In 2013, an unknown director, with a group of unknown actors, made a well-known domestic suspense film - "Labyrinth of Hearts".
Without a grand worldview, no dazzling special effects, and no well-known movie star blessings, the only thing that stands out in "Labyrinth of Hearts" is that it tells a good story.
With a production fee of 1.7 million yuan, 26 days to shoot, a Douban score of 8.7, "Labyrinth of Hearts" undoubtedly hit the face of many large-scale films - in domestic movies, there are too many gorgeous special effects, but there are very few who tell good stories with heart.
Better than 97% of suspense films and crime films, 46.9% of five stars, 43.6% of four stars, "Labyrinth of Hearts" with "heart" to fight a beautiful turnaround battle.
The intention of "Labyrinth of Hearts" is mainly reflected in two aspects: the plot story and the character setting.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > story</h1>
The story is mainly divided into three parts, focusing on three people: Xiao Zongyao, the son of the village chief, Li Qin, a woman who stayed behind, and Xiao Weiguo, the village chief.
1. Xiao Zongyao
Xiao Zongyao and his father have always been at odds, because his father disregarded his ideas and forcibly arranged a job for him with an iron rice bowl. When young people are full of energy and want to make a career, they are naturally dissatisfied with the work of sitting in the office every day. However, under his father's strong arrangement, Xiao Zongyao could only obey. Stealing his father's medal is a kind of silent resistance.
In addition to his father's strength, he is also reflected in love. Xiao Zongyao fell in love with Huang Huan, a girl from the same village, and had reached the point of talking about marriage. Huang Huan told Xiao Zongyao that he was pregnant, which made Xiao Zongyao feel bad. The reason is that his father wants to find a girl in the city for Zong Yao to be his wife, and how to deal with the relationship between Huang Huan and his parents makes Zong Yao feel headaches. But that night, an accident completely changed Xiao Zongyao's fate.
Xiao Zongyao and Huang Huan were privately seen by the rogue White Tiger of the same village, and Xiao Zongyao was unable to pay the extortion amount of 10,000 yuan. Between the two arguing, Xiao Zongyao lost his hand and pushed down the White Tiger and led to the death of the White Tiger.
The sudden change made Zong Yao panic, and he took Huang Huan back to the city, borrowed some money from his friends and planned to run. Zong Yao, who returned to the city, found that his father's medal was missing. After a night of consideration, Xiao Zongyao, who was worried about affecting his father, decided to return to the village and turn himself in.
Back in the village, he saw that everyone was delivering a funeral to the White Tiger, and the expected situation did not appear, which made Xiao Zongyao wonder.
This is the first part of the movie. Leaving us with a lot of questions, is Huang Huan really pregnant? Is the White Tiger dead? Why is everyone not surprised by the death of the white tiger? Where did the medal fall?
Then the camera turns and begins to tell the story of Liqin.
2. Liqin
In the past, Liqin and Wang Baoshan in the same village were lovers, but under the opposition of Wang Baoshan's parents, the two could not come together in the end. In the end, Wang Baoshan married Xiaofeng, a woman from the same village, and Liqin married Chen Zili, a disabled person in the same village. Although Li Qin and Wang Baoshan failed to marry, it did not prevent the two from having an affair, and the relationship has been maintained until now.
Li Qin's husband Chen Zili usually loves to drink, and when he is drunk, he beats her. Although Li Qin wanted a divorce, Chen Zili did not agree.
One night, when Li Qin and Wang Baoshan were secretly having an affair, they plotted to kill Chen Zili together, and then covered up the illusion that the fire was burned to death. But Wang Baoshan said that he was happy and happy, but he couldn't really kill people.
The next day, someone asked Liqin to go to the village committee.
It turned out that someone had been killed last night, and the body had been burned beyond recognition. The Huang family, who could not find their daughter overnight, thought that their daughter had been poisoned, and mistook Wang Baoshan for the murderer. Wang Baoshan, who had been beaten with a blue nose and swollen face, could not argue with a hundred mouths, and had to tell the story of spending the night at Liqin's house last night. For the sake of her own reputation, Liqin did not admit it, only saying that she was alone at home.
Li Qin, who had just returned home, had not yet had time to catch her breath, and someone from the village said that the body was Li Qin's husband Chen Zili, who had an ID card as evidence. Li Qin, who thought that she could finally get rid of the sea of suffering, did not investigate deeply, and was bent on finishing the funeral quickly.
DaZhuang, who has always had a crush on Liqin, volunteered to help Liqin go to the city to buy funeral things, and bought a gold bracelet by the way.
On the way back to the village, Da Zhuang met Chen Zili, who was not dead. Seeing that the wife of the hand flew again, Da Zhuang started to kill in the middle of the road. But killing people is so easy, first of all, the psychological barrier can not be passed, and The big man finally gave up.
Perhaps it was the heavens who heard the expectation of DaZhuang, chen zili, who was convenient to get off the car, and fell off the cliff. Compared with killing people, it is much more convenient to deal with relics, so Da Zhuang threw Chen Zili's bag off the cliff together and pretended that nothing had happened.
The next day, LiQin, who was out of the funeral, received a call from the police station asking him to go and recognize someone. It turned out that Chen Zili's body had been found, so who was the corpse in the village? Li Qin, who was also full of questions, hastily cremated Chen Zili's body, but found the crutches left by Chen Zili on the big strong car.
Back at home, Li Qin returned the bracelet that Da Zhuang gave her, and also announced that the relationship had ended before it began. Then, Li Qin asked someone to carry the charred body back to the village committee.
The second plot tells us the real cause of Chen Zili's death, and also responds to the words of the old Zhao in the village: If the funeral is over and the living Chen Zili returns, it will be interesting.
But the questions for us are even more, who burned the body of the white tiger? Still not filled in the pit that everyone is not curious about the death of the White Tiger. Huang Huan's pregnancy and the whereabouts of the medal are even more unexplained.
3. Xiao Weiguo
One night, Xiao Weiguo had dinner with friends from the same village, and on the way home, he saw his son Xiao Zongyao clashing with the White Tiger. When Xiao Zongyao and Huang Huan left, Xiao Weiguo checked the situation of the White Tiger. Finding that the White Tiger had lost its breath, Xiao Weiguo panicked.
Although Xiao Weiguo is usually a strong and strict father, Aizi's heart is the real emotion hidden in his heart. In a hurry, Xiao Weiguo thought of the scene when he found the body with Lao Zhao during morning exercise some time ago (the person who died when he spoke at the beginning of the movie). So Xiao Weiguo imitated the situation he saw at that time and burned the body of the white tiger.
The next day, Old Zhao came to his home and said that Huang Huan was dead. This made Xiao Weiguo wonder, wasn't it the White Tiger? How did it become Huang Huan?
Then there is the plot of the second story, in which the Huang family treats Wang Baoshan as a murderer.
However, after the coroner's examination, it was found that the pelvis of the body was large, and it was obvious that it was a male body. Based on the remains of identity cards found around, others identified the body as Chen Zili.
Xiao Weiguo's heart was full of mixed feelings, and he knew that the corpse was a white tiger, but he couldn't say it. It can only be implied that Li Qin check it out well, maybe she got it wrong again.
Sure enough, the next day, when she came out of the funeral, Li Qin was called to the police station to find Chen Zili's real body. The charred body was again sent back to the village council. What to do?
It just so happened that Bai Guoqing, the brother of the White Tiger, wanted to bring the corpse back and pretended to be the body of the White Tiger to deceive the debt collector.
It turned out that Bai Hu had borrowed a huge amount of foreign debt outside before, and the debt collector found Bai Guoqing. But Bai Guoqing was also poor and white, and in desperation, he thought of this method of "chaos with truth". He made an appointment with the village chief and said to the outside world that the white tiger was drunk and smoked, and after falling asleep, he burned himself to death. For Xiao Weiguo, this was the best arrangement. Therefore, there was the scene that Xiao Zongyao saw to give the white tiger a funeral.
Xiao Weiguo felt guilty about what he had done and resigned as village chief. After returning, he found that the coffin of the White Tiger was randomly placed in the suburbs, and Xiao Weiguo and Xiao Zongyao stood in front of the coffin without saying a word.
Standing in the distance, Huang Huan silently buried the medal that Xiao Zongyao had lost before into the stone. Before pretending to be pregnant, she was only afraid that Xiao Zongyao would not want her and used it to tie up Xiao Zongyao's plan.
The pits in the first two plots were filled in in the third paragraph.
White Tiger: Pushed down by Xiao Zongyao and fell to his death, Xiao Weiguo burned the body.
Chen Zili: When answering the phone at the edge of the cliff, I accidentally fell down the mountain.
Medals: Huang Huan secretly hid the medals in order to induce Xiao Zongyao to return to the village and turn himself in
Three story lines, each with a large amount of information, the director forced the three lines to compress together, so that all the shots and plots have practical significance, basically no waste shots, which made this classic in this domestic suspense film.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="81" > character settings</h1>
There are many characters involved in "Labyrinth of Hearts", in addition to the above three main characters, other minor characters also have a complete story line, which is very difficult. In just over an hour, it is necessary to explain the plot clearly, but also to explain the background of the characters completely, and not to make the audience feel bored, which is a test of the carrying capacity of the script. The interlacing of lines weaves a complex suspenseful plot.
1. Huang Huan
Huang Huan is a more complex person, who used to fall in love with Wang Baoshan's cousin and later fell in love with Xiao Zongyao. In order to let Xiao Zongyao marry himself, pretend to be pregnant.
There are two directions for Huang Huan: one is a bad person, and the other is a good person. I tend to be the bad guys:
Huang Huan deliberately hid the medal, which made Xiao Zongyao have concerns in his heart, in case the medal was found at the scene of the incident, then it would affect his father. Therefore, Xiao Zongyao was forced to return to the village and turn himself in. The cause of Death of the White Tiger was caused by Huang Huan and Xiao Zongyao. If Huang Huan insists that he has a child in his belly, then Xiao Zongyao may carry everything for the child, and he can stay out of the matter, and the result is just as Huang Huan expected. Until the end, Huang Huan deliberately hid the medal, and this worry would always be in Xiao Zongyao's heart, only to turn himself in.
Combined with Huang Huan's hearing that her ex-boyfriend lost his footing and fell off a cliff, he could not be indifferent to see it, not without this possibility.
2. White Tiger
When gambling, he owed a huge foreign debt, which provided a reasonable motive for stealing Chen Zili's wallet and blackmailing Xiao Zongyao. Suddenly nosebleed, Bai Hu said that it was an old problem, indicating that he was physically ill, and it was a possibility that he fell to his death after being pushed by Xiao Zongyao.
3. Wang Baoshan
Wang Baoshan's situation is the most complete of several minor roles, but it is also the most confusing: he used to be a lover with Liqin, and later the two secretly had an affair. After being discovered by his wife, he was driven out of the house, and under the persuasion of his mother-in-law, Wang Baoshan and his wife were reconciled.
From the plot point of view, in addition to stealing, Wang Baoshan has nothing to do with the two death cases, but in the early stage, he used him to lead the killing method: his cousin fell off the cliff, and he and Li Qin murdered people and destroyed the body. It cannot be said to be a coincidence, but only a smoke bomb deliberately used by the director to confuse the audience.
4. Be big
At the beginning of the movie, there is a shot of DaZhuang showing favor to Li Qin, and the confession of Da Zhuang will not look so abrupt. In particular, the plot of Chen Zili taking a ride on the way back to the village is just set in the middle part of the movie, which is also the beginning of the declassification of the movie. Although there are not many shots, it can make people feel his love for Liqin.
5. Chen Zili
Chen Zili has been a negative character from the beginning, good wine, lust, domestic violence, so everyone will not have sympathy for his death, this setting is very necessary. If the image of the bad guy cannot be established, once the audience begins to sympathize with the deceased, the focus of the audience in the later period will shift from the suspense story line to the injustice of the deceased, which is the director's cleverness. Moreover, in just a few words, Chen Zili's personality and family background were clearly explained.
At the beginning, I was still wondering, there should be many people who die of filial piety. How can Chen zili out of the funeral, only one wife? Later, from what Chen Zili said to Xiao San, this problem was explained: There were only a few distant relatives in the hometown, and there was nothing to see.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="110" > insufficient</h1>
It's also hard to be perfect in everything you do. There are many characters, complex relationships, and the closed loop of the plot is the advantage of "Labyrinth of Hearts". In order to create this advantage, it is necessary to sacrifice some details as a premise. For example, the character setting of the village chief Xiao Weiguo.
Xiao Weiguo's setting is a Qing official loved by the villagers, and at the same time a strong father. As the protagonist of one of the three main stories, there is not much time for Xiao Weiguo, and it is correspondingly difficult to carry the two personalities of Qing Guan and Qiang. For example, in order to show that he was a Qing official, he said from his mother that he was very loved by the villagers and had many medals. But in order to reflect his strength, he also said that he used his character to exchange an iron rice bowl for his son.
The director's intention is very clear, using strength to create a conflict with his son Xiao Zongyao, and using good character to create a conflict between burning corpses and protecting children. On the one hand, it is said that it is a clean official, and on the other hand, it is abusing private power, and the strong setting weakens the setting of the clean official.
Since this is the case, it is better to remove the setting of being strong and strengthening the Qing officials, such as the son Xiao Zongyao wants his father to use the relationship to get the iron rice bowl, and Xiao Weiguo sternly refuses. Xiao Zongyao, who does not understand his father, will also have an argument with his father. Then the father burns the body in order to protect his son, which also makes the conflict between the previous stern rejection of the son's unreasonable request and the willingness to commit a crime to protect the son more obviously. In the end, in order not to let his father carry the pot, the plot of returning to the village to turn himself in became smoother.
Of course, I can fully understand the difficulties of the director, the investment is small, the shooting cycle is short, and the complex plot line is taken into account, and it is normal to be perfect in some small details.
Overall, Labyrinth of Hearts is an excellent film.
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