Chen Guofu is one of the few Taiwanese directors who has successfully entered the commercial market.
Perhaps for many, his stuff is not artistic enough.
But with Hou Xiaoxian, Zhan Hongzhi and others as the golden generation, there is no ambiguity in making movies.
From "Marriage Notice" to "Double Pupil", Chen Guofu's films are full of international standards, and even have a Hollywood-level scale.
But since 2004, on the grounds of recuperation from liver disease, Chen Guofu has turned to the background and done some screenwriting work.
The good news is that these years have obviously made Chen Guofu's vision broader, the pattern greater, and the ambition stronger.
There is a more original and pragmatic insight into the power of how to balance art forms with commercial value.
These gains are directly reflected in the film he directed in 2009.
The Sound of the Wind
The Message
"The Sound of the Wind" is a novel adapted from the writer Mai Jia, which is a rare spy war theme in the Chinese film market in recent years.
Huayi Brothers, an investor at the time, expected to make a Hollywood-sized box office blockbuster.
In addition, executive director Gao Qunshu, Hong Kong art Yip Kam Tim, American cinematographer Bao Xuanwu, plus many first-line hot acting stars.
Therefore, both the suspense layout in the movie scene and the commercial propaganda outside the play are intriguing.
In 2006, "Dark Calculation", which was also adapted from the original work of the Mai family, opened the spy war fever of Chinese TV series.
Three years later, "The Sound of the Wind" extended it to the big screen.
The most valuable thing about The Sound of the Wind is that it depicts a vivid, legendary story.
Although it is a spy movie as a type of propaganda.
But in fact, its plot content and genre treatment are very different from Hitchcock's classic "North by Northwest" and "Spy Spirits", or Brad Pitt's "Spy Game" and Spielberg's "Munich", all of which have great genre styles.
"The Sound of the Wind" belongs to the "ghost hunting" spy war film, in which several people are suspected of being spies, they are locked up in a place, and then they have to find out who among them is a traitor.
Usually the protagonist of the police film is the policeman, who wants to catch the murderer.
However, "The Sound of the Wind" is the opposite, that is, it is the villain who catches people, and it is the protagonist hero who is caught.
In this process, everyone is more fierce than tricks, more than wisdom, more fierce than willpower, more fierce than anyone...
So the plot is advanced layer by layer.
In terms of plot laying out and expressive techniques, "The Sound of the Wind" is actually closer to a reasoning drama and a psychological thriller drama.
In times of war, many of the original moral bottom lines can be destroyed and broken, and people's feelings will become very unreliable.
Usually, we can also talk about human feelings, morality, and ethics in a dignified manner
But when everyone's life is threatened, will people still be able to keep this bottom line?
The story of "The Sound of the Wind" is to put all people in the situation that is closest to the bottom line of human morality and let them be tested.
To examine where people's feelings and beliefs were at that time, this is an extremely dramatic state.
Even, in the process of extracting confessions and executions to find out who is the underground anti-Japanese organization "old ghost", it is obvious that there are B-grade film elements (Qiu Zhuang, who makes people have a closed phobia like a haunted house) and the bloody smell of "Soul Snatcher".
These elements make "The Sound of the Wind" a masterpiece with rich theme elements and an open style.
The clue of "The Sound of the Wind" is from the confrontation between traitor and orthodoxy, and then brings out the interests of willingness, hypocrisy and snake, playing for the tiger, allying with interests, surviving or treating each other with true feelings.
All intelligence, or confessions, is both a wounding blade and a blind spot.
Takeda, a Japanese officer played by Huang Xiaoming, wants to use this humanity to find the answers he wants.
But the most subtle key to "The Sound of the Wind" lies in the use of "betrayal".
The five suspects were not unknown, and the premise of defecting to the Wang government was not necessarily all betrayal.
But on the brink of life and death, driven by the instinct to survive, you have to let go of all your friendships, both to "betray" the illusory friendship, and if necessary, to "betray" the conscience or mission that you originally believed.
In order to protect yourself, you have to hurt others, you have to give up your original belief and acceptance of feelings and conscience;
But how do people who make "betrayal" options rate the kindness and trust of others?
The human ordeal experienced by each character has become the most solid drama of "The Sound of the Wind".
What the novel "The Sound of the Wind" really wants to talk about is about the truth of history and the differences in national culture.
It can be said that the nearly 2-hour film borrows the shell of the novel and abandons the conceptual and literary experiments that were originally loaded in the novel.
It needs to outline the character's personality and interactive relationship in a short period of time, and create a suspenseful atmosphere of deception.
Therefore, the film succinctly brings out the anti-Japanese background during the Wang Jingwei government.
The five government personnel who used the intelligence of the Japanese officers were locked up in the precarious Qiuzhuang compound.
Under the combination of physical torture and psychological tactics, try to find out who is the "old ghost" of the assassination machine.
After several espionage-to-espionage battles, the film gradually narrows the scope of suspicion.
It is not difficult for careful viewers to deduce the identity of the "old ghost" from the weight of the actors and the order of punishment.
But the real mystery doesn't stop there, the struggle between individual morality and group beliefs, the emotional trade-offs between virtual and real...
Unveiling the mission under the heavy shadow of espionage is the truth that Chen Guofu wants to improve the level of genre drama.
After entering the Qiuzhuang compound, the film immediately became wonderful.
In order to survive, all the tricks of the people under house arrest are out.
There are many reasons why I like "The Sound of the Wind", one of which is that Chinese films are gradually starting to get rid of the old way of selling Orientalism and slowly moving out of the new route of their own commercial genre.
The whole movie is simple but suspenseful, just like a successful work of reasoning, how to detonate the biggest spark among the fewest characters who appear.
This is a topic that suspense movies must break through and think about.
The story progresses much like Agatha Christie's "No One Survives."
In an enclosed space, the murderer is one of a limited number of people, but the final mystery of who is left to the audience to think about.
Compared to the large number of people in "No One Survives", "Wind Sound" reduces the clue to five people, and the arrangement of the character Cass is also easy to see.
The five suspects, two suspicious officers, were completely locked in two gloomy stone buildings.
It is conceivable that the meanness, betrayal, cruelty, etc. of human nature are about to appear here.
Sure enough, just a small interrogation can easily reveal the evil side of human beings.
Takeda's tactics then lured the suspects into internal infighting.
Torture is the most exciting part of this film, and I almost closed my eyes and did not dare to watch it. Just think about it and your scalp tingles.
The most terrifying thing should be the torture of Gu Xiaomeng in the end, and I think many people can't forget the almost empathetic fear!
The theme of this film revolves around who is the inner ghost, the leader must use all means to lure it to appear, and the others must try their best to get rid of it.
However, Chen Guofu seems to focus on the former, while the latter appears weak.
Frankly, there are only five suspects, and it is not fun to play at all.
The first one was killed alive, the second one raised a gun to commit suicide, is there anything left to see? No one is surprised.
However, Chen Guofu finally won.
Because he not only uses the "accomplice" system, but also cleverly embeds the process of intelligence transmission in an inconspicuous link.
When the audience is forced to think only from the perspective of Takeda and Wang Tianxiang, they are caught in his "trick".
It wasn't until the protagonist at the end of the film cleared up all the questions that I suddenly realized.
The actions and language of the characters are originally deeply meaningful, and if the audience does not pay attention, it will be fleeting.
This is also what I admire most about Chen Dao, perhaps the process of psychological wrestling may not be perfect, why the heroes are so unyielding and loyal, I can't have a relationship.
But the trick he used really surprised me and became the biggest highlight of this film.
To put it bluntly, this story is to depict the tragedy of China's great era.
Being aggressively invaded by Japan's foreign enemies, and even having a puppet government behind its back, a patriotic national mentality was born spontaneously.
The people have organized underground anti-Japanese organizations and tried all kinds of methods to kill and resist foreign enemies, and the most important thing in this is "intelligence."
With accurate intelligence, it is natural to carry out unmistakable assassination of anti-Japanese operations.
The English title of the word "wind sound" actually represents "message", and the wind carries words.
This "message" in the story is "the last piece of information, the most important piece of information."
As for the extra-dramatic extension, it can be said that this message is "to convey the power and basic values of human nature."
The characters in the movie "The Sound of the Wind" are completely inherited from the original book.
The Mai family has created several facetious legends.
For example, the traitor Wang Tianxiang, the decoded genius Li Ningyu, the ghostly Gu Xiaomeng, the iron-blooded man Wu Zhiguo and so on.
These characters have distinct personalities, and some of them also carry the shadow of the family or the entanglement of lovers.
These four characters, combined with other characters who portray human nature, trigger one explosive point after another for the film itself.
So strictly speaking, the scene of "The Sound of the Wind" is a secret room.
No one can leave until the mystery is solved; at the same time, everyone else's every move becomes a disturbance.
Under such a setting, human nature becomes a very easy prop to grasp.
By playing with human nature, the clues begin to slowly be stripped away.
It can be said that the film is based on the novel's ready-made legendary story to transform.
However, since it is a "transformation" and since it is a mainstream commercial blockbuster, it is necessary to meet the needs of the audience in all aspects.
Including the means to be novel, the characters to be vivid, the ending to be unexpected...
The highlight is that this is a group of heroes, and the various characters on the stage are all fully engaged, on the one hand, they enter the play, and on the other hand, they also have to fight the play.
The Sound of the Wind uses a lot of dialogue and narration subtitles to explain the storyline, rather than the actors performing important key points.
Chen Guofu makes good use of screen cutscenes and text supplements to simplify the supposedly complex spy-to-spy story, so that the audience can easily enter the situation - together with the actors to speculate who is the "old ghost".
Then put on the dubbing sound that sounds like the code of Mo Mos, to make up for Gu Xiaomeng's thoughts that the screenwriter could not portray.
This is rare in the presentation of suspense films.
The film passes the suspicious characters through a fixed point, torture interrogation, and occasionally interspersed with verbal provocation, which shows that Chen Guofu knows quite well about human psychology.
So the gloomy building in the movie transformed into an adult cultivation field, and the slightest wind and grass caused an uproar.
Words, movements, expressions, eyes, everything else is magnified, and it is not known who will be the next tortured person to take his turn.
Although the audience is outside the picture, the skin and flesh are not painful, but they feel the tense atmosphere created by the whole film, and even the breathing is a little oppressive.
Chinese-language films with spy war themes have always been unpopular, but they are rarely set in the period of Japanese pseudo-government.
Usually, the true theme of the story is added to this tense and suspenseful spy-to-spy plot.
Under the tit-for-tat antagonism, unexpected bursts of lust and distorted events are the main themes.
It shows the helplessness and inability to extricate yourself as a spy and the entanglement of interests in lustful control.
To be honest, this is a somewhat complicated history, and it is not easy to summarize all the ins and outs easily.
However, Chen Guofu, who has always been known for his humanities and sensibility, spent a short period of 15 minutes to explain all these causes and consequences and complex historical backgrounds clearly and clearly.
This allows the viewer to proceed with the next episode with a clear heart.
The power of this story is really praiseworthy.
The difference between spy movies and police films is, on the surface, some ideological struggle, or patriotic emphasis, but the genre elements of the two are extremely similar.
In this regard, you can also see "The Sound of the Wind" as an upside-down police film.
The policeman inside is actually a villain, what we call a traitor, and if the villain wants to catch the hero, he puts all five people under house arrest in a castle full of luxury, with a traitor they think has stolen information, and the three men and two women are all spies.
Therefore, the spy-to-spy plot of "The Sound of the Wind" is wonderful, and the interrogation sections are delicate and endless.
It can be said that it is the same as the degree of passion of the love scene in "Color, Ring", which is cleverly parallel to the sensory climax of the spy-to-spy psychological warfare.
In terms of plot, this story can almost be said to be the ultimate version of the spy's deception, which requires absolutely skilled acting skills and collocation to support the plot and convince the audience.
The main characters in the play are distinct and difficult, but the tension of the actors' performances is also balanced, refined, concentrated, accurate and introverted, which makes people can't help but be impressed.
With the twists and turns of the plot of "The Sound of the Wind", the director's approach also cleverly makes the audience question the justice and loyalty that should be absolutely affirmed.
Cruel torture and unscrupulous means are used to seek "justice"; espionage organizations sacrifice and bear the burden of humiliation without regret in order to protect "loyalty".
"Justice" and "loyalty" are almost completely overturned in the movie!
The evil of justice is quite intriguing in contrast to the virtue of the spy.
Of course, this also involves the abuse and arrogance caused by the improper dissipation of power in the context of the times at that time, but this issue is the shackles of history.
In the film, it is only (or can only) be completely nakedly presented, stating the reality of the event, and giving the audience a scale of self-evaluation.
Looking back at the history of Chinese films in the past, "The Sound of the Wind" is one of the few Chinese films that can blend and play with so many types of elements, while also controlling the coordination of multiple lines, multi-character character stories, and accurately controlling the film's transition, rhythm, drama and aesthetics.
More importantly, "The Sound of the Wind" can maximize the dramatic tension and entertainment effect, and can also promote the solemn atmosphere of the big era.
There is also the psychological level of the characters, depicted extremely accurately and in place, completely closely related to the audience's psychology and expectations, so that the audience is fully engaged and fully participates in the deduction of the plot.
The success of "The Sound of the Wind" is first of all due to Chen Guofu's screenplay adaptation of the original novel, which is based on the spirit of Fa Stanley Kubrick to "The Shining".
Not limited to the original framework, but adapted according to the needs of the plot and personal aesthetics.
In particular, the scenes full of visual impact and psychological oppression are full of visual impact and psychological oppression, which add a lot of points to the dramatic tension of the whole film and highlight the dark and fragile sides of human nature, and the literary and martial arts dramas such as suffering and seeing true feelings.
The Sound of the Wind begins in darkness and ends in light.
At the heart of the story is the possibility of humanity rising.
Although the background of the war reminds us of the pain, it reveals the most terrifying and obscene human face.
But only in times of perverse emotions can you witness the true brilliance of humanity.
It can be said that in the most difficult times, the most untested is human emotions, but in the end it is also human emotions that save us.
It is worth mentioning the background music theme, "The Sound of the Wind" found Oshima Man's "The message medley", and chose to follow the plot with a very basic, clean theme melody.
Carry the elusive and confusing story with the simplest instruments and melodies.
Or it is only through non-Chinese composition that the relationship between positions can be fundamentally eliminated.
Truly from an outsider's point of view to objectively analyze the film picture, appropriately placed in the soundtrack to promote the plot.
Another thing that makes people talk about the movie is Nothing more than Ye Jintian's art design.
In recent years, Ye Jintian, who has served as a fire brigade for many film art, has created a unique sense of beauty for the film "The Sound of the Wind", which has a strange atmosphere.
In that cold mansion like a cell, it is full of luxury that does not match the times and the plot, and also adds a fun elegance to the tense atmosphere.
In addition to the elaboration of the costumes, Ye Jintian's layout of the scene is not sloppy at all.
Every scene in the movie is well done.
Layers of gorgeous wallpaper, elegant sofas, colorful sheets and vintage phones, combined with lighting and photography, make "The Sound of the Wind" look pleasing to the eye no matter which scene.
Although there is not much ink in the execution room, under The design of Ye Jintian and the photographic lens of Bao Xuanwu, there is also a gloomy death situation, which is impressive.
Ye Jintian's unique aesthetic put on an elegant and gorgeous cheongsam for this cruel film, like Li Bingbing and Zhou Xun in the film.
Secondly, the ingenuity of the casting is actually the key to the success or failure of "The Sound of the Wind", in addition to the complex and bizarre plot tension that can be revealed, it also fully performs the rich emotions and depth of the story.
When the number of suspected spies decreases with the improper punishment in the film, the truth of the story becomes more and more broken and unpredictable, narrowing the scope of the suspect but enlarging the suspense of the suspect.
This section is the essence of what I think is the best thing about The Sound of the Wind.
It is all based on the actor's performance ability and mutual connection to layout.
More importantly, the superb acting skills of each character are enough to support the plot, convince the audience and even think and question.
The final truth reveal bridge section director's technique is very beautiful, the rhythm is compact, concise and crisp, and it is clearly manifested in the practice of the devil's justice, the spy comrades are more affectionate, and their spirit of maintaining loyalty will be carried forward forever under the body of successive sacrifices.
The spirit does not die, like the sound of the wind.
Huayi's many big-name actors helped, how to let the talent resources show their strengths, testing Chen Guofu's wisdom.
It is very difficult for all actors to enter the roles in the play.
They all contributed wonderful and appropriate acting skills, clearly interpreting the character life of each character, so that each character jumped on the paper and came to life.
Huang Xiaoming is too handsome, Zhou Xun is too casual, Zhang Hanyu is too serious, Li Bingbing is too introverted, Wang Zhiwen is too dignified, Yingda is too clever, and Su Youpeng is too modern.
But on the other hand, the true colors of each of them can also be used as the starting point of the characters.
In that way, after the catalysis of film shooting, it becomes Huang Xiaoming's fierce and cool, evil villain has a human contradiction, Zhou Xun is imaginative, Zhang Hanyu is unfathomable, Li Bingbing is outside Zhang and inside is relaxed, Wang Zhiwen is uncertain, Yingda is wise and foolish, and Su Youpeng is both rigid and soft.
But if I am most surprised by this film, I think it is None other than Bai Xiaonian.
Neither yin nor yang, yin and yang.
The demeanor is feminine, the voice is deliberately sharp, but the flattery revealed is naturally unpretentious.
I couldn't believe that he was the original well-behaved tiger and handsome and affectionate fifth brother.
Su Youpeng's performance made me want to applaud him, and after he was tortured to death, he barely crawled out of the pool of blood, stressed to his lover commander that "I am not a ghost", and then was beaten to death by the commander.
This paragraph is really amazing. The image of him lying in the pool of blood at the end lingered in my mind for a long time.
It is a pity that Bai Xiaonian's Kunqu opera is feminine and eye-catching, but it is a pity that the hard-working singing voice is deleted in the movie.
The two female characters in the film, Zhou Xun and Li Bingbing.
Looking back at Chen Guofu's previous works, it is not difficult to understand why the rivalry between the two has become the most prominent paragraph in "The Sound of the Wind".
The youthful friendship between girls with very different personalities in "Girls in the Country"; the strange relationship between the "Peony Pavilion" reflected in "My Beauty and Sorrow"; the pain that Du Jiazhen forgot in "Marriage Notice"...
Even if the thriller "The Sound of the Wind" is played in the spy war genre, the woman drama of love and resentment is still the focus of Chen Guofu, through the fragile and tenacious characteristics of women, excavating humanity in an abnormal state.
The performances of the two actresses are each good at winning, and the spark of tit-for-tat should be the key to both being nominated for Best Actress.
Lou Ye's persistent role in the film is not unfamiliar to the audience who is familiar with Zhou Xun, but her performance is indeed moving, and she is an indispensable contributor to "The Sound of the Wind".
Li Ningyu, played by Li Bingbing, has unexpected surprises, and the costume and styling design successfully set off her classical charm, just like a lone peak rose with cold outside and hot inside, teaching people to cherish the humiliation and betrayal she endured.
And the twist of counterattack and compromise after the collapse is even more dramatic.
Finally, I also have some opinions on the treatment of the final ending of this film.
I believe that everyone remembers the last four big words of "Love Does Not Die" in "Double Pupil"! This is the most classic "negative teaching material".
In "The Sound of the Wind", I think that Chen Guofu did learn the lesson of "Double Pupil", and did not lose it at the last moment, but progressed to "add enough to the snake" in the last 10 minutes:
The intention is to emulate the Hollywood-style screenwriter's usual "big reversal of the ending" technique to increase the climax of the after-scenes.
Such an arrangement really effectively enhances the fun of video reading.
But in essence, this ten-minute drama is just Chen Guofu's habit of always ending with the spirit of great love.
At this point in the anatomy of human nature, the traditional options of "national righteousness" and "sacrificing the ego" are provided, which are far less complicated than the contradiction between the female intelligence officers falling in love with the traitors in "Color, Ring".
Although it is not a failure, it is still a bit redundant, resulting in a slightly weak ending.
From "Double Pupils" to "The Sound of the Wind", Chen Guofu has always been brave enough to try genre films and carefully expand the vision pattern of Chinese films.
Diluting the contradictions between the Kuomintang and the Communists in the original work, and highlighting the belief in anti-Japanese resistance with torture and psychological warfare, is a market consideration that condenses the focus of drama and reduces controversy.
Even if "The Sound of the Wind" is not perfect in the connection of paragraphs, there is room for discussion in the persuasiveness of the intelligence transmission design.
However, the actor's performance is outstanding, the overall achievements are not hidden, and under the correct premise of conforming to the national righteousness, it also takes into account commercial elements and dramatic connotations, and it is still a masterpiece worth watching.
--END--