The kind and strong inner saint and outer king

Okey 2022-03-10 08:02:24

The premiere day happened to be Friday. After all, it was a working day. Some white-collar workers in the surrounding seats might be late due to overtime work, traffic jams, and slow delivery of food on a date. The movie started half an hour later. In general, I have sympathy for such people, after all, they spend the same amount of money, and the story is incomplete. But this time, I really envy them, their viewing experience must be much better than mine.

This is probably the most fragmented movie viewing experience I've ever seen. I only watched the part 30 minutes ago, and I thought it was a bad movie. Only watching the part after 30 minutes, I thought it was a god movie. But in general, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, and this is probably the first time I have seen a Nolan-style commercial film with multiple superimposed reversals and repeated plot climaxes in a domestic movie.


1. Where is the problem in the first 30 minutes?

The structure of the film is divided into two parts. The first 30 minutes is to explain the reason why Li Yifeng played Zheng Kaisi to board the ship, and the part after 30 minutes is the main part of the film, which is the survival game of fighting courage, intelligence and humanity.

Then the most important tasks in the first half are two things: set up a basic character for the protagonist, and create a reasonable motivation for the protagonist to board the ship.

A series of encounters in the early stage did give the protagonist a "bad" character, but this plot could not make people feel enough empathy. Because, the protagonist's decline doesn't seem to be because of his kindness and trust in his friends. How can anyone mortgage their only house for 2 million to a friend without even reading the contract? A contract is sent in English? And the protagonist's motivation to mortgage the house at this time is to make a fortune with Xiaobo, but the motivation behind it is also greed.

Therefore, the image of the protagonist with high IQ, kindness, and objective reasons is a bit weak, and failed to stand up. It's a pity that in the first 30 minutes, there is no plot to show that Zheng Kaisi's high IQ, only Zhou Dongyu mentioned "he was good at math when he was a child", I think it is still too thin, so that after the character is released later, the image before and after is very different. If the division is too large, the personality can change drastically in a short time, but can the IQ also change drastically?

Another question in the first 30 minutes was much more excusable. It's the significance of the special effects of the clown vs. monster to the overall story, and why there is a chase scene that abuses bullet time. In my opinion, these two scenes are almost out of touch with the overall narrative, but for the director, they have spent a lot of thought, helpless, intentional, and slippery.

The real main part of the whole movie is the one and a half hour on board, the survival game of rock-paper-scissors. But this scene is a full-length scene in a single closed scene. There is no action, no scene, and no room for special effects. To put it bluntly, if this scene were shot directly, it would be equivalent to a drama. Looking at the second half alone, the movie is actually a B-level production. The key passages in the second half of the film are precisely the reason why so many lengthy and unnecessary large scenes and special effects are added in the first half. The director's intention is that he needs to use these scenes that do not serve the main plot to elevate the movie from a single-scene B-level production to an A-level blockbuster.

This is a kind of market compromise, but I still understand it very well, and even think the director is very smart. For commercial film directors who have not yet formed a personal brand and appeal, how to use limited resources to concoct the overall texture and appeal of the film is a very important task. Although Han Yan's performance is not perfect, he has achieved his purpose: these few scenes have indeed packaged the movie into the feeling of A-level production, and this allows the film to enjoy the layout and production of A-level production in the early stage of its release. Audience. In the early days of the movie's release, give a little advantage to grabbing the schedule and brushing the presence.

Looking back at the trailer now, it is bloody, exciting, with many special effects, and the scene is big. It does have the decency of a blockbuster. But the audience who was tricked into the movie theater by the trailer will not feel a loss. After all, the story of the scissors and the hammer in the second half is so wonderful. In all fairness, if the trailer makes it clear that the climax of this movie is just a game of scissors and hammers, how many people will be attracted to the cinema and watch it calmly?

Director Han Yan is indeed a wise man with insight into people's hearts.


2. Despicable is the passport of the vile. Noble is the epitaph of the noble, isn't it?

From the beginning of the film's entry into the main plot, the appearance has taken on a new look. After the top match Li Yong - Comrade Michael Douglas introduced the rules of the cruel version of Lucky 52, the whole story entered the Hunger Games mode. After that, every character who appeared on the stage was very exciting, and they all reversed the plot once, and some characters could even do two reversals.

I thought the old man was going to have a show, but he played Li Yong as a result.

The first time Zhang Jingkun appeared on the stage, he set a tone for the game. The gameplay of the game was a lie. The purpose of the game is money. In Zhang Jingkun and Zheng Kaisi's first set of gameplay, both of them can get off the boat, so why lie to Zheng Kaisi's stars? Because the stars can be sold for money, which is a greater benefit than both getting off the boat. Therefore, Zhang Jingkun's first appearance successfully attracted the audience's emotions, led the audience into the play, and he realized the first expansion of the rules - it turns out that faith is not part of the rules, and can you still exchange faith for money? Audiences began to wonder whether to be a good person.

Zhang Jingkun is a strong man who tramples on his faith, in order to rob the weak.

Then came Li Jun and Meng Xiaopang. Li Jun was the first to form an alliance because of his friendship with Zheng Kaisi. But Meng Xiaopang took a lot of twists and turns, because he actually stole cards? ? ? After subduing Meng Xiaopang, the three finally formed an alliance after some three-point and seven-point false confessions. The appearance of Meng Xiaopang began to further arouse the anger of the audience. It turns out that not only the strong can't be trusted, but also the weak can't be trusted!

Meng Xiaopang is a weak person who tramples on his faith, in order to survive.

Since Meng Xiaopang joined, Zheng Kaisi has also embarked on the road of opening and hanging. The two people who appeared next are very interesting, namely the fat man in the United States and the gangster in Italy. Why are these two characters foreigners? Because they are neutral in nature - they are purely functional passerby characters, and they don't need to show too much inner drama through them. Zheng Kaisi is the star at this stage. From this stage, Zheng Kaisi began to take the initiative to attack, through the method of analyzing the rules, adopting corresponding strategies, the whole plot trend gradually began to rise from a series of setbacks in the early stage, and gradually became better.

Zheng Kaisi is a strong adaptor to the environment, and unlike the previous Zhang Jingkun and Meng Xiaopang, his winning method does not sacrifice moral stance: if your technology is strong enough, the road to success can also be clean.

In the fourth stage, Zhang Jingkun appeared for the second time. Although he created some crises, they were all resolved by the three protagonists. Most importantly, Zheng Kaisi completed his second growth at this stage. He changed from a star to a leader. He used his power to accomplish three things: he sent a lot of people off the boat, gave passers-by a more level playing field, and punished the perfidious wicked. At this stage, the plot has gone through several reversals and ushered in the first climax that is enough to shock the audience, and this time, in addition to the sensory shock, there is also spiritual inspiration:

It turns out that not only can we adapt to the environment, but the real strong can also guide and purify the environment through rules.

In the end, the ending reversed again. In order to win the overall situation, Zheng Kaisi sacrificed himself and needed his allies to save him. But his allies chose to exchange the star that saved him for money. The last reversal is the most exciting, not only because human nature can't stand the test, but also because of the way Zheng Kaisi solved the dilemma, suggesting his affection for the heroine. If he hadn't accompanied Zhou Dongyu to the medical school, why would he have thought that the bandage of that cellmate's wound was unreasonable? This stalk can appear at any time, but the last moment is the best. It turns out that the most critical moment in life is the warm memory with the lover that saved me! Understand the plot, but also sublimate the characters.

At this stage, Zheng Kaisi has completed the third stage of growth: he has accepted the reality, instead of using interests to test human nature, he should use interests to guide good deeds.


The technical aspects of the second part of the film are fantastic. The five stages correspond to five major reversals, and each stage has several different minor reversals. So at this stage, even if it all happens in a small space on the ship, even if it is full of literary drama, even if there is no scene or emotional drama, it will not make people feel boring at all. Even in this passage, I see the shadow of Nolan. The advancement and completion of this plot is enough to become a benchmark for domestic commercial films.

More importantly, the characters have been growing along with the plot in these five stages, and the content to be told becomes more and more profound. While the movie pushes the audience with the plot, it still takes into account the characterization and content expression.

I strongly disagree that the focus of this film is to show human nature. Human nature has been like this since ancient times. Can it be called profound by focusing on and magnifying the ugliest aspect of human nature? Seeing only the evil of human nature is just as shallow as seeing only the goodness of human nature.

The point of the animal world is to walk in a world where monsters and monsters are rampant, how to be a person? Is the meanness the pass of the mean, and the noble the epitaph of the noble? Is it enough to just be kind? Why are there so many cannon fodder in the game? Is it okay to just give up the bottom line? Why did Zhang Jingkun never find someone to cooperate with him in the end?

Zheng Kaisi's growth is not a counterattack that only makes people feel good. His trajectory along the way is to reconcile the contradiction between kindness and survival.

The wicked weak are cast aside.

The good and weak are bullied.

The evil strong man is alone.

The kind and strong inner saint and outer king.

—— This article was originally published on my public account Sean Enen Shaw’s Guzi Club (Sean_lalala), welcome to pay attention

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