Text \ Special writer Zhang Dongmei

　　A few days ago, the film "Tomorrow's War" produced and starred by Gu Tianle was released.

Since the first trailer was released in 2015, the audience has been full of expectations for this "mecha sci-fi blockbuster".

After the film was released, the word of mouth was polarized, but its groundbreaking in the science fiction genre was still worthy of praise, and was praised by many netizens as the "Chinese mecha science fiction pathfinder".

　　Future World Mecha Wars

　　In Hollywood in the United States, science fiction films are undoubtedly the best-selling genre films. "Avatar", "Star Wars", "Iron Man" and "Iron Fist" have all achieved box office success.

For Chinese films, domestic sci-fi films are still a relatively weak link.

Science fiction films have high requirements and high costs.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Hong Kong, China was known as the Hollywood of the East. The films produced were mainly action films, comedy films, and romance films, and science fiction films were rarely involved.

　　The Wandering Earth, which was born in 2019, opened the first year of Chinese science fiction movies.

This film is adapted from the novel of the famous science fiction writer Liu Cixin. Most of the special effects are completed by the Chinese team. From the script creation to the film production, it reflects the Chinese cosmology and world outlook.

Although the film is still far from the top level of Hollywood in terms of special effects, the audience still reported it with very enthusiastic support. The final film box office exceeded 4.6 billion yuan, which is known as the ceiling of the current domestic sci-fi films.

　　Despite the success of "The Wandering Earth", sci-fi is still a genre that many Chinese filmmakers dare not touch easily.

The sci-fi film "Shanghai Fortress" released after "The Wandering Earth" failed both at the box office and in word of mouth.

Some netizens joked that "'The Wandering Earth' opened the door to Chinese science fiction, and 'Shanghai Fortress' closed it again."

　　The recently released "War of Tomorrow" is based on the theme of "Doomsday + Mecha + Science Fiction", setting the background story in the future world.

Mecha is "mechanical power armor", which generally appears in sci-fi or surreal TV series, games and novels.

In "Tomorrow's War", due to the continuous deterioration of the environment, the air is full of harmful substances.

A meteorite that fell to Earth brought the lethal alien creature "Pandora".

At the time of human life and death, the mecha warriors Tai Lai (played by Gu Tianle) and Zheng Zhongsheng (played by Liu Qingyun) came forward to fight to the death to protect the earth.

　　As a mecha sci-fi film, "Tomorrow's War" has gone through a long production cycle.

As one of the investors, Gu Tianle began to prepare this film ten years ago, and it was first named "War of Contradictions".

The entire film cost 450 million Hong Kong dollars and featured more than 1,700 special effects shots. It is the largest and most technically difficult film produced in Hong Kong, China so far.

　　Brilliant visual feast

　　The core point of "Tomorrow's War" is the drama of the mecha warriors fighting the sky and the earth.

The film's hardcore mecha special effects are realistic, the cyberpunk-style wasteland space, the sky fortress, the galloping mecha on the ground, the pursuit of "speed and passion", and the hearty fighting. Many viewers called it "a splendid visual feast".

　　In order to pursue a super-flammable visual experience, "Tomorrow's War" uses real scenes to build large scenes, and the air force bases in the film are built manually.

The film also invited designer Mike Andrew Nash to participate in the mecha design.

In the film, the effects of giant mechas such as "Xingtian" and "Qianqi" are very realistic.

　　"Tomorrow's War" has strong "Chinese elements", and many action scenes are integrated into very distinct oriental martial arts aesthetics.

The battle between mechas is not a simple collision of steel and iron equipment, but has many action skills and martial arts routines.

The names of the protagonists of the film, "Tai Lai" and "Rebirth", imply Fu Ji Tai Lai and Nirvana's rebirth respectively.

The mechanical beast "Qiong Qi" and the mecha "Xing Tian" with top lethality in the film are named after ancient myths and legends. The gods were beheaded.

From the names of the characters in the film, you can see their good and evil attributes.

　　In addition, "Tomorrow's War" also incorporates distinctive elements and characteristics of Hong Kong police and gangster films.

The core of the story of the whole film is still the familiar routine of the audience: the police force goes deep into the enemy's rear, only to be betrayed by the "inner ghost".

They finally fought back and finally succeeded in hoeing.

The dialogue in the film is also quite characteristic of Hong Kong film characters. For example, Gu Tianle said "I can go to die, but I can't let my brother go to die", which reflects the common friendship and brotherhood in Hong Kong police and bandit films. "What the ending is, we decide for ourselves", conveying the indomitable "Spirit of Lion Rock".

　　The plot lacks novelty

　　The positioning of "Tomorrow's War" is "a sci-fi blockbuster that reaches international standards". If only from the perspective of industrial special effects, it can meet the expectations of many audiences.

However, if measured by the standards of excellent science fiction films, the film still has a lot of gaps.

　　How to judge whether a sci-fi movie is good?

Some people say that science fiction needs to be hardcore, some people say that visual effects need to be cool, and some people say that stories need extraordinary imagination.

Looking back at those classic Chinese and foreign sci-fi films that are famous in the history of the film, we can find that what really touched us is the part that touches human nature.

For example, "Interstellar" is essentially a tender family film wrapped in a sci-fi shell.

At the critical moment of human existence, Nolan abandoned difficult scientific theories and chose "human love" as the decisive factor for saving the earth.

Another example is "The Wandering Earth". The most memorable thing about it is those common human emotions, including the tragic feeling of uniting as one to save the earth, the touching transformation of father and son from alienation to reconciliation, and the traditional Chinese local feelings of "taking the earth to wander". Wait.

　　The shortcoming of "Tomorrow's War" is that the story is too thin and lacks the core of human nature.

The film lays out three emotional lines of family, friendship and love, but they are all shallow.

Because of the loss of his daughter, Tailai cared for Panpan, who met by chance, the broken and reunited brotherhood between the protagonists, and the love between Guangzai and Xiaolu's sons and daughters. Behind every line is full of Hong Kong film routines. It is easy to make the audience feel cliché and lack of new ideas.

　　In the eyes of many people, "Tomorrow's War" is still far from a classic sci-fi film.

However, the film's innovation in sci-fi genre themes and special effects production is worthy of recognition.

The valuable experience and technical strength accumulated in the filming of the film will drive domestic science fiction films to go further.