In 2007, Guo Zijian won the new director of the 28th Hong Kong Film Awards for his feature film "Wild Dogs". Speaking of "Wild Dog" is a film starring Eason Chan, which is naturally worth watching. The core value of the story is that no matter how sinister the world is, people's hearts still retain a little goodness. The story is to use the role of Chen Mandui to show the righteousness of the jianghu and the hot blood of the boy. If the new director has any exemplary effect of mentoring, we can see that he conveys delicate human emotions in a Kurosawa-like atmosphere.
Guo Zijian, who was just emerging as a literary and art film, embarked on a commercial road after going north. Although his production is still not much, it is not particularly good. Unsatisfactory ones are "The Legend of Wukong" and "For You", but these are all indispensable parts of his precious directing career. Really risking the spirit of the newborn calf not being afraid of the tiger, he still chose to take The unique hard work and enthusiasm of Hong Kong, integrate the road of commercialization, and create a Chinese film that belongs to the background of The New Era of Hong Kong, China, and finally pay for diligence, in "Firefighting Hero", he has explored an innovative Hong Kong film disaster film genre.
And this year, the outstanding Guo Zijian in the north has the courage to take over the filming of the 2021 film version of "Antiques Bureau Central Bureau" released, which is very challenging for Guo Zijian, on the one hand, he is not well known to mainlanders, and it is not his strength to shoot this kind of fixed character design and the re-creation of the original novel of the re-creation. In addition, this shrunken version of the classic, which came to have a successful 2018 summer rain, Qiao Zhenyu starred in the film and television drama version, this time it is difficult to surpass. But he still faced the difficulties and showed a kind of hard work and enthusiasm of the northbound Hong Kong guide.
In fact, it is said that it is a challenge, in fact, it is still an opportunity, we know that the antique bureau is a hot historical treasure hunting theme novel in China, and now it has evolved into IP culture, the author is naturally a famous ghost talent Ma Boyong, a few years ago, the very hot costume suspense drama "Chang'an Twelve Hours" is also his original work, as the original of such a masterpiece, making a TV series and movie is a guarantee of quality audience, so Guo Zijian is holding his thigh for such a while, at least indicating that the commercial attribute is a stable movie. The next step is to completely see whether Guo Zijian himself has excellent technical shooting.
First of all, this 2021 film version of "Antiques Bureau Central Bureau" is very respectful of the original work, but also to the identification and collection of antiques as the starting point, reflecting a kind of professional realism of archaeology, for audiences who like history and archaeology are naturally not to be missed, because if you watch the TV series version and feel that it is not focused enough, then this more complete and grasping the key film version is also the essence of this series of works.
The story is probably a brief account of Miss Kido Kana (Matsuho Lili) from Japan who is about to return a Tang Dynasty WuzeTiang Mingtang Buddha head to China, but indicates that the descendants of the Baizimen Xu family under the "Five Pulses" organization of the cultural relics industry will come forward to receive it. However, the Five-Pulse White Character Gate has long since fallen, and the descendants of the Xu family are nowhere to be found. The situation is tense, but Huang Yanyan (Xin Zhilei), the granddaughter of Huang Kewu, the head of the five pulses, says that she has a way to find the traces of the Xu family's descendants. And Xu Yicheng (Lei Jiayin), the grandson of Xu Yicheng (Lei Jiayin), the owner of the White Gate who originally carried the name of a traitor and sent the Buddha's head to Japan, has a talent for learning the past, and now he is just a small boss of an electrical appliance shop with no ambition, and he barely makes a living by selling electrical appliances.
Xu Yuan lost his mother to a fire when he was young, and his father Xu Heping maintained an alienated attitude towards him after the fire, not only that, he also had to bear the insults of the outside world to his family. Under the persuasion of Huang Yanyan, he reluctantly went to negotiate with the Five Pulses, but he was keenly aware of the fact that the Buddha's head was a fake. The muddy life of many years has made wishing habitually choose to escape. However, in the face of huang yanyan's commission, the mysterious death of his father Xu Heping, the persecution of the five-vein genius medicine (Li Xian), the follow-up of his grandfather Gui (Ge You) and the pursuit of the mysterious old chaofeng (Qin Yan), Xu Wish has become involuntary. He must find out the truth about the Buddha's head under the entanglement of various forces.
Different from the original work with many side plots, this quintessential film version chooses the process of exploring the Buddha's head as the main line, which is also the main bone of the entire work, which is a reasonable commercial and literary compromise. This kind of essence version of the film work is naturally very careful of the director's cutting ability, and the degree of completion is also good from the perspective of the viewing experience. For example, at the beginning of the film, there is a pk scene of showing off the treasure skills, which reflects the artistic accomplishment in the story of the two protagonists who are cynical but very professional in the antique industry. Please note that the director's shooting method is smooth and flowing, and the wonderful picture of the duel between the two treasure connoisseurs, Wishing and Medicine, is like a martial arts master telling the authenticity, differences, origins, materials, and workmanship of each antique in a wonderful and reasonable way. The delicate and process fragments here are for the audience to popularize the professional treasure hunting process, so that everyone can better understand the industry, and naturally increase the beauty of visual enjoyment.
It is worth noting that the film has as many as 3,000 design drawings, borrowed a large number of antique props during shooting, and used 15,000 pieces of a scene at most; including even more than 30 precious real antiques. Guo Zijian also said that the oldest is a cultural relic from the Western Han Dynasty. What an attitude of dedication to art.
What especially makes the author see his literary and artistic color is that this movie makes him recall the experience of going to the mainland, so for example, there is a panjiayuan stall in Beijing, and the Yuansheng West Street in Guangzhou is also similar, and the nostalgic beauty of antiques, jade, Shoushan stone, etc., makes him more confident to shoot this kind of antique historical vicissitudes of the film. As we know, the atmosphere in the first half of this film is a little darker, such as the poster on the wall in the shot, the color is originally very bright, but the director lowered the brightness in order to meet the atmosphere of the nineties. This is also in line with the sense of the original era, and also presents the art style of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Since the biggest highlight of this film is the characteristics of the continuous reversal of the central bureau, such a director also respects the original work, using the immersive way of the lens, so that everyone feels the multi-treasure cabinet secret language, Morse code, drilling the tomb and other reversal means, here not only exercises the audience's thinking, but also brings the audience action, thrills and other sensory stimulation, naturally can not be passed.
Speaking of characters, in fact, they are all set, but here is Lei Jiayin's joining is different, this bit of a bit of a bit of a small student in the northeast, in "Embroidery Spring Knife 2", "The Wandering Earth" and so on has been well received by everyone, and the most important thing is that he is the protagonist of "Chang'an Twelve Hours", and this time he is in Ma Boyong's work "Antique Bureau Central Bureau" as the male number one, naturally began to form a cooperation model of Ma Boyong + Lei Jiayin, and now plus Guo Zijian's strength director, naturally looking forward to the next cooperation. In addition, the existence of Ge You is naturally the existence of the "boss" support scene behind it. As for Li Xian and Xin Zhilei, it is the embodiment of their progress in acting.
If there is any director's efforts and new elements in this film, it is to design the plot of wishing them to come to Zhengjia Village, as well as the scene of eating flowing water, these fresh antique industry "rules" naturally provide the film with the general atmosphere and feeling of the industry, of which Zheng Guoqu, played by Aruna, is naturally the most fresh and profound character in this film. Of course, there is also the participation of Yang Xinming in "Tomb Road", which is played by the existence of this medicine or grandfather medicine, which brings an indispensable sense of oppression to this kind of antique movie.
This film naturally has a lot of criticism, and what is valuable is that a director who went north to Hong Kong with the spirit of hard work and blood to do a compromise between literature and art and business as much as possible and contribute to Chinese films will naturally kill a bloody road, at least if he and these original people continue to make sequels, the author is still willing to buy tickets.
"The Whisperer in the Flower City", by Si Yi Gu, published by Baihuazhou Literature and Art Publishing House in March 2020 Si Yi Gu: writer, freelance writer, currently living in Guangzhou.