Can't bear the expectation, or went to see "The First Incense".
First, the original work is too well-known, Zhang Ailing's representative work.
Second, the film's main creative team is too luxurious.
Director Xu Anhua, screenwriter Wang Anyi, director of photography Du Kefeng, costume styling and Tian Huimei, music director Ryuichi Sakamoto, art Zhao Hai, recording Du Duzhi, editor Kwong Zhiliang... The creator has won a total of 176 heavyweight awards. In Xu Anhua's words: They all won Oscars.
After the film was released, Douban was only 5.6 and Maoyan was 7.3; the box office was also mediocre, with 33 million in 6 days of release, and Maoyan predicted a total box office of 63 million.
The voices of netizens have even converged into a hot search, called #Where is the problem with the first incense, and the number of readers has exceeded 100 million.
What's so wrong with the film? So many people scolded.
01 Role
Judging whether an actor plays well in an IP movie has two levels.
First, the actor himself does not conform to the role of the original work, and must be "like".
The second is acting, whether to complete the setting of the role, give the character soul, and let the story be established.
Obviously, Ma Sichun and Peng Yuyan, the main actors of "The First Burning Incense", have not reached the standard at both levels.
Zhang Ailing's description of Ge Weilong (Ma Sichun) is: a plain and beautiful small convex face, long and charming eyes, deep marks of double eyelids sweeping straight into the sideburns, slender nose, fat and round mouth.
Qiao Qiqiao (Peng Yuyan) is a pale mixed-race child, charming, gloomy and gloomy, with a bit of a.
Ma Sichun and Peng Yuyan look more like Tiger Lady and Shoko, trainees and fitness instructors, workers and foremen...
Before talking about acting, let's first look at what story "First Incense" tells.
In 1937, Shanghai fell. Ge Weilong took refuge in Hong Kong with her family, who wanted to take her back to Shanghai because of financial problems, but Ge Weilong wanted to continue her studies in Hong Kong. She went to her aunt and hoped that she would provide her with life and study in Hong Kong.
The aunt (Yu Feihong) married a wealthy businessman when she was young and bowed down to being a child for more than ten years. After the death of the rich businessman, the aunt inherited a large inheritance, and flourished in Hong Kong, freely wandering between Vanity Fair, rich and men.
The main story line is how Ge Weilong learned to "fish" men under the tutelage of his aunt, and the story of "fishing" men to "get" money.
When Ge Weilong looked for her aunt, she said: "My aunt has educated me to become an adult, I am your child, and I will slowly repay you in the future!" ”
It is easier for adults to negotiate transactions than to talk about family affection.
It can be seen that Ge Weilong has a plan for life and is sophisticated enough to do things.
But Ma Sichun's performance is too simple, and when he sees his aunt, he looks like a middle school student who has made a mistake and sees the cowardice of the director of teaching.
When he first saw Qiao Qiqiao, Ma Sichun's eyes dodged, hunched over his chest, and pouted and raised his eyebrows in a girlish manner. I don't see the heartbeat, I only see the embarrassment.
After witnessing Qiao Qiqiao's derailment, Ma Sichun first expressed his disdain for the scumbag with a loud yell, and then expressed his sadness with a nervous and strong laugh and tears. This kind of performance is not uncommon in Ma Sichun's previous works.
As the heroine of the film, Ge Weilong has her own love and lust, affection and greed, which are the main driving forces for the story to move forward. Ma Sichun played Ge Weilong as a bitter woman who was betrayed by love and could not be loved, which directly led to the lack of viewing points and unclear themes of the film.
Peng Yuyan is good at playing the role of "inspirational muscle man", in "The First Incense" he maintained the external image of the muscle man, at the same time, with a simple temperament, he also performed the style and cunning of the rich second generation. But there is no performance of Georgie Joo's inner gloom, corruption and fragility. It is also difficult for the audience to believe that Georgie Joe is a small white face who "eats soft rice".
Yu Feihong's performances are almost all eyebrows and glances, the characters are frivolous and gorgeous, and they almost write "I am beautiful, I am fishing you" on his face.
In addition to the performance of the main actors collapsing, the story is also difficult to say.
02 When Xu Anhua met Zhang Ailing
"Give love without a day of remembrance" is the slogan of "The First Burning Incense".
"Do everything, love one."
"I just pretended to want to go, and you really didn't keep it."
"I know, I know, I just don't know why I still love him so stubbornly."
Before watching the film, I thought that the promoter of "The First Burning Incense" deliberately misplaced the publicity and used the "qq space wind" of ten years ago to tell an unsure love story, so as to attract the audience to buy tickets.
After watching the film, I sighed that the publicity party had found out the style of the movie, but it also deceived the audience.
"The First Burning Incense" is very "qq space wind", but does not talk about love.
Zhang Ailing's novels seem to be about love, but in fact they are about human nature.
In the original work, Ge Weilong felt that "boundless desolation, boundless terror", Hong Kong has "dense layers of people, dense layers of lights, dense layers of dazzling goods".
Ge Weilong defected to her aunt, married Georgie Joe, and grew from a female student to a socialite. In the process, she followed emotional self-selection and weighed the economic pros and cons, some passive but more active.
When he saw the women standing on the street, Ge Weilong said to himself: "What is the difference between me and them?" How is there no difference, they are unavoidable, I am voluntary. ”
Zhang Ailing gave the character "wisdom and sobriety" from the beginning, supplemented by the era background of Hong Kong's colonization and resistance to the British. "The First Incense" has never been a simple love story, it is about human nature, but also about class and history.
But Xu Anhua wanted to shoot the story in her heart, she said: "I just want to make a love film, I have reached this age, I have never loved well, you want me to love once." ”
Xu Anhua on the set
Film is the art of directing.
It's not hard to see why the film is so far from the original.
But love, Xu Anhua also did not shoot well.
Ge Weilong and Ge Qiqiqiao's first meeting chat, like a fitness coach and trainees communicating weight loss plans.
The second time they met, Ge Weilong fell on Ge Qiqiqiao because of fear, full of the pompous breath of painful youth tablets.
The bed scene of the two people, the camera did not reach the waist, Ma Sichun dressed neatly throughout the whole process, and the film was pan-good, like no lust. Described by netizens as: the coach demonstrated how to kiss under push-ups.
The two have no common experience, no desire to attract, and how can not see that there is love between them.
03 The best lineup makes the most messy movies
The collapse of "The First Incense" is all-encompassing.
Wang Anyi said that taking on this job is to "return Xu Anhua's affection", and the work content is "filling in the pit for Zhang Ailing" and "writing a text for the director".
Therefore, the film uses the base of the original work, but there is no soul of the original work, and what the director wants to express is incompatible with the original work. "The First Incense" as a whole presents an extremely torn texture.
In the original work, Ge Weilong remembered her hometown in her illness, but she still chose to marry Georgie Joe. She understood that her hometown was not her home, and she had entered the marriage after careful consideration.
In the movie, it was changed to Ge Weilong remembering his hometown after marriage, but his hometown has turned into water, and he contacted the plot of Ge Weilong's discovery of Ge Qiqiao's cheating after marriage. It is easy to understand that Ge Weilong has broken his yearning for home because of Ge Qiqiqiao.
This also means that Ge Weilong entered the marriage with a yearning for home. A story of "hurt by love" and "infatuated woman meets scumbag" appears, which is obviously far from the original.
In the original work, Ge Weilong saw the clothes prepared for her by her aunt, "short coats, long coats, capes on the beach, pajamas, bathrobes, night dresses, afternoon clothes for cocktails, semi-formal dinner clothes worn by guests at home, all colored."
Ge Weilong quickly peeled off one of the dinner clothes on his body, threw it upwards, and the person's knees were soft, and he sat down on the bed, and his face was hot with a burst. ”
I thought to myself, "What is the difference between this and Changsan Tangzi (Note: ChangsanTangzi refers to the high-end Qing Dynasty In the Shanghai area in the late Qing Dynasty, referring to luxurious and exquisite brothels) and buying a pleasing person (Note: "This is the difference between this and the girl who was bought by the brothel as a prostitute)?" ”
This description, on the one hand, reflects Ge Weilong's joy at seeing the life of the upper class for the first time, and on the other hand, writes ge Weilong's shame and self-esteem. It is an important event of Ge Weilong's psychological transformation.
But "What's the difference between this and buying a likable person in the Long Third Hall?" ", but it was said by the servant. It means nothing.
After Ge Weilong met Ge Qiqiqiao, he fell into self-struggle. During this time, she fell seriously ill and lamented that "he aroused her incomprehensibly violent enthusiasm." In order to adapt to the environment, her newborn muscles were deeply embedded in the fence of life, and they could not pull out. ”
Through this illness, the original text shows Ge Weilong's inner transformation. However, instead of the film, Ge Weilong was ridiculed and beaten by others after getting on the ship, and decided to stay in Hong Kong and marry Georgie Joe. Such adaptations lack the autonomy of character growth, are simple and crude, and lack deep meaning.
In terms of photography, the film is mostly a decent front-and-back shot, and the highly saturated colors do not highlight the wet atmosphere of Hong Kong, which is quite a "French" realistic style. Two shots of night turning from day to night also flashed into the eyes of the audience. Du Kefeng, who is "just right to eat", is very "lying flat".
Right one Du Ke Feng
"The First Incense" tells the story of a Shanghainese woman in Hong Kong, but there is no Cantonese or Shanghainese in the film. The aunt speaks Beijing films, the mixed-race Georgie Qiao speaks Mandarin, and the girl has a cute Taiwanese accent.
Together, the chaotic character language shapes a Hong Kong that does not exist.
Just like this movie, with Zhang Ailing's "First Burning Incense", it tells a non-existent love story.