Chapter 939

Song Zheng has long believed that Ning Hao is one of the few film directors who can tell a story among all the film directors who are still actively making films in China.

A "Crazy Stone" became a box office dark horse for domestic films that year, opening up a new way for small-budget films, and Chinese movie audiences also remembered the name "Ning Hao", and later, a "Crazy Racing" continued the madness of the stone, and Ning Hao also became the fourth mainland director to enter the "100 million yuan box office club" after Zhang Yimou, Feng Xiaogang, and Chen Kaige.

The two "crazy" series of works both make the audience crazy and obsessed with black humor, cross-narrative with multiple clues, sharp editing, dynamic shots and other film elements.

In "Crazy Stone", there are three character narrative threads that extend around a stone, and in "Crazy Racing", there are as many as six character narrative threads.

In this way, a number of narrative clues are intertwined with each other, the relationships between various characters are unfolded together, various plot clues go hand in hand, and finally a number of character clues converge into a first-class.

It is precisely because of the success of these two movies that Ning Hao left a fixed impression on the audience: the way he is good at storytelling is the cross-narrative of multiple clues.

It may feel old-fashioned to continue this style, but once Ning Hao tries to change the film style established by previous films, it will be difficult to continue the madness of Ning's films.

Although "No Man's Land" is not a standard multi-line narrative, it is also interspersed with branching clues of many characters, which can barely be regarded as a continuation of his style.

However, in the original version of "The Great Gold Robbery", he abandoned what he was best at to try new things, and the result was that he did not give full play to the storytelling ability that Ning Hao was good at before.

In "The Great Gold Robbery", Ning Hao completely abandons the multi-linear narrative he was used to before, and instead uses the traditional single clue for narration.

This narrative method will make the film due to a single character clue resulting in weak character relationships, weak dramatic conflicts, and insufficient suspense settings and tension rendering of the film, which will weaken the comedy effect of the film to a certain extent, and it will be difficult to continue the madness of the previous stones and cars.

The film revolves around the clue of robbing gold, and the audience should have seen how the underground party, dominated by the protagonist Xiao Dongbei, snatched eight tons of gold in a heavily guarded and impregnable vault.

Among them, the ingenious layout plan for the gold robbery, the exquisite process of implementing the crime, the setting of suspense, and the resolution of various contradictions are all key portrayals and highlights in the film.

However, Ning Hao did not dig deeper into the ups and downs of the storyline because of the flat and straightforward narration of the storyline and falling into clichés.

The story uses the kidnapping of the crazy father and his lover in the small northeast by the Japanese as a contradictory obstacle in the process of robbing gold, rather than in the process of robbing gold, how to cleverly layout and break through the enemy's layers of strict precautions to promote the development of the storyline, which is a bit of a cliché.

And the armored car that suddenly appeared in the end and the large truck loaded with aqua regia easily smashed the enemy's lair, which made all the previous efforts go up in smoke and all the suspense was burned.

Of course, it cannot be said that a single-line narrative cannot create a comedic effect and a tense atmosphere, and a single-line narrative can still create suspense, create a tense atmosphere, and achieve a certain dramatic effect.

In this regard, "The Great Gold Heist" can be completely referenced to Hollywood's "Ocean's Eleven", and the two films have many similarities in story: a group of people come together for a common goal, unfold a perfect plan, and finally complete an impossible task.

"Ocean's Eleven" is also a single-line narrative, but it makes a big fuss from the storyline of the film, through layers of story layout, exquisite plot arrangement, clever resolution of contradictions, and accurate grasp of the rhythm, a seemingly impossible task is resolved seamlessly.

But obviously, "The Great Gold Robbery" failed to do this, it should have been the most exciting part, but it was like a dragonfly in the water, passing by, when Song Zheng was watching it in his previous life, it felt like stepping on a banana peel, not one, but a bunch.

In terms of the overall tone of the film, "The Great Gold Robbery" did not continue the outright madness of the previous "stones" and "cars", and carried the madness to the end.

In the second half of the film, Ning Hao played serious for everyone, and even showed everyone a kind of cold and desperate cruelty. The crazy father of the little northeast in order to save the underground party from the clutches of the little Japanese, and unfortunately was shot and died, and the underground party led by the puppet Manchurian and national film queen Fang Die died tragically in the Japanese army's random guns without warning under the premise that the audience had no warning, and the very likable daughter was also under the audience's sigh, and was plotted by the little Japanese, Ning Hao died with a cold and cruel death, contrary to the black humor madness in the previous works.

The story was not told well through the film, and in addition, the big scenes of publicity before the release of the movie were also a little disappointing.

The original version of "The Great Gold Robbery" invested 50 million yuan, compared with the 3 million yuan of "Crazy Stone" and the 10 million yuan of "Crazy Racing", which is a medium-production film.

From the perspective of the cast, "The Great Gold Robbery" almost uses the newcomer as the protagonist of the film, the newcomer provokes the main beam in the film, and the actors who were familiar with Ning Hao's movies before, such as Huang Bo, Liu Ye, Shi Ta's father and others all act as green leaves for the newcomer.

It is conceivable that the proportion of 50 million film investment spent on actors accounts for a small minority, and to a large extent, the investment in the film is spent on the production of films.

This can be seen from the scale of the scenes in the film, compared with the previous two works, the scenes and scale in "The Great Gold Robbery" are far larger than the previous two, there are many scenes of war explosions in the film, aircraft bombing, machine gun melee, etc. undoubtedly add many highlights to the film, making the film seem more crazy, however, such seemingly superficial madness cannot make up for the shortcomings caused by the flaws of the story.

Ning Hao's previous works basically did not touch the edge of action movies, and the fight scenes in "The Great Gold Robbery" were dense, and it should not be outrageous to say that it was Ning Hao's first attempt at action movies.

It's a pity that even when you look at it as a novice work, the action scenes of "The Great Gold Robbery" are only unsatisfactory.

The first late-night chase was very perfunctory, the Salvation Association and the chasing soldiers were only a few meters away, and after running into the church in a few steps, they were able to drill into the dark grid one by one, and Xiao Dongbei could also find time to cosplay, during which he didn't give the Japanese half a shot.

When Song Zheng watched it, he couldn't help muttering: Although the Japanese have short legs, they can't run so slowly.

A bad start is half the battle, and as the massive gunfire spreads out one after another, Song Zheng's confidence in the film has never been restored.

Song Zheng still remembers that before the release of "The Great Gold Robbery", it was said in the publicity: 50 million investment, most of which was spent on special effects, fortunately, this is not a lie, good steel is indeed used on the knife edge, and sadly, the good steel needed to sharpen this big knife is far more than these.

For example, in the last scene of the movie, in the hall where the artillery is flying, the walls and pillars are wantonly destroyed, but at a glance sweeping towards the gap, how can there always be a sense of paper and foam material, the big truck besieged by bullets and bullets is rampaged, and the sparks on the body are splashed, leaving a flawless surface.

While sending a large amount of investment to the special effects team, the cast and crew will inevitably suffer some losses, the dignified "Salvation Congress" seems to be famous, and the exchange of information in the theater at the beginning is also done very well, as if the most unfortunate is also the strength of a party secret service organization in "Lust and Caution", who knows that after the official debut, there are five backbones, from reconnaissance, recruitment, infiltration, camouflage, robbery, purchase of arms, to assassination of dignitaries, and they have to maintain the appearance of the crew during the day to shoot as usual, which really makes people admire their energy and versatility.

What's more, the five-person team is united, not only do they go out for every mission, leaving no backup, but they also rush back to the gathering place after hearing the trapping broadcast, and they also drive in from the main entrance in a luxury car, showing the style of the actress team.

It seems that the IQ of the rulers of the puppet Manchurian state is really not far behind compared with their compatriots in films such as "Mine Warfare" and "Hands Up".

The arms dealer did not appear much, but his aura was very sufficient, and when he talked about the sale, his subordinates were prosperous, and when it came to armed support, he became the commander of the light pole, relying on his own big killer weapon to suppress the formation, and with two or three followers, he entered the enemy formation, and was completely exploded by a burst of gunfire, which was simply expected.

This sounds a bit nitpicky, but with a few fewer cars and a few fewer walls, you can hire a few more actors who act in action scenes, which is better than letting a street gangster who was still a fool and kidnap a big boss two days ago turn into a little brother who will not be shot in an instant, and people block and kill people.

These extraordinary highlights in the film, in addition to the special effects, in fact, each paragraph is not inferior in its own right, but there are no ups and downs in the choreography, from the "big robbery" to the "traitor betrayal", from the desperate assassination, to the armored car battle, in addition to the high tide, every time I do enough to do the "last battle" posture full of mountains and rain, but it is just a cutscene, and several emotions are tug-of-war, which is exhausting and aesthetically tired.

What's even more speechless is that almost every conflict ends with the extremely cliché hostage-taking, and the main creator obviously can't think of any other tricks, typical poor donkey skills.

The emotional line is another weak point in the whole play, and the film also adds two emotional lines to the main line of grabbing gold, Ning Hao's first involvement in family and love in "The Great Gold Robbery" is also refreshing.

The father-son relationship between Xiao Dongbei and Crazy Dad was not very harmonious at the beginning, and the film gave it emotional connotation through the foreshadowing of the pimple soup.

Before the crazy father died, a bowl of pimple soup sublimated the family relationship between the two, and earned the tears of the audience.

The family line is barely qualified, but the love line has completely collapsed, this should have become a highlight of this movie, in terms of clues, Ning Hao did a really good job, through a simple prop one by one forks folded into roses, as the emotional bond between the two, when Sissi was shot and fell down at the end of the film, still holding the bloody rose in her hand, the audience couldn't help but feel sorry for the love in the film.

But the problem is that it is too thin, probably because of the popular sling counterattack in society, "The Great Gold Robbery" is beyond reproach for following the trend, but the sling also needs to be reasonably paved.

And "The Great Gold Robbery" seems to lack sincerity in this regard, just because of the humble copying of the model of "Titanic", the handsome and rich who don't know what love is are not favored, and the emotional little sling uses the rose offensive to resolve the goddess's defense.

If you have a shipwreck of the century, I will have an air force attack, highlighting love in the tribulation, coupled with the same unforgettable parting of life and death, vowing to squeeze the audience's tears.

But how many viewers who have been influenced by "Titanic" can be moved by this replica?

At least Song Zheng thinks that this love is far away, not as tear-jerking as the sacrifice of the old members of the Boxer Rebellion.

So much so that after watching "The Great Gold Robbery", many people felt that Ning Hao had regressed, and also thought that the film was far below their expectations.

In fact, this is only a superficial phenomenon, the reason why "The Great Gold Robbery" is "regressive" is because the film has transformed from the "crazy" series, and has not completely continued Ning Hao's previous style, to paraphrase a sentence from Guo Banzhu, Ning Hao's roles in the previous two films are basically "the king of chicken thieves", and in "The Great Gold Robbery", only Kotobu Yi and Konosuke Toriyama still partially continue this characteristic, and at the same time, the style of the film is also based on the tone of the previous one, playing emotional drama.

Therefore, the audience can no longer see the inherent madness, but on the whole, "The Great Gold Robbery" is still a relatively successful film, compared to most other domestic films, it is already very particular.

First of all, in terms of plot, although "The Great Gold Robbery" does not have a rich multi-line narrative like stones and racing cars, from beginning to end, the plot development is quite smooth and clear, unlike some films that have many problems with the plot, or have no plot at all.

And the beginning and end of the whole plot are still relatively in place, but in terms of reversal, there is a big difference compared to the first two crazy parts, so some viewers will feel relatively bland.

At the same time, in terms of jokes, because the film has more emotional factors in it, it is not so sufficient, and the most impressive thing for the audience is probably that at the beginning of the film, Xiao Dongbei played the role of Jesus, which made people vaguely see the shadow of Ning Hao's films in the past, which is also one of the reasons why everyone generally thinks that Ning Hao has regressed.

Song Zheng also thinks that if there is no comparison between the first two films, maybe the audience's evaluation of this film will be higher, of course, I have to admit that the film is not good enough between funny and sensational, and it is a bit blunt.

From the perspective of actor selection and role setting, "The Great Gold Robbery" still uses more unknown actors, although many people go to see Huang Bo, but Huang Bo is really a big trick.

In terms of roles, like the previous two, there are more characters, but only Xiao Dongbei is the most prominent, a bit of a one-man show, of course, he is really good.

The other characters are not as brilliant as the supporting roles of stones and racing cars, which is also determined by the change in the style of the film, but even so, each character still has its own character characteristics, which is relatively distinct, and it is not a very empty character, it can be seen that Ning Hao is still very attentive in these aspects, and he did not fool the audience casually.

Although some people don't buy it, but judging from the box office alone, it can be seen that the entertainment of the movie is still quite good, Song Zheng feels that if you don't consider those loopholes, purely from the perspective of a commercial movie, "The Great Gold Robbery" is a relatively appropriate movie.

First of all, Ning Hao expressed his cognition through film, which was a creative attitude of honesty with the audience, which was rare in the film industry as an industry at that time.

Secondly, compared with the small investment, the box office has been a big victory, although it can't compete with Hollywood's blockbusters, but it has played a normal role in market competition.

In the end, the audience can take what they want, so don't keep thinking about laughing until the end, the movie has something else to say.

However, it is obvious that Ning Hao does not at least want to make a noisy commercial film when filming "The Great Gold Robbery", from the script that Song Zheng has read, he can feel that Ning Hao obviously has a lot of ideas that he wants to express through this movie.

But it is obvious that Ning Hao overestimated the audience's appreciation, and took steps ahead of himself, without whitewashing or strengthening the decoration, causing the audience to be unable to keep up with the rhythm and forgetting that what they needed was superficial.

Back then, when Ning Hao amazed the Chinese film industry with "Crazy Stone", many moviegoers were stunned by the multi-line narrative, so much so that many people later watched films such as "Two Big Smoking Guns" that were pulled out because of this, and they all said that foreign directors finally copied ours, and they waved their flags and shouted and preached like fools.

Although the stone is the stone of other mountains, but in the chaotic Chinese market, Ning Hao's creative ability is still very extraordinary, and the pace is also very large.

He is the kind of director who respects the intelligence of the audience and is not scolded by the audience, and it is extremely difficult to serve such a group of audiences smartly.

The subsequent "Crazy Racing" is basically an enhanced version of the stone, with a more complex story, more diverse characters, and twice the route of the stone was successfully told by the director.

At that time, someone even said: "Ning Hao should be asked to teach Chinese screenwriters how to tell stories." ”

This can be regarded as the most accurate compliment to Ning Hao.

But when it came to "The Great Gold Robbery", without the previous bombardment and bombardment of the plot, the audience had a chance to think and breathe, and various shortcomings were revealed, especially the plot, after entering the high tide, he completely lost his reason and logic, how he came to be high, everywhere is incredible, and everywhere is hard wounds.

The beginning is extremely crazy and spoofed, and the laughter in the theater comes and goes, but as the plot gets on the right track, it gradually moves towards the main drama, the closer to the end of the film, the more depressed and sad it becomes, and most of the audience who leave the scene are silent, not at all like just watching a "comedy".

This is the most unsuccessful part of "The Great Gold Robbery", Hong Kong films at their peak, no matter what theme and type, as long as the plot is not too dark and serious, most of them have a certain proportion of funny scenes, and there are screenwriters who are specifically responsible for adding jokes to support the length of the film, and its entertainment effect is often positive.

This proves that comedy can be invincible, and it is easy to "go from sadness to joy", but dramas and tragedies require the audience to be psychologically prepared, and when the audience full of expectations for comedy encounters a sudden tragic atmosphere, it is inevitable that they will be at a loss.

What's more, all the plot presuppositions established in the first half completely collapsed in the realistic tone of the second half, becoming absurd logic that could not withstand scrutiny, and in order to justify itself, it was forced to end everything with a big killing.

At the same time, the best editing has not been brought into play, the mess of the combination of long shots and fast cuts, and the final death feast is too deliberate, damn it, and don't die too, just to highlight the growth of the little people and highlight the tragic ending, so that it is difficult for the audience to have a sense of substitution.

If you really want to say that you can't find a thorn, it is the music, all kinds of classic borrowing, golden minor, from the beginning to the end of "The Lost Season", the music is always very strong, and it is well combined with the plot.

Another thing worth encouraging is that Ning Hao's humor is still there, the Northeast dialect throughout is a great contribution, and the middle third is the most watchable part of this film, the dense baggage and the occasional flash of black humor will make the audience full of illusions about the next film, and the result is of course very clear, and it was awakened by a basin of self-righteous cold water.

The exaggerated body language, character dialogues and performance methods make this movie very similar to Hong Kong films in the 80s, which has a kind of meaning of "everything is crazy, everything is overdone".

Song Zheng really couldn't figure out if this was a stroke of genius deliberately by Ning Hao, or a failure, many big scenes in the film were treated like stage plays, fake.

Could it be that this is a relatively high-end expression?

If this is the case, Song Zheng can only say that Ning Hao's steps this time are too big, the force is too strong, and he is pulling the egg.

There is a line in "The Great Gold Robbery" that made the audience laugh for a long time, if there are no eggs to pull, don't you fly to the sky?

That's what it means.

The madness like "stone" is difficult to continue, but with Ning Hao's excellent mastery of film narrative and comedic effects over the years, "The Great Gold Robbery" still shows a strong comedic effect, whether it is the structure of today's popular fashion words or the clever weaving of plot settings, it shows its humorous nature.

Of course, every director's work cannot be the same, and a little change in style is reasonable, just like after experiencing "madness", you need to calm down and calm down, perhaps, now is the time when Ning Hao needs to calm down.