text | Linghu Boguang
Han Han's " Flying Life 2" has become a favorite in the 2024 Spring Festival. Not only does it rank second at the box office, but the most important thing is that its reputation is also very good. Except for some viewers In addition to complaining about "no female characters", viewers who have watched it all think that the quality of this movie is more than one and a half stars better than the first one.
Han Han has directed 5 movies since his first movie "" in 2014. By 2024, he has directed 5 movies. The other four are " Riding the Wind and Waves ", "Four Seas" and "Flying Life 2". , judging from the ratings, "Flying Life 2" has reached a new height and is definitely the best work in Han Han's film career.
I won’t talk about other works. There is almost no controversy when writing about Han Han here. But now some people are saying that " 四海" is not that bad. This movie has such a low rating. In addition to using Liu Haocun, there is also the whole New Year "nothing" "Human Survival" has failed the audience. Is it a bad movie? Or is it underestimated?
My personal answer is that this movie is the same as "The Last Day", which is Han Han's most realistic work after making three movies. There is a lot to say, but it is too suspended and boring. Although there are occasionally good clips and funny jokes, the only better thing is that the film language and certain techniques are indeed more mature.
Han Han’s movie Three Treasures? For young people in small towns, jokes and racing are indispensable.
A creator's creative concept cannot be separated from the influence of his own environment. Han Han is famous as a writer and a racing driver. Early writers wrote novels in humorous language based on public reflections on education. How about the novel itself? I’m not going to comment here. After going and shooting the movie, if you observe, you will discover one thing.
Han Han has made five films. Except for two of them, " Flying Life ", the remaining three are inseparable from small town youth, dreams and funny jokes.
The two films "Flying Life" are racing movies, "Riding the Wind and Waves" is a small town youth film, and the remaining two can be considered small town youth road comedies. The young people in the small town left their hometown for some reasons and drove to certain places. Many things happened in the process, and they finally realized something.
The background of "Four Seas" should be the time period of the 2000s. After all, Han Han was born in the 1980s. This is the world in his eyes. Many people may have amnesia, but I remember Dengeki's internet-addicted boy, Foxconn's continuous jumping off buildings, etc. . The times have undergone tremendous changes, and many young people have become victims.
But young people at that time were still full of infinite hope for the future, but some people ran out of paths as they walked, and some people in our lives also left one by one. This movie cannot be said to be divorced from reality, but it still has a background. Today's young people's minds are full of entertainment and hedonism, and they have not experienced that era.
Bo Guangjun As a young man from a small town, I think some parts of "Four Seas" are quite real. I see many reflections of people around me when I was a child. They didn't go to school well. When they grew up, they left their hometown and couldn't integrate. Big city. The one that has been criticized a lot does not include breakfast. In fact, some people don’t even dare to use toiletries when they stay in a hotel worth tens of yuan for the first time, for fear of being charged extra.
Although it seems magical, many young people at that time may have been more miserable. After all, no one "sleeps in Internet cafes" now.
and Huang Xiaoming 's character, he dressed like a dog when he returned to his hometown. When I went to Guangzhou to find him, I actually found him mopping dust at the Canton Tower. I have seen a lot of them in real life. It's just that this group of people is not the main audience of the film market. Especially when I go home for the Chinese New Year recently, I often hear about the developments of people I haven’t seen in more than ten years.
If you have this experience, you will find that there are still attempts at down-to-earth expressions in some parts of the movie. At this time, someone will definitely jump out and say, I am also a young man in a small town and have had the same experience, but I don’t think which parts of this movie express it well or can empathize with it.
This is the problem with this movie. It is Han Han's episodic and joke-like realism.
2 years have passed. Is Han Han's "Four Seas" a bad movie? Yes, it is not
Speaking of Han Han's current half life, this must be inseparable from another person Guo Jingming . The experience, environment, and performance of these two Chinese star writers born in the 1980s after they entered the cultural industry are quite interesting.
Han Han is from Shanghai. He comes from a very good family. He was considered middle class at that time. When he was a child, he never experienced the hardships of young people in small towns. At the same time, he became famous at a young age and was famous for his responsive education. Guo Jingming is from Sichuan. His mother is a local bank worker and his father works in a state-owned enterprise. This person's background is not bad, and he is a working-class person with a higher standard, but he cannot compare to Han Han in Shanghai. He is a real young man from a small town.
The most interesting thing is that the two people have completely opposite trends in becoming famous at a young age. Han Han follows the path of inspirational dreams for young people in small towns. In addition to various funny jokes, his works also have some in-depth expressions. Guo Jingming's "Little Times" follows the route of prosperity and wealth in big cities. Even if he writes other works, no matter how fantasy, except for copying Japan, he will always follow the route of luxury.
This can also be seen from the two's first movies. Needless to say, Guo Jingming's "Little Times", Han Han's "Unexpectedly" is a small town youth road movie, the characters make funny jokes and pursue some life principles, but The things the characters do and their final insights are always suspended and ungrounded, which is a false expression of life.
If you have watched "The End of Time", you should still remember that Jia Zhangke made a cameo in this movie.
Jia Zhangke is a representative of the sixth generation of realist film directors in China. Jia Zhangke was born in 1970. His first film "Xiao Wu" was in 1998. Many of the subsequent films were made in China in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Rapid urbanization, great changes in the times, rapid changes in rural areas, and the embarrassing situation of those marginalized people.
Although there is controversy on the Internet about Jia Zhangke's movies being "not filmed well and given to foreign film festivals", but no matter what. You can't deny that the marginal characters in Jia Zhangke's movies are not down to earth and real. They are not the changes in China at that time and the pain of all living beings.
The problem with "Four Seas" as a movie is that it is all caused by "Han Han". In fact, every actor's acting skills are not bad, and they have performed very well within the scope of their roles. The reason why some people think that a certain character is too superficial and has too simple motives and thinking is because that is what Han Han wants to portray. a character.
In other words, Han Han didn't understand real small town youth at all. He just saw too many stories and news about small town youth in that era, and then made guesses. In the end, he felt funny and naive when trying to be artistic, or awkward. It has a sense of suspension, so most viewers don't buy it.
Looking at it today, the biggest problem of "Four Seas" is really not Liu Haocun
This situation is the same in terms of plot design and logic. Watching this movie is really like reading a graphic version of Han Han's novel. The world inside is very vivid and splendid, but also very realistic and cruel. An "unwanted" young man from a small town falls in love with a simple girl but doesn't know how to love.
Then, due to various mistakes and fate, the two were forced to jump out of their comfort zones and came to the cruel outside world. In the end, they were severely taught by reality because of their innocence and persistence. The black humor in it, the pretentiousness and then slap in the face, the character's behavior and speech, the communication and interaction between people, etc. all have a strong "Han" flavor.
But if you delve into the details and logical motives, simple Chinese audiences will find it unreasonable.
For example, Liu Haoran Why does the character of Liu Haoran strongly empathize with the character of Liu Haocun? The loan has nothing to do with him, and he does not have much income. Just because his father has a second family, does he have empathy with Liu Haocun? Family ties are a bit untenable, and if it is love, the process of getting along between the two is not thrilling.
is the kind of two young people who are high on dopamine and want to be together no matter what they encounter, life or death. If you shoot it that way, it may be ridiculous, but you will be able to figure it out. But Liu Haoran and Liu Haocun in "Four Seas" have a fictional small-town artistic youth style in an art film.
Everything happens naturally and naturally, and loving each other does not mean that they are inseparable. They are quite literary and artistic.
But if you think about it carefully, it is based on realism. In fact, it is a literary and artistic love story for young people in this context. In last year's " The Long Season ", Silence and the poet Wang Yang were mysteriously similar, but the TV series used a lot of them. The story is clearly explained, and the pair of desperate mandarin ducks are portrayed in a poignant and moving way.
But the focus of this movie is not on the romantic love of the young couple - the real pain. The father-son relationship with Shen Teng in the past, looking back, apart from using Shen Teng to make money, it has no effect on the narrative and logical support of the film. I think the impact of urban reality in the later part is slightly better. But when I think about the kind of "suspended" literature and art that owes a loan to support real emotions, I feel that it is ridiculous.
If you watch it as an ordinary movie, it is indeed just passable. I would say that "Four Seas" would be a good work if it were written into a book, but it is really not that good when made into a movie. There are many things that leave room for imagination in reading, but when watching a movie, you have to look at the aura of the actors and the language of the camera. There's obviously a lot that the movie didn't show.
In addition, Han Han's language in the camera is not good enough, which makes you feel that he is stream of consciousness but you don't know what he wants to say. The main character dies for no reason. Coupled with the Chinese New Year and the heroine's dirty information, the reputation is completely ruined. .
41 years old, "Flying Life 2" proves that Han Han should stop filming your "small town youth"
The same problem also exists in "We Will Never Die", but the actors in "We Will Never Die" have more temperament, Many of the contents are classic passages in his books. Although the plot is also suspended without any edge, we feel that it is more stable. And since it was his first movie at the time, the audience was really tolerant.
But if you read Han Han's books, you will find no surprises. Currently, the best Han Han movies are "Riding the Wind and Waves" and "Flying 2". The narrative structure of the former is borrowed from the Hong Kong film "The New Brothers", which is thin and steady. However, the young people in the small town said that the jokes are still there, but the pursuit of life needs to be more stable. After all, many people thought that hoarding goods would lead to prosperity in the future. As a result, the times have given people a slap.
Therefore, the original IP of "Flying Life 2" is full of movie language, the narrative rhythm of the comedy part and the comedy part are smooth, the racing is passionate and professional, and his true young genius's mid-life crisis counterattack is also buried. How realistic is this, So this movie is the best.
Han Han is 41 years old, and he doesn’t understand the two generations of small-town youth born in the 1970s and 1980s. Why not shoot the poetry of young people in small towns and distant places? Wouldn't it be better to just shoot racing cars? That also opens up a new track for Chinese films, doesn’t it?
