"Word of mouth exploded! It is called the "medicine god level" of the annual Chinese film! "
"Baike (Wang Sledgehammer) is about to soar!"
Since the Pingyao Film Festival in 2020, "More Than Endless" has become a big hit in the film industry.
He has won the "Best Film Nomination in the Horizon Unit" and the "Best Director Award" at the Pingyao Film Festival at the Venice Film Festival.
In addition, the Cairo, Warsaw, and Toronto film festivals have also frequently received good news, and they have raised expectations before they have been released.
Fans who watched this movie were pleasantly surprised, some said that it was comparable to the 2018 god film "I Am Not the God of Medicine", and some said that the starring Baike could successfully transform with this film.
What's more, simply predict that Baike can become a future actor.
However, the film was originally scheduled to be released in the fall of that year, but suddenly there was no news, which was a full 3 years.
Industry insiders revealed that because of the sensitive subject matter, "More than Endless" has undergone countless deletions and revisions in the past three years.
Unexpectedly, this drag had an unexpected gain, and Zhang Songwen, who was still unknown at the time of filming, suddenly exploded with a "Crazy" at the beginning of the year.
The film side also knows how to take advantage of the situation, and temporarily enlarged Zhang Songwen's poster before the release.
On March 24, the "More than Endless", which has whetted the appetite of fans for three years, was finally released.
However, compared with the miraculous box office results of "I Am Not the God of Medicine", "More than Endless" is obviously sorry for its title of "Little Medicine God".
As of press time, the box office of "More than Endless" on the first day was only 8.65 million, counting the results of more than ten days of screenings in the previous ten days, it was only 16.77 million box office, which is really dwarfed by the box office of the imported product "Journey to the Bell Buds" that exceeded 100 million.
The total box office forecast given by professional media for "More than Endless" is only 130 million.
Of course, just because the box office is not good, does not mean that the movie is not good.
After the release of "More than Endless", the score was 7.4 points, which is already a fairly high score for a domestic drama film, and judging by the audience's evaluation, the film is also worth entering the cinema.
So, how did such a high-scoring masterpiece with a reputation comparable to "Medicine God" fail miserably at the box office?
Little "Medicine God"? I don't quite agree
From the story level, the plot of "More Than Ending" is very simple.
(Spoiler alert)
.
The story is set in Beijing in 2003, just after SARS.
"Han Dong" played by Bai Ke is a Beipiao ethnic group who traveled thousands of miles from the northeast to Beijing to make a living, determined to become a journalist, but his education is not enough.
After leaving high school, he hit a wall everywhere, and was always dissuaded by his academic qualifications before he could introduce himself.
Later, by chance, Han Dong accidentally got an internship opportunity at "Beijing Daily" and studied under "Huangjiang" (played by Zhang Songwen).
Huang Jiang is an old reporter with excellent ability, in order to get first-hand information, he can eat and drink without thinking, and collect evidence at the scene of the incident 700 kilometers away, and regard the objectivity of the reporter as the first law.
After being put under Huangjiang, Han Dong began his internship career day and night, in order to fulfill his dream, he even worked harder than Huangjiang, and basically worked in his life except for eating and sleeping.
One day, a mining accident occurred in Shanxi, killing and injuring countless workers.
After Huang Jiang got the news, he took Han Dong to Shanxi non-stop, and disguised himself as a worker, experiencing first-hand the families of the workers who were heartbroken after the disaster, as well as the cunning and indifferent coal boss who measured his life in money.
After this battle, Han Dong wrote a wonderful and exciting front-page article when he was an intern.
But this experience also made Han Dong realize that the identity of a reporter is far weaker than he thought.
Although in the era of "paper media is king", as newspaper reporters, they went to the front line with their pens and were called the "uncrowned kings" of society.
But all they can do is restore the truth as much as possible.
Not mixing personal emotions is the golden rule for journalists.
"Feelings are not news, facts are news, compassion will only affect your judgment of news," Huang Jiang told Han Dong.
But Han Dong is an idealist by nature.
Later, Han Dong followed up on a blood selling incident, and Shunteng found a dark line of "testing for hepatitis B".
For this front page, Han Dong entered Longtan, broke into the tiger's den, did not hesitate to personally participate in blood selling and proxy inspections, and even became good friends with the criminal leader, and even developed into a downline.
However, in the process of investigation, Han Dong was stunned to find that his own Xiao Zhang Bo was a consumer of "proxy inspection".
Because of his father's dereliction of duty, Zhang Bo contracted the hepatitis B virus since he was a child, and although he was diligent and studious all the way to college students, he still did not work for many years after graduation, and was fired as soon as he reached the physical examination stage.
Zhang Bo did not accept his life and decided to go to a higher level in graduate school, but this road still requires a physical examination.
Finally, Zhang Bo, a law student, did not hesitate to contact the black intermediary in private to help check the sky and cross the sea.
But what he never expected was that there was a friend, reporter Han Dong, sitting on the bus with him.
When the report is sent, the friends will be ruined, but if they do not send it, they will also be eliminated by the newspaper.
With friends on one side and dreams on the other, Han Dong is in a dilemma.
At the same time, his life is also difficult because he can't make ends meet, and he is even more ashamed of his girlfriend who accompanied him to Beijing.
Later, during the in-depth investigation, Han Dong was surprised to find that the transmission rate of hepatitis B was seriously exaggerated.
Hepatitis B is transmitted through only three ways: mother-to-child, blood, and sex, and infection does not occur in daily life.
Just because of people's ignorance and the exaggeration of the black hospital, hepatitis B has become a flood beast, everyone is terrified, and even developed into "hepatitis B discrimination".
Once sick, it means being abandoned by society.
Due to his incomplete report, Han Dong finally chose to refuse to publish and was dismissed by the newspaper.
But Han Dong still did not give up his duty as a reporter, continued to investigate the case as a free man, and made public the true situation of the 120 million hepatitis B carriers in China.
With this passion, at the end of the movie, Han Dong was finally recognized by the newspaper and released the article, making great efforts to eliminate "hepatitis B discrimination" in China and popularize the work task of hepatitis B.
Two
The movie takes "hepatitis B discrimination" as the main line, which is the collective memory of 20 years ago, and even the aftermath is still lingering.
In 1970, there were 40 million hepatitis B carriers on the mainland, which is the normal level in the world.
But in the 90s, because of imperfect medical equipment and vigorous development of vaccine popularization, many departments used one needle per class to complete the task, and young children became seedlings for virus breeding.
At the same time, because drug research and development requires a large amount of plasma, black intermediaries have developed into "paid blood donation", selling blood to earn money has become popular, and in this chaotic state, hepatitis B virus has spread wildly again.
At its peak, the total number of people, including patients and carriers, reached 120 million, with one virus carrier for every ten people.
As the virus surfaced, it was followed by collective fear.
On the premise of not understanding the hepatitis B virus, the whole society is afraid of the virus, coupled with the explicit restrictions of relevant laws, it has expanded the public's fear of hepatitis B.
When fear accumulates to a certain extent, it will turn into discrimination, and people will begin to spontaneously restrict the activities of hepatitis B patients.
Schooling, employment, marriage.... Even daily consumption places do not accept hepatitis B patients and carriers.
"Big three yang" and "small three yang" have become the most popular keywords nowadays, when people are found to be hepatitis B virus, it means that they are abandoned by the society collectively, can only be reduced to marginal life, and even isolated to suicide.
This situation did not change until after 2003.
Hepatitis B patients spontaneously create forums, help each other, and actively expand social attention, popularize the transmission of hepatitis B, eliminate the fear of the masses, and then the official also stepped down, taking the lead in breaking the employment restrictions of hepatitis B patients, slowly until now, hepatitis B is finally no longer a banned word, patients have also got the freedom they deserve.
Three
In addition to Bai Ke, Zhang Songwen and Miao Miao, who has not appeared for a long time, the behind-the-scenes team of this film also has a lot to offer.
The director's name is Wang Jing, of course, this Wang Jing is not Wang Jing, he is Jia Zhangke's royal assistant director, has participated in films such as "Mountains and Rivers Departed", "Children of Jianghu" and other films, and can be regarded as Jia Zhangke's proud protégé.
This film is also his first directorial debut after "Children of the Rivers and Lakes".
In addition, director of photography Yu Liwei, soundtrack Hanno Yoshihiro, art Liu Weixin, producer Zhang Dong are also the original team of Jia Zhangke.
And Chief Jia himself not only served as a producer, but also made a cameo appearance as an arrogant and domineering coal boss in the film, which can be described as well-intentioned.
Judging from the outline of the story, it is not far-fetched to compare "More than Endless" with "Medicine God".
"Medicine God" is about a group of patients who have been hollowed out of their savings by sky-high prices of drugs and can only buy smuggled drugs "immorally", while the protagonist chooses to take risks in order to save thousands of patients.
"More than Endless" tells the story of hepatitis B patients who are demonized by society and discriminated against, and intermediaries develop "proxy inspection lines" out of sympathy, and the protagonist chooses to give up his career in order to help them.
Neither film is strictly bad guys, the same is the social debate of procedural justice vs consequential justice.
But, to say that "More Than Endless" is comparable to "Medicine God", it is still a little meaningless.
The first thing to say is that "More Than End" is indeed a good movie, because the team is very mature, the production is impeccable in all angles, and the photography is remarkable.
But the script is still too weak.
Compared with the natural script of "Medicine God", the performance of "More than Endless" is a little too thin, and the movie is 117 minutes long, but it only tells a single-line story of an idealist sticking to his original intention, and there are too few points to watch.
The same is to compare "Medicine God".
Cheng Yong (the protagonist of the God of Medicine) went from speculation to deep understanding of righteousness, shouldering the broken corners of the entire society, and then angrily left the table to return to his own life, and finally couldn't resist his original intention, and gave everything to maintain justice in his heart.
The protagonist line alone is wonderful, flesh and blood, and we can see anyone's shadow.
And the protagonist of "More Than Ending" has no arc at all, and in the book "Creating a Character Arc", it belongs to the author Katie . Wieland's summary of the standard "flat arc" character goes all the way to the dark.
Of course, the script is different, and the characters are not forced to be consistent.
But the problem is that the other characters in "More than Endless" are not too rich.
Huang Jiang is used to elicit the following, Zhang Bo is used to stimulate contradictions, and each character is hastily taken offline after completing the task, and the instrumentality is too obvious.
What's even more outrageous is his girlfriend Xiaozhu, who did not participate in the development of the main line throughout the film, and even if she was removed, it didn't have any impact, it seemed to be just to portray the hard work of the protagonist.
Purposefulness, or even "utilitarianism", is too direct.
In addition to the lackluster character, the loose performance of the script is also very obvious.
It is necessary to portray the origin of the male protagonist, and it is necessary to focus on the bitterness of the male protagonist, but it takes so much ink to make use of it, which is really confusing.
What puzzles me the most is the contradiction of the main line.
The male protagonist did not write about the real situation of hepatitis B patients, in fact, there is not much conflict with the profession of a journalist, and the reason why he did not write is also attributed to himself that "it has not been found when the manuscript is delivered", and there is no fundamental contradiction.
If he had found and written it at the beginning, it would have been likely to be published as well, and the protagonist's so-called sacrifice would have been downplayed even more.
If the script is more refined, the useless pen is cut off, and the theme is deeper, perhaps it will perform better.
Four
Of course, I would like to reiterate one sentence.
Although "More Than Endless" is not as good as "Medicine God", it is still a good movie, and if I had to choose, I would buy a ticket to watch it.
Wang Jing is different from Wen Muye, who has crawled in the capital circle, and his brushstrokes are full of literature.
Under the influence of literary film giant Jia Zhangke, Wang Jing obviously wants to retain the documentary and objectivity of literary and art films than Wen Muye, who "understands what the audience wants to see, so I shoot something", and does not hesitate to sacrifice the commercial value brought by emotional amplification, which is worthy of recognition.
It is also important to emphasize that this movie has been deleted for three years, and perhaps the version we are watching now is not the cheerful "me" we were at the beginning, and the script full of loopholes is not the original intention of the creator.
Then again,
A movie about hepatitis B discrimination, which was filmed in 2020 and will not be released until 2023, is quite a movie in itself.
To paraphrase the comments of fans.
Although it is 3 years late, it can be released, which shows that the "loosening" in some places is indeed happening, and the film industry will also progress and explode again. ”
"More than Endless" has more significance for fans, because in this post-epidemic era, people can still glimpse their own experiences and catharsis through the ghosting of 20 years ago.
At least movies can still move people, don't they?
- End of full text.