Over the past few years, Yang Dechang's films have been re-screened every so often, and I will go to the theater to watch them again. Every time I find something new. The script of "The Terrorist" is very amazing. It starts with two groups of characters (Li Lizhong and his wife Zhou Yufen vs. bad girls Shuan and Xiaoqiang) in parallel. After a prank phone call intersects and influences each other, it ends with an open-ended double ending. The narrative is dense and well-structured, and the ending is intense and abrupt.
At that time, many well-known actors in the theater industry joined the new film one after another. In "Story of Time", Li Guoxiu played a college student in "Leaping Frog", running around in high spirits all day long. It is said that after watching the movie, he exclaimed how the theater's acting skills look so exaggerated in the movie, but I really like it. Li Liqun, who also came from the theater, performed even more brilliantly in "The Terrorist". He played the reticent and repressed husband Li Lizhong. In the opening scene with the director giving a small report, you can feel the tension of the role, and there is an uneasy power to explode at any time. "Please Pretend You Will Reluctant Me" that runs through the whole play can be said to be Li Lizhong's theme song. It played a prelude when the subtitles were opened at the beginning, as if to foretell his fate. The wife left resolutely, the indifferent denial of the boss, and even the pretended sympathy.
Yang Dechang is good at photographing cities, and he is good at photographing Taipei. The characters are in the city, and they all have some selfish desires. Zhou Yufen, who wrote novels, was caught in a creative bottleneck. Facing her husband who didn't know her at all and couldn't communicate with her, she chose to cry with her ex-boyfriend. She said that I was in my thirties and that I used up all my emotions and felt like I was living smaller and smaller. These words sound a little familiar. In "One One", Minmin cried and said to NJ, why is it the same every day, how come I only have so few? Zhou Yufen looked back on her marriage with Li Lizhong. At that time, she thought that marriage would be a new beginning, but Aaron from "Childhood Friends" told Azhen earlier that marriage is not a panacea. Don't try to do anything to change the situation of others and yourself. Listen to Xiao Ming's words, "This world will not change. Who do you think you are!"
However, Li Lizhong, a science and engineering man, knew about young women in literature and art. He thought that his wife would come back after winning the award. He even naively thought that Shu'an's prank call caused misunderstanding and kept talking to himself. I especially like the shot of him walking out of the office and looking up at the director. Just one look, this person's heart has collapsed. Not to mention that he finally showed a smile and happily told the police officer played by Gu Baoming that the director promoted him to be the team leader, "Man! It's just a career, everything is fake." Shu'an and Xiaoqiang's play is also interesting. The rich young master who took pictures everywhere pinned his feelings on a girl he met by chance, and even moved to her residence and transformed it into a darkroom. Post photos in the darkroom, the city wind blows in, and people, like photos, shatter into pieces. After Shu'an left, he could immediately return to his ex-girlfriend as if he was fine.
In this film, Yang Dechang used the narrative of the separation of sound and picture several times, seemingly parallel but referring to each other. Sometimes I just cut off the sound and let "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" tell the story. It's really exciting, and it's done in one go, even the curtains being blown by the wind. At the end of the story, gunshots cut through the city in the early morning, bloodstains, corpses, cold depression and huge lethality, I feel that "Terrorist" is not only a more terrifying "marriage record" than "Marriage Story", but also another cruel and desperate. Taipei Story.
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