Not long ago, "Late Night Cafeteria" directed by the famous actor Leung Ka-fai appeared on the screen. The film was adapted from the comic of the same name by Yaro Abe. It tells a middle-aged uncle guarding an inconspicuous alley small restaurant, which opens every night. , To make a story about food that only belongs to him for each visitor. As an enduring IP (intellectual property), "Late Night Canteen" has been adapted into film and television works in many countries, among which Kaoru Kobayashi’s Japanese drama "Late Night Canteen" is the most well-known. In comparison, it has been adapted and reproduced many times in Korea and China. , The result is always unsatisfactory. Analyzing the reasons, the author believes that the inevitable "cultural discount" of cultural symbols in the process of dissemination and the lack of emotional resonance in text creation are the main reasons for the "non-acceptance" of "Late Night Canteen".
As a "cultural discount" of food culture
"cultural discount" is also called "cultural discount". As far as film art is concerned, "cultural discount" refers to the process of a country's film being spread overseas, because it is difficult for the audience of the imported country to recognize it The cultural content conveyed in the film leads to the loss of the value of the film. As a kind of culture, food culture inevitably exists in the phenomenon of "cultural discount" in international communication. The cultural prototype of
"Late Night Canteen" is a manga created by Japanese manga artist Abe Yaro. It has become popular in Japan whether it is adapted into a TV series or a movie. The reason is inseparable from Japanese izakaya culture. As a sample of food culture, the izakaya culture was formed in Japan's "Edo Period" and developed from the "zakaya" selling sake. In the Edo period, a large number of samurai were recruited. As the bottom of the society, they often faced the problem of "difficulties in eating". Therefore, "pubs" that mainly engaged in brewing and selling alcohol began to provide meals, and gradually formed a "can" The wine bar of "living" (ie "sit down") then developed into a space for cultural exchanges. After World War II, the development of Japanese social modernization accelerated, but the cultural exchanges in the izakaya have not changed. The people have a very high emotional identity with the izakaya culture. As a projection of this emotional identity, "Late Night Cafeteria" has been "acclaimed and popular". Success seems reasonable.
As far as the cultural sector is concerned, although China, Japan, and South Korea belong to the Confucian cultural circle, due to differences in lifestyles, different cultural forms inevitably arise, especially the food culture that is closest to life. Different from the izakaya culture, China's food culture emphasizes "etiquette" in particular: the age of the seats, the rules of eating, the number of dishes... From the dining table, you can almost see the cultural customs and psychology of the Chinese people. Therefore, bringing "Late Night Canteen" to the Chinese screen has its own "cultural discount", and it is difficult for Chinese people to have emotional identification with works centered on the izakaya culture. On the other hand, the works that we have created around food in the past, whether it is the movie "The God of Cookery", "Food Men and Women", "Wedding Banquet", or the documentary "China on the Bite of the Tongue", have achieved good results due to the existence of the identity of the national food culture. Response.
Text creation that lacks emotional resonance
Is it because of the existence of "cultural discounts" that cultural products cannot be spread overseas? the answer is negative. Based on the theoretical framework of a community with a shared future for mankind, art, as a cultural carrier, can also give people from different countries a sense of common breathing and common destiny. Differences in countries and nationalities cannot eliminate the commonality of emotions. Therefore, finding and embedding people's common feelings in movies and triggering the audience's emotional resonance is an effective measure to reduce the "cultural discount".
Regrettably, although Leung Ka-fai’s "Late Night Cafeteria" has made some narrative efforts, for example, the boxer Kaiyuan kept trying to beat the former champion, the perfumer Xiaomei and the university senior liked each other but couldn’t get married. Xiaoxue and Ashin knows each other through music, but in the end they are divided...but it did not arouse enough emotional resonance, because the details of the text creation have ignored the audience's feelings. In the
movie, Kai Kai and her mother Lian often go to the cafeteria to eat. Aunt Lian habitually pretends to be drunk, and then asks her son Kai Kai to carry it home. This plot itself is quite tender and teary, especially when the audience learns that Aunt Lian was caught in her early years. Abandoned by the husband, he has a strong desire for security and love, but his son Kaiyuan always talks about the "dead old woman". Although this title is understandable when used between mother and child in a specific story, or to show enough familiarity , But for the audience, there is no doubtWill reject this kind of "disrespect" suspected practice. Similarly, the emotional logic between Xiaomei and the college senior is a typical story of a "counter-attack" Cinderella and Prince Charming. This kind of plot is no problem in youth films or romance films, but in the "Late Night Canteen" In a film close to the real emotions, the audience is often involved in a play. In comparison, the emotional lines of Tang and Song and Sisi have rules to follow. In addition, the uncle of the cafeteria played by Liang Jiahui has conflicts with his brother in the plot. The conflict is that his brother's brutal law enforcement is subdued by the "uncle". This plot is the icing on the cake in "Wolf Warrior 2", but "Late Night" The genre positioning of "The Canteen" is a warm-hearted drama, and it will be greatly reduced if it is placed here. In short, there are many examples of improper handling of similar details, so I won't repeat them. A large number of improper handling dispelled the efforts of "Late Night Canteen" to establish emotional resonance in the narrative, and ultimately failed to "direct the hearts of the people". It would only make the audience continue to play and make the film a mishmash of genre elements.
To sum up, the objective "cultural discount" and the subjective creation of lack of emotional resonance finally made the adaptation of "Late Night Canteen" failed again—previously, in 2017, "Late Night Canteen" starring Huang Lei was broken. . In fact, as far as the film is concerned, if the factors of "cultural discount" and "emotional resonance" are discarded, and a film that simply uses food as a metaphor for the various forms of life is still an excellent work, it is a pity that when the film is a Hunanese When Si and Tang Song faced a dish of omelette homesick, they also declared the failure of this path. (Zhang Yiwen)
