"Youth Metamorphosis" and "Explosion" should be the hottest movies on the short video platform during this time, and if you flip through it, you can see the cut of these two movies and the plot synopsis of up to five minutes. You can choose to watch two movies in ten minutes, or maybe try to watch this review in ten minutes. Of course, the ten minutes of the latter are longer.
--AV Voisual
Editor-in-Chief: Chestnut
Typography: Jia Wen
Recently, I have paid attention to two youth films with female themes. One is Pixar's animated film The Metamorphosis of Youth, a rare Disney cartoon with a female theme not starring a princess; the other is an R-rated independent film based on the novel of the same name, Explosion.
The two films don't seem to have much to do with each other on the surface, but in my opinion, they are well worth discussing together.
In their contrast, I would like to try to illustrate the confusion that I see in china and the West, the gaze of capital that all creators may be facing, and the symbolic expression that is tamed by capital.
-The spirit behind the film expression of the siege-
The animated film "The Metamorphosis of Youth" I paid attention to from the circle of friends of a screenwriter friend.
"Chinese female female director of female youth theme animation film", this series of stacked buff tags, coupled with a set of cute red-haired red panda GIFs, immediately grabbed my attention.
After reading the feeling, one sentence can be summarized: not bad, but it is difficult to escape the cliché.
Mother and daughter gradually understand each other's recognition, which is inexplicably similar to "Legend of Bravery".
The little girl walked out of the inherent predicament of the family to realize and recognize her self-worth, which seems to be found in all overseas Chinese themes. Even, from the visuals to the character settings (e.g., bamboo forest and tiger mother), I always feel a "stereotype".
From "Ping Pong Family", "Shangqi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" to "Picking Gold", these seemingly unrelated films that show Chinese people can always find something related.
The picture shows "Shangqi and the Legend of the Ten Rings"
I can't help but wonder: Is it that the social plight of overseas Chinese is the same as their position in society, and there has been no essential change?
So get rid of harsh parents, find self-worth identity, and move towards a more diverse and social circle (metaphor for getting out of Chinatown and Mom's side?). This kind of topic is repeated and repeated. (In contrast, "Internet Lost" is more distinctive because it completely gets rid of the shackles of the Chinese label.) ）
In short, the Chinese theme makes me feel the same as the social positioning of the Chinese in Europe and the United States, some are too low-key and always self-reflective.
For a Disney-invested family movie, the requirements are too harsh and a bit excessive. After all, "The Metamorphosis of Youth" is just a popcorn movie that takes care of a large number of people and does not cause trouble.
Look at Explosion in reverse.
This is an R-rated film, and from the rating, it can be determined that the director has the capital to fly it.
The story of "Explosion" is actually quite simple: one day, in a class of a middle school in a small American town, students suddenly began to explode inexplicably, without any warning, regardless of gender, and could not find out the reason. The government intervened in the investigation and in the end nothing was found.
In this context, an ordinary girl falls in love with an ordinary boy who pursues her.
The only dramatization is that the boy also explodes in the 2/3 of the story, the girl is devastated, drinks heavily, and finally regains her confidence with the help of her parents and the dead boy's mother, and embarks on a journey of life unknown with a positive attitude.
However, from the protagonist's love or emotional appeal, the R-rated film "Explosion" is more traditional than the family-friendly "Youth Metamorphosis".
It's interesting.
The heroine of "The Metamorphosis of Youth" pursues to release herself, untie the shackles of the family, and finally find a balance between family bondage and self-worth realization.
Screenshot of "The Metamorphosis of Youth" (the protagonist meimei's visible pain mask)
And "Explosion" is emotionally retro: the male and female protagonists are single-minded, in the center of the crisis, always use the sunny side to illuminate each other.
Throwing aside the occasional foul language in the lines and the blood mist of the human body on the screen, in fact, this piece is quite pure, even the bed scene has not been cut in, and the two have also performed the youth of their first love.
This is in contrast to "The Metamorphosis of Youth", and there is really some siege meaning - the Chinese want to find the freedom and freedom of Westerners, and Westerners in turn are in the Renaissance.
I think this may say to some extent that the West is looking for a return, while the East is looking for a more modern direction.
And we are already in the postmodern era.
Yes, I didn't write a typo, we are "pestle" here, not "in".
In the postmodern era, a decentralized era, there are almost no experts in social issues in the sociological sense, only key opinion leaders.
And these KOLs, under the differentiation and control of various interest groups, have begun to fight in a mess. So we can see all sorts of polarized ideas.
In such an era, what else can be done except where the pestle is? We can't get Kerouac or Bob Dylan-esque heroes of opinion. Or that everyone is trying to be such a hero.
And the social soil for cultivating such public opinion heroes, and then feeding back to the serious social problem research experts, it is naturally difficult to exist, and even if there is an estimate, it is difficult to form a voice.
I even wonder if today's serious experts on social issues will be as impoverished and famous as Kafka, Van Gogh, and Philip Dick.
In these times, what do we really get?
symbol!
A wide variety of symbols from various eras.
-Expression of being gazed at and feminine-
When I worked for an Internet film and television company, I was repeatedly forced to recognize: don't try to educate the audience, don't let them have cognitive thresholds, let them know what you give in 1 second, give them what they have generally recognized and repeated.
If you are forced to acknowledge the above premise, then symbols are the best tool to use.
Re-watching "The Metamorphosis of Youth" from this perspective, I can think of how to persuade Disney's brain circuitry when planning this character.
Because I often have to think about it: how to convince my investors with the lowest cost?
A large number of benchmarking films and schematics are the most efficient at the lowest cost. And if the target film or the elements in the film are familiar to the investor, it is perfect.
So think about it, a female minority director who is a director for the first time faces a long-established entertainment company like Disney, how can she briefly describe her character design as the most labor-saving and highest success rate?
As a result, we can see that the heroine of "The Metamorphosis of Youth" has a red hair, because the heroine of "Brave Legend" also has a red hair.
A red-haired girl awakens her latent abilities and transforms into a panda. When she was able to control her transformation freely, the panda also left an indelible mark on her - a red hair.
That's right, redhead! Red hair like Disney's "Brave Legends" investment.
So the girl had the same Celtic enthusiasm and adventurous spirit to challenge her family authority – her mother! Finally, at the end of the adventure, she rescued her mother, who would also transform into a panda, and reached a mutual understanding between mother and daughter.
The picture shows "Brave Legend"
If I were the director of Disney, I would also be moved, because everything that needs to be decided or reported upwards can be benchmarked: mother-daughter love, red hair, transfiguration, saving mothers, and this director even intimately designed that both mothers and daughters will transform, doubling the upgrade on top of "Brave Legends"!
Even in the details of the script, the relationship line between grandmother and mother was made to double upgrade the proposition of mother-daughter relationship! Not only upgrade but also upgrade smart!
The only thing that is likely to raise objections is the strongest legal department on the surface.
It is necessary to remind the decision-making level that although Panda is a public IP, after all, DreamWorks has produced "Kung Fu Panda", or a series! We don't have to conflict with copyright.
Decision-makers may throw the issue back. Finally got the solution: China also has a protected animal, the red panda.
At this time, there may be a peacemaker who has received benefits or interests, and comes out to beat the side drum: Ah right, right, right! The red panda also has a cute big tail! Can be shaken like a dog, very pleasing!
Pixar's hair technology department can also come out to endorse at this time, and our family's CG hair production is the best in the world! Guaranteed plush cuteness to burst! Seconds Kung Fu Panda that short hair effect three circles equatorial circumference.
I have no evidence, and I still need to stress that this is just my guess.
But by inversely judging from the decisions I know, I can still be logically self-consistent. All when I was over a screenwriter addiction.
But I have to be sure.
"The Metamorphosis of Youth", a work by a Chinese director, after all, tells some Chinese emotional stories, and also has the personal experience of children growing up in Chinese families, so that the story of Chinese is seen in mainstream Western movies.
The use of Western cultural symbols and a certain stereotype of the Chinese family, which is also a Chinese female director under the Western discourse system must bear, it has to be said that she is also facing a gender gaze.
In fact, stereotypes and gender gazes are also faced by "Explosion".
Although the heroine also strives to create a kind of transcendent new era female image through hair coloring, slightly strong figure, and harsh language, in fact, the heroine in "Warm Inner Light" and "Crooked Boy Scott" is not also like this?
Is this another stereotype?
Did the filmmakers and the audience work together to create such a stereotype?
And then further reinforce the self-image planning of such independent new generation women in the real world?
In the field of film and television, capital uses symbols to plan cultural products, and in turn subtly plans people in reality through cultural symbols.
"Explosion" because it is a low-cost independent production, relatively speaking, there is no need to worry too much about the clamping of capital on the content, although the protagonist also has the problem of symbolization, but it is more emotionally comfortable.
The low budget also allows the film not to worry about the bloody presentation of over-graded and the need to control human explosions.
It is precisely this kind of blood, with some abrupt or sudden unfolding shots, that makes people feel a sense of worry when they feel the sweetness of youth and love all the time. This sense of concern conveys the stinging pain that arises from the impermanence of life.
Under the epidemic, why is the virus not the unpredictable "explosion"?
Douban score, "Youth Metamorphosis" 8.2, "Explosion" 6.0.
Although I can't say that the two ratings should be reversed here, I think both films should be at least on the 7-point file.
Although the article seems to be from a critical point of view, I still recommend these two films.
Both "The Metamorphosis of Youth" and "Explosion" talk about an uncertainty that can happen to us, except that one is the inevitability hidden in the history of the family, and the other is the accident that is completely unaware of what the origin is.
This uncertainty is part of life.
Many female friends expressed to me their love for "The Metamorphosis of Youth". According to them, the plot did not bring them any special surprises, but they got a very good emotional experience. For the general audience, this alone is also "worth the fare".
And my personal feeling is that women still have too little expression. We still need to explore richer works of female expression.
Sometimes I miss the actors of the past, who were not domesticated by capital, so I can still see individual stars such as Ruan Lingyu, Ingrid Bergman, paul Newman and so on.
And today's stars, once personalized, will inevitably go astray.
Harley Quinn, who starred Margot Robbie in Birds of Prey, presents such a problem, which is simply a specimen. Individuality for the sake of individuality, independence for the sake of independence, but extremely empty inside. Therefore, as a supporting role, she is no problem in "Suicide Squad" and "New Suicide Squad", and once she reaches the "Raptor Squad" as the protagonist, she exposes the problem.
Finally, although we sometimes feel powerless, we still hope that all creators will not be willing to be labeled and symbolized by capital.
That's it! White is white!
Author
The teapot is long
Ten years of film and television planning
Twenty years of film and television fringe practitioners
Thirty years of game house
Love your family, love your motherland, love your imperfect self
"voice+visual", which records the flashing arc moment.
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