I must see the movie "The First Incense", no matter how my friends who have seen it criticize it before, I will walk into the cinema to see it with my own eyes. This naturally stems from my love for several women, the original author Zhang Ailing, director Xu Anhua, screenwriter Wang Anyi, it is a dream combination to say it. The three leaders of the Chinese world can collide with what kind of sparks, which is indeed expected.
This is the second time the three of them have "cooperated" (Zhang Ailing is naturally passive), and the first time was the drama "The Golden Lock", which has toured many times many years ago, and I have seen one of them. The actor's performance is very exciting, but at the screenwriting level, I think it is too straightforward, and more directly, Wang Anyi wants to express Zhang Ailing's hidden content directly. This is also a more interesting entry point, let me think about the difference between the two creations: Wang Anyi is a realistic way of writing, one detail after another, to construct the logic of daily life, so his novel is dense and thick, and likes to discuss, do not let the reader guess, and Zhang Ailing is a hollow and transparent writing, there is a lot of blank space, the sharpness of his novel is suddenly flashing the light of the blade, rather than The step by step derivation of Wang. The two use very different forces. Wang Anyi to adapt Zhang Ailing, need to remove the various parts of Zhang's novel, and then reinstall according to their own way, she wants to find a logical line, this gradual promotion process, inevitably stagnant, but also because the logic needs to be clear, so Wang Anyi will directly add Zhang Ailing's hidden jump parts, and the straightforward problem will come out.
Back in the movie "The First Burning Incense", Wang Anyi said in an interview with Southern Weekend: "She (Xu Anhua) said that what this movie has to do is to fill in the pit. Zhang Ailing always has a lot of very hidden clues when writing things, and will hide key things, such as Ge Weilong and Ge Qiqiqiao's marriage, and a sentence in the novel says that she is 'busy getting money and getting people'. But it's very abstract to write, and we're going to fill in and flesh out the story. After watching the movie, you will indeed find that Wang Anyi helped this movie fill in a lot of holes, some novels that are passed by, in the imaging to fill in the details, fill in the bit will make the movie become plump, filled in too much and will attract "blunt" criticism. This work is not easy to do.
The reason why Xu Anhua wanted to make this movie is as she said to Wang Anyi: "I just want to make a love film, I have reached this age, I have never loved well, you want me to love once." Readers who have read the original work must know that Ge Weilong is not an "innocent and innocent" victim, she has her own calculations, knows how to sacrifice part of it, and gets what she wants, even if it is mutilated, it is better than having nothing. But in the movie, we see a pure version of Ge Weilong who suffers for love. The film naturally faithfully shows Ge Weilong's tug-of-war with her aunt and the emotional tearing with Ge Qiqiqiao, but in the end she loves GeorgieQiao, so she is jealous, crying, asking for help, and compromising... The original work and the film are different from Ge Weilong, and the film does faithfully meet the needs of the director", "You want me to love once".
After talking about Wang Anyi and Xu Anhua, and then zhang Ailing, she was only 23 years old when she wrote "The First Burning Incense", but she was already an old soul. Reading this novel is like walking into a ghostly cave, "Wei Long walked down the road to the bottom of the mountain, the sun has turned to the west, the mountain behind the big red and purple, golden and green interlaced, lively, like the trademark painting on the lid of a cigar cigarette box, full of palms, plantains, are all baked by the poisonous sun, dry yellow pine mane, like cigar tobacco." The sunset in the south is fast, and the dusk is only a moment. The sun has not yet gone down here, and over there, at the end of the mountain road, the smoke trees are confused, green and dissolved, and there is already a moon shadow. Wei Long walked eastward, and the more he walked, the whiter and brighter the moon became, as if it were a white phoenix with a fat chest, perched on the bend of the road, and made a poop in the fork of the tree. The more I walked, the more I felt that the moon was in the depths of the tree in front of me, and when I came, the moon was gone. Wei Long stood on his feet for a while, but he was a little confused. Looking back at my aunt's house, I still faintly saw the yellow and red edge of the window ledge, and the green glass window reflected the sea color. The majestic white house, covered with green glazed tiles, is a bit like an ancient imperial tomb. "I read this creepy at the time, but unfortunately there is no such scene in the movie.
I look forward to the film presenting a hot, lush, gloomy, wet inhuman place, in which the characters live, not ordinary people's children, but more like "ghosts". Ge Weilong was not a stupid person, she entered her aunt's house, and immediately understood: "As for me, since I have walked into this ghostly world with my eyes open, if I am caught in the evil, who do I blame?" After marrying Georgie Joe, the two walked together on the lively street, but in their hearts they only felt "boundless desolation, boundless terror." Her future, too,— can't think, only boundless horror. This kind of psychological shock can only be experienced after penetrating the appearance of life. Terror, just waiting behind the day-to-day bustle, is like a beast crouching there silently, waiting for the opportunity to swallow you. Everyone knows that there is a beast, but pretend not to know, and continue to live a happy life. And in the movie, it is clean, and people are seriously calculating, seriously playing, and seriously loving, but they only stay at this level. But how to embody the "boundless horror" and how the film can be realized through technical means is an unanswerable question. Moreover, Xu Anhua is not here.
Audiences who hope to be faithful to the original book will be disappointed, and I am one of them. After watching the movie, I re-read the novel again, how to say it, Xu Anhua is like a diligent domestic worker, Zhang Ailing's room that "retained the lascivious air of the late Manchu Qing Dynasty" was cleaned up and dusty. It's clean, but this room can't tolerate Zhang Ailing's floating flowers. In the movie, although the characters are all in the scene, they can't see any desire, after watching the whole process, they can't feel a little emotional surge, and the characters' sadness and joy have nothing to do with me, and they can't enter their roles. The choice of actors also has mistakes, especially Ma Sichun, because of the fat caused by taking medicine hormones in the past, so that she gives people a sense of stupidity when running, walking, and making expressions, and the characters have no layers from beginning to end, although the heartbreak is so, and later they have not felt the changes in the characters. Aunt I think the most appropriate is Chen Chong, carnal desire and shrewdness, style and calculation, Yu Feihong can not play, only think she is a knife. Georgie Qiao, played by Peng Yuyan, is also unconvincing, he is more like a bastard on the street than a wandering brother.
Xu Anhua is a simple person, so is Wang Anyi, they all live in a clear human world, and Zhang Ailing is in a ghostly chaotic world, just as Wang Anyi talked about the difference between her and Zhang Ailing: "I and her growing up background is not the same, she can be said to live in the end times." The changes I write about are different from hers, her changes are downhill changes, and my changes are in a new era, which is an important difference. The most difficult thing for me to adapt her things is how to understand her time, and if I don't understand it, I lack details. Standing in a "new era" and thinking about the "end times" is inevitable, which is a pity in my opinion.
However, if you look at it from another angle, Xu Anhua and Wang Anyi have their views on the work, they do not have to fully embrace the original, Xu Anhua said in an interview: "I will use my attitude to interpret the characters, there may be some new views, but only 'new', the audience will see, will appreciate how different people look at Zhang Ailing, if 100% to reflect the characters and vision in the original work, too according to her story is likely not so good." For example, Ang Lee filmed "Color, Ring", his position is not Zhang Ailing's position, far less harsh than her, more like Kurosawa Akira's Zhang Ailing. ”
Adapting Zhang Ailing's novels is often thankless, and Xu Anhua's attitude has always been consistent, whether it is the previous "Half Life" or the current "First Burning Incense", there are many controversies, and she always adheres to her position. In this respect, she is respectable. If she still adapts Zhang Ailing's works in the future, I will still go to the cinema to support it.
Author| Deng Anqing Editor| Luo Haoling
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