I know
We will all be the same people after all
On a flower-paved path
Singing
Dancing
With tears in his eyes
On a clear blue seashore
Ride the wind
Step on the waves
Flashing light
—Jerry, "We're all going to be the same people after all"
In May, I watched a total of 23 movies, and the five-star recommendations are: "I Wait for You in the Rain", "The Black Cannon Incident", "BlackWater", "1917: Counter-Battle Rescue", "1/2 Magic"
1. "Black Cannon Incident" (Rating: 9 points)
The Western scholar Habermas proposed the concept of "technical rationality", arguing that technical rules are a system of activity that is rational (or instrumental and strategic) for purpose. But in China, interpersonal rationality has traditionally dominated, and there is a general lack of technical and scientific rationality.
"The Black Cannon Incident" is a visual expression of this typical feature, telling the chain reaction of a series of irony caused by the loss of a "black cannon" on a chess piece by the skilled worker Zhao Shuxin. Although the film has a cold and serious atmosphere, it is essentially a satire and absurd burlesque.
Robert S. In his book Order Without Law, C. Erikson put forward the paradoxical proposition that "there is more law but less order.". Perhaps we also need to reflect on why there are more rules (regulations) but fewer orders.
2. "Seongnam Old Things": outside the long pavilion, beside the ancient road (rating: 8 points)
Stories and legends about old Beijing have always been a rich mine in film creation. Thousands of years of ancient civilization have accumulated countless historical contexts, including the history of barnyard officials and generals about the emperors and generals, as well as the joys and sorrows of ordinary people, such as "My Life", "Stubborn Lord", "My September", "Heaven Reply", "Waiting Alone", "The Depths of a Hundred Flowers" and other masterpieces are all "rescue" shootings about the human customs of old Beijing. To some extent, the film is also a "fossil" of history, staying for us in time, storing nostalgic feelings that are still missed despite the passage of time.
"Old Things in Seongnam" is also such a movie, it is a love song written to old Beijing, thick and affectionate, light sorrow, endless gentle twists and turns; it is also a poem written to the old time, although it is plain as water but with a rhyme, although it is dusty chaff but delicate and delicate.
Just recording a bland life in the language of the lens is enough to make a good movie. "Seongnam Old Things" only captures what Lin Yingzi saw and heard during his growth, such as the story of Xiuzhen and You'er, the family changes of Song Ma, and the death of his father. But the film has always been filled with a faint sadness, but also contains a distant poetry, which is not only the nostalgia of the guest in space, but also the nostalgia of childhood in time.
"Old Things in seongnam" is a nursery rhyme written for the lost time, the teenager does not understand the meaning of the song, understands when he is no longer young, those times can not go back after all; the first time I don't know the meaning of the song, and then listen to the song in the person, the pessimism of human beings is essentially the same.
Watching this movie, I always can't help but think of such a story:
When Master Hongyi was in the world, one of the "Five Friends of Tianya" was called Xu Xianyuan. One winter, there was heavy snow, and old Shanghai was desolate at that time. Xu Xianyuan stood outside the door and called out Tou Tong Li and Miss Ye Zi and said, "Brother Uncle Tong, my family is bankrupt, and we will have a period later." After saying that, he said goodbye with tears, and did not even enter his friend's house. Li Shutong looked at the distant back of his former friend and stood in the snow for a whole hour, even Miss Yezi shouted many times, and he was deaf. Subsequently, Uncle Li returned to the house, closed the door, let Miss Yezi play the piano, and he tearfully wrote the words "Farewell":
Outside the long pavilion, beside the ancient road, the grass is green.
The evening wind blows the willow flute, and the sunset is outside the mountain.
The end of the sky, the corner of the earth, the knowledge of the half-scattered.
A pot of turbid wine is all over the place, don't dream cold tonight.
Ask jun when to go back, and when he comes, don't linger.
Life is rare to have a happy gathering, but there is no separation.
3. "All the Way" (Rating: 8 points)
Although people are either physically on the road or their souls on the road, this is just a seemingly incisive but actually vain chicken soup of the soul. Instead of drinking a bowl of unnourished chicken soup, watch a fun road movie. Road movies have always been one of my favorite genre films, because it replaces preaching with silence, dissolves helplessness with laughter, and sublimates boredom with travel.
The flaws and strengths of "All the Way" are as prominent as the strengths, and it is a rare road movie that combines comedy and crime, cold humor and cold violence. But this is only the appearance, and inside are the trivial unsatisfactory and endless fragments of thoughts on the way.
Life is not a road movie, I have experienced miserable wind and rain, I have also seen a brilliant rainbow, and at the turn of one grand proposition after another, I found that the original drawer of small steamed buns can feed all desires.
Therefore, the joys and sorrows of human beings are not the same, but all sentient beings are suffering, and I do not feel that they are noisy.
4. "Little Women" (Rating: 8 points)
Greta Gerweger shows us what cinema is with a successful re-edit of a classic. "Little Women" required extremely difficult group scheduling, and the film was completed quite successfully. It has to be said that Silsa Ronan and Sweet Tea will be rising stars of tomorrow, and among many excellent actors such as Aunt May, Laura Dunn, Emma Watson, etc., the two are also sparkling and dazzling.
Photography is also a language, and the film intersects the clarity of the past and the melancholy of the present, and finally returns to the clear, showing a landscape of the grand view of the garden.
"Little Women" can be described as the highest form of feminism, it is "silent", but "sneaks into the night with the wind". The entanglement of love, the entanglement of marriage, the ups and downs of career, and the ups and downs of life slowly unfold in the daily life of the four sisters, telling an ordinary and extraordinary family epic.
You see these white clouds gathered and scattered, scattered and gathered, life is separated, and it is also the same.
5. "Blackwater" (Rating: 9 points)
The ancient Roman proverb says, "For the sake of justice, even if the world falls apart." Lawyer Robert Bilot fought alone for years to expose the duPont veil, which is the myth of the Warriors.
U.S. Justice Hewnett said, "Justice may be late, but it will never be absent." "But the value of law is not only justice, but efficiency is also extremely important. Late justice is unjust, but protracted litigation makes it difficult for justice to come on schedule. Robert's efforts hastened the advent of justice, which is the highest professional ethics of a lawyer.
Environmental public interest litigation is struggling for the sake of natural law and for the sake of inner moral codes, but someone has to do it.
6. "1917: Counter-War Rescue Soldier" (Rating: 9 points)
Many films about World War II are handed down from generation to generation, such as "Rome, the Undefended City", "Tiger's Mouth", "Schindler's List", "Saving Private Ryan", "The Pianist", "Soldier Under the City", "Dunkirk", etc., in contrast, there are indeed many fewer Films on the theme of World War I, and the more well-known ones are "The Great Phantom", "No War on the Western Front", "The Glorious Road", "WarHorse" and so on. Today, "1917: Counter War Rescue" has added another general to the classic world war film.
"Poor mountains and bad waters, police prostitutes and underworld" are always used to ridicule pseudo-literary films, but in any case, movies with long shots are not bad, such as "The Robbery Lady", "Russian Ark", "Texas Paris", "Platform", "Long Live Love", "Atonement", "Birdman" and other movies are also enjoyed by fans because of the long shots.
"1917" also uses the "one shot to the end" long shot shooting method, although the difficulty is extremely high, but both the degree of completion and expression are extremely perfect, which can be called a long shot model. Of course, this is also inseparable from the credit of gold medal photographer Roger Deakins.
The film tells the story of passing on intelligence, similar to Albert Hubbard's "Send a Letter to Garcia", a touching story of perseverance and bravery.
7. "Yihai Majestic Wind" (Rating: 9 points)
Movies are not disposable consumer goods, and classic works can always break the rate of market decay, because beautiful things, history will endorse them, and time will add value to them.
Ancient Roman proverb: For the sake of justice, even if the world falls apart. "The Mighty Wind of the Righteous Sea" tells a story of the pursuit of justice, the film has ups and downs, gripping, can be described as a masterpiece of courtroom films, and it is also one of the most frequently recommended films in law school.
In the film, Although Atang Brother is young and immature, he has been exposed, and Jack Nicholson is still domineering and exposed despite his old age, one old and one young, full of tension.
8. "Manslaughter" (Rating: 8 points)
There have always been two paradoxical phenomena among Douban fans:
The first is to thicken the past and thin the present, and take the ancient as the beauty. It is no wonder that the so-called classic movies must be linked to the years, and without a number of years of time to brew, how can they become "classics". But how long does it take for a classic movie to "get into the room"? I'm afraid there is no standard.
The second is thick and thin, to put it simply, it is "the moon abroad is rounder, and foreign movies are better." Objectively, there are factors such as the alienation of the context and the obscurity of time and space, but the subjective cognitive bias, or more ugly, is also admirable. Therefore, I think it is better to be a pure movie lover and not to be a movie "well-known".
"Manslaughter" is adapted from a foreign film, but it is undeniable that it is a successful and wonderful adaptation. There is no original sin in adaptation, and I think a successful adaptation is more difficult and extremely tests the skill and courage of the creator. After all, standing on the shoulders of giants, some people can see farther, but most people will be shrouded by the shadow of giants, and it is difficult to see Tarzan.
For excellent domestic films, more encouragement and applause, more confidence and support, is really important. Be a builder, don't be a destroyer!
9. "I Wait for You in the Rain" (Rating: 10 points)
Watching movies rationally and evaluating movies emotionally is one of the most important principles for me to watch movies. So I am very personal in my evaluation of the film, and I will not hesitate to give a full score for the movie that touches the heart, such as this "I am waiting for you in the rain".
Animals, children, and water are the three most difficult elements of the film to shoot, and I Wait for You in the Rain challenges the first two, especially with a dog named Enzo as the protagonist.
A perfect narrator is better than a successful protagonist. The film unfolds the narration from Enzo's point of view, singing and telling the story of Danny's ten years of time. There are joys and sorrows, there are pains and joys, but time will not stop, sadness will pass, only when you look back on the past, you will suddenly understand that it is the true appearance of life.
I remembered a poem I had written before, Man and Dog:
Forget about the east, west, south, north, and south
Just remember back and forth
A person
A dog
At both ends of the national highway
One end is a barren hill
One end is the estuary
10. "1/2 Magic" (Rating: 9 points)
Even if it disappoints itself commercially, Pixar will never disappoint fans. Whether it is "Cars 2", "Brave Legend", "Dinosaur Home", or this "1/2 Magic", which is not so good at word of mouth, it is also my favorite.
Today, watching Pixar's animation is like collecting pearls that are strung together into memories and woven into a dreamy rainbow.
Pixar used 100% magic to create this "1/2 magic", and then told us that the magic Pixar never left us.
11. "Battle of Midway" (Rating: 8 points)
In the most difficult years of the college entrance examination, the school's half-month screening of a movie became a beautiful hope, and "2012" was the first time to see Roland Emmerich's film, which, together with "Avatar", became my belated enlightenment for Hollywood blockbusters.
After going to college, I began to learn more about the director, so I finished "Independence Day", "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Godzilla" in a short period of time, which also made me fall deeply in love with the genre of disaster films.
After many years at a low ebb, Emmerich finally regained 70% or 80% of his previous skills, bringing with him the majestic and blood-boiling "Decisive Battle of Midway". Literary drama goes to the heart, and martial arts plays take the kidneys, which can be described as a masterpiece in war films in recent years.
Franklin said that there has never been a good war or a bad peace. May there be peace in the world!
12. Frozen 2 (Rating: 8)
There's nothing wrong with a Frozen that can't be cured, and if there is, then another one.
With beautiful pictures, pleasant singing voices, warm and interesting stories, "Frozen" continues the classic in a simple way, so that the emotion can happen again.
A bit of a movie, the success of the first part is accidental, and the failure of the second part is inevitable, obviously not referring to "Frozen".
13. "The Climber" (Rating: 7 points)
Nature always has a way to make human beings feel small, and human beings can always gain greatness in the competition with nature.
The mission of the camera is to record, to record that difficult era, and the small and great individuals in that era. Therefore, the story of the Chinese mountaineering team deserves to be recorded in history and remembered by future generations.
Does the quality of The Climber still matter? Important, not important. Of course it's important to a film, but it's not so important to history.
14. "A Story Sadder Than Sad" (Rating: 4)
You think you're seeing love, but you're actually being pretentious. The plot is childish and clumsy, and the plot is old-fashioned and tacky. Hume said that "reason is a slave to emotions", but this must not be the least logical.
Now it is 0202, and it is still filming the expired romance drama of 2000. Romance has reached a dead end, not that love is too luxurious, but that tears are too cheap.
The most uncomfortable thing is that the proportion of the five facial features and the three views in the film is seriously out of balance. In essence, the highest meaning of love is not sacrifice and fulfillment, but sharing and sharing.
15. "Wind and Rain On the Same Road" (Rating: 7 points)
Movies are credence goods, not inspection goods. From this point of view, Star Ye is undoubtedly the golden sign of his films. A strong proof is that those big-name directors have royal actors, and only Star Ye has royal directors.
Star Ye's early acting career was very short, and then quickly reached its peak, and "Wind and Rain" is one of Star Ye's early works. In today's undercover genre has been played badly, this film can be said to be one of the earliest undercover themes. The entanglement between the identity of the police and the ancient puzzle boy, the struggle between the elimination of the tyranny and the brotherhood, has been clearly presented in "The Same Road in the Wind and Rain". The disadvantage is that it is not deep enough, and it lacks a little strength.
In addition, Star Ye's performance style has not yet taken shape in this film, and there are even some discomforts.
16. "The Lion King 1" (Rating: 8 points)
When I was very young, I watched "The Lion King", and the plot has long been forgotten, but the scenes from watching the movie are still faintly recognizable. At that time, a large group of friends gathered in Xiao L's house and huddled together to watch a lot of cartoons. The reason why I was in Little L's house was because only his family had a color television set at that time. Compared with black-and-white televisions, color televisions take us into a colorful world, and the surprise and joy of first acquaintance, as if the soul has been injected with a light, is a rare life experience in a lifetime.
The live-action version of "The Lion King" that I saw yesterday is a faithful restoration of the animated version, and it can even be said that it is "copied and pasted" as it is.
The only major change is the reinforcement of the female character Nana, i wonder if she is influenced by feminism. I have absolute respect for women and agree with racial equality. But today's growing racial equality and feminist movements in Hollywood have influenced filmmaking, even becoming a kind of shackle.
It is no exaggeration to say that political correctness has become Hollywood's censorship mechanism, the "Hayes Code" of the 21st century.
17. "The Lion King 2: Simba's Glory" (rating: 7 points)
No classic movie can get rid of the problem of dog-tailed sables, and "The Lion King" is no exception. The typical law of the so-called "trilogy" is: prosper in the first part, decline in the second part, and die in the third part.
The first part of "The Lion King" was a great success, and the sequel was naturally put on the agenda. Four years apart, a good story has still not been hatched. Sequels for sequels, commercial for commercial sake, this is probably the fate of many successful movies.
As for the second part of "The Lion King", it is inevitable that two questions will arise: First, has the Kingdom of Glory always pursued the one-child policy? Or do you believe in "only one good birth"? Second, the Kingdom of Glory even has a code of law, but it is really unbelievable that it is impermanently prepared for an army.
18. "The Lion King 3" (Rating: 7 points)
The third part of "The Lion King" has reached the point of "poor donkey skills", so it has a different path. The form is similar to the fourth wall, but instead of talking directly to the audience, it is the interaction between the characters in the film. The content is still the old-fashioned out-of-the-box model, trying to explore more possibilities for interesting and pleasing supporting roles, which is a classic routine of Hollywood animation series.
A strong explanation is that movies are credence goods, not inspection goods. The first "Lion King" has already endorsed the future "The Lion King", which is an intangible collateral and a collateral for the sequel.
Maybe not a bad thing, for the success of a movie, whether it is inevitable or accidental, the temptation of commercial interests makes it impossible for producers to "stop loss" in time, so they begin to extend the industrial chain and increase added value until the last bit of IP value is squeezed. The audience, on the other hand, has more options, albeit not the right to choose.
19. "The Lion King (Live-Action)" (Rating: 8 points)
Beneath the appearance of the animal world and jungle order is a Hamlet-style revenge of the prince, so the film has the dramatic temperament of classical Shakespeare.
However, this film obviously did not deal with the core contradictions and conflicts, weakening the logical persuasiveness of the film. The film's worldview setting is not perfect, the rhythm is more than happy and serious, and the biggest problem is that the inner salvation and soul turn of Simba are not focused enough, which greatly weakens the theme expression.
Everything could have been done better, and that's the most regrettable thing.
20. Men in Black: Wanted Worldwide (Rating: 6)
In recent years, Hollywood blockbusters have fallen into two kinds of misunderstandings: First, they pay too much attention to the "pseudo-humor" of gags, and indulge in creating seemingly incisive but superficial dialogue, resulting in film contradictions that are not focused enough, the story is not complete enough, and essentially dissolves the commercial attributes and entertainment functions of the film. Second, there is an unprovoked fascination with landmark buildings around the world, always letting the story take place decentralized, which is only the internationalization of the film's place, not the internationalization of the story, and there is an essential difference between the two.
"Men in Black: Globally Wanted" seriously made these two mistakes, the plot was mentally retarded, the logic was irrational, and the characters were fixed, thus creating a failed reboot.
Sony's big IP at hand is stretched, and for the defeat of "Men in Black", perhaps it is really time to reflect on the problem of quality control.
21. "Rich Train" (Rating: 8 points)
In his book The Secrets of Hong Kong Cinema, David Podwell brilliantly summarized Hong Kong films as "all overheated, all madness". The 1980s and 1990s were the golden age of Hong Kong cinema and the "gold rush" era, with many good films and superstars.
Hong Jinbao was one of the protagonists of this period, as a director, he created such masterpieces as "Plan A", "Fast Food Truck", "Summer Lucky Star", "Rich Train", "Oriental Condor", "Huang Feihong's Lion of the Western Regions" and so on. As an actor, he is known as "the most flexible fat man in the world", and also leaves many popular roles.
"Rich Train" alternates history and tells the story of a Republican period in a parody way, which can be described as one of the earliest Western films in Chinese films.
At that time, filmmakers seemed to have the ability to turn stones into gold like King Midas, and shot a masterpiece at a time. Comparing the sad tone of today's "Hong Kong films are dead", people can't help but sigh.
22. "Dorit's Fantasy Adventure" (Rating: 6 points)
Marvel movies have won many actors, and Robert Downey Jr. is the most prominent one. But for Iron Man, the Marvel movie is not only a magical dream-making machine, but also a spell of bundling, after leaving the Marvel Universe, it is instead caught in an embarrassing circle.
Robert Downey Jr. has left no other impressive characters in the last decade except for Iron Man. Is that enough? There is certainly no doubt about material returns, but it is obviously not enough for an actor who has a career as acting.
Compared with other Marvel heroes, the widow's commercial literature and art are not wrong, the US team and the Hulk shine in niche literary films, such as "Genius Girl", "Focus", "Blackwater", etc., Doctor Strange, Star Lord, Captain Marvel are also very good.
Dorit's Fantastic Adventures is Robert Downey Jr.'s first work since he left the Marvel Universe, and it's a fresh start, but it's a bit bleak.
23. "Blood Warrior" (Rating: 6 points)
Godard said, "To make a movie, all you need is a gun and a girl." (Although Godard denies that he said it and insists that it is Griffith's famous quote) this sentence refers to both the violent and sexual elements of cinema, and the idea that cinema does not need to be complicated, less is more, simple and can also create classics.
But the story logic of "Blood Warrior" is not simple, but slightly naïve. In the hollywood story system has become a grand view, it is obviously outdated to use only the appearance of technology to package a Hamlet-style revenge story.
Warrior Entertainment tried to emulate the routines of Marvel and DC, as the leader of "Blood Warrior" to break the sand. Marvel focuses on the story, DC focuses on style, and whether Warrior Entertainment will copy the imitation or open up a third path is the question it must solve.