Zhang Yimou once again proved his visual talent, and once again squandered it

Lillian 2022-01-18 08:02:02

I always feel that the advancement of film technology and the expansion of investment are a mixed blessing for Zhang Yimou. The good news is that he is one step closer to realizing his visual imagination, but the worry is that after he really ran wild, he made many good movies into the "Impression XXX" series.

If you look forward, when he didn't have so much technical and capital support, the red sorghum and the big red lanterns were hanging high, and even my father and mother. On the contrary, due to such external restrictions, Gong Li's face was red in the deep house compound. The countless lanterns, the colors of the mountains and plains of the northeast land, these simple visual effects maintain a kind of "not contrary to reality in reality, but slightly surreal, full of imagination, and combined with the fate of the characters. The unique sense of "with sense" .

A lot of things happened after "Hero". For example, for a long time, he was the most appealing director at the box office, and was recognized by capital. For example, he directed the Olympic opening ceremonies that reached the peak visually, such as the "Impression XXX" series. , Gave him a stage where he gave up the story and ran toward the visual imagination. To say that Zhang Yimou can't tell stories anymore, I disagree. After 2000, he also had many good feature films. However, Zhang Yimou, who has resources and technology, once made up his mind to add visual imagination to the movie, he almost never had a sense of measure. This imbalance often swallows the movie itself.


"Shadow" is a masterpiece in terms of image quality and imagination. The fighting in Tai Chi, the visual drop of water, has the shadow of "Hero"; the ink painting style has the shadow of the dancer who painted with the body in the Olympics; the war scene with a sense of ritual has the shadow of "Golden Armor". There are also many breakthroughs. For example, the ink style can see the depth of field. Especially the scenery of the Peiguo Hall, the nearby temples and people, the river in the middle, and the mountains in the distance. Although they are in ink and wash style, they have the perspective of normal scenery. Looking at the background that does not look like a plane, you can see the distance and the distance. . If someone had a dream of ink and wash, it should be like this.

What is rare is that the perspective transition of the distant view is natural, unlike the flat background version

It was really pleasant to see the natural ink painting at first. But then I discovered that the first thing you saw was the end of this image style. Although the style of the video is amazing, but because there is no change, and there is too little connection with the development of the plot, the fate of the characters, so after the initial surprise, the movie feels tired after half an hour.

Feng Xiaogang, whose visual talent is far weaker than Zhang Yimou's in the previous two years, also made some attempts in "I'm Not Pan Jinlian". Although there is a gimmick, the circular perspective does echo the fate of the characters. In the early stage, it was a circular lens, which was Li Xuelian's female perspective, and the colors were also yellow, green, and blue in Jiangnan style. After entering Beijing, the lens became square, which was rigid and regular. The image began to appear in a large amount of red (the color of Beijing) that did not appear in the circular lens, but matched the square lens. At the end of the final story, Li Xuelian finally gained inner peace, and the lens turned into an ultra-wide square angle of view, which means that Li Xuelian figured it out and opened up her heart. There is beauty, philosophy, and at the same time changes are not monotonous, but also coordinate with the narrative itself. Pan Jinlian's visual attempt is not as difficult as Zhang Yimou's in "Shadow", but it didn't make me feel tired from watching.

The circle and green in the south of the Yangtze River, the square and red in Beijing, the wide and bright at the end, echoing the plot and characters very well

But "Shadow" lacks visual changes too much. When I was watching, I made a lot of guesses, but in the end I found that I thought too much. Nothing happened.

For example, in the middle of the process, I guess that although the clothes of the characters are all black and white ink style, does the ratio of black and white have something to do with the person himself? Those who pursue true love, lust, and freedom are more white, and those who pursue tactics are more black? Or the more obvious the identity of the character, the more white on the clothes, the more the identity of the character slides into the "shadow", the more black?

I pay special attention to everyone's clothes because I think too much. The black and white colors of the clothes are really random.

For another example, will there be a high-gloss character, who has color? Stand out among the crowd of ink paintings? Once looked forward to Jingzhou, because he is the one who makes the audience feel the most substituting, but Jingzhou is almost black and white to the end. Later, I hoped in the Yang family and his son. Compared with the group of people in Peiguo who calculated each other, the Yang family's father and son are strong, loving, upright and principled, and have a more positive image. If the colorful Yang family father and son are swallowed by the dark, ghostly, scheming black and white Peiguo people, I think it will be very interesting.

It's a pity that I think too much again, and there is no highlighter. All people are black and white.

For another example, should colors and black and white correspond to the fate of the characters? After Jingzhou defeated General Yang, he had a brief moment of freedom. If he once gained the color at this time, and then loses the color when he enters the world of tactics step by step in the later stage, it can also be very interesting.

It didn't happen, I was thinking too much again.

These ideas may not make sense, but at least they will make the vision less rigid and boring. Or, only enter the ink and wash mode in some special plots and scenes, and the sense of surprise may be doubled. The black-and-white ink-style paintings are really good, but such strong visual effects are unrestrained, overwhelming, and lacking changes to the audience, and it doesn't match the narrative itself. What's the difference between adding a powerful filter?


Well, I know that some people want to say "Oriental philosophy". There is traditional culture in the movie, and it is of course good to be the elegant culture of scholar-officials. But why did the auction produce such a strong smell of "ancestral traditional Chinese medicine"? The repeated occurrences of "Tai Chi" and "Yin and Yang" have reached the level of discomfort for me.

In the movie, the characters repeatedly suggest that the Yang family's sword technique is yang, so we have to use the yin method to defeat him, such as taking advantage of continuous rain and using the footwork of a woman's figure. But is this the reason for winning?

The first thing to defeat the Yang family to regain Jingzhou is wet and slippery on rainy days. Pei Umbrella can more fully decompose the power of the knife; it rains for seven consecutive days, and the river water rises so much that boats loaded with death row can take advantage of the water to drive through the city defenses in the river (also Two seconds of underwater footage was given); One hundred death row targets are uniformly organized. This is "the right time, the right place, the harmony of people", right? Even the father and son of the Yang family insisted on keeping faith and observing the rules, and the people of Peiguo carried out sneak attacks. This is "the art of war and deception." These are also traditional cultures. Victory depends on these, and this is obviously all resourceful, but it reduces the whole plan to the "yin and yang philosophy" of gods and gods? What's the difference between this arrangement and the prescription for Lu Xun prescribed by the old Chinese doctor is "a pair of crickets, the original match"?

If the "yin and yang philosophy" guides and inspires the governor to find the answer, I agree with it with both hands. But the filming method is that yin and yang itself is the answer. With yin and yang, you can win. It's not because of wet and slippery rainy days, soaring river water, and clever Umbrella, but because "he is the sun, you have to lean on the yin". This is forcing the world view as a methodology.

The rhythm of the first half of the movie is very good, and I can faintly feel the tension between yin and yang, and the tension between the light and the dark, but after taking Jingshu, the rhythm began to be chaotic. For example, the reversal at the end and the reversal are all expected, but the speech is so slow. A samurai carrying a skull box comes on stage, with a mask covering his face, we immediately know that there is a fraud, and 80% of the masked samurai is a captain. Because there has never been a close-up of a person with a covered face before. For example, before the governor killed the king, he said, "You killed Jingzhou's mother and framed me!" We knew that, well, Jingzhou must turn back. Jingzhou’s mother’s death was only the king at this time. The real murderer and Jingzhou knew about it, and there was no time for the news to spread. How did the governor know? Isn't this self-inspired dirty water getting darker and darker? The audience's prediction of the plot predates the development of the plot itself, especially for the climax reversal paragraph, it is really disastrous.

The most regrettable thing is that this time the role is not very attractive. Zhang Yimou is very good at filming actors. Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, and even Ni Ni Zhou Dongyu have shown infinite charm in his movies. It is not necessarily beautiful in appearance, not necessarily good in acting skills, and does not necessarily have a protagonist aura, but these people can Glowing vitality, as long as we appear in the lens, our eyes cannot be separated from them. This time the actors are very flat, but Hu Jun, who has few roles, is the best, followed by Wang Qianyuan. Deng Chao acted very well, with great contrast, but these two roles exuded acting skills but did not exude charm. It was a bit too "acting", which is a pity. Sun Li's role was originally thought to be very important, but in the later stage it was completely reduced to the background board of the horror expression, and her face had many dead spots, unlike the previous girls who were easy to shoot from every angle. Guan Xiaotong's acting skills are anxious, but her face is actually the most favored by the camera. Brother Wu Lei... Go to school and practice your lines.

Maybe it’s too strict with the National Teacher, maybe looking back on "Shadow" in a few years, it still has its special status and merits in film history, but at least for the 116 minutes of the movie theater, this is not a very good experience.

————This article was originally published in my public account Sean_lalala (Sean_lalala), welcome to follow

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Extended Reading

Shadow quotes

  • Zi Yu: They say a pup taken at birth can find its birthplace by tracing the scent.

  • Xiao Ai: Some things don't have a right or wrong. What's done is done.