It's the first day of the New Year again, and Peach is here today to greet everyone!
This year's Spring Festival, the naked eye in various places is more lively than before. Many areas are full of tourist attractions, and the station and airport are also full of shoulders.
In the WeChat group, there are also people constantly sending acceleration packages for high-speed rail ticket grabbing, so that group friends can help click so that they can buy tickets home as soon as possible.
It is true that with the advancement of technology, the annual Spring Festival has become far more convenient and easier than in the past. Technology has actually changed our lives, but from another perspective, our unique emotions for life Chinese are also changing the application and development direction of technology.
From cyber-burning incense to high-speed rail travel, we have developed unique technology products in China. And when we look up at the stars and imagine the changes that technology will bring to life in the future, we can also see science fiction works that belong to us.
That is "The Wandering Earth 2" released on this New Year's Day.
In the past few days, seeing the endless flow of audiences in the cinema during the Spring Festival, many people shouted "the movie is back to the excitement of 2019".
Coincidentally, on the first day of the Chinese New Year in 2019, we ushered in "The Wandering Earth". And on the first day of the Chinese New Year in 2023, we ushered in "The Wandering Earth 2".
If 2019, when "The Wandering Earth" was born, is the "first year of Chinese science fiction", then there was the TV series version of "The Three-Body Problem" a few years ago, and "The Wandering Earth 2" at the New Year, I would like to call 2023 "the first year of Chinese science fiction setting sail again".
Because the biggest feature of the "The Wandering Earth" series of science fiction films is its unique Chinese cultural core. In the hearts of Chinese audiences, there is always a unique resonance and emotion.
However, to the surprise of many viewers, including Tao, although the title of "The Wandering Earth 2" shows that it is a sequel, it is a prequel to the previous work in terms of plot.
Based on the success of the previous work, director Guo Fan chose to look inside and continue to dig deeper into the deeper world view of the "Wandering Earth" series, not rushing to promote the development of the plot, but allowing the audience to understand "why the earth is and how it wanders in the universe" at a deeper level. On the basis of the grand original novel, more sci-fi setting details and warm humanistic plots have been added.
For example, at the beginning of the film, Liu Peiqiang and Zhang Peng, played by Wu Jing and Sha Yi, walk in the ruined wasteland city, solemnly but warmly burning paper money for the deceased they are concerned about in the center of the road, while burning what they are still whispering to them. As with many Chinese life now, no matter how much the outside world changes, the thoughts of their loved ones will never change.
In the grand sci-fi background, "The Wandering Earth 2" has a more in-depth explanation of the "Wandering Earth Project" around the plot of the previous work, and introduces the audience to the three preliminary preparations of human beings before launching the Wandering Earth Plan through the gradual unfolding of three lines: the Ark Plan, the Mountain Moving Plan and the Month-by-Month Plan.
The spectacular Earth-Moon elevator in the trailer is a vehicle that undertakes the month-by-month planning work, transporting the earth's resources to the moon and building engines for the moon.
With the completion of the Ark plan, the month-by-month plan followed. Because of the huge gravitational pull from the moon, in order to be able to fly the earth out of the solar system, humans must build three lunar engines on the moon to push the moon away.
And the final plan to move mountains also allowed many Chinese audiences to "smile" when they heard the name, and the picture in their minds came out at once. And the plan to move mountains in the movie is as tragic as the legendary foolish man moving mountains in our culture:
As the Earth changed its original rotation and revolution, it took 2,500 years to travel to Proxima Centauri, 4.22 light-years away, through 100 generations of relay, eventually making Proxima Centauri the new sun for mankind. Just as the fool moves the mountain, with the efforts of generation after generation, the mountain that blocks people's way will eventually be removed.
The mythologist Joseph Campbell once said, "All myths are metaphors." The same is true of science fiction as a myth of science.
In the grand narrative of The Wandering Earth, we also see metaphors for Chinese culture. From the Moving Mountains Project to the Wandering Earth Project, 99 out of 100 generations have never seen the sun in their lives, but because of their faith and dedication, human beings after the 100th generation can live a better life and multiply under the new sun. Much like the phrase "no matter how bitter you are, you can't suffer children" that we often hear in our culture.
The predecessors planted trees, and the later people took advantage of the cool. But future generations will not stop at taking advantage of the cold. Our culture also emphasizes "one hundred virtues and filial piety first" precisely because we also attach great importance to gratitude to those who came before us.
The reason why many people were moved to tears after watching the previous work "The Wandering Earth" is because they saw the reality behind the science fiction metaphor, that is, thousands of years, countless ancestors have won today.
Tao, as a person who watched "The Wandering Earth 2" in advance on the 18th, must be liked and recommended to everyone with his real name here, which is very good and highly recommended.
Compared with the original novel, "The Wandering Earth 2" has a richer and more realistic world view and adds many new details. At the same time, there is also a more Chinese warmth and advice in the emotional field.
For example, in the film, although the mainstream of the United Nations is trying to promote the Wandering Earth Project. However, the pressure on individuals from this thousand-year-long project is also enormous. Underneath the grand plan, there was an undercurrent of opposition.
The enticing "Digital Life Project" was born here. Those who support the Digital Life Project hope to achieve "immortality" in the digital world through consciousness upload.
Although these people are completely indifferent to the destruction of the earth by the solar helium flash a hundred years later, the desire for "immediate gratification" has made this group gather a large number of supporters, and launched a huge obstruction to the preliminary work of the wandering earth plan, bringing a huge crisis to mankind.
Wu Jing's Liu Peiqiang, as well as Zhang Peng, are the "staunch materialists" of the coalition government forces who rectify the chaos and continue to advance the Wandering Earth plan.
All saboteurs, in the end, will be brought to justice!
If the movie only focuses on this, then this is a good-looking but overly simple sci-fi film, with a face-painted stance and superficial thinking.
"The Wandering Earth 2" naturally does not stop there.
With the continuous advancement of the "Wandering Earth Project", the branch of the passive resistance of digital life, the technology tree branch, has also been completely cut off from the law. However, technology itself is not guilty.
In "The Widow to the Kingdom", Mencius once said: "If it is not me, the soldier is also." "Tell everyone that it is not the weapon that kills, but the person who uses the weapon. The "digital life" who passively faces natural disasters is wrong, but there is nothing wrong with constantly developing digital technology itself.
In the film, Andy Lau's Tu Hengyu is a person who adheres to such a concept. His daughter died in a car accident, and in a critical situation, he uploaded her consciousness to the digital world, and eventually "regenerated" his daughter's consciousness in the computer through the powerful computing machine 550 C, and also had the ability to help humans.
Although in the film, Tu Hengyu was repeatedly obstructed by the outside world, but with his recognition of science and his obsession with giving his daughter a complete life, he finally achieved a breakthrough in digital life technology, and successfully promoted the "Wandering Earth Project", resolved a huge crisis, and completed his mission.
Teacher Li Xuejian's role as Zhou Zhezhi in the film adds a thick layer of realism to this sci-fi film.
The implementation of a plan requires not only front-line executors, but also managers who coordinate the overall situation, and Zhou Zhezhi is such an important manager.
In the film, Zhou, as the Chinese representative in the coalition government, is also a supporter and manager of many actions on the wandering earth. In the face of doubts and pressures from the outside world, ingenious political wisdom is needed to defuse the crisis and "open the way" for the implementers of grassroots tasks.
At the moment when the preliminary work of the Wandering Earth Project was most obstructed, the coalition government had begun to drift away. In order to avoid the disintegration of the human coalition government, Zhou Zhezhi delivered an inspiring speech on "human femur".
He showed people a human femur that was 15,000 years old. Under the conditions at that time, if a person's femur was broken and there was no one else to take care of him, then the person would surely die. However, the femur healed. Because there are others who are willing to lend a hand and get through the weak through the difficulties. This is the symbol of the birth of human civilization.
Unity continues the spark of civilization. Now, there is another broken "femur" in front of mankind, we must be united, and we are only responsible in the current crisis.
It seems that the clouds are light and the wind is light, but it is actually like walking on thin ice. Still, the old leader did his job. From the beginning of the Ark Project to the final Mountain Moving Plan renamed the Wandering Earth Project, everything is changing and going according to plan.
Director Guo Fan said: "The theme of "The Wandering Earth 2" is 'companionship', and this soft Chinese emotional expression creates the touching background of the film."
The three main characters in the film, three story lines, are essentially about companionship. Heroes overcome all difficulties and are not afraid of wind and rain, in order to overcome difficulties and accompany their loved ones.
The science fiction works of each nation are based on their own cultural background imagination of the future, and they are also the ultimate pursuit of ideals.
And from "The Wandering Earth 2", I see that our ultimate pursuit is companionship, longing and inheritance.
Eager for companionship, we returned to our hometown and to our families. Because we hope to accompany the grass and trees of our hometown, we in the imagination of the science fiction world, even in the face of a great disaster, we must take the whole earth with us to wander.
Because of my thoughts, even in difficult times, I will not forget to remember the deceased who have passed away. From the burning paper in the opening scene of the film to remember the deceased, to the "I would like to dedicate this film to Wu Mengda" that appears at the end of the film, inside and outside the play, it is all longing for the loved ones.
Because of inheritance, generations of people have sacrificed their lives to build planetary engines, to send the earth to distant lands, to pass hope on to the next generation, and then to their next generation.
As an aside, this time "The Wandering Earth 2" I watched the 4K 120-frame CINITY high-spec version, the planetary engine, space elevator, and air combat and other special effects scenes in the film are like immersive shock, after the big scene, you can always breathe a long sigh of relief.
Walking out of the cinema is even more emotional, fortunately the sun is not abnormal, fortunately the earth has not stopped. But the most important thing is the beautiful emotions between people in the movie, the companionship and inheritance between family members, which continue to exist in this peaceful New Year.
It is also this kind of imagination based on our Chinese own emotional content that makes "The Wandering Earth 2" have a unique resonance with the current holiday atmosphere.
On the first day of the new year, Peach once again wishes everyone a New Year's greeting, and also highly recommends everyone to go to the cinema to experience "The Wandering Earth 2"!
Design/Vision: Strong