Zhou Dongyu + Liu Haoran + Qu Chuxiao, why did he still pounce?
Directed by Cannes Gold camera winner Chen Zheyi, starring Zhou Dongyu, Liu Haoran and Qu Chuxiao, this year's Cannes Film Festival "A kind of attention" shortlisted film... "Burning Winter" has always had a high degree of attention. However, when the movie premiered on Qixi Day, the box office and word of mouth were much lower than expected. You can't simply blame the problem on "literary films", and don't blame the audience at every turn for low levels and can't understand, there is such a lineup that has made the film have strong commercial elements, not to mention, there are many high-selling literary and artistic films. What's the problem?
"Burning Winter" poster
Looking back at Chen Zheyi's creative resume, what he is very good at is the portrayal of human relationships. In two critically acclaimed films with distinct Chinese elements "Parents Are Not Home" and "Tropical Rain", Chen Zheyi delicately and subtly explores sensitive relationships: the relationship between the boy and the nanny after his parents are not at home; In the extracurricular tutoring of Chinese class, the relationship between male students and female teachers...
After the premiere of the Cannes Film Festival, when keywords such as passion drama and threesome came, many people thought that "Burning Winter" was still focusing on "relationships". This is a misunderstanding.
Haofeng (played by Liu Haoran), a financial man working in Shanghai, went to a border town in Yanji, Jilin to attend a wedding, and met Nana (played by Zhou Dongyu), a young tour guide. Nana introduces Haofeng to her chef friend Han Xiao (Qu Chuxiao). In just a few days, three confused young men formed a close relationship, and then they went their separate ways.
Nana (played by Zhou Dongyu)
Haofeng (played by Liu Haoran)
He loves her, she loves him, who loves whom? With such words in the trailer, it is easy for the audience to think that this is a threesome movie with a "love triangle". Before "Burning Winter", there are actually many classic movies focusing on the theme of threesomes, such as "Zu and Zhan", "Dream of Paris", "Burning", and "Your Birds Can Sing", all of which explore the very complex and subtle relationship between three people, and further reveal the state of people or the state of the times.
"Burning Winter" resembles a threesome in form: Haofeng and Nana have physical passion, Han Xiao likes Nana, and Nana just treats Han Xiao as a buddy... In fact, the movie does not entangle too much about the "jealousy" between Haofeng and Han Xiao; As for the "two gay and one les" that some audiences reverie, judging from the information given by the movie, it is somewhat over-interpreted.
Han Xiao (played by Qu Chuxiao)
In other words, in "Burning Winter", Chen Zheyi gave up the focus on sensitive "relationships" that he was best at - Han Xiao and Haofeng did not have hostility because they loved the same person, and Nana did not fall into a painful entanglement because of whether to choose him or him. As a result, "Burning Winter" is fundamentally different from previous famous threesome movies. Chen Zheyi is not more concerned with "relationship" but "state" this time, and he tries to grasp and describe the mental state of contemporary Chinese young people through these three young people.
There is no jealousy evident in the "threesome" movie between the three young men
Moving the story from the tropics that Chen Zheyi is familiar with to the cold region of China, and downplaying the focus on "relationships", "Burning Winter" becomes Chen Zheyi's work beyond his comfort zone. It's a risk, a choice weighing the pros and cons, and a compromise.
Why "compromise"? Because "Burning Winter" is a temporary Italian creation. In the past, Chen Zheyi could spend two or three years slowly polishing the script and tearing up a relationship, and there was no such time condition when creating "Burning Winter".
Chen Zheyi did not shy away from this point in the interview: in July 2021, he suddenly had idle hands, and for about half a year, he thought about doing something and returning to the creative state, so he contacted Xie Meng, a producer in China, and planned to come to northeast China to shoot a winter story. In early October, when he was in quarantine for 14 days, Chen Zheyi only wrote a two-page outline of "Burning Winter", and only after the quarantine period did he find all the actors and behind-the-scenes teams one after another, and only then did he start scouting, and then gradually had a real story. Later, the film was launched in Yanji in December 2021 and completed in early January 2022.
Although some films are shot for a short time, the preparation time is not short at all, in contrast, the creation of "Burning Winter" is too hasty, in Chen Zheyi's own words, very "mobile". A hasty creative time can reflect the director's great talent, but it itself means a greater risk: the script may not be perfect and mature enough. Because there was not enough time to think about the "relationship" of the threesome, I chose to shoot "state" - the copy of the "state" of the character has a template to refer to, and there are shortcuts to take.
"Burning Winter" is said to be a love letter to the young people of the post-90s, but Haofeng, Nana or Han Xiao, except that they are from China and live in China, their state is the common state of young people of Generation Z. If Singapore had the ice and snow of Yanji, this story could also be true in Singapore.
The film attempts to explore a "state" of young people
Haofeng represents the kind of "excellent sheep", studying hard, getting into a good university, getting a good job in a big city, living as "someone else's child", but falling into great pain, feeling his alienation, and tired of such alienation, but he does not know how to break free. Young people like Haofeng exist in Lujiazui in Shanghai, Shenton Road in Singapore, and Wall Street in the United States - the book "Excellent Sheep" fully writes about the "Haofeng" on Wall Street.
Nana represents those who have love and dreams, but because of force majeure, their dreams fall. She was a talented figure skater but had to leave the rink because of an ankle injury. Losing her dreams, like draining her soul, she worked as a tour guide like the walking dead, leaving her smile to tourists and her sadness to herself.
Han Xiao is used as a sample of "lying flat" youth (although there seems to be any misunderstanding of "lying flat" in the movie, which is discussed below). He didn't seem to read much, his aunt married to Yanji and opened a restaurant, and he came to Yanji from Sichuan to help his aunt's restaurant. Although he is not a lazy person, he does not lie down at home on weekdays, does not sway outside, and his attitude towards life is more relaxed and casual.
Chen Zheyi is indeed a talented director, although he writes such a very template-like character, his grasp of "state" is precise, precise and subtle. If the movie just looks at each state of the characters alone, and watches the clips of each character alone, it is very well shot, whether it is Haofeng's chewing ice cubes, crying in the noisy bar, or Nana's several tears, several erotic scenes between her and Haofeng, or every close-up of Qu Chuxiao, can make the audience feel something similar to "dust of gold dust", and the words are endless. Some viewers love the film, and understandably, because many of the film's clips have the power to move people.
The single scenes of the movie are all shot with great taste
But when these fragments are connected together, when the "state" of the characters is connected, many viewers will be concerned about whether there are traces of the beginning and transition and are reasonable and self-consistent, at this time, the script of "Burning Winter" has many confusing places.
Haofeng, who had such a cramped relationship with his classmates at his classmates' wedding, why did he get close to Nana and Han Xiao so quickly? Why did Hao Feng suddenly cry in the bar? Is lust with Nana enough to awaken his desire for life? At what point did he decide to survive and gain the courage to go back to Shanghai?
As far as Nana is concerned, between Haofeng and Han Xiao, why did she only hand over herself to Haofeng? Does she feel that she is the same kind as Haofeng, and if so, what moment? What is the opportunity for reconciliation in the phone call she calls her family at the end of the movie?
The reason why the movie seems to misunderstand "lying flat" is because as an audience, I don't feel anything bad about Han Xiao's "lying flat". But the movie deliberately uses the perspective of Han Xiao's cousin to review "lying flat". Do you have to go to the big city to work hard so that you are not "lying flat"? Isn't Haofeng a victim of the meritocratic philosophy of constant struggle? Han Xiao's attitude towards life is much more casual, but also much more brisk and free - even if Nana is closer to Haofeng, he just laughs it off, why is this not an option to break free from the emo state? But the movie finally arranged Haofeng's "runaway", taking a dictionary, riding a motorcycle, leaving friends, and rushing to a distant place, and the subtext questioned or denied this "lying flat".
Han Xiao's "lying flat" is very good
"Burning Winter", created in the limit time, has an obvious problem: each clip is more like the director felt that a clip could be shot here after scouting, so he took a clip, as for how the clips are related, the main creator did not have time to think too clearly; The audience can understand the state and emotions of the characters, but they are unclear about the cause of their actions and the advancement of the "relationship"; The inseparable emotions float in mid-air, and the audience is in it, but there is no clear logical clue to follow, no exit...
In the director's special, Chen Zheyi talked about the creation of "Burning Winter"
Therefore, the problem is not that "Burning Winter" is a literary film, but that it emphasizes state, emotions, weak plot, and weak logic, so as to cover up the weakness of the text and still expose the weakness of the text.
The end of the film is somewhat rushed. The three young men met by chance, briefly warmed each other, and went their separate ways. What did this journey bring them, or what did the "relationship" between them change them? Unknown. It is difficult to defend with "feelings are unspeakable" and "emotions do not need to pursue logic", on the contrary, the "state" of the characters often has the "symptoms" of the times, which precisely needs to rely on careful logic presentation. This is not something that Chen Zheyi, a foreigner, can see through in just a few months, and he can only present a universal "state" of young people, which can be applied everywhere.
Chen Zheyi's films are often full of imagery, and so is "Burning Winter". For example, the wanted criminal, three different books selected by three people in the bookstore, the "bear girl" in the fairy tale, the bear encountered on the way to Tianchi, the Tianchi who almost arrived... The audience can make various interpretations, such as three young people briefly as fugitives from life, when the wanted criminal is arrested, does it mean that the three young people will eventually be captured by life? Has Haofeng jumped down, and his departure has really become an opportunity for Nana and Han Xiao to transform?
However, if the image and the metaphor behind it are chaotic and not self-contained, then the complex image not only appears deliberate, but also fragmented, and cannot really become the hidden text behind the surface text of the story.
In any case, I still want to warmly welcome Chen Zheyi to China to shoot a movie, and welcome him back next time, just hope that next time can leave more time for the film to prepare. The hasty creation of the Italian style makes "Burning Winter" immature and perfect, but its attention to the survival of young people and the capture of emo emotions still reflect the creator's very valuable awareness of problems and unconventional artistic pursuits.