Text/Screenwriter Brother
1. Synopsis of the story
Opening:
Officer Zhang investigates a case of injury, and his wife Connie wants to buy a building but Officer Zhang does not agree.
start:
Teresa, who works as a salesman at a bank and faces intense pressure to be fired because of poor performance, is looking for clients to market BRIC funds. Connie went to Teresa to borrow a mortgage to buy a house.
Once his client Zhong Yuan was killed in the bank's underground parking lot, zhong yuan 5 million Hong Kong dollars temporarily stored in her place, no second person knows.
unfold:
Officer Zhang arrested Wu Yaohua, a good friend of the three-legged leopard, because of the injury case, Wu Yaohua was released by the three-legged leopard after raising money on bail and was arrested by Dongjiu, and the three-legged leopard could only find his friend Brother Long, who quickly promised to give money and took Liu into his company's stock system.
Turning:
Unexpectedly, affected by the European debt crisis, the Hang Seng Index went all the way down, and Long Ge wanted to secretly change the account but the account was blocked. They found that Zhong Yuan borrowed money for robbery, and in the underground parking lot of the bank, Zhong Yuan and another man exchanged bets and died, and Liu took the opportunity to take 5 million yuan.
Clients who bought Teresa's BRIC funds suffered heavy losses, and in the police investigation, Teresa concealed the 5 million.
Meanwhile, Teresa wanted to open the $5 million cabinet but couldn't open it.
high tide:
Brother Long secretly changed his account and was stabbed by the boss, and Brother Long took 5 million to buy a futures finger at the risk of his own life. Brother Long told the three-legged leopard to buy down, but the three-legged leopard bought the liter according to his own analysis.
Connie was unable to return the payment because of the stock market crash, and suffered heavy losses.
Teresa opened the 5 million cabinet and packed the money.
Officer Zhang and an unemployed old man who discharged gas were in the elevator, and they persuaded him on the line of life and death.
The period index actually rose all the way after falling all the way, and the dragon brother in the car did not know that Liu bought a liter and died of injuries not far from the ambulance. Liu was thrilled.
end:
Teresa submitted her resignation letter to the manager.
Officer Zhang and his wife were told by real estate agents that as the stock market picked up, a mainlander was willing to buy her house at a high price.
Liu Qingyun bought a cigar like Brother Long.'
At the intersection, Teresa, carrying 5 million, and Liu Qingyun, who smoked a cigar, passed by.
Second, thematic analysis
The evils of capitalism
At first glance at "Death Penalty", it is easy to think that the film is an reference to the evils of capitalism, and attacks the naked money relations of capitalism. Yes, the film does have this aspect of the reference, but I think this is not where Du Qifeng really focuses, what Du Qifeng really wants to explore is the greed of human nature, and the absurdity of human existence, of course, this point will be further discussed later.
Why is it that the evils of capitalism are not du Qifeng's real focus, and even Du Qifeng is still very reserved about the political topic of capitalism. We look at the unity of the film from the climax, and the climax reflects the meaning of the film. At the climax of the film, Officer Zhang and the old man who put the gas are in the elevator, in fact, it is completely possible to arrange for the old man to commit suicide by gas or jump off the building because of the stock market, but the old man in the film says that he is trying his best to follow the changes of the times, but he still can't escape the cause. He was desperate. It can be seen here that the film focuses on the portrayal of the tragic living conditions of small people.
On the other hand, the protagonists of the three narrative parts of the film: Teresa, Liu Qingyun, and Officer Zhang and his wife all ended up with positive results from a negative start. Although Teresa's performance is not good, but got a windfall of 5 million, Liu Qingyun from the beginning of the small finally made a fortune to smoke cigars, Zhang Police Officer and his wife at first were emotionally discordant, there was no house, and finally the couple reconciled and achieved a big victory in the property market. Not to mention the citizens who bought the BRIC countries. The most glaring, arguably the only thing that can really shock the audience is the death of Brother Long. This film does not have a strong criticism of capitalism, but is still towards the sun and hope.
Greedy human nature
Throughout the film, it is not so much a sharp critique of capitalism as it is a satire of human greed. Human nature is obviously more essential than institutions.
Through three narrative lines, the film constructs a ukiyo-e of human greed.
From the perspective of Officer Zhang's line, Connie invested in the property market in order to get a greater return on investment, and mortgaged to buy a house, and forcibly started. When the stock market fell sharply, it was simply disastrous for Connie. However, this narrative line has less ink and is not very colorful.
From the perspective of Teresa's line, Teresa saw 5 million greedy thoughts; Zhong Yuan, although he had a huge fortune, he was calculating, extremely shrewd, loan sharks, and a greedy person; and Teresa's customers, the big mother, bought a fund that was not suitable for him in order to make more money, and was also greedy; we can also see how another colleague of Teresa was marketed to customers, and when introducing the fund, he used words that provoked people's greedy nerves, and in contrast, Teresa clearly doesn't know this.
From the three-legged leopard this line is also the most wonderful line, from the beginning of the banquet can see the boss's greed and indecency, good friend Wu Yaohua saw the three-legged leopard is to ask for money, and Brother Long, to small bo big stocks, they are all greedy. In this group, the three-legged leopard seems to be an outlier, however, in the end he completes his transformation, he uses Brother Long's money to make a lot of money, smoke the same cigar, and become a greedy person.
As Brother Long's boss said: You know what stocks are? Stocks are people's predictions about the future, and if they are correct, they will win, and if they are wrong, they will lose. Losers want to win back what they lost, and winners want to win more. Human nature is greedy. The stock world, the weak eat the strong, the natural selection, this is the law of ecological balance, is the rule. No amount of greed can change the rules, you understand?
Brother Long even had to buy a period of time at the expense of his life, not so much his greed for material desires, but rather his greed for winning, but rather that human nature was completely materialized.
The Existence of Man: The Absurdity of the World
Look at the words of Brother Long's boss: Do you know what stocks are? Stocks are people's predictions about the future, and if they are correct, they will win, and if they are wrong, they will lose. Losers want to win back what they lost, and winners want to win more. Human nature is greedy. The stock world, the weak eat the strong, the natural selection, this is the law of ecological balance, is the rule. No amount of greed can change the rules, you understand?
The three-legged leopard interjected, comparing stocks to gambling. And countless people's lives are tumbling in stocks, which is equivalent to gambling with their own names, but the boss pursues the law of the jungle, and it turns out that his law of the jungle is not entirely effective, because the world is absurd.
"Stocks are people's predictions about the future, and if they are correct, they are winners, and if they are wrong, they are losers." In the climax, just when everyone thought that the stock would fall, the three-legged leopard, the layman, bought the rise according to his own analysis, and the truth was really as the three-legged leopard expected, it really rose. The real estate agent's service staff was even more direct to Connie: Mornings and afternoons are heaven and hell...
Obviously, the future cannot be predicted at all, and fundamentally, people cannot grasp their own future and control their own destiny. Stocks can be said to be the title of this film, the most core and most exciting and essential footnote.
Look at the old man in the climax part, the old man changed various jobs in order to catch up with the changes of the times, and finally lost his job. It can be said that life is in the world, changing rapidly, and people cannot control their own destiny.
We can also look at a small character, Zhong Yuan, who is extremely shrewd in business, refuses to eat any loss, and finally dies of robbery. This is the greatest irony of him, and it also expresses the idea that man cannot control his own destiny.
This film reveals a tragic orientation to the existence of man. The big mother wants to buy the fund to make more money, The dragon brother wants to buy the period to pay back the money, Teresa is in danger of being expelled, there are many characters in the film who are loaded with the weight of life, they all have their own desires and goals, that is, to be able to make more money and live a better life, but life is like duckweed, you have no idea where it will float, what it will encounter, life is absurd, the world is absurd, fundamentally speaking, it is impossible to grasp.
In this regard, it is in line with Sartre's existentialism. Sartre's plays and novels have long had similar plots and themes. For example, in "The Wall", "I" deceived the enemy that the comrade was in the cemetery, but in fact the comrade was not there, saying that in the cemetery was purely "I" making up nonsense, but the enemy actually caught the comrade in the cemetery according to "I" confession.
Life is like roulette, the existence of people lies in the fact that people can "freely choose", and "free choice" cannot escape chance, and this chance brings the absurdity of life. "The other is hell". In the film, we can also see various footnotes to this sentence, everyone pursues their absolute freedom, and must conflict with each other. Sartre once explained: "If the relationship with others is distorted and corrupted, then others can only be hell." Just as Teresa is to Big Mama, manager is to Teresa, boss is to Dragon Brother...
This kind of absurdity is actually the consistent theme of galactic impressions, which is reflected in films such as "Dark Flower", "The Birth of a Word", "Dark War", "Accident" and so on. So from the theme point of view, "Deadly Gold" is not much different from the previous film, and perhaps a big difference is that the protagonists this time are basically small people and adopt a multi-point of view structure.
In this film, this contingency is also manifested in the change, Du Qifeng in addition to arranging the change in the mouth of the old man, but also arranged for Brother Long's boss to speak Mandarin, because the times are constantly changing. When Du Qifeng talked about this, he also said that he wanted to express the meaning of the changes in the world. There was also a former underworld friend Sen Ge, who started a business of collecting waste. Obviously, everything is constantly changing, and this change is of course most in stocks.
Here, the film has a philosophical height. This may be what Du Qifeng called "the literary nature of movies".
Third, narrative analysis
Narrative structure:
This film differs slightly from the consistent linear narrative of Galaxy Images.
The film presents a certain plate structure, and if further analysis is done, the film is still a linear narrative structure. The film is divided into three narrative lines, namely Officer Zhang, Three-legged Leopard and Teresa. It begins with Officer Zhang investigating the injury case, but begins with Teresa' formal narrative. The second part shifts the point of view to the three-legged leopard, with Zhong Yuan's murder in the underground parking lot as the connection point, the narrative shifts to Teresa, and Officer Zhang reappears. Then the story continues.
It can be seen that there is no direct impetus and connection between the three narrative lines, and they are almost independent, just as Teresa and the three-legged leopard pass by at the intersection at the end of the film, but they exist but do not intersect. In particular, Officer Zhang's narrative line fully plays a tandem role and does not play a close role in promoting and linking other narrative lines.
At the beginning of the film, officer Zhang's investigation of the injury case and his wife's behavior to buy a house are explained, and the film is narrated according to the conventional linear narrative, and then it is affirmed that these two scenes will play a major role in the subsequent development of the plot. But this is not the case with this film. After the injury, Officer Zhang found Wu Yaohua, a friend of the three-legged leopard, and Wu Yaohua was an insignificant supporting role in this film. The three-legged leopard traveled several places in order to bail Wu Yaohua, but after Wu Yaohua came out, he was arrested by Dongjiu, and at this point, the narrative line of Officer Zhang driven by the injury case at the beginning stopped at this point. Then the three-legged leopard finds the dragon brother and really begins the narrative line of the three-legged leopard: the story of the three-legged leopard and the dragon brother.
We can find that in addition to his own story, Officer Zhang mainly plays the role of string scenes in the whole film, Officer Zhang's investigation of the injury case and the investigation of the case of Zhong Yuan's murder are all dragonflies in the plot, passing by, and did not spend more ink in the direction of the suspense detective genre film, forming a genre mixed film, but strictly adhering to the scatter structure and portraying the ukiyo-e of the survival state of the little people.
Officer Zhang brought out a small character in this narrative line, that is, the old man.
The other two narrative lines bring out more characters who are not closely related to their own stories. Teresa mainly portrays the diabetic mother and loan shark Zhong Yuan, and the three-legged leopard line brings out more characters: Brother B, Boss, Wu Yaohua, Wu Yaohua's two subordinates, Sen Brother, restaurant owner, etc.
In fact, the film can completely avoid the scene of the wedding banquet, the purpose of this is mainly to show more characters and show the face of the times.
The block narrative is still logically a narrative line constructed by causal connection, but there are only three points of view. The three lines go hand in hand, and the reason for this structure is to show a wider range of ukiyo-e of various characters. From the arrangement of this narrative structure, we can see Du Qifeng's ambition.
Empathy and Separation:
The film is divided into three narrative lines, Teresa and Three-legged Leopard, which are both based on two people, and in Officer Zhang's narrative line, two points of view are subdivided into two points of view: Officer Zhang and his wife Connie.
I believe that when the audience watches this film, the heartstrings are tight for the characters, which naturally analyzes how empathy works on the audience.
Overall, the film closely follows the character's point of view for narrative, which makes it easier for the audience to empathize with the character, because you experience events with him, causing him to be you, you are his psychological displacement. Here's a look at the other aspects:
First of all, thanks to the successful creation of the load value of this film. The main characters are facing great pressure to survive, and if the goals and desires of the characters cannot be achieved, then it will cause great disasters to the characters, and even lose their lives. In a depressed situation, Teresa may lose her job; Connie may lose her savings or even marriage, Officer Zhang's father may be seriously ill; and the three-legged leopard and Brother Long may lose their lives. And the diabetic aunt, the savings she had left and even her money for treatment. It is precisely because the characters face huge losses and risks, so it makes the audience even more distressed.
Secondly, these objects of empathy are all good, and this goodness is relative goodness, but that alone is enough. Teresa is surrounded by cold and greedy people, and Teresa can't adapt and is more favorable. Officer Zhang is a responsible and caring policeman, Connie cares for her niece and is also a caring woman. The three-legged leopard is loyal to the liver and righteousness, and Brother Long is a good friend of the three-legged leopard, and he is very righteous. While describing their goodness, they also do not forget to portray the hypocrisy and indifference of the people around them, so as to set off the object of empathy.
Third, the portrayal of details takes the audience into the inner world of the characters. For example, Teresa was ignored by the manager in the business meeting, and the paragraph was changed to use a lot of close-ups and close-ups to show Teresa's situation, without making a sound and completely empathizing with the audience, the audience thought "Yes, I was said exactly the same as this before". Another example is the big mother's "clear understanding" and "sorry, I don't eat sugar, I have diabetes". There is also the situation that Brother Long was injured and drove around to break through, and Teresa's body seemed to have unloaded a large stone after submitting her resignation letter... The delicate conveyance of the emotions of the characters themselves can make the audience empathetic.
It is precisely like this, so the audience is tightly hooked by the fate of the characters.
However, we can find that the audience is immersed in the plot, but can jump out to watch this scene of satire and achieve the effect of separation, which is closely related to the change of perspective.
At the beginning, we only know as much as Teresa and the three-legged leopard, but when the three-legged leopard and the dragon brother contact Zhong Yuan, and the two lines are connected, the audience begins to know more than Teresa and the three-legged leopard, especially when Teresa is killed, the money is taken away, we know many key things, and the protagonists do not know, so we begin to be able to further compare and jump out to see the psychology and living state of the characters.
Especially in the climax part, through parallel editing, the audience can grasp the development of the three narrative lines. The most touching thing is the ironic contrast between Brother Long and the three-legged leopard inside and outside the venue, which is achieved by relying on the expansion of the viewpoint. The audience can strongly feel the tragedy of the characters and the theme that the film wants to convey. Here, the distancing effect reinforces the shaping of the theme.
Fourth, scene scheduling
The scene scheduling of this film mainly relies on the performance and lighting of the actors.
The camera scheduling mainly uses two photographic methods, fixed and slow push, the composition is square, the mirror is smooth, implicit, and does not steal the scene. The main use is the middle and near special scenes, highlighting the state of the characters, which makes the film more dependent on the performance of the actors.
The use of lighting is exquisite, regular, exquisite, mostly using the three-point lighting method, reflecting the typical commercial film lighting characteristics. The realistic lighting style is also consistent with the style of this film. In the case of lighting dependent on the environment to express emotions through the choice of scenes, such as the cold light of the bank close to the LED showing Teresa's survival pressure and indifferent environment, Teresa's scene of making coffee for the big mother has a series of shadows clothed on the wall and Teresa, using light to reflect the heart of the character; for example, the scene where Brother Long and the three-legged leopard meet the boss, the scene is selected in a hotel box, using the big light than high contrast light that Du Qifeng is good at in many galaxy impression films. It can be noted that most of the scenes in this film are not large in terms of light ratio, and this scene can be said to be the largest light ratio, and the dark area dominates. On the other hand, the top light is used as the main light to strengthen the creation of the atmosphere. This scene creates an uneasy and cold atmosphere through lighting, highlighting the fierceness of the boss, which is typical of Du Qifeng's style.
The choice of scenes is also important, providing a carrier for the development of the story. For example, the three-legged leopard looks for Senge, and the scene chooses to be in the open-air scrap station instead of the indoor office, which further affects the scheduling and lighting use of the actors, senge and the three-legged leopard use more external actions instead of lines, and the lighting uses more natural light.
The performance style pays attention to drama and is also realistic, which seems natural and appropriate.
The camera moves calmly, intended to match the plot of the film, that is, to show a cold and cold atmosphere, and to achieve the effect of a distant cold-eyed bystander. It is worth noting that in the scene scheduling, different information is explained through the scheduling of the camera to achieve the effect of montage in the lens. For example, from the lonely doorman to Teresa who is still desperately calling after work, from the rise of the stock market and the excited three-legged leopard pushing to the TV screen of the finance ministers' meeting next to it, there are many similar shots through the scheduling of the camera, which is a feature of the scheduling of this film, but it does not rely on the depth of field space, and the internal montage of the camera is formed through the active scheduling of the camera under the condition that the actor's position is unchanged.
Throughout the text, in order to further make the three lines more distinctly independent, three different shades were used, with Teresa's part of the tone being bluish, the three-legged leopard part being yellowish, and Officer Zhang's part relatively balanced. The surprise of this tone is also in line with the living state of the viewpoint characters.
5. Spatio-temporal analysis
At this point, we can further analyze the spatio-temporal relationship of this film.
The film is divided into three narrative lines, the story is a total of three days, and the main events, including the climax, all occur on one day. However, we feel that the time is very long, which is determined by the narrative structure of the film, that is, the three lines, which further expands the scope of time and space.
What space means, not only displacement, not only the synthesis of length, width and height, but a state of existence, if you want to express the events and characters in the space, you must consider the temperament and atmosphere of the space, each space has its own uniqueness. Feel and analyze the space, and then schedule the scene. It is necessary to stay in the space for at least a while before filming begins, so that the crew can subtly enter the situation.
In this film, it is particularly noteworthy that space carries and expresses the living state of the characters, and further forms a metaphor. In this film, Teresa, except for the last shot, the other scenes are all indoors, the space is small, and the indoor space is mainly concentrated in the reception room. The actor's scheduling mainly relies on lines, through the repeated appearance of the scene to create a sense of spatial oppression, this effect is subtle, and this subtlety is the most clever, the audience can fully feel Teresa's inner anxiety and huge survival pressure, and finally extended that this space is a cage for her.
The distance of the examination is another feature of this film, how to represent the space is closely related to the camera position, and its setting is based on how you feel and examine the space before you can decide how to perform. A typical scene appears at the end of the film, where Teresa submits her resignation to the manager, when the camera is far away from the characters, which is a small panorama. You can also shoot how to put the camera closer or use telephoto, tighten the scene, capture Teresa's dramatic expression, show her eyebrows raised. And Du Qifeng did not do this, because then it is more emotional and less rational, staying on the surface of the plot and not having the sublimation of ideas and emotions, using Xiaoquan is to let the audience think more independently about the drama and the meaning of the living state of the characters in this space. Du Qifeng's choice is right, it is the best product.
There is also a spatial examination, which is interlaced with the three-legged leopard and Teresa in the last shot, which also takes the audience to jump out and examine.
These techniques have caused the film to have both an empathetic drama and a distancing effect.
【End】
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