Old readers know that from time to time, Crow will recommend some films that can't be released in theaters, and whenever this happens, some readers will leave a message in the comment area: You can crowdfund, give a QR code, and transfer movie tickets after watching it.
In this regard, I will always be skeptical, saying that it is much easier than doing, will anyone really pay?
But last week at station B, I saw such a crowdfunding.
An up host released a 130-minute video and charged 10 yuan per viewer. In just 3 days, more than one million views...
The audience also lined up to leave a message: the first charge, it's worth it!
This up master, recommended by the crow before, is a "food poor road" that has created many hits, and the people in the rivers and lakes are called: Uncle Cake.
On the surface, Uncle Cake is a food UP master, taking everyone all over the world to find delicious food, but in fact, he is going deep into the local area to show everyone the real life of local ordinary people.
This time, Uncle Biscuit came to Japan: "Lost in Translation"
September, Tokyo, a funeral site.
This is not an ordinary funeral, the deceased, is an important figure in the underworld.
Outside the mourning hall, there were already gang members standing guard on duty, directing parking, and dispersing idle people;
At the entrance of the mourning hall, there are two columns standing neatly, with white shirts, black suits, black ties, and black leather shoes, standing according to their ranks, with serious expressions...
Because I have stood in the sun for too long, I am sweating profusely, and I take out a handkerchief to wipe my sweat from time to time...
The people who came to worship were all insiders, gangsters, sensitive figures, and even wanted criminals on the run, wave after wave...
The whole atmosphere is magical in the serious, and murderous in the solemnity, which makes people feel nervous across the screen.
This funeral full of rituals is not a movie clip...
Just when you were wondering if it was cut out of a sunshadow, suddenly, a Chinese man wearing a gray short-sleeved sweatshirt and a lewd description openly held a camera and broke into the mourning hall.
The up and down movement of the camera, and the sound of rapid breathing in the recording, all exposed his nervousness and embarrassment.
He also seemed to be aware of his "act of death", and explained in a low voice: Alas, I should wear black, people think that I am a foreigner, forget it, I don't care.
Netizen barrage: If people care, how many fingers do they want to chop off?
Uncle Biscuit took this precious picture, but as everyone knows, there was already a Japanese police ambush nearby, secretly filming the whole funeral, and the real yellow finch was behind.
As long as you enter the funeral site, you will be identified by the police as a member of the gangster organization, and the police can restrict your bank account and buy a house...
So, in other words, Uncle Cake rounding up is considered "the upper way"?
Filming Japanese gangsters is a very important part of "Lost in Translation", and it is also the part that Crow finds the most curious.
Most people's perception of them comes from movies, and Uncle Cake's interview and filming made us really get close to them for the first time.
It felt real and magical.
For example, visit a stronghold of the Matsuba Kai, a famous gang in Japan.
The boss introduced the layout of the room to Uncle Cake, opened his clothes to show off his tattoos, and then stretched out his left hand, missing one section on his ring finger and one section on his little finger.
He also demonstrated on the spot, how to cut off his own finger himself, and explained: it may pop up far away on TV, but reality will not...
Uncle Cake asked weakly: Can you tell me the story here?
The boss had a smile on his face, but he refused firmly: no comment.
The atmosphere is suddenly a little tense what's going on ...
Outrageously, there are a lot of Chinese elements in the Japanese gangs.
As soon as the boss raised his eyes and beckoned, the younger brother immediately took off his shirt and revealed the tattoo on his back, which was actually Shi Jin, the nine-patterned dragon in "Water Margin".
On the screen of the boss's room, Chinese calligraphy is written, and the content is a Tang poem that elementary school students can memorize: The moon falls and the sky is full of frost...
And Uncle Cake can get such a powerful gangster information because a Chinese leads the way.
Wang Nan, a middle-aged man who looks ordinary.
Actual identity, is the founder of Japan's largest "Chinese underworld" Nu Luo Quan.
Wang Nan is a native of Northeast China, his father was a surgeon, and his parents divorced, and his father married a Japanese orphan. The family moved to Japan in the 80s of the last century.
At that time, a large number of Japanese orphans in China returned to Japan, and they were ostracized by the Japanese people.
When Wang Nan first arrived in Japan, he was often bullied by Japanese students, so he and many Chinese children with similar backgrounds came together, joined the underworld, and established the "Nu Luo Quan", smashed and robbed, received protection money, and gradually became famous...
These stories later became the inspiration for Jackie Chan's movie "Shinjuku Incident".
Stills from "Shinjuku Incident".
At the worst time, Wang Nan's two arms were discounted, and one leg was also broken.
But the person who was beaten by him was even worse, there was a person whose arm was cut off, and the blood soared high, Wang Nan decided not to do anything, let people grab the other party's head, and stabbed the person's neck, the head was not broken, and the knife was stuck...
In 2000, Wang Nan was arrested for bank fraud and spent nearly 14 years in prison.
When he was released from prison, he took 3,000 books with him, and he said: These are brought out, and I read more in them.
His life began to change.
After breaking away from the underworld, he set up a volunteer group to write letters and deliver books to inmates in various prisons in Japan, and he gave the event a name: Bengui Project.
In Japanese, "本" means book, and Wang Nan hopes that these people who have sinned can return to their original selves through reading.
Wang Nan said that people in prison are actually very lonely, and if someone can send him a greeting card during the Chinese New Year and wish him a happy birthday on his birthday, he will feel that someone is worried about him, and he will be more willing to abide by the law when he comes out.
"Lost in Translation" is the third episode of the documentary "Toei Recommended".
The "Great Treasure Recommendation" series is the signature dish of "Food Poor Road".
Uncle Cake's real name is Zhang Jun, who was originally a CCTV foreign correspondent, interviewed Chernobyl, and also visited the Ukrainian-Russian armed war...
Later, he became a B station up master.
Since 2018, Uncle Biscuit has started to make "Big Treasure" travel documentaries, and Crow has been Amway before: "Cuba Recommendation", "Middle East Recommendation", "Arctic Recommendation".
These documentaries, in Uncle Cake's own words, observe the world through the perspective of us Chinese.
Different from the usual sightseeing tours, Uncle Cake can always find the corner closest to the life of the locals: the vegetable market, the opera house, the homeless people's shelter, the home of the empty nester...
He accompanied the Russian brother to deliver food, interviewed the old man who mined fish fossils in Lebanon, volunteered in a hospital in Syria, made and fitted a prosthetic leg for a man who lost his right leg in the war...
Although it is an exotic scenery, the hardships of people's lives, the happiness and warmth in their eyes, the expectations for future life, and the desire for dreams are similar.
He used the lens to tell you that the joys and sorrows of human beings can be connected.
The filming of "Toei Dabao" continues the style and compassionate perspective of the past, but I must say that the content structure, camera language, and soundtrack of this episode of "Lost in Translation" have reached a high artistic standard.
It's totally worthy of the big screen!
It's hard to believe that this is a self-media team that only took less than half a year and spent 400,000 yuan to make.
In addition to the obvious composition, there are two more details.
Wang Nan said that he has not been a big guy for many years, and now he always greets people with a smile, and he will hide his displeasure, because if the people around him notice that he is displeased, they will help him beat people, which is boring...
At this time, the film suddenly came with a filter, and the soundtrack suddenly underworld...
The audience who didn't know the truth began to suffocate, how did the gentle uncle who turned back to the prodigal son become a big guy in a second?
This is actually a foreshadowing.
Also, during the interview, Wang Nan inadvertently mentioned that he cheated money in Japan and donated money to the China Hope Project...
Later, when I mentioned volunteering, the corners of my mouth couldn't hide my pride...
And Uncle Cake mentioned intentionally or unintentionally: Japanese gangsters seem to be a bit performative...
This is also a foreshadowing.
Until the final subtitles of the film came out: A month after Wang Nan was interviewed, he was arrested again...
It dawns on you that the images in front of you have deep meanings everywhere, and you can even interpret them completely differently.
At that moment, you will really understand why it is called "lost" Tokyo.
In this "Lost in Translation", in addition to the most gimmicky gangsters, Uncle Biscuit also interviewed AV workers, escort girls, homeless people, relic arrangers, ordinary office workers...
Therefore, the opening of the film makes a special reminder: it is not recommended to watch it under the age of eighteen.
In fact, it can be played on domestic video websites, and the scale is not much bigger, which cannot even be regarded as the selling point of the film.
The most attractive thing about it is the moving little fragments.
For example, after interviewing AV practitioners, Uncle Cake concluded: It seems that all desires here can be commoditized, but when you commoditize all desires, people themselves may be just commodities.
But after the beautiful AV actress was interviewed, she suddenly wanted to pack a delicious cake.
This little episode seems to remind the audience: how can she be a commodity? She is a living person!
This Lola Takizawa teacher, how many people have watched her action movies?
For example, office workers who are in a hurry and under great pressure are not as mentally in a good state as homeless people on the side of the road.
A homeless man who has been homeless for 20 years calmly said: It's easy to live in Tokyo...
And in the grass next to him, the head of a mouse emerged...
For example, in order to support her family, a middle-aged woman walked into a KTV late at night to accompany the wine, painted exquisite makeup, sang cheerful songs, and showed her tiredness under her smile...
Despite having three children, she still said: The Japanese rarely sweep the graves of their ancestors now, and when I die in the future, I will throw my ashes into the sea...
Also, an old man "died alone" at home, and the house was full of slime...
At least 30,000 people in Japan every year are like this...
Little by little, people cleaned up his relics, and the messy room gradually became tidy...
Uncle Biscuit shows us an all-encompassing Tokyo, a real and magical human world, bustling and lonely...
All living beings are suffering, and all living beings are working so hard to live.
As one netizen said: Life in Tokyo is the same as ours, but it is different everywhere.
At this point in the film review, I can actually put my pen down, but allow me to say a few more words.
I really think that it is not easy to be a self-media person with high-quality original content in China.
Putting aside the problems of the platform rules, let's just say that in this public opinion environment, the audience and readers are very picky, and they are intimidating when they disagree, and everyone is Xi to white prostitution...
I remember a netizen said: If I hadn't contributed clicks, the advertising dad wouldn't have seen you at all...
Please, behind a piece of high-quality content, how much manpower and material resources are needed, and how much hard work is paid...
With a light tap of a finger and a click, how can it be more noble than making content?
On the other hand, the era of micro-short dramas has arrived, and embarrassing dramas that poke at a certain sound have made a lot of money.
Sometimes I feel really tired, and I even doubt that our audience only deserves to watch bad movies and dramas, and that is the choice of the market!
Until I saw Uncle Cake...
It turns out that there are still people who insist on doing a good job of content, not pandering to or inciting emotions, seriously looking for fresh stories, letting go of prejudices, filming interesting people, and presenting the complexity of the world.
He helps us step out of our own small world, see the wider world, see the difficulties of others, learn understanding, tolerance and compassion, and learn to love others and ourselves.
What is touching is that there are still so many people who are willing to pay for good content.
Everyone met in this good story, discussed and analyzed, and confirmed each other, it turned out that we were not alone...
In the three years of the epidemic, Uncle Cake's team has also experienced the darkest moment, the most difficult time, the company only has enough money to pay one month's salary, but they have survived, and there have been no layoffs or salary cuts in three years.
And is willing to start again, invest hundreds of thousands of funds, and restart the "Big Treasure Recommendation" series.
This courage is admirable, and the success of "Lost in Translation" also gives hope to those of us who are self-media.
It turns out that if you do content seriously, you will finally be able to usher in spring.