In addition to Tony Leung and Wang Yibo, "Nameless" fills the sense of suspense with lens aesthetics and closed-loop timeline

Text/Ziyi

The anticipation of "Nameless" shouted all the way from 2022 to 2023, all the way to the scheduled Spring Festival file.

After that, Wang Yibo also sang the theme song on the Spring Festival evening to warm up the film, and after multiple rounds of publicity by the film party, everyone finally took a reassuring pill.

30 minutes before the film's release, the box office exceeded 100 million, and a day later, it exceeded 200 million, and the number of people who wanted to watch it on Douban alone exceeded 87,000, even on the most anticipated film and television lists in 2022 and 2023.

In addition to the ultra-luxurious starring cast, director Cheng Er's unique shooting technique, the profound connotation of the unsung hero, coupled with the touching storyline, combined with the aesthetics of photography, make people greatly shocked after watching it.

Today we will discuss the film in depth from the perspective of ideological connotation, photographic aesthetics and metaphor.

1. The unique shooting method makes people feel foggy, but endlessly memorable

"Nameless" means unsung hero.

Through the special science of the twenties of the last century, which began to struggle in Shanghai, the film reproduces the process of their mortal struggle with various forces on the hidden front, and truthfully shows the portraits of the unsung heroes of those indispensable secret fronts in the process of victory, allowing us to see their irreplaceable contributions.

After the outbreak of the All-Out War of Resistance, Techco maneuvered between Chongqing, Wang Pseudo, and Japanese spy agencies in Shanghai, and through the intricate intelligence system behind enemy lines, plotted against the enemy, obtained intelligence, killed traitors, and established a broader united front until the eve of the victory of the War of Resistance.

All the characters in the movie basically don't have complete names, like Director He, Secretary Ye, Miss Chen, Mr. Zhang, they have, just a code name.

The meaning that the movie wants to convey to us is that most of the people who helped us win in that era were unsung heroes, countless small people, and could also influence the general trend of the country.

Throughout the entire movie, after watching it, many people feel that they can't calm down for a long time, and they want to share, but they don't know where to start for a while, and they can only praise the acting skills of the actors and the greatness of director Cheng Er over and over again.

I have seen many spy war dramas, and the identity of the undercover agent has been clear from the beginning, but "Nameless" left a suspense.

Is there a possibility that Secretary Ye, played by Wang Yibo, is a double undercover agent, and the reversal of his identity constitutes the biggest suspense of the entire movie.

Director Cheng Er used a special, "ring" closed timeline to present the plot to the audience, and this bold attempt also led to word-of-mouth becoming two extremes.

The beginning of the film does not continue in the normal order, but rather opens with a short clip from various complete small clips.

In the first half, many viewers may feel very nonsensical or even illogical, but as the progress bar goes on, we slowly see that the small stories are completely spliced.

This is also an important reason why some netizens complain that it is completely supported by the actors' acting skills, and the plot is a mess.

This is the so-called threshold for watching movies, do not understand historical knowledge, just look at the fragments, or character codes, as soon as you lose your mind, you can't understand it at all.

The various elusive details in the plot, if you don't connect the details and read them carefully, you can't appreciate the good intentions of director Cheng Er at all.

However, audiences who understand the movie are shocked.

The interlaced timeline of "Nameless" seems to guide us to play a game of Rubik's Cube, rotating and splicing piece by piece, slowly putting together each side.

But if you put together this side of the story, the other side will also be temporarily disrupted.

To restore all the truth, only if two or three sides are put together at the same time, the fog of the story will be slowly revealed, and through some recurring pictures, we can gradually understand the complete content of the story.

2. Beautiful lens language, representing different symbolic meanings

Director Cheng Er's aesthetic has always been very advanced, as can be seen from "The History of the Demise of Romance".

For example, they all photograph Shanghai, and many people photograph the rows of foreign buildings on the Bund to show its prosperity.

But Cheng Er shot this kind of overhead shot, which is particularly shocking.

In Nameless, this overhead shot is more common, often revealing a sense of emptiness and despair.

For example, frame after frame restore the scene of the convoy marching, such as streets, deep mountains, and lake views

Such a perspective gives people a kind of audience as a bystander, or God looking at the problem from the perspective of God, coldly looking at all that has happened, will feel that these unsung heroes are actually as small as ants, seemingly insignificant, but in fact they are shaking trees.

Another example is that he photographed the joints of two undercover agents on a mission, and Director He, played by Tony Leung, sat on a bench in good clothes, and the window lattice next to him was cut into black and white.

And he, again and again, rhythmically tapped the tip of his shoe.

Whether he is nervous, or waiting, or thinking, the whole black and white tone, the framed scene, casually shot, is a frame of wallpaper, every frame is art.

This filter aesthetic depicts a tragic beauty.

Also, footage of shooting laborers.

As well as dogs in different states that appeared before and after, along with the Japanese Air Force, was the well-dressed Roosevelt.

And after the air bombing, in the ruins, there was a wounded hunting dog, limping and moving, and was disgusted by others.

The dog's situation is also a reflection of the situation of the people of the two countries, the contrast is strong and shocking, needless to say.

It turns out that not only the story touches people's hearts, but the camera can also silently give people such a strong visual and spiritual impact, and every shot is worth pondering.

For example, he repeatedly photographed Wang Yibo's tie, changed to different styles of ties, and his different moods and expressions when he wore the tie.

As Cheng Er said frankly at the premiere: "Every tie and every meal in the movie is designed. We used a more prominent pen and ink to portray Wang Yibo's change of tie once, and everyone can interpret it after watching the movie. ”

"Looking carefully at this movie, you can get a hearty puzzle-solving experience, and we also left everyone with a huge reversal and suspense in the movie."

3. Think about the metaphor of extreme horror, which is creepy

A total of two dogs appear in the film.

One is Roosevelt, pampered and well-behaved, thinking that he was living a comfortable life, but finally fell into the lake on the return journey.

One is a dog representing the countrymen, but there is no place to shelter from the wind and rain on his own land, and finally he is tempted by a piece of stomach cake to the rain of bullets, and then dies.

And lambs.

Civilians representing innocent lambs, when they were buried alive by cement in the well, held the Buddha beads tightly until they died, thinking that they could bless themselves, but such false beliefs were only psychological comfort.

They are no different from the next Japanese army's plate, those lambs to be slaughtered, without weapons, can not protect themselves, can only be used for swords, I for fish.

And when they ate mutton, they learned from the conversations of the Japanese army that if it were not for this war of aggression, they would not even have the opportunity to eat mutton in their own barren projectile land.

It is sad and lamentable, backwardness will be beaten, innocence and defenselessness are tantamount to sticking out their heads and letting people beat.

epilogue

"Nameless" is a drama worth brushing three times, which is its unique attraction, because the first time you see the plot on the bright side, the second time you experience the lens language, the third time you feel the filter aesthetics, and then you suddenly realize the sound.

Excuse me, how many times have you been there?