As of May 3, the film with the strongest reputation in May 1, "On the Cliff", has jumped to the champion in its single-day box office performance. This film with double success in word-of-mouth and box office not only means that the 71-year-old Zhang Yimou has once again captured the eyes of the film world as a fifth-generation director; more importantly, it has returned spy films to the mainstream big-budget vision, and it is also an important moment in the May 1st show, one of the three major slots of the year.
However, the question that more viewers are concerned about is whether "On the Cliff" is higher or lower than the classic spy film "The Sound of the Wind"?
Uncle Chai first analyzes the story of "On the Cliff" for everyone, from the story to the audiovisual language, we interpret the advantages and disadvantages of this new work step by step; then we will offer "The Sound of the Wind" to tell you why "On the Cliff" is just a neat and ingenious work, and "The Sound of the Wind" is a rare sword-walking classic.
In fact, "On the Cliff" indicates at the beginning that this is a pre-publicized agent rescue operation. Lei Jiayin played by our senior intelligence officer defected under the torture of agents of the puppet Manchu regime, and he not only revealed the secret code of the joint, but also taught the operation code name "Utra", putting the four agents in danger.
Zhang Xianchen, played by Zhang Yi, Wang Yu played by Qin Hailu, Chu Liang played by Zhu Yawen, and Xiao Lan, played by Liu Haocun, four specially trained agents of our party in the Soviet Union, parachuted from the air over Pseudo-Manchuria and began their mission in the ice and snow.
Among the four, Zhang Xianchen and Wang Yu were husband and wife for many years, and Chu Liang and Xiao Lan were lovers who had mutual affection, but in order to prevent one side from giving information to the other, the experienced Zhang Xianchen decided that he and Xiao Lan would be in a group, and Wang Yu and Chu Liang would be in two groups, and act separately.
However, it did not take long for the enemy agents to dock with the two groups of agents with the joint code and location. However, Zhang Xianchen's astute and sophisticated way penetrated the conspiracy of the agents and escaped from danger; while the second group obeyed the arrangements of the agents without defense, and there was always a danger of overturning.
In a bridge section on the next train, Zhang Xianchen and XiaoLan of the first group, Wang Yu and Chu Liang of the second group, and Zhou Yi and Lu Ming, the agents who monitor the second group, are in the same carriage.
At this time, Zhang Xianchen, who learned the truth, tried his best to inform the second group that the agent was around; Chu Liang of the second group saw his lover Xiaolan being taken away by the patrolling agents, exposing Xiaolan's identity to Zhou Yi and Lu Ming; Wang Yu took the initiative to take Chu Liang and the agents to get off the car in order to protect the group; finally, Zhang Xianchen escaped at another station by exchanging tickets with strange passengers.
In this process, Zhang Yimou uses a large number of close-up shots to amplify each character's reaction to the actions of other characters, coupled with the fast-paced editing style, so that this seemingly closed indoor scene has the impact of thousands of troops.
The exposure of the identity of the agent, the danger of the secret agent's vigilance, and the sinister cover-up of the agent for the agent, and the agent's voice against the agent, all bloom in this cramped space. At the same time, it also shows the most important point of this film: using the unknown identity of the enemy and us to create a heartbeat feeling of "on the cliff".
Because you don't know whether you are friend or foe around you, and you don't know when your enemy or friend will suddenly change. All the characters are highly nervous about this and have no intention of relaxing.
Specifically, although the story of "On the Cliff" is the mission of four agents to rescue the prison escapee, neither the prison escape nor the mission itself is the focus of Zhang Yimou's attention, what he wants to tell is a group of CCP agents whose identities are exposed, how to deal with the agents lurking around, and kill a bloody road.
Therefore, compared with Zhang Yimou's previous films, "On the Cliff" is more manifested in how to create a suspenseful plot, how to relieve the identity dilemma, and how to express the tense atmosphere. This is actually very different from "Shadow", which also has the confusion of identity, although the latter allows Deng Chao to play two roles and move back and forth between the psychological differences between Ziyu and Jingzhou, but in essence, it is an indoor psychological drama, and the subtle transformation of the character's mood is the Qiong Pulp Jade Dew that can be tasted.
And "On the Cliff" is very stable in the plot structure, and you can see Zhang Yimou's veteran familiarity with genre films. In the first few minutes, the audience's appetite is aroused by the danger of a thousand guns, and then the yin and yang of the identity of the secret agent, the usual methods in the spy war works, and the sighs and laments after the sublimation of emotions at the end are all serial tricks.
And these can just meet the current audience's sense of suspense and tension of the mouth. Especially when Zhang Xianchen went to the bookstore to buy the code mother book "Mei Lanfang's Travels to the United States", he clashed with the agents, and the film presented us with a wonderful cat and mouse game with three fighting methods.
First of all, Zhang Xianchen disguised himself as a noblewoman, and in the tight stalking of many spies, stole beams and changed pillars, and got the mother's book, which was the first fighting method; after that, the spies scattered to hunt, after seeing this, Zhang Xianchen took out the bullets in the magazine and used the method of sounding east and west to make the agents lose in the process of finding the gunshots, which is two; and when Zhang Xianchen got out of the car to get out of the car for danger because he was looking for his young son, he was finally discovered by the agents who followed him, and finally was captured in the pursuit and interception, which is three.
Just a round-up and tracking scene, Zhang Yimou thought of Fa'er to create a reversal, and at the same time used clever spy tricks to accompany it, and finally concocted a tense and exciting snow spy film.
In contrast, the "Sound of the Wind" from 12 years ago is much more grotesque.
The main body of the story of "The Sound of the Wind" is naturally still "pulling the inner ghost", which is also involved in the second half of the "On the Cliff". However, directors Chen Guofu and Gao Qunshu are obviously not satisfied with the single story of "who is the ghost", but through this story, they are connected with very different and have a strong sense of curiosity.
For Bai Xiaonian, played by Su Youpeng, he used a stool covered with iron nails, and even polished a thick and large cone in the center of the stool. The bloodiness of his torture is terrifying.
For Li Ningyu, played by Li Bingbing, there is no physical harm from beginning to end. Takeda, played by Huang Xiaoming, uses various measuring instruments to measure Li Ningyu's naked body everywhere. This is obviously a "mental assault" that is extremely harmful but extremely insulting.
As for Wu Zhiguo, played by Zhang Hanyu, he used the mysterious potion acupuncture method in the film to stimulate the most painful place in his acupuncture channel to force a confession.
Of course, the most unbearable thing about the whole film is Gu Xiaomeng, played by Zhou Xun. Wang Tianxiang, played by Wang Zhiwen, ordered his subordinates to spread Gu Xiaomeng's legs apart, ride on a thick hemp rope, and pull back and forth, the insult and pain in this has become a nightmare after many girls watch.
Not only these plots, "The Sound of the Wind" can always make people creepy in the design of the light source, the elaborate setting, and the arrangement of the space. The whole film uses a low-brightness lighting effect to reflect the side of the character, and the arrangement of the top lamp and the bottom lamp, forming a unique mystery of the point light source.
These are actually similar to Chen Guofu's classic horror film "Double Pupils", with exquisite costumes, wrapped in a cult of hunting stories with great significance.
Therefore, after many people saw "The Sound of the Wind", they repeatedly lamented the hard-won nature of this film. Some viewers even compared it to Ang Lee's "Color Rings." One is to use the confrontation discipline of erotic scenes to tell the story of female agents assassinating Wang pseudo-officials, and the other is to borrow the story of "picking up internal ghosts" in spy war films, wrapped in Chen Guofu's infinite imagination of torture to extract confessions.
Back to "On the Cliff", it is not difficult to see the difference between it and "The Sound of the Wind". Although the emotional landing point of the two is ultimately the revolutionary martyrs sacrificing themselves for the great cause, moths to the fire, so that China ushers in the dawn. But the two obviously have very different goals in terms of style and narrative, one is to shoot for the main theme of commercial genre films, and the other is to direct a grotesque masterpiece based on the psychology of curiosity.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to the spy film genre, another common point between "On the Cliff" and "The Sound of the Wind" is the scene of electric shock forced confession.
In "The Sound of the Wind", Wu Zhiguo's hands are entangled in wires, and the agent runs through him through the hand-cranked generator, while in "On the Cliff", Zhang Xianchen is tied to a stool, both earlobes and nipples are clamped by iron clips, and the agent Lao Jin uses the method of pulling the gate to carry out electric shocks.
Regardless of whether Zhang Yimou intends to pay tribute to this classic passage in "The Sound of the Wind", Zhang Yi's performance alone is enough to make people scratch their hearts.
And if we carefully compare the performances of the actors in "On the Cliff" and "The Sound of the Wind", we may be able to get more inspiration.
In "On the Cliff", although the characters do not know each other's identities, the audience can see it clearly, especially when Zhou Yi, played by Yu Hewei, reveals his identity, we examine the performances of all the actors from the perspective of God.
To put it simply, the performances of the actors in "On the Cliff" are restrained and have a strong "deductive" component. For example, the role of Zhou Yi, who is actually a Communist intelligence officer, but he is inserted into the enemy's secret service as a spy, but when he faces Wang Yu and Chu Liang, he has to interpret himself as an enemy agent.
The transformation between these three identities lies in Hewei's face, often expressed in silence and composure, and he has to make it impossible for everyone, including the audience, to see which side he really belongs to.
In "The Sound of the Wind", we don't know who the old ghost is until the end of the film, and before that, we are actually like Takeda, who have doubts about Bai Xiaonian, Jin Shenghuo, Wu Zhiguo, Li Ningyu and Gu Xiaomeng.
On the other hand, these five characters, in terms of performance, are not restrained, but have distinct personalities. Bai Xiaonian is obedient and fearless; Jin Shenghuo is a cowardly nature hidden in the city servants; Wu Zhiguo has a hard temperament in roughness; Li Ningyu has a bone qi in weakness; and Gu Xiaomeng exudes his true disposition in his brazen arrogance.
Even Bai Xiaonian, who did not appear in many scenes, the sentence "I see that he can still harden up" is very loud and impressive.
Therefore, the classic of "The Sound of the Wind" also lies in the typical roles of these actors, that is, for their irreplaceability, another person to play Gu Xiaomeng or Wu Zhiguo may not have this taste.
However, in "On the Cliff", although Zhang Yi and Yu Hewei's acting skills are also good, this kind of acting is to complete Zhang Yimou's narrative intentions, they are more like pawns on the chessboard, losing their spirituality and freedom.
But it's crucial that most of the characters in The Sound of the Wind break through the shackles of drama and get in front of the audience.
In fact, it is difficult to deny the watchability of "On the Cliff" in terms of viewing and the sense of invigorating narrative, which is nothing more than a well-made commercial genre film.
But when it comes to the uniqueness of the film, compared to the performance texture of the actors, we will identify more with "The Sound of the Wind", it is like a peak that is difficult to surpass, even if Zhang Yimou, even Zhang Yi, Yu Hewei, we will still give the best crown of domestic spy films to the latter.
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【Text | MinaminoFumi 】
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