Part of the reason for paying attention to the movie "Deep Sea" is the director Tian Xiaopeng. In 2015, he became famous with the cartoon "Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage".

"Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage" subverts the traditional impression of Monkey King and "Journey to the West" in the audience's minds with strong colors and bold reshaping of characters. The violent and pure atmosphere it conveys is impressive .

　　This time, Tian Xiaopeng's "Deep Sea" finally met the audience in the Spring Festival file after going through the twists and turns of changing files and withdrawing files.

At this time, "Deep Sea" has whetted the audience's appetite. There are many people who speculate that "Deep Sea" intends to go further than "Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage", and go further in digging into the inner world of the characters.

In fact, this is also the case. Watching "Deep Sea", the audience can feel that the creator has transformed anxiety, longing, and shouting into bright and magnificent colors, and used extremely exaggerated methods to express human loneliness.

In this regard, "Deep Sea" can be regarded as the ultimate.

　　The story of "Deep Sea" is very simple: the little girl Sanjuku travels on a cruise ship with her parents and younger brother.

The stepmother, the domineering younger brother, and the biological father who always neglected her made her feel like an outsider.

After encountering a shipwreck, she was drawn into the bottom of the sea and got acquainted with the captain Nan He who speaks strangely but is kind-hearted. While looking for her biological mother, she embarked on an unimaginable deep-sea journey... And such a seemingly simple story, as the audience The continuous increase of these interpretations has become complex and profound.

　　After the identification of the patient with depression in Bisuke was confirmed, the idea and narrative focus of the film immediately became clear.

In the last half-hour of the film, "Deep Sea" narrates the symptoms of depression and the great pain suffered by Shensuke in a very straightforward way. angle.

Every detail, every line has a different meaning, which exactly corresponds to what the film's creators said. In order to make this film well, they have done countless meticulous and hard work.

　　It can be basically confirmed now that the main creative team of "Deep Sea" spent such a long time because they wanted to shoot a movie about redemption and healing. In the end, the film also realized the main creator's wish: the work established a very intimate relationship with the target audience. Relevance, those secret words hidden in the film in the form of images, symbols, metaphors, etc., no matter how deep they are hidden, can be quickly discovered or found.

Therefore, audiences who liked "Deep Sea" called it the best schedule, while audiences who were "blocked out" had some dissatisfaction, feeling that "Deep Sea" failed to tell the story better and lived up to expectations.

　　"The Deep" is ambitious.

It does not intend to only target movie fans, so the carving and use of pictures and colors has become its biggest commercial gimmick.

Focusing on visual enjoyment is indeed the aesthetic tendency of many audiences over the years. "Deep Sea" tried to conquer the audience with this method, and succeeded more than half, but at the end of the schedule, it was no longer attractive. This shows that "Deep Sea" is a commercial film. The elements were not enough, and it was passively pushed to the category of niche movies by word of mouth.

　　The role of Nan He was created with the consideration of emphasizing the commercial characteristics of the film.

Audiences who have watched "The Return of the Great Sage of Journey to the West" can easily see the appearance and temperament of Monkey King in "The Return of the Great Sage of Journey to the West" in terms of Nanhe's body movements and lines.

Nan He's rudeness and comicality, exaggeration and weirdness, although it was proved in the end that it was just a kind coat, but with the previous impressions, it is still impossible to quickly wash away the cracks that cannot be accurately connected between the front and back of the characters.

"A good person always pretends to be a bad person first." This practice that has been tried and tested in other cartoons is not handled properly in "Deep Sea".

　　The last half-hour of "Deep Sea" is truly engaging. It is precisely after the leading actor and the film's special effects technology take a backseat, the monologue by a single person destroys the audience's defense with the power of emotion.

The line "I'm not afraid of you" that Sansuke said repeatedly has the most direct and effective impact because of the straightforward emphasis.

Because it directly represents the voice of the audience.

"I'm not afraid of you" is similar to the phrase "My life is up to me" in "Nezha: The Devil Boy Comes into the World". They both shout out the inner depression and pain of young people and express their belief in resistance with determination.

　　"Deep Sea" is a master of animation technology and an innovator of animation concepts. It tries to find cultural genes from the classic Chinese novels, and actively integrates the successful elements of Japanese animation. It can also clearly see the personal experience of the main creator. and experience.

But the story it tells is indeed a difficult subject matter.

After trying to imagine multiple authoring templates for it, I have to admit that this version is still the ideal choice.

Because only strong colors can dilute the grayness of loneliness; only fireworks-like splendor can make people forget their sorrows;

　　The advantages of "Deep Sea" are obvious, but the shortcoming is that it fails to balance the relationship between story and technology.

The power of technology has a dazzling effect, which is beyond reproach.

However, the story lacks accurate distribution and scheduling in terms of logic, layering, and completeness.

The same story, because of the different processing methods, the resulting effect will be quite different.

On the premise that the existing expression form of "Deep Sea" remains unchanged, the use of color can be more prudent, the rhythm of the story can be more controlled, or the story can be told in a quieter and deeper way, maybe the effect will be better. will be better.

　　The box office of "Nezha: The Devil Boy Comes into the World", which was released in the summer of 2019, exceeded 5 billion yuan, and "The Rise of Guoman" became a hot topic.

Although the several Chinese comics released since then have not broken the box office record, they have their own characteristics and have always maintained a higher level than the average level of live-action movies.

This time, "Deep Sea" has gone from being predicted to compete for the box office champion to hovering between the second and third camps, which really disappointed people who care about Guoman.

However, the box office is not the only criterion to measure the value of a cartoon.

With the passage of time, the discussion on "Deep Sea" has increased, and if a consensus can be reached on its success or failure, it will bring good inspiration to the main creator and other Chinese comic creators.

(Han Haoyue)

　　(Source: Jiefang Daily, February 2, 2023, Edition 09)