The May 1st program has passed the halfway mark, and in terms of box office, it has basically formed a situation of "Your Wedding" and "On the Cliff". According to the Professional Edition of Lighthouse, the above two films accounted for more than 50% of the total box office data of this year's May Day.
In particular, the spy war film "On the Cliff", directed by the famous director Zhang Yimou, has approached the top of the May 1st box office by virtue of its word-of-mouth effect. However, there is also an innovative work directed by a famous director who is "cold" in this year's May 1st show, which is "Sunshine Robber" directed by Li Yu.
"Sunshine Robber" only grossed 37 million in the four days of release, not only the box office was not satisfactory, but the performance of the Douban score of 4.4 points was really not ideal. But after walking into the theater and seeing the whole film, I have to say something for Sunshine Robber – this movie deserves better performance.
1
A "tiger hunt" trip
The movie "Sunshine Robber" is adapted from the novel of the same name by the famous Japanese writer Kotaro Isaka, Kotaro Isaka has loved movies and music since he was a child, so his literary works have a very cinematic texture, and many of his works have been adapted and adapted to the screen, such as "Gravity Clown", "The Precision of Death", "Golden Dreamland" and so on.
The storyline of "Sunshine Robbers" is actually very simple, telling the legendary adventure story of four strange young people forming a "robber" group and bravely breaking into the gangster to grab the tiger.
All the movie characters are divided into decent and villains.
Xiaoxue, played by Song Jia, is a decent character, she raised a tiger named Nana and regarded her as her daughter, but one day Nana lost...
Sunshine, played by Mary, runs a pet-hunting office and is entrusted with helping to find lost pets.
One day, Xiaoxue finds the sunshine and asks her to find her daughter Nana, who is dependent on her. Sunshine was touched by Xiaoxue and decided to help, but she did not expect that "Nana" was actually a five-year-old tiger.
The villain is Liu Magic, the man who stole the tiger, played by Zeng Zhiwei. In terms of character setting, Liu Magic is not only the city's chief rich man, but also the city's chief philanthropist, but as a well-dressed big person, Liu Magic believes that the tiger Nana is the reincarnation of his daughter, and also established a mysterious base camp in the ancient castle on the cliff to circle the tiger and make animal specimens.
Between the decent and the villain, because of this tiger, a journey of tiger robbery is both hilarious and thrilling.
2
The chiaroscuro lines are interwoven into a fairy tale
Looking at the reviews, many people who gave low scores to the movie said that "the narrative of the movie "Sunshine Robber" is in the clouds, and it is a bit difficult to understand. ”
Fans who make such a sigh, you are probably missing the details!
Although "Sunshine Robber" is ostensibly a nonsensical "tiger hunting" journey, it is actually a fairy tale woven by two lines of light and dark.
Bright Line – "Saving my daughter"
The bright line of "Sunshine Robber" is a "tiger hunting" journey that we mentioned above. In the bright line, it is full of nonsensical motives for doing things, which is also the reason why many people can't understand it.
For example, Xiaoxue and Sunshine are not related, why does Sunshine believe that Xiaoxue's daughter is a tiger, which is inconsistent with common sense;
For example, when Sunshine and his party made up their minds to help Xiaoxue find the tiger, they were willing to gamble with their lives in exchange for the opportunity to rescue the tiger.
The above plot has also made many people question that the story promotion of "Sunshine Robber" does not have enough character motivation to support, which is far-fetched.
In fact, the missing motivation of the above plot can be reasonably explained through the dark line of the story.
The Dark Line – "Saving Mother"
The dark line of "Sunshine Robber" is that Sunshine has been paying off the "debt" of the unexpected death of her mother.
This line is very secretive in the film, and it is only hinted at once.
Sunshine once told in the movie that he was naughty when he was a child, often lying to cheat his mother's money. Over time, the value concept that as long as you lie, you can get pocket money. Once, Sunshine called her mother and lied that she had been kidnapped and needed her mother to bring money to rescue her.
However, while running to her destination with money, my mother was accidentally hit by a car and killed when she crossed the road. The sun was hiding in a corner across the road and witnessing my mother die because of her own lies.
The mother had an accident because she wanted to save herself, and Xiaoxue also found Sunshine to help because she wanted to save her "daughter".
Sunshine helps Xiaoxue, in fact, to make up for the regrets of her childhood, to help a mother successfully find her daughter, which is also a kind of redemption for herself.
At the end of the movie, when the tiger is trapped in a high-rise tower crane, and the hot air balloon on which Sunshine and Xiaoxue ride cannot get close to the tiger, Sunlight jumps hard into the air to fix the hot air balloon to help Xiaoxue and the tiger successfully escape.
This is also based on Sunshine's guilt and longing for his mother, and he is willing to give his life to protect the safety of Xiaoxue and the tiger. Because when she was a child, her mother died to rescue herself, this time, she must help a mother successfully rescue her "daughter".
It can be said that in the movie, whether it is Xiaoxue who lost her "daughter" or sunshine who loves to do chivalry and righteousness, it is a person who needs to be healed.
Sunshine helped Xiaoxue find her "daughter", and Xiaoxue also smoothed out the unknown family pain in Sunshine's heart, and healed the sincerity between each other.
3
In order to build this "fairy tale", "Sunshine Robber" is very careful
After sorting out the chiaroscuro lines of the story, it can be seen that "Sunshine Robber" is not a simple absurd comedy, but a realistic fairy tale wrapped in family affection.
Director Li Yu said in a previous interview: "Fun and imagination are very important for movies, so before shooting "Sunshine Robber", I always wanted to make a different 'fairy tale realism' than before shooting "Sunshine Robber". ”
But unlike the fairy tales we usually look at, "Sunshine Robber" does not have a value setting that is completely independent of reality, and every scene in the story unfolds in a real city.
Therefore, how to perfectly present the two elements of "fun" and "imagination" under the real environment and value settings, the production team of "Sunshine Robber" can be described as a big effort.
It is understood that in the movie, as small as each prop, as large as the entire city setting, every picture that can be seen is painted by the production art team one by one. In order to achieve a fairy tale atmosphere, the production team built a city directly in a cornfield.
In addition, the animal protagonist of the movie, "Nana", is actually a real tiger, not a late animation effect.
In order to find out the tigers suitable for filming, the crew launched a "tiger beauty pageant", and the footprints of "beauty pageants" spread all over the country, and after thousands of selections, they finally selected the Siberian tiger "Wenwen".
In the production process, in order to present the micro-expression and demeanor of the tiger, the production of micro-expression changes alone lasted for half a year. The final effect of the film is also very realistic, and the tiger's hair and micro-expressions are quite realistic.
4
Li Yu did not "play big" this time
Previously, in the course of the interview, director Li Yu had said that "Sunshine Robber" may be the most expensive film he shot. But now that the film has failed at the box office and word of mouth, it is obvious that the high-standard level of service has not won the favor of fans, but has caused a lot of discussion "Li Yu played big this time".
However, a closer look at "Sunshine Robber" can be found that although the story setting of the film is novel, it still does not lose the core of director Li Yu's film - women.
Looking at Li Yu's previous works, such as Song Qi's "Secondary Exposure", from the original escape and escape to the courage to face the self, pursue the self, and finally achieve transformation;
The South Wind in "Guanyin Mountain", growing up in a family full of misfortune, chooses to find herself in the wandering, and slowly understands the meaning of life in the wandering.
This time in "Sunshine Robber", Li Yu also portrayed a vivid female character - Sunshine.
Sunshine has short hair, and under the seemingly cheerful personality, there is a deep guilt and shadow for his mother.
At the end of the film, when Sunshine learns to let go of self-blame and forget the shadow to live because of a journey to redeem the tiger, it actually represents the mutual redemption between women.
And the lost "tiger" is actually a metaphor, it represents what people care about and cherish the most.
When "Xiaoxue" and "Sunshine" embark on a thrilling and joyful journey of "finding the tiger", they actually embark on a spiritual journey to discover themselves and face loss.
In fact, everyone hides their own carefully protected "wounds", and it is only after helping and warming each other that they are gradually soothed. And the two women in the movie who are warm to each other can bring us such a healing heart to move and think.
Finally, I can't help but say that I hope that fans who have not yet entered the theater to watch "Sunshine Robbers" will not be "frightened" by the so-called ratings and early box office, when you no longer use realistic logic to see "Sunshine Robbers", but use emotional logic to understand the story, you will find:
"Sunshine Robber" is a movie with content.