There are many film labels in China.
But to say that the most avant-garde attitude, Uncle Yu has a family in his heart:
Bad Monkey Pictures.
The label was founded by director Ning Hao and cultivated a group of local directors with a pioneering spirit.
For example, the director of "I Am Not the God of Medicine", Wen Muye.
The director of the word-of-mouth martial arts "Embroidered Spring Dao", Lu Yang.
His debut novel "Once Upon a Time in the Tropics" was shortlisted for Winshipei in Cannes.
High-quality content and audio-visual have injected more possibilities into Chinese films.
This time, BMW joined hands with Bad Monkey to release the AHEAD Video Project and launched three works.
More pioneering, more imaginary.
The most fantastic of them is "Unknown Animals".
Starring, Yi Yangqianxi.
Since "Young You" won many Best Newcomer Awards, Yi Yangqianxi has interpreted the anti-cancer teenager, the entrepreneurial youth, and the deputy leader who doesn't talk much... Although the span of these roles is quite large.
But this time, it still refreshed the public's cognition.
Played a complete "freak".
His original identity was that of a car mechanic.
One day, my back suddenly itched.
I scratched it with my hand, but found that a strange mark appeared on my back.
Immediately after, a blue engine appeared on the chest.
When the finger taps, an electric current is also formed, which is sizzling.
He vomited violently.
Everything in the field of vision flickers with the eyeballs, presenting a dream-like mystery.
Who knew that when he picked up his mobile phone with difficulty and prepared to ask for help, his hand turned into a wheel.
The whole person fell to the ground, unable to stand upright.
Until, a living person, completely turned into a blue car.
From "people" to "cars".
Such a fantasy plot direction and camera presentation are rare in domestic films.
This reminds Uncle Yu of the French movie "Titanium" two years ago.
In the movie, the heroine has a special affection for the car and is even pregnant with the child of the car.
Such a pioneering expression caused a lot of controversy, but it was favored by the Cannes judges, and finally won the Palme d'Or in one fell swoop.
In fact, this setting is not simply a curiosity.
In the relationship between people and cars, there is a philosophy of existence that explores self-worth.
Just like the car mechanic played by Yi Yangqianxi in "Unknown Animals".
He was a "snoologist" until he turned into a car.
From the car repaired, you can gain insight into the inner world of the owner.
"People lie, but cars don't."
"If you look at his car, you can know his biggest secret."
Through the items loaded in the car, he can speculate not only about the occupation of the owner, but also about the personality of the owner.
For example, someone looks like a strong man, but the interior decoration of the car is very contrasting.
The car keys are fluffy, the car is plastered with pink rhinestones, and the co-pilot is sitting with a teddy bear.
It is better to look at people than to look at cars, and cars are more honest than people.
However, there are exceptions.
The girl played by Qiu Tian drives a blue car.
She was almost perfect, with no personal traces in the car.
The voyeurism failed, making the mechanic extremely curious about the girl.
In private communication, the two know what the other party thinks without opening their mouths.
Magic, chess, dancing, it seems that love will soon come.
The camera presents a real, mysterious color and music, dragging people into the gap between reality and dreams.
At this moment, the mechanic woke up, as if he had sensed something.
Immediately afterwards, the secret of the secret compartment in the girl's car was discovered-
She is an alien.
The girl asked the mechanic to either keep it a secret or die for it.
In order to save his life, the mechanics naturally responded one after another.
But can people really keep secrets?
In the end, the mechanic turned into the girl's blue car, and only then did he keep the secret forever.
But if this one is a mechanic, who is the one that the girl just drove away?
How many secrets do human beings have, and in how many guises.
Is this an alien interrogation, or is it a simple dream.
Everything seems to have no answer.
The director of the film, Wen Shipei, has been trying to experiment with the narrative techniques of the film.
His debut film "Once Upon a Time in the Tropics" won the VFF Venture Capital Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.
This is the first time that a Chinese-language film has won this award.
The avant-garde storytelling in the film is still impressive.
Fault scanning deals with the demarcation between reality and memory.
The searchlight perspective targets the state of the characters in the story.
And this kind of shot with a strong self-tonality has also been continued and innovated in "Unknown Animals".
Whether it is the vertigo psychedelic image texture, the metaphor of people and cars, or the existential philosophy, this film breaks through the conventional domestic sci-fi genre and boldly breaks out of an alternative style.
The producer of this film, Ning Hao, is Wen Shipei's Bole.
His unique vision is obvious to the industry.
And this time the film project, he also brought two directors.
One of them, Xia Peng, brought the work "Monkey".
This is also a very sci-fi film.
The future world is a steel jungle with highly developed science and technology.
The protagonist, "Sora", is a detective.
His mission is to capture AI monkeys that escaped from the toy company.
However, the process did not go as smoothly as expected.
AI monkeys have long been self-aware.
During the battle, the AI monkey grabbed the car and kidnapped people, and staged a life and death speed with the toy company.
Unfortunately, in the end, he was subdued by "empty".
AI monkeys offer voluntary submission to be destroyed, but only if they find their origins.
To this end, "Kong" explored all over the place, and finally found a tin monkey in his childhood home, which is now only ruined.
That was the remaining soft heart in the steel forest.
It is the initial origin of all happiness.
Originally, he just wanted to complete this order, save money to immigrate to Mars, and escape this wasteland-like world.
At the moment, Mars doesn't have to go anymore.
The fantasy free home is already in sight, and it only needs an opportunity to set off.
We have seen many stories of regaining our original intention.
The highlight of "Monkey" is still to play with simple stories in form.
Directors are not limited to existing shooting methods,
Instead, it combines real shooting with digital facsimile, CG technology, two-dimensional animation and other production methods.
The colors will change with the psychology of the characters, and the three-dimensional characters retain the sense of comics.
It's like the picture frame exploded in the background when the male protagonist is surprised, full of fun.
It's not just Monkey that makes it refreshing.
Bad Monkey's other director, Zhang Shange, also blazed a different trail.
Produced the childlike and joyful short film "Barab's Wish".
On a distant alien planet, the Barab family lives.
Their greatest hobby is collecting all kinds of strange earth products.
For example, at a high price, the toilet and sweeping robots are slapped back.
What made Grandpa Barab spend a lot of money this time was a white car.
However, the great inventions of this earth are cold on other planets.
Because the Barab family can teleport and go wherever they want.
Therefore, it is not known what the car is "for".
Is it a bathtub for bathing, or a bungee mood light.
Is it a cake stall weapon, or a ghost animal star.
In the midst of non-stop exploration, the accelerator was inadvertently stepped on, and the family sped off.
It also attracted the people of the planet Barab to come and watch in amazement.
Curiosity drives exploration and fun.
Although, the small blocks on the planet Barab can be teleported by everyone.
Sitting in the car, Balab's mother remembered that she didn't have her bag, so she teleported to get it.
If it is effortless to get to a certain place, the car is not a chicken rib on this planet.
The answer is given in the film:
Even more precious than the ability to teleport is the freedom of driving in the sunset.
It is also a warm time for the family to laugh and enjoy the sunset together.
"Barab's Wish" is delicate and cute, but the difficulty of completing the work is far more difficult than expected:
With a smooth look and feel that is difficult to detect with the naked eye, this is a stop-motion animation.
In fact, the characters in the scenes are all handmade, with a lot of hand-drawn drawings.
While the creators strictly controlled the light, they completed a frame-by-frame real shot at 12 frames per second.
Short film "Barab's Wish"
Even the language of Planet Barab is written specifically like Pandora's in Avatar.
Uncle Yu remembered that after Picasso entered his old age, his paintings gradually became childlike.
There are the most skilled painters, but only to find the initial curiosity and pleasure of painting.
When I first thought about it, it was probably like that.
Three directors, three works.
It seems to have a variety of forms and different painting styles.
But they all uphold a pioneering attitude and use trendy techniques to achieve their works.
And this echoes the theme of the BMW AHEAD image project:
"Imaginary and unstoppable"
Explore the boundaries of thinking, video, technology, and more with whimsy.
Short film "Monkey"
BMW has been trying to explore more cultural carriers with brand inspiration.
Movies are one of the heavyweight ways.
BMW has always been regarded by the industry as "the most storytelling car brand" and "the most movie-making car company".
Appearing in films such as "Big Shot", "Mission Impossible", and the 007 series also shows the BMW brand's attempt to layout in the cultural field.
In addition, the BMW brand has also begun to try to empower local filmmakers.
Explore new thinking and new ways of expression together, and bring more emotional resonance in more diverse ways.
The New Year micro-movie "Bayil's Spring Festival" cooperated with director Ning Hao is a work of sincerity.
The film echoes the hearts of the characters through the change of brand names.
Let the brand not only carry economic value, but also inject the beautiful hope of driving towards happiness into life.
The same is true for local filmmakers.
It not only further gives local film practitioners the opportunity to exert their subjective initiative to describe their inspiration, but also amplifies their imagination with brand resources and influence.
Even join them on a bigger stage and spread greater cultural influence.
So as to inspire more people in the film and television industry to dream with their pioneering attitude.
Short film "Unknown Animals"
As said in "Unknown Animals", through the mouth of the character:
"There is something that humans can do, but aliens can't."
"Only humans can dream"
The similar drive between making movies and building cars is a dream.
It also requires initial curiosity and the most avant-garde courage to explore.
Let the concept come to fruition and make dreams come true.
And movies and car building are not done because this thing is "simple, experienced, and can be accomplished".
Contrary.
It is because there are so many wonderful ideas to be heard, the most avant-garde practices to make them happen, and more new possibilities and answers to be sought.
It is precisely because the future is full of unknowns again that GO AHEAD is necessary.
Imaginary and unstoppable.
It is also the heart of all creators.
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