Introduction: But the China here is the China in the minds of Westerners, absurd, exquisite, and funny. - "Agarwood Crumbs: The First Incense"
The movie "First Burning Incense" is adapted from Zhang Ailing's novella "Agarwood Crumbs • First Burning Incense", written by the famous female writer Wang Anyi, and directed by Xu Anhua, a director who has been in the film for more than 40 years. The film focuses on the peaceful Hong Kong during the War of Resistance Against Japan, nearly a hundred years have passed since the cession of Hong Kong territory, Hong Kong has long been under British rule, extremely bourgeois petty bourgeois atmosphere, but also maintained the decadence and decay of the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the film mainly takes place in the small white building of Mrs. Leung's home, where one absurd, exquisite and funny story is staged. The film features Ge Weilong, the niece of Mrs. Liang, the "outsider", and tells the story of what happened in the process from the initial amazement to the inextricable process of falling into it. The film was shortlisted for the non-competition section of the 77th Venice International Film Festival last year and was released on October 22, 2021 in Chinese mainland.
1. Absurdity
The absurdity of the film spreads from the story to the characters, from the picture to the actors. In the 1930s and 1940s, Hong Kong was occupied by the British for nearly a hundred years, and no less than a few wealthy families from the mainland came here to escape the war, so it became a fun place for dogs and horses. Mrs. Liang in the film is the person who runs this place, she takes rumors as a happy event, communicates with the rich merchants to obtain money, and also takes the initiative to show that young children are greedy for the flesh, and the sound of depression often resounds throughout her small building, which is a gray area after the collapse of society and the collapse of order, no one governs, Mrs. Liang is both Cixi and Sai Jinhua, using the current social law and morality to see its existence itself, that is, absurdity.
The story writing is even more so, the film uses a large number of dialogues in the original novel, which is a novel classic and also in line with the characteristics of the times, but the various implications in the novel are always too straightforward in the film, so that the two have a strong contrast and awkwardness. "They are unavoidable, I am voluntary", this is the embodiment of Ge Weilong's love for Ge Qiqiqiao in the dust, but the film seems to be in order to give Ge Weilong a stronger sense of autonomy, and has added her slap on Qiaoqiqiao, asking Geqiqiao to send lies to her, etc., which is in the combination of the newlywed Ge Weilong saw Geqiqiao and the beauty of the sea frolicking and before seeing the unwillingness to look directly after spending a good night with Ge Weilong. In the novel, Ge Weilong's humble courtship to the bone gradually changes its flavor in "The First Burning Incense", which makes Ge Weilong's body frequently split, which is not like Ge Weilong, but also makes her introspection and self-deception entanglement in the original text, and only shows the love madness of youth pain literature in the film.
2. Exquisite
From Du Kefeng's palm mirror, Sakamoto Ryuichi's composition, Wada Emi's design of costumes, and Wang Anyi's screenplay, it is not difficult to see the exquisiteness of the director's imagination, and such a configuration is also the sincerity of the director. The film adds some black and white colors about the past - Mrs. Liang announced her departure at the family funeral, continued to write the prequel of Mrs. Liang, and when she first stepped into the "circle", and situ xie took Ge Weilong to Shanghai, the two eyes are opposite, which alludes to Ge Weilong's future, at the same time, the picture of one in and one out in front of the gate also carries the scrutiny and criticism from the director, she takes the contrast between the two as her own judgment, today I am tomorrow's you, the director will continue to pass this meaning to the audience, It seems to be doomed to Ge Weilong's future life, although the setting is clever, but it is also such a judgment, so that the fate of Ge Weilong's character is more and more irreversible.
The delicacy in the film is also like the costumes worn by the characters, most of them are superficial, although the high price has built a costume, but each role in the film is not quite like the people living at that time, and the sense of drama in the film is the most intuitive embodiment of the separation between the actor's state and the text of the line. Every actor is trying to tell the audience that I am the person, but things must be reversed, the actor's force is more like shouting "I am myself" to the audience, the actor has not entered the role, and the audience's play is also an obvious result. The beautiful installation will not become a prop to help the audience enter the movie at this time, but will become an accomplice to stimulate the audience to "play", aggravating the sense of fragmentation and separation brought by the film.
3. Funny
The most comical scene in the film is situ xie with Ge Weilong after shopping after the meal, after the seafood on the table, Ge Weilong and Situ Xie two people look at each other, there is no way to start, Situ Xie stiffly showed Ge Weilong how to eat gracefully "body backwards, head forward, and then elegant sucking", followed by Situ Xie sucking hard, the face of the red ear after the "sneak" inhalation, Ge Weilong and Situ Xie laughed, the audience can't help but be funny, which can't help but make people think about the meaning of the director to place this plot. In the novel, the closeness of Situ Xie and Ge Weilong is only described as "sending a grand gift", but in the film, the two people from the purchase of gifts to the meal, all reveal awkwardness and funny, this aspect is the awkwardness at the beginning of the improper relationship between the two, but also the innuendo that the two are in the glitz but still incompatible with such a life, elegance and calmness are both superficial, which also alludes to the fact that the "high-class communication" in Hong Kong at that time was finally fang fang.
In addition, although the characters in the film are placed in Hong Kong, the actors in the film come from all over the world, and most of them do not use voice actors, which is another funny moment in the film, when Qiao Qiqiao (Peng Yuyan) and Xiao'er (Zhang Junning), who have a Taiwanese accent, meet Ge Weilong and Mrs. Leung's Mandarin, coupled with situ Xie's northern temperament, there is no trace of Hong Kong and Shanghai, and each actor is not like the permanent residents of this land, which is a problem that could have been avoided in creation.
epilogue
This "First Burning Incense" is the "First Burning Incense" in the eyes of Xu Anhua and Wang Anyi, which is absurd, exquisite and funny.