"Looking for Her" subverts the glamorous image, can Shu Qi be crowned the queen of Jin Jue this time?
On the afternoon of June 14, the shortlisted film "Looking for Her" in the main competition unit of the Golden Goblet Award was released at the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival (hereinafter referred to as the Shanghai Film Festival). The film is the feature film debut written and directed by young director Chen Shizhong, with Donhe as the producer, starring Shu Qi, Bai Ke, Zhang Benyu and Lang Yueting.
From left: producer Donhe, starring Bai Ke, Shu Qi, director Chen Shizhong, starring Lang Yueting and Zhang Benyu
The film revolves around a bizarre case of missing babies in rural Guangdong.
Chen Fengdi (played by Shu Qi) and Lin Shen (played by Lang Yueting), two expectant mothers, gave birth to a baby girl in a simple health center.
The clinic was blown down in a pond by a storm, and Chen Fengdi desperately rescued a baby. She thought it was Lin Shen's child, and her own child was missing. In the process of searching for her daughter, Chen Fengdi encountered many obstacles from the clan, the rich, and her family.
Director Chen Shizhong uses a bold and straightforward creative attitude to depict the bad habits and shortcomings in the countryside head-on. He confessed to the media: "I don't think gender should be a barrier. Men have to try to understand women, understand their plight. So, I used my own way (making movies) to make a voice. ”
Producer Don He said: "I am very grateful to the Shanghai Film Festival for giving "Looking for Her" and young directors a chance, and also providing a platform for women's films to speak out. ”
"Looking for Her" is a rural film with a bright starring cast. Shu Qi and Bai Ke came up with a performance that subverted the previous image and presented a surprising chemical reaction. Shu Qi's performance is heartfelt and hardworking, and has been widely recognized by the audience, and he is a strong contender for this year's Golden Goblet Award.
Rural suspense film
Although Chen Shizhong is a new director, the lens language is concise and clear. At the beginning of the film, Chen Fengdi and her husband Azu (played by Bai Ke) are working in the sugar cane field, and the sugar factory owner Gan Gangren (played by Zhang Benyu) brings his wife Lin Shen to have a picnic. Although the gap between the rich and the poor of the two families is very large, the relationship is harmonious and seems to have old friendships. Chen Fengdi is pregnant with a second child, Lin Shen is the first child, and the two have nothing to talk about. On the other hand, farmer Azu is both in awe and fear of his boss, Gan Gangren.
In this short scene, the differentiated identities of the four protagonists are clear at a glance. The film chooses to set 1995 as the background of the times, even in Guangdong Province, there are backward villages.
The film enters a suspenseful atmosphere from the moment Chen Fengdi's child disappears, and various questions come to the face - did Lin Shen's child hold the wrong one? Where are the missing children? Whether the child is dead or alive...
The title "Looking for Her" has two meanings: the first meaning is Chen Fengdi's story line of finding children, adding to the attractiveness of the story with a constantly reversing plot; The second meaning points to the gender of Chen Fengdi's missing daughter, which everyone around believes is not worth finding. The clash of patriarchal concepts has become more intense in the search process.
In terms of theme, "Looking for Her" can be classified as a "social problem film". The film uses an atypical case to outline the faces of rural men and women. At the same time, the director uses the technique of genre films to narrate, jumping out of the common mode of soothing and bland literary films. Strong plot conflicts and suspenseful plot reversals firmly capture the curiosity of the audience.
The director gazes at the inferiority of men and women
Director Chen Shizhong completed a gaze on the status of women through "Looking for Her", and almost every family in the film is in an environment of male superiority and female inferiority.
Although Chen Fengdi is strong and brave, she relies on Azu to come forward in everything. For example, the two asked Gan Gangren and his wife to confirm whether the child was held wrong, and Chen Fengdi could only look at her husband with longing eyes, hoping that he would speak. The Gan Gangren family is also a husband who says everything outside, and his wife Lin Shen basically has no right to speak.
After relatives learned that the baby girl was missing, Chen Fengdi's father suggested that a funeral be held quickly. Chen Fengdi questioned him: "What if it was a baby boy?" When Gan Gangren advised Chen Fengdi not to be obsessed with finding out whether the child was held by mistake, he thought: Since the lost baby girl is a baby girl, wouldn't it be better for her and Azu to have another child? (At that time, if the peasant couple had their first child as a daughter, they could have a second child.)
Such a concept is reflected in the various opinions put forward by the people around Chen Fengdi. A human life has been skipped lightly by many people, born as a woman, should you embrace misfortune? Everyone around Chen Fengdi wants to return to a dull life as soon as possible, only Chen Fengdi is turning the river and the sea in her heart.
The characters and stories shown in "Looking for Her" are the daily life of rural life. Bai Ke even jokingly called himself the film's "farm work".
Don said: "'Looking for Her' first has to be a good movie. Audiences will walk into the cinema because they look good. Only when more people watch it, the social significance of the film will be amplified. ”
Shu Qi plays as a mother Zegang
"Looking for Her" uses Cantonese dialogue throughout the film. Shu Qi is Taiwanese, Baike is from Shandong, Zhang Benyu is from Inner Mongolia, and Lang Yueting is from Liaoning. The director asked the actors to speak Cantonese dialogue in the original voice, the leading actors have practiced for a long time, Shu Qi has been filming in Hong Kong for many years, and he speaks Cantonese proficiently, although the other leading actors are a little stiff, but they can also see that they have practiced carefully.
The director said that he himself is Cantonese, and since he is filming the story of Guangdong, he hopes to complete a domestic Cantonese film. At the same time, several leading actors come from different places, and speaking Cantonese is easier to adjust to the performance state close to each other.
The performance of "Looking for Her" is a challenge for Shu Qi. She plays a peasant woman, in addition to not applying powder and having a dark face, she also has to complete a lot of labor scenes in the film. Shu Qi revealed in an interview that when he first saw the script, he immediately realized that it would take a lot of hardship to play this heroine well.
Considering her allergy to ultraviolet rays, she was at one point hesitant. Later, Don showed her a short film that the director had previously directed. Shu Qi found that the post-90s director had unique ideas and techniques, so she decided to accept this challenge.
In the film, she skillfully harvests sugar cane and digs ponds to release water, showing a strong beauty. The role of Chen Fengdi is completely different from Shu Qi's previous beautiful and fashionable urban female role, and she subverts her screen image.
Shu Qi's performance this time is soft and rigid. Chen Fengdi obeys her husband on the surface, but she is very assertive in her heart. She will compromise on small things and not give an inch on big things.
Chen Fengdi's search for her child was constantly obstructed, prompting her to repeatedly burst out the power of motherhood. The character's personality and aura have become strong in confrontations with the outside world again and again. With the role of Chen Fengdi, Shu Qi perfectly interpreted the meaning of "being a mother and being a mother".
On the whole, Shu Qi has the strength to compete for the queen trophy at this year's Golden Goblet Awards. Speaking of his impression of the Shanghai Film Festival and his expectations for the award, Shu Qi said: "In fact, it was not that I was shortlisted for the Golden Goblet Award, but our film "Looking for Her" was shortlisted for the Golden Goblet Award. Coming to the Shanghai Film Festival and being able to communicate face-to-face with long-lost fans is what makes us happiest. In my opinion, being shortlisted is an affirmation of our entire crew, and being shortlisted is equivalent to winning an award. ”
[Text/Cui Ting, Man Hoard]