Youth film "Midsummer Future" and police film "Fury" released simultaneously, the comparison is actually very interesting, anger is a pure straight man's movie, action, gunfight, man brotherhood, the heroine Qin Lan is basically playing soy sauce, and "Midsummer Future" is a girlish, the protagonist of the film is a high school man and a woman, and the focus is on women, girls have a crush on handsome men, girls face divorced parents, girls face hopeless love. There is another reason, after all, the male inside is a gay, the film content involves high school romance, growth pressure, exam pressure, are all things in the teen world, and society is actually not much to worry about.
The two movies are usually PK, reflecting the viewing interests of the two major groups. "Fury" belongs to the Hong Kong of the past, and "Midsummer" really belongs to the youth of the future, but does it really belong to the future?
As soon as the film "Midsummer Future" was released, it received rave reviews, saying that it was a youth film for the Z era. In the Z era, that is, 95 to 09 years old (10-24 years old), the total population of China is about 230 million. Most of them are still in the reading stage, but they have become the protagonists of network traffic and consumption, and have become the object of capital pursuit. And the public's impression of them, staying in the mobile phone network indigenous, two-dimensional, niche, personality, small pink-red, live broadcast, vibrato, up lord and so on. The most famous is, of course, the back wave of station B, of course, there are also descriptions of the other side of the three and the great gods, lying flat, Buddhist, and mourning.
However, they are the main force of future consumption, and no one can refuse. As the impression of the entertainment industry, there are grumpy chizi, children of tomorrow and youth have you, Yang Chaoyue, Du Meizhu, TFBOYS, Guan Xiaotong, Ouyang Nana, and the protagonists of the film, Wu Lei and Zhang Zifeng, in fact, there are still many people. Look at the new recruits in your company, basically all of them are post-95s.
In the film, there are current factors such as vibrato, electronic music festivals, live broadcasts, Bluetooth headphones, gay, etc., of course, there are also college entrance examinations, residential schools, love and other youth films that cannot escape. The film is downplayed for the college entrance examination, involving practical problems such as seating by score, parents sacrificing for their children, and the loneliness of their children, but it does not focus on this, but only as the background of life, not critical, nor agree. This also makes it impossible for it to become a youth problem movie such as "Dog Thirteen", "Carnival", "Young You", "Over Spring", "Thirteen Paulownia Trees" and so on.
Youth movies, youth movies in the broad sense, are about how to enter the adult world. From the well-known international film industry's "Four Hundred Blows", "Graduates", "Death Poetry Society", "Soul Catcher", to China's "Sunny Days", "This Life Year", "Love Wind and Dust", "Xiaowu", "Peacock", "Seventeen-year-old Bicycle" and other post-7090s youth films, "To Youth", "Later Us", "Chinese Partner" and other post-8090s youth films, most of them tell a kind of growing pains, the transformation of the times, or focus on personal spiritual history, or allude to the history of social development.
What about this movie?
The film is more about a personal story: the year of the young girl Chen Chen's re-reading. How she was openly confessed by the teacher that she had a crush for many years, how to enter the world of zheng Yuxing, the internet celebrity of the crush object "djXYZ", how she fantasized about winning over the love of her parents, and how to recognize reality, give up lies, and face all this calmly. How she relied on early love to challenge her teachers and parents, and how she failed miserably in reality.
The good response given by the audience, the rating of Douban 7.6, may be her light comedy style, sunny and beautiful actors and more solid performances, more realistic lines and plots, and the breakthrough of gay's theme, etc., which is indeed the advantage of this movie, which can meet the needs of The Z generation crowd to watch their own lives, and also make them interested in buying a movie ticket to go to the theater to socialize. But it is only a plus, and it cannot be a highlight.
The film's portrayal of the girl's heart is not in place, and she cannot see her attachment to her parents and her love for XYZ. The father basically plays soy sauce, the family relationship is very superficial, even if there is Hao Lei, you can't see a kind of girl's attachment to the family. Her feelings for XYZ are timid, and she has not dared to take the initiative to express them, and even helped the other party how to chase her ex. Some of the expressions are comedic, covered, and very oriental for women. But fake drama is really done, and this conversion is too conventional. Even in the end, when she found out that the other party was actually a gay, did she still need a kiss? How will the whole mentality be reversed? It's actually the point here, but it flashes by, and the adolescent ignorant object of infatuation ends?
The mind of young women is difficult to guess, compared with classic works such as "Sunshine Sister Tao", "Strange Her", Japan's "Sea Street Diary", "Flowers and Alice", "Love Letters", Europe and the United States "Adele's Life", "Flower Appearance and Moon", "Brooklyn", the portrayal of this film still needs to be hot.
The film's perspective is free, pouring a lot of shots into xyz. He is obsessed with idol Ming, and the relationship between the two is somewhat similar to that of an idol-fan, which is actually easy to cause problems like Dumitake, but the film seems to treat them as ordinary love objects. From beginning to end, the film is xyz's obsession, concern, and worship of ming, but we don't feel it at all. Why? Because there are no memories, no camera that can make us feel their beautiful relationship, all of which is said through xyz's mouth. If this core motive cannot resonate with the audience, his attachment to ming and the pain of lost love are like water without a source.
Another myth is his excessive enthusiasm for Chen Chen, since he doesn't love, he is still so close, just to make Ming jealous? So crazy to show their electronic music hobbies, is it because it is too lonely? The motives are vague, there is no distinction between friendship and love, especially the relationship between two people is so good, why is there no attempt to indicate sexual orientation in the middle? The inner portrayal of him is also superficial, and does not show the gay heart of this person who looks cheerful on the outside, but is actually very lonely and depressed. Look at "Wallflower Boy", "Please Call Me by Your Name", "Blue Gate" and other similar types, the portrayal is much better.
The second half of the progress is even more hasty, several contradictions broke out at the same time, xyz showed sexual orientation, Chen Chen showed love to xyz, confessed to his parents the secret of his fake love, and also confessed that he already knew that his parents were divorced, the story ended suddenly, if the secrets were revealed one by one, maybe the effect would be much better.
Director Chen Zhengdao relied on suspense films to become popular in the mainland, suddenly returned to youth films, and paid tribute to his "Midsummer Lightyear", after all, he started as an art film, and later transformed into a commercial film, just like Zheng Baorui returned to shoot a "Wisdom Tooth", but the original intention was gone. This film, at most, is only a qualified commercial genre film, routine, of course, he also captured the texture of mainland youth life than many domestic directors.
However, if he can better portray the spiritual growth of young girls and boys, then it is not only a movie for Gen Z audiences to earn gold, but also a movie that records the spiritual life of a generation like "July and Ansheng", "Fanghua", "Muling Street", "Those Years", and "Sunny Days". Director, come on.