This year's Spring Festival file is not only fiercely competitive for cinema films, but also very dazzling on the online platform.
Among them, Song Xiaobao's self-directed and self-acting comedy film "Diary of Fortune", more than 20,000 people on Douban scored 6.0 points, which is already a rare high score in online movies.
As early as November 30, 2017, he posted on Weibo that he wanted to make this movie. The screenwriter, director, and lead actor are all arranged by him, and it is not easy to spend four years polishing a work.
The joining of Ma Li, Sha Yi, Zhang Yishan, Han Yanbo, and the cameo support of Xiao Yang, Allen, Wang Zulan, Wei Xiang, Ma Hanyi, and Huang Xiaolei, the joining of these popular filmmakers adds a bright color to this movie.
One
The story takes place in the bustling city of Shenzhen, where an unemployed young man Providence (Zhang Yishan) steals a money deposit box from his father Xiaobao (Song Xiaobao) because of his debts, and rushes to get on the train leaving Shenzhen.
In the car, Providence accidentally discovers his father Xiaobao's unknown past.
Xiao Bao was originally an orphan who grew up in the countryside of northeast China, and one year during the Spring Festival, the neighbor's second brother (Played by Sha Yi) returned from Shenzhen and swung wide in front of the villagers, which made Xiao Bao have the idea of going to Shenzhen to pan for gold.
Everything here is not as easy as imagined, and the second brother is just the driver of a big boss.
Because of blocking the boss's wine in the nightclub, Xiao Bao launched a drunken madness to beat the boss, and even the second brother lost the driver's job, and the two could only sleep under the overpass.
It was the roof leak that happened to rain overnight, and the two did not have a place to live, and the next day they woke up from sleep, but found that there was an extra baby boy next to them.
Although the second brother vigorously opposed, Xiao Bao decided to keep the baby boy by his side. He named the baby boy "Providence" because he felt that it was Providence that the little boy in his life appeared.
Xiao Bao is a warm-hearted man who saves a grandfather Zhang Manshun (Ma Hanyi) who has a heart attack in the park, and is taken home by Uncle Zhang.
Uncle Zhang has no children, and he guards a large house alone, and the family has a room rented to Ma Lu (Ma Li), an elderly young woman in the mainland. Xiao Bao and the second brother with the child also lived in Uncle Zhang's house, and Uncle Zhang also regarded Providence as his grandson, and the fates of these five people were also linked from then on.
In order to earn milk powder money for Providence, Xiao Bao and his second brother worked everywhere, did all kinds of dirty work, and were arrested because they drove a ship for the smuggling group. But then the second brother found a way to speculate in stocks, just in time for the stock rise, only to earn a little money, life is basically stable.
Xiao Bao found a job on a construction site; the second brother also went out with a little savings to earn a living; Ma Lu earned from a roadside stall to have her own store; and Providence also reached school age.
Providence is deeply sorry that he does not have a mother, so Xiaobao lies to him that his mother works abroad, and Ma Lu pretends that his mother writes to him regularly.
Although this was able to trick the child at first, as Providence grew older, he soon discovered the secret. In addition, Xiao Bao is running for his livelihood, and Providence gathers less and leaves more;
Xiao Bao and Ma Lu got closer and closer, which made Providence, who was in a rebellious period, think that he was being treated as a burden by his father, and the relationship between father and son became more and more rigid, and Providence eventually dropped out of school and became a small who ran into trouble in the city.
At this time, Providence, who was sitting on the train, read his father's diary and realized that it was not easy for his father in these years, so he decided to return to his father's side.
At the same time, the creditor who came to collect the debt beat Xiao Bao, and the second brother who had just returned home also fought with the creditor's men in order to save Xiao Bao, and in the confusion, Xiao Bao was hit on the head by a stick and seriously injured, and was sent to the hospital by the second brother.
Fortunately, in time for rescue, Xiao Bao was out of danger, and Xiao Bao woke up to find that the second brother, Ma Lu and Providence were all standing by his side, and the movie finally ended with a reunion.
After the end credits, there are Easter eggs, Xiao Bao and Ma Lu finally get married; the second brother also finds his other half; and Uncle Zhang, who has died, leaves his house to Providence.
Two
The title of "Fortune Diary" will be reminiscent of Gao Zhisen and Huang Baiming's "Secrets of Fortune" in 1989, thinking that it is a movie about how to make money, but the whole film is about responsibility and responsibility.
The biggest desire to "get rich" in the film is the second brother, who has been looking for shortcuts to make money, and later really became a "professor" who sold water, so he became extremely rich, but because this counterfeiting group was destroyed, it was finally a bamboo basket to hit the water.
On the other hand, Xiao Bao has been conscientious, starting from the bottom, down-to-earth work, like such a positive image of the bottom character working hard, the film did not give him "special care", let him step by step "get rich", but in-depth portrayal, showing the hardships of a migrant worker in Guangdong, this realistic approach is the most worthy of recognition in the film.
A family of two men (Xiao Bao and the second brother), a boy (Providence), a woman (Ma Lu) and an old man (Uncle Zhang), this family structure is very peculiar and difficult to see in reality.
But the film does not make a big fuss about this, but focuses on the warmth between the characters, Ma Lu treats Providence as a son; Uncle Zhang also treats Providence as a grandson.
For the life of Providence, the film does not spend any ink to explain, but focuses on the growth of Providence in a single-parent family and the changes in the relationship between Xiaobao and Providence. This kind of life-like depiction reflects the focus of the current family relationship, which is of great practical significance and reference value.
The final resolution of the father-son conflict naturally requires communication, and this communication is not through face-to-face verbal communication, but by letting the son look at the father's diary. Although this technique is also a bad move used by similar movies, such as the Hollywood movie "Big Fish", it still seems very natural and warm in the film.
The film also invited Li Dongquan, an editor who has cooperated with Peng Haoxiang for many times, as editing director; Chen Minzheng, a national first-class artist, as the costume styling designer; and Zhao Xiaoding, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, as the director of photography, so what is presented is the texture of the cinema film, which is much better than ordinary online movies.
Three
Song Xiaobao is a Jilin Tonghua person, from a small family is very poor, when he was in the second year of junior high school, he dropped out of Shenyang to work, as long as he can earn money, he does everything, which also accumulates rich social experience.
At the age of 19, he was apprenticed by the duo actor Jiao Xiaolong, and later became Zhao Benshan's apprentice, he has always been an exaggerated comedian image, it is difficult to see his true side.
Although he starred in a comedy movie this time, the funny plot is point to point, the whole story is told slowly and logically, and the character image is also distinct and prominent, which is close to a life-like literary and art film style, and it is also a new display and breakthrough of his personal style.
It is said that the female lead actress Ma Li was pregnant with Liujia at the time, or insisted on appearing on camera, which shows that she also liked this story very much; and Sha Yi had participated in too many variety shows in the past two years, and had almost forgotten that there was an actor like him, and the image of the second brother in the film was shaped with flesh and blood, and it was also recognized by the audience.
Zhang Yishan's "Deer Ding Ji" last year attracted a lot of scolding across the country with his "monkey-style acting skills", and was also rated as the worst TV series of the year.
In this film, his role is not much, but it still maintains the standard he deserves, perhaps he is not suitable for costume drama, or this modern drama is more in line with his personality.
This movie is 128 minutes long, is the length of a theatrical movie, and the temperament presented by the whole film is also very close to the cinema film, so many people feel that it is a pity that this is completely a work that can be put on the theater line.
However, if it is released in theaters, in the face of opponents such as "Detective Chinatown 3", "Hello, Li Huanying", and "Assassination of a Novelist", relying on the box office appeal of Song Xiaobao, Sha Yi, Ma Li and Zhang Yishan, it is also difficult to grab the number of films.
"Fortune Diary" is an unexpected network movie, much better than the general network, and the film with a partial literary and artistic film temperament is suitable for screening on the network platform.
Song Xiaobao's efforts are worthy of recognition, because of this film, he became the second director of Zhao Benshan's apprentices after Dapeng.
I hope that he can continue to work hard, and the next work will strive for the theater line, so that the Chinese people can see his special talent outside of comedians.
(Rotten Tomatoes Movie Editorial Department: Blood Dan Heart)