There are many stories about communication difficulties. The speechless "Tower of Babel" and the lonely "Lost in Tokyo" are classics. Liu Zhenyun also has a novel, "A Sentence Is Worth Ten Thousand Sentences", which deliberately uses verbal sentences to explain the plight of interpersonal communication and the bitterness of the heart.
"Arrival" is different from them.
If you are looking forward to seeing a popcorn-style sci-fi blockbuster, you may be disappointed. The slow pace of advancing seems careless, which tends to make people feel a little boring, and may even be distracted and ignore certain details. The frequently inserted flashbacks are in fact future insights, making the timeline of the film even more obscure. However, if you are sufficiently focused and relaxed enough to trust the director for a two-hour adventure, you can feel the unique charm of this film.
The whole film is filled with a tense atmosphere. Although it is different from the thrilling impact of common science fiction disaster films, there are no crashes, explosions, or landslides, but the director’s hand-held fighter jets, instant news and other sporadic fragments are matched with the heroine’s panic eyes. And the rushing breath easily brings inexplicable anxiety and oppression to the audience. The melancholic language of the lens creates a sense of mystery and expresses the anxiety that human beings cannot communicate with the aliens for the first time. The aliens are always in the mist, which further increases the sense of alienation.
The original "The Story of Your Life" has already had a group of fans, and the release of the film naturally attracted criticism from the original party. As an art carrier, video has the advantage of video, and text has the value of text. The movie brings a fascinating sense of presence, and the circular symbols similar to ink paintings perfectly show the description of alien languages in the book. However, the novel is better than the construction of a sci-fi system that makes sense. In the book, the author described the alien’s spoken language system and writing system in detail, as well as the protagonist’s learning and thinking process. I don't know what professional linguists think of the author's idea, but it is just right in terms of science fiction.
When the heroine writes in alien languages, she can be trained to think completely with pictorial symbols. Her thinking is consistent with alien languages, without cause and effect, and no sequence. All thoughts have the same priority, and they are presented together. And thus gained the ability to watch for a lifetime. This feels that the movie does not express it clearly, and it is difficult for the audience to understand why the heroine can clearly foresee the future. As if psychic, some fragments of her life appeared in front of her eyes in the light and flint, quite the charm of the impermanence of Zen Buddhism, but the essence of the novel was missing. In the original work, there is a detailed foreshadowing and perfect logic for this. The hero and heroine's discussion of the laws of physics is an important theoretical basis. The film directly ignores it, perhaps because it is difficult for the general audience to understand, but it is even more abrupt and brain-burning.
The second half of the film is basically separated from the novel, and various commercial elements have been added due to box office considerations, such as the tense international situation, the rigid bureaucratic conflict with professionals, and the aliens' appeal three thousand years in advance. There is nothing wrong with catering to the market, but in general these parts are not handled well, forcibly mixed with them, it seems that the overall style is nondescript. China once again played the role of a double-edged sword full of sarcasm. On the one hand, it was full of offensiveness, lacking good intentions and open thinking, and it took Russia and Pakistan and other big brothers and little brothers to lead the world in a worse direction. On the other hand, this reckless China is not so stubborn and can still be enlightened by universal values, and can play a decisive role in the overall situation, but the premise is that Americans must learn Chinese, even if even aliens can listen to it. Can understand English.
The film circumvents the contradiction between foreseeing fate and self-will, and the ending is meaningful and tender. When you understand that you will experience all kinds of heartbreak and all the happiness you have will be lost in the years, are you still willing to embrace this bleak future, and can you still have the courage to look at each other affectionately with your lover? The heroine showed an admirable mind, and the sympathetic tone of the whole film came to a successful end at the last minute.
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