The strong combination of the two festivals also makes the film "My People, My Home" the most appropriate and sentimental one in the whole schedule.
My People and My Motherland (hereinafter referred to as Hometown) continues the creative mode of My People and My Motherland (hereinafter referred to as Motherland) in last year's National Day. It is still a short film with similar themes produced by several directors and then combined into a feature film.
The short films are (in chronological order): The Good Man in Beijing directed by Ning Hao, UFO Falling from the Sky directed by Chen Sicheng, The Last Lesson directed by Xu zhēng, and Deng Chao &; The Way Home directed by Yu Baimei, Yan Fei&; Ma Liang of Peng Damo. Each short film is about 25 minutes long and the whole film 135 minutes.
Compared with the heavy historical drama of Motherland, Hometown is more inclined to modern comedy, with less historical burden and a more cheerful attitude. In contrast, the theme selection is relatively narrow, and the five short films are very similar in structure, all of which are the "return" route from the city to the countryside.
All the short films of Hometown are based on the contemporary background, showing the differences between urban and rural areas and social progress from the perspectives of medical care, tourism, education and poverty alleviation. Because it is the mode of theme composition+commercial comedy, the whole film is permeated with an extremely optimistic realistic atmosphere, all difficulties can be overcome, all misunderstandings can be eliminated, every tear can be erased, and every soul shines like gold.
Writing, editing and typesetting
As a collection of short films, Hometown does not undertake the important task of "celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the founding of New China". The concept of creation seems to be less limited than that of Motherland, and its more civilian posture has more room for development. In fact, it has a single perspective and is more difficult to create.
Facing the 70-year history, Motherland tells the major events in each historical period in a targeted way. The story core of each time period and paragraph cannot be changed. Founding ceremony, the return of Hongkong, the National Day military parade and so on are all the objects that must be described.
However, the types and styles of the external forms of the motherland can be freely chosen. Guan Hu's strong plot technology flow, Chen Kaige's tragic drama, Xu Zhening's public happiness, Zhang's love tragedy ... Every point on the timeline is fixed, but the director can paint different colors on each point.
"Hometown" is the opposite. The five short films basically depict the same point on the time axis-the moment of economic development and dramatic changes of the times after 30 years of reform and opening up, and the colors on the brushes are similar-all of which are positive comedy styles.
In this style, the creator actually has only one choice, that is, to explore the genre of comedy as much as possible and expand the regional differences of each story as much as possible.
Therefore, you will see that Ning Hao has created a classic absurd comedy of "identity exchange", Chen Sicheng has produced a suspense comedy of "detective" that he has always been good at, Xu ZH ? ng has tried to create a comedy of "reality show" with tears in his laughter, Deng Chao's road comedy is ugly all the way, and Twist FunAge has created a romantic comedy of "long-distance love" between husband and wife by taking advantage of geographical dislocation.
The geographical environment where the story takes place also spans the Central Plains, Jiangnan, Guizhou, Northeast China and Northwest China.
This kind of treatment, on the one hand, actively reflects the main revolution of contemporary social and economic development and the requirements of the northeast law, on the other hand, it also allows directors who have made high-grossing comedies to approach their own comedy style as much as possible.
Generally speaking, the quality of the five short films is mixed, but for the above reasons, there are some similar problems.
Principal contradiction: white lies
First of all, the meaning of the content is relatively shallow. Because positive energy must be expressed, satire is the real core of this comedy, and no one can even be satirized. The main contradictions are almost all "misunderstandings" or white lies.
After careful analysis, you will find that although the five short films have different styles in image composition and drama tendency, the core of the plot is actually the same, and they are all so-called "liar" comedies.
In "Beijing Good Man", Zhang Beijing cheated the hospital to fight for social security for his cousin.
In "A UFO Falling from the Sky", Huang Dabao, together with the village head and the rich, deceived the TV station and concealed the truth of the UFO.
In the last lesson, my son and the whole village created an illusion to deceive the father of the former rural teacher, hoping that he could recover his memory.
In The Way Home, Joe deceives his old classmates and pretends to be rich, hoping to win business cooperation.
In Maliang, her husband Maliang tried every means to pretend to study in Russia and hide the fact that he went to the countryside as a branch secretary from his wife.
And every "deception" has a very legitimate reason, as well as goodwill and love that does not involve moral criticism and the concept of right and wrong. Every "liar" in the film is also a "cheat" that has to be made in order to help others (relatives in hometown) or other groups (hometown itself) beyond personal interests.
In this way, the whole film is exactly the same in the basic emotional turning point, that is, contradiction-beginning to deceive-discovering the truth-eliminating misunderstanding. Directors seem to have no time or will to break this convention. I can't even wait to leave a suspense (the contradiction between misunderstanding and deception) at the last minute to break it. Some short films began to burst the bubble of lies halfway, trying to accumulate feelings of reconciliation and understanding behind them, for fear that the power of lyricism was not in place.
Described object: Where is my hometown?
Secondly, the monotony and idealization of the scene are also caused by the single thinking of the play. In order to show the "hometown"-basically refers to the countryside-a beautiful life with a new look, several short films invariably aim at rich villages or towns with tourism development as the main economic growth point, as if there is no other way to get rich in rural China except by beautiful mountains and rivers.
Only "Road to the Home" chose the northwest rural areas that rely on agriculture and forestry to get rid of poverty, and it is still in the "developing" stage of opening up the market. Beijing Good Man chose the smaller incision of medical insurance, and did not deliberately describe his hometown.
It is a tourist attraction in the south of the Yangtze River, and sandstorms and soil erosion in the northwest. To some extent, this choice of hometown region can also prove from the side that these great directors who live in big cities and occasionally visit scenic spots are still too narrow-minded in the face of the great topic of "urban-rural differences" and have begun to be out of touch with some real life.
This disconnect is also manifested in the director's egoism when facing the topic of "urban and rural areas": TV stations go to the countryside to explore cases, entrepreneurs return home from abroad to find their roots for their parents, live stars bring goods back to China to attend alumni associations, and painters go to the countryside to support the construction of village cadres. In other words, most directors who live in cities can only shoot the story of "from the city to the countryside", without the concept of "from the countryside to the city" or the choice of "staying in the countryside forever".
Perspectives are all divergent perspectives of urbanites, and there is also a overlooking attitude from high to low. The city is very good, but when I returned to my hometown, I found that my hometown has changed a lot, not as bad as I thought. Moreover, it is usually city people who save or help their hometown and get some satisfaction and emotional fulfillment from this behavior.
Short film narration
The motherland is 7 short films (*** 155 minutes) and the hometown is 5 short films (*** 135 minutes). Each short film of the latter is longer and the story is more complete.
Connecting the "cut scenes" between the short films, Hometown adopts the form of split screen of mobile phone for transition, which obviously increases the scientific and technological content and the temperament of the new era compared with the way of writing letters on paper with a pen in Motherland.
As mentioned above, the quality of movies is actually mixed, and it has not been maintained at a considerable level. However, compared with Motherland, the short film of Hometown is not as big in quality as that of Motherland.
The author's personal ranking of the "hometown" short film is:
Beijing Good Man > Ma Liang > Last lesson > A UFO fell from the sky > The way home.
The specific cognition will definitely be controversial, but generally speaking, good people and Ma Liang belong to the first echelon, and the latter three belong to the second echelon.
Good people in Beijing
Director: Ning Hao, starring Ge You, Zhang Zhanyi, etc.
Ning Hao is still very steady. As one of the two directors who participated in Hometown and Motherland at the same time (the other is Xu zhēng, who happens to be two directors who are good at making comedies), he is also the general director of Hometown. He continued Zhang's story in Beijing, the motherland, and still told his "adventure" life in the image of the Beijing uncle.
The Good Man in Beijing has the structure of a classic absurd comedy, in which two protagonists, a sophisticated one and a simple one, exchange identities in various dislocations, creating constant jokes, from which we can even see the shadow of Xiaogang Feng and even Chaplin.
Its advantage lies in characterization. In daily life, Zhang Beijing is still a little stingy and likes to take advantage of loopholes. His integrity and kindness are buried in his heart, and it will not be easily revealed until he gets over it. In the film, all kinds of "evil" behaviors that seem to be enemies of the system have an indomitable and mixed vitality. Then generous relief is another kind of chic ancient chivalry. Finally, we should know that all efforts and efforts are due to our ignorance and the gap between the rural status quo, which is completely in vain. The cunning villain reappeared and once again embarked on the road of "returning to nature" with great interest and hope.
The whole story and the character trend are relatively complete and clear, and they are not deliberately pushed to the commanding heights of morality. Nobody is nobody. Besides knowing that his hometown has become better (the theme of the film is faintly brought out from the side), he is still the same. It's best not to suffer, he is full of human flavor.
A UFO fell from the sky.
Director: Chen Sicheng starring:, Wang,, Wang Yanhui, Wang Xun, etc.
Chen Sicheng's short films are basically a combination of "Detective Chinatown+Crazy Alien", full of gorgeous cottage feelings, in line with his usual directing style. In the story, there are many very stylish bridges, such as the common old ox's broken car and Jackie Chan's rolling ball.
At first, Chen Sicheng tried to turn the film into a suspense story, mainly discussing whether the appearance of UFO was a commercial fraud to attract tourism economy. But before the film was halfway through, this suspense had been completely dispelled by himself. Bo Huang, who was stubborn at first, surrendered himself voluntarily. After the incident was exposed, he began to worry about economic losses. He and the village chief began to lie to the TV station. After several lies, the lies were exposed again. Due to the geographical limitations in mountainous areas, the story turned to love stories. Finally, the focus falls on the fact that love can only be realized by developing high technology and building hometown, thus making efforts to get close to the theme.
The whole plot and mood are full of twists and turns, and they come and go in a hurry, lacking coherence and basic position, relying entirely on farce-style action comedy scenes, and the role labeling is seriously outrageous. ,
The last lesson
Director: Xu Zheming Starring: Fan Wei, Xu Zheming, Zhang Yi, etc.
This short film is called the most crying part of the whole film and the one with the strongest photographic style.
The idea of the script is actually quite grand, trying to reflect the great changes in the past and present hometown through the psychological level of an elderly person with amnesia, and to find himself (inner hometown) by looking for the past. The past cannot be repeated, which proves that the original hope has actually become a reality.
I think it's a pity. First, the sense of separation in the first two paragraphs is very serious. Second, the overall rhythm is too full. Intensive lines and the speed of many characters make the whole atmosphere extremely noisy and chaotic. This kind of cramming information makes all the characters in the film become very flat tool people except Wei Fan.
The way home
Director: Deng Chao and Yu Baimei, starring Deng Chao, Yan Ni and Olivia.
After the dizzying "last lesson", the way home has a peaceful and simple temperament. The stable linear narrative and the conventional format of the road film, on the surface, are a filthy and greasy fake rich man, trying to attract former classmates to invest and start businesses in an ugly way. Later, it was reversed into an inspirational story of a peasant entrepreneur who devoted himself to the construction of his hometown.
The Road to Hometown is actually the most positive theme film of Hometown, but it is also the thinnest one. The main contradiction of the film lies in the comedy effect caused by the cognitive deviation between the anchor star who left his hometown and the entrepreneur who worked hard in his hometown. Unfortunately, all the bridges are old and boring.
In the final reversal, the suspense is uncovered in a least dramatic way-let a student tell the true identity and experience of the protagonist from beginning to end on the podium, with flashback picture interpretation. This too straightforward grandstanding and undisguised "value" make the structure of the whole short film very daunting. In this case, I believe that the star anchor played by Yan Ni, even if he has never met Deng Chao before, will help him with tears even if he sees such a touching story, which will make the collision of emotions and thoughts caused by all contradictions and conflicts in the first half become very pale, empty and meaningless.
Ma Liang, the magic pen
Director: Yan Fei and Peng Damo, starring: Shen Teng and Mary.
As far as completion is concerned, Ma Liang is probably the best one in Hometown, with the most outstanding comedy effect.
Mahua FunAge's experience and skills honed in the small theater show greater advantages in this short and pithy work. The story revolves around the contradiction of "wife's inflammation", and creates a series of very compact and absurd funny events by separating the two places and using mobile phone video dialogue. The narrow vision of the small screen and the smoothness of the network become the source of jokes, which are very close to life and very imaginative.
The only deficiency is that MCA Fornag's works often have strong realistic allegory, and there is basically no room for this one, which leads to the loss of realism in the relationship between characters. It is a dramatic imagination for a painter to be a village party secretary, but once the irony theme is missing, the whole movie will have an ungrounded dream.
(The views in this article only represent the author's own)