Text | Ling Hu Boguang
Tony Leung, "Nameless" starring Wang Yibo was officially released, and the film was not favored by many people at first because it was too stylized. But I didn't expect that the pre-sale was far ahead, and at the same time the release and word of mouth exploded, and a rare general was added to the 2023 Spring Festival file.
This movie is star-studded, Liang Chaowei, Zhou Xun, Wang Yibo, Wang Chuanjun, Sen Bozhi, Jiang Shuying, Huang Lei, Zhang Jingyi, Dapeng and so on. It can be said that this movie is the most outstanding domestic spy war film after "The Wind", as for why this movie has a great reputation after its release, especially fans are simply highly respected, the main reason is director Cheng Er.
I believe that many people will also find it strange that Cheng Er's previous works "The History of the Demise of Romance" and "Border Storm" and other movies are not high at the box office, but why do so many fans turn into Cheng Er's die-hard fans?
The answer is simple, in today's situation where the whole world is a routine commercial film (ZZZQ in various countries is still becoming more and more common). Cheng Er's film pursues stylization, and artistic genre film directors are already rare.
For example, "Nameless" is not only at the top level in China in terms of film aesthetics and lens language, but also the top in the world. After the release of the movie, everyone can see it for all: Cheng Er really deserves to be one of the top genre film directors in China, and it is indeed stable.
Since the movie has just been released and there are no spoilers, here is an analysis of why Cheng Er is rare.
If the film is large, there are three kinds of literary films, genre films and commercial blockbusters wrapped in genre films. Literary and artistic films determine the foundation of film art, genre films are the form of exploring film themes or techniques, and this commercial film is the most important part of supporting market industrialization, commercialization and entertainment.
Commercial blockbusters are usually packaged with genre films, but they may not go far at the level of genre film exploration.
The evaluation of directors in world film history usually favors literary and genre film directors who have contributed to the development of films, and commercial blockbusters are rare but rare.
In China, there is a real breakthrough in genre films, and at the same time there are not many personal expressions. Cheng Er is one of them.
His output is extremely low, from his graduation work "Criminal" in 1999 to "Nameless" in this year's Spring Festival, in 24 years, the Olympic Games have been held 6 times, but he only has five works. And these five, each of them is a boutique of the best.
Cheng Er is a very peculiar director, we can see at a glance that his films are very powerful in film aesthetics and lens language, master-level lens language.
Cheng Er is a typical Chinese academic director, he followed the path of Western films "The Godfather", "New York Gangsters", "American Gangsters", as well as the Coen brothers, Quentin... Wait for the way. Among the several films he has handed over so far, the most ambitious is "The History of the Demise of Romance".
In this film, Cheng Er brings his non-linear narrative and aesthetic system to the fullest.
As for the characters, he expresses everyone who is wrapped in it in the most dramatic and extreme way on a cross-section of history. This kind of shaping of the faces of all living beings is a must in the Chinese film industry, and you can't even find a second director who can compare with him.
And 6 years later, "Nameless" was released. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Cheng Er had not changed, and that Cheng Er's technique was more mellow and more freely expressed.
It can be said that it is 6 years to sharpen a sword, or it can be said that it is 6 years to make a bottle of wine.
The film aesthetics of this film are pursued to the extreme, and I believe that there is no need to talk about professional things. What is the composition, how is the combination of light and shadow and costume, how the camera is shaken, and how the actors stand and cooperate... At a glance, it is full of master demeanor.
Of course, watching a movie must not only look at the camera, the story plot, character development and expression are equally important.
This "Nameless", director Cheng Er drew on the experience of the previous work "The History of the Demise of Romance". Although the same narrative method is adopted, the rhythm and suspense are too strong, and it firmly grabs the audience's attention from the beginning to the end. At the same time, because it tells the story of a revolutionary aspirant, it is not as obscure in expression as the previous work.
For a spy war film, the lens of "Nameless" is not as strong as the same type of work, but it allows the audience to feel the revolutionary aspirants of the year under the strong lens language, and the difficulty and rarity of revolutionary work, which is the progress of director Cheng Er and his beneficial exploration of Chinese genre films!
Finally, I want to say that Cheng Er had too few works before, but with the launch of "Nameless", we can conclude that China's top genre film director has added another one. And "Nameless" is purer in terms of film aesthetics, story plot and expression.
Cheng Er's movie is not to be missed not to be missed not to be missed in this "Nameless", and he is already looking forward to his next film to impact the world-class genre film master. Chinese audiences need Cheng Er and also need "Nameless", after all, there are too few such stylized and extreme genre films in the world! Because of this, we believe in Cheng Er, we believe in "Nameless", and we are more eager to look forward to the far-reaching significance of this film and this director for the Spring Festival file and Chinese films!