What is a "good show"?
Once, Dou Wentao talked about this topic with the old drama bones Pu Cunxin and Li Guangfu.
Li Guangfu replied by quoting playwright Cao Yu: "A real good show is not the applause and sighs of the audience in the theater." It is that the audience can carry a heavy thinking after walking out of the theater. ”
Of course, this assessment also applies to movies, even comedies.
High-scoring movies almost all have such characteristics, that is, "great stamina", the movie has obviously ended, but the audience is still immersed in it, unable to extricate themselves.
There are many classic films with great stamina.
For example, Jiang Wen's "Let the Bullets Fly".
At that time, Jiang Wen decided to "stand and make money", personally wrote a letter to invite Zhou Yunfa, plus himself and Ge You, the three major actor gathered, and the bullet flew out, breaking the box office record of that year with a box office of 676 million.
Over the years, everyone has felt more and more that the connotation of the film has greater stamina.
For example, the metaphor of "Liuzi self-proof that he only ate a bowl of powder" points to the contemporary keyboard man.
On March 10, another movie with "strong stamina" will be officially released nationwide.
This is director Dapeng's new work "Keep You Safe". Starring, Dapeng, Li Xueqin, Yin Zheng, Wang Xun, Wang Shengdi, Ma Li, Song Qian, Bai Yu, Jia Bing, Yang Di, Pan Binlong, Qiao Shan, Yu Yang, Liu Jinshan...
It is said that it has great stamina because it brings the audience's expectations and the actual presentation of the effect, forming a huge contrast.
A comedy that is about helping a deceased person get rid of rumors.
This is reminiscent of the real-life incident of a pink-haired girl, a female master who posted herself to show her grandfather in front of her hospital bed an admission letter. Pink hair, bright and sunny, but then she encountered various Internet doubts, personal attacks, and even unbearable yellow rumors about her and her grandfather because of her pink hair. Under pressure, the girl suffered from depression and died at the age of 24.
After the Communist Youth League posted, there were still people who made obscene remarks in the comment area, not realizing that a living life left forever because of their malice.
Internet rumors, Internet violence, and yellow rumors are all faced by contemporary people, but they are the most difficult to shoot.
Domestic films have also not had a decent work that directly confronts the "yellow rumors of women".
Until its appearance, not only focused the camera on this relatively rare social pain point topic in domestic film and television themes, but also shot with tears in laughter.
Can you imagine that a comedy dare to play plot reversal like this?
Can you imagine that a comedy dares to say so many realistic topics with a smile?
Dare to believe that the movie is not only dense with laughs, but also sincere and moving?
Dapeng not only did it, but also did it beautifully.
There are also many viewers who feel the same way.
From the opening film of the Hainan Island International Film Festival at the end of last year to the roadshow at the end of February, from the capitals of the three eastern provinces and northern cities such as Taiyuan and Zhengzhou to the Beijing premiere, from ordinary audiences to college students.
Looking at the short comments of fans, the words "great stamina", "conscience", "tears", and "thinking about the awesome meaning of people's words" appear frequently.
An audience member said on the spot: "In this society where women have become accustomed to making yellow rumors, it is the conscience of filmmakers to see such a movie that encourages us to speak boldly." ”
There were also people who left the scene still thinking, "Not all Han Lu can meet a guardian of justice like Wei Pingan. ”
Every word proves the audience's recognition of the quality of this film, and it also allows us to see the conscience of domestic films again.
Where is the "stamina" of the movie embodied?
How does a movie fiercely set off the bottom of online rumors?
Today, we will rip off the film in advance and crumple it to ensure that you are happy.
01
The main plot of the movie can be summarized in one sentence: "spread rumors with a mouth, refute rumors and run off legs".
The theme is reminiscent of literary films, crime films, and suspense films, but I never imagined that Dapeng made a comedy with tears in laughter.
After watching the movie, you will understand why Dapeng replied to the audience: "This movie is like a modern martial arts film, there is a man who fights and fights to refute rumors, he is rare and ordinary." ”
Moreover, Dapeng not only plays big, but also plays well in script creation.
In the film, he lays three lines, and each line is suspenseful and full of jokes, and finally recalled, the three lines are actually the same thing.
The first line is that "Brother Pingan" "refutes yellow rumors" for the deceased female customer.
What should I do if a deceased customer is rumored? Wei Pingan, played by Dapeng, chose to be like a knight, pulling out a knife to help when the road was uneven, even if the deceased was dead.
Brother Ping An is a cemetery seller who graduated from junior high school and has a five-year prison record, and he debuted with a very "attitude" green hair, full of joy, but was disliked by his daughter (played by Wang Shengdi).
He met the beautiful customer and fishing village white-collar Han Lu (played by Song Qian) Pingshui, Han Lu died of illness, millions of insurance premiums were donated naked to the orphanage, but a yellow rumor about her "sitting on the stage" has been arbitrarily fermented and evolved into a national melon eating and online violence.
Due to the "bad reputation", the tomb owner and wealthy businessman Feng Zong (Ma Li) asked Brother Ping An to move the grave, but Wei Ping'an began a way to find the truth for the dead customers.
From his sister Wei Ruyi (played by Li Xueqin), his buddy Manager Qi (played by Wang Xun), to the pet shop owner (played by Yin Zheng), Chairman Jin (played by Jia Bing), etc., Wei Pingan found that these rumors had never even seen Han Lu's face.
From office buildings, hospitals, to Internet cafes and secret rooms, the entire film is about "refuting rumors and breaking legs", and Wei Pingan is really running!
Especially that section of train station parkour, really broke his leg to refute rumors.
But even so, the rumors not only intensified, he also "introduced rumors", and while everyone pointed out his relationship with the "beautiful customer", he also dug up Wei Pingan's past and gave birth to new rumors.
Who is spreading rumors?
Brother Ping'an's people around him seem to have the possibility of becoming this person.
For example, when he heard that he spoke for the deceased, he opened his mouth and asked if the two had a relationship with President Feng.
I kept asking him what his sister was.
Manager Qi, who advised him not to lose himself.
But the warrior will not look back.
As the online rumors spread more and more outrageously, Ping An Brother exploded on the Internet, and began to have a fan group and a larger black fan group, although the plot is absurd, but all of them can find the source of materials in the real world, making the entire film full of absurd realism, and Ping An Ge's martial arts spirit has become one of the few things in the absurd online world that is not so absurd.
In order to save the reputation of the customers who met Pingshui, he did not hesitate to lose his job, was ridiculed and rumored by a large number of netizens, and was arrested by the police, which looks incredible, but judging from the reaction of the audience at the movie, this story is a success, because the audience believes the story.
The second line is the side line of the whole film, that is, the daughter Wei Ruyi clarified the truth for her classmates and the story of her own online violence.
The story also touches on the elements of school violence.
It is also depressing, depressing, and powerless.
Why is it so familiar? She is you.
What happens to her, you may also suffer.
The third line is the dark line, which is the "truth line" of the entire story.
How rumors arise, how everyone accumulates gold and destroys bones, what kind of realistic picture of sentient beings is behind this.
The English title "post-truth" (post-truth), which is a new word only available in the Oxford Dictionary in 2016, is a phenomenon that has long existed in social media——
Rumors go viral - the listener does not receive complete information, the speaker only spreads self-castrated information, the key to judgment is to seek verification, but the truth often becomes a little girl dressed up by anyone.
This has a strong sense of reality and spiritual shock for the audience in the online world. This realism is reflected in the details of the film.
For example, in the film, a big V who eats a fish n, a hot news poured out from the media, the news reversal immediately sloped off the donkey, good things and bad things they all said. They earn traffic, but their speech invisibly becomes a knife, straight into the heart of the rumor-monger.
For example, the heroine who was rumored is good that she does not have any moral flaws, otherwise it is difficult to turn over in this situation.
For example, Brother Ping An abolished such a big battle, set off such a shocking incident, and finally found the source of rumors, but the truth is full of absurdity in the Internet age.
The movie portrays the traffic business and communication laws in the Internet era too vividly.
"When you say a woman is a miss, whether she is or not, she already is".
If the screenwriter did not have a thorough understanding of the Internet age, it would be impossible to write such a dialogue.
Brother Ping An took us to find the truth together, and the whole process was like peeling an onion.
And the key to Ping An's success in refuting rumors for female customers is also fully in line with the rules of Internet rumors: not in the self-proof trap to madly prove that "I am not Pan Jinlian", but directly to find the source, Ping An brother does not understand crisis management, he follows the martial arts logic of happy revenge, but also succeeds in a crooked way.
At the end of the film, the truth is found, but Dapeng does not fall into the custom, he does not use traditional sensational paragraphs to show this "happy ending", but when the whole network is selling the same style of Wei Pingan in hot spots, let the hero finally return to the ordinary.
And the wonderful use of the Easter egg for Bai Yu cannot help but remind people of Jiang Yang in "The Silent Truth".
The more I look at the back, the more I feel that this design is wonderful, because Jiang Yang represents the value of "truth".
Ordinary people live, do you want to choose to be a good person? What is the cost behind the choice? How to keep peace and conscience in the Internet society? When I was deeply moved by the fireworks at the end, the classic old song sounded, and I opened my mobile phone to watch the news, I had a feeling of stunned.
A movie can't change reality, but because of these 112 minutes, I found a haven of tenderness.
02
The topic is heavy, but "Keep You Safe" was shot with joy.
In the main narrative process, Dapeng is very clever to add many popular elements, live broadcast goods, Internet celebrities, hot searches, fans and black fans, keyboard man, online rumors, online violence, online romance and online fraud, and school bullying, etc., the whole process is explosive, all kinds of whimsy, in a realistic theme movie blended with milk.
What is even more rare is that these elements are all for the main narrative, which is funny when watching, and terrifying to think about it.
Comedy movies, comedy is a hard indicator, but Dapeng did not be funny for the sake of funny this time, but used a lot of misplaced superposition misunderstandings, interpreted the harm of rumors in a comedy way, and finally used comedy to dilute sadness and heal pain.
The whole scene I watched was full of laughter, and it is worth mentioning 3 times:
First, the rumors of Brother Ping An use misplaced jokes and talk about the birth of rumors.
Brother Ping An was a warm-hearted man when he was young, and his brother's wife and ex-husband came to make trouble, and in order to stand up for his brother, he kicked the troublemaker infertile and squatted in prison for five years. Just such an impulsive and kind person, but it became rumored - "slept with the wife of a good brother, and beat the brother."
As a result, the rumors continued to spread, to President Feng, played by Ma Li, who appeared in the sentence: "You slept your brother, and the brother and daughter-in-law did not agree and were beaten by you?" "It's funny to just dry the audience.
Internet rumors are also so funny.
The second is the rumors of the urn, which uses action comedy techniques and tells the absurdity of rumors in the era of self-media.
Mr. Feng asked Brother Ping An to carry his brother's ashes into the sea, so that Han Lu would never be with her brother, which led to a battle to grab the ashes.
The absurd thing is that the rumor-mongers said that the ashes were drugs, I am afraid that Ning Hao's "Crazy Racing" has seen too much, and in the end, even the police confirmed several times that the ashes were really loaded and not drugs.
The third is a haunted house bridge, using contrast, unexpected and funny techniques, reflecting the chicken and duck of people-to-people communication.
Typical secret room comedy, this one is so funny.
Brother Ping An traced the source of the rumor, but found his sister, so he went to the haunted house where his sister worked to find someone. This section is really NPC dancing with the male protagonist, funny and terrifying flying together. Because he was regarded as one of the NPCs by the customer, he followed the protagonist closely and regarded him as a clue to clear the level, and everyone said their own words and could still pick it up. The whole scene is terrifying and funny, and it is extremely scary to think about.
I also want to remind you that the rivalry between Jia Bing and Dapeng is too explosive.
But even though I laughed so many times, I still cried more than laughed during the movie, and ordinary people's dedication to justice was too moving.
The film designs a very clear and traceable rumor path, and every intersection of this path reminds Brother Ping An not to check and keep safe, but to keep others safe, the truth must be investigated to the end.
As a result, people laughed and laughed and cried.
Keyboard warriors and Internet trolls spread rumors all with one mouth, and irresponsible remarks are like Xiao Li's flying knife.
Debunking rumors is so hard.
Therefore, Brother Ping'an, who refuted rumors for the deceased like a chivalrous, is even more worthy of praise.
There is a plot that I can't hold back at all, it is Brother Ping An jumping off the train, and there is a heroic color of not hitting the south wall and not looking back.
Rumor-debunkers are always not understood by the world, and even his own sister in the film believes that Brother Ping An has a relationship with beautiful customers, otherwise what is the picture? But he just wants the truth, can't he?
The movie is funny but also heart-wrenching, and a cruel question is: is it worth it to face the world with true feelings and get hurt?
But the answer from the movie is gentle.
The side line of the story is that Ping An Ge's daughter clarified online rumors for her classmates, and as a result, she also encountered school violence and planting, when Ping An Brother hammered the glass with distress and said to the child "We don't care about anything in the future", but the child said "I did what I should do, I am not wrong" to fight back at those who practiced online violence.
What a relief!
Internet rumors, isn't it the abuser who is wrong?
What happens if children who are jealous and use online violence at a young age are not taught a lesson? Therefore, girls like Wei Ruyi are even more needed to do what they think is right!
Again, "Let's not cause trouble, but we are not afraid of it."
Dapeng said, "Because I also have a daughter, my daughter also says that I play game dishes and call me 'rookie chicken', so I have the setting of Wei Pingan's daughter." ”
It was his daughter's persistence that provided the impetus for Wei Pingan to embark on the road of debunking rumors. A father who has always been looked down upon by his daughter, finally something makes his daughter think that he is right and heroic, then he must not play with his life!
This is what I think is the most gentle part of "Keep You Safe".
Debunking rumors is 10,000 times more difficult than rumors, but this father-daughter story firmly frames the audience's emotions and tells the audience that it is right to adhere to justice, and it is worth "doing what you think is right".
Brother Ping An also has his own pain, and his own unbearable, and his life is not so peaceful.
But his chivalrous heart and gentle kindness are like a slow stream, eventually flowing in the direction of truth.
So when the song "Peace to You" sounded in the film, and the fireworks exclusive to him reflected Brother Ping'an's tearful face, the audience's emotions were finally released.
The cemetery is the end of life, but Brother Ping'an's obsession allows the deceased to tell others with dignity. The phrase "there is true love in the world" repeatedly appeared in the middle of the movie, which felt vulgar at first, but when the string of subtitles of the Easter egg appeared on the screen, I completely broke my defense and understood the deep meaning of this sentence.
All the actors performed well.
Ma Liba is full of aura.
Li Xueqin was praised as a natural comedian.
Song Qian is so beautiful, and the beauty is torn apart the most painful.
And Dapeng really directed a good show.
Comedy did not overwhelm the story, let alone affect the sense of reality, and finally Brother Ping An found the source of the rumor, at the cost of losing a Mercedes and going to prison; Wei Ruyi bravely helped the bullied classmates, and was finally beaten in the toilet and filmed.
And the punishment for rumor-mongers is insignificant in comparison.
The audience is indignant about the end of the rumor-monger, which is emotional and human, but it is in line with reality: the film not only tells how online violence falls on the head of the most ordinary person without warning, but also how rumors get out of control, and the ultimate price is so unequal.
That's why justice is even more precious.
There are too many points of vacillation and abandonment from beginning to end, and it is not surprising to give up at any point. But the story eventually comes to an end, the fireworks bloom as scheduled, the reality is not perfect, but the movie is perfect.
03
To be honest, when I first saw this movie, I really thought it was just another ordinary domestic comedy.
But Dapeng completely subverted my opinion, and I finally saw an excellent domestic comedy in the theater that has a substance, laughter, and no intelligence, and has a level of comedy, character shaping, and dramatic conflict.
Under the premise of such high visibility, Dapeng has always insisted on his own expression, that is, "a word can really kill a girl", our society needs Wei Pingan, and we need to stop online violence.
The movie will remind people of Chen Kaige's "Search", but the main thing that promotes public opinion in "Search" is netizens in the traditional media era, but this film is a rumor from the media era how to "seek wealth and kill people", and now the cost of rumors is much lower than back then, and the harm caused is even more incomparable.
Watching Zhang Jingchu's live broadcast in the previous paragraph, she told about her experience of being rumored and firmly believing in the process of rights protection, and spent several years just to prove a innocence, a star's road to rights protection and rumors is so difficult, not to mention ordinary people.
The law is particular about who claims and who proves evidence. But in real life, rumors don't care about that. Even if it is a nonsense that comes out of nowhere, there are always people who swear to spread it, and some people believe it and enjoy it tirelessly.
No matter how strong the evidence presented by the rumor-mongers, there are always people who are skeptical. Moreover, how can a party who has not done anything prove that he has not done a thing?
The inspiration for Dapeng's storytelling comes from the real event of the courier privately opening the female package on the Internet, and once the rumor comes out, women, especially beautiful women, are always unable to escape the public's colored glasses, the cost of rumors is low, and the cost of refuting rumors is very high.
But how many people in real life can run a statement for "Han Lu" like Wei Pingan, regardless of personal loss?
The online world robs traffic and eats human blood steamed buns from time to time, and such incidents frequently appear on hot searches, touching the sensitive nerves of the public again and again.
But malicious intent on women is still everywhere online, and if you are not careful, you will be violated.
They can spread rumors and harass at best, and at worst they will be depressed, violent, and even engulfed.
And everything often stems from small evils.
The movie does not "beautify" life, and the starting point of the story is just a little grandstanding vanity and a little monetizable traffic.
But no matter how difficult it is to refute rumors, we must also believe that there is true love in the world. If everyone thinks that refuting rumors cannot be done, if they do not do it, this world will be even more unlivable for women.
On the Internet, there is a powder keg full of rumors, everyone is addicted to it, and everyone suffers from it.
The 112 minutes of "Keep You Safe" are the beginning of deep healing.
Dapeng polished the story well, and although the film uses a lot of comedy, it will not make people feel frivolous and suspended, because of these real realistic details.
Spread rumors with one mouth, refute rumors and run off legs. It is a grotesque communication circle in the Internet age.
But how we treat rumors determines who we are.
When you wipe your tears and walk out of the theater, when reality penetrates your heart, the whole film has saved up for almost two hours before it really goes up, and the pictures and emotions outside the frame also flood into your heart.
Some people say that if you live in a lifetime, you will die three times. When the gas is broken, it represents physical death; When buried, it represents social death; When the name is completely forgotten, it is the real death. Who doesn't want to be remembered? But how can one not be denied because of the stigma of death?
You can only believe, but do good deeds and do not ask about the future.
Just like Wei Pingan still remembers Han Lu, Dapeng still remembers the name at the end of the movie.
Debunking rumors breaks our legs, but as long as we are kind enough, we can beat rumors – we can't stop them from happening, but never let them control them.
Even if you can't do the "fireworks" that illuminate the world, don't do the hurtful "snowflakes". At the very least, do what Wei Pingan said, "Say that people are not good enough to have evidence."
The fireworks blooming on the river at the end of the movie are moving, and the "small kindness of ordinary people" outside the movie keeps you safe.