In 6 days of release, the box office of "Manjiang Red" directed by Zhang Yimou exceeded 2.6 billion, and Maoyan estimated that the overall box office of the film was expected to exceed 4.5 billion. This will undoubtedly be the director's most successful at the box office, and it will also give a shot in the arm to the Chinese film market after the epidemic is released.
Of course, box office success is also related to big-name actors. The film gathers Shen Teng, Yi Yangqianxi, Zhang Yi, Lei Jiayin, Yue Yunpeng and many other outstanding actors with high national recognition and box office appeal and other main creators to jointly create this film with high plot density, multiple reversals and no lack of comedy and romantic feelings.
At present, the Douban score is 7.7, rated by nearly 500,000 people, and netizens have also received rave reviews:
"Intention, one-act drama-like shooting, soundtrack, actor role excavation, big feelings of small people, tacky plot good display, and even full of laughter, I think five stars is not exaggerated, I like and am very surprised to have such a masterpiece!"
When I was a child, I saw Yue Fei's story and stomped my foot angrily. To this day, I did not expect that the national teacher filmed such a romantic heroic story. The plot twist is very careful, and there is no need to be too strict to entangle. Originally, I thought that Shen Teng and Yue Yunpeng were playing, but after watching such a serious story, they had some fun with them. The roles of the four-character younger brother are all challenging, which is good. It's strange to memorize the words here, I didn't expect it to be rounded like this. Full of red, full of emotions. Full praise for the feelings of the national teacher. ”
"It's very interesting to reverse and reverse, and in the end, the whole army recited Manjiang Hong is still very shocking. A little black humor, I thought I was watching Jiang Wen's movie before, but in the end I felt that it was Zhang Yimou. ”
The actors played collectively
The story of the movie "Manjiang Red" takes place during the Shaoxing period of the Southern Song Dynasty. Four years after Yue Fei's death, Qin Hui led troops to hold talks with Jin Guo. On the eve of the talks, the envoy of the Jin State died at the prime minister's residence, and the secret letter he carried disappeared.
A small soldier and the deputy commander of the pro-army battalion were caught up in a huge conspiracy by chance. This is a story recreated based on a certain historical background, telling the unsolved mystery of the legend from a new perspective.
It tells that during the Shaoxing period of the Southern Song Dynasty, Prime Minister Qin Hui led the forbidden army to the border to hold talks with the Jin State. Qin Hui Su local clan mansion. The mansion was closed and heavily guarded, but the night before the talks was a mystery. The pawn was wrapped up in it, and step by step uncovered the mystery, and behind the mystery, a puzzle of righteous man's rape gradually unfolded.
The story of the movie is actually very simple, but the actors' performances make this simple story still fascinating. Netizens' comments on the starring actors also have their own merits.
The actor Zhang Yi played by Qin Hui is in place, a kung fu, but not dewy, gloomy and old, elusive, but the mechanism is exhausted, and finally died in the game set up by the dancer. With a sense of light luxury and joy, elegant and handsome, sinister and cunning, people are frightened but not disgusted. His performance is completely invisible.
Yue Yunpeng's unique funny shots, full of cheap taste and cute, especially his sketch-style eyes, gently floating, not to mention the audience, even Director Zhang Da can't hold back, each of them can be used as an emoji.
Shen Teng's comedic flavor that cannot be copied is even more enduring. And when he shows grief, it is so amazing. In a scene where he is forced to sacrifice his comrades, he can't help himself with incomparable grief and pain, but he can only say words that are not boundary, and his crying releases another kind of pain and regret. It was a tearing performance, and he did it. At that moment, he made people laugh sadly and cry completely.
Yi Yangqianxi belongs to the rising star, he shows the helplessness, struggle and bloodiness in the bones of the soldier from beginning to end vividly, and he is worthy of being the best among movie stars of the same age.
The most noteworthy is Lei Jiayin, which can be said to be extraordinarily played in this film, he portrays Qin Huan's image of a traitor who is greedy for life and afraid of death, cunning and suspicious, and has a crush on fame: whether it is the impassioned recitation of "Manjiang Hong" on the city tower, the worry on his face and complex emotions in his heart after reciting it, or the anger and anger when the truth is revealed, every expression and action is delicate and precise, and every detail is tightly stitched, which is indeed heartfelt.
The style of the national teacher is obvious, the means are rigorous, the color matching and light and shadow are too wonderful, and the light and shadow effects are like the hazy beauty before dawn, which not only matches the suspenseful atmosphere but also the historical atmosphere of "finding light in the dark".
The screenwriter cooperated with Zhang Yimou three times, and his manuscript changed several times
Screenwriter Chen Yu has cooperated with the director three times, in addition to this time, there are "Sniper" and "Rock Solid". On the occasion of the film's release, Mr. Chen wrote about the arduous creative process:
If I want to make a mainstream film or a commercial blockbuster, what kind of story and script I want to do, I judge from three dimensions.
The first dimension, story and script, raises sufficiently valuable questions at the thematic level. This value can be reflected in many ways, such as is it unique? Is it powerful enough? Whether it gives a powerful inspiration to contemporary life. For example, the questions raised in "Parasite" may be more attractive to me than the story of a palace fight between the concubines of the Qing Dynasty.
"Manjiang Hong" is the first word I have memorized since I was a child, and it is also the one that almost every Chinese will recite by me. The reason for this is not just because it was in the previous textbooks. ——There are more poems in the textbook, and this one is constantly being praised, I think it contains a certain cultural and emotional gene of the Chinese, and this gene not only belongs to the official, but has been existing in Chinese folk culture for thousands of years, just as we advocate "loyal and righteous people", "a promise and a thousand gold", "a soldier dies for a confidant" and other classical spirits.
Therefore, to write such a story is to try to answer the question: "Why does everyone Chinese recite "Manjiang Hong", why do we all like Yue Fei in personality."
The second dimension, whether the story and the script, has completed an excellent narrative in the sense of narrative theory, and whether it can be like a magician in the narrative process, continuously and accurately controlling the audience's cognition and emotions.
This part seems to be a general technical work, we have so many Hollywood drama books, similar to "Save the Cat", "Story" can be referenced, there are various excellent stories and movies as cases to imitate reference. But I think that according to the concept of martial arts novels, those are moves, not internal skills. What is internal strength is to deeply understand how the audience receives narrative information, and only to study this matter from the principle level (this is difficult, but it must be done. Then tell the story to accurately control the audience's psychology.
At the same time, this time our narrative ambition is not only to make a good-looking suspense story, I hope that this story can be upgraded, in the narrative progression, from the "puzzle" of the small pattern to the Chinese of the big pattern, and can not be broken and stiff. Just like mountaineering, the stepping stones of each narrative must be placed precisely enough to make the audience step on every step strong.
The third dimension, the story and script is essentially a detailed production blueprint, therefore, a good mainstream film script should have a broad sense of science, its internal organizational structure should be as precise and effective as an organism, and should meet the requirements of scientific dimensions such as the principle of accuracy, the principle of efficiency, and the Occam's razor.
In the creation of "Manjiang Hong", testing a design "cow is not a cow" and "accurate or inaccurate" is one thing for me, and accurate is a cow. And the director of Yimou is also such a person, especially pragmatic and precise. This is my third cooperation with the director of Yimou, he believes in my original ability, the Internet said that the speed of the director is very fast, in fact, the preliminary work is very long, the whole process of design, polishing, revision and discussion is very difficult. Director Yimou is a person who tends to paint a color to the extreme, and I also like to be extreme in storytelling, so the cooperation has slowly formed a habit and tacit understanding, and I am trying to keep up with his progress.
Two points of controversy in historical facts
1. The person who killed Yue Fei was Emperor Gaozong of Song
Qian Mu's Outline of National History argues that "Emperor Gaozong was determined to strengthen his rule internally, but had no intention of restoring it externally", so "Yue Fei had to be killed, and Han Shizhong had to be abolished". After Yue Fei commanded three-fifths of the country's troops, the Jin people wanted to make Emperor Qinzong's son a puppet, and Yue Fei recklessly asked Emperor Gaozong to solve the problem of the heir to the throne as soon as possible, and begged the name of Prince Zheng (later Emperor Xiaozong of Song) to calm the people's hearts and frustrate the Jin people's scheme. Emperor Gaozong was displeased at the time: "Holding heavy troops abroad, this matter is not Qing's responsibility."
"Past Stories of Imperial Politics" puts forward the view that the person who ordered Yue Fei to be killed was actually Emperor Gaozong, and Yue Fei violated the biggest taboo of the royal family: the military general with heavy troops was interested in the succession to the throne, which made the emperor believe that he was too ambitious, so he began to kill.
In addition, the "Historical Misreading of Chinese" believes that Yue Fei's advocacy of "welcoming the second emperor to return to the dynasty", threatening Emperor Gaozong's position, is the reason for his killing.[75] Shedding is equivalent to the "Song Shi Yue Fei Biography" said: "Emperor Gaozong forbears abandoning himself in the plains, so he endures killing and flying."
However, Emperor Huizong of Song had long since died, and Yue Fei had long since changed his name to Emperor Qinzong's father and son as "Heavenly Dependents" and "Emperor Bingwu Yuanzi", and his request to make him crown prince expressed his loyalty only to Emperor Gaozong and his heirs, and Emperor Gaozong also asked Yue Fei to meet Jianguo Gong, later Emperor Xiaozong. In addition, the civil officials Lou Yinliang, Zhao Ding, and even Zhang Jun, a military minister with higher authority than Yue Fei, also advocated the establishment of crown princes, but they were all rewarded as loyal ministers, and Lou Yinliang was promoted because of this.
2. Manjianghong lyricist controversy
Yue Fei's grandson Yue Ke's "Jin Tuo Zhi Compilation and Family Collection" did not include the term Manjiang Hong, which was suspected by some modern scholars to be a forgery or a pretext work, triggering positive and negative dialectics.
Deng Guangming, experts in the history of Song, Liao, and Jin, together with Wang Zengyu and Li An, examined Yue Fei's "Manjiang Hong".
Wang Ke and others believe that Helan Mountain in the word refers to Helan Mountain in Cizhou, West Road, Hebei, which is on the battlefield against Jin.
In addition, teacher Zhang Hongjie's WeChat article also wrote: the famous "return me to the rivers and mountains" calligraphy, the "mother-in-law tattoo character", the big break of the kidnapping horse, Zhuxian Zhen Dajie, twelve gold medal class teachers, many basic historical facts about Yue Fei are extremely controversial.
For example, Mr. Deng Guangming convincingly proved in his article "Interpretation of the Problems of the "Kidnapping Horse"" that the "kidnapping horse" was "made" by Yue Fei's grandson Yue Ke, not a historical fact, and the twelve gold medals were also "absolutely impossible". Mr. Deng Guangming also said, "The so-called Zhuxian Town Victory is just a fictional battle achievement by Yue Ke. ”
Of course, not all of this narrative of history can be clearly stated. Although the film avoids these controversies, patriotism is the belief in the hearts of every Chinese person. I hope that audiences with patriotic feelings can enter the cinema to feel this good film.