"Classmate Manass" is empty but chattering

Wen Gypsy

Edited by Zhou Jianping [email protected]

From the name alone, Huang Xinyao's new work "Classmate Manas" and the old work "Big Buddha Plus" are a set of obvious contrasts. "Mynas" is transliterated from Minus (reduced), which is both the name of the colonel in the movie and the process of high school classmates who grew up together and gradually withered away from their middle-aged classmates. Unfortunately, the "reduction" in the title does not simplify the film, on the contrary, the director's narrative that is very brilliant in "Big Buddha Plus" has become a chattering explanation in this film, so that I have to suspect that this is a patch that the director has found himself weak - if the director believes that each protagonist has his own destiny, if he believes that the actor can build a bridge with the audience, where is the need for him to alternate with the character from time to time to explain the logic and express his feelings?

"Classmate Manas" is so full that the thrill of each character's ordinary life has been dissolved, so that the audience's understanding of the film has been deprived.

This was originally a good story, based on Huang Xinyao's 2005 documentary "Scare Three Small". Several high school classmates who often gathered to talk about Dashan reached the age of 30, either feeling frustrated or financially difficult, in short, they were not satisfied. Among them, a good friend named Jie Zai died in a car accident during the filming of the documentary. Unlike the film, which is very explicit about expressing a certain point of view and a certain attitude, this documentary is a study work made by the director with a handheld DV. Because it is impossible to predict the changes in the subject's life, the documentary instead carries a kind of unknown and equal perspective - such as the funeral of Jie Tsai, there is no hysterical emotional catharsis, only the silent crowd when the yellow coffin is pushed into the fire and the ashes flying in the sky after the end of the ceremony - unfortunately, this moderation and restraint have disappeared to the carefully modified "Classmate Menath".

There are two scenes that I was very impressed with. The first is that the insurance salesman Electric Wind fired the boss's squid after being unable to bear it, and suddenly jumped into the lake to swim when passing the park. This "sudden" shot well, it's a rebellious daily life of a man who has just married and is about to have a baby, and it's a quiet, long, memorable moment. However, at this time, the director's voice-over came out: "I asked The Electric Wind why he jumped afterwards, and he only had a lazy answer: 'I just want to jump'." After that, a large section of the director's evaluation, from the big bang to the chaos of life, the golden sentence is there, but this opportunity to immerse the audience and the protagonist in the virtual liberation also slipped away.

Another mistake is even more regrettable in my opinion. The canned man who tried to commit suicide by swallowing medicine took over the work of the household office, but when investigating the household registration, he found that the goddess Ofnas in middle school had started a skin and meat business, and he wanted to confess, but Menath only treated him as a guest, and finally when Mynas went to "get ready", he cried and walked out. That long shot is quite sad, the disillusionment of youth and the nothingness of life are coming, and almost the mood of the whole movie can be placed - if the director does not come out at this time, then Mynas will not be just a symbol of the movie, but will be the person who the film really wants to make but finally leaves all the blank - how wonderful is this? Unfortunately, the director is still reluctant to return the right to understand to the audience, he said: "For most men, there will be a goddess in their hearts when they are young, but as they grow older, the goddess will gradually disappear in their hearts..." A character who was originally very obscure suddenly in a certain position of being gazed at, then the beauty brought by that obscurity also disappears, not to mention that "disillusionment" and "nothingness" itself is an atmosphere, once it is punctured, it is like a comedian who acts as a laugher at the same time.

It can't be said that "Classmate Mynas" is a very bad movie, but compared to the previous work, the director is really lazy. It's a wake-up call for creators: if you rely too much on a creative path, that path will sooner or later become your dilemma.