"National Day" in 2022, the main theme movies continue to shine. The three films of "The Way Home", "Ordinary Heroes" and "Iron Will" have won good box office and reputation as leaders. Among them, the film "The Way Home" led the "National Day" with a box office of nearly 200 million on the first day of the National Day. files". From the perspective of diplomats, the film focuses on the theme of "evacuation of overseas Chinese", pays tribute to the "ordinary heroes" on the diplomatic front with realism, contrasting strategies and intertextual narratives, and calls out the patriotism of Chinese sons and daughters through real-life group portrait stories. Emotions embody the sense of family and country of Chinese sons and daughters.
portrays "ordinary heroes" with realism
"The Way Back" tells the story of Chinese diplomats organizing the evacuation of overseas Chinese. Zong Dawei, a former resident diplomat, and Cheng Lang, a newcomer to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were ordered to go to the Republic of Numia to assist in the evacuation of overseas Chinese. Under the leadership of Bai Hua, general manager of China Huaxing Company's branch in Numia, they went to the border evacuation point. At this time, Zong Dawei and Cheng Lang, the diplomats who were on the mission, resolutely set off in the opposite direction, trying to rescue the trapped compatriots and organize the evacuation.
The film is comprehensively adapted from the real evacuation events such as "Evacuation from Libya" and "Evacuation of Chinese from Yemen", and creates real "ordinary heroes" with realism. The whole story, scenes and even details have a very real texture, and this real texture mainly comes from two aspects, one is the abandonment of the method of deliberately creating imaginary spectacles, and the other is the shaping of defenseless "ordinary heroes". The story of the
film takes place in a fictional "Republic of Numia", but after a little observation and thinking, you can see that "Numia" is actually a complex of situations in Arab countries such as "Libya" and "Yemen". In such a "Republic of Numia" in the midst of a coup d'etat and war, terrorist attacks, violent robbery, brutal street fighting, etc. have become the norm of life. Chinese diplomats and compatriots have to go through all kinds of hardships in such a chaotic world and complete the " A long way home." The film does not deliberately deify diplomats or create various wonders in a troubled world, but builds a story framework and unfolds specific plots based on reality. The evacuation stories are on the whole within the scale of real life and historical reality. Even the cruel game played twice by Mutaf, a rebel officer, is not excessive and inconsistent in the real historical scene.
is also adapted from real events. Compared with new mainstream films such as "Wolf Warrior 2", "Operation Red Sea" and "Changjin Lake", "The Journey Home" has many innovations. Ordinary heroes" - Diplomats. For unarmed diplomats, they are as ordinary as you and me, and they are also full of fear when facing the danger of war, but they need to use their extraordinary skills to defeat the enemy at a critical juncture to win or turn a bad situation into a lucky one. Therefore, Zong Dawei showed real fear and cowardice in the two "Russian Roulette" games with the terrorist Mutaf. Even if he decided to die generously, he would still hide it subconsciously. What is even more interesting is that it is not guns and ammunition that save people from fire and water, but a camera and several mobile phones. Here, the image of "ordinary hero" is highlighted and sublimated by the real texture, with the sublime of the great things of the ordinary torso. The theme is manifested.
depicts heroic groups with comparative strategies
In "The Journey Home", although Zhang Yi played Zong Dawei in many roles, the film tells the story of not a single hero, but a group of "ordinary heroes". In order to portray a vivid and vivid group of heroesFor example, the main creators of the film skillfully set up three groups of characters to compare, showing different characters' personalities, behaviors and key choices in the comparison strategy, so as to strengthen the audience's identity and arouse the audience's empathy.
First of all, the film sets up a contrasting relationship between the "old driver" Zong Dawei and the novice Cheng Lang to show the growth process of their characters. In the story, Zong Dawei is an experienced diplomat, and Cheng Lang is a budding diplomat. This setup has created constant contradictions between the two, from the initial "going to rescue the trapped compatriots" to the later stage. "Should I tell my compatriots Dillat that there is no rescue", these plots are all trying to show the difference between Zong Dawei and Cheng Lang, the former's worrying and the latter's sincerity have formed a sharp contrast. But the film does not have a clear bias, but allows the two to learn and grow from each other. In the end, Zong Dawei learned to be brave and decided to complete the "Russian Roulette Game" with Mutaf; Cheng Lang learned to "lie" and hide After realizing the truth of Dillat's lack of rescue, he admitted that he was Zong Dawei's boss, and finally used a camera without electricity to frighten Mutaf and other terrorists.
Secondly, the film reflects the individual characteristics and group commonality of the hero group through the comparison of characters. From the early stage of the film, Zong Dawei is irritable, arrogant, and egoistic, while Zhang Ning is warm, friendly, and selfless. In contrast, Zhang Ning is more in line with the image of a diplomat in the public imagination. But it is precisely because of Zhang Ning's sacrifice that Zong Dawei is forced to embark on a journey to rescue Bai Hua and the trapped compatriots, and it also lays the groundwork for his growth. Bai Hua is a woman with an extremely strong heart. She is well aware of her burden and mission. Even if she knows the sad news of her husband's death, she will not stop helping her compatriots. Her selfless dedication has become an important factor in promoting Zong Dawei's spiritual growth. , to help Zong Dawei complete the sublimation of his own thinking. The
film also sets up a comparative relationship between enemies, friends and us. The comparison not only highlights the heroic spirit of our diplomats who risk their lives to remain patriotic, dedicated and perform their duties, but also highlights the heroic spirit that supports this heroic spirit. strong motherland. "Homecoming" does not conceptually convey the mainstream values of patriotism, but instead internalizes family and country feelings in this contrasting relationship. Mutaf's insurgent seizure of power was the result of the instability of the regime in the Republic of Numia and Western colonialism. In such a war-torn country, bullets are commonplace, and the basic safety and livelihood of the people cannot be guaranteed. In the face of a country without security, all kindness, friendliness and dutifulness are like a joke. In contrast, in the face of war-torn countries, the Chinese, relying on the strong motherland behind them, have gone through hardships, but they are still able to return home happily. Chinese diplomats can confidently shout the slogan of "bring the compatriots home" in the face of terrorist forces.
Tell hero stories with intertextual narrative
Intertextual narrative refers to the citation, reference, suggestion, imitation and other narrative relationships of this text to other texts. Roland Barthes believes that any text is an intertext, "every text is a reorganization and quotation of existing words". As a new mainstream film also adapted from the real events of overseas evacuation, "The Journey Home" has reached an intertextual relationship with its predecessors "Wolf Warrior 2" and "Operation Red Sea" in terms of theme, narrative, audio-visual and other aspects. Through this intertextual narrative method, "The Journey Home" makes up for the shortcomings of "Wolf Warriors 2" and "Operation Red Sea" in terms of diversification of characters, and on the other hand inherits the public's borrowing from "Wolf Warriors 2". The national emotion and national memory constructed by the two, and "Operation Red Sea", make it easier to enter the dangerous situation of the Republic of Numia, which is in full swing. At the beginning of the film "Returning Thousands of Miles", the scene where Zong Dawei asked his compatriots to raise their national flags and passports is similar to the scene where Leng Feng raised his flag and went home at the end of "Wolf Warrior 2". National power. Secondly, the fierce shooting scenes and blasting scenes in the film have the shadow of "Operation Red Sea", which gives the audience a sense of thrill and arouses the audience's emotions. However, "The Journey Home" does not stop at the mere imitation of the previous work, but is constantly pursuing transcendence and innovation, such as being more coherent in narrative, and more changeable and metaphorical in audio-visual. presented in the scene withIn terms of character creation, because "The Homecoming" shows diplomats, there are no spectacular fighting scenes in the film, and it has a more real-life texture.
In addition, "Homecoming" also implanted more humanistic thinking, and through the mouth of Bai Hua's daughter Fatima, compared with the story "Sinbad the Voyager" in "One Thousand and One Nights", it showed The various ordeals experienced by the diplomats express the human value orientation that evil does not overwhelm the righteous, and that the good will triumph over the evil. "Truth, goodness and beauty" is the fire of hope that people all over the world pursue. The story of "Sinbad the Navigator" has turned "The Journey Home" into a humanistic fable. Under the guidance of the fire of hope, kind-hearted people surpass Fettered by national borders, they gather together to pursue the possibility of survival through hardships. At this time, the destiny of mankind is closely linked, and the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind naturally emerges.
In recent years, new mainstream movies have repeatedly become "popular" movies, activating the bleak movie market under the influence of the epidemic with extremely high box office returns. As a new mainstream movie, "Homecoming" has achieved good results during the National Day, and it has become another "head movie" that fits the atmosphere of the National Day archives, driving the audience's enthusiasm to go to the cinema for consumption. On the whole, the film is a rare good film. Its aesthetic characteristics of creating "ordinary heroes" with real texture, depicting group portraits of heroes with contrasting strategies, and telling hero stories with intertextual narrative have played a tribute to the diplomatic front "Ordinary Heroes". The symphony of the main theme of "Hero" has strengthened the Chinese audience's national identity and patriotism, and achieved a win-win situation for both commercial and social benefits. (Author: Zhang Jingwu, a researcher at the Fujian Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Communication, Fujian Normal University; Wang Wen, a postgraduate student in drama and film and television at the School of Communication, Fujian Normal University)
