As a zombie-themed plot masterpiece that has been widely recognized since the PS3 era, "The Last of Us" is an insurmountable gap in the hearts of countless players.
HBO adapted this IP into a TV series of the same name, which has maintained a Douban score of 9.1 since its launch for a month, with a 100% freshness score on Rotten Tomatoes, and a high score of 9.2 on IMDB.
In fact, "game adaptations" are often difficult to buy game audiences, which have extremely high requirements for plot restoration, and adaptations are more likely to take the clichéd path of the original plot.
Therefore, "The Last of Us" chose a steady and steady adaptation method is undoubtedly the most successful.
In zombie-themed film and television works, typed production has created an impeccable plot formula: the doomsday escape theme of "Uncle + Lori" can meet the needs of various circles.
But in "The Last of Us", this perfect score formula is no longer as monotonous as before, but gives the audience a new experience.
It also achieved almost a perfect score after the third episode aired, and set a record for the highest viewership increase for an HBO original series.
The main line basically follows the opening plot of the game: the audience witnesses the step-by-step crisis on the day of the disaster from the main perspective of the daughter, and the screenwriter does not show too much chaotic scenes.
It was not until after the rollover accident, the girl was shot by soldiers in front of her eyes, the main perspective gradually shifted to the male protagonist Joel, and the sad story of the unfortunate loss of his daughter was not indifferent because of the passage of time for twenty years, but stimulated his insensitive heart.
It all happened so quickly that the audience received no stimulation or wake-up. The tone of this apocalypse is too silent, hearing, sight, and smell flow away like a tide in this dead and silent world, but the initial moment of noisy war gives the survivors some hope.
Unlike traditional zombie dramas, the zombie group is not overly displayed in the half-season of "The Last of Us", which reduces the violent visual impact. In the uninhabited apocalyptic moment, the silent sense of silence will cause people to have deep fear, and the test of human nature in a state of nervous tension is more cautious.
Joel leaves quarantine with survivor girl Ellie, who in his eyes is cargo, immune to saving the world, but never a living person standing in front of him.
Perhaps it was Joel's guilt for his own daughter, or perhaps the soldier's action outside the city that awakened a nightmare in his memory (his daughter was shot), and he killed the innocent soldier with his bare hands.
Since then, Joel's instinctive protection of Ellie has turned Ellie's hatred of him into a dependence and approval.
She was born in the world after the outbreak of the zombie virus, and has not experienced normal life under the traditional order, and darkness is the main theme of the apocalyptic present, but Joel's appearance makes her aware of all aspects of complex human nature.
Ellie is the hope of the world, and the first half of the sign in the room where she is held is written "When you're lost in the darkness".
Maybe she was born in the light and could have spent this life in confusion, but she and Joel accidentally walked into each other's lives.
Joel commits irreparable mistakes again and again, so when he sees the second half of the slogan, "Look for the light", the fire in his heart is rekindled, and the redemption of the doomsday and present begins.
As a rule, it should have been the ultimate tragedy in the final Japanese language, but with the third episode airing, let's re-examine the pattern of this new drama.
The controversy over the third episode has caused huge storms at home and abroad, and as Joel and Ellie gradually embark on the road of seeking light, the director chose to tell the audience a romantic song in the end of the day in an entire episode.
The story takes place just after the outbreak of the infection crisis, Bill, as a "survivalist", did not choose to flee wantonly, but really lived in a "utopia" that he built that was both offensive and defensive. The audience began to ask questions about whether there really is an end in this slow-paced life?
The series uses sliced slices of life to show the audience the lone poet of the apocalypse.
At a time when survival has become an unattainable threshold, Bill is enjoying steak wine, enjoying the sun jumping and "burning" on his skin, but this peaceful life is completely broken by a stranger four years later.
The person who fell into the trap was named Frank, and although Bill resisted the human recovery brought about by communication in absolute caution, the cramped and uncomfortable honesty of the other party made Bill realize the gap between "life" and "survival".
Then the audience forgot the sadness of the end again under the affection of the two bearded men.
Doomsday breaks the traditional social model of order and slowly establishes a new order outside of consciousness.
It is difficult to judge whether there is a so-called love between two people, but Frank's behavior is more like a "refugee" who exploited the loopholes of order. For me, this episode is very good, and in my opinion, what the audience who reviews badly hates is not form, which means that they are not against the ups and downs of the rhythm, but reject the romantic love of two men.
Frank was a natural romantic, but Bill was realist, jogging together, eating strawberries together, and playing carols together.
But when Frank invites Joel and Tess as guests, Bill puts the shotgun on the table, and in a stable and coordinated environment, the invasion of outsiders often means disaster.
Whatever was the first idea of young Frank to come to this "utopia"? At least at dusk, the two survivors cherished each other under the apocalypse, becoming the only weakness under Bill's hard armor.
There is no doomsday scene; There is no zombie horde; There is also no hustle and bustle of war ... It seems that such a life is more like an anthem under an idyllic drama, paralyzing the neural networks of survivors under the zombie apocalypse. Bill made lunch for Frank for the first time, carefully plating and turning the direction of the food, which was the "bottom line of life" that remained in his heart.
Twenty years later, the ailing Frank slowly swaps identities with Bill, and he becomes the sober realist, begging Bill at the end of his life to pour poison into his glass.
And Bill still carefully plated and turned the direction of the food, and for the first time his body was filled with the atmosphere of romantic coexistence.
After pouring the poison, Bill firmly and unabashedly knocked on the glass, and a utopian dream gradually came to an end in silent despair. This sound has become a "checkmate word" that is difficult for Bill who is not good at words and timid to express his true feelings.
"This is not a tragic suicide to grab a horse, I'm old, I'm content... You are the meaning of my existence. The weight of this line is enough to impress all the audience, and at this moment, the meaning of "love" is no longer the love between two men, but the dependence without regret and the great love of human beings in the estranged apocalypse.
In the first three episodes of "The Last of Us" that should have attracted the audience the most, he did not choose a curious and exciting way to leave the audience, but slowly let the audience find the meaning of "The Last Survivor". Bill and Frank guard each other's "last survivors" in their lives; Joel and Ellie also sublimate the meaning of "guardianship".
In such an unreal fairytale forest, it is difficult for us to let go of our defenses based on reality, and the game between life and death lingers between five fingers. The confrontation between humans and zombies is nothing more than a prisoner's dilemma from a preventive perspective, and as the camera slowly passes through the drifting window, the languid sunlight sings a silent ode to the protagonist of the story like an idealized romance.
As Bill left in his suicide note: "We keep the windows open so that the house doesn't smell... I hated the world, and I was happy when everyone died. But I was wrong, because there is another person who is worth saving, I saved him, and then I protect him, and that's what it means to think that people like you and me exist. ”