◎ Wang Qiang
Wulin is a river and lake, and a shopping mall is also like a martial arts, which is also a river and lake. Therefore, "Flowers" is definitely not a business war series, and the emotional stories that happen in the rivers and lakes are Wong Kar-wai's love and hatred table. I don't know why so many people have lost their eyes, but I have to say that "Flowers" belongs to Anai's reform and opening up series.
Or the Wong Kar-wai we are familiar with
Speaking actively before you understand it is probably a common problem in the social media era. When I started watching "Flowers", I was often confused by the dazzling business story line. Screenwriter Qin Wen is the screenwriter of the previously popular "The First Half of My Life" and a celebrity in the industry. "The First Half of My Life" was also scolded when it was first released, mainly because it did not conform to the original work. But it is conceivable that the distance between the original book and the series is the credit of the screenwriter, not the shortcoming. If "The First Half of My Life" is filmed according to Yishu's original book, basically three episodes will end, and Hong Kong in the 80s of the last century cannot be copied to Shanghai 30 years later. So the critic's perspective and the screenwriter's perspective are two worlds.
Although the adaptation of "The First Half of My Life" was scolded, it did not affect the ratings. Wong Kar-wai must have found Qin Wen because of him, the layman doesn't know about it, but looking at the results, it seems to make sense at present. Wong Kar-wai has always liked to use other people's wine glasses to pour his own blocks. In the middle of "Flowers", countless Wong Kar-wai movie characters borrowed corpses to resurrect their souls, and plausible remnants of the old days kept appearing on the screen, Su Lizhen and Zhou Muyun both changed their identities and appeared in a trance in the series. Qin Wen helped Wong Kar-wai fulfill this wish: the adaptation of "Flowers" is also far from the original work.
The deletion of large sections is understandable, the cutting of the main characters, the events of special historical eras, including the off-the-beaten-like branch characters, can only be cut off. But I didn't expect Wong Kar-wai and Qin Wen to start a new stove, and they wanted to build high-rise buildings on the ground, and they insisted on describing the economic history of Shanghai in the eighties and nineties of the last century: the changes of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the rise and fall of the Yellow River Road, the vitality of Nanjing Road, including the ups and downs of foreign trade, and a lot of scenes and plots are explained on this. Qin Wen has done a lot of homework, and I have to say that many people think that this drama is a business war drama, which also makes sense.
But slowly, after seeing more than a dozen episodes, especially after the first ten episodes, Ah Bao, who was like a big guy, began to show embarrassment, Miss Wang, who was smooth sailing, was sent to the dock, and Lingzi, who flirted with Ah Bao, ran away sadly, and the mysterious past of Li Li on Yellow River Road has not yet emerged. The plot of the business war film began to fall apart, and the familiar Wong Kar-wai began to show clues. Especially as soon as Po's first love Xuezhi appeared, the huge hot pot in the heavy snow was boiling with a thin happiness that was not easy to obtain. Cuckoo wears a small dark green padded jacket, the most fashionable of the era, ostensibly on a daily date with Po. But in this kind of date, the sorrow and farewell have long been predestined, and he can only see half of her face at all. In the lively warm light, Xuezhi still has an unattainable color—if it is about to leave, it is her true color. Sure enough, it didn't take long for Xuezhi to marry a Hong Kong person, the active choice of some Shanghai women in that era. Po's love is dead. For a few years, this love will still come out and go around.
Or Wong Kar-wai's favorite
Caojiadu, Shanghai in 1979 is carefully presented, with crowded buses, full stations, conductors banging on the doors, bus flowers with red scarves, restaurants that are about to be squeezed out, and the faces of everyone blurred in the heat. When I saw this, I immediately understood that where was the business war, where was the hot 90s, these are just prosperous backgrounds - just like the Foshan Golden Tower where Gong Er and Ip Man first met, the deliberately built set, in the final analysis, is to write about the emotional entanglement of men and women in the world. Wong Kar-wai has moved the familiar characters in his heart to another time and space, no matter how turbulent the background is, no matter how the red dust rolls, what he carefully handles is still the story of his favorite footless bird. Ah Bao is Ah Fei, it is Zhou Muyun, it is Ip Man who wants to go north and finally lets go. No matter how the rivers and lakes outside the window are turned upside down, he is still a lonely silhouette under the bed in the end.
I think most of the reason for choosing the Peace Hotel as the imaginary Abao base is because of the old elevator, the light and shade of light and shadow, and the leisurely appearance of Hu Ge's face that wants to talk and rest. This is really the core image of the "Flowers" series. No matter how the world changes, the loneliness of a man full of worries is the true face of "Flowers". Those splendid women who bloom like flowers have left his world, what a story of Wong Kar-wai.
"Flowers" is Wong Kar-wai's Shanghai dream, and it is the difficult awakening of the city he spent in his childhood in the 90s of the last century. He filled this huge glass with a glass of sour aged champagne. Ah Bao is his Jia Baoyu, and Shanghai is his too illusory realm, and he will eventually wake up from his dream. But at this moment, there must be some disillusionment.
It's still Wong Kar-wai's idle pen
Wong Kar-wai not only filmed the love story of the protagonist Ah Bao ambiguously and unprovoked, but also colorful side characters, such as the hotel proprietress on the Yellow River Road, which was also filmed in rich tones, and the prominent one was Lu Meilin, the proprietress of Jin Meilin, played by Fan Xiangyan. I have always felt that there is no polyphony in this person, just blindly sprinkled and ruthless. As a result, in a farce with Li Li, her mournful crying enriches this character.
Her former lover and underworld leader Du Honggen came to find Li Li for revenge for her, a white-faced person, full of morality, but he was already the one who owed a huge amount of money. The false face could not be maintained at all, so he could only flee in disgrace. Before escaping, he didn't forget to pretend to be the boss here in Lu Meilin, but his essential weakness was quickly recognized. Lu Meilin, who has been competitive all her life, can only cry out - for his incompetence, but also for his own grievances: gambling husband (Dai Jun who shows his face is quite vivid), and the declining business. Her cry is the explosion of acting skills, and Wong Kar-wai's idle pen can make actresses enjoyable.
It's still a typical Wong Kar-wai relationship
Not to mention the overhaul of the acting skills of several heroines. The first is to choose the right field. Shanghai is a very materialistic city, and underneath the grand history is the surging material desires, daily consumption and secular life of its citizens. Huanghe Road and Nanjing Road are the stage sites for food and clothing in the material world. As a director, we must consider the centralization of the field - the choice of these two scenes is too accurate, and the selection of a large number of documentary-style images deepens the sense of the era, and also makes these two fields that are enough to represent the era of Shanghai come alive - the women who come and go start their daily lives here, struggle and struggle, lingering and despair.
Li Li played by Xin Zhilei has a mysterious origin in the original book: the woman who stands out from the crowd has an unbearable past, the strength on the surface is to hide the fragility in her bones, the dolls in the room make her have a ghostly spirit, and the experience of being trafficked and deceived makes her extra vigilant. Xin Zhilei in the drama has not yet revealed her sense of tragedy, but only emphasizes her complexity and tenacity: almost a business female tycoon, but in her bones, she is still similar to the mysterious black-clothed beauty in the casino that often appeared in Wong Kar-wai's movies in the past - Gong Li is the spokesperson, always showing an unpredictable expression. There is a scene in the episode where Li Li, who hugs a strange man, has tears in her eyes, revealing a little bit of her past, which makes us look forward to the expression of the characters later.
Outside the series, the actor said in an interview that Wong Kar-wai asked Xin Zhilei to learn dance that she had been Xi for a long time and underwent a body transformation. In this drama, Xin Zhilei learned to act with her body, and she always walked on the street with a charming expression. What impressed me the most was when Po sent her home: the camera shot from the sky, and under the dense wires like cobwebs, there were two handsome men and beautiful women with their own hearts; temptation and struggle were their superficial melodies; Ah Bao's so-called use of 300,000 to try out her bottom line is essentially protection and love for bullied women. He is an amorous seed, love on the one hand, and fear of deep love on the other. The two are still entangled - but the emotional climax at the end of the series must be implemented between them.
Another example of performing with the body is Reiko played by Ma Yili, and the scene in Tokyo at night has also become the climax of the series, which many people like. "Market" is a basic evaluation, but the market is really not accurate. Wong Kar-wai still filmed men and women, entanglement, and sensuality, but this drama dealt with all the relationships between men and women into a book. Po and Reiko's fight in Tokyo at night hides a complicated relationship behind it. Obviously, Ah Bao and Reiko are mature secular men and women, and many of their plays have a kind of familiar and flowing daily life. Two people have a relationship, but this friendship is definitely not a friendship. Wong Kar-wai borrowed the filming method of the great director Liu Bieqian, and replaced the real shooting with metaphors, using passages of secular life to show the vitality of the substantive relationship between the two. For example, going to Zhujiajiao early in the morning to eat small wontons, such as the two of them competing for the box where Lingzi hid jewelry, for example, Lingzi squeezed money with great interest, and she was jokingly called "debt collector" by her uncle, and she wanted not so much money as Ah Bao; In the end, Po should still have failed Reiko, another typical relationship of Wong Kar-wai.
Ma Yili's role is a bit similar to the dancer played by Carina Lau in "The True Story of A Fei", and underneath the vigorous and vivid is a heart that longs for love.
The audience who said that Wong Kar-wai would only shoot ambiguous scenes probably hadn't seen "2046", and the erotic men and women in it were about to collapse the bed, not to mention the bold lust in his past movies, fleshy and radiant has always been Wong Kar-wai's signature dish.
is still a Wong Kar-wai-style actor
The most successful female portrayal is also Miss Wang played by Tang Yan. This character is basically born, but bold and enthusiastic, walking around in red, and in a hot and fiery manner - probably the most memorable role in Tang Yan's film and television career so far. There are always people who say that Wong Kar-wai makes actresses beautiful. In fact, beauty really does not follow the fashion, but is shaped in a different way. Miss Wang under the lens is very vivid and cute. Ah Bao has repeatedly clarified to her that the relationship between the two is "revolutionary friendship", which is actually an unclear definition. Sure enough, when she asked for more, Po backed down. This retreat is the instinct of the Wong Kar-wai male protagonist, and Po's amorous and ruthless are closely linked.
In the current TV series, it is difficult to have a male protagonist like Ah Fei, calmly saying to the women who are chasing him, I can't be with anyone - Ah Bao's desire to talk about it is to give up, inherit Ah Fei's temperament, that night should have gone to the pork ribs rice cake shop to meet, but Ah Bao spent a night at the wine table, how many words, want to talk about it. Hu Ge's interpretation of Ah Bao does not have Ah Fei's suave and suave nature, nor does he have Zhou Muyun's bold lust, but he also has his own loneliness in the dark night, which is unique among Wong Kar-wai's series of characters.
Or Wong Kar-wai glamour
The series is only half aired, and we really can't make assumptions about the success of the whole "Flowers". However, as far as the current perception is concerned, Wong Kar-wai belongs to the "dojo in a snail shell" - the drama series that has been carefully crafted for so many years has not lost its former charm;
From this point of view, Wong Kar-wai captured a little deep meaning in the original work "Flowers". It is probably the existence of this meaning that made the original author Jin Yucheng also agree. In fact, a good adaptation of a novel does not lie in the size of the changes and the changes in the characters, but in the fact that the original author and the adaptor can have the same mind - Wong Kar-wai basically did it. can have such a series come out, worthy of the audience.
Source: Beijing Youth Daily