Entertainment: My house collapsed and I was forced to start making movies

Chapter 36 is transformation?It’s still time to exhaust your talent【4K】

Mu Er is in a good mood today because "The Unknown" is released.

After watching two movies in the Tongguan Crazy series, Mu Er is now Tongguan's most loyal fan.

So he bought a ticket for the first show of "The Unknown" just to see Tong Guan's new work first.

Soon, the movie started and Tong Guan appeared on the screen.

Mu Er took out the notebook he carried with him and prepared to study the Tong Guan movie.

However, as the plot progressed, Mu Er's brows couldn't help but frown.

Especially in the second half of the movie, during the last 10 minutes, Mu Er's brows almost wrinkled into a Sichuan shape.

He kept scribbling and drawing in his notebook.

Until the movie ended, the "Sichuan" shape on Mu Er's brow still hadn't disappeared.

Finally, after some hesitation, Mu Er bought another movie ticket and planned to watch it again.

"Maybe I missed something."

he muttered to himself.

However, after watching it for the second time, Mu Er still walked out of the cinema with a frown on his face.

After returning home, Mu Er looked at the notes in his hand and couldn't help but sigh.

After sorting out his mood, Mu Er sat in front of the computer and slowly typed out his thoughts after this observation.

He wrote an extremely eye-catching title for this review.

[Is it transformation?It's still the end of his talents. 】

[Fans who are familiar with me know that I am a fan of Tong Guan. I have always praised his movies, but this time, I want to disappoint him.

Since Tong Guan's "Crazy Stone", when I see this type of movie, I will subconsciously compare it with Tong Guan's movies and then draw conclusions.What everyone else takes is a piece of shit.At least that was the case before today, which is why I said before that the era of Tongguan has arrived.

But the slap in the face came too quickly. In just over half a year, Tong Guan slapped me, my 'number one fan', hard in the face with his latest movie.

Closer to home, this time The Unknown is still a multi-line narrative.Before evaluating the movie, we need to understand what multi-line narrative is.

Multi-line narrative is a very clever structure.

The nice thing about it is that it allows the audience to truly experience the addiction to God.

Of course, this is not just a matter of "it's hard to hit a smiling person with a fist" or "it's too embarrassing to scold the cook when you're full", the bigger trap is yet to come.

What is the nature of multi-line narrative?
It uses the gap between the audience's "omniscience" and the dramatist's "partial knowledge" to create drama.

The characters on each narrative line in the film are all doing what they think is right on their own tracks.When lines intersect, unexpected consequences often occur due to "information asymmetry."

For example, in "Crazy Stone", Xie Xiaomeng, the son of the factory director, used fake jade to package real jade, and gave the real jade to his girlfriend Feifei. Later, Brother Dao and others got the real jade from Feifei, thought it was fake, and cleverly used the package again. As a result, he exchanged real jade for fake jade.

Throughout the whole process, the characters in the play were doing stupid things without knowing it, while the audience looked down at the "authorities and fans" with "clear bystanders".And the result of looking down is to see the destiny in the dark.

That fate, in "Crazy Stone", is to reward the true jade to those who unintentionally steal it and desperately protect it.

So what is the key point to present a sense of destiny?

It's about creating coincidences.

And the more bizarre the coincidence, the stronger the sense of destiny.

So this implies a paradox: the "coincidence" that is obviously the most harmful to the rationality of the story has become a taken-for-granted technique in multi-line narrative movies, making us call it "this is too much" when watching other movies. The plot of "What a coincidence" has become the exclamation of "This is fate" in multi-line narrative movies.

This tendency to easily mistake "crude coincidence" for "cleverness" is why I am wary of multi-line narratives.

Therefore, when watching this kind of movie, I will be extra careful to avoid being dictated by the screenwriter and ignoring the basic rationality of the story.

Let’s talk about “The Unknown Man”.

The film is divided into four story lines, two main characters and two minor characters.

The two main lines are: Ma Xianyong's search for a gun, and the glasses and big-head robbery line.

The two sub-lines are: the emotional line between Gao Ming and his mistress, and the youth line between Gao Xiang and Yiyi.

In addition, there are glue characters such as Jiaqi, Zhenzhen, Bo Zai, Liu Wu, and Wang Shuncai, who connect the various lines with each other, forming a large ensemble drama with many characters and complex branches.

These four story lines support the same theme: how a group of small people can "get back" their dignity.

The word "take back" is used because everyone has dignity.It's just that for little people, dignity is something that is easily lost and needs to be defended with all your strength.

Just like Ma Xianyong in the film picked up a gun, he thought he could use it to make a meritorious service and become a police assistant. Unexpectedly, the gun was transferred to others, so he had to embark on the road to find the gun again.

This "gun" that is lost again and again symbolizes Ma Xianyong's dignity that urgently needs to be regained.

This is a typical "theme first" film.

There are advantages and disadvantages to putting the topic first. The advantage is that the theme is clear and penetrating; the disadvantage is that in order to solve the problem, it is inevitable that it will be forced.

If we look closely at these four lines, we will find that except for Ma Xianyong's line, which is relatively plump, the rest of the lines are relatively thin.It is very much like a table with four legs, "one thick and three thin", which together hold up the tabletop named "Dignity", but the bearing capacity depends on the angle of observation.

Just looking at the character of Ma Xianyong, at the captain’s celebration banquet, he may be ecstatic because he finally passed the civil service examination, or he may be working hard to please the captain. Ma Xianyong got drunk, and then drove drunk and had a car accident, causing the death of his wife. ’s death and his sister’s lifelong disability.

Since then, Lao Ma has been unable to recover. He has to face his daughter's cold eyes and his sister's hatred, and live with guilt.

Therefore, searching for a gun is not only a time of self-realization for him, but also a way to prove that he can retake the role of father and brother in his broken life.

One can imagine the weight of dignity in Ma Xianyong.

The most touching scene in the film is undoubtedly the conversation between Ma Xianyong and his sister Ma Jiaqi.

Lao Ma didn't know that his sister was saying goodbye to him. He felt very uncomfortable when he heard his sister's intimate words, because in his heart, he had never forgiven himself for a day, so he only heard his sister scolding him as usual, Only then did I feel at ease.

And when he turned to leave for the last life-saving appointment, his sister's words "I don't blame him anymore" relieved all the resentment.

But none of them knew that what was separated inside and outside the door were actually two realms of life and death.

In the end, Ma Xianyong blocked the gun for his daughter and used the fake gun to cleverly capture the robber's real gun.

The three guns that appeared in the film formed a complete closed loop on Ma Xianyong, and he finally found his true dignity for himself.

It should be said that Ma Xianyong's narrative line is the most complete and fullest.From this, when we look at the other three lines, it seems too rough.

This is also another problem that is easily obscured by the multi-line narrative structure: using cross-narratives to delay the originally thin plot of a certain branch to make it look fuller.

The line with the lowest sense of existence is the one between Gao Ming and his mistress. It basically tells the story of a real estate developer who has a mistress, runs away due to money owed, and discovers his conscience.

Regardless of whether the real estate developer can be named after "the unknown person", let's just say that the entire storyline does not actually have much substantive content.When the branch line started, Gao Ming was already on his way back to the city. When the branch line ended, he returned to Xishan Bridge to join other branch lines.

There are no causes and transformations, only consequences.And going your own way without any support from details is almost akin to forced whitewashing.

Besides, Gao Xiang and Yiyi’s youth line is basically an auxiliary line.Gao Xiang's behavior is to defend his father's dignity, and Yiyi's behavior is also a rebellion and reconciliation in cooperation with his father Ma Xianyong.

As for the brotherhood drawn from Gao Xiang, it seems passionate, but it goes off topic and becomes a sensational variation, which is effective but not clever.

Finally, we look at the emotions of glasses and Jiaqi, which is also a line that touched me slightly.

In fact, director Tong Guan handled this line relatively more calmly, because it is more like a small stage play.The plot basically takes place in the same space, with the tension of kidnapping, comedy, and love, coupled with the excellent performances of the three actors. Let's put it this way, if it were put on the stage of a drama, it would be a very good scene. Performance-driven short drama.

It's a pity that in the movie, the nature of the performance is taken away. As a realistic drama, both the actor's status and the plot direction are a bit exaggerated.

Especially the emotional drama between Yan Yan and Jiaqi happened in such a hasty encounter. It would be more appropriate to just stay at the understanding of each other's living situation, and the step towards love would seem too big.

So why are the above haste not easy to detect?

Quite simply, because the story of these short few hours has been cross-edited into a complex structure, the sense of rush is diluted, and the emotional transition is not so abrupt.

If you put aside the other branches and look at this line alone, you can clearly see its problems.

The same is true for the other two lines that are not full enough.

In the end, all the lines come down to the great convergence of Xishan Bridge.

You can still take a closer look and see how many coincidences in such a confluence are far-fetched.For example, why did Bo Zai go?So why did the police decide to arrest people there?Another example is why did Glasses and Datou get into the ambulance in the end?Shouldn't he run away?

Director Tong Guan is very smart, using a MV-style scene and singing to connect everyone's situations to build momentum for the final reunion.

But when you calm down, you can still see some rough spots.

Compared with the previous crazy series, this time "The Unknown" obviously gave me the feeling of a novice on the road.

Is it because Director Tong Guan intends to transform that he incorporates too many elements into this drama, or has he exhausted his talents and is unable to produce a more perfect work?
But if he wants to transform, what will he change to film?
Is it the love between glasses and Ma Jiaqi? 】

After checking his words, Mu Er posted this review on Douban.

"The Unknown", as another masterpiece of Tongguan during the summer vacation, has naturally attracted much attention.

And Mu Er is Tong Guan's number one fan and has attracted a lot of followers on Douban.

As soon as his review came out, it immediately aroused the recognition of many viewers.

"I had the same feeling when I was in the cinema before. I felt that the story this time was not exciting enough, but I couldn't tell what was wrong. Mu Er's words really spoke to my heart."

"Me too. Compared to the Crazy series, The Unknown has a distinct sense of weakness and splicing. I really don't know if Tong Guan wants to transform or if he has exhausted his talents."

"I have a rumor. It is said that Tong Guan will make a youth movie with Liu Yifei in the second half of the year. Maybe he really plans to make a romance movie."

"Good guy, where there is a child barrier, there is Liu Yifei, right?"

"If Tong Guan really makes a romance movie with Liu Yifei in the second half of the year, then I will forgive him for this practice."

"One thing to say, although this movie is not as good as Tongguan's previous crazy series, you can still watch it. At least it still has a lot of laughs. However, people's expectations before Tongguan were too high, so it is inevitable that they will be a little disappointed. .”

"Tongguan is undoubtedly a smart choice to release this movie during the summer vacation. Although this movie has many shortcomings, it is still acceptable as a comedy, but it is not able to withstand scrutiny. I hope Tongguan will make another movie. Movies should not continue to disappoint us like this."

"."

Mu Er's reaction: Tong Guan naturally saw it.

After all, this is his top fan on Douban.

I once said that my time has come, which is the most flattering statement.

After reading Mu Er's long speech, Tong Guan couldn't help but slap his mouth.

"There are still capable people these days."

In fact, Tong Guan saw the problems with this movie before filming it.

But there was nothing he could do.

He is not good at this type of film. If he forcibly changes it, it may not be as good as the original version.

So I just messed it up and copied it directly.

I thought that with the crazy series, I could fool the audience.

Unexpectedly, someone discovered his little Jiujiu just on the first day of release.

But fortunately, the crazy series Tongguan gave people before were really excellent.

Therefore, the audience would rather doubt his transformation than think that he is showing off.

It happened that Tong Guan and Liu Yifei were filming a new movie in the second half of the year, so Tong Guan directly asked the company's publicity department to take advantage of the situation to promote it.

He publicized the fact that he will make a romance film with Liu Yifei in the second half of the year.

With the official certification from 'Fairy Tale Media', those viewers who originally thought Tongguan was disappointing can't help but look forward to it again.

"It turned out to be a training exercise, so that's understandable."

"Since this is a training session, I forgive you. Just treat it as a pure comedy this time."

"Although it's a bit rushed, it's still watchable. I hope it won't disappoint us again next time."

"Actually, I'm a little disappointed. I thought I could continue to see perfect works like the 'Crazy Series' in the future."

"The starting point is too high. As a result, I can't accept Tongguan's slight mistakes now."

"."

(End of this chapter)