room, where he had to step on the dirty and wet ground with his bare feet.
In the character structure, he is very active in adding a lot of his own design.
Han Yan revealed during the road show that many of Zheng Kaisi's little habits were figured out by Li Yifeng himself, such as carrying a box of candy with him, and eating a candy from time to time can also make him change his lines.
Another example is the scene where Xiao Li Jun asked him to borrow money. Originally, Han Yan wrote a long dialogue, but Li Yifeng thought it was better to be concise. He played it again for the director to see, and the director agreed.
Whether the actor has worked hard, the audience can perceive it from the movie. This time we felt it.
5
At the end of the movie, not long after our clown returned to his peaceful life, he was about to move again.
The reason is that Zheng Kaisi discovered that the hatred of killing his father and mother was vaguely related to the sponsor of the "Ship of Hope" gambling game.
In this way, Zheng Kaisi's main motivation has changed from wanting money and changing his life to wanting revenge against the mysterious organization. (Conan's sense of sight)
The introduction of revenge elements is an adaptation of the film based on certain considerations.
Since there is still a sequel, Zheng Kaisi must have returned to the gambling game again. This is not a spoiler. In fact, in the original work, one of the reasons why he went back was because he couldn't hold his breath.
I don't want to be manipulated by others like this, driven and played by interests, and I want to strike back at the high class and drag them off the throne.
Obviously, such motives are purer than pure revenge.
Later in the comics, a gambling method called "Emperor's Card" appeared .
The rules of the game are that there are three cards on the field: emperor, commoner and slave.
The Emperor holds 1 Emperor and 4 Citizens, and the Slaves hold 1 Slave and 4 Citizens
The emperor wins the citizen, the citizen wins the slave, the slave wins the emperor.
Among them, the setting of the slave card is the most subtle.
The common people in the world, all living beings, in order to seek money, not only will not overthrow the emperor, but instead try to please him and make his position more stable, and they are willing to accept the bondage.
However, those slaves who have nothing, are useless, can't even save the magic of money, and give up on themselves, can use sudden violence to shake the emperor's status.
The rules of this game, just like the game between Zheng Kaisi and the casino organizer, are the confrontation between the bug and the god.
At the same time, it is also a confrontation between a small person and the cruel rules of this world.
In this way, the comics played a tragic song for the nameless rebels. We will also look forward to seeing such expressions appear in domestic movies in the next two "Animal World".
Text/mr.pink, Ali
WeChat public account: Barcelona Film
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