The most underrated film in the Spring Festival file, "Nameless" is the direction for domestic films

This year's Spring Festival can be described as a hundred flowers, and the seven new films cover almost all types of films, which can meet many audience groups of different ages and different viewing needs.

Among many Spring Festival films, "Nameless" is undoubtedly the most controversial and has always maintained a high degree of attention before and after its release. The reason why "Nameless" can have so much attention is partly because of the film's luxurious cast, and on the other hand, because the film is the latest work of "The History of the Demise of Romance" director Cheng Er.

Speaking of "The History of the Demise of Romance" and "Nameless", these two film works by the same director not only have many similarities in the background of the story, the use of lens language, and the character shaping techniques, but even the use of narrative techniques.

In my opinion, the story plot of "Nameless" is actually not complicated if it is sorted out according to the timeline, and it will even be a little tacky when compared with many film and television works of the same type, but Cheng Er's skill lies in the fact that he breaks a story that is not complex and recombines it, just like completely breaking a complete puzzle into pieces, and the whole movie is full of a lot of interludes and flashbacks.

The audience needs to gradually piece together a complete story like a puzzle piece in the process of watching the movie, according to their own understanding.

Different people often have different feelings when watching the same movie, and even the same person often has very different feelings when watching the same movie at different times.

The most ingenious thing about Cheng Er's non-linear narrative is that everyone can carry out the "puzzle" according to their own ideas, and the stories spelled out will be different, resulting in each audience's perception of the film is not very consistent.

Although the participatory viewing experience of Cheng Er's works has always been controversial, many film critics even said that this is an opportunistic trick that the form is greater than the content. But I have to admit that compared with the linear narrative that is flat and stable, Cheng Er's narrative innovation with puzzle nature is unique and full of characteristics.

Six years ago, "The History of the Demise of Romance", which cost 150 million yuan, only achieved 122 million yuan at the box office. But it was such a commercial film that was regarded as a box office Waterloo at the time, attracting more and more audiences in the following years, and was even listed by many film lists as a domestic film masterpiece in recent years.

By the standard of being able to quickly understand and grasp the key information, "Nameless" definitely does not meet this standard. But as some professionals say, movies should not just be satisfied with making the audience happy in the present, but can make them think when they walk out of the cinema, and the filmmaker not only needs to approach the audience at the right moment, but also take the responsibility of improving the audience's aesthetics at the right time.

Having said all this, let's return to "Nameless" itself, although many film critics have previously said that Cheng Er's work has a problem with form over content, but it has to be said that this film does both.

The first is form, and if the non-linear narrative rating of "The Demise of Romance" is seven points, then "Nameless" clearly improves two notches from it.

The main setting of the story is set in Shanghai during the Anti-Japanese War, and one of the protagonists is Director He, an intelligence officer played by Tony Leung, who works for the Wang puppet regime. At first glance, Tony Leung seems to have once again played the role of "Mr. Yi" in "Color Ring", but this time, although he is still in the Wang puppet regime, Mr. He's true identity is permeated with a layer of fog, just like Shanghai in the story where many forces compete, it always feels deep.

Although Shanghai during the Anti-Japanese War was occupied by the invading Japanese army for eight years, due to the complicated relationship between the forces here, coupled with the special existence of the concession, Shanghai became an active gladiatorial arena for all forces for a long time, and at the same time it was also the center of intelligence exchange and dissemination.

As a veteran of the intelligence department of the Wang puppet regime, Director He is best at instigating rebellion and forcing intelligence officers sent to Shanghai by various forces. Whether it was the intelligence chief of the Kuomintang in Shanghai or the communist traffic officer ambushed in Shanghai, Director He could deal with it with ease, successfully set out the intelligence in their hands, and brought out the greatest value of these people.

However, as the puzzle continues to be perfected, the Mr. He in front of him does not seem as simple as it seems, and the story gradually reaches its climax as the War of Resistance Against Japan is about to move towards the final victory, will Mr. He and his comrades be able to complete the unfinished task? What is the mystery of the story?

Before the release, director Cheng Er once jokingly said that he had made a "super commercial film", and from the perspective of the finished film, this "super" obviously refers not to the degree of popcorn of the movie, but to the innovation of the film's creative form.

Watching this movie for the first time, I believe that the first impression of the vast majority of audiences is that they don't understand much. But audiences familiar with Cheng Er are well aware of his non-linear narrative routine, that is, when watching the film for the first time, you don't need to pay too much attention to the side content of a large number of interludes, flashbacks and flashbacks, just grasp the core characters and their related content, because all those irrelevant side stories are interpreted around the main line of the story.

In addition to the narrative, the film also consistently shows Cheng Er's insistence on photography and art, and through the use of lens language and the switch between cold and warm tones, the audience can even read the psychological activities of the characters and the next direction of the story.

What is most noteworthy is the film's extensive use of long-range and overlook lenses, whether it is the distant overlook of the devastated scene in the Guangzhou bombing clip, or the focus on the sentient beings who are gradually numbed in suffering, or the dark and gloomy layout of the intelligence department.

These vistas and overlook shots invisibly reveal utter despair and helplessness, which is also a true portrayal of the hearts of countless high-ranking people and ordinary people during the Anti-Japanese War. In the face of a strong enemy with a huge disparity in strength, it is obviously difficult for China to confront it head-on with its strength alone, and the confrontation on the hidden front has become a glimmer of hope in this despair and helplessness.

In sharp contrast, "Nameless" depicts the Japanese army invading China, and the film uses a lot of close-up symmetrical shots when shooting Japanese army-related plots. The most impressive plot is that the blue sky, white clouds and the small soldiers pedaling bicycles leisurely in the wilderness, if it were not for the background setting of the era mentioned in the movie and the vaguely mottled "Long live Chairman Chiang" slogan on the background building, I believe that the vast majority of the audience will have the illusion of watching a youth outing, and the extreme contrast shows the arrogance and ignorance of the Japanese army invading China.

Movies are the aesthetics of light and shadow, but a good movie needs to be supported by good content, and "Nameless" is no exception. Although the story is not complicated, Cheng Er not only made great efforts in narrative innovation, but also made great efforts in imagery metaphor, so that "Nameless" has the malleability of multi-layer interpretation in content.

The Japanese bombed Guangzhou, the bomb shelter was crowded with ordinary people evading the bombing, and a lame and dirty dog also entered the bomb shelter, but the soldiers standing on the side did not show a trace of respect and sympathy for this suffering life.

Soldiers kicked it, hit it with the butt of a rifle, and even lured it outside with half a biscuit to die. This dog was actually referring to the thousands of soldiers who were engaged in a frontal confrontation with the Japanese army under the high-level command of the Nationalist government. In the face of the motherland in danger, countless young people have resolutely joined the army in a desperate bet and sacrificed their young lives for the sake of national justice. But what do these young soldiers end up reaping? Many soldiers who survived many major battles were eventually sent to the front line to die, and they fought until the last moment but never saw hope.

In stark contrast to this, the majestic Shiba Inu on the Japanese fighter plane, fed by fighter pilots, this dog was strong, wearing windproof glasses, wearing clothes embroidered with the sun flag, named "Roosevelt". Obviously, "Roosevelt" refers to those Japanese soldiers who brazenly launched foreign wars of aggression, and they wanted to invade neighboring countries and regions and plunder manpower and resources because of their strong national strength. However, the end of these aggressors was as ridiculous and deplorable as that of "Roosevelt", and it didn't take long to die of their own complacency.

The drunken shrimp that appears many times in the film can be interpreted in a variety of ways, we can see it as representing those Kuomintang short-sighted people who blindly want to make peace with the Japanese army in secret, intending to free up their hands to deal with the Communists, or as a fighter like Secretary Ye who can't help himself in the Wang puppet regime, and seems to gradually forget his original intention under high pressure and grief.

The well represents the endless cycle of killing, the people kill the ghost and hide in the well, and the ghost also kills the people and throws themselves into the well, on the one hand, the killing machine that loses its humanity under blind militarism, on the other hand, the people who bear great humiliation and hatred under the heavy national disaster, the bloody killing cannot help but cause people to think deeply.

The multi-layered reversal of the characters also refers to the chaotic direction of the era, and the warriors on the hidden front had to do their best to hide their true identities, and even had to keep the truth from their loved ones and loved ones.

Secretary Ye's lover did not know until the last moment of his life that his boyfriend who gritted his teeth was actually his comrade. And Secretary Ye and Mr. Ho's fist to the flesh, the increasingly cruel duel is actually a necessary means to hide their identity and gain the trust of the enemy. In the process of showing this plot, the voyeuristic perspective of a third party that appears from time to time is actually telling the audience that someone is secretly watching the whole process of Ye and He's fight.

In general, "Nameless", as a new work launched by director Cheng Er after several years of dormancy, is undoubtedly extremely innovative and experimental.

As mentioned earlier, "Nameless" is definitely not an ordinary commercial movie, so it is normal for this film to be evaluated and not understood by many audiences after its release.

Some people may ask, if a commercial film is not good at the box office and is not understood by the audience, then what is the meaning of the existence of this movie? I want to say that the meaning of the film is not just to sell, maybe just to prove that there was such a movie? Many unpopular masterpieces and literary works were actually not understood by the audience at the time of their release, but with the passage of time, they began to be re-recognized by more and more people, and thus had different evaluations.