Copywriting | Yi Zhi Zhi Book
Editor | Jiujiang Zi
The Spring Festival and Valentine's Day movie market in 2024 can be described in one word -
"Fighting of gods".
Jia Ling lost 100 pounds to make a movie, and it has its own publicity hot spots. " is hot and hot " also shows the female director's delicate control over the subject matter. It has unparalleled box office and reputation. It is truly a masterpiece. It’s time to convince the audience.
On the other side, " Flying Life 2" by Shen Teng is also very competitive. The eternal theme of racing and love can make people excited every time.
The King of Bayinbulak was deeply moved.
In fact, just because these two comedy giants took action, no one dared to take over easily. I never expected that Zhang Yimou would actually want to gamble with comedy movies during this period!
" Article 20 " is full of laughs, and the overall quality is not inferior to the above two movies.
Unfortunately, the box office results are not ideal. So far, the box office has only exceeded 1 billion, which is not as high as the box office of the cartoon "Bear Infested: Reverse Time and Space".
But the audience all understands that measuring the quality of a movie is not just about the box office.
In my opinion, the focus of Zhang Yimou's new work lies in the reality of its story. Compared with the fat-haired and pink-faced characters in some movies who pretend to be poor, this movie truly captures the life of the "poor".
01
"Poor" to the core
In the eyes of the audience, the image of "poor" is a rarity in domestic film and television dramas.
Because few people can grasp the true essence of the word "poor", but Zhang Yimou did it.
Take the Hao Xiuping family in the film as an example. Their poverty is reflected in all aspects of life.
First of all - food, clothing, housing and transportation.
Hao Xiuping’s family is considered the poorest in the countryside today.
There are two deaf-mute people in the family. The husband has no education and can only do some hard work.
But even so, he still has to borrow money to treat his children, drain his family wealth, and suffer humiliation.
So they can only live in the simplest brick houses. The farm tools and sundries in the yard are full of traces of time, which is in sharp contrast with the surrounding homes.
Especially the bullies behind them deliberately retaliated, making the already dilapidated home even more miserable.
Hao Xiuping and her daughter, who were on the road to escape, had been wearing the two shabby clothes. There were some stains on them that could not even be washed off, and even their hair was messy.
Anyone who takes one look at this orphan and widowed mother will think that she is a person with roots in the grassroots.
However, the great thing about Zhang Yimou is that the key to him embodying the "poor people" is to photograph the difficult plight of these poor people in the face of the law.
The real "poor people" are not only poor in life, but also limited in their thinking.
That’s why Hao Xiuping’s husband took out a loan shark to treat his daughter’s illness, instead of seeking other means of relief.
may not know, or perhaps no one can help them.
Long-term bullying also made them afraid to call the police. Wang Yongqiang could only watch his wife being raped and tied up at the door like a dog by the bully.
Does Hao Xiuping really want to jump off the building? No, no mother is willing to leave her daughter to die.
She just had no choice, partly because the bullies used their children to force her to change her confession.
On the other hand, in Hao Xiuping's impression, the principle of one life for another is deeply rooted.
Otherwise, the bullies, as the perpetrators, will not feel that they are the rightful party.
Hao Xiuping may have felt that her man was in a dead end. Only if she lost her life could the case start from scratch and Wang Yongqiang be cleared.
Sometimes, in the eyes of the poor people at the bottom, the law is the "butcher's knife" that allows those bad people to run rampant.
Pay back debts and kill people to pay for their lives.
Bullies use legal clauses, divorce agreements, and IOUs as tools to abuse these poor people unscrupulously. How sad is it?
But for a long time, this was the most realistic and helpless place.
Except for Hao Xiuping, the powerless bus driver was convicted of intentional injury because of his bravery and was imprisoned for three years. After he was released, he wanted to appeal but had no way out.
Even prosecutor Han Ming's son accidentally injured someone because he was trying to stop bullying at school. He also faced being put in the police and put on the record.
"The law is to make the cost of crime for bad people higher, not to make the cost of good people higher."
Many people feel that the final slogan of the film has a sense of forced sensationalism and value.
But in fact, this line needs to be carefully read, because every sentence shouts out the aspirations of the people at the bottom.
is poor, not sad.
The sad thing is that it is so poor that there is no way to redress grievances, it is so poor that it can be bullied, and it is so poor that it has no spine.
After watching "Article 20" directed by Zhang Yimou, I finally understood what a real poor person should look like.
02
Poor people, don’t make random movies
In fact, it is very simple for domestic film and television dramas in the past two years to gain popularity, they just need to be down-to-earth enough.
This also allowed some directors to find the traffic password, and even felt that they could just shoot poor people.
For example, in "Fearless", the heroine Luo Yingzi played by Reyza, her husband owed tens of millions to the bank, and the house was mortgaged.
But it was as if everything had happened before. I had 6 million in cash, rented a spacious and bright house with a nanny, and even disliked the smell of the kitchen.
If you have this condition, don't cry about being poor. Real poor people will burst into tears with envy.
There is also the heroine in "Everything Comes True", whose salary is 3,000 yuan a month, and she can't even afford a new mobile phone.
At first glance, they look really poor, but people live in courtyards worth hundreds of millions in Beijing. They dress up brightly every day, have oily hair and powdered faces, and those who don’t know better think they are rich ladies! Director
, do you think it’s funny?
There are also characters who carry designer bags, live in villas, and drive luxury cars, which makes the audience almost think that poor people have this standard, and that they are not even as good as poor people.
03
Conclusion
I beg the directors of domestic film and television dramas to open their eyes and see the daily life of ordinary people, and learn from director Zhang Yimou how to photograph poor people.
"Article 20" actually does not deliberately emphasize how poor the characters are, but the difficult life of the people at the bottom can still be seen from details such as obedience and scenes.
What's more important is that the movie vividly presents the situation where ordinary people have no way to redress their grievances under the powerful, making people feel a lot of bitterness and helplessness while laughing.
Fortunately, the final outcome is good. The law is in a process of continuous development and progress, and can protect the rights and interests of the people in the most fair and just way.
Legal principles are also inseparable from human feelings, and warm laws are what everyone aspires to.
"Article 20" is currently in theaters. This movie has laughs, tears, and depth, and is worth a movie ticket from the audience.
So what other aspects of this movie do you think touched you?
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