After watching Xu Anhua's "The First Burning Incense", the deletion and transfer of the plot must be particularly confusing for many Fans. Especially those details hidden in the text, Zhang Ailing painstakingly arranged, where did they go? Why have they lost their taste? Are those new additions and erasures really not meaningful, or self-defeating? Is it another interpretation, or is it a text misreading? After reading and comparing the novel and the movie, the article written is from a Fan Zhang's ten questions to Xu Anhua.
1. Why is "imagery" only objects left?
Where the opening is charming, the imagery is the greatest achievement. If the image is ignored, it is just a superficial object.
When Wei Long first visited his aunt Mrs. Liang, the camera specially gave Mrs. Liang a close-up of the "emerald spider" pin on Mrs. Liang's chest. This pin is replaced by a jewel in the novel, and Zhang Ailing gives enough space: "The black straw hat hangs down on the edge of the green face web, and the face net is buckled with a fingernail-sized emerald spider, which shimmers in the sunlight and is crawling on her cheek, one bright and one dark, like a teardrop that wants to fall when it is bright, and more like a blue mole when it is dark."
In Zhang Ailing's pen, this emerald spider is hung on Mrs. Liang's face, like tears are even more marked. As soon as the novel opens, the emerald spider hints at the symbiosis of Mrs. Liang's life brilliance and obscurity, always holding back tears to live life, but there is the cruelty of the spider. However, in the movie, the image of tears is replaced by Mrs. Liang's chest, and she suddenly loses her strength and is reduced to a pure decorative object.
There is also the banana fan in Mrs. Liang's hand in the novel. When she first looked at Wei Long, Zhang Ailing wrote: "Mrs. Liang's hands rubbed the banana handle and turned it ,...... Her fan was deflected, and a few golden rays of sunlight were sifted into the fan, brushing her mouth like the whiskers of a tiger cat, vibrating and flying. ...... Mrs. Liang just tore the tendons on the banana fan with her hand, tearing and tearing. Wei Long suddenly realized that she had blocked the fan from her face, and it turned out that she was looking at herself through the leak of the fan!" Through a fan and a few changes of light and shadow, the text writes about Mrs. Liang's snobbery and calculation. But in the movie, it is only a simple mention.
All the images that Zhang Ailing painstakingly managed are just decorations under the lens, losing the imagery conveyance of rich interest. Even many important objects, such as cacti, sparrows, and the aforementioned banana fans, have been hastily taken or directly skipped, which is a pity.
Second, why did the ghostly atmosphere disappear?
The ghostly Liang family mansion is the focus of Zhang Ailing in the first half of the operation of "The First Burning Incense". When Wei Long visited her aunt for the first time and came down the mountain, "Looking back at her aunt's house, I still faintly saw the yellow and red-rimmed windows, and the green glass windows reflected the sea color." The majestic white house, covered with green glazed tiles, is a bit like an ancient imperial tomb. Wei Long herself felt that she was a scholar in "Liaozhai Zhiyi", and after going up the mountain to visit her relatives, in the blink of an eye, the noble family mansion had turned into a big tomb mountain; if the white house of the Liang family had changed into a grave, she might not be surprised."
The Liang family mansion in the movie is like a holiday villa, less sinister. Ghost qi is the bloodline of Zhang Ailing's text, giving the reader important hints. The woman living in the tomb-like mansion resembles a female ghost, which not only points out Mrs. Liang's confidence, but also depicts the tragedy of Wei Long's life and death, and it is also a metaphor for the overall life of modern people.
Third, why does Lu Zhaolin want to fight mosquitoes?
"The old mother stood in the doorway with a broom and a dustpan, and Zhenbao turned off the lights, so she didn't dare to come in." Zhenbao slept in bed until in the middle of the night, awakened by mosquito bites, and got up to turn on the light. ...... Zhen bao sat on the edge of the bed and watched for a long time. As he lay down again, he sighed, feeling the air of his old goodness creep closer and closer, enveloping him. Countless worries and responsibilities buzzed with mosquitoes, biting him and sucking him."
Readers familiar with Zhang Ailing's novels understand that this text is from "Red Roses and White Roses". In response, Tong Zhenbao was disturbed by a long-standing memory of mosquito blood (red rose/Wang Jiaorui) on the wall, lingering. Director Kwan Kam Peng also made this far-reaching hint in "Red Roses and White Roses" (1994). As for why Xu Anhua arranged a scene of beating mosquitoes before Lu Zhaolin and Mrs. Liang had sex, it was unbelievable. Maybe you want to be intertextual with it? Or do you want to convey Mrs. Liang's hunger and thirst for Lu Zhaolin? In any case, the setting of this plot is too thin, and it is not wasteful to use it on the supporting role of Lu Zhaolin, and it is even more far-fetched to instill Mrs. Liang if it is innuendo; the link movie deliberately shapes Mrs. Liang into a wandering image of the skeleton, and "worries and responsibilities" have nowhere to place, not only Zhang Fans are difficult to understand, but non-Zhang fans must be equally confused.
Why should there be snakes?
In the movie, Georgie raises a snake, which is arranged outside the plot of the novel, which should be the place where the movie wants to add color. From the point of view of Georgie's snake being discarded by her father, the surface meaning of the snake is quite obvious, that is, Georgie himself. Snake and Georgie, both garbage that their father despises, go quickly. At the same time, it also hints deeply at Georgie's greedy desires, like the devil in the Garden of Eden who lured Eve to eat the fruit of wisdom. The image of the snake, as early as the mythological era, has been a symbol of greed and lust, and the tense relationship between Georgie's dark psychology and her father really needs to make room for a snake to refer to? You don't have to. In fact, we can perceive it from other details of the movie.
In contrast, in the novel, Zhang Ailing also wrote about the snake - "Wei Long looked up at the piano, a cactus in the royal blue disk, it was the buds waiting to be released, the thick green leaves, probing the head around, like a green snake, the red twist of the branch, it was like a snake letter spit out", followed by "The curtain behind the flower moved, and the smile and giggle came out." Wei Long unconsciously gave a cold gag." This is a metaphorical montage, the snake is the eye that comes out from behind the flower. This is the scene that Wei Long saw in front of her eyes when she first visited her aunt, and Zhang Ailing's important foreshadowing. Soon after the beginning of the novel, Zhang Ailing reminds the reader through the snake that The eye is violent and dangerous, and the city government is deep; but in the movie, there is no dark side of the wonderful eye, and she has become the embodiment of morality, completely deviating from zhang's radiance.
5. Why do you want to shoot mahjong scenes?
"Once upon a time, you and Georgie, don't talk about it." How many times have you scolded, only when the wind blows in your ears! Now I don't allow the boy to come to the door, and you still sneak up on him. I don't know! You are so mean, so accommodating to him! Born with a little bitch!" These are the words that Mrs. Liang blurted out during the quarrel with Kan, and from this, we also learned about the entangled relationship between Kan and Georgie.
If Wei Er and Wei Long are one group of controls, then looking at it and Mrs. Liang form another group of controls. Both Wei'er and Wei Long have a sexual relationship with Qiao Qi, and Look and Mrs. Liang are even more hooked up with Qiao Cheng's father and son. Therefore, Wei Longzhi's beating of Wei'er and Mrs. Liang's drive away to see, to some extent, have a mirror image relationship of self-division.
The mahjong scene in the movie is an important detail that Xu Anhua arranged for him. On the mahjong table, the young woman sitting next to Qiao Cheng turned out to be Qiao Cheng's newly married aunt. When he saw that the tea was served, before leaving, he not only nodded to Qiao Cheng, but also took away the cigarette that his aunt had originally lit. Therefore, there is a shot of the aunt's hand that originally wanted to take the cigarette but did not take anything. This is a good addition, more detailed hints at the ambiguous relationship with Qiao Cheng. But it is also a mahjong drama to explain the relationship between the characters, and Ang Lee's display in "The Ring of color |" is definitely more successful and difficult to surpass.
Why are Zhou Jijie's important settings missing?
The metaphor of "colonization" is the focus of "The First Burning Incense", especially in the mixed-race Zhou Jijie. She was cut out of many key dialogues in the film, but danced a long dance of unknown reasons.
First of all, the Ji Jie and Georgie in the novel are "half-brothers and sisters", in other words, the Portuguese lady first gave birth to Qiao Cheng, and then gave birth to Ji Jie with other men, so Ji Jie's surname is Not Surnamed Qiao, she cannot live with the Qiao family father and son in the same house as the Qiao family, and it is impossible to be so close to Sir Qiao Cheng as in the movie. Unless the film changes the siblings to "half-brother" or "half-mother"; if so, it will simply lose the contrast that Zhang Ailing painstakingly managed: the same mixed-race children also have a rich/poor difference due to who their father is.
Secondly, Ji Jie, who is similar to Wei Long's age, has a relationship with Wei Long in the novel, and the hostility is completely absent in the movie, and the characters change plane. Third, at the garden meeting held in the Liang family mansion, many wonderful dialogues between Wei Long and Ji Jie were all metaphors for the fate of Hong Kong:
"Our possible objects are all bastard boys. Chinese no, because our foreign-style education cannot be mixed with pure Chinese. Foreigners can't either! Which of the Caucasians here is not very racially minded? He himself agreed, and their society did not agree." Ji Jie also said: "The air in the colony here is too thick; in another place, the boundaries of races should not be so strict, right?"
Zhang Ailing spent nearly a page showing the dialogue between Wei Long and Ji Jie, which is the mixed race of Hong Kong and the embarrassing situation of not being Chinese and western. Ji Jie's role is not just the exotic dance in the movie and telling Wei Long that "the half-race Holmon is particularly exuberant".
At the end of the movie, Ji Jie actually became a nun, which is even more full of doubts. The novel does not reveal Ji Jie's whereabouts because it is not necessary, not to mention that she wants to leave Hong Kong. Perhaps the film wants to be responsible for Ji Jie's whereabouts, but for a woman who can say that she has a strong sexual desire, how to embark on the road of birth and monasticism, there is no more preparation, and what will be given to the audience will only be abrupt and frowning.
7. Why should Situ Xie be allowed to smoke oysters?
"Mrs. Liang glanced at the skinny little old man sitting in front of her, the only one of the countless lovers in her heyday, named Situ Xie, a small rich man in Shantou who owned an enamel toilet factory. Although Mrs. Leung has traveled extensively, she has always been partial to the land snake in Hong Kong and the gentleman class with a bit of an official faction, and the reason why she is in love with this businessman is because he is knowledgeable and interested, and he works inwardly." In the mahjong scene in the novel, Situ Xie, who sits opposite Mrs. Liang, turns out to be a "skinny little old man" with a bit of "official gentleman class".
Zhang Ailing's Situ Xie is not much, and the most important plot is that he and Mrs. Liang and Ge Weilong are in the car and give the two sisters a diamond bracelet. In the movie, the scene where Situ Xie takes Ge Weilong to eat in a French restaurant is added separately. Regardless of whether Fan Wei, who plays Situ Xie, is not a "dry and thin" little old man at all; what is important is that when we watch Situ Xie comically suck oysters, we feel a pang of discomfort. Just think, how could a man with a bit of an official gentleman's class behave like this? Perhaps the film wants to convey "sexual innuendo", but it is also suspected of being too ugly.
8. Why did you shoot the sex scene between Georgie Joe and Ge Weilong?
On that moonlit night, Georgie Qiao did come to Liang's house to meet Ge Weilong, and Zhang Ailing described it this way: "Qiao Qi came and left in the moonlight." The moon was still in the middle of the day, and he climbed from the platform of Wei Long to the opposite cliff. The jungle was damp and hot, the insects were chirping, and with the sound of frogs, the whole mountain was like a cauldron, and the moon was a blue and yin fire, slowly boiling it, and the water in the pot boiled, and the sound of beeping was creaking."
Zhang Ailing wrote the entanglement of Georgie and Wei Long in an ambiguous and vague way, using only the "moon" image, and lightly explained the past. Because what she wanted to show was not how passionate the sex between the two was, but after that, Wei Long's heart, like the moon that was slowly boiled in the pot, was tormented and uncomfortable. In the movie, they actually filmed the sex scene between the two of them. Maybe it is to contrast with the sex between Mrs. Liang and Lu Zhaolin in the front; perhaps it is to clearly identify the intimate relationship between Georgie and Wei Long, and strengthen the meaning that Wei Long belongs to Georgie completely. But this sex scene was filmed with some embarrassment, losing the wet and warm feeling.
Why is Georgie Joe jealous?
Both Xu Anhua and Ang Lee show their warmth for the characters when they remake Zhang Ailing's novels, because Zhang Ailing is cruel. Her Georgie Joe is a consistent scumbag representative, no loyalty, even scum is so open and honest, without the slightest pretense and hypocrisy. But it's surprising that Georgie in the movie is jealous. We can imagine Peng Yuyan being spoiled and jealous, but we can't imagine that Qiao Qi is like this.
Georgie will be jealous of Wei Long's promise to accompany Situ Xie to Shanghai during her honeymoon, obviously to create Georgie's care and possessiveness towards Wei Long. The movie makes Georgie cute and less hateful, in a way, Xu Anhua's decision is actually similar to Ang Lee's way of dealing with Mr. Yi in "The Ring of Color |". Ang Lee made Mr. Yi more hesitant and less cold-blooded; the audience could clearly feel Mr. Yi's emotional and intellectual struggle from the image. But in Georgie, we can't grasp the process of emotional turning, or the deeper psychological flow. Similar to dealing with objects such as snakes and emerald spiders, the film ultimately captures only superficial appearances.
Why does Ge Weilong shout "I love you"?
At the end of "The First Burning Incense", Zhang Ailing wrote very well: "He took out the cigarette clip and the lighter with his free hand, and the cigarette roll was held in his mouth and lit the fire." As soon as the fire lit up, in the cold night, an orange-red flower appeared on his mouth. Hua Li thanked him. It's cold and dark again..." The metaphor here is deep, through the fleeting smoke, Zhang Ailing hinted that "the life of a woman (Wei Long) is just a breath of a man (Georgie)", she only asked for a moment of love from Georgie, and she was satisfied. Veron's love is humble, low to the dust.
At the end of the movie, Georgie also lights a cigarette, and from the rearview mirror, you can see the smoke butt coming out of the fire. However, Xu Anhua was unwilling to stop there, leaving the same afterglow as the novel, and she had to add a paragraph that made Wei Long shout out the car window: "I love you, you are dead and have no conscience."
For such a sudden addition, some people think: "I actually can't understand why Xu Anhua wants to shoot like this soon after watching the movie, seeing too much greed and anger, too much desire, there must be a word of anger to wake us up, after all, we are still people who will be in pain." 」 I look at hair differently. For me, when Wei Long shouted this line that spilled dog blood, the film was destined to stay away from Zhang Ailing.
In the novel, those who did not say it, the cold and dark night, the fire that lit up for a moment, was the best annotation of Wei Long's desolate life. The necessity of the afterglow.