The film market was generally depressed in March.
The highest-grossing movie "Keep You Safe" has a box office of only 450 million, which is in stark contrast to the prosperity of the Spring Festival file.
But near the end of the month, a "dark horse" suddenly killed, which cheered everyone up.
This is the new film starring Bai Ke and Zhang Songwen, "More Than End".
The film is a small-budget film directed by newcomers.
After the filming was completed, it was hidden in the snow for 3 years, telling about topics such as "news newspapers", "coal mine accidents", and "hepatitis B discrimination".
这些话题有个共同特点，都很敏感，且都很有年代感。
This seems to doom "More than Endless" to be a niche movie.
But in fact, it has attracted a huge amount of attention.
Pico found that before the mystery was unveiled, the film had at least three major highlights.
First, the director of "More Than Endless" is Wang Jing, and the producer is Jia Zhangke.
This Wang Jing is not the Hong Kong director Wang Jing we are familiar with.
He is the younger brother of Jia Zhangke, and previously served as an assistant director in Jia Zhangke's "Mountains and Rivers Departed", "Destiny" and "Children of the Rivers and Lakes".
Therefore, "More Than Endless" can also be regarded as a realistic work with a strong Jia Zhangke style.
Jia Zhangke himself also made a cameo role in the film.
However, this "oolong coincidence" misleads many people.
Many people really think that Wang Jing and Jia Zhangke in Hong Kong have cooperated, and the film has added some topicality.
Second, "More Than Endless" has a description, "I Am Not the God of Medicine in 2023".
In 2018, "I Am Not the God of Medicine" was a great success after its release and became the most influential domestic film in the past 10 years.
《不止不休》是在2019年开拍的，就是以《我不是药神》为模板的，都是讲述一个小人物凭借一腔孤勇，对抗不合理的医疗制度。
《我不是药神》对准的是慢粒白血病患者，《不止不休》聚焦的是乙肝携带者。
慢粒白血病患者毕竟是少数，但中国近十分之一的人是乙肝携带者，对这个话题应该是更深刻的体会。
So if "More Than Endless" is filmed well, it may even surpass "I Am Not the God of Medicine".
Third, and most importantly.
There is Zhang Songwen in "More Than Endless".
It is also wonderful to say that "More than Endless" was filmed in 2019, and Zhang Songwen had just become famous in the circle with Lou Ye's "A Cloud Made of Rain in the Wind", but he was not a big name.
When filming this play, Zhang Songwen was only a supporting role, there were not many scenes, and after the film was completed, the original poster did not even put him on.
Subsequently, "More than Endless" underwent 3 deletions and was hidden in the snow for 3 years.
In the past 3 years, Zhang Songwen has been popular for one year.
First known to the audience for his father's role in "Hidden Corner";
Later, he participated in "Home of the Heart" and "Sweeping Black Decisive Battle", officially entering the front line;
This year, he even relied on the drama "Crazy" to completely get out of the circle and become the hottest actor at the moment.
In February, half a month after the end of "Crazy", "More Than Endless" was also officially announced.
This old film became Zhang Songwen's first work after "Crazy", and the attention naturally soared.
The film party bet on the treasure, naturally will not miss this gimmick.
We noticed that in the latest poster, Zhang Songwen occupies half of the country, and the starring Baike has formed a "double hero showdown" mode.
Huang Bo once said that no one cared before he became popular, and he was surrounded by good people after becoming popular.
Zhang Songwen once had no drama to film, and at the age of 40 he could not afford to buy a house in Beijing, but now he became famous overnight and was immediately held in the C position.
From this poster, we can also spy on the warmth and coldness of the entertainment industry.
At the Beijing premiere of "Never Stopping", we also saw Gao Qiqiang's "family and friends group" in the crew of "Crazy".
Gao Qisheng's actor Su Xiaoyue, Gao Qilan's actor Long Ni, Tang Xiaolong's actor Lin Jiachuan, and Lao Mo's actor Feng Bing were all present to support, adding a fire to this film.
Unfortunately, despite the full attention, the topic is full of topics.
But "Endless" did not live up to expectations.
After the film was released, Douban opened with a score of 7.4 points, and it has now fallen to 7.3 points.
As a realistic work, this score is decent.
Let's look at the box office level.
Just over 40 million in 3 days of release, the final box office is estimated to be only more than 60 million.
There is a grade gap with "I Am Not the God of Medicine".
Why didn't "Stopping" become that dark horse?
In Pico's view, movies can be simply and crudely divided into three categories: good films, bad films and passing films.
"Endless" belongs to the fourth category.
It is obviously a good story, but because of the immaturity of the director, it became a mediocre work.
The texture presented in the film does not look like the work of a mature director.
More like the graduation work of a film school graduate -
The workmanship is neat, the imitation traces are heavy, and the excessive sense of collage makes the theme scattered and lacks stamina.
The first deficiency is that it commits the problem of not distinguishing between primary and secondary in the narrative.
The film has two "story lines".
One is the "journalist line".
That is, the protagonist played by Bai Ke, from a junior high school graduate, through hard work, has grown step by step into an excellent newspaper reporter.
Realized his "journalistic ideal".
The second line is the "hepatitis B line".
The reporter went deep into the group of hepatitis B carriers and spoke up for China's 100 million people with the power of one person.
Obviously, in the era of the lonely print media, the public has long been unfamiliar with the so-called "journalistic ideal".
In this era, journalists have also been replaced by ubiquitous self-media.
So the first line is difficult to have much appeal to the current audience.
However, in the post-pandemic era, the public is very concerned about public health.
The second "hepatitis B line" can be given a new meaning at this node, which is worth writing about.
It is a pity that the director focused on the first line at the beginning, telling the history of a small character's struggle.
The way of telling is still the most boring one.
The protagonist took the junior Chinese as a North Drifter, and was discriminated against by academic qualifications at the job fair;
Landed, as a result, the power lines of the group rental house were burned, and they were taken to the police station for questioning without a temporary residence permit, and they were kicked out of the rental house, and they were sad with their girlfriend as a whole.
Anyway, all kinds of unfortunate things in the early stage were encountered by him.
Later, by chance, he entered the newspaper office, and then recommended himself, and just happened to be bumped by a senior reporter played by Zhang Songwen.
When I asked, I learned that the protagonist often posts in the forum, Zhang Songwen happened to be a forum moderator, and he had once put a post by a young man, so the protagonist "made an exception" and got an internship place.
Then the protagonist went deep into the front line, wrote a deafening article, defeated a group of Qingbei graduates, and became a reporter for a major newspaper.
It's really a golden scale, a thing in the pool, and it turns into a dragon when it encounters a storm.
Unfortunately, such a cliché inspirational story has been told rotten, and the audience's touch will not last long.
The second line of the film should have been the focus, but the film began halfway through.
Because the two threads are not well sutured, the feeling of cutting is severe.
The film seems to have suddenly changed from a character biopic to a medical drama.
Compared with "I Am Not the God of Medicine", everyone can understand this difference.
Although "I Am Not the God of Medicine" was originally about Cheng Yong's downfall, the medical theme has begun to be laid down very early.
For example, Cheng Yong was worried about his father's surgery.
In addition, because Cheng Yong has been to India, he extended Lu Hui's door-to-door for help, and Lu Hui's appearance was also very early.
After the "daigou" story, the appearance of a number of patients can come naturally.
This kind of storytelling technique naturally does not make the audience feel divided.
Mistakes were made in "More Than End".
The topic of hepatitis B in the second half suddenly came out, a bit of forced grafting realism, which moved the audience.
And because of the length, the second line is also poorly spread.
For example, the director is very chicken thief, and makes a distinction between "hepatitis B carrier" and "hepatitis B patient", only speaking for the former, and the latter is directly omitted.
For example, in the popular science of hepatitis B infection, the film talks about hepatitis B is mainly transmitted through mother-to-child, blood, and sex.
But AIDS is also these three forms of transmission, the purpose of the film is to eliminate everyone's misunderstanding of hepatitis B, but after watching it, everyone still knows little about hepatitis B.
Chinese has always preferred to believe it or not, and after watching the film, ordinary people's fear of hepatitis B is still the same.
For example, when telling the plight faced by hepatitis B carriers, the director is vague and refuses to elaborate on who they are bullied, but only uses symbolic lens language to explain the injustice they face.
It feels like a punch, but it hits cotton; It is also like participating in a trial, only the plaintiff is present, and the defendant is collectively absent.
For example, at the beginning, these hepatitis B carriers gathered together and were still complaining collectively.
But at the end, it seems that the director reminded them behind their backs that they have reached the point, and they immediately changed their faces to match the tall image of the protagonist.
In short, it can be summarized in four words as "scratching the itch of the boot".
The second deficiency is that the film is not three-dimensional enough in character shaping.
"I Am Not the God of Medicine" is successful because of the creation of vivid characters.
In addition to Cheng Yong played by Xu Zheng, there are Huang Mao played by Zhang Yu, the patient played by Wang Chuanjun, the policeman played by Zhou Wei, the patient's mother played by Tan Zhuo, and the fake expert played by Wang Yanhui.
It is almost a classic, and many supporting roles are not lacking in golden sentences.
But "More Than Ending" is simply disappointing in terms of characterization.
In the film, Zhang Bo, a hepatitis B patient, has a style reminiscent of Wang Chuanjun in "I Am Not the God of Medicine", but the actor does not have the realism of Wang Chuanjun.
The heroine Miao Miao was previously the starring actor of "Fang Hua", her appearance and acting skills are good, but she has been completely reduced to a tool man in the film.
When the protagonist's boyfriend is angry, she can't bear to speak; After the protagonist's boyfriend appeared, she laughed heartily.
I thought that the two would have a separate and combined emotional scene, but it really didn't (it may have been deleted).
Anyway, this character is soulless, at best, a high-level inflatable doll.
In addition, Qin Hailu, Zhou Yemang, Jia Zhangke, and even Fox, who is engaged in rap, have all played roles.
But it's all a quick glimpse, and there is no characterization to speak of.
Counting and counting, the film actually creates two characters.
One is the protagonist played by Baike.
Let's take a look at Xu Zheng in "I Am Not the God of Medicine", the protagonist he portrayed is a philistine who worships money and has a scheming.
But the key moment has undergone metamorphosis, full of a sense of justice, and the whole character is full of tension.
But the role played by Baike is a road to the black.
A junior high school graduate, but with a kind of book anger, the whole process is bitter, as if he wants to do something big as soon as he appears.
The transformation of this role has a major play.
He could have posted an article exposing hepatitis B testing to get front-page headlines, but decided to withdraw it because of what happened to his friends.
But we regret to see that this character did not grow from this event.
Before it was a burst of sense of justice, and then it was still a burst of sense of justice, and there was no contrast before and after, which made people forget after watching it.
This kind of "idealist" that is too monolithic is difficult to resonate with the audience.
The other is a senior reporter played by Zhang Songwen.
To some extent, many audiences are directed at him, and the "content" determines the success or failure of the entire film in the market.
Unfortunately, Zhang Songwen does not have many scenes.
The role created is also relatively single, that is, a journalist who is rational enough, but has journalistic ideals.
However, in a few scenes, Zhang Songwen still showed his superb acting skills.
The most explosive part of the whole film is his contribution.
The apprentice in the film believes that the hepatitis B proxy test is not the fault of those people, and wants to retract the manuscript, but the master does not allow it, and smashes the teacup on the table in a fit of anger.
There is a detail here, the hot water in the cup burned his hand, and the moment when Zhang Songwen's hand muscles trembled was very real.
Later, after a fierce confrontation between the master and apprentice, the apprentice insisted on retracting the manuscript, and the master removed the apprentice's press card and went straight to the typesetting colleague.
First calmly said "withdraw, thank you", which shows the cultivation of a journalist.
Immediately after that, he raised his head and left, and before going out, he roared heavily: "Withdraw!" ”
The entire newspaper was silent.
The whole film is flat and straightforward, and Zhang Songwen's scene is a rare climax point in the whole film.
It is worth mentioning that through the tidbits we can see how this play is performed, which was also designed by Zhang Songwen on the spot.
And told the director and Baike on the spot about the play, why it would be better to arrange it this way.
Baike later said, "I still benefited a lot and found a feeling."
Unfortunately, Zhang Songwen did not appear again in the later period.
If at the end of the film, he could add two scenes to assist his apprentice in publishing the article that speaks for hepatitis B patients, and say two sentences, the film will be better.
Unfortunately, Baike did not have him with him, and he seemed to be alone.
The characters in the entire film can't stand up, and the story becomes an empty shelf.
The third deficiency is that the film imitates too much of a patchwork trace.
New directors are often good at imitation, and this film is too, so "More than Endless" maintains a certain texture as a whole.
But also because of imitation, the patchwork traces of the film are too heavy and full of ingenuity.
Wang Jing is Jia Zhangke's younger brother, so the film as a whole presents a realistic style of Jia Zhangke.
The part where the protagonist goes to mine coal in Shanxi coal mines is more like a direct copy from Jia Zhangke's movie.
However, he lacked Jia Zhangke's heavy swordless skill.
Many times have to use the technique of commercial genre films to complete the narrative.
So the overall plot direction of the film is almost to copy "I am not the God of Medicine", and only learned the skin, not the essence.
In terms of grasp of the rhythm, the early stage is good, the second half is obviously out of proportion, and the emotional output is also inadequate.
Probably in order to increase the sense of realism, the director also implanted some interview videos of hepatitis B patients into the film, which was cleverly integrated with the plot, so that the film had some documentary texture.
Finally, the director also learned the surreal expression that Jia Zhangke likes to use.
For example, letting the pen fly in the air and the newspaper shuttling through the crowd immediately reminds people of the rockets rising in "The Good People of Three Gorges".
But compared with the casual stroke in "The Good People of Three Gorges", the treatment in this film is too deliberate, like middle school students writing essays deliberately adding some prepared metaphorical sentences.
Finally, Pico also wants to say.
The reason why "I Am Not the God of Medicine" can move hundreds of millions of viewers and become an epoch-making immortal chapter.
Not because of the protagonist Cheng Yong, nor because of the group of chronic leukemia patients.
These are just story perspectives and narrative vectors.
It can produce such strong stamina because it really touches the deepest concerns of the general public and the core of the current medical system.
It makes every viewer, after watching the movie, sedentary for a long time.
This is also the "large scale" that domestic films really need.
In contrast, these "buried truths" in "More than Endless" are really superficial and too empty.
These 3 deficiencies are also the 3 biggest regrets left by this movie.
Although "being cared for" hit Zhang Songwen's explosion, it failed to bet on the audience's current aesthetics.
It also led to the fact that the first dark horse in 2023 was not satisfactory at the box office.
Fortunately, newcomer director Wang Jing understands the truth that "it is better to hide ugliness than to hide".
Honestly imitating excellent works, shooting board by eye, although not shooting a good story brilliantly, but at least completed the task decently.
I think most audiences who walk out of the theater will give this assessment: good shot, but just good.
Unfortunately, after "Crazy", Zhang Songwen's first new work is an unspeakable surprise.
But don't forget, "More Than Endless" is actually an old film that has been backlogged for many years, and Lao Ji Fu is acting as a dark horse, which is somewhat reluctant in itself.
We look forward to the birth of Zhang Songwen's real new work.
I believe that at that time, "literary content" will become the same as "content" as the scale for judging the color of a work.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Office: A Chicken
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