Beijing, October 28 (Reporter Yuan Xiuyue) Zhang Ailing's novel adaptation of film and television dramas has always been a hot topic. "The First Incense" has attracted much attention since the announcement of the starring role.
Although Ma Sichun and Peng Yuyan's version of Ge Weilong and Qiao Qiqiao were commented by netizens as "casting failures". However, with Xu Anhua directing, Wang Anyi writing, Du Kefeng photography, and Sakamoto Ryuichi soundtrack, there are still many people who have expectations for the movie.
However, "The First Incense" still failed to turn over, douban scored 5.5 points, the box office just over 30 million yuan.
Douban screenshot
What's the problem? Different from the simple bad film, the problem of "The First Burning Incense" is not that it is filmed poorly, but that the content is "twisted", which is described as "violation of harmony" in the words of netizens.
Poster of "The First Burning Incense"
"First furnace steel"
This is first manifested in the casting. Some netizens have long moved out the description of the male and female protagonists in the original work of "The First Burning Incense", whether it is Ge Weilong with a "plain and beautiful small convex face, a slender nose, and a fat and round mouth", or Qiao Qiqiao, who is "no blood color, lips are pale, and plaster-like", it seems that they are far from the appearance of Ma Sichun and Peng Yuyan.
Many people's criticism is also mostly focused on this aspect, Ma Sichun is not like the Shanghai girl described in the original work, and Peng Yuyan is not like a mixed-race beautiful man who can make people fall in love at first sight. Some netizens commented that the two in the film do not seem to be flirting, but Peng Yuyan is talking to Ma Sichun about the personal training arrangement plan, not "The First Furnace of Incense", but "The First Furnace of Steel".
Video screenshots
In the netizens' complaints, the two fragments were repeatedly mentioned. One is That Georgie Joe's sister admonished Ge Weilong: "Mixed-race children are a bit gloomy, and they are also a little angry." As soon as the words stopped, Georgie Joe, bare-armed and with obvious muscular lines, came in.
One was a young mane, saying that Ge Weilong had been studying hard all day and night, and his face had already lost a circle.
It is true that the lack of fit between the actor and the character will make the film less flavorful and substitutionary. But the actor's performance is more critical than the appearance. In literary adaptations, the roles are more complex, and the actors need to fully understand the inner world of the characters and grasp the tone of the performance, sometimes losing every centimeter.
Ge Weilong and Ge Qiqiqiao's first solitude should be a very critical paragraph, but the film has become a slightly greasy debauchery boy flirting with pure love girls, and also saying some earthy love words - "Why are you staring at me?" Am I the nail in your eye? "It's the nail in the eye, and I'm afraid there's no hope of pulling it out."
In the novel, Ge Weilong is seduced by her aunt step by step, and gradually indulges in the world of materialism, from a female student who does not know the world, to a high-level social flower. This is a tragic story of life sinking, but Ge Weilong is not a simple little white rabbit. She didn't tell her parents to go to her aunt herself, and she was smart and had her own plans.
Unfortunately, Ma Sichun did not show Ge Weilong's complexity. In the early stage of the performance, Ma Sichun either tilted his head and smiled, or he was shy and bowed his head, and the level of performance was too small, as if he was acting in a youth movie. On the contrary, in the later stages, its performance gradually improved.
"The First Incense" is a romance film?
In reading "The First Burning Incense", Ma Sichun once wrote: "Zhang Ailing's humility cannot be exchanged for her lover... Because love is not the humility of one person, but the bravery of two people. ”
Screenshot of Weibo
At that time, there was also controversy, and from the perspective of the finished film, the "love" in the movie seemed to be the protagonist. In addition to the actor factor, it is more likely to be the pursuit of director Xu Anhua, who has mentioned many times that the film is a love film.
Xu Anhua has remade Zhang Ailing's novels twice, "Love in the City" in 1984 and "Half Life" in 1997. The remake of "Love in the City" failed, and "Half Life" is considered to be the best performance of Zhang Ailing's work on the big screen. Regarding the adaptation, Xu Anhua once said: "You can only adapt Zhang Ailing's novels, and you cannot borrow the title to play. ”
The plot of "First Incense" has not changed, but the emphasis is different. In the novel, Ge Weilong has a clear growth line, from coming to the Liang family mansion to secretly try on gorgeous clothes, to slowly becoming a new star in the social field, to falling in love with Georgie Joe, dreaming of shattering, and finally compromising with reality and becoming another aunt. However, in the movie, Ge Weilong's obsession with materialism is not highlighted, and the scene of secretly trying on clothes is also a flash, resulting in Ge Weilong's early personality being relatively thin, becoming a "love brain" that cannot be loved.
Ge Weilong's obsession with Georgie Joe is only one of the many reasons for the tragedy of her life. But in the movie, Ge Weilong's incomprehensible love for Ge Qiqiqiao seems to have become the main object of narration. Zhang Ailing's song of mourning and compassion for Ge Weilong's fate has also become an ode to Ge Weilong's pursuit of love.
This has caused a lot of controversy. Especially in the early publicity of the film, it is even more used in the short video platform to use some love movie marketing routines, such as "scumbags habitual routines", "playboy idiomatic words", "see themselves in the first incense", "give love and not a farewell day", etc., highlighting the love elements in the movie.
Screenshot of short video
Some netizens called it "sinking youth pain love talk marketing". There are also netizens who comment that the propaganda is very fragmented, engaging in earthy flavor in Douyin and Wong Kar-wai on Weibo.
The simplistic summary of "scumbags" and "complaining women" attracted many netizens to like and discuss, but it is clear that this is not the novel, or even the core of the movie. This kind of dislocation propaganda invisibly deepens the sense of violation of the film.
"The First Incense" is not so bad, but there are also bright points, such as the story of her aunt is enriched, two flashback clips tell her what happened when she was an aunt's wife, and get a glimpse of the source of her life's tragedy.
Some people have commented that Zhang Ailing not only saw the pearlescent treasure of this world, but also saw the rotten sores of this world, the so-called "gorgeous and desolate" at the same time. But many film and television drama adaptations only see gorgeous, or only see bizarre stories. This may be the adaptation of Zhang Ailing's works, which is a greater difficulty than casting. (End)
Source: China News Network