When watching the movie "Original Diamond", the biggest feeling is that the noisy plot is very compact, and the protagonist is constantly talking and moving around, as if there is a vicious dog behind him, chasing him. This chase is different from the breathless nervousness that comes with the police investigating Li Weijie's family in the movie "Manslaughter", but it is closer to a sense of busyness.
The protagonist, Howard, is like a spinning top, busy from beginning to end. Just when I was wondering where the story was going, the ending was unexpected, and there was a sense of abrupt irony, which felt wonderful. So after watching it, I can't wait to talk about this movie.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > (i</h1>).
If you take the classification in "Save the Cat", "Original Diamond" belongs to the wish-fulfillment type of story. If you comb through the story line of the movie, it is not difficult to find that this is the story of a gambler who tries to sell a high price with an original diamond and then tries to turn over. In the end of the story, Howard did get the money as he wished, but unfortunately he did not have the life to spend the money.
Some people commented that the film was very similar to Gehrig's "Two Big Smoking Guns". Although both films have a sense of absurdity and chaos, from the perspective of story, the two are fundamentally different. The multi-line narrative of "Two Big Smoking Guns" focuses more on coincidence, which is also subtle. "Original Diamond" adopts a one-line narrative approach, with the protagonist Howard as the main line to advance the plot.
In contrast, I prefer that the story structure of "Original Diamond" is similar to that of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Little Girl Who Sold Matches". Let me analyze the whole movie with the story structure of "The Little Girl Who Sold Matches".
First of all, let's take a look at the synopsis of the fairy tale "The Little Girl Who Sold Matches": On a cold winter night, the little girl who did not dare to go home was cold and hungry, and the little girl could not help but light a match for warmth. Three times the match was lit, and each time brought a better illusion than the first, but in the end the match was extinguished, and the little girl died in that cold winter.
In the main story of the film "Original Diamond" Howard buys the original diamond in a vain attempt to turn over, the match is the original diamond. The original diamond brought him illusions again and again, making him think that he had the money he wanted, but in the end it was nothing more than a void.
Howard lit the first match: after he lent the original diamond to basketball player Garnett, he immediately used Garnett's championship ring as a mortgage for money, pressing all the money on the stakes, in a vain attempt to turn over. That's when the bet was won, and the first match burned. Howard seemed to see the money he had won, and he felt very happy. But the next scene is told that the money was taken by the creditor before the bet was placed, the bet was lost, the first match was extinguished, and everything returned to square one.
Howard lit a second match: a friend told him that the original diamond was worth a million dollars, and Howard finally brought the original diamond to the auction house after several twists and turns, and Howard expected the original diamond to auction for millions of dollars. The second match burns. The value of the original diamond is undervalued, in order to raise the price, please come to the helper to bid. After several price increases, no one finally bid, helplessly patted away by the helper, Howard is in debt. The second match is extinguished and everything returns to square one.
Howard lit a third match: the original diamond was eventually sold to basketball player Garnett at a low price, and Howard used the money in his hand to get his girlfriend to take him to the casino and bet on Garnett's game. Howard did not hesitate to trap the creditor, delaying time and waiting for him to turn over. In the end, Howard gambled to win millions of dollars and fought a beautiful turnaround battle. The third match burns. The creditor's men shot out of control, and Howard was killed. The third match is extinguished, and the story ends.
I have to say that this kind of plot design is very clever, and the film cleverly uses "magic". The original diamond in the film "Original Diamond" is magical in the eyes of basketball player Garnett, and it is also magical in Howard's view, like a match in the hands of a little girl. "Wish magic" makes them gain and lose, and finally the magic disappears and they die.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > (ii</h1>).
If you analyze it from the perspective of the characters, the core of this drama, from the protagonist to the supporting role, has not changed. The character of the protagonist, Howard, is really very interesting. After a series of events, he was himself from beginning to end, without a single change. Until the end of the film, he is still himself, unchanged by anyone or anything. He went from being a fanatical gambler to a dead one. This is perhaps the most ironic part of the whole movie, don't try to change a person who can't change.
As a bystander, although the characters around him also seem to be flattened, for example, his wife, creditor and girlfriend do not explain too much about their inner feelings, and they are all superficial. For example, Howard's wife, what kind of person is she? What does she work for? What was her affection for Howard? She wants a divorce, but what is the real reason for the divorce? None of this is further explained.
The role of the supporting role is to appear in the life of the protagonist, using the characteristics of their own role to have a relationship with the protagonist, thus influencing the protagonist. But from the perspective of character shaping, the characters in it have not affected anyone.
Although the character modeling seems to be a bit flat, the shaping of several of his children, I think, is a highlight. It is said that parents are the best teachers for children, and Howard's children are simply replicating his behavior.
Howard wanted to have a brief conversation with his daughter and show that he cared, but her daughter had been busy talking on the phone and didn't have time to talk to him, just like the scene where he kept talking on the phone. Even if the phone is put down in the back, the communication between the two people seems to be very empty, and a few words of greeting cannot be stopped.
Howard's son likes to play basketball, he also likes to gamble, and he also bets on gambling, which is exactly the same sense of sight as father and son. The scene of father and son watching the ball game together not only did not feel warm but also felt ironic. And later Howard takes his son to his girlfriend's apartment, and his son is full of dirty words, exactly the same as the image of Howard's full of dirty words presented throughout the movie. The influence of fathers on children, this plot design is very clever, but also very ironic.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > (iii</h1>).
In the film, the protagonist Howard appears as a noisy scene while answering the phone and walking non-stop, and the first word that flashes in his mind is "busy". It can be said that in the whole length of the film for more than 2 hours, the protagonist basically does not stop from one scene to another scene. This design will arouse the curiosity of the audience, where will this sense of busyness and chaos eventually lead?
Although the protagonist Howard has been dealing with various things and acting very busy, if you look closely, you will find that what he does is ineffective. His ability to handle things is very poor, the arrangement is not reasonable, and he has been in a state of demolishing the eastern wall to make up for the western wall. For his own life, he always tried to change the status quo by gambling and making a windfall.
Of course, from the end of the story, the director let him get his wish, and he did make a windfall. In the finale, Howard relies on the money earned from selling the original diamond to go to the casino to flip the market and make more than a million dollars, but in the end, he is shot and killed before he has time to enjoy it.
The ending is ironic, and there is a sense of fate in return for blood. The scene where the protagonist Howard is finally shot and bleeds echoes the scene at the beginning of the film where the miners in the mine bleed from their injured legs, giving a subtle sense of subtlety. I have to say, I really liked the ending. In addition to satirizing the protagonist Howard's bamboo basket to hit the water empty, it also adds a sense of fatalism.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks:</h1>
The director used an unconventional visual design that made the whole film seem noisy and chaotic. Some people insisted on giving up in less than ten minutes, and some people felt amazing after watching it. Although the character design is not brilliant enough in my opinion, because of the ingenuity of the plot, the irony of the ending is very good, and it is still an excellent work in my heart.