Chapter 745

When "The Great Gold Robbery" was first established, Ning Hao was full of desire to express his thoughts completely through this movie, and use it to compete with those big directors for the New Year, which can be described as full of pride, but now that the movie has been made, it is almost post-production.

It can be said that with a kick in the door, it was almost the last accumulation, but it was really time to produce the finished product, but Ning Hao, as the director, couldn't sit still, and he began to panic.

Song Zheng told him at the beginning that it was impossible to express all his thoughts in 120 to 150 minutes.

At that time, Ning Hao was still not convinced, but now it seems that Song Zheng is right!

"I've gone through all the shots in my head in the past two days!" Ning Hao said, inadvertently revealing a wry smile, "Zhengzi! You're right, not everything can be solved by shooting techniques." ”

Feng Xiaogang was beside him, and he was full of curiosity when he heard it, and said, "What do you mean? Tell me, maybe I can still give an idea!"

Ideas?

Out of what attention?

It's not gossip news, and you don't need to find someone to discuss it with.

Besides, even in Ning Hao's opinion, the drama "The Great Gold Robbery" is also very dissatisfied, but for a director, the work is like his own child, how can others be judged.

Song Zheng just said it, after all, Song Zheng is an investor, and he has been sparing no effort to support him over the years, Feng Xiaogang's words, forget it!

"Don't say it, it's boring!" Ning Hao took a sip of wine, and then took advantage of the situation to start the topic, "This year's Chinese New Year stalls are lively enough." ”

Hearing Ning Hao talk about the New Year's file again, Song Zheng smiled and said: "Isn't it, your "Gold Robbery", my "Lao Pao'er", Orange Sky Entertainment's "Ink Attack", and ~~~~~~~"

Feng Xiaogang continued: "Zhang Yimou's "The City is Full of Golden Armor". ”

That's right, "The City is Full of Golden Armor", Lao Mouzi's third blockbuster, it can also be said to be the curtain call of domestic martial arts blockbusters, after "The City is Full of Golden Armor", although domestic directors and producers are still sparing no effort to pursue large-scale productions, but after all, they are much more rational.

As for the quality of "The City Full of Golden Armor", Song Zheng's evaluation is that it has reached a new peak.

As a loyal viewer of Chinese movies, Song Zheng has never understood why Zhang Yimou, who can make so many excellent works, has to make such a nondescript thing out of his mind.

At the beginning, Song Zheng and Feng Xiaogang's "No Thieves in the World" collided with Zhang Yimou's "Ambush on All Sides", although a conflict also broke out, but it was just a battle of will, not a big deal.

For Zhang Yimou, Song Zheng still admires it very much, "The Red Lantern Hangs High", this is the first time he watched Zhang Yimou's movie, "Sister, you boldly move forward", made the best annotation for the release of humanity of the Chinese people under the ideological imprisonment at that time, this film has won numerous awards at major film festivals, allowing Chinese films to go to the world, and conforming to and leading the cultural wave of reform and opening up in the eighties of the last century, no matter how many "defenders" there were in those years The addition of evil words, history proves that no one can stop Zhang Yimou's attempts and contributions to the innovation and reform of Chinese film art.

Some people say that "Yellow Earth" is not Zhang Yimou's credit, the fact is that even if the famous director Chen Kaige recalls the year, he has to admire Zhang Yimou's artistic genius, it was Zhang Yimou who was a photographer at that time who made Chen Kaige and "Yellow Earth", and at the same time let the world know that China also has the best photographer, he is Zhang Yimou who won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival a few years later.

Zhang Yimou's artistic achievements and status in the Chinese film industry and even the world film industry cannot be denied.

The greatness of Zhang Yimou lies in the fact that he has always been based on the deepest part of national culture, relying on constantly innovating artistic expressions, exploring and trying the expression techniques of Chinese films, and relying on a little accumulation to achieve his status in the world film industry today.

Don't assume that Westerners don't want to make national things, and the United States, where the film industry is developed, doesn't it want to make movies that are rooted in the nation and can cause self-criticism?

It's not that they don't want to, it's that their civilization is built on the basis of the industrial revolution, and there are very few things that can be used to reproduce their national culture artistically, so they can only shoot themes that embody the Vietnam War, personal heroism, science fiction, war, and urban love.

But will these films survive?

can only enter the warehouse after the release, and no one cares.

But Zhang Yimou's films can become historical textbooks, and the classic films he made can be recognized and appreciated by Westerners, and can be recognized by the Chinese people.

But since "Hero", Zhang Yimou's movies have become incomprehensible, maybe those knowledgeable film critics can expound a lot of thought-provoking philosophies through his films, but for ordinary audiences who walk into the cinema just to relax for two hours, watching Zhang Yimou's movies seems to be left to watch Zhang Yimou's tricks except staring at the big screen and counting the faces of stars.

On the one hand, as a commercial blockbuster that goes abroad, it already has an image level that is almost comparable to Hollywood, whether it is exquisite composition, shocking scenes, or kung fu fights and atmosphere creation full of oriental colors, they have reached a very high level.

Since "Hero", the costume kung fu blockbuster has been explored and improved many times, and the results achieved are obvious, "The City is Full of Golden Armor" has basically gotten rid of the childish plot and lame lines, the plot is vivid and smooth, and some scenes can also bring people heartfelt touch.

On the other hand, this film can only be regarded as a mediocre one of Zhang Yimou's works, without many breakthroughs and improvements.

The costumes are gorgeous and the scenes are extravagant, which is better than Feng Xiaogang's "Night Banquet", of course, Zhang Yimou's directing level is much better than Feng Xiaogang's, and the staggered shots and the depressing atmosphere make this film relatively compact and moving.

The film also has many gimmicks and action scenes that commercial films should have, following the tradition of "Hero" and "Ambush on All Sides", deliberately operating in the few fight scenes, and working hard.

The most classic scene is the scene of the competition between Wang and Yuan Jie at the beginning, this fight is different from the scene of wanton play and volley in previous martial arts films, but it is relatively realistic and much more stable, the sparks of the collision of weapons, and the close-up of the characters' eyes make this action scene much more unique.

The weapons and equipment are also eye-opening, whether it is the flashy and mighty golden armor or the unique lasso scythe of the zipline warriors, they all reflect the excellent imagination and originality of the creators.

The magnificent war scenes, as well as the restraint of the troops and other details, can see the director's efforts to improve the enjoyment and entertainment of the film.

However, the problem here also comes out, in terms of the control and grasp of the commercial elements of the film, Zhang Yimou is obviously a little powerless.

The parallel montage of the scene of the palace maid getting up at the beginning of the film and the return of the king's army seems to be difficult for people to connect them together, and the extravagant scene to the extreme feels a little boring.

The plot of the massacre of Imperial Doctor Jiang's family in Tianfu Inn is thrilling, but it can't escape the stereotypes of vendetta and escape in costume films, Zhang Yimou shows off in many scenes, such as the assembly work of hundreds of imperial doctors in the pharmacy, thousands of eunuchs cleaning up the battlefield and chorus, etc., but this actually does not play much role in the narrative of the film, it is simply reduced to a scene of showmanship.

The most debatable thing about the film is undoubtedly the war that suppressed the rebellion in the back, the densely packed gold-armored warriors in the imperial city, and the king's silver-armored army are intertwined, the cramped picture is crowded, the tragedy of the war has disappeared, and this war has been reduced to a gimmick, a scene that is ready to shock and make people happy.

In the previous life, after the release of this movie, I believe many people noticed that there was basically no close-up of the death and injury of individual soldiers in this war, Zhang Yimou may have used this to tell people that this war has nothing to do with the common people, but just the infighting of the royal family, but the tragedy of the war is not more reflective of the bloody cruelty under the feudal power?

Like the final war scene of martyrdom and death in Akira Kurosawa's "Shadow Warrior", in the mournful trumpet, the soldiers struggling to die can better reflect the atmosphere of the film?

Zhang Yimou is undoubtedly a master of formalism, and his exploration of cinematic forms has reached the point of obsession, and from the time he was the cinematographer of Chen Kaige's "Yellow Earth", the thick and flamboyant style of the images was surprising.

"Red Sorghum" has a strong vitality and passion, and the unique use of color has since become an indispensable part of Zhang Yimou's films.

Zhang Yimou's films have a distinctly northern color, a kind of naked sensibility and passion. In terms of color selection, red, yellow, blue, white, especially red, are the main colors, this kind of bright and exciting colors are completely different from the tones created by Li Eucalyptus's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and the meaning of the expression is also very different.

"Hero" should be another breakthrough in Zhang Yimou's film form, and the "Rashomon"-style storytelling and color segmentation techniques can be said to push Zhang Yimou's film language to the extreme.

However, when it comes to "The City is Full of Golden Armor", the use of color is questionable, although the film is still shot gorgeously and rich in texture, but the whole article is red and yellow of the palace, and the continuous bombardment of colors of the same wavelength, it is difficult not to make people feel aesthetic fatigue.

At this point, "The City Full of Golden Armor" is much inferior to Zhang Yimou's previous two blockbusters "Hero" and "Ambush on All Sides".

In terms of modeling space, "A City Full of Golden Armor" is not to mention innovative, limiting the main time and character activities to a certain space, focusing on the contradictions and conflicts between the characters, Zhang Yimou has already done it before, and it is much more compact and profound than "A City Full of Golden Armor".

The dyeing workshop in "Ju Dou", the Qiao family's compound in "The Red Lantern Hangs High" are like this, and "The City is Full of Golden Armor" is nothing more than infinitely expanding the scenes used before, and then matching it with a gorgeous and spectacular palace scene.

The dubbing of the film is relatively commendable, whether it is the unrestrained gong and drum sound, or the sad and sad flute, all with distinctive Chinese characteristics, of course, compared with the ingenious Peking Opera shouts and shouts in "Hero", it is still a little inferior.

Overall, the film is still impressive in terms of audiovisual aspects. It can be said that Zhang Yimou presented the audience with an oriental spectacle with a mysterious atmosphere, which may be exactly what Westerners are willing to see.

The integration of Chinese films into the world and the development of the international market is, to a certain extent, at the cost of joining the Western postcolonial value standards, and many award-winning films in the West have consciously or unintentionally continued the stereotype of China by Westerners, that is, mysterious, backward and undeveloped, such as Zhang Yimou's "Red Sorghum", "Ju Dou", "Qiu Ju Fights a Lawsuit", etc.

Li Yu's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" made people aware of the interest of Westerners in ancient China and Chinese kung fu, so costume kung fu blockbusters also began to rise, which is also the main project that foreign film investors are willing to invest in.

Zhang Yimou once said that it is difficult for domestic blockbusters to make a profit in the domestic market alone, so it is inevitable to seek overseas markets.

It is precisely in this way that each domestic blockbuster film describes the ancient times of China with a Western-style value evaluation standard, which also causes a contrast between the film itself and Chinese history and culture to a large extent.

"The City Full of Golden Armor" is also like this, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms are just a gimmick, as for the clothing, equipment, and architecture, in fact, they all have a certain absurdity.

In terms of narrative structure, "A City Full of Golden Armor" continues Zhang Yimou's consistent style, that is, adapting other people's works and making movies on the shoulders of excellent writers, which ensures that Zhang Yimou's films have basic humanistic thickness, and also allows Zhang Yimou's film language to be freely played, and the form and content can be balanced.

However, Zhang Yimou's adaptation of literary works has always been deleted, in order to make the works visual and compact, it is necessary to make corresponding modifications to the literary works, but this also causes many literary works to be simplified, and even lose their original cultural connotation.

Although "The Red Lantern Hangs High" is an excellent movie, transplanting the southern mansion in China to the Qiao family compound in Shanxi is a major initiative of Zhang Yimou, but the simplistic character description makes Song Lian, a newly educated modern woman, no different from the other wives and concubines of the master, and is completely included in the program of mutual tilting.

"Alive" has been transformed by Zhang Yimou, in fact, it has more or less weakened the thinking about the life course in the original work, of course, this does not detract from making Zhang Yimou's works masterpieces, Zhang Yimou's unique life experience and social care make up for this shortcoming, so that his early works have a thick and passionate cultural reflection core, and the excellent modern film language makes his works shine.

Although this film is adapted from Mr. Cao Yu's well-known work "Thunderstorm", Zhang Yimou transplanted it to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of ancient China, this change can be said to have completely lost the meaning of the times and cultural reflection of "Thunderstorm", transplanting an era of progress and backwardness to a completely closed and backward chaotic historical period, and "Thunderstorm" will have no form.

Although the film is also about the corrosion of feudal power on the family and the distortion of human nature, the nature has completely changed, and what is more fatal is that out of the compactness of the story itself and the ease and convenience of the narrative, Lu Dahai has become the second prince Yuanjie in the film, it can be said that this change has turned this film into a pale family ethics tragedy.

"Thunderstorm" has become just a gimmick, if you take out all kinds of dazzling features and scenes in the film, you can find that "The City Full of Golden Armor" is actually a very poor story, even "Hero" and "Ambush on All Sides".

Of course, all of this, now only Song Zheng alone knows, in the eyes of others, this gathering of Zhou Yanfa, Gong Li, Liu Ye, and Zhou Jielun, the little king of the treasure island, "The City is Full of Golden Armor", is undoubtedly the biggest highlight of this year's Chinese New Year.

It was late at night, the wine was gone, watching Ning Hao get in the car and leave, Song Zheng wrapped his coat tightly, and the weather in Yanjing became colder and colder.

"Zhengzi, aren't you worried about Lao Mouzi's film?"

"Worried about what!?"

Feng Xiaogang looked like he was watching a good show: "I asked knowingly." ”

Song Zheng smiled and said, "What is there to worry about!"

Feng Xiaogang couldn't help but be curious: "There are a lot of big names in his play, and they all have box office appeal, don't underestimate the enemy, when the time comes, if you really let Lao Mouzi step on it, the media may not know what to say!"

There was a sentence that Feng Xiaogang didn't say, but Song Zheng had already guessed it.

Those media are now eager to see him unlucky!

"If he can still toss a "Hero" now, I may really be worried. ”

Lao Mouzi's costume blockbuster, in Song Zheng's opinion, is also "Hero" is excellent, and the rest of "Ambush on All Sides" and "The City is Full of Golden Armor" are just morbid obscenity.

"As far as his play is concerned, it is not as good as your "Night Banquet"!"

"Hey!How do you talk!?"

Song Zheng glanced at Feng Xiaogang and said, "What's the matter, it's rotten and you can't let people say it!?"

Feng Xiaogang was stunned, and he really lost his temper.