Guo Jingming won, this show is dead

​​Although in recent years there has always been a "Lian Po and old" controversy over the fifth-generation director represented by Chen Kaige, it must be admitted objectively that there is indeed a curve in the profession of director. As de Palma said in his documentary, the golden age of as a director is from 30 to 50 years old. No matter what the later filming, everyone always cares about the works of that period. But there is a famous saying of Truffaut , The most mediocre work of a good director is better than the best work of a mediocre director.

Even in the show, "Sadness Upstream" directed by Chen Kaige is his most mediocre creation, and "The Legend of the Demon Cat" directed by Guo Jingming is the pinnacle of his directorial career. This is only a high mountain and low point in their personal creation history. Combining the two together, Chen Kaige is always the winner. First of all,

had to talk about some objective factors. There is a great irrationality in this link set by the program group. The directors of draw lots to shoot each other's works, provided that there are works . This work is not about "quality" but "quantity." Chen Kaige and Li Shaohong have been shooting for more than 30 years and have accumulated a large number of works. Although Zhao Wei currently has only one director's work in theaters, she still has many leading roles in the second place. Where is Guo Jingming? The real director's work is "Grand Trail" and "Little Times" series . "Grand Trail" is a live-action animation capture film, which is no longer suitable for this stage in form. Although there are four "Little Times", in a strict sense, it can only be counted as one work. You can't have four rounds of this part, and let the other three directors shoot from the first to the fourth, right? The limitation of the text selection naturally has a great influence on the final works presented. In such a limited choice, Chen Kaige singled out Guo Jingming's original work and participated in the screenwriter "Sadness Against the River" . This movie segment was presented once in the first episode of the show, and it was also the first hot search by Guo Jingming in "Actors Please Take Your Place". Guo Jingming is basically the "traffic charge" of the show. His words and deeds, criticisms or praises will be amplified on the Internet.

Of course, this is also based on his personal lack of self-confidence. This lack of confidence does not come from his lack of success. On the contrary, he is too successful as a cultural businessman, but once he wants to be labeled as "art", he will inevitably be a little timid. Many netizens even ridiculed him with the technical terminology because he had been studying the complete works of film books published by Hou Lang. also shows his inferiority in Guo Jingming's version of "The Legend of the Demon Cat".

Chen Kaige's work list provides a large selection of texts. "The Legend of the Demon Cat" is Chen Kaige's last feature film. It is relatively new, that is, it does not have such a deep-rooted classic status. When "The Legend of the Demon Cat" was released, the comments were more two-level , and the whole story is also very hierarchical, which means that Chen Kaige has a lot of things hidden in the movie, and a little bit of excavation is enough to support the text of an extra-fan work. Of course, there may be another reason why Guo Jingming chose "The Legend of the Demon Cat". He is currently directing "Onmyoji" adapted from the original work of Dream Pillow Tapir, and he has adapted Chen Kaige's other movie of the same type "The Promise" into a novel. He is more familiar with this. The expression of a type of text. A story with a magical nature of , first of all, is to create a sense of space . Guo Jingming’s "The Legend of the Demon Cat" has the most space among the four competition works and the most frequent space switching. From the courtyard in childhood to the first time I saw Yang Yuhuan’s Banquet of Bliss, the broken building in Maweiyi and the tomb of Yang Yuhuan, the broken building was divided into inside and outside.The hall and tomb are also designed in two ways: the interior of the cave and the space of the coffin.

also includes some spaces that have not been mentioned explicitly, such as the room where Dan Long told Bai Long that "An Lushan has rebelled." But these spaces are almost all copied from the movies, without originality. There is room for , and there is room for switching. Guo Jingming chose a very basic switching method with similar elements transitioning. appears in the same line in different time and space, similar sceneries and character actions. At first glance,

seems to have used a lot of editing skills. In fact, he is using such a simple way to confuse the thinness of the text, and use space switching to create an illusion of rich narrative levels. Guo Jingming is also more formulaic in the design of lens language. Most of the two-person dialogue shots of were taken according to the “Hollywood three-shot method” , that is, one side of the shoulder mid-range shot, and then the double mid-range shot.

​​Of course, this is a performance competition program, not a director's level competition, but Guo Jingming, as a director, did not maximize the actor's advantage through the lens. In one of the programs, Guo Jingming once criticized that the performances in the section of "Deep Love and Rain" were all treated with "Ming lines", and the actors said what they thought in their hearts, without any introvertedness. And his "The Legend of the Demon Cat" happened to be all handled in this way, and the emotions were always a big deal, especially when Yang Yuhuan drank the potion to bid farewell.

Chen Kaige said when he directed "The Legend of the Demon Cat", "the darkest night, the brightest light, this brightest light is Yang Yuhuan" . He believes that this role cannot be too real, the quieter the more powerful. Guo Jingming's version can see Yang Yuhuan's affection, perseverance, and pain, but he lacks strength. The logical basis of performance comes from the director’s cognition of the text. Guo Jingming interpreted his adaptation logic and said that there is a very obvious plot line, "Danlong sacrificed for Bailong, Bailong sacrificed for Yang Yuhuan, Yang Yuhuan loves the emperor, and the emperor loves Jiangshan", in such a single line In the plot promotion of , completely turns a grand and moving story into an ancient costume romance network novel . The history of

in Chen Kaige's "The Legend of the Demon Cat" is a grand illusion. He yearns for the beauty of the sweet car, and finally finds that there is no sweet car and no beauty. That kind of sorrow for the big era has become the love and hatred of the small era here. Chen Kaige is a very literary director, and he is doomed to be incomprehensible when he tries to express deeper thoughts.

You may find that he rarely directs modern-themed stories, and basically has a sense of age, probably only "Search", "With You", "Kill Me Gentle", "Grand Parade" four feature films , And the two short films "The Depth of a Hundred Flowers" and "Day Meteor" . Relatively speaking, the past era can be better made into a shell, and he fills his thoughts inside. This time he chose "Sadness Goes Against the River". Among the four competition works, this is the only one that has not changed the narrative space. It is in a classroom from beginning to end.

In such a single space, Chen Kaige did not ignore the importance of space. He used the limitation of space to create the level of space. The most eye-catching thing about is the desks set up as T-stages, extending from the classroom to the balcony, and you can fly over the railings all the way. In a sparse and ordinary classroom, this is a specialized existence. At the same time, the runway is also an interpretable symbolic element. The heroine Yi Yao is the first to appear on the story at the beginning, representing her position as the absolute number one protagonist. It also symbolizes that her suicide has a certain performance character, which is different from what she later did. What she said echoed brilliantly in front of people who hate her. As the story progressed, the hidden part of the history was revealed in the dialogue, and two male characters also walked onto the runway one by one. It was their position in the story that was revealed to complete the performance together . The

runway is also a division of the narrative. When they stand on it, the characters are extremely emotional and excited. And walking off the runway is also a process of emotional transformation, gradually returning to calm. The change of light also reminds the audience of the changes in the mood of the actors and the direction of the story, from the dazzling warm color before the sunset, to the cool and soothing after Yi Yao sits down. Although has no essential changes in space, it uses the segmentation of the core scene and the external expression of the passage of time to make a narrative space transformation within the space..

Chen Kaige also demonstrated a very solid lens language skills. When Gu Senxi jumped on the runway and confessed to Qi Mingyi behind Yi Yao, the three lined up in a straight line. Gu Senxi was the foreground, Qi Ming was the background, and Yi Yao In the middle, she once again established her identity as the leading protagonist, and at the same time, it also represented the narrative function of the boys before and after the lines for the middle protagonist. After Yi Yao stepped off the T stage, he sat on a chair randomly placed in the classroom, Gu Senxi leaned on the T stage with his back, Qi Ming was in the other corner of the window, and the three formed a triangular composition. People with poor math scores know that triangles are the most stable shape, and also has such a visual effect when characters form triangles in the lens.

In fact, everything is Chen Kaige's best performance technique, freehand in realistic stories. uses his own literati heritage to slowly decompose the heavy reality and reorganize it in an almost poetic way. He does not seek direct attack from the soul, but hopes to slowly penetrate. "Actors please take their place" is a performance competition variety show, but we all know that a film and television work, directing, editing, acting and other links are coordinated. It also means that a work that is recognized by the public is bound to be inseparable from the unified performance of various departments, and individual emphasis on any one of them will cause an imbalance. Guo Jingming's victory is only because he used the technique of quantitative sales. Most commercial films were shot in this way, and he did the same. However, Chen Kaige's high score is that he is not shooting for the show's effects, for winning or losing, for catering to the psychology of variety show audiences, is really as a director, shooting for his beliefs.