Wen 丨 Li Zhen (Researcher, China Film Art Research Center)
Original title
"Chinese science fiction" and about the future
The right to speak - the look and feel of "The Wandering Earth 2"
The domestic sci-fi giant "The Wandering Earth 2" finally met you in the Spring Festival file, I personally think that the second part is more complex than the plot of the first part, the characters are fuller, and the overall technical and artistic performance is better, which can be said to completely surpass the first part. Many netizens on the platform spontaneously posted to discuss the movie, giving a variety of interpretations. Some people jokingly call it the "King Fried" of the Spring Festival and another milestone of Chinese science fiction movies.
The success of this film first stems from respecting the creation laws of genre films, and its inheritance and innovation of the sci-fi genre program have been recognized by fans. The film has reached a high level in plot settings, visual effects, set props, actor performances, sound soundtracks, and the rigor of scientific logic, including the processing of details. For example, in the drone crisis scene shortly after the opening of the film, the scene scheduling, stunts, and performances are all matched quite accurately. It is said that the setting area of this work is 10 times that of the first part, reaching 1 million square meters, equivalent to 126 football fields. The nearly 3-hour film maintains a tight narrative rhythm, in which the intensity and sci-fi sense of the space elevator, the fall of the moon, and the digital life can be said to be amazing, and the hardcore and spectacular of the heavy scenes are breathtaking. The audience has different ways of expressing their love for the film, such as some people have detailed discussions on unimportant cutscenes and seemingly unimportant details, such as Uncle Da restored by CG technology, mechanical dog stupid, door frame robots, drones, engineering exoskeletons, etc., and some people volunteer to explain the film's scientific and technological expertise points on social software.
Second, the film has thoughts. The main creative team not only pursues the ultimate experience in audiovisual effects, but also strives to do an extreme sport in the expression of the depth of thought. It can be felt that they have studied science fiction films and are looking for breakthroughs, and excellent science fiction films are essentially philosophical films, and in highly hypothetical situations, these works will explore many ultimate problems or boundary problems of human beings. Compared with the sensory experience, the philosophical dimension of "The Wandering Earth 2" is intriguing and has attracted more attention from fans. For example, it discusses what is the nature of man? Is consciousness equal to life? What is the ego? How to define truth? How is the ethics of AI defined? What is the ultimate or destination of human civilization and so on. For example, among many fan groups, the discussion about digital life triggered by the film is extremely hot, and 500,000 fans have spontaneously written comments on a website so far. Andy Lau's Tu Hengyu is the highlight of the narrative, and he is called a "variable" of human destiny by artificial intelligence in the film. Tu Hengyu's cognition and application of digital technology infused human feelings, and it was he who finally completed the task of saving the world as a digital human. It can be understood that artificial intelligence is not necessarily cold and purely rational, and feelings are also an important part of self-awareness. This design is particularly inspiring and creative.
Third, "The Wandering Earth 2" is full of poetry and emotion, especially expressing Chinese romance and values. We can see the sci-fi presentation of Chinese moral culture. Chinese art pays attention to the expression of feelings, and the family, friendship, love, mentor-apprentice relationship, brotherhood, comradeship, and cross-racial human love in this film have been fully written. The "plan to move mountains" proposed by China has the spirit of foolishness that is not afraid of all difficulties. Since ancient times, Chinese civilization has respected the heroism of "sacrificing the small self and achieving the big self", emphasizing the value of unity and mutual care, and the scene of fifty-year-old astronauts collectively marching out and dying generously for the fate of all mankind has left a deep impression on countless fans. In our own sci-fi films, inserting Chinese lover's nature, Chinese sense of humor, and Chinese artistic conception will make the audience feel an inexplicable sense of intimacy and pride. In terms of narrative mode, the film also has Chinese characteristics, the film highlights various time nodes, "2044 space elevator crisis, 2058 moonfall crisis, 2075 Jupiter gravity crisis, 2078 solar helium flash crisis; Spend more than 2,500 years sailing to the Alpha Centauri galaxy 4.2 light-years from the earth to find a new home..."It not only creates a tense countdown atmosphere, but its connotation is also imbued with Chinese aesthetics, there is a strong sense of time in Chinese culture, and Chinese art is good at exploring moral space and spiritual space through the expression of time; Because Chinese believe that life can only transcend the present in the flow of eternal time, we should not only focus on the gains and losses in front of us, but should integrate life in the endless river of history and everything in the universe.
Science fiction movies are not only entertainment and philosophy, but also ideology, and different discourse subjects use science fiction movies to obtain discourse power about the future of mankind in disguise. In the past, China lacked the opportunity to interpret the future in this field, but since the Wandering Earth, we have begun to open up our own territory on this position. In the film, the implantation of Chinese thought, morality, culture, Chinese image, food, scenery, and slang is to introduce a new and even future China to the world.
This year's Spring Festival films have a small commonality, except for a comedy, they all have a sense of tragedy. The epidemic has left a more or less inner imprint on everyone, and in the face of disasters, our understanding of the term "community with a shared future for mankind" is more specific, rich and profound than ever. These experiences are reflected on screens today and beyond. It should be noted that tragedy is not pessimism, but expresses a high degree of identification with certain spiritual connotations.
Although there are only two films in the "The Wandering Earth" series, I already feel that it is very different from Western science fiction movies, and perhaps we already need to discuss what "Chinese science fiction aesthetics" is. As far as the current perception is concerned, I will only make the following simple summary and combing: Chinese science fiction aesthetics, in logical reason, forever retain a pure land for morality and mind; Ponder the fate of mankind in a down-to-earth manner in fantasy; Expand and bless spectacle experiences with a sense of tragedy; Realize humanistic care in the spirit of science; express endless beliefs and life-first values with abundant emotions; Resolve confrontation, conflict and prejudice with peace, harmony and integration; Write history with fantasy, deduce the future with history, and interpret ideals with morality.
New film views
Special financial support for the development of the national film industry