The 1905 film network special article asked what is the world's love? I believe that in addition to you and your lover, another answer may be a love movie.
With the sweet arrival of the 520 slot, a number of movies have been "playing" in the theater. But in the "war situation", the amazing works that really run a "love" word through to the extreme, "The Legend of the White Snake, Love", is one of them.
An ink feast of oriental aesthetics
Even if the most beautiful poster of the 520 file period is selected separately, I believe that this poster of "White Snake Legend and Love" can win without suspense - pavilion water pavilion, broken bridge paper umbrella, flowers like a waterfall, white clothes win snow, you nong me nong, want to say hugh ... A resentful ink national wind with a weeping Jiangnan smoke and rain breath, people can't help but want to find out where "love returns".
Different from many "packaging" films of "golden jade posters, failure of its films", the "White Snake Legend of Love" film, as its name suggests, locks the narrative thread in the word "love", and tells the twisted love story between the white snake Xu Xian, both the love at first sight of "borrowing an umbrella from the broken bridge", the sincerity of "Kunlun stealing grass", the love of "water flooding the golden mountain" like the sea, and the long-term love of "if people are ruthless and not as good as demons, as long as there is a love demon"...
There are feelings, but they are not limited to love, but supplemented by a variety of emotional elements such as family affection and friendship, and they progress layer by layer to the great principle of breaking the shackles, and finally reach the speculative height of discussing the "law" of the Fahai and the "love" of the white snake Xu Xian.
It is worth mentioning that the film is the first 4K panoramic sound Cantonese opera film, which uses fantasy Western film special effects to present classic sections such as "Stolen Immortal Grass" and "Water Flooding Jinshan" on the Oriental Opera Stage, of which the six-minute-long "Water Flooding Jinshan" scene can be described as imposing and quite commercial blockbuster texture.
The literary drama is emotional, and the martial arts drama is thrilling - especially the scene of Bai Suzhen and the Eighteen Arhats Fighting buddha hall, creatively designed to be a water-sleeved fighting stick monk with an invincible enemy and a combination of rigidity and softness, so that the stage is unique and the Chinese kung fu is flying together, and the oriental aesthetics are the same as the traditional culture.
Speaking of aesthetics, this film pursues the aesthetic charm, subtlety and elegant simple style of the Song Dynasty - West Lake, smoke and rain, water mist, small bridges, lotus flowers, paper umbrellas... The exquisite set combines blank space and freehand to render an ink painting that condenses the charm of the Orient.
Then again, opera performance pays attention to freehand, while film performance is the art of realism, so how to find a balance between freehand and realism?
Realistic shadows and freehand dramas
Just as "The Legend of the White Snake" won the most popular film in the "Genre Window" section of the 3rd Pingyao International Film Festival, "the film has achieved a perfect fusion between opera and film, literary drama and martial arts, Western stunts and Eastern aesthetics", which is the creative road that Chinese films have opened from the source.
In 1905, Chinese's first film "Dingjun Mountain" was a Peking Opera fragment performed by Tan Xinpei, a veteran of Peking Opera, in front of the camera, which marked the birth of Chinese cinema with the "combination of oriental national art" and Western imaging technology, with distinct traditional national characteristics. At the same time, the first genre that accompanied the birth of Chinese cinema was Chinese opera films, that is, the combination of national opera and film art.
In 1948, China's first color film "Life and Death Hate" was also a Peking Opera art film, which was a costume play organized by Mr. Mei Lanfang to stimulate the patriotic enthusiasm of the Chinese people in the early 1930s at the critical moment of the Chinese nation's invasion by Japanese imperialism, directed by director Fei Mu. The film has made a series of innovations in the singing voice, performance, as well as the number of scenes, lighting, sets, makeup, costumes, etc., and will raise the aesthetic level of Peking Opera art to a new stage through the presentation of the big screen.
In 1954, the first color opera film produced by New China, "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", was a Yue opera art film. The film's directors Sang Arc and Huang Sha make full use of the "originality" and "legend" of the "Liang Zhu" story, giving the film a strong poetic meaning and strong appeal; the film also uses real scenes and painted scenes, while retaining the artistic charm of Yue opera, using the spatial expression of the film to break the shackles of the simple "record" of traditional opera stage films.
In the 1950s, the film was brought to Europe by Premier Zhou for screening, Chaplin could not understand, Premier Zhou told him that this play is "China's Romeo and Juliet", this sentence made Chaplin suddenly realize, but also let Yue opera from the small stage of opera to the international stage, but also inspired director Xie Jin to create a masterpiece about the life of Yue opera artists "Stage Sisters" (1964).
In addition, there are also Huangmei opera performance artist Yan Fengying starring Huangmei opera film "Tianxian Match" (1955), Yu opera performance artist Chang Xiangyu starring Yu opera film "Mulan" (1956), commentary film "Liu Qiao'er" (1956) starring opera performance artist Xin Fengxia, and Cantonese opera performance artist Xu Yulan and Wang Wenjuan starring in the Yue opera film "Dream of the Red Chamber" (1962) and other opera films have produced a wide range of social influences, deeply loved by the people of the whole country.
1962 version of the Yue opera film Dream of the Red Chamber
Further, without Chinese opera, there would be no series of classics such as Huang Shuqin's "Man, Ghost, Love" (1987), Chen Kaige's "Farewell to the Overlord" (1993), "Mei Lanfang" (2008), and Wu Tianming's "Changing Face" (1995). It can be said that Chinese films and traditional opera maintain a "mutually intertextual" and "symbiotic" relationship, and Chinese films have always been created under the observation of "shadow drama theory", which is also a local film theory belonging to China - to regard film as "drama", film is first to tell stories, show conflicts, so as to achieve a certain purpose of indoctrination, and "shadow" is a means used to express "drama".
Director Wu Tianming used Sichuan opera artists as the theme in "Changing Faces"
In other words, the localization of Chinese films began with the traditional art of opera. When the traditional stage art of Oriental opera is presented by the comprehensive image art of Western modern sound and light, when the oriental aesthetic and Western stunts are "married", the charm of the national essence can break through the limitations of the live stage, realize multi-dimensional innovation from form to content, take a number of classic IP that breaks the dimension to a larger market, and truly go to the world through universal value thinking and complete cultural output.
"Farewell to the King" won the Palme d'Or, which represents the highest achievement in the film arts
Who re-remembered, Lei Feng has also become a wind retreat.
Wait for the West Lake to dry completely, and there should be regeneration in the meantime.
As one of the four major folk legends in China, the story of "The Legend of the White Snake" is well known. Since the birth of the film, the adaptation of this theme has never stopped, from the mythological feature film "The Legend of the White Snake" (1926), which was first directed by Shao Drunwong and starring "Film Queen" Hu Die, to the Peking Opera film "The Legend of the White Snake" (1980), which won the Best Feature Film of the Hundred Flowers Award for Popular Films, to Xu Ke's flesh and blood douban 8.6 high-scoring masterpiece "Green Snake" (1993), "White Snake" will always be the "favorite" of film creators obsessed with traditional culture and oriental charm.
In 1926, "The Legend of the White Snake" pioneered the "costume film" trend
Released this week, "The Legend of the White Snake" is a sincere work born after the recent national comic masterpiece "White Snake Origins" (2019), which continues the combination of classical aesthetics and contemporary stunts, innovative adaptation and sophisticated production. In the future, "White Snake 2: Green Snake Robbery" will also meet with us, and it is expected that this "White Snake Fever" will bring us a different image from Sun Wukong, Nezha and other inspirational and enthusiastic teenagers after "Great Sage Fever" and "Nezha Fever", and the image of the big heroine of the national comic who fights for love, so that the traditional national comic aesthetic is more modern and diversified, and the classic IP of "White Snake Legend" is reborn in the new era narrative.