If you want to talk about the most discussed movie recently, it is obviously Director Li Fei's "Two Tigers".
Although this is only the second film directed by Li Fei, because Ge You, Fan Wei, Zhao Wei, Qiao Shan, Yan Ni, Pan Binlong and other starring actors have a high degree of popularity and strong appeal, and as the "vanguard" of the New Year film, it is obvious that the popularity and popularity are huge.
However, after watching the film, many viewers felt that the storyline of the film was too "incredible"; the narrative logic was simply "not reasonable enough"; the age of ge You, Fan Wei, Zhao Wei and other protagonists was "enigmatic"; what was even more puzzling was that the more people watched the film critics, the more confused people's explanations became.
What's going on?
Without it! Only Li Fei used the "surreal" shooting method ear!
Surrealism is a genre of modern Western literature that arose in Post-World War II Europe. It first flourished in the field of literature, and then gradually penetrated into the fields of painting, music and other arts. In the 1920s, French avant-garde filmmakers discovered techniques such as photographic nature and montage of cinema and began to experiment with surrealism to start making films. Film critics generally agree that Dulac's The Shell and the Monk was the first surrealist film, but the real "groundbreaking work" came from Louis Bruel's A Dog of Andalus and The Golden Age.
Because Surrealism no longer pays attention to the logic and rationality of the script, it is difficult to judge by aesthetic and moral standards. More just rely on the image display of the scene after scene, with the sense of picture directly to the audience to bring visual impact. So, it didn't (and couldn't) form a regular genre! For example, South Korean director Kim Ki-duk (representative work "Empty Room", "Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring", etc.) and domestic director Bi Gan (representative work "Roadside Picnic", "The Last Night of the Earth", etc.) have used this method to shoot.
However, surrealism also has very big drawbacks: first, relying too much on the script is bound to lead to a lack of rationality and scrutiny of the plot; second, the difficulty of judging with aesthetics and morality is bound to cause controversy; and then, the excessive use of symbols, metaphors, and imagery in film elements is bound to lead to difficulties in watching movies. Finally, the portrayal of human nature is "stripped away" and is bound to make the audience feel too cruel to adapt.
To give a few examples, when "An Andalus Dog" premiered in Paris, Louis Bruel and Dalí could only hide behind the screen, because the audience continued to keep things on the way to the movie; and Kim Ki-duk was labeled a "non-mainstream" director and a "crazy" director by the Korean audience; two works by domestic director Bi Gan also became a model of "blossoming inside the wall and outside the wall (the domestic popularity is far less than that of "niche" Europe)".
Of course, "Two Tigers" is only a use of surrealism after all, and it is essentially a commercial feature film. But using surrealism to analyze this film is very helpful for us to understand this movie.
<h1>Illusions and Imagination: Surrealist Dreams</h1>
"Two Tigers" is directed by Li Fei and starring Ge You, Zhao Wei, Fan Wei, Qiao Shan, Pan Binlong, Yan Ni and others, telling the story of a "low-quality" kidnapper who met a "high-quality" hostage, coerced him, but was lured by the hostages and did three things for the hostages.
At the beginning of the film, Zhang Chenggong (Ge You) is kidnapped by Yu Kaixuan. At this point, the audience has begun to wonder: how can Ge You be so young? How did two tiger men meet so coincidentally? Don't the names "Success" and "Triumph" mean the same thing? Why didn't Zhang call the police after he was successfully kidnapped? Why did Yu Kaixuan want to untie Zhang Chenggong when he was kidnapped?
If viewed "rationally", this would not have been possible at all in the real world, but it just happened "really"! This seemingly illogical, magical and absurd setting is precisely the essence of surrealism: ignoring the logic and rationality of the film's script and plot in "reality"; stripping the character's personality in two (success - triumph); putting the character into time and space (time) to switch back and forth (today's Yu Kaixuan is tomorrow's Zhang Chenggong, tomorrow's Zhang Chenggong is today's Yu Kaixuan). But how does the director find a balance between reality and surreality?
Hallucinations and imaginations – this is exactly a dream of Success!
After Yu Kaixuan kidnapped Zhang Chenggong, he demanded 1 million yuan, and "miraculously" Zhang Chenggong "bargained" to 2 million. In reality, Yu Kaixuan's appeal is 1 million, but in surreality, Zhang Chenggong's appeal is 2 million - he wants to use this 2 million to complete three things. It's a little hard to understand what my pickpocket said, so let's move on.
The first thing, Yu Kaixuan helps Zhang successfully pass on the message to Zhou Yuan (Zhao Wei). At this time, Zhou Yuan obviously wanted to express his feelings to Zhang Chenggong, why did he use the first-person perspective to tell Yu Kaixuan? Because Yu Kaixuan is another "me" of Zhang Chenggong, he is the synthesis of the age, personality, temper and feelings of the other half of Zhang Chenggong's "surreal". Although he is stripped away by the director (film), he is also "objectively existing".
At the same time, we look at Zhou Yuan's play within a play, suddenly like a girl, suddenly entering middle age; suddenly rational, suddenly emotional - this Zhou Yuan is Zhang Chenggong's imagination, hallucination, dream in the "soul mate"! At the same time, combined with the line of Cai Xia (Yan Ni), is Cai Xia also a "me" stripped from Zhou Yuan's body?
Look at the second thing to bully Shi Jian (Pan Binlong), and the third thing to ask Fan Zhigang (Fan Wei). The former was Zhang Chenggong's own hands, and the latter was Fan Zhigang who said his heart to Yu Kaixuan. These ingenious arrangements are actually just to show that Zhang Chenggong and Yu Kaixuan, Zhou Yuan and Cai Xia, Fan Zhigang and Shi Jian are all "intrinsically" related. They are either the opposite of each other in personality or complementary to each other emotionally.
The director uses surrealism to put illusions, imaginations, and dreams into our "intuitive" reality, establishing a bond between reality and surreality, connecting the audience and the characters, and thus reflecting on the uncertainty of life, love, and dreams. To put it more simply: things that do not exist in reality are also "objectively existent" when put into the surreal (hallucinations, imaginations, dreams, subconscious minds). This is the same as the psychologist Freud's "three selves" theory!
Michelangelo Antonioni made a film called Zoom, which raises two questions: Can the senses help us reacquaint ourselves with the world? What exactly is the line between truth and fantasy?
These two questions apply equally in the film Two Tigers– understanding the true meaning of surrealism gives you the answer to these two questions.
<h1>The "right hand" of Surrealism – open narrative and symbolism and imagery</h1>
Through watching the film, we can feel very intuitively that Li Fei's choice of narrative strategy and film language has been strongly influenced by European filmmakers: the narrative strategy adopts an open-ended approach; in order to make his narrative appear reasonable and logical, a large number of symbols and images are used.
In the movie, why was Zhang Chenggong kidnapped? The kidnapper asked for 1 million, why did he give 2 million? Is it worth it for him to "buy" three things for that $2 million? Why did he have to fight Shi Jian himself? Why did he let Yu Kaixuan talk to Gao Yuan instead of going himself? Why did he ask Fan Zhigang for forgiveness?
The director's narrative strategy is open-ended: Zhang Chenggong's kidnapping may only be because he was disheartened and willing to be kidnapped after bankruptcy; he gave the kidnapper 2 million or maybe he just couldn't spend his own money; 2 million "buy three things" is just the willfulness of the rich; playing Shi Jian, confessing to Gao Yuan, hoping for Fan Zhigang's forgiveness...
Is this really the case? Can it only be understood this way? Maybe every viewer looks different! In fact, the director and the film did not tell us at all!
If you only use the surreal "table" to shoot, it is obvious that the plot is untenable and cannot withstand scrutiny. But he took the Surreal "right hand" and took it: constantly reminding us with symbols and imagery! For example, the rope that began to be tied to Zhang Chenggong's body was later removed; for example, the place of kidnapping was selected in the dry and dilapidated swimming pool; such as the high-altitude play-in-play; such as Fan Zhigang's blind man setting...
——After adding these symbols and images to the narrative method that originally could not stand up to scrutiny, the audience's imagination was stimulated.
This is because Surrealism is just a "kite", narrative strategy is only involved in the "line" of this kite, and symbolism and imagery are the "shapes and patterns" of this kite. As for what this "kite" is, how high and how far it can fly, the director and the film have handed this "line" into the hands of the audience themselves. The more perfect the pattern the viewer draws in his mind (imagination) and the more lines (reason) he has in his hand, the farther the kite (the film) can fly – isn't that the great thing about a good movie? Thinking is left to the audience, imagination is left to the audience.
<h1>Two tigers: one without ears and one without eyes</h1>
The title of the film seems to be just taken from the two leading actors Ge You and Qiao Shan's genus - tiger, but in fact, it is constantly reminding you with music:
Two tigers, one without ears, one without eyes, it's strange...
Where did the missing "ears" and "eyes" of these two tigers go?
They are never lost in "reason" and "reason", but they are long lost in the surreal (imaginary, imaginary, subconscious).
Find this "ear" and "eye", we can hear different sounds, see a different world!
Are two tigers, one without ears and one without eyes, strange?
Not surprising at all!
I am a pickpocket sister outside the circle, like me please pay attention to me!