In the 2017 Lunar New Year file, the unknown "Predecessor 3: Goodbye Predecessor" swept the box office of 1.941 billion. The two major selling points of sadomasochism + regret stories have successfully attracted audiences.
In 2018, "A Story More Sad Than Sad" became a hit in the same way, and telling stories related to regret and sadomasochism in romance films has gradually become an essential formula for domestic romance films.
Recently, there is another such type of movie "We Once Loved Each Other" released. The North Drift story is set against the backdrop, and regrets and misunderstandings are related to love.
But this time, the film did not continue the box office myth of the first two works of the same type, but the reputation of the full screen fell again and again. The story is so problematic that the final quality of the finished film makes the audience wonder: Is this really a 2021 movie?
1. Acting skills in dramas
The story of "We Who Once Loved Each Other" is set in Beijing, and the protagonists are Allen (Chen Bailin) and Meng Jie (Guo Caijie), a small person who works hard in a big city. In the lonely city, the two met and loved each other, but because of life contradictions, financial pressures and misunderstandings and quarrels, the two chose to separate.
But everyone understands the routine of domestic love movies, that is, the protagonist will definitely reunite again in the sea of people. Sure enough, in a bar called "Philharmonic", Allen and Mengjie meet again.
After fading away from the childishness of the past and the thorns on their bodies, the two tried to get closer again. In the process, we will solve the misunderstanding and gain the motivation to work hard for the future in Beijing in the process of accompanying each other...
"We Who Once Fell in Love" is a love film with a very complete story. Broken mirror reunion + north drift feelings, the story entry point is very realistic.
From the details, the emotional line between Allen and Mengjie is handled very well. Sweet hugs, negative disregard for each other, deletion of friends after a breakup, and sad tears in a car alone make the audience feel empathy.
Starring Guo Caijie and Chen Bailin, both of whom are actors with very high looks. Especially Chen Bailin, the image of the infatuated Li Daren in the classic love drama "I May Not Love You" is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, making the audience look forward to Chen Bailin's performance in this film.
No one expected that Chen Bailin's acting skills in the film would be fiercely deflected by Guo Caijie's "Guli-style acting skills". Guo Caijie's indistinct lines and the hoarse tone of the quarrel scene made the audience rush back to "Little Times" and instantly appeared in the play.
Under such a very infectious performance, Chen Bailin's acting skills also became awkward, and he could not catch Guo Caijie's play in the most appropriate way.
The two perform in different ways, which directly leads to the awkward atmosphere of the opponent's play, even if the director and screenwriter try to emphasize how deep and regrettable the love between the two protagonists is, it also makes the audience feel untrustworthy.
2, wasted north drift feelings
The biggest reason why Allen and Mengjie broke up in the story is that "love and bread cannot be owned at the same time". Just like the lyrics of "reality is always at odds with the ideal, which book can solve this problem" in the film interlude, love is the entry point, but inside is the hardship and helplessness of the North Drift.
If "We Who Once Loved Each Other" were to be filmed according to such a plot direction, it would definitely resonate with many small people who worked hard in big cities. But it is a pity that in this film, "there is no realistic story, and there is no ideal that resonates with the audience.".
On the surface, it does use allen and Mengjie's quarrel to lead to the contradiction between "reality and ideal". But what about after that? The whole passage is full of disease-free moans of "she still loves me or not". Even if it is a scene related to ideals, it is Mengjie who angrily accuses Allen of not drinking so much with customers at work. But the question is: But isn't the form of the job just drinking? Logically, it doesn't make sense at all.
I think that the quarrel picture with sensational music, coupled with the line "Beijing is too crowded, as soon as you let go, you will scatter" can create the helplessness of the "ideal ethereal", but in fact, the audience only feels that the plot of the two arguing and arguing is incomparably bloody.
Beijing is a city that carries dreams, and the original intention of the word North Drift is linked to the future. "We Who Once Loved Each Other" abandons the reality bridge and uses the love line to present the difficulty of North Drift, which is a very wrong and sentimental way of presentation, which is a waste of the emotional entry point of "North Drift".
3, the story is too patchwork, obviously long
In addition to Allen and Mengjie, there are two other story branches in "We Who Once Loved Each Other". Respectively, the crush of the bar waiter for the female guest, and the hardships of the bar resident singer in Beijing to work hard for the singing dream.
The three branches are parallel, obviously wanting to make a "group portrait story". However, the director's ability to control the rhythm of the story is really poor, and there is no unified connection between these three story lines, resulting in the whole story looking very chaotic. Regret love and inspirational dreams want to talk about, but nothing is good.
Allen and Mengjie are the protagonists of the story, so they occupy a longer time in the film. This also directly leads to the other two narrative lines in which "the protagonist's story is hurriedly carried through the clouds", even if it is cut, it has no impact on the plot, and is obviously used to make up time.
In addition, "We Who Once Loved Each Other" also has one of the biggest lightning points, that is, the real director of this film is the "Fang Zu name" who was arrested for sucking DU. In order to make the film successfully released, the publicity party erased the name of Fang Zu and put Zhang Xiaolei, who was originally an assistant director, as the director. But the Internet has a memory, and netizens have spontaneously resisted the existence of artists with DU ex-offenders. Under a variety of factors, the word-of-mouth box office of "We Who Once Loved Each Other" has both met with cold, such a bad film should be boycotted, and not watching is the right choice.