From "Night Train" to "Fireworks in the Daytime", to this "Party at Southern Station", Diao Yinan's film style is amazing and fascinating (I haven't watched his debut yet :-)). The direct display of violence and the looming eroticism of the interlayer veil are the most expressive facades in his films. The subtle collection of surrounding sounds and the description of the larger environment always integrate all characters into the environment (or fall into prison), and the narrative is The blank space in the style of Nuri Big Ceylon also makes the long "Silence in the Four Fields" full of deafening thoughts. But the director intends to make some changes in his usual style this time.
In terms of content, the portrayal of the characters is not as good as that of "Fireworks in the Day", and everyone is imprisoned in contradictions. The undercurrent of dramatic conflict has been cut a lot in this film. Gui Lunmei's roles in the two films are quite contradictory, but Zhang Zili in "White" is more three-dimensional than Zhou Zenong. Other characters are drawn more simply. It seems that the director deliberately moved more of the behind-the-scenes content to the wonderful narrative in front of the screen.
Liu Ai'ai, a man who walks freely between light and dark, is the most dramatic character in the film. The lonely carnival with Zhou Zenong on the boat can't help but remind people of the ice rink and Ferris wheel love scene in "White". In the blurred boundary between whether the two have feelings for each other, the identity and psychology of the movie characters suddenly become struggling. stand up. So when Liu Ai'ai wears a mask with dark humor to receive a reward, can we really attribute it to a certain trait? No, she is an independent island herself, with intersections with all characters, but no intimacy. What the people in the audience saw was her mask of justice, but behind her was a contradictory body that sees the wind, is mercenary, and is intertwined with light and dark. As a "bystander participant" who has no direct connection to the whole absurd farce, she finally gets the best ending, absurd and ironic, and the black of film noir reaches its peak here.
And because Zhou Zenong's image is always passive, even if he is the protagonist, I still can't see the strong character traits. Even if he protects her from harm at the last moment after meeting Liu Ai'ai and does not get rid of her because he set a trap for him, Zhou Zenong's inner changes are not as vivid as the inner changes of Liao Fan's character in "White", let alone. Similar to the amazing plot that releases the dance of extreme joy in the last part. Of course, the lens processing of Zhou Zenong's hallucination of seeing the news in the newspaper with a gun in a small room is really unique. Although the role of this paragraph is a little quick and quick, it achieves the goal of conveying the character's predicament through a very rare subjective lens in the film. The effect is still obvious.
The director's attempt at form is obvious to all. He carefully sculpted the low-key night scene lighting, and tried his best to depict the picture of Wuhan's underlying society through visual stimulation. The added neon elements add a psychedelic sense of doom and gloom to the film. In "White", this feeling mainly comes from the bleak loneliness and single cool color unique to the northeast winter. The dramatic light and shadow design (the shadow cast by Zhou Zenong and Liu Ai'ai on the wall under the street lamp, and the projection on the stairs at the final decisive battle) not only played a role in promoting the plot, but also aroused the audience's viewing nerves.
In addition, what is eye-catching is that the director imitated many master-level lens processing techniques in the film: one is the quick close-up editing in the coherent action, corresponding to the face, hands, legs and Close-up of the feet, reminiscent of Bresson's close-up, but more of an expressionist imitation of the film as a whole (the color changes of the lights, the swaying of the bulbs, the expressions of the bystanders reflecting the intense tension of the fight scene); The second is the close-up of the animal's eyes in the zoo, corresponding to the introduction of the "animal third party" perspective in order to increase the tension of the arrow on the string, which makes people think of the eyes of the donkey and the horse in "Batsa the Donkey" and "Warrior Lanzino" respectively. Close-up, although what I want to express is completely different (I am actually skeptical about whether the second point is good or not, it doesn't feel very natural +_+).
The night rain car chase scene is also a new experiment for the director, and it should be selected as the top ten clips of the Chinese film of the year (chosen by yourself). There is no BGM, only the roar of the engine and the sound of rain, which can achieve fascinating effects only through editing. Diao Yinan, who is good at static footage, can be described as meticulous when designing this section.
Many people feel that the director's film does not have a clear intention, but a major feature of film noir is the theme of unclear good and evil. Exploring the hearts of the characters has raised the intention to a certain height. However, I still hope that the director can make some new attempts to break through the theme (such as ethics). (8.0/10.0)
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