Overall feeling: "Arrow Willow White Ape" is very similar to "Master".
However, just from the perspective of viewing experience, it is really not as good as "Master".
If you say, therefore, it is a good condiment in "Master", which seduces our curiosity and freshness about him, promotes the development of the plot just right, and better completes the suspense laying and deep metaphor.
Then in this "previous work" that was completed in 2012, the "mysterious" is a bit fierce, appearing too heavy and noisy, so that the whole story is fragmented, and even some places will make the audience inexplicable.
For example, the willow white ape played by Song Yang, why can't he look at the mixed-race beauty, but instead is confused by a dusty woman, three times five divided by two is captured, the communication between them is also less pitiful, how can you be willing not to be a willow white ape for her?
Kuang Yimin later discovered the identity of Liu Bai Ape and went to the temple to break the monastic paper puppet used as a substitute, how did he find this paper puppet? What is the meaning of playing paper puppets?
Didn't Liu Bai Ape go to find his sister later? After all the hardships and hardships, I didn't find it, but I actually had an epiphany on the stones on the big river: Maybe my sister may not have really existed. Then said don't look for it, don't look for it, and come back again to find the wind and dust woman crescent moon red who cheated on her? His pursuit of life has become really fast enough!
After Liu Bai ape returned to the fruit stall, Kuang Yimin had found him, and they also said that they were going to compete; then the next shot was that Crescent Moon Red accompanied Yang Laozong out (it used to be Kuang Yimin to protect Yang Yimin's safety), and was assassinated, what about Kuang Yimin at this time? Where did he go? Why didn't it show up?
Or this assassination scene, Guo Decheng wants to blow up the willow white ape to death, and then, the fruit stall is blown to pieces, but the willow white ape miraculously survived, only to find out in the later plot that he is missing a leg, how did he escape?
Didn't the half-blood beauty break the willow white ape's tendons? Later, he also said it himself: Your hand is ruined. Willow white ape default. Broken tendons, and later can still shoot arrows and compete? Isn't there a little impact? I haven't studied martial arts, and I really don't understand this.
Too many puzzling passages...
In addition, the characters in this film are also mysterious and mysterious, and their behavior is a bit strange, such as Liu Bai Ape lurking around Kuang Yimin, who should have acted cautiously and concealed his sharp edges, but his every move revealed: I am a practicing family, and I have special skills. I'm afraid that others won't see it.
There is also the martial arts action design, although "Master" is also a simple style, practical style, there are not so many heaven and earth, cornices to the wall, are real knives and real guns, fists to flesh of the actual battle, but it still looks pleasing to the eye, very enjoyable; but this film will push the actual battle to the extreme, and I don't know if this kind of actual combat duel itself is so "simple", or the actors are not in place. In short, it looks like a child posing and playing between children, there is no fancy trick, there is no incentive to tear up, sometimes the actor will jump around, it seems funny, slightly less beautiful.
Some people say: This film was made four years ago, and it is not as commercial as "Master", so it is more Xu Haofeng and more original in style. In this way, reasonable commercialization and moderate packaging and processing still have certain uses! If you can make the scene look more beautiful and the martial arts movements look smoother, then commercialization is not bad.
In fact, everything must have a degree, so the suspense, the large section of blank space, hidden details, the metaphor of the utensils, the open ending, the simple fight, if controlled within a reasonable range, and then meet the audience who likes to ponder, then this film should be regarded as a rare miracle in kung fu films, worthy of repeated appreciation and careful tasting. But if you go beyond this degree and meet the general public who like to watch big scenes and are not willing to bother with their brains, then this film is very likely to become commercial cannon fodder.
After watching "The Arrow Soldier Willow White Ape" and comparing it with "Master", you will find out. The two movies are really too similar. They all talked about martial arts, jianghu, martial arts, and the army, all discussed the relationship between master and apprentice, all of them intervened with the intervention of the wind and dust women, and they also introduced a lot of things about rules and traditions. Therefore, from a certain point of view, "Master" is actually an upgraded version of "Arrow Soldier Willow White Ape"; and "Arrow Soldier Willow White Ape" is the original preliminary exploration of "Master". It's just that the story is more complete, the plot is a little more understandable, and the big stars Liao Fan and Xiao Songjia joined the "Master" is still cold at the box office, this time "Liu Bai Ape" has encountered the "Ip Man" with a strong propaganda offensive, and the "money" road is really worrying...
The story is mysterious and inexplicable;
The action is more than real, and the aesthetic sense is insufficient;
But overall, it is an alternative kung fu film with the director's personal style and careful thinking.
PS: The male protagonist Song Yang and the male number two Zhao Zheng, it really seems that in the process of watching the movie, they are often silly and unclear. It seems that the male aesthetic of director Xu Haofeng is really surprisingly unified.
Author: Blue Rain Star City (Independent Film Critic, TV Critic)
Public number: Entertainment review world yptx_666
Weibo: Blue Rain Star City
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