Medical data show that after the age of 25, human physiological functions will enter the slippery slope stage. This is accompanied by a gradually qualitative and maturing state of mind. For many young men and women, crossing the threshold of 25 years old, the 29-year-old who is about to enter the "year of standing" is like an invisible inflection point, which makes people who are about to embark on the road of life at the beginning of the "3" feel anxious.
Written and directed by Peng Xiuhui and starring Zhou Xiuna and Zheng Xinyi, "29+1" tells the story of two women born on the same day of the same month but with very different personalities, who are about to enter the 30-year-old moment, and participate in and influence each other's lives by chance.
Sympathetic, mysterious induction, somewhat "Veronica's Double Life" and "July and Ansheng". Adapted from the stage play of the same name, "29+1" is the most popular female drama in Hong Kong for a decade. The film was released nationwide on June 2, with a low scheduling rate of 0.7%, making it invisible in many theaters (especially the cantonese original). At the box office, 352,000 on the first day and 1.231 million in 5 days of release may not be ideal. However, in terms of word of mouth, it has been repeatedly praised (imdb score 7.2, Cat's Eye Movie score 8.0, Douban score 7.5).
According to the scene when watching the movie, there are not a few female audiences who shed tears. What pokes them may not all be "29 years old", but the resonance caused by the sense of self-danger and personal reflection complex of age. Reason aside, this is a film that places the self in order to produce personal experience. In the protagonists' life duet, anxiety and worry can be blatantly released, perhaps the film and stage play for the audience in reality is the greatest comfort.
The growth story of "empathy" is aimed at a delicate and sensitive audience
In the early days, Zhou Xiuna was criticized as a "vase" due to her immature acting skills under her outstanding appearance. In this film, her superb acting skills completely broke this label, especially the performance of the memory and nostalgia in the face of estrangement, the fragility and helplessness in the face of tasteless and abandoned love, and the "mourning" mood of the low tide of life, all of which make the image of a typical Hong Kong urban woman full and real. The quiet disintegration may be a silent battle within her. At the same time, this "rain of bullets and bullets" is not only presented on the screen, but also in the dark theater, many viewers are infected with emotions.
Lin Ruojun (Zhou Xiuna) has a diligent and inspirational life, but he has fallen into a continuous sense of crisis. In contrast, Huang Tianle (played by Zheng Xinyi) has neither fallen in love nor had a successful career, but he is still strong, simple and optimistic with cancer, and in an extremely unsatisfactory situation, he is in a high contrast with Lin Ruojun in a naïve and optimistic state. The lives of the two heroines interpret the diametrically opposed rhythms and mentalities of the city, while at the same time with the delicacy and softness of female directors. It is not an easy task to directly attack the emotional territory of the audience's heart and grasp the feelings of the film without discounting the transmission.
Nostalgic Hong Kong flavor elements, the sense of age naturally revealed
As a local film, it extends its audience tentacles to the white-collar female group. The work pressure of Hong Kong white-collar workers itself is unbearable, and the heroine Lin Ruojun's balance and handling of family and feelings is projected into reality, and many people have similar difficult problems.
In an early interview, director Peng Xiuhui said that the film did not directly point out the sense of age, but subtly implanted it. In the film, Zhang Guorong's "Sunset in Paris" and the signed posters of "Fancy Years", as well as the "Little Ma Ge" in the protagonist Lin Ruojun's monologue, and other Hong Kong-style elements, all present a sense of nostalgia.
A straightforward expression of pleasure
The stage play of "29+1" is played by director Peng Xiuhui herself as two roles to play two heroines, and in the movie, in order to popularize the performance and be more conducive to the audience's acceptance, two starring actors with certain differences in appearance and temperament were selected. Nevertheless, the film's stage play style and large monologues, flashbacks, and unrestrained emotional explanations make it suspicious of "self-pity of the shadow". Going back to the first point, in the case that the details are not particularly in place, if the audience does not have the simultaneous perception and demand, it will feel confused, or lyrical lengthy and redundant.
The film is not stingy in terms of emotional outpouring, so that it does have a sense of direct lyrical pleasure. But the flaw in doing so is that it loses the sense of superiority that comes with restraint and forbearance. The desire to suppress the first tends to make the emotional outburst more powerful, but "29+1" takes a simple and cheerful path, and when the tears stay with Lin Ruojun's face, when Huang Tianle bravely makes an intimate request to the boy he likes, the audience's expectations are freely released.
Although the final warm ending is slightly blunt, it can be seen that the director still wants to convey an optimistic and upward mentality, just like the healing that Huang Tianle brought to Lin Ruojun.
As a "Ben San" psychological Hong Kong film from a female perspective, its audience has certain limitations. For the nostalgic party, or the urban youth who are wandering in the struggle, whether they are 29 years old or not, the Hong Kong-style chicken soup in this film can give a certain comfort. As director Peng Xiuhui said: "I want to use this film to let everyone find the courage to be reborn." "+1" not only implies another self in the world, but also represents another life. Xiaobian believes that it also symbolizes a belief in starting over.
It may be exhausting along the way, but the problems still follow. Whether it is a city hunter or a wall flower wall tree, when life is tired, drink more chicken soup, but also retain the courage to "overthrow the past and start from scratch".
【Text/Deng Yameng】
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