□Sun Jiayin
Last Friday, the movie "Wuhai" was officially released.
This is the second feature film of the young director Zhou Ziyang. Four years ago, he was born with his debut film "The Old Beast" and won the Special Award for the Future of Asia at the 30th Tokyo International Film Festival.
This time, in addition to the guest appearances of Tumen, he also invited Huang Xuan and Yang Zishan to choose the leading actor and actress.
But within five days of its release, the cumulative box office of "Wuhai" was less than 9 million yuan, and the proportion of films in the row has fallen to less than 5%, which is far less than the previous market expectations. Even in Douban, which is relatively more tolerant of literary films, netizens only made a hit. A score of 6.1 is passable.
It can be said that "Wuhai" has fallen into a "Wuhai" in word of mouth and box office, which is depressing.
But why is this?
Painful emotions
As the name suggests, the protagonist Yang Hua (Huang Xuan) faces a sea of dark and deep desires.
In the movie, this married man who was once proud of the spring breeze and who was also in love, seems to have fallen into an endless fall. He failed in investment, was in debt, was deceived by friends, misunderstood by his wife, rejected by his father-in-law, and was forced into it step by step. Desperate.
In particular, whenever there seems to be a turning point, I find that what is ushered in is a new round of misfortune, which is suffocating.
The night before yesterday, the director published a long article on social media to tell his heart. He said that after he finished filming "The Old Beast", although he won some awards for the film, he had no income for several years and was under great pressure to survive. "Remember that I borrowed it at the time. More than 20 online loans, every day you open your eyes, you have to pay back the account, and are bombarded by countless reminders every day, but you can only tear down the east wall to make up the west wall. Life becomes very difficult and painful, the only support and happiness It is the script creation in progress, the cruel life experience is accompanied by the extreme creative state, including the unexpected departure of friends around me, and I also put these most real feelings in the role of Yang Hua." So, "Wu" Yang Hua in "The Sea" had a hard and depressing life, debts, loans, cheating, quarrels, arson, car accidents, and fierce conflicts. Under the dense plot, the audience would not fall asleep, nor would they be willing to go to the toilet, but There are too many contradictions, conflicts, frustrations and misfortunes. On the one hand, there are suspicions of being stiff and piled up, and on the other hand, it seems to push the audience into the unbreathable darkness, but forget to pull it out.
The director did reflect and question the endless desires and distorted values, but he did not give any solutions, which made it difficult for the audience to accept.
Imagery metaphors are slightly mixed
If "Wuhai" continues the director's debut "Old Beast"'s reflection on social issues in the ideological core, then its creative technique continues the surrealist expression of the previous work, the symbolic technique of imagery metaphor and the surrealism. The narrative of absurd scenes has increasingly become the iconic technique of Zhou Ziyang's films.
At the beginning of "Wuhai", Yang Hua was watching African lungfish through mobile video.
This is a very powerful creature. When the river dries up, they will hide deep in the silt and wrap themselves with saliva. "It can live for up to four or five years until it rains and then get out of the soil. Get out.” Zhou Ziyang did not deny that he arranged such a heart, “In order to survive, life can be mutated, this is very similar to the theme of the movie.” However, there are many short video images of this kind in the film, including birth. Picture of multiple babies and so on.
You can feel that the director wants to think about the medium itself, and use short videos as a record of the times, but this invisibly caused some damage to the narrative rhythm of the film.
What's more deadly is that the contrast and conflict between reality and surreal created by the director is often too deliberate and lacking in necessity.
For example, the old ladies who can stand upside down and do yoga have no explanation after the opening of the chapter; for example, those folk music performers, if the tent is on fire, they can play calmly and freely; for example, Yang Hua climbs into one. The mouth of the dinosaur sculpture hides in its body for the night. In addition to the beauty and metaphor in the visual sense, it also really makes people wonder how the dinosaur's neck passes through the body of an adult man, which is very playful.
What other desert moons, those yurts in the desert like a mirage, and the director’s very satisfied Yang Hua and his wife doing yoga together, forming a state of desire and struggle in the wrapping and winding movements... Lin Lin, just a 102-minute movie, However, the director has stuffed up so many pieces of magic realism, which largely affected the rationality and smoothness of the realistic part of the story.
Learning to find a balance between form and content, learning not to "want it all", may be more urgent and necessary for a young director than to establish a so-called personal style.