The original title "Win the Championship": Use light and shadow to paint the spirit of the Chinese women's volleyball team
, which was postponed due to the epidemic, and finally returned to the screen at the end of September. This movie, directed by Chen Kexin and starring Gong Li, Huang Bo and the women's volleyball players, was highly expected when the news of filming started. In the film, how will the spirit of women's volleyball that have inspired generations of China be presented? Can domestic sports genre films emerge suddenly, injecting a boost for the current Chinese film market and the development of film genres? These are the questions facing "Win the Championship". Under the harsh scrutiny of the film, a satisfactory answer was handed in.
Audiovisual construction: Bring the audience back to the women's volleyball arena
For sports film fans, the probability of "Winning the Championship" will not disappoint, because the rhythm of the game paragraphs in the film is almost exactly in line with the audience's aesthetic expectations, and it is in the long run. Full of emotion is maintained in the span of time and space. The excellent control of the rhythm is the manifestation of the excellent level of the film industry, which comes from the effective arrangement of the play's emotional upbringing, and it also comes from the audiovisual and orderly editing. The 1980 women's volleyball and Jiangsu men's volleyball team warmed up for the World Cup, which can be seen as the film's "warming up" of this set of rules. Then, it focused on the "China-Pakistan matchup" between the 1981 Japan Women's Volleyball World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. The ups and downs of the resurrection gradually increased the traction on the audience. From being at a disadvantage to a difficult reversal to win, the twists and turns of the game agitated the energy of the camera to resonate with the emotions accumulated by the audience. Moreover, the moment the women's volleyball player hits the ball, a breathtaking time and space lag is formed, allowing the viewer's suppressed and tense nerves to be fully released with the winning goal.
The glorious moment of history is recondensed into an eternal touch with the blessing of images. This is the charm of sports movies, and it is also the mystery of every game in "Win the Championship." However, if the structure is simply repeated, the audience's enthusiasm for watching movies will inevitably be consumed. Therefore, the director has made different treatments for different events in terms of shooting techniques. These treatments are not only in line with the situation of the year, but also ingeniously integrated into the specific mood of the times. For example, at the World Cup of Women's Volleyball in Japan, the documentary before the match showed a brand new look at the early stage of my country's reform and opening up. This, together with the fierce training of the women's volleyball team, brought people back to the era of hope and fighting spirit. Having experienced the depression of "ten years without a ball", seeing the barrenness and backwardness of the country, the Chinese women's volleyball team’s desire to "break out of Asia and go to the world", and the Chinese people’s desire to "let the world see themselves" are all devoted to On the noisy Japanese arena.
The style of this Osaka event is not fierce. The flexibility and length of the lens mainly renders the anxious. Outside the field are many close-ups of the tens of millions of people watching in front of the black and white TV. On the field is Song Shixiong’s repeated emphasis on the Japanese team’s "unkillable" in the commentary. A complete and multi-angle presentation of the long last round is to pave the way for the final victory. The director tried his best to mobilize the camera to hold the audience's heart, and then restored the scene with a live perspective, shooting a direct arrow at the same time to the audience on and off the screen. After
, the China-Pakistan knockout matchup was completely different from the style of World War I more than 20 years ago. Feelings no longer seem to be the focus, nor are they burdened with grand national propositions, but more individual. The film adopts more detailed editing, faster speed, and stronger and denser power display. The scientific strategy deployment under the big data analysis shines brightly. The score is updated in real time on both sides of the screen. With more than a dozen cameras to simulate all-round on-site shooting, even viewers who have watched the game can experience the thrill of live broadcast. As a result, the director successfully tailored a set of audiovisual language for the Chinese women's volleyball team.
theme sublimation: women's volleyball spirit keeps pace with the times
The beauty of the skin is sure to catch people, how about the core spirit presentation? The film does not directly express what the spirit of the women's volleyball team is, but it is certain that the spirit of the women's volleyball team it conveys is not a static stereotype, but goes through changes and innovations with the times. The director wants to grasp the timesThe generational change of women's volleyball team and the transformation of volleyball concepts under the trend also hope to retain the inheritance and persistence of national emotions, but the problem still lies in the uneven interface between "we" and "me".
In the first half of the Chinese Women’s Volleyball World Cup and Japan’s Women’s Volleyball World Cup, the patriotism symbol firmly envelops the presentation of the audio-visual images-the national flag hanging high on the training ground, the lines expressing patriotism in English on TV, and the coaches on the field encourage fighting spirit After the women's volleyball girl returned from victory, the slogan "Unite, Revitalize China" painted on the courtyard wall clearly shows the theme of this paragraph: for our country, which is waiting to be thriving, unite and fight. . At the juncture of great changes and great opportunities for the country, the importance of winning an international game goes beyond the purely competitive significance of sports events. The women’s volleyball team fights for the collective, and there is no need to mark individual names to make people excited, but the film only highlights the name of one of them, and the value she wants to achieve is "I" (getting off the bench to play the game, Breaking Heyman's touch high record), not "us". Therefore, the national spirit supported by the "unknown" teammates and the personal pursuit of victory eager to be seen wear off each other, causing incompatible themes to tear.
In the second half of the film, Lang Ping was appointed as the coach after the Chinese women's volleyball team experienced many defeats and made drastic changes to the women's volleyball training system. At this time, the capitalized "we" representing the country in the spirit of the women's volleyball team began to fade, and the "me" representing the individual merged with countless egoes, and then surfaced. The core theme of this paragraph comes from Lang Ping's question to the new generation of women's volleyball players, "Do you love volleyball?" In the past, for the sake of national dignity, the pursuit of victory in the game is more, so the personal emotions of women's volleyball are often invisible, and the love of volleyball is not involved. But as Lang Ping pointed out sharply, "Only when you have a strong heart, you don't care about winning or losing." Now that the country is strong, it is no longer to judge heroes by winning or losing. Under this situation, the spirit of the women's volleyball team, which seems to have lost its subject, needs to find new meaning. Therefore, we must return to the fundamentals of competitive sports, ask the meaning of the Olympic spirit, and explore the "why" in each individual's heart. Grasp the pulse of the times with the change of concept, and use this to speak for the individuals in the community. Coaches and athletes are "I", "us", and Chinese in capitals. This setting is the preciousness of "Winning Championship". Place. The big data analysis of
has brought about the upgrade of strategy and tactics, but it has concealed the hard work of the women's volleyball team. Non-loving and inconsistent sports competitions, the consumption of athletes' bodies and will, together with historical baggage, seem to be left to the previous generation. Nowadays, the new generation is facing the frustration of not being able to integrate into the group and the lack of ideals in life. The decline in women's volleyball performance seems to be only manifested as a decline in will, and the coach's brilliant generals and powerful and powerful golden sentences make the audience unable to see clearly. To the mental picture of the players. Even in the deciding moment, many flashbacks interspersed with the heart-to-heart conversations of the players, they still cannot show a solid "group spirit". The awakening of the new women's volleyball team gave way to the memories and feelings of the previous generation. When the question is subtly transformed into an inspirational slogan, the further theme of the film can only be stopped abruptly.
In summary, the advantages and disadvantages of "Win the Championship" are very obvious. But in any case, it is still one of the most appreciated films since the theater resumed work. Certain names may fade on the screen, and countless golden phrases may be forgotten after they have been heard, but Lang Ping’s reform measures will be remembered, and the spiritual pain and joy of the women's volleyball team will be remembered. Condensing the grand proposition to individual struggles, and not forgetting to refract the changes of the times, "Win the Championship" allows people to see the bright hope of Chinese sports movies. (The author is a postgraduate student majoring in film science, School of Drama, Film and Television, Communication University of China)
