Introduction:
After all, it is Xu Anhua, even if the reputation of "The First Incense" encounters Waterloo, it should have a different voice. Yesterday LOOK thought that the "total rout" of "First Incense" exceeded the ability to spit out, and today it is half standing on the square and saying a few good words for the movie that has been dragged down by marketing.
The casting of the so-called "first furnace steel" and the publicity known as "youth pain", the first string of cold words, the second half of the rumors, when it was not yet released, Xu Anhua's "First Furnace Incense" was set with a low and rude hat.
The action of casting, as well as the judgment of casting, are too subjective, after all, even "loyalty to the original" is by no means an inevitable choice for film creation, then, just by virtue of the personal likes and dislikes of the main actors, the overall judgment of the film is made in advance, and in any case, it is unfair.
However, if the casting is not intended to be too flattering, then the announcement is too flattering. They take the initiative to do the most grounded promotion on the most grounded platform, especially Vibrato, especially romance, and even eroticism, and bring the earthy taste of the Internet brand, and the pattern of the movie collapses at once.
It is not easy to think that this kind of literary and art film with low investment should return the cost, and it is not impossible to understand the desire to move closer to the sinking market and even show good intentions. Just understanding, does not mean recognition. This operation undoubtedly directly puts "First Incense" into the ranks of bad films that rely on inciting emotions to attract attention from "Xibao", "Your Wedding", and "Sadder Than Sadness".
But its "wrong goods" are doomed to fail to get those extra box office. About 5% of the film schedule on the opening day of "First Incense" and the total box office estimate of more than 30 million yuan indicate a comprehensive rout in word-of-mouth and revenue.
There are so many disturbances outside the movie that the most critical issues are almost ignored. Is "The First Incense" really that bad? not necessarily. Although director Xu Anhua and his works have become the target of this kind of problem, they are also absurd.
The aunts and sisters in the Liang family's small white building weighed Ge Weilong, first looking at the obsolescence of the "puff face" on her emerald blue bamboo cloth shirt, as well as the well-behaved, twisted and humble attitude. When we watch "The First Burning Incense", we first ignore the "gorgeous robe" jointly woven by screenwriter Wang Anyi, music director Ryuichi Sakamoto, director of photography Du Kefeng, editing director Kwong Zhiliang, art director Zhao Hai, costume director Tian Huimei, recording engineer Du Duzhi, and so on.
I have to say that the first thing that surprised "The First Incense" is the exquisite skin that is rarely adapted to the current Chinese films.
One of the largest mansions in the middle of the mountain, from the construction layout of the house and garden, to the copper incense burner in the aunt's room, the emerald spider on the clothes, and the tonality of the blend of the middle and the west, must properly exude the noble and magnificent, so that the disparity between wealth and style can be made, and the aunt is the first to raise the aunt three degrees and press Ge Weilong down.
Costumes, makeup are also ironed, the aunt is a full of aura of black, and the lips are a touch of Paris's new "mulberry red" of the season, through the playfulness, that Ge Weilong's "Sai Jinhua" style dress can only be a foreign appearance, to first inferiority, fade, change even the hat is custom-made to the blouse of the upper dress, only willingly drowned in the fatal materialistic temptation.
The lens is filtered, staring at the mood of the characters to change, at first there is a lot of lotus green lotus powder tender, and then there is a saturated color of thick ink and color, but until the aunt remembers the death of the heart in shanghai's hometown that year, there is a meaning of ashes. Dotted with those tinkling tunes, the liveness of the mind and fission have a contrast.
It is scattered and fragmented, but the organic operation in the movie, the story of the sunny surface and the gloomy back is three-dimensional, and it has quite a charm, so that people can walk in and are willing to enter the small world of convincing.
But then again, the "good-looking" things in "The First Incense" are trivial things, and the scenery, human figures, costumes, and rhetoric may not be refined to the grand, and it may not be refined to produce any will or ambition. It's the kind of movie that's easy to get people up when it's going on, and it's easy to get people down after it's over. Lowering expectations and leaving off the wind and rain can calmly find a lot of temptations, and it does not necessarily require a longer time to be in the mind.
Only fighting for the day, but also secretly in line with the mood of Ge Weilong. Xu Anhua's "First Burning Incense" is to achieve the ultimate in trivialities, warm and velvet tones, exquisite lighting, intricate objects, and wandering thoughts, all of which are lazy but urgently scatter a kind of lustrous "sense of security" shrouded by money, youth or even sincerity.
Perhaps it can be said that Xu Anhua is using "warmth" to shoot "cold". She poured everything into building the high society with the White House as the radiation core, calling on all resources and perceptions to make that Spring and Autumn Dream bigger, and finally to make all the golden and warm elements, such as money, jewelry, status and lust, suck away the warmth of the survivors.
This is different from Zhang Ailing. Reading her article, you can feel her withered state of mind, early on like a snake lurking between the lines, sneering to see who is a reader serious, confused, just bite a bite, or bite without biting, it is up to you to be stunned or chilled. Just rushing against such a dangerous provocation is actually touching people's hearts.
The fun of making up stories is here, but when I write it, every time I spit out a sentence, I probably feel that this human world is alive and weak. The skeletons she laid out were all the way, and Xu Anhua only chose a few, slowly and gently presented under the camera.
This also makes it even more ridiculous that the slogan falls on the phrase "love but not" is so ridiculous. "Love" in that environment, is an extremely ridiculous act, everyone is hunted by nature, get it and be happy, do not get it, do not be frustrated, on the whole is still a kind of most vain purple drunken gold fan, turn a blind eye to play, who is more real, should become a laughingstock.
Even Ge Weilong, who once took love the most seriously, also clearly knew that his so-called "love" for Georgie Joe had been mixed with too much vanity, conquest and revenge early on, and in this way, he still had to get married, put shackles on each other, torture each other, and secretly hypnotize himself not to care, which was a typical performance of wanting to become a player but not qualified.
Therefore, the most grand fun in the whole game is to watch Ge Weilong and Lu Zhaolin, these chicks, being rounded up, reshaped, being addicted, and becoming the person they did not want to be, but they had to feel that it was their own free will and life pursuit. The cruelty of the story came out, but the protagonist did not want to feel it, and the irony of the story also came out.
Here, Xu Anhua and Zhang Ailing are a little different. Zhang Ailing put Ge Weilong in the protagonist position, writing about her incurable sinking, "enemy" is the collective deception of the whole capital and human nature, fighting, dying tragically, not hindering the reader from empathizing, and feels that Ge Weilong is exploring the golden and brilliant Dragon Pond Tiger Cave for himself.
But Yu Feihong, who has a high degree of adaptation with his aunt, plays a really swaying posture, so this yellow bird-like character stands in the mantis and cicada pile, becoming the only protagonist in Xu Anhua's movie, and the audience is easy to slip into her camp, shaking her head and sighing and even laughing at the girl who always makes a fuss about returning to Shanghai, how she has lost her temper in the real flirtation, and how to get herself to such a point.
Especially seeing that Ge Weilong was going to leave, and returned from the port, gritting his teeth to attack his aunt with his age and wind, and then salivating that he still wanted the other party to help, it was difficult not to think that this character was absurd to be sad.
Inevitably, you become the object of your own criticism, and you find that the ambiguity of criticism is itself a peculiar criticism. The reason the movie is getting more interesting, this has to be counted. It is said that the film does not have much grand purpose, but just with these scattered meanings, it is enough that "The First Incense" is solid and interesting than many similar stories.
It must be mentioned here that although the cold and warm tone is different from the perspective of entry, the film and the novel are of course the same destination. It can be said that What Xu Anhua filmed is actually a sinking story parallel to Zhang Ailing, which does not have to be "loyal to the original", but can also become a reference to the novel, and the reason is here.
The core of the two is bound to be desolate. To tell the truth, the "pain of youth" referred to by Xuanfa is a word that can definitely cause ridicule at the moment, and it is not absent in "The First Burning Incense", the youthful Ge Weilong is in infinite pain between love and desire in reality, and also hurts himself through pain, but Zhang Ailing and Xu Anhua are able to support the sense of superiority under the flashiness, because there is that transcendent desolation. It's just that Xuanfa doesn't seem to understand.
As soon as Xu Anhua debuted, he filmed the crazy and angry "New Wave" stories such as "Crazy Robbery", "The Story of Hu Yue" and "Running to the Angry Sea", and carved a cold meaning on the film world at a young age. Later, all kinds of crimes ("Night and Fog of Tin Shui Wai"), ethics ("Woman, Forty") and history ("A Thousand Words", "When is the Bright Moon") were all gathered together to construct a tragic world where the truth was more absurd than the novel.
"Crazy Robbery"
Under the camera, she is not so convinced, or less dare to believe in the so-called human nature, which is why there are so many naked cruelties. Zhang Ailing is also, so old-fashioned at a young age.
However, Xu Anhua's malicious world of light and shadow, gradually more probe brain fun and understanding, she is not so sharp, but began to let the audience sharpen up first, "The Day and Night of Tin Shui Wai" and "Sister Tao" these masterpieces, is not it that when people are moved to a mess, they remember that the reason why they need to be moved by these things is precisely because the reality is too messy?
"Sister Peach"
Therefore, the expression of the film is not reconciliation, but the wind and frost have been long- and I feel that hard touch does not necessarily have the powerful ideographic function of Ezraku gang. The bottom of "The First Incense" is full of resentment that has been through vicissitudes, but there is always some relatively soft attitude.
Like the respected elders, to overlook the frolicking of children and daughters in the red dust, it is wrong, it is all fragile human nature, and what can be blamed? This looseness is suddenly enlightened, but the fragility of human nature must be added to the recognition.
In her creations that lasted for nearly half a century, "The First Incense" has such a summative taste, that is, in the face of decadent and overheated things, we all know that it is just an experiment of some people's nature change, and there are some that can withstand the test, and I am fortunate.
Put it in the story sequence of Zhang Ailing she shot, this third part is as good as the third part. That exquisitely crafted is worthy of Zhang Ailing's pen and ink, and to take out that style and momentum, the story is even more of a story.
In the early days, from the "New Wave" directly to "Love in the City", there was some urgency, the funds were also lacking, and there were few regrets, and when it came to "Half Life", it was calm, and the situation was very bad. After so many years of touching Zhang Ailing, I only feel that shen yun is more bold, not to say that it is beyond "Half Life", but at least it has its own advantages.
Half-Life
Since "Sister Peach", Xu Anhua's recent three feature films have a common feature, that is, they are all cut from the first half of the last century, combined with the team of mainland actors, telling the legends of those who have something to do with Hong Kong, China, but are even more twin cities, and even more cities.
Compared to the slightly adventurous pioneering experiments of "The Golden Age" (breaking the fourth wall) and the slightly pale spiritual expression of "When is the Bright Moon", "The First Burning Incense" is definitely a more rounded story.
This story is filmed in the vision of people who are drunk in this day and night, and do not wait for their emotions to go to mourning, they choose to bind themselves and bury each other. That kind of going with the flow, evil from the heart, that kind of depravity under fame and fortune, despair in depravity, numbness in despair, mental trauma and identity anxiety after numbness, have still become the first incense in Xu Anhua's world of light and shadow, and people are sober and addicted.