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, including the war action movie starring Zhang Yi and the fashion martial arts movie starring Wu Jing, " evacuation " is no longer a new topic in domestic films.
However, what is surprising is that this time the National Day file strong " Homecoming " is very different from them. The two protagonists have never fired a single shot from the beginning to the end. The fallen compatriots were brought back from the hail of bullets.
This is a respect for historical reality as well as respect for film creation.
- Xu Yuan, the editor-in-chief of the gun draft,
, "Returning Thousands of Miles", back to the movie
/ Zi Ge
About the author: film critic, the main writer of the gun draft, a centrist who is not moderate enough.
The story of "Homecoming" is based on real events, telling the story of the outbreak of war in the African country of Numia, and the story of Chinese diplomats being ordered to evacuate overseas Chinese. As a new mainstream commercial blockbuster,
has a good degree of completion. The story line is clear, the plot is compact, and the characters have a beginning and an end... But what caught my eye the most was that it broke through the limitations of current mainstream blockbusters.
In recent years, we have produced a large number of new mainstream movies (or new themes), which are basically only emotional, irrational, or always trying to replace value arguments with sensationalism, thinking that as long as the red flag is raised high to cross the war zone, or shout a few words. An uplifting slogan can prove itself powerful. The result is that the main creators are self-inflicted, and the audience only feels tired.
And "Homecoming" does not rely too much on a priori national sentiment, and tries to "return the film to the film". This is quite rare in today's increasingly austere environment.
"Homecoming" is director Rao Xiaozhi's new work. Compared with the previous works such as "No Name" and "Hello, Madman", the film is obviously more mature in terms of narrative and image. Must not. The creators of
"Homecoming" are very calm. They are not eager to exploit cruelty, but let the breath of terror spread out inch by inch.
The film opens with a car driven by a Chinese diplomat driving through a dusty street. A few corpses are hanging leisurely on a towering building in the distance. The director did not give a close-up, but only gave a hurried vision. The beauty of the is that the corpse is photographed as an "everyday decoration" . No over-rendering, just cold rendering. That's why it's so terrifying.
The car continued to move forward, not far away, the government army was exchanging fire with the rebels. Finally, I managed to get through the hail of bullets and managed to get away with it. In the next block, a group of children were fighting for a football. Pedestrians were walking, shopping, and living as usual...
The director juxtaposed the original conflicting scenes, without explaining, let the The audience finds out slowly, and this is the fun of watching.
"Wan" is not small in scale. Gunfights, explosions, stumps and broken arms... The tragic extent is evident. However, the director knew how to shoot in a proper way, and made the violence the climax of the daily
, which was an explosive scene that followed.
The car was stopped, the outrageous soldiers pushed the Chinese diplomats into the office, the two sides broke outintense conflict. At this time, the camera kept showing out the window, and I saw a long queue of cars on the street, crowded with people, and loud Arabic blaring in the air. Diplomat Zong Dawei (Zhang Yi) smelled a little unease, so he took out the money, stuffed it with the officials, and then led his colleagues to leave as soon as possible. Just as he pushed the door, the bomb went off.
The explosion was unexpected, because it sounded at a time when the crisis seemed to be lifted. Sooner or later, it doesn't work.
In terms of rhythm arrangement and emotional layout, the creators of "The Journey Home" obviously put a lot of thought into it.
"Homecoming" has many big scenes. As a mainstream commercial film, it can be said to have all the spectacles and sensory stimulation that it should have. The most fatal problem of the main theme is that there is only A story and no B story.
In other words, most of them can only tell a crisis-ridden external narrative, and cannot enter the hearts of the characters to show the inner transformation and growth. how so? the reason is simple. Because the protagonist of the main theme movie has no weaknesses, or more precisely, is not allowed to have weaknesses. It is precisely because they are perfect that they do not need to grow up and can naturally move forward.
However, this goes against the original intent of the film's narrative. The beauty of the
story lies precisely in the transformation of people. It is precisely because of the change that there is a valuable choice, which leads to the concept.
And the biggest highlight of "Homecoming" lies in this. It puts the focus back on the human being.
The two diplomats in the film Zong Dawei and Cheng Lang ( Wang Junkai ) are not born heroes, but just two ordinary people.
They are a typical combination of veterans and recruits. Zong Dawei has been a diplomat for many years and has rich experience, but when he is middle-aged, he is tired of his work; Cheng Lang is young and dares to think and act, but due to inexperience, he is reckless. These two have their own weaknesses, but that weakness is nothing but human nature. The next evacuation operation is also their growth path.
(Note: Zhang Yi and Wang Junkai are brothers and partners who are also teachers and friends, and it is also a classic combination of genre films. On the way to evacuate overseas Chinese, they experienced differences, quarrels, and finally mutual understanding and recognition)
Zong Dawei's growth, is Forced out by "death".
He originally planned to return to China to accompany his wife to produce, but the accidental death of his colleague Zhang Ning ( Zhang Zixian) disrupted the plan. He had to stay and continue Zhang Ning's unfinished task. Just as growth always begins by being forced.
The explosion casualties in the downtown area and Zhang Ning's subsequent hit by a stray bullet were all just uncontrollable "accidents" for Zong Dawei, but in later stories, every time Zong Dawei encountered death, he It has become a battle between heaven and man that he has to make his own choice.
evacuated with more than 100 compatriots who were trapped in the war zone. As the first person in charge, he had to take on the heavy responsibility of whether to leave or stay, where to go and where not to go.
And while searching for lost compatriots, they are kidnapped by rebels whose leader wants to play Russian roulette with Zong Dawei. As a result, he made a cowardice, holding the gun, he dared not pull the trigger. Then, the Numian driver of the embassy, Wadier, was brutally killed by the rebels.
Since then, cowardice has become a knot in Zong Dawei's heart.
(Note: Zong Dawei played by Zhang Yi is not a typical main character in mainstream movies. On the contrary, the film does not hide his weaknesses, which also makes him more like a real person. )
and then It was Hassan's death. As a visa officer, Hassan was originally an obstacle to Zong Dawei's customs clearance. But after fighting each other many times, the two cherished each other and became friends. This friendship is not an ordinary emotion, but an identification with values.
In a sense, they are all "lost legal status" people. At this time, the government of Numia had been overthrown by the rebels, Hassan's situation was precarious, and Zong Dawei had also lost the protection of the authorities. In other words, both visa officers and diplomats could no longer provide them with asylum, but They did not back down, and still chose to stick to their responsibilities. It is this silent perseverance that has become the basis for their mutual recognition. But now Hassan's death, for Zong Dawei, is tantamount to a rehearsal of death.
Zong Dawei was both a witness and a bearer of the deaths of these two Numian friends. Until the end, he encountered the leader of the rebel army again, and they played roulette again in order to see whether the young daughter of Numia who was adopted by Zhang Ning and his wife could evacuate with the Chinese. This time, Zong Dawei finally plucked up the courage and pulled the trigger again and again.
On the one hand, this is of course the courage that burst out in desperation. On the other hand, it is more critical that after witnessing such an intensive death, it is not so much that Zong Dawei has become brave, it is better to say, It is that he is not so afraid of death. Human courage has always had an equally strong tendency to self-destruct - the flip side of not being afraid of death is that it's better to go with them. It also gave him a solid foundation for his psychological transformation.
(Note: The film depicts a group portrait of a diplomat, in addition to Zong Dawei and Cheng Lang, including: Zhang Zixian as the first secretary Zhang Ning, Cheng Taishen as as diplomatic counselor Yan Xingzhou, Li Xuejian as Foreign Ambassador Lv Yisong...)
As for Cheng Lang, the other protagonist of the film, on this journey to evacuate the overseas Chinese, the question he always struggles with is: should we tell the truth to the overseas Chinese? Do you want to tell them that even if they do escape, they may not be able to wait for rescue.
This is actually an old topic, replaced by a more general description: should people face despair, or give people some hope.
Cheng Lang hated lying because his father concealed his mother's death from him, but in the end, he agreed with Zong Dawei and chose to hide the truth from the expats. Because when he leads the team himself, he suddenly feels the weight on his shoulders, which is completely different from when he watches others make decisions. He also finally understood that the scale of measuring things is not single, but complex. Beyond pure truth and falsehood, there are more subtle factors to consider. This made him finally understand his father and understand what responsibility is.
Cheng Lang said to Zong Dawei: "You are still experienced in battles."
Zong Dawei replied: "But I am not as brave as you." Arclight .
Cheng Lang, played by Wang Junkai, after a life-and-death escape, grew from a stunned youth to a prudent young diplomat. , do you really think it's a face?"
was the first time Zong Dawei said to Zhang Ning, scolding him for being dishonest. scolded him for being a big boss and deceiving his compatriots all the time; the third time it was Zong Dawei who told the rebel leader, satirizing him as being strong on the outside and working hard at the same time. The line
runs through and becomes a key clue to interpret the whole film.
If the "mask" represents the superficial identity, and the "face" points to the real human nature, then "The Journey Home" is actually saying that a person is not a hero because he has an identity - not because he is a diplomat , must be very heroic. On the contrary, he still has to accept the test of true humanity, and through torment and trials, can he prove that he can shoulder the heavy responsibility and deserve to be respected.
This is the core expression of "The Journey Home".
Actually, every movie should be such a self-evidence process.
And the common problem of the theme movie is precisely this - omit this proof process, and use it as the premise of the narrative instead. So we see a lot of tall and complete superhumans wearing masks, invincible and invincible, but we can't see the real human nature, and the instantaneous divinity that can only appear after overcoming the various weaknesses of human nature.
and "Homecoming" broke through this limitation, returning what originally belonged to the movie to the movie.
During the entire evacuation operation, Zong Dawei was not only worried about the immediate danger, but also worried about his wife and daughter who was just born in the distance
While watching the film, my friends and I kept talking about the difference between the past theme and the current theme. , and finally reached a consensus: the is poor in a kind of sincere confirmation.
The mainstream theme commercial films can of course be shot, but the question is, how to express ideas, whether to force it to the audience without doubt, or use a story, a legend, and a typical character to prove it.
The difference between the two is that the former is propaganda and the latter is a movie.
In today's Chinese film market, the foreseeable future is that there will be more and more mainstream themed commercial films. This trend is irresistible, and more creators will definitely be involved in the future.
Then they all face the same question: how do you make a mainstream movie closer to what it is? How to tell a story well before talking about others?
Homecoming offers one possible answer. After all, after traveling thousands of miles, we still have to return to the movie.
editor / Xu Yuan
typesetting / Zige Lime
THE END
