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Is the Spring Festival box office champion "Manjiang Red" worthy of its name?

The film "Manjiang Hong" directed by national teacher Zhang Yimou, with familiar faces, fresh combinations, plus the theme of "suspense + costume + comedy", is really eye-catching during the publicity period. After the release of the film, the ensuing box office controversy and content controversy also continued.

After watching the film, there are surprises and regrets, if several works directed by Zhang Yimou in recent years are sorted in my heart, I personally feel that "Manjiang Hong" is neither front nor backward.

Its novelty and superiority lies in its bold attempt to highlight ideology in the form of "old elements, new combinations" of film expression, and the three labels of "suspense", "costume" and "comedy" are becoming the biggest selling point of the film.

However, this attempt is both experimental and challenging, "Manjiang Hong" is a successful commercial film in the Spring Festival file, but it may only be a film with a moderate and slightly high overall evaluation.

It has led to some thinking: How does the narrative of suspense works rise to the breadth and height of ideas? How to choose between the authenticity and artistry of historical theme background works? How can today's Chinese comedy films get rid of the embarrassing dilemma of being out of touch with the audience and laughing at each other? How to put women in the right position?

First, let's talk about "suspense".

The story in the film is set in the Southern Song Dynasty, telling the story of four years after Yue Fei's death, on the eve of the meeting between Prime Minister Qin Hui and Jin Guo, the secret letter he carried mysteriously disappeared, the envoy of Jin State was killed, and the prime minister's house searched for secret letters to find the murderer. This secret letter is not only an important letter exchanged between the two countries, but also an important evidence of the collusion of the traitor Qin Hui with external forces.

The story revolves around "finding faith and finding murderers", but eventually rises to the feeling of "giving up small bodies and serving great righteousness", with exquisite structure and twists and turns. As the screenwriter Chen Yu said, "Suspense is a technique, and this kind of training is not difficult for me, the difficulty lies in how it leads to a larger proposition and explains the power of human nature." ”

Inheriting Director Zhang's creative thinking of "small and broad" in recent years, Zhang Da (played by Shen Teng), a seemingly ordinary and seemingly timid soldier, actually laid out a big situation with his compatriots: stealing letters, making Qin Huan's crimes public, and returning Yue Fei's innocence.

The young general Sun Jun (played by Yi Yangqianxi) is Zhang Dafei's third uncle who is not related by blood, and he was originally the deputy commander of the pro-military battalion who was also involved in this game and gradually transformed into a winning chess.

The civil and military attachés in the prime minister's office have their own calculations, and a letter also gives a good opportunity to make meritorious contributions and becomes a handle to hold the prime minister in the future, and everyone tries to leave a piece of the pie for their own future.

Between light and dark, a fixed place, a fixed group of characters, an hour of time, the rhythm is tight, the information is sufficient, and a good show is staged. The fly in the ointment is that Sun Jun's transformation is still a little deliberate, and He Li is too vain.

Next, let's talk about "period costume".

"Ancient costume" is most intuitively reflected in the visual level, the front end of "Manjiang Red" is cold as a whole, gloomy blue corridors and alleys circling, the external structure of the labyrinthine mansion is tortuous and complex, and the internal structure is deep and hidden.

The room of the Prime Minister and Lord He and Wu was equipped with a large number of screens and lattice window mullions, and it was relatively dark. The dwelling is a little deeper, and people's hearts are easy to difficult.

The architectural structural characteristics of the film are unified with the characters' open and dark battles, hook-heart fights, and narrative loops, but although the location of the filming location in Taiyuan Ancient Town in Shanxi Province meets the vicissitudes of the visual highlighting of the masonry texture and the claustrophobic and mysterious atmosphere, it does not fit the original historical background of the film - the ancient county town of Taiyuan, Shanxi is actually a building during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, not a Southern Song Dynasty.

Compared with architecture, the costumes of the characters in the film are more in line with the style of the story era.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, women's clothing showed slightly "narrow, light and simple" aesthetic characteristics, with the remarkable artistic characteristics of "light, open, and outerwear". The formation of this dress fashion is closely related to the unique social environment of Southern Song Dynasty society, the dress concept of "seeking simplicity and convenience", and the aesthetic taste of "waist slenderness". The costumes of Yaoqin and her female companion in the film are in line with the above characteristics.

It is worth mentioning that the flowers in Yaoqin's hair range from bright red at the beginning to withered orange at the end, and the coat changes from purple to green, showing the change and helplessness of "streamers are easy to throw people, red cherries, green plantains".

The outfits of the two maids beside Qin Hui were more graceful on the basis of narrow and slim fits: Blue Jade was wearing a blue collared shirt and blue short-sleeved half-arms, green beads and green collared shirt, and a green long-sleeved round neck robe, both of them were tied with a corset around their waist, very competent.

Although the two are deaf and mute, they are strong and neat, and at the same time serve as close guards to the prime minister, and they are also rigid and soft in clothing design.

Qin Juniper's costume is a public uniform, and this kind of clothing is not uncommon in costume TV dramas, with the toe head, round neck and sleeves, shirt, and leather belt being the most prominent symbols.

As the head of the prime minister's office, Lord He used a fan, dressed lightly, and wore a round-headed Kaiyuan inner head with a fan, which was handed down from the Tang Dynasty and was also worn by Song Dynasty officials, and supported two ribbon-like "tails" instead of "wings".

In the film, the surface of the head is covered with a fine black mesh, indicating that the fabric is firmer, similar to a "black gauze hat", which is more reasonable for the status of civil officials.

In contrast, Lord Wu, who is the deputy head of the Prime Minister's Office, wears armor and is a military attaché.

The color of the official uniform of the Song Dynasty is determined according to the official position, from high to low: purple, crimson, cyan, green.

In order to coordinate the beauty of the picture, the film adjusts the color of the clothing in hue, saturation and brightness, and designs the layers of rich details of dark lines to enhance the texture, and the overall is roughly in line with the laws of this official uniform system.

Finally, let's talk about "comedy".

From the perspective of personal viewing experience, the attendance rate of the scenes watched in the roll is close to full, both men and women, young and old, the viewing atmosphere is good, and the laughter in the film plays a role in making people laugh.

A large number of comedy elements in the film are achieved through "repetition and misunderstanding". Lord He interrupted the long speech and knocked on the fan a few times, Lord Wu lost the saber on his waist a few times, and the protagonist group circled the mansion a few times in search of evidence with a soundtrack that incorporated elements of Yu opera and rock... It's all a comedic effect brought about by "repeatedly".

There are many "misunderstandings" in the film, and the most impressive one is when Zhang Da asks Sun Jun if he remembers Ding Sanwang saying "again".

Sun Jun didn't remember, so the two saw that the two entourage around them were also present at the time, so they asked if they remembered hearing this word, and the entourage didn't remember it, but they didn't listen carefully, and they must listen carefully next time. At that time, Sun and Zhang wanted to quietly discuss the next countermeasures, and the two entourage came forward to "listen carefully", but were reprimanded.

"Costume, comedy" will certainly have some contradictions, in crosstalk, sketches are more and more rare audience laughter today, traditional comedy, black humor are facing some bottlenecks to some extent.

In general, the closer the content of comedy is to today's cultural context and living habits, the more it can naturally arouse the audience's resonance and laughter, and the "costume" theme based on a specific historical background limits this modern context, and needs to conform to traditional customs and habits to a certain extent.

The trade-off between the two is more of a test. "Manjiang Hong" handles this aspect well, but it is inevitable to encounter the embarrassment caused by this contradiction itself.

The female image in "Manjiang Red" undoubtedly left a deep impression on the audience, and the little girl who appeared at the end of the film is a symbol of hope and a beautiful vision.

However, some lines in the film and the separate design of the torture clip of Yaoqin are not appropriate, the main creator tries to show the integrity of the indisgraceable killing, and highlights the tenacity and loyalty of the female image through the contrast of the spiritually pure but physically humiliated, but it still does not break through the interpretation of female roles from the perspective of male condensation, and does not realize the real transposition to female perspective.

Although Sun Jun's confession later was all acting and did not insult Yaoqin, this paragraph could still be deleted or used in a more convincing and implicit way.

Starting from the three points of "suspense", "costume" and "comedy", "Manjiang Hong" is a film with obvious advantages and disadvantages, and it is also an exploration with thinking value in the integration and innovation of genres in the development of Chinese films.

Controversy is the collision of sparks between audiences and creators, and the emergence of multiple ideas, bringing new vitality to the future Chinese film market.

This article is original by Luoyu Tree Films, welcome to follow~

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