"Gentle Shell": I felt the power of expression that has been absent from the film for a long time

In "Gentle Shell", we feel the power of expression that has been absent from the film for a long time, a sense of extreme character portrayal, a life that uses love to soothe the trapped. The two protagonists resist the real difficulties while doing their best to create an ordinary life, facing the incomprehension and obstruction of their families in the ruins of life. Feel the reflection of fireworks in the puddles of life, skim obsessions in the difficult jungle. A film that is difficult to set but has excellent directorial techniques, actors' performances, and technical skills.

Wang Ziwen and Yin Fang, the two main actors appeared from the beginning, their emaciated appearance and performance rhythm quickly created suspense, especially a scene where the male protagonist untied his heart, the director chose to present it with a performance without lines, the estrangement of the first scene where the female protagonist and the male protagonist met in a nursing home, to the closeness of the relationship between the two, these scenes rarely present a very life-like treatment. Especially watching the movie to the middle and late stages, you will only be amazed, this is the power of the movie.

Author: Lan Er

Editor: Prince Zhi

Format: Wang Wei

In the film market, romance films have never been scarce, but what is scarce is that stories that can truly reveal this emotional texture.

From winning the award at the Pingyao Film Festival in January to bravely entering the love file battlefield at the end of May, the "Gentle Shell", which is not huge, has left a touch of its own.

Here, love does not become a slogan, ism, or spectacle.

The most fundamental story of "Gentle Shell" is actually about two little people with mental troubles and living at the bottom, who walk out of the black hole of life. In such a story, director and screenwriter Wang Mu takes the audience to feel together, in the bright light of life, in the hope and helpless life situation, the most simple and pure texture of love, and the power it can really transmit.

The "gentle shell" is not only a protective shell that is gentle enough, but also a shell that protects this gentle shell with force, saving and protecting each other.

Jue Xiao and Dai Chun are the two protagonists in this story. A depressed patient, a person with bipolar disorder, they support each other to try to get out of the abyss, just become a tempering of "love".

The initial birth of love may be very simple and small.

Jue Xiao was abandoned by her mother since she was a child, and her desire for family and mother's love made her alienated and world-weary. He was rescued by Dai Chun in a nursing home, which became the beginning of their acquaintance.

In the first half of the film, the germination of the emotions between the two seems to be the same as all hazy period love, and I don't know what to do and have been in love.

For a little curiosity about a person, some quiet attention in daily life, a silent solitary companionship on the rooftop, a gift from an apple, a funny trick, an emotional singing, a blatant "escape" together... Their fragile and sensitive hearts may be more perceivable and longing for those subtle emotions on a deep level, and in that humble sanatorium, in a lonely life, these small touches are nothing to add color to the pale life.

Dai Chunxian acted as a redeemer and protector, injecting new meaning and light into the life of Awakening, and also brought a different future to the lives of both people. But after love initially sprouted briskly, after it came out of the limited protection of the special space of the nursing home, when the two people wanted to go on seriously and for a long time, all the real-life dilemmas that had been temporarily covered up were reopened, and the cruel test of love poured in.

In the second half of the film, the protector and the protected are reversed, and the difficult guardianship of love begins. The two set up their own families, worked hard to integrate into normal social life, worked to earn money to support the family. In this process, Dai Chun, who has been deeply injured by his father's violence since childhood, troubled by his mother's suicide, and has a bipolar tendency, is more susceptible to external stimuli and unstable. In the worsening illness caused by life embarrassment, father-son conflicts, work accidents, etc., Juexiao became Dai Chun's "medicine", stabilizing him again and again, helping Dai Chun to break the magic barrier in his heart little by little, and opening and closing the "door" that imprisoned him.

Such a story, for the occurrence, growth and test of love, can be said to be the most simple situation, because it is out of the complicated context brought by today's era - such as people's need to choose between the temptation of the big world, the great future of infinite possibilities, and a young emotion, just return to the most basic life of people; But it can also be said to be the most complex situation, because they are in a very powerless bottom predicament, because the normal order of life is precisely the most difficult and unstable thing for them, and they need to repair and rebuild again and again.

But it is precisely this special state that can penetrate the complicated phenomena of modern society, and it is rare to reveal the texture of true feelings. For example, those who get the greatest warmth in eating three meals a day and sharing a piece of mooncake; The preciousness of a watch that may be extremely cheap but can thoughtfully cover the scars on your lover's wrist; The joyful release of dancing with lovers and strangers in the park in the warm autumn sun...

In this process, in these simple bits and pieces of daily life, love really starts the "repair" of the broken body and mind. The common unfortunate growth process, the serious lack of love, stability, and security, so that they have a huge hole in their hearts, two similar people accompany each other, in their own small space, understand and comfort each other in the simplest way, and make each other feel warm with the purest kindness. When their original family and relatives seem to want to push away or stay away from them, another person approaches with the warmest smile, and they finally find the sustenance and support they can have in life again, which may be the "truth" of their love.

It is worth mentioning that at the same time, the complexity of the intimate relationship between the emotionally distressed people interpreted in the film around the respective family relationships between Juexiao and Dai Chun can also be seen as a refraction of long-term life, reminding that the future of this love may still be difficult. The Dai Chun family, which was once hurt and broken by his father's similar illness, the disappointment of his aunt, who was raised by Juexiao but could not really run in with his niece, and the exhausted abandonment of his younger brother Dai He, who had long suffered from his father and brother's illness, all truly tell the difficulty of emotional relationships in these special group families. While contrasting with the precious emotional temperature between Dai Chun and each other, they also silently indicate that behind the temporary end of the film, those real long-term emotions will face more tests.

"Gentle Shell" is actually buried in cruel life and reality, but the main creator represented by director Wang Mu hopes to give people in reality care in a more gentle way, so in the work, it is full of poetic creative intentions about "protection, healing, reconciliation".

What is impressive in the film is the many portrayals of mental imagery.

Typical such as the crab and the little girl, it is one of the most important images in the film, and it is also an important symbol that echoes the theme. In Dai Chun's dream, the little girl builds a sand castle on the beach by the sea to protect the weak crab in the molt, which is Juexiao's protection for Dai Chun's gentle and fragile heart; Dai Chuntuo's carrying the little girl into the sea and swimming farther represents his protection of Jue Xiao and their future children.

Another example is the use of "birds" and "flying" to signal inner difficulties and freedom, and through the formation of many echoes of psychological changes in characters.

After entering the nursing home, the kindness of her first new friend, Pony, is that Pony tells her that she hears birds cooing in her body, which means that Jue Xiao is trapped in her heart; When they reunite after their respective lives are returned, Pony tells her that she doesn't hear the birds anymore, but instead feels something new—a sign of the gradual improvement of her heart and the fact that she is welcoming the arrival of her child.

At the same time, the flight of birds has also become a key action for Juexiao and Dai Chun to redeem each other. In the first half, when Dai Chun took Juexiao to find her hometown, he comforted her in the dark night, helped her "release" the bird in her heart, and let Juexiao truly open his heart to him for the first time and have acceptance; At the end of the film, after Dai Chun has just recovered from an extremely serious illness, it is Juexiao who makes the same release action to him, imitating the birds flying happily, guiding Dai Chun to start a new life restart.

The main creators convey healing and reconciliation in silence in the film, and the cycle of life is an important keyword. The death of his father, who had been frightened by Dai Chun for half his life, and the arrival of his own child, formed a reconciliation and rebirth between life and death. The abandonment of her mother, who had been suffering from herself, finally let go after she became pregnant, after she realized that she had become a new "mother", that she could be a good mother, and that she could find her own intimate connection. Although these reconciliations are wrapped in the soft light idealized by the creators, they may be the greatest comfort they can deliver to people who are in the difficult situation of the past.