Movie "Shadow": Once there is "desire", naturally "hope"

At the end of the 20th century, when Jin Yong wrote a script for the Great Wall Film Company, he once replied to a reporter who thought that his writing was too imagery-"most of the people who watch movies are "fear of the common ears." The reason is that it is full of imagery. Labeled works are often full of controversy, but it is undeniable that it is also in this type of work that new aesthetic highlights may be born. In 2018, the near black and white film "directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Deng Chao and Sun Li, etc. "Shadow" is the leader of this type of work. Its unique color processing, character design, or control of the tone of the whole film fully demonstrates the creator's high level of traditional and personalized image labels. Aesthetic and high interpretation ability. The full screen design of

"Shadow" has more than 70% of the lenses reduced the color to only black, white and gray. In the processing of brightness changes, the grayscale is also increased from the 128 level used in ordinary movies to About 256 levels, the perfect reduction power produced under this high contrast naturally brings richer gray levels to the picture. Because of the surface, the picture effect of "Shadow" presents a kind of "black but not dark, white but not "Light" texture-such as the skin color of the characters in the film. From an optical and physical perspective, the skin color of all the characters in the film is actually really gray, but because of this ingenious processing, the viewer’s naked eye will present a "skin-like color" "Illusion" is full of real life. Such a technique is rare in recent years. Therefore, "Shadow" does not have the distortion of the facial texture of traditional black and white characters, and does not have the weakness of imaging paleness. This kind of vitality "gray" also coincides with the title of the film. And the theme becomes the personalized image label of the work one by one. The complex expression of "black and white" and more grayscale is used instead of the simple symbol of "black or white", which shows the examination of the level of human nature. attitude.

In addition, the personalized use of the image label of "Shadow" is also reflected in the character design. The most typical examples are the two protagonists played by Deng Chaofen: the weak body "Ziyu" and the shadow "Jingzhou" ".

The two have the same appearance, but one is feminine and unjust, the other is strong and affectionate; the other is weak and strong, and the other is strong and weak. It can be said that they are both external and internal, each according to yin and yang. The theme of "Tai Chi and Yin and Yang" also reflects on the black and white opposition and symbiosis in human nature. In them, the creator has incorporated another theme that he wants to express: "desire", which is the "gray" created by the fusion of black and white. The "desire" of the ontology Ziyu is power, profit, personal ambition, and yin; the desire of the shadow state is affection, love, emotional attention, and yang. Yin and Yang are entangled, power is at war with love, innocence is entangled with evil. This character design fully expresses the creator's individual views on human nature and philosophy: human nature is complex. In a person, there must be light and darkness at the same time. Desire lies in the gap between the light and dark sides of human nature, just like the "gray" born in the process of merging and transitioning between black and white. There are many examples of this point in the film. For example, every time Ziyu and Jingzhou stand on the martial arts field with Tai Chi graphics, Ziyu's clothes are black, and Jingzhou's clothes are white. This completely coincides with the color of yin and yang in Tai Chi.

In fact, the use of this personalized image label in "Shadow" is not just the protagonist. For example, Yuan himself is a man and brother. Pei Wang, an important supporting character who traditionally symbolizes "masculinity"; rather than symbolizing "feminineness" in the traditional sense, the princess as a woman and sister is also a very typical example. The elder brother of the emperor who was supposed to be "most masculine to strong", because of the excessive pursuit of personal ambitions extended by the right to represent "masculinity", he then "anodized yin-personality feminine, solitary and severe. In contrast with this It is the princess sister who was supposed to be "feminine to soft", because of the emotional concern that represents "feminine", the self-esteem that is extended is excessively pursued. Then "the cathode is yang"-personality masculine, arrogant and decisive. This unconventional and opposite design also confirms the creator’s in-depth understanding of the image symbol of "Tai Chi" and fully demonstrates his ability to interpret and construct cultural images in a personalized manner. This is a deep understanding of the image symbol The extended ability is also the "grey" or "desire" that belongs to the creator himself. Once there is "desire", "hope" naturally arises, and "hope" is the desire to express. In expressing extremely abstract imagery symbols At the time, the best way is to make a deep collision of two completely different image symbols between personality and tradition. Based on this collision, this film has derived another kind of opposition between similar symbols: namelyThe princess who also symbolizes "Yang" and the enemy major general Yang Ping. Two equally "masculine" people were designed into an opposing structure, and radical chemical changes were produced on this basis. The result that they both lost and survived, also reflected the creator's belief that "yin and yang can be symbiotic." Co-growth, "a single yang does not give birth to a single yin does not grow".

Throughout the film, "Shadow" has made the most perfect and most unique interpretation of the highest symbol of Chinese cultural beauty, "Tai Chi" in recent years. Therefore, the image interpretation of "Shadow" has created a new high level of aesthetics for similar films in China in terms of the means of "meaning" and "meaning". Therefore, it is truly worthy of being named an aesthetic masterpiece of modern Chinese movies.