Text| Tangyuan
On the evening of the second day of the Lunar New Year, the movie "Nameless" official Weibo released an essay from director Cheng Er.
"I didn't write this for any other purpose. The real reason is because I was just on the plane from Shanghai to Guangzhou, and one of my colleagues, an equally shy young man, out of anxiety and kindness, published an article in my tone, and his anxiety and kindness were distressing. I wrote these words in a hurry on my way from the airport to the cinema. ”
The cause of anxiety is difficult to know in detail, but a little attention to the voices of all parties accompanying the film from publicity to release, it is not difficult to see and even predict the situation that such a film that integrates many "contradictory elements" will face in terms of word of mouth and public opinion.
As the third work of the "Chinese Victory Trilogy" of Bona Film Group after "Chinese Doctor" and "Changjin Lake", "Nameless" itself has an unshakable "main melody" tone; And because of director Cheng Er's very characteristic personal creative style, the film is different and unique in the presentation effect. On the first day of release, its total box office including pre-sales reached 213 million, and the discussion of topics on various platforms continued unabated.
The Spring Festival file where various types of films gather, "Nameless" has a name.
"Nameless and tasteful": how conventional stories are told well
From "Border Storm" to "The History of the Demise of Romance", Cheng Er is already familiar with the narrative method of breaking linear time, and although the time span of "Nameless" is as long as eight years (1938-1946), the story around the core characters is concise and clear: under the haze of war, Mr. Ho (Tony Leung), who became an undercover agent inside the Wang puppet regime, fought with friends and enemies in a treacherous environment, and cooperated with Secretary Ye (played by Wang Yibo) to act, using his life as a bargaining chip to get intelligence and defend his homeland.
What non-linear narrative destroys is the structure of "starting and turning" in traditional storytelling, fragmentary presentation, repetition of back and forth, like card distribution, allowing the audience to rearrange and combine it in their minds, and at the end of one or more "high-energy reversals", so that the audience can get the pleasure of "logic confirmed". "Nameless" is precisely in this choreography technique to push the tension of "spy war" to a high place.
Mr. Zhang's (played by Huang Lei) cowardly rebellion and Miss Chen (played by Zhou Xun)'s steadfast perseverance, Captain Tang (played by Dapeng) riding the wall speculation and Miss Jiang (played by Jiang Shuying)'s tenderness, Captain Wang (played by Wang Chuanjun) is suspicious, and Miss Fang (played by Zhang Jingyi) is almost naïve idealism, and the Japanese officer (played by Sen Hirozhi) is unfathomable... Each character has its own background and travels in a city where danger and desire coexist from a different stance and way; and the clues are densely entangled into a clump, gathering the main story of He Sheng and Ye Mi into it.
The intricate plot also relies on just the right rhythm. The repetitive scenes and lines not only lay the groundwork and uncover the mystery, but also use the relatively "elongated" moments on the screen to describe the subtle emotions of the characters. As Mr. Zhang (played by Huang Lei) said to Miss Chen (played by Zhou Xun) when he decided to defect: "I am a weak person and do not adapt to the era of great change", and also appeared again when asked by Mr. Ho (played by Tony Leung) at the handover for the reason for "abandoning the dark and turning to the light"; Ho's words during his interrogation of Miss Jiang (Jiang Shuying) are no different from those of Mr. Zhang when he persuaded him.
The same lines, appearing at different moments, contain different semantic meanings and extrachord sounds - the tunnel that has not reached the end is dim, and the "nameless" people who grope and walk in it bear the powerlessness of infinity at the same time.
In addition, Cheng Er also enjoys the use of "metaphors at the dinner table". Ribs that are eaten, lambs who are scapegoated, Japanese food that is "unaccustomed to eating", choking shrimp that struggle fruitlessly in blood... The most sharp and ruthless blade, under the rule of the law of the jungle, the "nameless" they exchange their lives for this land for life.
With a well-mastered narrative mode and an audiovisual language of extreme pursuit, the story core of the main theme unfolds in a rather "tone" way, the instantaneous delay in the details, and the grandeur of the theme under the group portrait are included, and "Nameless" allows us to see a unique freshness.
"Super commercial": banter or label?
However, from the perspective of the market, although the film side has already hit the topic of "super commercial film" in the two first trailers before the screening, "Nameless", a film that combines era, spy war, suspense, and even bloody fight scene elements, does not seem to be the best choice for "Spring Festival file".
This may be part of the reason why the film has been controversial: audiences with the expectation of "pastime time" find it difficult to mobilize all their attention in the movie, and work with the creator to complete the whole process of a story from birth to acceptance. All the narrative and audiovisual work mentioned above is considered by fans to be "details and highlights that can only be discovered by brushing and reviewing", and for this type of audience group, it can at best be boiled down to "incomprehensible" or "mysterious" evaluation.
From the perspective of publicity marketing strategy, "Nameless" has chosen a different path: for example, a personalized and stylized trailer, while presenting a corner of the temperament of the whole film, it also accurately conveys the charm of Cheng Er's personal style; The vertical screen interview video not only conforms to the current habits of "small screen" and "short flat and fast information acquisition" in terms of mode, but also contains the amount of information that it contains, which is more memorable than the common way of spreading tidbits in previous films. The materials that fit the two of the film effectively play their publicity effect in the rhythmic delivery.
Another important commercial choice for "Nameless" may be reflected in the cast. The support of powerful actors, the combination of high-national movie stars and traffic newcomers comes with its own topics, and even the fan model itself can bring considerable results at the box office.
However, the transformation from the fan base to the movie audience is difficult to achieve overnight, and some of the public opinion encountered by the film side in just three days after its release also came from here - some fans who were eager to get "acting proof", the film party who was urged to sink marketing, and even the "stealing" phenomenon that was brought out year after year to discuss but difficult to improve... The audience extension and related problems under commercial choices are all reflected in "Nameless".
On the other hand, the accumulation of high-light characters also makes the image of Secretary Ye have some "things must be reversed" effects: when the protagonist played by the popular actor blessed by the traffic has been brought into the recognition of "positive image" by the audience at the last moment of the story, then the foreshadowing of suspense and the reversal of the characters will also be lost. The original hook cannot be simply retracted at the climax of the story, and the "bottom" of the spy war film loses its original meaning.
In the promotional draft during the release, Cheng Er also released a preview of "super literary films" in the future - "super commercial films" for "Nameless", which has more meanings in addition to banter.
Post-screening aftermath: "Unavoidable" bipolar evaluation
The Spring Festival premiere Douban scored, but "Nameless" "has no rating". It is not difficult to find that it is not that the evaluation base is not enough, but that the number of one-star and five-star ratings is superior compared to other scores, and the system has not yet opened the scoring results due to the large differences in the opinions of the audience.
Such polarizing evaluations, in addition to the inevitable classic "pink and black wars", may also be related to the audience's acceptance of a story with a "fancy" way of telling.
Compared with other films in the Spring Festival file, "Manjiang Hong" is heavy on suspense and more reversals, plus the laughter dotted to ease tension, and the "suspense comedy" label is clearly scored; "The Wandering Earth 2" continues to knock on the door of Chinese science fiction, with its own large number of fans; Although "Chinese Table Tennis Jedi Strikes Back" is affected by the release date and is extremely undominant in arrangement, there are still "first impressions" such as sports, competition, and even family fun for the audience to choose.
Only "Nameless", not a pure literary film, does not seem to be called a "super commercial film", it is said to be suspense and spy war, and lacks a plot of ups and downs, it is naturally difficult to gather the widest level of the audience in this blockbuster Spring Festival stall with a distinct style. At least from the box office results, it is inevitable to go "niche".
"Nameless" is a multi-reversal and logical story, often liked by "plot analysis" lovers, in the countless metaphors and details of the film, as well as the "inside information" of the industry's key opinion leaders bloggers, a "first version of the story" about the film has come together.
The deviation of the two versions of the story is due to the well-worn "deletion", and the Cheng whispering quote typed by the film side as early as before the release: "Don't underestimate the audience" also seems to have indirectly made some answers.
In the director's essay released by the film official Weiwei, there is also this paragraph:
"The movie doesn't matter. More importantly, these days people who can't afford to go into the cinema, or even celebrate the New Year. Our noisy Spring Festival stall has nothing to do with them, like those sharp high-rise buildings on the Pudong side. That's what really pays attention. ”
This "Nameless", whether the film itself or the publicity strategy, whether the people wandering in the story or the creators who are separated from reality, are all filled with strong personality characteristics, in the noisy Spring Festival schedule, the story that is also obliterated in the grand era is slowly told. We remember the "nameless" who chased the light in the darkness, and also cast their eyes on the left and right - the times roared by, and the fallen leaves that were remembered had their roots.