What kind of reality will love be defeated by?
According to the previous understanding, the reality of being able to defeat love is nothing more than related to the disparity in identity under the concept of the doorkeeper, or related to economic strength. But there is a Taiwanese love movie that gives a richer answer, telling us that there are many more realistic factors that can beat love.
This movie does not have too many beautiful romantic love details, but instead floats out a smell of "mourning". It's like a heavy punch, hitting the viewer's chest hard, making people a little breathless.
It is: The Last Verse.
1, "The Last Verse", the most powerless love
As a film that focuses on the label of love, "The Last Verse" does run through a main line of male and female emotions.
When she was a student, the heroine Li Xiaoping was a girl who liked to run in the playground, while the male protagonist Shi Renjie was a boy wearing a Manchester United shirt and liked to play on the pitch.
Because he looked at Li Xiaoping on the playground, the adolescent Shi Renjie's love dou first opened, and he once stood on the court in a daze. By chance, Shi Renjie and his good friend took the initiative to talk to Li Xiaoping successfully and went out on an outing together.
In the summer of the millennium, young men and women who went on an outing together played by the mountain streams, allowing each other's emotions to be simple. In the exchange of talk and laughter, Shi Renjie and Li Xiaoping, who were affectionate with each other, held hands and officially began their love.
The water is babbling, the trees are lush, and the brilliant sunlight penetrates the woods to create a harmonious atmosphere, full of youth and beauty, just like the love between Shi Renjie and Li Xiaoping. But over time, their emotions gradually changed.
At first, although Shi Renjie and Li Xiaoping, who served in the army, were long-distance lovers, their feelings were very strong. The woman began to plan her future life carefully, and the man also thought about the future with a smile on his face, and their ideas were very simple: work, marriage, and children.
When they really entered the society, Shi Renjie and Li Xiaoping's lives failed to move forward as steadily as planned, but they encountered resistance again and again.
First there was his father's suicide, then the gang's pursuit of debts left by his father, and then the change of work (from bank clerks to house sales), the pressure made Shi Renjie upset and irritable, and also caused a rift in his relationship with Li Xiaoping.
In the face of his father's death, he seemed numb and ruthless, and his father was reluctant to shout out the last time; in the face of high debts, he worked desperately but could not do anything; in the face of Xiaoping's desire for marriage, he thought that he was not ready to deal with it perfunctorily... From full of expectations for the future to almost cold to love, Shi Renjie's mentality has undergone a huge change, and his and Xiaoping's feelings have changed qualitatively.
At first, he would still resist indignantly and hope for life, but after encountering repeated blows, Shi Renjie, who was once full of pride, gradually lost himself.
He tried to have sex with other people to relieve the pressure, but after seeing Xiaoping "cheating", he was angry and quarreled; he tried to go to the mainland to do a big job, leaving Xiaoping to run away alone, but was tricked into becoming a stowaway.
And just after he returned home, he learned of Xiaoping's series of unfortunate encounters. He returned to Xiaoping again, but completely lost her. With anger and guilt, he finally plucked up the courage to look for the "bastard Rich Third Generation", but finally turned the gun on himself.
He was once so spirited, full of expectations for love and life. He also tried so hard, but in the end he did not achieve anything, and he was powerless to return to heaven in the face of love.
Faced with a simple style of mountain stream paintings, he fell into the memory and read the last verse:
I just hope to wake up one morning
We are all wonderful people
Have a good life
The sun will embrace us
Fragile swaying in the wind
I will hug her
It's like embracing an innocent dream
2, the one who defeats love is himself
It seems that reality has defeated the love between Shi Renjie and Li Xiaoping, but in fact, it is Shi Renjie himself who really defeated their love.
He has a sunny, simple side, but a more arrogant side. He hates his father who borrows money to do business, he despises the gangsters who come to the door to collect debts, he is not willing to open his mouth to borrow money from Aunt Xiaoping, he is not willing to bend down to do something that he does not look up to... But in the end, he became the kind of person he hated and despised.
Of course, we can say that it is the reality of life that makes Shi Renjie weak, but from another point of view, if he has a calmer mentality, borrows money to pay off debts at the beginning, and then works hard with his wife and slowly improves, can his life become better? If he is better for Xiaoping, don't be so conceited, don't leave her to run to the mainland to develop, can he and Xiaoping live happily?
It is precisely because of Shi Renjie himself that his love with Xiaoping eventually falls apart.
Many viewers said that when they watched it, they felt very angry, thinking that people like Shi Renjie were too irresponsible and too irresponsible, and that Li Xiaoping should have left him long ago to pursue a better life. But even if Shi Renjie had achieved such a disgusting point, Li Xiaoping still did not abandon him, which was enough to see how deeply she loved him.
Obviously, the final outcome is sad and sad. To some extent, "The Last Verse" seems to be talking about love, but it is actually a helplessness in outlining life. The love story it depicts is full of powerlessness and makes people feel very sad.
The film also has a strong sense of the times, spanning from 2000 to 2016, through three "leader" time periods, telling the process of the hero and heroine meeting, knowing and separating, and telling a realistic living state of Taiwanese youth. Through the narration of this state, it conveys reflection on society and the times, reflects the connotation of "life is always unsatisfactory", and is a force after the "mourning" of the film "The Last Verse".
3. "Poet" Fu Mengbai
When director Zeng Yingting handled the film "The Last Verse", the story was just finished, the rhythm was controlled just right, the literature was not stuffy, heavy but profound, and it was a work that "lost people's thoughts".
But what impressed me most about this film was the male protagonist in it. When walking the actor's subtitles, I also paid attention to his name: Fu Mengbai.
This deep impression mainly stems from his performance: the character of Shi Renjie, who he created, has a full character image and distinct personality characteristics, which can capture the audience's heart, make people love and hate, sigh and pity, and easily empathize.
Of course, the first thing that reaches the audience's eyes is his handsome external image. The angular face shape, handsome facial features, tall and upright figure, coupled with a low-key and deep temperament, make Fu Mengbai look very idolistic.
But what is more surprising than the handsome and masculine appearance is his acting skills. Although he looks a bit wooden in his whole person, when expressing the emotions of the characters, his control of expressions, lines, shapes, and actions has a proper rhythm in it. This gives his performance a texture, and the characters he portrays are more vivid and three-dimensional.
There are two scenes that are very impressive: one is that he is buried in the gravel pile by the gang members, forcing him to pay off his debts, he resists hard, and puts on a posture of preferring to die; the gang boss walks over and slaps him, he has an angry look and a raised head to show resistance; but the gang boss is not merciful at all, and continuously slaps him truthfully, at this time you can see that Shi Renjie, who was originally struggling to resist, the eyes and expressions began to change slightly - from the initial toughness gradually became a little fearful. For the compromise that followed, the whole performance was extremely tense.
Another is that he sat in the car of an old friend, was picked up by the other party, and told him about Li Xiaoping on the road, when he learned of Xiaoping's encounter, the whole person's expression had obvious emotional progression layer changes before and after, which showed the emotional fluctuations in the characters' hearts.
Overall, Fu Mengbai's performance is textured and layered, which can not only interpret the simple side of the sunshine, but also show the decadent side, which can make the role moving enough. It is precisely because of his excellent performance in "The Last Verse" that Fu Mengbai not only won the recognition of a large number of audiences, but also won the honor of "Emperor of Vision" at the 52nd Taiwan Television Golden Bell Awards.
4. "Gold always shines"
At last year's Golden Bell Awards ceremony, Fu Mengbai said: "I am only 30 years old, and the road to being an actor has just begun."
Looking back at his resume, he appeared in movies and TV series relatively late. However, the start was late but fast, the first time he was related to the Golden Bell Awards was the 51st Golden Bell Awards in 2016, and he was shortlisted for the Drama Actor Award for "Eight Rare Years of a Generation of Recruits", and that time was his first time as a male lead. Subsequently, he starred in the short films "Cat in the Closet" and "Plum Rainy Season", which received praise from inside and outside the industry.
In addition to his performance on the big screen, Fu Mengbai also appeared in mainland TV dramas.
In the "Icebreaker of True Love's Lies" broadcast in the first half of this year, Fu Mengbai starred as the good brother Shaoyang of the male protagonist Jin Yuan. This character is very pleasing because he has sufficient loyalty and righteousness. Fu Mengbai also has a good grasp of the character's personality characteristics, after the episode was broadcast, he also circled many fans through the role of Shaoyang, and received a lot of praise in the Weibo message.
In the small half a year after that, I didn't see any news from him, and when he appeared in everyone's eyes again, it was the news that he was shortlisted for the Best Newcomer Award at the 55th Golden Horse Awards. His shortlisted works are the film "Fan Baode" directed by Xiao Yaquan and produced by Hou Xiaoxian.
Some media use the term "full star luck" to describe him, but I think it is more appropriate to describe him as "gold always shines". After all, relying on luck only went for a while, and relying on strength, it only went for a lifetime. Judging from the trailer, Fu Mengbai showed his deep and introverted performance style, interpreting a story about his father's affection to the heart.
The film is stylistically stable and the rhythm is soothing, and it belongs to the genre that needs to be calmed down to feel. Fu Mengbai controlled through Zhang's relaxed performance, and interpreted the role of Fan Daqi very well, which is indeed worth looking forward to.
If he can win the best newcomer award, it will undoubtedly be a good boost for his acting career. But he himself feels satisfied that he can be shortlisted. Maybe starting late and walking fast, walking steadily is his own pursuit.
5, low-key and hard-working sunshine big boy
Although there are excellent works leaning over, many people may still be unfamiliar with Fu Mengbai's name: on the one hand, his works are less released in the mainland, on the other hand, it is also because he is usually relatively low-key.
But flipping through his Weibo, you will find that this is really a "treasure" boy.
Born in 1987, this "older youth" graduated from the Drama Department of Taipei University of the Arts. When I was in college, I belonged to the kind of multi-talented male classmates, who were not only good at acting, but also very good at drawing.
If you follow his Tweets, you'll occasionally see pictures of him.
Interestingly, before becoming an actor, Fu Mengbai's wish was actually to become a photographer.
He loves photography himself, and when he was a student, he liked to fiddle with cameras and was a typical photography enthusiast. Even now, as an actor, he will bring a box of camera equipment when he goes out to shoot a scene, so as to meet the fun of photography at any time.
Occasionally starring in the next mv, in Tian Fuzhen's "You Don't Think of Me", the appearance of "Easter eggs", the bearded literary and artistic young man, is him.
In life, Fu Mengbai is often immersed in the things he likes and seems to be particularly focused. He likes to ride a motorcycle to release himself, and he also likes to repair his "old cars" and enjoy the pleasure of disassembling parts. Between work, he will even spend an hour or two, carefully polishing a watch, to observe and experience this "rigorous" process.
He also enjoys sports, insists on fitness exercises, and strictly controls his diet. He also loves pets, especially dogs, and whenever he meets a dog, he will show his gentle side.
Whether it is the various preferences in life or the various performances at work, what Fu Mengbai values in his heart is to obtain precipitation through these preferences and work.
He once said in an interview: "Over the years, my life and outlook on life have not changed much because of the actors, at most because of the relationship between work, I have gone to many different places, met many different people, and different script roles have also brought me through a lot of parallel worlds, I enjoy these processes, and I also like the self-precipitation after each play." ”
This attitude is rare and valuable, especially in the increasingly impetuous current society, being able to adhere to their inner pursuits and know how to precipitate themselves through life and works is a cool thing in itself.
And Fu Mengbai, who is slowly precipitating himself, will also have works such as "Love Under the Stars", "Visitors on qq", and "Demon Hunting". How much potential does he really have? Let's wait and see!
ps: The text is the original of the author [Muyi Movie], and the pictures are from the Network.