◎ Ren Fan
Genre films have routines, and everyone knows that they also buy it. For example, the first act ends within 30 minutes, the protagonist faces a choice in the middle of the movie, and so on. The film industry has matured to a certain extent, and these are all calculatable. However, for the film creator, the calculation is calculated, and it must not be calculated. Once the calculated mind is integrated into the film, it is easy to see, creating a less comfortable viewing experience for the audience. Unfortunately, "Manslaughter 2" is a more typical, well-calculated movie.
Establishing the core expression of the film, weaving clues around expression, establishing the protagonist's action, and setting up reasonable and unconventional reversals are all categories of calculation and the most test of the main creative skills. It can be said that the 2019 movie "Manslaughter" basically completed the above series of actions relatively satisfactorily and was recognized by the audience. So what exactly is calculation? Simply put, calculation is to focus on "what should I do", while calculation is to figure out "what you want" all the time.
"Manslaughter", like its title, accidentally hit and bumped into the last small hit before the epidemic. And "Manslaughter 2" seems to be particularly cautious from the beginning of the project, even if it is not done well, it will lose the fragile traffic carried by this IP. The first is a remake, the second part is also remade, safety; the first is a Chinese story in Thailand, the second part is also like this, safety; the first part is about a desperate father who stands up to protect the family, the second part can not change, safety; the first part also highlights the grassroots resistance to the crushing power, which is a big selling point and must not be lost. Who did the second part kill by mistake? Whatever about him, this is not the selling point of the first part, it is not important.
After watching the media interviews with the screenwriter and director of the film, the three young men enthusiastically reviewed their creative process. But no matter how I look at it, it doesn't look like I'm creating a movie, it's more like an executing file. The aura of the first part is like a "document", which not only defines the foundation, but also frames the direction.
The focus of the story of "Manslaughter" is how the father played by Xiao Yang uses his film knowledge to skillfully play the so-called hypocritical big people in the upper class. At the heart of the film is this bureau, and the thrill it creates to tease the elite at the grassroots, so the innings have to be clever enough.
In "Manslaughter 2", still played by Xiao Yang as his father, his profession is simply set to be a screenwriter who is more good at making bureaus, even the villain continues to use the previous Jiang Haowen played, all the extensions are imitated without leaks, but where does the most important "bureau" go? Relying on the editing of shen shen and Xiao Yang's unusually hard interpretation, it was impossible to make that beautiful innings. In the original movie "Imminent", the father played by Denzel Washington was forced to go to the hospital in a desperate situation, and there was no sense of innings. However, as an adaptation of this film, it is necessary to put an aura of wisdom on the protagonist. So, when the father shoots at the policeman, the audience knows that he will not die; so, when the secretary general of the city government played by Li Zhiting appears, the audience knows that he is the villain. But the movie is still constantly turning these two rotten stems over and over, funny and not flattering.
In addition to obeying the first film as a guideline, this film also appears to be afraid of the end, not confident, and not free in the expression of views, and no group is willing to offend, so it has to be emotionally fed for different positions. The original story refers to the American medical system, simple and direct, and the rest are auxiliary expressions. At this time, the film planned to be an "old good man", so it had to start a calculation again. Say that it is bashing the bureaucracy, but the mayor of the villain is just the same love of the son, and shows a considerable degree of repentance; say that it is ironic media regardless of it, the beautiful host finally became the embodiment of the righteous thin cloud; said that it is the criticism of the medical system is mercenary, the doctor Dama at the end of the film, the fight is almost a cape from the superhero, and even the medical troubles have been moved to put down the knife. Finally turned around, could not find the emotional outlet, had to return to the father-son relationship, just for two words - safety. However, this kind of security that is cautious everywhere and flattering in all directions is bound to be pale and weak, and even the father-son love that is finally desperately stirred up is also the same as chewing wax.
The sequel of the movie is indeed a double-edged sword, on the one hand, it can have a relatively stable audience flow with the help of the previous work, on the other hand, it also puts forward more stringent restrictions and requirements for itself. The Indian version of Manslaughter 2 continues the story development of the first episode, but the handling is also unsatisfactory. Judging from the word of mouth given by various rating websites, the IP of "manslaughter" is probably over. This is not necessarily a bad thing, and I hope that the young creative team will be able to free their hands and feet in the future, withdraw their minds and energy from the calculations of multiple trade-offs to the creation itself, and work more on the story, characters and audiovisual language, rather than copying the routine and pleasing the audience.
Finally, I would like to say a few words about a small trend in Chinese film production in recent years. The previous production model was the standard "big director small story", but in recent years, it has shown a clear "small director big story" tendency. From the perspective of the film industry, this advantage is that it can save the cost of upfront creation and fully tilt the funds to the production end. But unfortunately, the ability of young directors to control feature films is not reassuring. Taking this film as an example, the director's audiovisual language skills can be said to be quite barren, full of abusive slow motion, sound effects and positive and negative hits, revealing a rough and awkward texture of the net, and using industrial production as an excuse can not be prevaricated in any way.