2013 was the year that changed Xin Yukun's fate. His film debut "Labyrinth of Hearts", written and directed by him, won many awards such as "Best Feature Film" and "Best Screenplay". Xin Yukun also won the honor of "Best Director" for this
With an investment of 1.7 million yuan and a Douban score of 8.7 points, "Labyrinth of Hearts" set a box office record for Chinese independent films released in theaters with a box office score of 4.35 million in the first week. Xin Yukun used a complex narrative structure and broken editing techniques to tell the audience a wonderful suspense story.
Before that, Xin Yukun's life was not smooth sailing.
In 2001, Xin Yukun, who dropped out of high school in his second year of high school, applied for the Beijing Film Academy several times, but was not admitted. It didn't enter until 2008
Beijing Film Academy Photography Department Refresher Course, one year of training.
In 2010, Xin Yukun filmed the feature film "Seven Nights", but it did not cause much repercussions.
In 2013, Xin Yukun wrote and directed the small-budget suspense film "Labyrinth of Hearts" based on a true story, which only brought him into the public eye.
The success of Labyrinth of Hearts did not limit Xin Yukun's footsteps. In 2017, he returned with "Bursting Into Silence", which is also a suspense film but has a different narrative approach. Although the rating is slightly lower than "Labyrinth of Hearts", the score of 8.3 undoubtedly shows that this is also a good work.
"Labyrinth of Hearts" is mainly narrative, supplemented by characters, and the core of the plot is three story lines, Xiao Weiguo, LiQin and Xiao Zongyao, as the protagonists, only play a role in promoting the development of their respective stories. However, "Bursting into Silence" takes the protagonist Zhang Baomin as the core and uses a bizarre disappearance case to lead to a series of criminal problems.
For suspense dramas, finding a stand-in for the audience in the story can make it more convenient for the audience to understand the plot. "Bursting Silence" does this better than "Labyrinth of Hearts". Zhang Baomin in the movie is the audience's stand-in.
In general, this stand-in for the audience needs several premises: "We agree with him" and "His motivation for acting is reasonable"
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" > first look at "identifying with him"</h1>
Zhang Baomin in the movie is a miner who bit his tongue off due to a fight when he was young, resulting in the inability to speak.
Unlike the traditional use of the weak to resonate with the audience, Zhang Baomin is more like a fighting image. How to make the audience like such a bastard image? The director uses this approach: under the appearance of a strong is a weak position
The film as a whole expresses the "weak and the strong", and the three characters Zhang Baomin, Xu Wenjie and Chang Wannian represent the people at the bottom, middle and upper levels, respectively.
In order to ensure his own interests, Chang Wannian could kill people at will, which was a very common thing judging from what he said and the large number of thugs he had raised. When he said to the whistleblower, "Sheep, also vegetarian", and then ate a bite of lamb, he actually told us that in his mind there is no concept of good and evil, only the concept of the weak eating the strong.
Xu Wenjie is a lawyer and, as a middle class, has a certain right to speak. Those who should be most sensitive to justice have chosen to compromise on the side of interests. When he used his expertise to exonerate Chang Wannian, he knew how unconscionable this matter was. Half a million were exchanged for the relocation of locals, drinking water with a pungent smell, and sacrificing their own health. It is no exaggeration to say that Xu Wenjie is also eating human blood steamed buns.
Zhang Baomin, the only one of the three who often solves problems with his fists. Compared with Chang Wannian, he has no money and no power. Compared with Xu Wenjie, he had no knowledge. If you want to speak out, you can't make a sound, and the only thing you rely on has become your own fist, which is both helpless and sad. If it doesn't touch core interests, who wants to be a "mob"?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="32" > look at the motivation again</h1>
For the protagonist and the villain, the motivation of the "why" behavior is far more important than "who did it", otherwise the audience will have a sense of separation. For example, if you are also stronger, your life will be threatened more convincingly than tomorrow's street fights.
At the beginning of the film, a group of villagers ask Zhang Baomin to sign a land use compensation agreement, but Zhang Baomin is reluctant. In the ensuing argument, Zhang Baomin stabbed the owner of the mutton shop in the eye.
It is wrong for the villagers to force others to do one thing, but Zhang Baomin, as the murderer, was originally unpleasant, but in the back, from the mouth of the plug, "This well water tastes bigger and bigger", the motive for not wanting to sign the agreement was rounded up. This makes Zhang Baomin's fight meaningful, especially not for himself, for everyone. It also paved the way for the later mutton shop owner to help Zhang Baomin escape. It's just that the interval between this line is a bit long, and the narrative is not so subtle.
"Survival" and "protection" are the original motivations that can stimulate potential, if the front is for "survival", the follow-up plot is for "protection". The next story mainly revolves around the line of Zhang Baomin looking for his son. Therefore, Zhang Baomin's fighting, running, and persistence have a very reasonable internal motivation.
As a villain, Chang Wannian is completely opposite to Zhang Baomin. In terms of status, Chang Wannian is the upper class, and Zhang Baomin is the bottom. In terms of relationships, Chang Wannian is the murderer and Zhang Baomin is the victim. Chang Wannian must be bad from the beginning to the end, and there is no need to wash in the plot. Once he relaxes, it will trigger a series of chain reactions, which will eventually lead to the threat to Chang Wannian's own "survival", so he also has a reasonable intrinsic motivation to go bad.
The stranger thing about many movies now is that the protagonist is for the Virgin and the Virgin, and the bad guy is bad for the bad, and the sense of separation is serious.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="43" > insufficient</h1>
The whole atmosphere of the film "Bursting into Silence" has a sense of sadness, whether it is the camera or the plot, it can make people feel that kind of despair, which is the director's intention.
The end of the film tells us that the choice of the people at the bottom is not in their own hands, but in the hands of the bad guys, and they don't even have the right to make a voice. The sense of despair came out, and the audience's breath was always blocked in the chest.
If the movie ends at the moment when Zhang Baomin's hopes collapse, it is also good. But in the end, another child drew a scene of the murder scene being seen by the owner of the lamb shop, which split the plot.
Probably according to the original idea, there is no such shot, in order to pass the trial. So since there must be, it can be done better to let the audience take this breath out. For example, the last person to see this picture is not the lamb shop owner, but Zhang Baomin, which will be much better.
The whole movie is Zhang Baomin trying to find his son, and in the audience's mind, "he has worked so hard, he deserves something, even if it is a cruel truth." He is the one who deserves the most reward, which is in line with the concept of what we have gained through hard work.
The final reward (the truth) was given to the lamb shop owner, and this treatment was debatable. Because the owner of the mutton shop will most likely tell Zhang Baomin about this matter, then Zhang Baomin will also know the truth of the matter in the end. A large circle is not said, but also let the audience's breath out of this particularly unsmooth.
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