One
Some time ago, there was a documentary called "Make a Good Movie".
Zeng Xiansen personally likes it, it is a documentary about Hong Kong director Hui Anhua. Douban 8.9 points, there are resources on the Internet, in a few days if I have time I will write a film review.
In fact, Xu Anhua is not very fond of Zeng Xiansen here, but he definitely does not hate it.
Overall, she is very gentle, compared to professional directors such as Chen Kexin, who is also educated in film science, Xu Anhua can always make films with few showmanship, but very grounded. In her later creations, films such as "The Day and Night of Tin Shui Wai" and "Sister Tao" also put the gentleness in her bones and the patient capture of the details of life in the story, which achieved a good response.
In recent years, even in the rare co-production theme film "When is the Bright Moon", Xu Anhua can project the enthusiasm and good thoughts of ordinary people from the prescribed theme of grand patriotism and the same anti-Japanese theme.
The treatment of life, the simple group portraits of the characters, the delicate and moving details, and the portrayal of the inner state of mind are all Xu Anhua's unique stylized labels.
Two
It is a pity that the recent work "First Incense" directed by Xu Anhua, which Zeng Xiansen talked about today, completely avoids all her above advantages.
The film was released on October 22, 4 days have passed, so far Douban score 5,6, box office 407,400, can be said to be Xu Anhua's worst film ever.
Xu Anhua used his best literary and artistic themes to make a bad film.
The wounds of "The First Incense" are full of holes for the following reasons.
First, Xu Anhua is shooting love, but Zhang Ailing's "First Burning Incense" in the original work is not just love.
In Zhang Ailing's original work, "The First Burning Incense" is indeed a reincarnation of love tragedy first, and secondly, through internal logic and expression, the focus is: How are the characters eroded by life?
In fact, many of the characters in Zhang Ailing's novels are drowned in life, that is, the life that is not shocking but cannot be changed, invading the life of women.
However, Xu Anhua only made love in the whole movie.
Therefore, through the extremely dense details of life, the original work tells in detail how the heroine Ge Weilong fell, on the one hand, the woman's complete despair of life, on the other hand, how her desire was bred.
So, it took more than two hours, all the dramatic conflicts and plot directions here in Xu Anhua, completely around Ge Weilong's "girlish heart" in the play, after realizing her aunt's use of her, she threw herself into the arms of Ge Qiqiqiao. Married to Georgie Joe, Georgie Joe still can't control the lower body, Ge Weilong asked sadly, she loves so "humble", why does Georgie Joe still mess around?
As a result, in the whole movie, Xu Anhua can only shoot the loss of love. Especially at the end of the film, Ge Weilong calls out the car window for the arrival of true love, which is even more disgusting.
This makes the story less than the meaning.
Second, the casting is extremely unsuccessful, Ma Sichun is difficult to adapt, the playboy Peng Yuyan, and even the aunt Yu Feihong, the coincidence of these actors and roles is actually not high.
No matter how big the actor is, starring in a literary film with the original reference, in fact, you should try to find a role that matches the role, which is more appropriate.
In this film, Ma Sichun played Ge Weilong very hard, but what he presented was only "silly white sweet".
There is no arc at all after the character transformation, and after the love between men and women, Ma Sichun cannot control the process of character fall at all.
Here in Xu Anhua, Yu Ma Sichun actually only played a loveless and pitiful face, and when she transformed into a tool for collecting wealth, Ma Sichun could no longer act, and could only go all the way to embarrassment.
Peng Yuyan's problem is also very big, whether he can play a playboy is a test, this kind of "love field veteran", the temperament needed.
It is a kind of actor who combines more introverted and flirtatious, and the current presentation of Peng Yuyan is not suitable.
From his appearance or temperament, he is very much like the civilian boy in the director's previous movie "When is the Bright Moon" or "Evil Does Not Pressure the Righteous", rather than a "playboy".
Three
In fact, Xu Anhua may be the director with the most film adaptations of Zhang Ailing's novels in the history of Chinese films.
In 1984, she directed "Love in the Fallen City", and the male and female protagonists were the lovers Zhou Runfa and Miao Qianren at that time.
Needless to say, the sense of alienation in Miao Qian's temperament is quite consistent with the heroine, and Brother Fa portrays Fan Liuyuan's "scumbag" image of not committing, not taking the initiative, not rejecting, and not being responsible, far ahead of Peng Yuyan today.
In 1997, he directed "Half Life", the male protagonist is Dawn, and the female protagonist is Wu Qianlian.
Dawn, who has never had any acting skills, relies on the affectionate wooden man created by Xu Anhua to perform well. At that time, Xu Anhua firmly grasped the atmosphere that the couple had loved deeply, blocked them, and then missed them in the end, and the story was poignant and moving.
However, no one could have imagined that this third remake of Zhang Ailing, who was familiar to him, xu Anhua had completely lost his hand.
Moreover, he worked hard to find so many stars who were also equal to the weight of that year, and the result was to spoil the original work.
She can not shoot the relationship between characters and life, nor can she shoot the tragedy of human nature and the times, and she has brought a "stain" to her gorgeous directorial career of more than 30 years.