There are many forbidden areas in the domestic realistic crime theme, and it is difficult to make a good criminal movie. Diao Yinan and Cao Baoping are the only two remaining fruitful. The various inconveniences brought about by censorship have spawned various films full of socialism with Chinese characteristics, but their films have always managed to maintain a balance between the real and the sensitive, and they can be said to be full of embroidery in the depiction of crimes. not easy.
The title of "South" is somewhat unclear, so the English title "Wild Goose Lake" is more in line with the reality of the film. Because the three words "wild, goose and lake" indicate the criminal's psychology (wild and unruly), state (calm on the lake, treading water desperately under the lake) and crime location (around Wild Goose Lake). Taking the title of "South" may be more of a marketing consideration. After all, the train station scene is not the point at all.
The film uses the perspective of the wanted criminal Zhou Zenong to examine the surrounding environment many times, conveys to the audience a psychological hint of "I am Zhou Zenong" through the subconscious, and then switches back to the third-party God's perspective to continue to describe the plot, making the audience unconsciously become a criminal. When the audience sees the police appearing in the film, there will be a special anxiety and tension, which is due to this arrangement of shots. The follow-up story is interspersed with several bizarre montages. On the one hand, it describes Zhou's chaotic psychological state, and on the other hand, it also makes the audience dizzy and feels the same hurt as Zhou, which is a very strange experience.
It is risky to let the audience empathize with the criminal too much. If you are not careful, you will become sympathetic to the criminal, causing the film to fail the trial. Therefore, the lens language of this film has a shallow taste in this regard, but it has a different flavor. For example, when the audience is ready to go to the full sympathy week, the camera will cut to Liu Ai'ai or Hua Hua to distract the audience. In this way, it is neither too much integration nor too much separation. By switching between different characters, the state of elusive empathy is maintained just right.
It is said that the filming sequence of the film is exactly the same as the sequence of the story, so the inheritance of the plot by the actors is very coherent. As a film that taps into the hearts of criminals, the performance of the actors is very important. With this shooting method, the acting skills follow the actors' understanding of the plot and characters, and the changes expressed from the inner development are very delicate. Several of the leading actors are Diao Yinan's royal actors, and the old partners are paired together, and Director Diao's personal style is undoubtedly revealed. Of course, there are also disadvantages. There will always be people who hate Director Diao's strong style. Coupled with the physical disgust of the film's dirty and poor environment, it must lead to many bad reviews. It's just that I like Director Diao's style, so I praise it, but I hate Lou Ye's style, so I don't praise it. This kind of personal feeling is hard to say right or wrong. Whether a film is a good thing for an individual depends on his own feelings.
"South" will lose to "Parasite" at Cannes, but it's actually a matter of story. The characters in "Parasite" all have distinct personalities, and it is a strange love story that has been reversed many times. In terms of narrative rhythm and story quality, it overwhelms "Nan", and "Nan" loses not wrongly. The crime stories told in "South" have obvious opposition between good and evil, no suspense at the end, and no more moving plots can be inserted in the storytelling process. The camera does not have the space for showing violent aesthetics through bells and whistles like an action movie. One shot to the ground and people die like chickens are definitely not exciting enough in terms of look and feel. Although there are a lot of dead people in the story, except for the first Huangmao to be headed by the owl, which is shocking, the other death descriptions have no feeling. Of course, this may be the cauldron of censorship.
The ending of the film is clever. Officer Liu, played by Liao Fan, followed Gui Lunmei and Wan Qian for a while, and finally gave up, and then "Never let go of a bad guy's socialist subtitles with Chinese characteristics" immediately emerged - Liu Ai'ai was investigated by the police, note that this time, the Chinese characteristics subtitles are only Said that Gui Lunmei was investigated by the police, but did not say that she was arrested. What the director wanted to say and what the censors requested were indeed taken care of. The audience, the director, and the censors were tacit. The discomfort of superfluous additions in the past has been reduced by most, and it is truly amazing to be able to handle the ending like this.
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