In the Spring Festival of 2023, the movie "The Wandering Earth 2" will arrive as scheduled, igniting a movie-watching boom for domestic movies.
Relying on the shocking power of sci-fi scenes, the creativity of sci-fi imagination, and the cognition of sci-fi humanities, "The Wandering Earth 2" has completed multiple expressions of Chinese-style emotions and Chinese-style spirits, creating a modern, world-oriented, and future-oriented world. , the new Chinese-style sci-fi narrative discourse of the nation, science, and the public, in the broad vision of a community with a shared future for mankind, presents a credible, lovely, and respectable image of China.
The "Wandering Earth" series of films always insist on innovating Chinese science fiction narratives with Chinese emotions.
The sci-fi imagination of "The Wandering Earth" of "taking the earth to wander" is an organic combination of traditional Chinese thought and modern scientific spirit, and it is also an innovative perspective that integrates Chinese values into world discourse.
In "The Wandering Earth 2", the narrative core of the "Chinese perspective" has been further strengthened.
The film advances in parallel with the stories of Zhou Zhezhi, the Chinese representative of the coalition government and his assistant Hao Xiaoxi, astronaut Liu Peiqiang and his wife Han Duoduo, master Zhang Peng, computer engineer Tu Hengyu and teacher Ma Zhao.
From insisting on the "Mountain Removal Project" without giving up, to calling on the world to donate nuclear weapons to deal with the moon crisis, the Chinese perspective runs through the entire film, and anchors the Chinese-style science fiction narrative value position.
China, placed at the center of the future world, has provided a unique Chinese plan to save the world in the face of unpredictable survival crises, demonstrating the Chinese wisdom that has carried the Chinese civilization for thousands of years.
At the same time, it releases Chinese-style emotions marked by "family" and "family affection".
When his wife and children failed to enter the dungeon to avoid danger, Liu Peiqiang chose to interview the space navigator again to obtain a place for his family; in order to give his deceased daughter a complete life, Tu Hengyu did not hesitate to risk his daughter's digital life. The memory card is connected to the supercomputer.
One is willing to sacrifice, and the other is full of adventures. The two protagonists reach the same goal in terms of emotional choices, and love and family affection burst out with the brilliance of Chinese-style emotions.
Whether it is the traditional literati feelings of "worrying about the world before the world" shown by Zhou Zhezhi, the Chinese representative, or the emotional portrayal of ordinary fathers willing to sacrifice and take risks for their beloved family members in Liu Peiqiang and Tu Hengyu, they all present China The real and simple background color in the style of emotion.
"The Wandering Earth 2" upgrades Chinese science fiction culture with Chinese spirit.
If "Chinese narrative" and "Chinese emotion" are expressed in the story-level construction of the sci-fi genre, then the deeper theme and thinking of "The Wandering Earth 2" is to create a full sci-fi audio-visual charm while at the same time making Chinese values more vivid. Presented philosophically.
After vicissitudes of life, the Chinese civilization has given birth to the vision of peaceful development of "peace is the most precious" and "harmony among all nations", and has given birth to the wisdom of "being poor is to be alone, and to be rich is to benefit the world". The concept of inclusive governance.
The film injects these traditional Chinese philosophies and humanistic thoughts in one continuous line into scientific spirit, sci-fi imagination, and technological quality, and expresses them through the key choices of the characters in the film.
In the face of the doomsday crisis and in a seemingly irreversible predicament, how should human beings choose?
In a series of actions to save the earth based on scientific cognition, the film highlights the power of the word "responsibility".
Under responsibility, there are emotional choices, value choices, and cultural choices made by individual characters who cry out for life; above responsibility, there is a solution that the Chinese representative sticks to - "unity" and "persistence", calling on everyone to unite to deal with the lunar crisis .
When astronauts from all over the world jointly completed an irreversible detonation to save the earth, the Chinese spiritual power contained in "never give up, never abandon" transcended national boundaries and races, and was vigorously promoted in the consensus of a community with a shared future for mankind.
Science fiction films that explore the macrocosm and think about the future of mankind are a type of film with international communication and influence.
The emergence of the "Wandering Earth" series has changed the "Hollywood-style" monopoly pattern of the world's science fiction film track for decades.
The narrative expression and cultural creation of "Chinese-style science fiction" has innovated the discourse system of global science fiction films and enriched the narrative types of world science fiction films.
As the original IP of Chinese sci-fi movies, "The Wandering Earth 2" sticks to the position of Chinese civilization, and uses Chinese stories, Chinese spirit, and the power of the Chinese people to strive for a better life as the cultural support and value guidance for Chinese sci-fi movies to go to the world and dialogue with the world , explored a development path for Chinese films that parallels and blends with world films, and enhanced the influence of Chinese civilization.
(Author: Yang Chenghu, deputy dean, professor, and doctoral supervisor of the School of Art and Media, Beijing Normal University)
(Source: Guangming Daily, Edition 15, February 1, 2023)