The concept of narrative perspective has a long history, and it is a term borrowed from literary narrative, also known as "viewpoint", "focus" and so on. The earliest prototype of this concept comes from Henry James's "central consciousness", and it is from his "Art of the Novel" that the point of view (focus) problem has become one of the most controversial and concerned issues in classical narrative science.
In most modern narrative works, it is the narrative perspective that creates interest, suspense, and even the plot itself.
In the film creation, director Cao Baoping grasps the rhythm and conflict of the plot through the omniscient and all-powerful focuslessness, penetrates deep into the hearts and souls of the characters through the implicit and introverted internal focus, and creates suspense and blankness through the transcendent external focus, so that the film has completed the construction and sublimation of the meaning in the multiple transformations of the narrative perspective, and has given its different styles of "author films" a unique charm that does not fall into the ground.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > unfocused — beyond narrative space-time</h1>
Gérard Genet calls the first category of narrative perspectives unfocused or zero-focus narratives, where the camera is in an omniscient perspective where the narrator can move freely through the past, present, and future, seeing whatever is happening in different spaces.
The narrator presents the "God perspective" to the audience, allowing it to have a holistic view of the plot development and conflict of the entire story, thus enhancing the connection between the plots.
In the creation of the film, Cao Baoping excavated the two dimensions of unfocused perspective, on the one hand, showing the multi-layered storyline with the "God perspective", and on the other hand, constructing a complete narrative expression through retrospective and prophetic ways.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="29" > the all-knowing and all-powerful "God perspective."</h1>
Cao Baoping boldly uses the ideographic function of subtitles in "Glorious Rage" to form an unfocused narrative perspective, so that the narrator can not only travel through the limitations of time and space, know everyone's behavior, but also express the author's views in the narrative process.
The film takes the Xiong family's misdeeds and the arrival of the new Zhishu Ye Guangrong as a wedge, thus introducing the main plot of the film", "Zhishu Ye Guangrong wants to eat the four brothers of the Xiong family in one bite", indicating the conflict and direction behind the story.
In the subsequent narrative, the two subtitles of "Tugua wants to be a 'traitor'" and "Dog Egg Can't Smell Dog Meat" pave the way and explain the development of the plot later with an unfocused omniscient perspective, TuGua initially agreed to join Ye Guangrong's "Bear Catching Plan", and in the process of struggle, he turned against the Xiong family brothers when they gradually gained the upper hand; the dog egg broke the original plan formulated by Ye Guangrong and captured the bear boss in advance, precisely because of the dog egg's love for dog meat mentioned in the previous subtitles.
It can be seen that the subtitles in "Glorious Rage" dissolve some of the suspense in the film with the high "God perspective", but in this way construct another suspense, that is, the direction of the development of the story. After the Xiong family brothers were captured by the "Heavenly Descending Divine Soldier", the subtitle of "This No One Expected" was full of absurd meaning, expressing the narrator's inner views and opinions, coinciding with the audience's ideas, and narrowing the narrative distance.
In the film "Burning Heart of the Sun", after Xin Xiaofeng encountered Yi Guchun, who was extremely reconnaissance-oriented, he moved out of the police station dormitory in order to stay away from him, and rented a remote bungalow on the mountain with Yang Zidao.
When Xin Xiaofeng and Yang Zidao discuss Yi Guchun and Tail in the rental house, the omniscient perspective focuses on the landlord's house, and the camera shoots the landlord in the house wearing headphones to eavesdrop on their conversations from the crack in the door outside the door, the landlord has made a record book for the two, and the bookshelf has been lined with information from many previous tenants, including tramps, counterfeit drug dealers, fake monks, debt evaders, pyramid schemers, etc.
This all-knowing perspective depicts the landlord's behavior to make the situation of the two more urgent, creating suspense and points of interest for the plot conflict. On the way to Find Yang Zidao, Yi Guxia packed her bags and found Yang Zidao, in the same shot, there was a landlord who rode away from the residence to take a pet chicken to see a doctor, and the interlacing between the two also followed by Yi Gu Chun later, and the eavesdropping and record book found in the landlord's room made a causal preparation.
In addition to brotherhood and affection, the film also shows the warm and pure love between Yang Zidao and Yigu xia. Chinese New Year's Eve night, Yi Guxia took Yang Zidao's taxi, the sky bloomed with beautiful fireworks, the two laughed and shouted, the eyes were full of happiness and happiness, at this time the taxi on the viaduct was free to ride under the brilliant lights and fireworks, but at the moment when the countdown ended, Yi Guxia kissed Yang Zidao sincerely, Yang Zidao was frightened to brake, the music and fireworks suddenly stopped, indicating that the love between the two was like fireworks, beautiful and gorgeous but fleeting.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="31" > review of conflicts with prophecies</h1>
The unfocused perspective is like a prophet, and this special perspective gives the audience a lot of power, not only to know the causes and consequences of the story and the experiences of the characters, but also to make predictions by combing through the development of the story.
Cao Baoping is good at constructing impactful contradictions and conflicts in the narrative of review and prophecy through the effect of unfocused perspective.
"Burning Heart" begins with the narrator's commentary on the book's calligraphy and painting voice to guide the audience into the scene of the Sujiang Reservoir murder case seven years ago, "Rank, it is said that seven years ago, a major case occurred in Xilong, Fujian...", in the context of the commentary, the black and white screen crossover montage flashed a scene where a family was killed and three young people fled in a panic, Chen Bijue was caught in order to prevent Xin Xiaofeng from returning to the scene of the crime, accidentally fell and was stabbed in the eye by a branch.
The review of the narrative not only explains the background for the redemption of the three people seven years later in the plot, on the other hand, it creates a tight and tense atmosphere for the film, so that the rhythm of the film instantly reaches a state of tension.
The review of the story background produced by the unfocused perspective completely closes the narrative plot, and a chase between the police and the bandits is on the verge of breaking out. An unfocused perspective can not only review the story, but also predict the subsequent plot development.
In "Li Mi's Conjecture", when Li Mi drives a taxi to the gas station to refuel, Qiu Huogui's knife is pressed against her waist, and the camera switches back and forth in the close-up scene of Qiu Huogui, Li Mi and the station staff, forming a tense atmosphere. Li Mi deliberately injured his own hand, wrote 110 on the car door with blood, and then deliberately dropped the money on the ground to guide the station staff to see.
After Li Mi drove away from the gas station, the all-knowing perspective focused the camera on the behavior of the station staff making an alarm call, laying the groundwork for Qiu Shuitian and Qiu Huogui to be arrested later, and the fufa of these two people also provided an opportunity for Li Mi and Fang Wen to meet, thus connecting the entanglement between drug dealers and between Li Mi and Fang Wen.
The film "Dog Thirteen" begins with a monologue that Li Play faces the camera: "You know that people are always like this, such as the green sweater I bought this Year's New Year, from the moment I paid the money, I began to regret it, the red one is also beautiful, but if I buy red, I will definitely regret it... Therefore, if you choose a physics team, you will also want to go back and change...", through the understanding of this passage, the first conflict of the film is led, that is, the conflict between interest and grade.
Then in the crossover montage, Li Play Dad was anxiously waiting outside the delivery room door, and after the woman's shouting, a loud baby cry sounded throughout the delivery room and inside and outside, and Li Play Dad shed tears of excitement.
The later plot narrative begins with Li Play being forcibly modified in the classroom interest group, which leads to the conflict between Li Play and "Einstein", the conflict between Li Play and his family, the conflict between Li Play and his brother, etc. The prediction of these conflicts has been constructed in the first two minutes of the film, making the resistance and compromise in Li Play's growth more rational.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="38" > Cao Baoping's skillful use of unfocused</h1>
In 1972, in his work Narrative Discourse New Narrative Discourse, Gérard Génette clearly proposed the concept of "narrative focus" starting from the cognitive effects of focusing on the subject, dividing it into unfocused narrative, inner focus narrative and outer focus narrative.
From the above, it can be seen that Cao Baoping has a very meticulous control of narrative focus, rationalizing the story through unfocused methods, but in the process of development, the question of whether the manipulator of the viewpoint belongs to the "character" or the "narrator" has always been in a state of confusion.
Thank you for watching, paying attention to me, and learning more about it.