Welcome to the city of movies.
Yes, every June, we can confidently say that Shanghai has become a movie city.
June in Shanghai belongs to the Shanghai International Film Festival.
Walking out of the brand-new Shanghai Cinema City and walking to the streets full of sycamore trees, you may accidentally meet a great director while waiting for a red light, or you may see a certain director in a small roadside noodle shop. The main character in the movie. The people on the screen jump out of reality, and this is your magic moment.
If the two hours of a movie can allow us to experience different lives, then the ten days of the Shanghai International Film Festival are undoubtedly like a kaleidoscope, allowing us to enter thousands of hearty lives. Each of us has become the protagonist of "Red Pepper", pushing open the door of a movie and walking into the door of another world.
Coincidentally, this year we will indeed be able to see Satoshi Kon's two masterpieces "Paprika" and "Mima's House" on the big screen at the Shanghai International Film Festival. I don't know, have you grabbed the tickets?
It doesn’t matter if you can’t get a ticket, just come to Shanghai! Perhaps, by randomly walking into a theater, you can get the movie of your life and an instant surprise.
After all, this is a city of movies.
Whether you are in love with popular movies or prefer to explore niche and unpopular treasures, you can always find something you like in the dazzling film list and colorful screening units.
In a movie city, what you can do is not only watch movies, but also immerse yourself in a movie.
In the post-screening communication session, you can raise your hand to ask questions, exchange your understanding of the work with the creators, and answer your own doubts. You can also enter the film school and listen to master classes given by creators. This year, you will see Chen Yingxiong, Shunji Iwai, Zhao Deyin, Bill Nichols... these all allow us to extend the life of the movie.
Of course, what I want to tell you today is another way to open the Shanghai International Film Festival, that is, pay attention to the main competition unit of the Golden Goblet Award.
Because, you will find that the films that win the Golden Goblet Award every year are really quite good.
After the Golden Goblet Awards ceremony last night, you can still see the re-screening of some award-winning works at Shanghai Cinemas tonight. Therefore, it is also a very good opportunity to find out and fill in the gaps.
won the best picture and best actress for the Kazakh film " divorce ".
Perhaps for most people, Kazakhstani movies are relatively unfamiliar. The social background chosen by "Divorce" will make you feel even stranger. The story took place in Kazakhstan in 1920.
The story has a certain irony from the beginning: the husband plays the role of a woman in the drama, which seems to be a "progressive" move, but is considered "low-level" by the wife, and a huge quarrel breaks out between the two.
In anger and misunderstanding, the husband accidentally said "divorce". According to local religious customs, as long as the husband says "divorce" to his wife three times, it means divorce. Faced with the new era of "liberating women" trends, the wife did have the idea of divorcing.
However, after leaving her husband, she could not get rid of the shackles of her fate at the bottom. In the end, "divorce" is not an escape, but a tragic exile.
The film has strong Kazakhstan characteristics. In the unique grasslands, tents and nomadic life, we traveled through time and returned to Kazakhstan a hundred years ago, and also witnessed the suffering of the people at the bottom. The little girl's three prayers, the wife's insensitivity in family life...these details can be said to be a stroke of genius.
From a more macro perspective, you can also feel the ambition of the creator. There are many metaphors in the story. Gender, society, religion, politics... the film has a strong stage drama style, and there is also a design of a play within a play.
The story switches between the stage and reality, and between times of social turmoil and change.Politics is a performance, religion is a performance. It seems like a simple family drama, and the word "divorce" seems to be light and airy, but it actually has very complex multiple metaphors.
In the end, there is a huge conflict between the small people pursuing awakening and resistance and the big era that is ups and downs in the contradictory changes. Under what circumstances does the pursuit of freedom turn into absurdity and lies? And how the ignorance and absurdity of the times are resolved in silence. What remains at the end of the film is also contradiction, silence and reflection. The finish is long.
won the Grand Jury Prize for the Argentinian film "Adults".
What this movie allows us to see is also an Argentinian film expression: the director said that he "deliberately abandoned strong dramatic conflicts and used more peaceful and calm expressions." The texture of
's film is plain and everyday enough. It uses handheld photography to create a pseudo-documentary feel, making the lens language more closely follow the life of a 14-year-old boy.
This 14-year-old boy entered the adult world in a not-so-good way: at first, he tried to find out the truth out of concern for his father; but as the truth unfolded Unexpectedly, he discovered that his father was the one who escaped and made the mistake. In the end, it was he who took on adult responsibilities and faced and solved problems on his father's behalf.
At that moment, the 14-year-old boy recognized the falsehoods and lies of the adult world, but at the same time he also realized that the first step to growing up is to face life and take responsibility. This moment of landing is portrayed in a very sincere and touching way.
The winner of the Best Director award was bakur bakuradz, the director of "Snow in the Yard".
, a Russian director who was born in Georgia, not only wrote and directed this film, but even starred in it, and also incorporated his personal experience into it.
Therefore, the real moving part of the film lies in its privacy: it tells the story of "people", the director's own situation, social relations, and his creative dilemma. It is both record and plot, and it can even be said that, to a certain extent, it has a certain degree of "anti-fiction".
Having written this, I believe you have also felt it. If you like to watch new films and are interested in new trends in global films, the Golden Goblet Award Main Competition will be a good starting point. The 14 films shortlisted by
use different perspectives to observe the world, and their creations span regions and genders to depict different film languages and realms of life. It is more diverse, richer and more inclusive than you imagine.
Of course, the Chinese films shortlisted for the Golden Goblet Award are also the highlight.
And I can only tell you that, again, the film is very strong. Tickets are also hard to grab.
If you can be the first audience of these movies in the world, I would like to give you a thumbs up for your luck.
" Hedgehog " directed by Gu Changwei won the best screenplay.
There are many reasons for looking forward to this movie. It is directed by Gu Changwei and adapted from Zheng Zhi's original work "The Immortal Disease", starring Ge You, Wang Junkai... But I didn't expect that after watching the movie, it would exceed expectations.
may even think that this is director Gu Changwei's best work after " Peacock " and " Beginning of Spring ". It restores the spirit of the original work and has a unique, elegy-like romance of the times.
The film focuses on a very existential proposition. Two generations want to pursue individual freedom and value, but they are trapped internally and externally in reality and the times.
Under Ge You's acting skills that are close to being a god, you will see that Wang Zhantuan is trapped by life, family, and time. His enemy is not a specific person, but a gray era. . The mediocre daily life tried to swallow him up, and the family photos could not tolerate a person with a treason.
also fully understands why this film won the Best Screenplay Award. The text of the film is full of literature, including poetry, chess, the sea, hedgehogs, disease... rich and polysemous metaphors that cleverly connect the entire film.The relationship between Wang Zhantuan and Zhou Zheng has formed a neat intertext.
It cleverly corresponds to the relationship between ideal and reality, and also more subtly reflects the reality of different times. In the changing times, ideals and reality will find different outlets. The tragedy of the Wang Group is the tragedy of the times. As time rushed to the sea, Zhou Zheng finally inherited his ambition and took a boat to break the situation.
More importantly, although this film is about the past, it also accurately captures contemporary expressions. We all feel the "boring" and "stifling" in real life. Rather than suffer in silence, let's go crazy together. Since no one wants to be stuck and become a dead child, then run away and escape together.
Huang Xiaoming won the Best Actor for "Sunshine Club".
His performance in this movie is subversive. The actor he plays, Wu You, is a man who has passed his forties, but his IQ and cognitive level are still at the level of a child.
After watching the movie, I believe you will also be deeply impressed by his melon-skinned head, red tie, and red schoolbag. The middle-aged man's bloated body was squeezed into a suit that looked like a student uniform. The body is heavy, but the soul is light.
In order to better express the living conditions of special groups, Huang Xiaoming went to the special group base in Hangzhou for a month of on-the-spot experience. He also made many suggestions for the character's appearance: a hollow head, added spots on the face, flush eyebrows, and obviously uneven teeth. During his interactions with special groups of people, Huang Xiaoming discovered that they like to eat sweet things, so he gained 30 pounds during filming.
The good news is: at the award ceremony, Brother Xiaoming was handsome again.
Although Wu You has the mind of a child, he also has his own "midlife crisis". His family is about to fall apart. My mother lived an elegant and decent life, but suddenly became seriously ill. My brother is a doctor and an elite, but he is helpless in the face of death.
What exactly is the antidote to life? In a Chinese-style "Forrest Gump" story, every smart person lives a helpless reality, and Wu You also tries to reconstruct his own reality. He is ignorant, innocent, and his dull sense and the collapse of reality create great dramatic tension. Huang Xiaoming presented this complex yet simple character appropriately.
"A Man and a Woman" directed by Guan Hu won the best photography.
The film tells the story of a chance encounter and also restores our common memory of the times. A man and a woman were in transit in Hong Kong at the same time and stayed in the same hotel while waiting to enter the mainland. Separated by a wall, they were forced to watch each other's huge anxiety about life and try to find a way out.
At least half of the story takes place in a hotel room. The confined space undoubtedly increases the difficulty of photography. But from another perspective, it also greatly enhances the fun of photography. The
camera completely captured that subtle temperament: a hotel, two rooms, separated by a wall to create exquisite scene management, and cleverly used balconies, patios, streets and other spaces as condiments for dinner, fish fillet porridge pepper in it.
In the first half, the environment is compressed little by little, pushing them towards each other, and the ambiguity is just right. In the second half, the pattern becomes larger and the space becomes larger. From a very macro perspective, it overlooks the upward recovery of a city. The helplessness of middle-aged people returning to daily life, and the vitality of the times rushing forward across the pain, together constitute the negative and positive sides of life, and also determine the choices made by the protagonist.
I believe that many people are also looking forward to "The Stars Are Waiting for Us" directed by Zhang Dalei. In this film, he continues to explore his own image style, his fascination with nostalgic cultural symbols, and the display of unfamiliar geographical spaces. As the pickup truck travels deeper into the desert, everything becomes a poem of desolation. No search for answers, no pursuit of purpose.
In addition to the Golden Goblet Award, there is another unit that we pay attention to every year, which is the Asian Newcomer Award.
Newcomers, as the name suggests, the works shortlisted for this unit may not be that mature, but what is worthy of attention is their potential, that unpolished light.
For example, this year's best film "This Friday's Playground" was called "the 'pearl' that the judges found after going through entanglements and disputes" by the chairman of the jury, Cao Baoping.
This film uses the life of a nurse, Song Qian, as a clue, focusing on women, family, psychology, growth, etc., very diverse topics.
The winner of the Best Director award was Abhilash Sharma, the director of the Indian film "In the Name of Fire".
This film has been evaluated as "a newcomer's work with the appearance of a master". The film tells the desperate life of a poor Indian couple in a remote mountain village.
In the black and white images of the entire film, the director used sophisticated skills to reconstruct the reality and surreality of the suffering in the third world. The lens language and narrative style are both surprising.
So, here is the complete list of winners, you can also pay attention to it.
The list of winners of the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival Golden Goblet Award
Best feature film
"Divorce" (Kazakhstan)
Director: Daniyar Salamat
the divorce (kazakhstan) directed by daniyar Salamat
Jury Grand Prix
"Adult" (Argentina)
Director: Mariano Gonzalez
adult (argentina) directed by mariano gonzalez
Best DirectorBaku Bacuradze, "In the Courtyard" Snow" (Georgia/Russia)
bakur bakuradze for snowflakes in my yard
(georgia/russia)
best actorbest actor
黄晓明, "Sunshine Club" (China)
Director: Wei Shujun
huang xiaoming in don't worry, be happy ( china) directed by wei shujun
best actressbest actress
Omarova Amira in the divorce (Kazakhstan)
Director: Daniyar Salamat
omarova amira in the divorce (kazakhstan) directed by daniyar salamat
best screenplaybest screenplay
Zheng Zhi/Guo Fangfang/Gu Changwei, "The Hedgehog" (China)
Director: Gu Changwei
zheng zhi/guo fangfang/gu changwei for the hedgehog (china) directed by gu changwei
best cinematography
Zhang Ying, "A Man and a Woman" (Mainland China/Hong Kong, China)
Director: Guan Hu
zhang ying for a man and a woman (chinese mainland / hongkong, china) directed by guan hu
Artistic Contribution Awardoutstanding artistic achievement
"Scavengers" (Iran)
Director: Ahmed Bahrami
the wasteman (iran) directed by ahmad bahrami
best documentary film
"Aunt Hu's Garden" (China)
Director: Pan Zhiqi
ms. hu's garden (china) directed by pan zhiqi
best animated filmbest animation film
"Your Color" (Japan)
Director: Naoko Yamada
the colors within (japan) directed by naoko yamada
best live action short best live action short film
"Border Incident" (Israel)
Director: Shira Geffen
the event horizon (israel) directed by shira geffen
best animated short film
"Kill the Horse" (China)
Director: Guo Xiaoruo
kill the horse (china) directed by guo xiaoruo
Except this year The film looks good, but I actually feel that the filming schedule is more reasonable and the rush to the scene is more comfortable.
This session will screen a series of films and films with the same elements together. For example, I watched most of Masumura Yasuzo's films in one day at ume. Other series of films also have such thoughtful arrangements.So, if you are like me and have a list addiction and a love of watching movies, you may even feel like you are camping in a theater.
In any case, Shanghai is indeed a movie city to me.
In the first few years, we all gathered in Shanghai Cinemas and Majestic Theater, a few old theaters. After watching the movie, we would have late-night snacks nearby, play skewers, and chat with friends about the good movies we watched today.
Later, more and more theaters joined. Tianshan Cinema can borrow blankets and Heping Movie Store can store luggage. Xintiandi near Ume has a lot of delicious food... Each cinema, and the stories inside and outside the screen, jointly evoke It reminds me of Shanghai. The pleasure of watching a movie has never been just about the movie itself, but also the encounters, encounters, and a unique exploration and journey.
So, this year’s Shanghai story ends here for the time being.
is a little reluctant to leave, but it doesn’t matter, see you next year!
