"Love Saint": A daydream that cannot escape reality

The film "Love Saint" is based on american director Jean Wilder's 1984 "Girl in Red". This Hollywood comedy also has its origins, the story originally originated from a stage play, in 1976 by the French adaptation of the film "Elephant Deception", and was remade by "The Girl in Red". When it comes to "The Girl in Red", not many people may know about it, but its theme song "I Just Call to Say I Love You" is very famous and almost a household name in China. Black-and-white blind singer Steve Wonder won the Academy Award for Best Original Song that year for the song. It's a pity that "Love Saint" did not take the copyright to this song.

The appearance of "Love Saint" at the end of 2016 is quite surprising. This year's comedy film market is not very strong, and the New Year is also the same, making this little-known film appear dark. "Love Saint" has a board and an eye in the comedy creation, very pure, no chicken soup for the soul or "bits and pieces" with tears in laughter, it is simply funny, which is more rare. The real comedy masterpiece is to make the audience laugh at the same time, feel another layer of meaning contained in the work, or simply no meaning, is to make people laugh; rather than telling you, "We are 'laughing with tears'", or telling the audience, "I will tell you a fable, in a comedic way."

In general, the comedy structure comedy elements mainly focus on two points: First, the story structure is generated by plot conflicts. This is usually the weakness of domestic comedies, because it will test the skills of screenwriters. "Love Saint" did a good job, because there is the original as the basis - the passionate encounter outside the marriage of a middle-aged man, and finally the yin and yang mistakes force themselves to the "dead end". The film has made extensive adaptations of the original, but still retains the typical Western "good comedy" story structure. This form of British drama attaches great importance to the story and plot, and the jokes completed on this basis belong to the high level in comedy films, such as Billy Wilder's "Passion like Fire", Hong Kong film "Crashing Board Wind", etc., which are very typical "good comedies". "Love Saint" is the same, and has been processed and created on the basis of the original story, such as the setting of Xiao Han played by Xiao Yang in the film to "express wrong feelings" for Ma Lilian played by Yan Ni; and the characters played by Xiao Shenyang and Allen have set up various situations for the "dead party" Xiao Han to meet YoYo, and the various plot settings and coping methods when the plan is exposed are also typical. Although the "reuse" of this in a large number of storylines is somewhat gimmicky, it is still rare in domestic comedies.

Second, baggage-style jokes are mainly focused on lines, bridges and actors. This is usually the strength of domestic comedies. Several comedians in "Love Saint" have made great contributions to the film, such as the setting of the Western "Rotten Boy Gang" and the complicity of fox friends and dog friends, all of which have been interpreted very well. Audiences who have watched the "Happy Comedians" program know that "Love Saint" is a big collection of comedies in the north and south, and it must be "enough" in terms of baggage and jokes. The film's choreographer also solved the problem of different styles of comedians. Several comedians have their own main lines, and when they reach their own story lines, they will exert their unique comedic charm through their lines and body language, and when they get together, they will converge to achieve unity.

Behind the comedy, "Love Saint" is about the dullness of ordinary life, and the protagonist seeks excitement and rebellion in a boring life. Unlike the Western-style opening and closing, the film places the protagonist's final leap in a dream. At this point, the little dream of modern urban white-collar workers in the cyclical pressure of life, like the "starry sky adventure of ordinary earthlings", has finally turned into a daydream that cannot escape reality.

To be fair, the ending of "Love Saint" is slightly too strong, because it involves a reversal of the values of the original work, as a domestic comedy adapted from a Western film, the differences between Eastern and Western cultures lead to the film having to carry out a daydreaming noise at the end, which inevitably makes the audience feel abrupt.