As the saying goes—
"The best things have to be saved until the end"
So, this year, I chose to leave the movie I was looking forward to the most to the tail of the Spring Festival stall -
That is Director Wen Muye's "Miracle".
Among the emerging directors in China, my favorite young director is Wen Muye, since he shot short films such as "Struggle", "Stone", "Requiem" and so on, Wen Muye's lens has been rooted in reality, focusing on the marginalized people in society, and he uses his unique keen perspective to understand the world and deconstruct the world.
When there was news that Wen Muye was going to shoot his first feature film, I firmly believed that his lens would definitely bring different colors to the current domestic films.
And the reality is far beyond my expectations, "I am not a medicine god" has become a phenomenon-level work with word-of-mouth and double harvest at the box office.
Therefore, when a movie has director Wen Muye, plus the top stream Yi Yan Qianxi and a group of powerful supporting roles, even if this is a propositional movie under the exam, it is difficult not to expect.
But when I finished watching Miracles, my heart was full of loss.
"Miracle" as a commercial genre film under the theme of reality, in fact, from the overall point of view, the quality is not bad, but for director Wen Muye, his starting point is too different from other newcomer directors -
It's like a teacher can't use the same standards to demand grades from honors and ordinary students.
After walking out of the theater, I looked at the promotional poster that read:
The grand proposition of "young people growing up together with the city of Shenzhen since the Eighteenth National Congress" can't help but sigh, such a sharp director, when his creative hands and feet were shackled, the final ending, can not escape the crowd.
Miracle currently has a Douban rating of 7.4, while I personally give this movie a score of 7.
Next, I use the contrast between "I Am Not a Medicine God" and "Miracle" to explain why I am so disappointed in "Miracle".
The story of "Miracle" is actually quite old-fashioned —
Jing Hao (Yi Qianxi), a 20-year-old maintenance worker, lives alone in Shenzhen with his six-year-old sister Jing Tong (Chen Halin).
Because her sister suffers from congenital heart disease, she must complete the operation before the age of eight, and the operation fee plus the nursing fee in the later stage is a huge amount of up to 3.5 million yuan.
In order to be able to scrape together a huge amount of money in a year and a half, Jing Hao chose to take a desperate risk and buy a batch of defective mobile phones for refurbishment and resale.
But just when the business was doing well, the Shenzhen police began to crack down on the refurbished machine market, and Jing Hao smashed a large number of goods in his hands.
Faced with a desperate situation, Jing Hao chose to make a desperate bet, founded a good jing electronic components factory, signed an agreement with the mobile phone company, in the absence of a deposit, no support, independent recruitment to disassemble all mobile phone parts, and when the yield rate reaches more than 85%, they will recycle parts.
In terms of genre, "Miracle" and "I Am Not a Medicine God" are both commercial genre films under the theme of reality, and their protagonists are typical "small character heroes".
In "Medicine God", Cheng Yong, a health product vendor, became a wealthy businessman by reselling generic drugs.
In "Miracle", it is the maintenance worker Jinghao who has become the CEO of the communication group through his unique vision and efforts.
However, although the human settings are similar, the character portrayals of the two protagonists are 108,000 miles apart.
The biggest reason why Cheng Yong in "Medicine God" has made many viewers feel sad and resonate with it is that his personality and experience can touch the pain points of the audience.
Cheng Yong sold fake drugs at the beginning, not to hang the pot to save the world, but to make money, this personality is very "real" and very grounded, which can make the audience have a strong sense of substitution.
After the process of Cheng Yong's transformation into a "medicine god", Wen Muye used a lot of details and blank space to describe Cheng Yong's inner struggle and intolerance, coupled with the blow of the death of his friend at the end, to finalize the "transformation".
But in "Miracle", although Jing Hao chose to resell the refurbished machine for the sake of his sister's desperate, when the policy did not allow it, Jing Hao directly chose to give up the scalping and went to the right way to sell mobile phone parts.
This shift made me stunned to see —
Of course, I am not brainlessly demanding that the history of every low-level person's family should be tested on the verge of breaking the law, but I feel that when a low-level person tastes the sweetness of the profiteering industry, and the sister's surgery fee is still imminent, how can you give up so easily and freely just for a policy reason, without a trace of hesitation?
Before watching the movie, I thought that the so-called "miracle" was that the male protagonist achieved success through his unremitting efforts and ideas of another way, plus a little opportunity.
But after reading it, I learned that the original so-called "miracle" was to buy five million in the lottery and drop a pie in the sky.
I can't say that the male protagonist in the movie is not hard and hard, but the experience of the male protagonist is simply impossible to happen in reality.
Because if it is not a "miracle", how can one of the biggest guys in the industry rely on some ridiculous respect to sign a contract with a 20-year-old, no diploma, no qualifications, no background.
Because if it is not a "miracle", how can the employees recruited by the male protagonist be more than a bodhisattva, not only working hard and complaining, not paying wages, but also working overtime without compensation and self-dedication.
The relationship between the boss and the employee is good, and talking about money does hurt feelings, but I have never seen anyone who does not want money when talking about feelings.
Not only that, the supporting characters in "Miracle" are more than one tool person, and compared with the character group portraits of "Medicine God", it is simply a day and a place.
For example, in the "Miracle Squad", there are two supporting characters like this -
They are Internet addicted youths in their thirties, 365 days a year, 365 days in the Internet café to pack the night, so that two unemployed homeless people whose lives are rotten, suddenly one day chicken soup empowerment, painful change.
Even if the basic salary offered by the boss is only one thousand, even if the boss defaults on wages, they still have no complaints, and resolutely run to the male factory to work seriously.
To tell the truth, do you believe such a persona?
In reality, how can the labels of hard work, Internet addicted youth, and hard work and resentment appear in a person at the same time?
So why did Wen Muye, who is well versed in reality, deliberately set up these two unrealistic characters in a reality movie?
The reason is very simple, because he knows more about the Spring Festival stalls -
Over the Spring Festival, it is necessary to be lively, it is necessary to be happy, since the story is not comedy, then the role comedy, the only role of these two characters, is to interject in the story, increase the comedic effect.
In contrast, the supporting characters in "Medicine God", they are not tool people with empty skin bags, each of them has their own soul and stubbornness -
Liu Sihui, who was forced to be a dancer to save her daughter, was greedy for money, but Zhang Changlin, a counterfeit drug dealer who kept his mouth shut in the interrogation room, had a fierce temper and was desperate at the last moment.
When I watched Miracle, I couldn't believe that it was actually from the same person as "I Am Not a Medicine God."
However, there is a saying that "Miracle" is not useless in character shaping, in the movie, the contractor yue brother played by Zhang Yu only appeared a few times, but Wen Muye only made a flesh and blood low-level worker image jump on the paper -
He would see that He had taken Jing Hao in his old feelings, and he would also sweep him out of the house without any mercy when Jing Hao violated safety regulations and was unable to perform high-altitude work.
In the scene where Yue Geduo pays the workers to drive away Jing Hao, although he says impatiently, "Go, big brother!" But in fact, his inner encounter with Jing Hao was only forced by the helplessness of reality, and he could only pull Jing Hao in this way.
It is not difficult to see from this role that Wen Muye has not lost his former skills, and as for why he is so out of standard in "Miracle", I will not speculate too much.
In addition to the hollowness of the human setting, the sensational part of "Miracle" was also filmed miserably.
If you have seen Wen Muye's previous short films and "I am not a medicine god", you will know that Wen Muye, as a director, he is very good at mobilizing the audience's emotions and touching the soft ribs of the heart, and in "Medicine God", Wen Muye deliberately reduced the presence of the soundtrack and photography, so that all emotions brewed, naturally, naturally.
But in "Miracle", Wen Muye chose to use the most shameful way to forcibly stir up emotions -
Paired with lyrical BGM in slow motion, brainless tears.
All the emotional climax parts, without exception.
I didn't expect that this kind of sensationalism, which is the favorite of third-rate directors, would one day appear in Wen Muye's works.
But none of this is the part of my disappointment with the film the most.
When I saw the last minute of the movie in the cinema, I was numb.
I can fully understand that under some irresistible pressure, the ending of the movie "Miracle" must be good, and it can only be good.
But as a drama film that flaunts a realistic theme, the male protagonist finally becomes the CEO of the communication group, even if it is not, why do all the members of the "Miracle Squad" have to succeed?
For example, two Internet addicted youths partnered to open a chain of Internet cafes, the prison boxing king became the owner of the boxing club, etc., in the end, Wen Muye may feel that there is not enough positive energy, deliberately added a line of subtitles at the end, the meaning of which is probably -
Everyone has a bright future, and as long as they work hard, they will succeed.
Looking at this line of subtitles, I really wanted to laugh.
All the necessary conditions for success that each of them lacks, such as funding, ability, background, relationships, etc., but in Miracle, they rely on "effort" and "opportunity" to break through all kinds of difficulties?
Which entrepreneur, which worker, will resonate when he watches this kind of movie?
This kind of chicken soup is also worthy of the self-proclaimed reality movie?
But when I walked out of the movie theater and looked at the bustling crowd on the street, I finally realized the true intention of director Wen Muye -
This "great unity" ending, in which everyone is happy and everyone succeeds, is the real reality.
It was the last struggle he made after he wanted to resist, but he was powerless to resist.
Author: Fourteen Fourteen