— Commenting on the British "Fatty Man and Complaining Girl"
/Capa's lens
"Dancing to the heart and moon of the Yangliu Tower, singing to the fullest of the fan of the peach blossom", when Xiaoyan Yan wrote down the infinitely charming little words. At that time, I must have never thought that a man named Wilde would use another fan to perform another period of human sadness and joy under the misty sky of London. And Wilde must have not guessed that this comedy has been transformed by future generations and started its journey to China. This also made the "Multi-national Film Allied Forces" in March fluttered a rice-shaped flag on top of the head.
The beautiful and noble Mrs. Ailin outside is more complicated than you think. In her own words: "Some women, wherever they go, happiness will follow; and some women only when they leave. There will be happiness. I will do both. Husbands are happy to see me come, but wives want me to go.” The economic crisis of 1930 made this already young socialite come to Italy looking for her “new check”. On a beautiful island, women are instinctively wary of her. Mrs. Meg Wendemeier, a quasi-"lady" who had no parents and was influenced by strict Puritan ethics since childhood, discovered that Mrs. Alling had an unspeakable affair with her husband. Disappointed with her husband, a playboy's fierce pursuit of her finally made her slide down the moral abyss...
Is love within reach, or is it entrusting an infinite unknown future? Being born as a woman, her happiness is to be a lady safely and to maintain a happy family with nothing but forbearance; or should she be a slut and pursue her own joy unscrupulously?
TO BE OR NOT TO BE?
This may not only be a matter of choice.
Wilde was an avant-garde of that era. The boldness of "coming out" made him tired of criticism in the conservative fog of London, and the identity of gay made him see the struggle between men and women more clearly than anyone. His love allowed him to write such a sad and soft fairy tale "Happy Prince", and the whole world left him with the clearest and brightest tears. His mockery of the world is all poured into the characters in the drama. His expectations, his hatred, all his sharpness and ingenuity have become those that are sometimes acrid, sometimes compassionate, sometimes hilarious, and sometimes embarrassing. Words, after mocking everyone, let them cheer for their stupidity.
"Think about it, if you were poor, would she still look at you?"
"Think about it, if she was ugly, would I look at her?"
"One is what you want but nothing Gain, the other is that you get what you want. The second is worse than the first, and the second is a real tragedy."
"A man can live happily with any woman, as long as he doesn’t fall in love with her. That’s it.”
“It’s never possible for men and women to understand each other, because they have spent too much time deceiving each other.”
These words are so familiar to modern Chinese people, just like seeing Zhu Deyong or Zhang Xiaoxian hides behind her and smiles slyly at you.
Probably to make up for the audience’s unfamiliarity with the British in the industrial era, director Mike Barker came up with a common big shift: let the blazing sea breeze of the Mediterranean blow away the haze of London’s upper class society, and the beautiful scenery of the sea, islands, and cruise ships. People are addicted; and a sentence may contain three traps, two meanings, and the incomprehensible Englishman has also become a much more bold and enthusiastic American. But the interpretation of the "little troubles" such as love, human nature, headaches, frictions, affair, jealousy and so on in our ordinary lives is the real point of the film. After reading it, you may think of Zhang Ailing’s famous saying many years ago: “Life is a gorgeous robe covered with fleas." We often don’t know whether it was the fur that decorated life or the fleas. It constitutes a helpless and lovely life. Listening to the bright ending song, looking at the happy faces of Meg and Aylin, who were both happy, the sigh became inaudible.
Indeed, we are just ordinary men and women in this vast world, and every desire reflects our expectations of reality, and every adventure hides a heart's hope. It is desire that makes us real, but it is also desire that makes us distressed. Even if happiness is like an illusion, even if we are tired of boulders like Sisyphus, as long as there is something called "happiness" on the top of the mountain, someone will always rush there in desperation.
Having said that, even if the characters in "Funny Boys and Girls" are replaced by Americans, they still have a British tone in their bones. Their dialogues and their acting styles always have a strong British style, which makes people unconsciously think of "Pride and Prejudice" and "Pride and Prejudice". Those in Sense and Sensibility and David Copperfield are funny, sincere, kind, or wise. Even the last happy ending with rules, warmth, and comical, showed the British roots that Wilde could not erase. This, after all, is an authentic British movie, no matter which country it wears.
In fact, adapting literary works into film and television works is often a laborious and not necessarily easy task. A good change may become the icing on the cake, a masterpiece with a long history. "Shawshank's Redemption", "Spider's Nest", "Gone with the Wind", etc., are either born out of best-selling books, or covered with new flesh and skin through the bones of first-class literary works, glowing with dazzling brilliance.
And if you inadvertently modify those works that already have a literary title, it is easier to ruin the director's wise life. After all, "Golden Armor" is not the most failed work among the adaptations, is it?
Therefore, if you have a smart screenwriter, you need a high-quality director to be in charge of the world. Because if one is not well controlled, the flaws will be magnified even more. The performance of Helen Hunter and Scarlett Johansson in this play is not hard. However, the tightness of the front and the looseness of the whole story make the narrative rhythm lower in the later period. The rigidity of the character transformation and the sudden progress of the plot have become the flaws that cannot be ignored in this film. As the drama itself, it places great emphasis on plot, characters, and conflicts. It's a pity that after an hour and a half of the director's interpretation, this film has a tendency to develop into water-infused beef.
As for the performance, Helen Hunt’s Mrs. Aylin is indeed very charming and independent. Probably this is the charm of a so-called mature woman, right? The attitude of advancing and retreating, always calm and unhurried, made her look and smile all with a dangerous charm of a bad woman. Oh, please don’t compare her with the dangerous girls around Bond, please imagine her as those mature, intelligent, charming and measured women around you, ask yourself, the charm of such a woman, you Can you resist it?
In contrast, Scarlett's performance is nothing more than a loss. This kind of girl who is really unremarkable in Hollywood has her unique temperament and vision. Independent films and Woody Allen are blushing to her. Films such as "Lost in Tokyo" and "Black Dahlia" can see how unique and sensitive this girl who has been rolling in Hollywood since she was ten years old is to the book. This time she took the film adaptation of the famous book, and she can see her hard work, but for some reason it did not make the audience's expectations have a greater return.
What makes people wonder is why would the translator use "Funny Boys and Complaints", a typical lingering Qiongyao school's translation name, to package this film about family ethics? In my opinion, "Mrs. Wen's Fan" translated by Yu Guangzhong and "Young Granny's Fan" used by Hong Shen when adapting the drama are more in line with the film's connotation. Of course, if this name attracts the eyes of more soft-hearted female friends, and thus enters the theater, it can be considered as a translator's ingenuity.
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