(Text/Liang Xiaohui) "Chinese Ping Pong: Jedi Counterattack" was temporarily withdrawn during the Spring Festival, which attracted a lot of attention.
Indeed, in the same period when science fiction, history, costumes, and animation are all competing in the same field, the attention of this main theme film is indeed not dominant.
Withdrawing the file seems to be a helpless move, but in fact, it is also exchanging time for space to strive for a better opportunity for this film. Like the sports tactics it shows, it may be possible to retreat to advance. The Jedi strike back.
Because in terms of quality, "Chinese Ping Pong: Jedi Counterattack" is definitely worth it.
Ordinary people may find it hard to imagine that China’s ping pong, which is considered as a “national sport”, experienced such a “darkest age” 30 years ago, and then miraculously bottomed out and rebounded, as the title of the movie shows—— - "The Jedi Counterattack of Chinese Ping Pong".
"The Jedi Strikes Back", the movie does not pretend to be confused at all. Like any work with history as the theme and biographical film as the main form of expression, "Chinese Ping Pong: Jedi Strikes Back" is also rigorously walking on the track of realism. .
However, it presents a story with a known ending to the audience, with modern smooth narrative, clever characterization of characters, and reasonable interspersed and full plots. convince.
As the main creator, Deng Chao contributed a lot. He not only contributed to the "direction", but also contributed to the "acting".
The protagonist Dai Minjia, the head coach of the National Table Tennis Men's Team, has a personality of "being both good and evil", which just allows Deng Chao's sense of humor in variety shows to have a natural room to develop.
Deng Chao does not seem to be limited by the historical burden of the archetype, but instead created an atypical "hero" image who looks dandy and uninhibited, but has long been planned, seems idealistic and accepts fate calmly.
"Atypical" is the highlight of his performance, which is quite like a hero. It makes people who are not familiar with Dai have a desire to find out about real people. This is the greatest success of biographical works.
Moreover, if Sun Li is also regarded as Deng Chao's "buff", then under the reflection of Sun Li playing his wife Wang Ying, Dai's image is more concrete and credible.
The couples in reality have become the "husband and wife files" in the works, with a natural tacit understanding that is difficult for others to match.
But this is not a one-man show by Deng Chao alone, but a group portrait of Guoping.
Dai's story is more like a perspective and lead, piercing through the huge veins of characters in the whole Guoping. The story line of each character is relatively complete and ingenious. Skills in screenwriting and editing.
The introduction of the opening shows this expressive skill especially.
On the eve of Dai's return to China, he was robbed in the streets of Italy where he was hired, and he became more determined to return to China.
In the meantime, several camera movements and soundtracks are quite "Godfather"-style gangster movies. It has to be said that it is an innovation in narrative techniques to gradually enter the main theme of Chinese movies with such an atmosphere.
The performances of the older generation of actors can also be described as precise and wonderful. Tan Xihe, Liang Chao, Ni Xiaodong, Shi Liang...these names represent stable performance.
The newcomer actors also added to the highlights, especially Xu Weizhou contributed a brand-new screen performance, playing a national team player who is about 10 years younger than his real age with full strength, and the youthful arrogance comes alive on the screen.
The performances of old and new, sweat and tears are reminiscent of the present when "everyone is not easy" and "everyone is great", but dreams are always inspiring, and sometimes the spirit has power beyond the body.
The main creator also knows that in the face of such a subject with great spiritual tension, there is no need to be deliberately sensational. Telling and presenting the story well, with restraint and without exaggeration, is enough to achieve the preset goal for countless viewers today. Effect.
Looking at the growth history of Chinese theme films, this "awakening" of consciousness is the progress of "Chinese Ping Pong: The Jedi Counterattack", and it is also the maturing of the creation of this type of film.
Compared with such domestic works, there were "Win the Championship" and even "Miracle Stupid Kid" earlier, and the temperament of this film is in the same line.
Compared with similar biographical works abroad, such as "The Imitation Game" about Turing, "Hidden Figures" about a black female mathematician, etc., "Chinese Ping Pong: The Jedi Strikes Back" is not timid in terms of skills and expressions.
It is worth mentioning that the soundtrack of "Chinese Ping Pong: The Jedi Strikes Back" also invited Lorne Balfe, who is a guest of Hollywood blockbuster soundtrack, to compose the soundtrack. It is rare to be invited to create a Chinese theme film this time.
This detail also shows that the creation of the "main theme film", which is almost unique to China, has been well versed in the production methods of the contemporary film industry, and has been embedded in the pace of modernization of the entire world film industry by de-typing and de-stylized.
This development momentum is obvious to all. If using the term "Jedi Strikes Back" to describe it is a bit exaggerated, then after years of exploration, the "new" of today's Chinese theme films is obviously "familiar".
(Finish)