Wong Kar-wai is more Guo Jingming than Guo Jingming
"Flowers", which was scolded miserably some time ago, is out.
Screenshot of Douban
With a high score of 8.2 points, it will become the number one phenomenal work at the beginning of 2024.
After a while ago, the Internet scolded "Wong Kar-wai's filming of "Flowers" is a remake of Guo Jingming's "Little Times", many viewers who finished the first 5 episodes of the Shanghainese version said: It's too early to scold, I'm really fragrant.
The TV series of the same name, Jin Yucheng's "Flowers", is regarded as one of the most important Chinese novels of the 21st century.
What many people don't understand is that in various senses, Wong Kar-wai may indeed be the most suitable director for filming "Flowers".
01
Is "Flowers" Wong Kar-wai's childhood?
Chinese film and television dramas, what is most lacking is a good story. The copyright of "Flowers" has been a strange commodity since the novel was just written.
In 2015, the novel won the Mao Dun Literature Award, and the adaptation rights were bought by Wong Kar-wai the year before, and the great director Lou Ye was also bidding at that time.
Lou Ye heard that Wong Kar-wai was the first to arrive, and sighed faintly: If you shoot for me, it will be released next year.
Lou Ye's stereotype of Wong Kar-wai's "slow filming" can be said to be exactly the same: it has been ten years since I bought the copyright to see the drama version of "Flowers" today.
Looking at the Chinese film industry, let alone the Chinese film industry, it is the history of world film, and there are not many directors like Wong Kar-wai who can be dragged out, right?
But everyone is willing to wait. Everyone is sure that Wong Kar-wai is the best candidate.
Even the author Jin Yucheng believes that Wong Kar-wai's images can best capture the taste of Shanghai.
The first sentence of the opening chapter of "Flowers" is Wong Kar-wai's "The True Story of A Fei":
Go to the attic alone, preferably at night. At the end of "The True Story of A Fei", Tony Leung rode a horse to find a horse, the hero was dark and old, counted the banknotes under the electric lamp, counted them, put them in the inner pocket of the suit, counted them again, took out a deck of playing cards, twisted them to take a closer look, and then found a pair. Next, comb your hair, divide your hair into three or seven parts, comb it in the mirror, your whole body is straight, your bones are slow, and finally, turn off the lights. No, this half a minute is the taste of Shanghai.
Screenshot from the movie
The general audience only knows that Wong Kar-wai is a Hong Kong director, but Wong Kar-wai himself has always regarded himself as a Shanghainese.
In the original work of "Flowers", the protagonist Ah Bao has an older brother who stayed in Hong Kong since he was born, and only exchanged letters with his hometown in Shanghai.
In the real world, Wong Kar-wai went to Hong Kong with his parents at the age of 5, while his older siblings stayed in Shanghai, passing books and exchanging news for many years.
No wonder Wong Kar-wai saw Jin Yucheng, so he held his hand and said: What you wrote is the story of my brother and sister.
understands Shanghai and has taste, only Wong Kar-wai is available.
In the ten years since Wong Kar-wai filmed "Flowers", the entertainment industry has changed dramatically.
Seven years ago, news leaked out, saying that a certain little fresh meat would play the male lead, and fans were a sensation. In the end, Jin Yucheng personally refuted the rumors, and the top idol who was once in the limelight is now a prisoner.
In 2019, the producer said that the preparation of "Flowers" was completed, and filming started the following year.
The following year, the crew encountered unexpected difficulties again, and Wong Kar-wai couldn't do it if he wanted to be fast.
Even the first trailer was released two and a half years ago.
It can be said that "Flowers" is a firecracker with an extra-long lead, and everyone gave up the open space early, blocked their ears, and waited for the explosion.
The explosion is a blast, but not the good kind:
Opening lightning strike.
The first wave of drama reviews was almost all disappointment.
Related drama reviews
The characters are not right.
In the original book, Ah Bao, who was burdened with a heavy past, became a nouveau riche general treasure:
Are you in the cos of the Great Gatsby?
Are you in the cos of the Great Gatsby?
The set is wrong.
The first episode is a car accident scene, where Ah Bao, played by Hu Ge, fell in a pool of blood, and banknotes were flying all over the sky, as if the wind was counting money.
It's not so much Shanghai in the 90s as it is more like Shanghai Tang in the Republic of China.
The Yellow River Road is lit with neon, as if there is only night and no day, and it is more like Shanghai in the Republic of China than Shanghai in the 90s.
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The story is not right either.
Of the three story lines in the original book, Bao, Husheng, and Xiaomao were cut off;
There are two timelines in the original book, the 60s and the 90s, and only one is left in the 90s.
The delicate Shanghai style in the original work of "Flowers" has become a babbling middle-aged version of "Little Times".
Related hot discussions
Someone put Po's narration and Lin Xiao together, reminiscent of the work of a Shanghai singer: "Another Me in the World".
Screenshots of some comments
Many people's long-healed PTSD in "The Ferryman" has relapsed, and finally admitted that they have lost their eyes: Perhaps, Wong Kar-wai is just a middle-aged version of Guo Jingming.
Maybe, not so badly.
Screenshot of the comment
02
Did "Flowers" really pounce?
The essence of the original novel of "Flowers" is in two words: no sound.
In total, there are more than 1,000 "no-sounds" in the book, leaving countless ambiguous and unspeakable blanks.
Screenshot of the original book
But in Wong Kar-wai's last work "The Grandmaster", there is such a line: You must be loud!
The theme of the novel "Flowers" is not loud, but the drama version of "Flowers" must be loud.
There is no dispute, it is not Wong Kar-wai.
Wong Kar-wai's first major production "The True Story of A Fei" gathered a vote of superstars such as Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung, Carina Lau, Maggie Cheung, etc., but within half an hour of the premiere, the audience scolded them, and finally lost all their money, and the boss Deng Guangrong was so angry that he was admitted to the hospital;
"East Evil and West Poison" was released, and the whole Hong Kong audience was put together. Wong Kar-wai claimed to be an adaptation of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", but the characters in the film had nothing to do with "Condor Shooting" except for their names Huang Yaoshi and Ouyang Feng. A bunch of people walked around in the desert and almost drove the audience crazy.
The flashy business war in "Flowers" is the same as the martial arts in "East Evil and West Poison", just a disguise. After a few episodes of foreshadowing, the familiar taste of the king of sunglasses returns.
The comment area of "Flowers", which I couldn't bear to read a few days ago, suddenly became a large-scale real fragrance scene:
Screenshot of the comment
The first batch of people who were slapped in the face were the audience who accused "Flowers" of not being "Shanghai" enough.
Everyone found that it was not that Wong Kar-wai was too free-flying, but that we were too conservative.
Xin Zhilei, who played Li Li, was stupid when she saw the setting on the set for the first time, in the 90s, even 10,000 yuan households were rare, why did it cost 30 million to open a restaurant on Huanghe Road, could this be a science fiction film?
The crew found a proprietress who had really opened a restaurant on the Yellow River Road, and she told Xin Zhilei: It's true.
was criticized as an exaggerated neon sign, but the crew specially found the master of the year and reproduced it as it was.
A real scene of the Yellow River Road in the 90s
Wong Kar-wai even predicted the audience's prediction in advance:
Wong Kar-wai even predicted the audience's prediction in advance.
Memory and time have always been the themes of Wong Kar-wai's work:
In "The True Story of Ah Fei", the coconut wind and banana rain, the humid and hot Nanyang, are the externalization of Ah Fei's spiritual world;
What Ouyang Feng can't get out of in "East Evil and West Poison" is also the desert of the inner world.
The Yellow River Road in "Flowers" is the same as the martial arts in "The Grandmaster", but it is just a platform for the characters.
Faithful to the true is not necessarily faithful to the memory.
Faithful to the true is not necessarily faithful to the memory.
The real theme of this TV series is not the business war or stock market crash, but the eating and drinking men and women in the ups and downs of the times.
If the characters can stand, "Flowers" can sound.
In the era of multi-camera, Wong Kar-wai used a stand-alone camera to shoot for three years, and when others asked the reason, he said: This way to shoot women is the best.
Xin Zhilei, who played Li Li, said that after filming "Flowers" and watching the replay, she was shocked.
Source: Xiaohongshu blogger @ Please let me eat more
Everyone knows that Wong Kar-wai's filming has dragged on, and after the filming of "Flowers" started, Hu Ge and Xin Zhilei also took time to act in other works, only Tang Yan entered the flowers as deep as the sea, and there was no news for three years.
Fans were so anxious that they jumped to their feet, and the super talk was all about "entering the group" and "Tang Yan's dedication", so they sent a blade to Wong Kar-wai.
Screenshots of the subject
As a result, after the broadcast of "Flowers", the loudest was Tang Yan's Miss Wang.
Before the TV series was finished, Tang Yan's business began to take off on the spot:
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Miss Wang, who made Tang Yan turn around, is actually a character changed from the original demon.
In the novel, Miss Wang's ultimate pursuit is nothing more than to conceive Mr. Wei's child, but in Wong Kar-wai's drama version, Miss Wang cuts off the love thread and is determined to be her own dock.
This is Wong Kar-wai's intentional choice, this kind of brilliance that flashes the spirit of the gang is something that Miss Wang does not have in the original book.
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Without this operation, the brilliance of the Oriental Pearl of Puxi may have dropped by half.
Wong Kar-wai has no script on the scene, and the biggest reason is that he never lets the characters serve the story, but lets the story serve the characters.
Related Comments:
Xin Zhilei said that Wong Kar-wai is like a high-end designer, always observing the actors, finding the most suitable point for the role, and tailor-made to be the most suitable for you and the role.
Source: The public name "Yi", "Xin Zhilei: After filming "Flowers", I realized that I was absolutely beautiful"
Wong Kar-wai can not only give professional actors a new life, but even amateur actors with cameo appearances can be extremely ironed.
The landlord, Mr. Ge, is the favorite burlesque actor Chen Guoqing of Shanghainese;
The proprietress of Golden Phoenix, the predecessor of Zhizhenyuan, is Huang Ling, a female singer in Shanghai;
The director of the workshop is Shanghai football player Fan Zhiyi;
Screenshot of the TV series
Linghong is "Sophie Marceau in Xuhui District" Papi sauce
……
Several of Reiko's neighbors are also Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
The guest piano teacher is Shanghai piano master Kong Xiangdong;
Teacher Shi who hangs his voice every day is Shi Yihong, a famous Meipai Tsing Yi artist;
Teacher Chen, a painter who has a crush on Reiko, is a Shanghai painter Chen Yiming.
Half of Shanghai's literary and art circles have made guest appearances in "Flowers". To put it mildly, "Flowers" is the "Harry Potter" of the people of Shanghai.
When Mr. Chen appeared, he was painting a portrait of Reiko:
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On the easel is an authentic handiwork, "Portrait of a Girl" created by Chen Yiming himself 30 years ago, and the model was a freshman at the Shanghai Theater Academy at that time:
Ma Yili.
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Even the oil paintings hanging on the walls of Zhizhen Garden are all authentic works of Chen Yifei, and Wong Kar-wai specially borrowed them from private collectors for filming.
The detail maniac Wang Kar Wai turned "Flowers" into a Shanghai version of "Ready Player One".
In the comment area of "Flowers", many Shanghai audiences were discussing whether the actors in the play had the right sharp group sound, or whether they should read it, and the bloggers who promoted Shanghainese were almost moved to tears: I haven't seen so many people pay attention to Shanghainese for many years.
Related Comments:
In the play, the British suite rented by Po in the Peace Hotel has now been renamed Fanhua Suite, with a price tag of 16888, which may not be booked;
The prototype of the Zhizhen Garden, the Moss Holy Garden, has even been fully booked for the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner:
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Huanghe Road has become a new citywalk attraction:
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The freshly obtained pork rib rice cake, Miss Wang's blessing, exploded:
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QQ music in the morning, 4w people are listening to "Stealing Hearts" at the same time:
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It is not easy for an ordinary TV series to have a theme song out of the circle, Wong Kar-wai simply made the BGM of "Flowers" into an all-star lineup:
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In the interlude where others used the background sound, Wong Kar-wai used the effect of the grass snake gray line in "Dream of Red Mansions".
On a winter night in Tokyo, Reiko received a letter from Po, which was opened with a handwritten ticket, and then the theme song of "Tokyo Love Story" sounded, and the god of war fell to the ground in response;
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When Lingzi returned to Shanghai, Po went to the attic to see Lingzi for the first time, and the tape recorder of Mr. Shi next door began to play an excerpt from the Yue opera "Dream of Red Mansions" "Baoyu Crying Spirit":
Baoyu - Lin Daiyu, Po - Lingzi, Wong Kar Wai, you understand BE aesthetics
Miss Wang and Po met for the first time, and the theme of the music was "Friendship Lasts Forever";
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Four years later, it became "Stealing Hearts" and "Obsessed Without Regrets".
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The person who wanted to apologize to Wong Kar-wai lined up from Huanghe Road to Zhapu Road, and Wong Kar-wai looked at the comment area with a smile and did not make a sound.
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03
Wong Kar-wai's wealth code
The actors who participated in "Flowers" are now in a happy dizziness of Meizizi, and the 85 flowers who did not take this express train must have received private messages from career fans in the past two days.
Wong Kar-wai's peers cast envious glances: how could this man wearing sunglasses stand and earn money again.
Screenshots of the subject
After "Flowers" has such a reputation, everyone doesn't care much about whether it is "in line with the original work".
In the final analysis, the TV series version of "Flowers" is Wong Kar-wai's "Flowers", not Kim Yucheng's "Flowers".
Hanging a sheep's head and selling dog meat is Wong Kar-wai's consistent operation in making movies. If we put it another way, it is that Wong Kar-wai is very good at "packaging".
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In the 90s of the last century, Hong Kong films often relied on "selling films" to raise funds for filming. The so-called selling of film flowers is to sell the copyright and return the funds before the film starts shooting.
If you want to impress investors, there are nothing more than two magic weapons: the synopsis of the story and the cast.
In 1990, Xiang Huasheng sold the story of "Tricky Expert" with only 10 words "Stephen Chow, Andy Lau, and Tricky Expert".
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Wong Kar-wai makes art films, but he is very good at packaging his work with genre elements.
In fact, the only thing he really lost in his career was "The True Story of A Fei".
After "The True Story of A Fei", Wong Kar-wai faced a crisis of confidence, no matter how talented you are, you must first be able to sell it.
Starting from "East Evil and West Poison", packaging his own movies with blockbuster commercial elements has become Wong Kar-wai's forte.
In 92, Tsui Hark's "Undefeated in the East" was a great success in Hong Kong, and Wong Kar-wai immediately took the idea of "East Evil and West Poison" to find investment: martial arts films, big stars, and Lin Qingxia dressed as a man, these elements were arranged and combined, and they really moved investors.
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In the 90s, police and gangster movies were more popular, and Wong Kar-wai found Lin Qingxia, Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, and Faye Wong, claiming to make a police movie, which included policemen, killers, and drug dealers. These are all selling elements, and the investment is very smooth.
This movie is the later "Chongqing Forest", which cannot be said to have little to do with police and gangster films, but can only be said to have nothing to do with it.
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However, investors are not fools, bluffing tricks are okay once or twice, and if you really want to achieve sustainable development, you still have to have your own core competitiveness.
Wong Kar-wai's core competitiveness is star. In the Chinese film industry, he is the director who is best at bringing the charm of stars to the extreme.
Wong Kar-wai's film can win awards, which has become a truth that has been repeatedly verified.
After filming "Mong Kok Carmen", Maggie Cheung said that she was enlightened for the first time, and it turned out that acting was like this;
"The True Story of A Fei" lost all Deng Guangrong's money, but helped Leslie Cheung get the only golden actor in his life.
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This is also why Leslie Cheung is still willing to cooperate with Wong Kar-wai although he has been NG 47 times.
Wong Kar-wai can become an actor, and stars are happy to cooperate with him;
As long as big-name stars are willing to come, it will not be a problem to sell films and attract investment.
Although the list of "Wong Kar Wai Victims Alliance" is getting longer and longer, in private, Wong Kar Wai is quite long-sleeved and good at dancing, and is by no means an unkind artist.
Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Zhen...... Many superstars who have worked with him have handed over their brokerage contracts to Wong Kar-wai's Zedong Company.
In addition to talent management, Zedong is also an advertising agency.
It's also strange to say that after shooting an advertisement, Wong Kar-wai's procrastination was also cured. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Dior, Motorola...... Looking at this list of customers, you can know what Wong Kar-wai's confidence is in procrastination and overspending.
Wong Kar Wai's advertisement for a whisky brand
Even the fashion of NFT, Wong Kar-wai can catch up. In 2020, on the 30th anniversary of Zedong's founding, Wong Kar-wai took out a never-before-released film of "In the Mood for Love" to make a digital collection, which was auctioned for more than 4 million Hong Kong dollars.
In the last century, the most profitable commercial directors in mainland China and Hong Kong, one just pounced miserably (Feng Xiaogang's "If You Are Honest Do Not Disturb 3"), and the other could only post on Weibo to envy Wong Kar-wai.
All people who engage in art have a dream: this plus this, can they earn money standing still.
Wong Kar-wai, probably the closest one.
This article is from the WeChat public account "Phoenix Weekly" (ID: phoenixweekly), author: Wang Dong