Love is mysterious. Why do two people who have never met before fall in love, why do they have a common desire for love, why are they clinging to each other, why have to break up again, and why are they changed by this mysterious atmosphere?
When love occurs, it is mostly accidental, but the driving force of love on the trajectory of life and the strong penetration of the spiritual world always lead people to explore its truth.
Throughout the history of human culture, there has never been a gap in the material related to love, especially in the field of literature, from the poetry that appeared in the ancient times, the novels that emerged in the feudal era, to the dramas and movies that began to flourish in modern times. They are the most interesting embellishments. It can even be said that most of the early classic stories are love stories.
Nowadays, movies have become an important part of modern people's cultural consumption. As a kind of genre, love movies seem to be announcing how it has gone further along the evolutionary road, and the audience's expectations for it have also been upgraded.
So, what are the differences between a good love story and a boring love story?
's recently released youth romance film "About Winter" is cold, and the reasons can be found from the following general aspects. Why do the heroes and heroines love each other? What is their commonality? Persevering in the rationality of this love is not enough.
The film "About Winter" opened in 1991. At the entrance of Taiwanese singer Qi Qin's concert, fans and fans played by Ma Sichun, Enron, fought for tickets with everyone nervously on a snowy night. , And finally cried because of not grabbing the ticket.
At this time, Qi Xiao (Huo Jianhua), a photographer from Taiwan, Taiwan, just hadn’t waited for his girlfriend to enter the venue with him, so he walked to the side of the steps, stuffed a ticket into An Ran’s hand, and told her indifferently: My friend didn't come, and the ticket was given to you."
"The love doesn't know where it came from, and it grows deeper." It seems that the film only uses a monologue to imply the accident and inevitability of love.
To explore how this fate happens, let's start with the life state of the hero and heroine at that time. When the story of
happened, An Ran was just a senior graduate of Beijing Normal University. His emotional experience was immature. When he was down, he met Qi Xiao who took the initiative to send his own tickets. He was able to perceive the stability and generosity of him. The world seems to have opened a window, and it can be regarded as her first love of moths to the fire. Just like at the concert, she stood in her seat and shouted for her idol Qi Qin, full of innocent passion.
And Qi Xiao, before falling in love with Enron, he had been in a relationship of separation and reunion with his ex. The elderly father was widowed in Taiwan and his physical condition has not been very good. His brother was in prison because of conflicts with others. I stayed there for more than ten years, and the wedding photography studio I started in Beijing has just started on the right track.
Therefore, compared with Enron, Qi Xiao did not have enough desire and pursuit for feelings from the beginning, nor did he have enough desire to take root in Beijing. Judging from his abandoning of Enron and choosing family responsibilities, he did not have any bad feelings for Enron. The expression of less love, but has never treated her as the most suitable long-term partner.
An Ran fell in love with the mature and elegant Qi Xiao, which can be understood as a first love-like enthusiasm, but in her bones there is still an unwillingness to admit defeat with her lover, so that she succeeded in doing shows with her girlfriends. , Can fully explain the brave perseverance in this girl's personality, she is a person who will do her best once she falls in love with someone or something.
But Qi Xiao faced An Ran, just as he imitated her silly selflessness when she yelled Qi Qin at the concert, he could appreciate her straightforwardness and enthusiasm, but would he really want to know her more? Obviously, in many cases, Qi Xiao has an alienated and calm onlooker attitude, "What kind of a girl with such a passionate love, what should she be like?"
The motives and expectations of love between the hero and heroine are not equal, and the commonality between the two is even a little lacking. The emotional concentration is not "evenly matched", and it is difficult to convince them that after a few years, they can still believe in that love. It's hard to make people think that this is a good love story, no wonder there are many online commentators saying that Qi Xiao is a scumbag.
screenwriter Robert McKee once said: in fact, all writers must confess the relationship between stories and life. “Stories are the metaphor of life.
” Story is not an escape from reality, but a carrier, carrying We go after reality and try our best to unearth the truth of chaotic lifeTrue". Compared with "About Winter", "Sweet Honey" directed by Chen Kexin is also adapted from a song, but it can give a more real artistic effect.
is a literary and artistic romance film about Li Xiaojun (Dawn) in 1986 Acting) With the ideal of marrying his fiancée after earning enough money, he came to work in the indifferent Hong Kong, and met Li Qiao (played by Maggie Cheung) who also liked listening to Teresa Teng’s "Sweet Honey", and gradually fell in love while warming each other. However, because of the disagreement of life ideals, he took the initiative to separate, and finally went around the story of meeting again in a foreign country.
is different from ordinary pure love movies. The director uses the background of the times to consciously render the character portrayal settings, which not only allows the audience to accept The development of the event can also make the characters’ behavior motives more reasonable and well-founded.
Li Qiao is a pragmatic "gold-worship girl" who wants to change her destiny. She is diligent and shrewd. It is very different from the "love brain heroine" in ordinary romance movies. She falls in love Li Xiaojun, who was innocent and confused, was attracted to her in the end. He wanted to give up his first girlfriend who was far away in his hometown... These are not unreasonable impulses, but the depth of living together in the bottom of a foreign land. Understand. "The same is the end of the world." The two have each other's hopes, and gradually develop into love in mutual pity and dependence. The book "Story", known as the screenwriter's guide, once told us: Designing stories can test writers His maturity and insight test his insights into society, nature and human heart... A good story is something that is worth telling and everyone is willing to listen to.
’s love for stories-I believe your characters will be more than real people" "Real", I believe that your fictional world is deeper than the concrete world. The love of
"About Winter" is not touching enough, probably because of the lack of the "real"! The heroes and heroines of
encounter the "resistance" of love setbacks What is it? Barriers are not set appropriately enough
Hollywood screenwriter godfather Robert McKee mentioned in "Story": When writing love stories, the most important question we have to ask is "What will stop them?" You can imagine
. Two men and women who fall in love, they want to unite, if the future experienced by them sees the bottom at a glance, they cannot form a real story tension...
For more than two thousand years, starting from the Greek dramatist Minander, most classical dramatists They are accustomed to using "girls' parents" or family class to set up "blocking characters" or love opposition forces. Western "Romeo and Juliet" is family hatred, China's "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" is also family opposition These obstacles are closely related to the times. Nevertheless, the setting of resistance should test the skill level of script creation more than the resistance itself.
In the 20th century, important changes have taken place in the economic, political landscape and people’s lifestyles, so romantic Revolutions continue to happen, and it is more obvious from the innovation of the play.
such as the movie "Titany The barrier to love in "Crack" is: even if Jack and Rose can take the initiative to overcome the barrier of identity, they have not overcome the barrier of life and death. The same-sex movie Brokeback Mountain directed by Ang Lee is a deep gender identity barrier. "Covered Bridge Last Dream" is an obstacle to modern family ethics. The protagonist of "When Harry Meets Sally" has an absurd belief that friendship and love are incompatible with each other and are an obstacle to the concept of love. The blocking characters in "The Graduate" are regular girls' parents, but the reason for their opposition is extremely unconventional.
, a Douban film critic said: "The level of barriers greatly affects the audience's perception. Because of the low barriers, barriers that can't even convince the audience, the protagonists are not together, and it is easy for the audience to doubt this love." The
movie "About Winter" has two breakups. The first time Qi Xiao said that his father had a stroke and that no one took care of him in Taiwan, his brother was in prison again, and the Beijing photo studio was swept away by his partner, as if all the tricky things had swept away in an instant. But when I think about it, has there been any hint at this before the film? The reason for An Ran's grief and anger is that the audience can understand that state of mind, because the sudden decision to break up was not a struggle or negotiation between the two parties, but at the same time they have to admit that the obstacles are boring and perfunctory.
broke up for the second time after Enron became famous for his hard work. Qi Xiao has just experienced a divorce. The two have been apart for many years and have not let go of each other... It stands to reason that their handling of relationships should have changed significantly from before. If you still want to be together,Will definitely come up with a more mature and appropriate approach. But this time the obstacle turned out to be that the entanglement between the male protagonist and his ex-wife has not been dealt with properly. With Qi Xiao's prudent and cautious personality, planning to go to Beijing to live with Anran should be a matter of deliberation after careful consideration. He also wrote in the film A long letter confessed his heart for many years, but in the end he would be interrupted by this kind of bloody and sudden "predecessor's entanglement". This makes people wonder whether the personalities of the characters in the film can stand up?
The book "Story" expresses the characterization in writing: the truth of the character's personality is revealed when a person makes a choice under pressure. The greater the pressure, the deeper the reveal, the more true the choice reflects the character's nature.
Simple and dimensionless people do exist...but they are also really boring.
Because the obstacles are not properly set up, the three-dimensional sense of the characters will be weakened, and the story will inevitably be unconventional. This is the flaw of Rao Xueman's youth pain literature, right? What is the point of pain for the sake of pain?
What is the significance of experiencing love to the protagonist’s personal growth? "You must stay the best in the end"
Regarding love movies, Baidu Encyclopedia has such an explanation: The common theme of such movies is that the characters in the movie make corresponding decisions based on the newly discovered charms of each other. Such movies usually also ask questions such as "What is the meaning of my life" and "Why am I with my current partner".
To be honest, the movie "About Winter" tells about relationships that span 30 years. The risk is relatively high. It is even more difficult to witness the meeting of two generations.
Because human nature is fluid, human growth cannot be separated from the various critical moments he experienced. Since it is an unforgettable love, it can certainly trigger the protagonists' mental cognition to a greater extent.
Therefore, the longer the time span of the story, the more difficult it is to control the design of the interlocking relationship between the characters' deep personalities and the arrangement of events.
An Ran is a talented woman at Beijing Normal University. When she first dated Qi Xiao, she generously expressed her inexplicable affection for Beijing. She was so sensual and frank that she almost jumped out of her. This kind of standard literary and artistic young women, especially at the age of dreaming, fall in love with the handsome literary and artistic man who likes the same song, which is in line with the psychological level of the characters at that time.
But she also has realistic ambitions, "I want Beijing to call out my name aloud". Obviously, career ideals are equally important to her.
It is a pity that the film ignores Anran's rationality and worldliness in many places, and ignores her years of transformation.
She fell in love with someone at an innocent and wanton age, and she quickly lost what she loved in the face of reality. The spiritual test brought by the ups and downs is not prominent in the film.
Many people say that if you can't forget your past love affair, it's mostly because your later emotional life has gone from bad to worse, or you always meet with others, or spend too long in loneliness, you can only talk about masturbation through recollection.
The focus of Qi Xiao's second half of his life is left to his father and son. He has been reminiscing about his old love in his unfortunate marriage, and it seems logical that he wants to pick up the old love on his own initiative.
But Ann’s behavior after coming is obviously not in line with the character setting. She has never lacked the company of her close friends, and there is also a male number two Yu Feng who has been silently paying for her for many years. Therefore, the emotional emptiness and loneliness cannot be mentioned. of.
In addition, if she has been immersed in the pain and regret of love, she will naturally not have good psychological qualities to start a business. After enough hard work and baptism, most of them will let go of the fate of death in a young age.
can be beaten in the face again in the second half of the film.
When An Ran became a well-known host, one day when he went to Taiwan to host an event, Qi Xiao quietly attended to join him. After the event, he invited An Ran for a walk and revealed the fact that he had been divorced. On Yangming Mountain, Qi Xiao said to An Ran: My wish is to build a small house in Yangming Mountain and live with the person I love. Together, live a simple life.
was originally in good condition, but the hostess responded without thinking: I can not leave!
actually see here, you can almost see the overall level of this movie.
I remember that there was one issue of CCTV’s talk show "Film Critic Today". The guests talked about the tenderness of the male and female protagonists in "About Winter", which must be related to the rigidity of the characterization!
To be honest, "About the Winter"There has already been a small climax of a breakup incident, and the following big climax could have been escalated, highlighting the protagonist’s personal growth significance, but in the end it was handled with a routine similar to "Qiong Yao Opera", and the audience's score will inevitably decline gradually.
remember that Hollywood has an admired motto that warns: the movie pays attention to the last twenty minutes.
No matter what you have achieved in the first ninety minutes, if the last quarter is a failure, even if you win the box office, word of mouth will die on the premiere weekend.
analyzed here, it seems that the movie "About Winter" is still a long way from the classics.
After all, concentrating on polishing the script and telling a good story is still the most important thing in making a movie!
