"This film is like a long love letter to the Beatles fans"!
The moment Jack is hit by a car, the synthesizer of Strawberry Fields Forever plays, and then instantly enters the orchestral music of I am the Walrus's fantasy world - and the world changes.
When I saw this scene in the movie theater, goosebumps fell to the ground and I almost cried.
It was a code-breaker that only Beatles fans would understand, and such surprises were woven throughout the movie, feasting the audience's eyes......
Freedom and transcendence from the perspective of collective memory
As Susan Lange points out: "Comedy is a brisk rhythm, and the comic poet is full of opportunities and a future that is unfolding when he creates the illusion of life, and that future is destiny." And the kind of fate that takes the form of luck is the tone of the comedy. ”
In real life, people cannot fully realize the freedom of their will, nor can they fully realize their self-transcendence. Comedy offers the viewer an illusory possibility that takes the viewer into a free, transcendent experience of life, which is what Susan calls the tone of comedy – luck.
Jack, the protagonist of the movie "Yesterday's Miracle", started out as an ordinary rock singer, and although he took every opportunity to perform, he never made his mark at a small music festival in his hometown.
However, during a global blackout caused by a solar flare, Jack is in a car accident and wakes up to find himself in a "parallel world" where no information about the Beatles can be found other than him.
Jack lied that he remembered that the Beatles songs were all written by him, and since then he has been shining in the music scene ever since, and soon became a world-famous singer.
What happened to Jack doesn't exist in reality, he doesn't need to pay a lot of money like others, and he doesn't need to be talented, but Jack's luck is good, and the movie gives him a chance to transcend his weaknesses, allowing him to easily solve his otherwise impossible tasks, and the essential strength of the character is maximized.
The audience, on the other hand, was immersed in Jack's role and gained great satisfaction. His luck had a lot to do with the famous Beatles, and after the blackout, Jack became the only news exclusive.
Let it he、BacC In TheU. S. S. R and other songs were played and sung by him, and at first, people could not understand it, but in the end, everyone was impressed by his singing, and the best side of Beatles music was affirmed, which was a good comfort to those who were full of anxiety, resentment, and escape from reality.
At the same time, Jack continued to accumulate wealth and fame in the Beatles' work, which both fits the tone of comedy and confirms Northrop Fry's view that comedy has more reproducibility than tragedy. Since comedy first came from the Dionysian sacrificial celebrations, it was more imitative and performative than tragedy.
Comedians use body movements and language to appropriately represent archetypes, sometimes slightly exaggerated or ugly, to make the audience laugh. Comedy films evoke people's collective memories, and their comedic nature often comes from the imitation of primitive memories.
For example, "The Sewing Machine Band", a broken guitar band composed of Song Xiaobao and four other comedy stars, has set off a nationwide craze, stirring up the rock dreams of countless young people, and their imitation object is Cui Jian and his band.
However, this kind of imitation also has its exaggerations, such as Song Xiaobao's use of "black" to describe himself, and "sissy" to describe Wen Song's body language, which are not found in early Chinese rock musicians such as Cui Jian. And this is exactly what Aristotle said, the ugliness and perverseness that do not cause people to feel pain, the audience will only laugh because of it.
The same is true of "Yesterday's Miracle", whether it is appearance or singing skills, Jack is not like a Beatle like John Lennon and Paul McCartney, plus he lost two teeth in a car accident, so Jack's imitation of the performance of Paul and others seems a little funny.
By this time, the clearer the audience's collective memory of the Beatles, the stronger Jack's comedic effect became.
Nostalgic narrative and dislocation creation
"Yesterday's Miracle" fully creates a sense of dislocation and captures the discordant comedic qualities in the process of unfolding Jack's "counterattack" adventure. In other words, the audience's daily common sense is constantly broken, external contradictions and conflicts arise, and the rich emotional activities of the characters are also revealed.
For example, in "Charlotte's Troubles", Charlotte allows herself to "travel" to 1997, when the song "1997 AD" is playing on the street, and the banner "Warmly Celebrate the Return of Hong Kong" is hung on the street, which infects the emotions of the audience who came from 1997. And the misalignment also arises from this.
For example, "Those Flowers", which originally belonged to Pu Shu, and "Once You" belonging to Xu Wei, not only became Xia Luo's songs, but also Xia Luo's purpose of "creating" them was to pursue Qiu Ya, he himself is not a person who loves music and is obsessed with music dreams, fantasy is cleverly separated from reality, and Xia Luo's vain mentality is also shown in front of the audience.
"Yesterday's Miracle" is the same, except for Jack's life and behavior style before and after he became famous, which made the audience can't help but laugh out loud. First of all, Jack's understanding of other people's "ignorance" and "knowledge" is skewed.
Just like Jack, who, after realizing that the Beatles had become his only memory, repeatedly jokes with his friends about the lyrics of the Beatles, only to be met with inexplicable responses or ridicule, and his description of the Beatles "Yesterday" "The greatest work of art of all time" invites his friends to be sarcastic that "someone suddenly became arrogant".
For example, when Jack tried to promote the Beatles' song to others, he always got the attention of others, and when he played "Let" to his parents for the first time at home, his parents were always absent-minded, constantly opening the door, calling, chatting, and even naming the song "Let them be".
In and British singer Ed. After Sheeran's collaboration, they released a song called "Jude", which was born in 1968, was widely sung on the British and American music charts, and appeared on the stage of the London Olympics with a positive, warm force, becoming a symbol of British national culture.
However, Sheeran asks Jack to change the name of the song to "Hey, dude", but Jack doesn't know what "Jude" means, so he complies. Deconstructivism itself can create a comedic effect, and Jack hides the truth about the Beatles and ends up humiliating himself, which also catches the audience's eye.
Secondly, the "butterfly effect" in film creation. In "Yesterday's Miracle", when Jack finds that there are no Beatles, he immediately searches for Oasis and their Wall of Miracles, and the search results are all photos of Oasis and Penicillin, and he is stunned and says "no problem".
In this extremely incongruous setting, it is implied that the film conforms to the moral judgment that the audience craves, that is, the penicillin band is suspected of plagiarizing Oasis's works, and Oasis is suspected of plagiarizing the Beatles, and after there are no Beatles in the world, Oasis and penicillin will naturally not be born.
For viewers who understand this context, the comedic effect of this plot is self-evident. And the movie also designed the disappearance of some people who don't seem to be closely related to the Beatles, breaking through the audience's aesthetic expectations and increasing the absurdity of the movie.
For example, Coca-Cola has also disappeared from the world, and when Jack tells the flight attendant that he wants "Coke", the other party mistakenly thinks that he is asking for contraband, and is very disgusted, Jack quickly changes his words and asks for Pepsi.
Also, Jack didn't expect J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter to be gone. Coca-Cola and Harry Potter are not directly related to the existence of the Beatles, the film only hints at the audience that they are all indispensable spiritual forces in the English-speaking cultural world, and also makes the audience laugh at the tedium and helplessness of Jack's life in this world.
Finally, there is the reversal of the fates of Jack and John Lennon.
Like "Charlotte's Troubles", Jay Chou, who really loves music and is talented, has become a contestant in "Charlotte Reviews"; In "Yesterday's Miracle", John Lennon, the soul of the Beatles, lived peacefully to the age of 78, which is undoubtedly one of the film's surprises for audiences who lamented the dissolution of the Beatles and Lennon's untimely death.
In this world, Lennon has no musical talent, but he likes to draw, and he tells Jack that he is happy, has a job that he likes, and in his spare time, he will take the people he likes and go on sea trips. At this moment, Jack and the others were happy for Lennon, and Lennon's satisfaction with life made Jack have the idea of retiring.
The viewer's memories of the past and nostalgia for those who are gone are completely satisfied.
Entertaining and positive values injected
It is worth mentioning that simply letting the protagonist break free from the control of time and space, improve his survival situation, or pile up nostalgic symbols, etc., is not enough to achieve the artistic charm of the movie, such as Jack, who originally made the audience empathize, if he continues to be a big star.
Then, he broke away from his "grassroots identity", and his dishonest behavior also violated public order and good customs, which will inevitably hurt the audience's feelings. It is also necessary for comedy movies to correct the experiences of characters with positive values and convey the precious humanistic spirit in laughter.
In "Yesterday's Miracle", the relationship between people has always maintained a state of harmony. For example, Sheeran, who became famous very early, as a person who really loves music, is very aware of the difficulties of creation, and in the face of Jack's challenge, he admits defeat very graciously, and then spares no effort to package Jack and give him a broad stage, instead of stumbling in front of Jack.
Another example is that Jack later found out that he was not the only one who entered this world by mistake, and there were still a few people in the world who also retained the memory of the Beatles, which made Jack very weak, but they were not jealous of Jack, and did not choose to break the news to the media to expose Jack to gain fame and fortune, but said: "We want to thank you."
We miss the Beatles. But we don't know how to sing, you sang it, so that we didn't forget about the Beatles. They expressed their blessing to Jack, because "a world without the Beatles is a terrible world," and Jack was very moved.
And most importantly, Jack did not live up to Sheeran's trust and the tolerance of other Beatles fans, he finally admitted in front of a global audience that all his fame was actually from the Beatles, he gave up all the fame and fortune he had gained since the car accident, announced that everyone could download those classic songs for free, and then took Ellie's hand and left, and finally lived a peaceful life.
Between keeping secrets, plagiarizing other people's artistic achievements, being honest, indulging in a drunken life and the girl he loves, Jack chooses the latter.
The film detachs the characters from their original life trajectories, creating a carnival that ultimately brings the characters back to their own identities and lives, and this is the pinnacle of collective memory: the Beatles and even music are supposed to be about making people good, and people have loved Beatles songs for decades because they encourage people to make the right choices when they are lost.
If Jack continues to enjoy the creation of the Beatles in a grand manner, becoming a loner who has lost Ellie, then the film is moving towards the negation of the Beatles.
In a word, comedy needs to be entertained, and it does not contradict positive energy and arousing the audience's introspection; On the contrary, only "crowning" the little people, and not "uncrowning" them, and the worthless things are not torn apart, the audience will feel uncomfortable and the entertainment will be weakened. This positive value is also common in nostalgic comedy films in the country.
For example, in "New Difficult Brothers", Chu Yuan finally understood how important it is to have a father with a sense of justice, and in "Charlotte's Troubles", Charlotte finally learned to cherish the present and repair the relationship between husband and wife.
It can be said that at a time when nostalgia has become a cultural phenomenon, the collective memory of the public has become a hot spot of consumption, and the creator's creative inspiration has been stimulated, "Yesterday's Miracle" has built an alternative "parallel world" comedy for the audience in a rational and in-depth way, especially those who like the Beatles, their love for "Yesterday's Miracle" has fully released their imagination and soothed their nostalgia.
While domestic comedy presents a new nostalgic aesthetic orientation and seeks multiple narrative strategies, "Yesterday's Miracle" undoubtedly has certain reference significance.