"Later Us": There are so many youth literary films, why they can exceed the audience's "expected vision"

This youth literary film is directed by Rene Liu and produced by Zhang Yibai. From "To Youth" in 2003 to 2008, a lot of youth literary films were shot in the five years. There are too few that can resonate with the audience and are widely accepted. However, this film was able to be released in May 1st for 4 days, and the cumulative box office exceeded 860 million, and it finally earned more than 1.3 billion at the box office, which is much higher than the box office of more than 700 million in "To Youth". It broke the current record for the highest box office of a female director in the mainland market. In the nomination list announced for the Chinese Film Golden Rooster Awards, "The Later We" was shortlisted for 5 nominations. The movie

tells the story of college student Lin Jianqing on the train going home during the Chinese New Year, and accidentally met Fang Xiaoxiao who also rushed home during the Spring Festival. Although the two are of the same age, Xiao Xiao has not been to university and has been working for 4 years. Both have a Beijing dream, one wants to start a career by developing game programs, the other wants to marry a Beijinger. Because of the common dream, the two people have a lot of intersections. After 10 years of separation and recombination, they finally bid farewell to each other in their youth and become good memories for each other. The

film breaks the conventional narrative method and adopts a chronological method to present the different nodes of the hero and heroine's 10-year emotional life with interstitial narrative and color separation, so that the audience can understand the past of the two as the two people have a dialogue. It seems that the line of love runs through the movie. In fact, the meaning of home and the sense of alienation from home are the propositions she really wants to express. It is also the place that resonates strongly with the audience and the warmest and most affectionate people.

So, how does this film stand out among the many youth literary films and gain such a high degree of audience recognition? This article will analyze the reasons for the coexistence of ideals and reality, the coexistence of past and present narrative methods, and the coexistence of love and family affection.

1. Based on the "expected horizon", the film adopts the narrative content that coexists ideal and reality, and integrates the elements that the audience can easily resonate.

What is the horizon of expectation?

​​The representative of German reception aesthetics Jauss put forward the important concept of "expectation horizon". He believes that the reader as the subject of acceptance before and during the reading of literature is based on personal and social complex reasons , Psychologically, there are often established thinking directions and conceptual structures. This existing cognitive structure of the reader is called the horizon of expectation of the reading experience.

First of all, "The Later Us" takes as the main narrative content the struggle process and love process that are most likely to resonate with the audience. Comparing the idealized work and love experience with the reality, as long as it is a young audience, it will resonate with them. And touching people's hearts and resonating is an important measure for judging the value of a film.

①The narrative clue of the actor Lin Jianqing is his career change, which has witnessed his growth process.

Lin Jianqing stayed in Beijing with his roommate after graduating from university and chose to start a business. Because the business was not good, the two roommates with him left one after another, and the first venture failed. The second job was a freelancer, selling pornographic discs in an underground passage, and was either expelled by the city management or imprisoned. Once, he almost fought because the customer humiliated Fang Xiaoxiao. In the end, he didn't even go home for the New Year because he was put in a detention center.

His third job was as a customer service company in an online game company. One year he went home for the New Year, and he attended class reunions and was stimulated by class differentiation. Feeling upset and dissatisfied, he vented his emotions on his father and Fang Xiaoxiao. Not only the work is gone, but the love is also gone. After breaking up with Fang Xiaoxiao, this period of time also allowed him to rekindle his passion for playing games. He delivered express delivery during the day and stayed up late at night to develop game programs. He organically integrated his emotional experience with the game, which aroused the resonance and love of many young people. In the end, the game was a great success and signed with Changyou.

Although there have been many ups and downs in my career, isn't this the conflict between ideal and reality? Isn't it just a portrayal of real life? Seeing Lin Jianqing anxious about work is actually the real life of the Peipiao clan. There are many young people with similar experiences in the audience, so it is easier to resonate strongly.

Every exploratory employment of Lin Jianqing is self-growth and transformation. But the film does not deliberately create a state of poverty and anxiety, but ratherUsing concrete expressions, Lin Jianqing’s natural narratives such as "sharing white heads", turbulent gray costumes, and rough dark faces describe a sad but not hurtful reality.

②The narrative clue of the heroine Fang Xiaoxiao is the emotional line. She keeps changing her boyfriends for her Beijing registered permanent residence.

At the beginning, she talked about two Beijing boyfriends one after another, one is a doctor of law, a civil servant of the Earthquake Administration. Fang Xiaoxiao took him to meet Lin Jianqing and other buddies. This emotional line narrative is slightly longer. Finally, because the civil servant was Ma Baonan, Fang Xiaoxiao was too humble to be with him, and was disgusted by the man’s mother and broke up. The second boyfriend of

met when he was selling things. He is a section chief who is about to be promoted to division chief. Fang Xiaoxiao thinks he treats himself well. On the night of New Year's Eve, it was discovered that he had a wife and children, and he was caught by a junior. Neither boyfriend let Fang Xiaoxiao realize his Beijing dream. Therefore, it also metaphors that there is no emotional foundation, and love based on material supremacy will not last long.

The love line between Fang Xiaoxiao and Lin Jianqing is the main line. Although Lin Jianqing has nothing but for Fang Xiaoxiao’s dignity, he beats his customers and the unfamiliar section chief who has never met. He also won Fang Xiao for these heroic actions. Xiao's heart. There is a line in the film that appears many times, that is, " will he go up to nine days to capture the moon for you and go down to the ocean to catch turtles?" A man like is the most cherished person in marriage and love. It is also a kind of love concept that the director wants to express: why should someone who is not good to you marry him?

Unfortunately, some small details in the relationship became the fuse of the breakup. For example, the misunderstanding was not clarified, Fang Xiaoxiao was taken lightly by customers when selling the property, but he did not get Lin Jianqing's comfort in time, and Fang Xiaoxiao did not get a reasonable explanation when he saw Lin Jianqing chat with other girls online.

From the perspective of Fang Xiaoxiao's narrative, the director wants to express the details of how to keep fresh and get along with each other in love. People in love are more sensitive, and a little bit of trouble is considered a big deal. From the acquaintance of the two people on the Spring Festival transport train to the acquaintance and separation, this line of emotion is very much in line with the love experience expected by the audience.

2. From the director Liu Ruoying's past experience and literary style character, the past and present coexisting narrative techniques broke the audience's "expected vision" for this youth literary film. Director Liu Ruoying of

has been making her debut since 1995, playing the heroine and winning prizes in "My Beauty and Sorrow" and "Little Fisherman". In many subsequent film and television performances, acting skills have also been greatly recognized by the industry and audiences. Both film and television works and many representative songs, such as "Crazy for Love" and "Later", are shaping the perceptual intellectual image and sincere and simple character of a young literary and artistic young woman. This created a certain degree of expectation from the audience.

Therefore, in addition to the audience can easily find resonance elements from the film, creating a vision of expectation. The director's past experience and personality also contributed to the audience's expectations to a certain extent. Especially the song "Later" which is euphemistically tuned, with moving lyrics and classic sung. These cognitions of the director's own past make the audience hope to see young literary films that fit Liu Ruoying's personality traits.

Assuming that the audience is interested in the director’s past experience and achievements, such audiences will inevitably expect that the film can show the aesthetic taste and emotional realm that meets their inner expectations, and they will expect the film to express A life attitude that conforms to one's ideals reveals a thought tendency that is connected with one's own.

Yao Si pointed out: “If readers feel that the work is in line with their expected horizons in reading, they will feel that the work lacks novelty and excitement, and is uninteresting. On the contrary, if the works are unexpected and exceed the expected horizons, they will feel excited. This new experience enriches and expands new horizons of expectations.”

The concept of “expected horizons” actually gives film narrative an inspiration, that is, film narratives should break the horizons of expectation, jump out of linear narratives, and move towards nonlinear narratives. So, what is nonlinear narrative?

​​American playwright Robert McKee said in The Story: “With or without flashbacks, if the events of a story are arranged in a time sequence that the audience can understand, then the story is told in a linear sequence; If a storyJumping randomly in time, thus blurring the continuity of time, so that the audience cannot judge what happened before and what happened after. Then, this story is told according to nonlinear time. "

"The Later Us" broke the traditional linear narrative method, and to a certain extent broke the audience's expectations. The film uses two parallel clues of time and space, and the relationship between the two people is divided into 10 years ago and 10 years later. In order to easily distinguish the two timelines, reduce the difficulty of the audience's understanding, and not appear narrative confusion. The film uses different colors of the scenes of the two periods.

10 years ago, it described the love of the two people from acquaintance and acquaintance. In the process of separation, the use of color lenses witnessed a youthful period of joy, sorrow, sorrow, and joy, but everything is possible. Ten years later, the two reminisced about the past together when they met on the plane when they returned to Beijing for the New Year. The black and white lens was used to symbolize Regret and sad for the missed love between the two. When

first looked at it, I thought it was just a simple division of time nodes. Later, when Lin Jianqing said when designing the game, "the world without you, no color ". Only then did I understand the director’s artistic expression form. Such a design has nothing to do with the text. From a visual point of view, the audience can have a strong sense of substitution, and feel the two people who love each other but can’t. The regret and pain of being together.

Until the end of the movie, Fang Xiaoxiao let Ian and his sweetheart Kelly meet in the game, and the whole real world has color, but at this time, things are different. The two are no longer us, but the most precious person in each other's lives. Although there is no us later, there are still memories, and it is enough to shout and perceive each other's existence on the rooftop.

三The narrative tone of the coexistence of love and family affection, the meaning of father’s love, and the sense of loneliness away from home is the theme that the director really wants to express.

At the end of the movie, the subtitles appear. "Home". It can be seen that love is not the main theme of the film. Love is only part of the model of two people getting along. The meaning of home and the sense of alienation from home are the propositions she really wants to express. From this From a perspective, "Later Us" has basically completed the construction and rendering of the theme. The

film has shaped the image of Father Lin in many ways. On the appearance of , used close-up photography to highlight the deep wrinkles on the face and the white temples; In terms of behavior and performance, the scope of his behavior is very limited. Most of the shots are in small restaurants, and they also walk to the door leaving a lonely back, and arrive at the station as far as the station to meet Lin Jianqing and his daughter-in-law. In performance, Father Lin didn’t speak much, spoke slowly, and had a good-natured tone.

Father Lin was deep, quiet, and lonely guarding his small restaurant. Like most Chinese fathers, he cared about his children but would not express himself. .Father Lin The feelings for Fang Xiaoxiao are also very sincere, and she has long been regarded as a daughter deep in her heart. In his opinion, only Xiao Xiao can make Lin Jianqing grow into a responsible man.

used the New Year’s Eve dinner as a symbol when expressing his affection, , except for the year Lin Jianqing was detained, he would go home for the New Year’s Eve dinner every year. In the first year, the wine table was full of people, and it was lively; in the second year, the people on the wine table changed, and some middle-aged and elderly people mentioned their children who had never returned home; later on, the wine table only had drinkers. The two brothers, and only the old father sitting in front of the fire. Therefore, director wanted to express the complex emotions of family warmth and passing years.

The image of the sticky bean bag related to his father also runs through the film , from 2007 when Lin Jianqing came home for the New Year and said "How can you count the New Year without sticky bean bag" to 2017, the old father mentioned it in the letter to Fang Xiaoxiao ——The sticky bean buns left a drawer for you, and when I started the pan, I caught my eyes.

Actually, this clue of family relationship was not obvious at the beginning, but as the story progressed, it became more and more important, and even at the end, it became the biggest tearing point with the letter left by Lin's father. In the letter, Father Lin told her that even if you are not together,But the emotion between us has reached the height of family affection. This silent love is one of the most touching moments in the film.

Lin Jianqing and Fang Xiaoxiao’s love label is "North Drift", and the film uses a special image to express their love. For example, at the beginning, the two of them lived in a small and cramped rental house. There was no sunshine all day long. If the landlord wanted them to leave, they had to drag their luggage and leave. At this stage, they still enjoy themselves although they don’t have their own house. Dream and understand each other and work together.

Later, Lin Jianqing bought the house immediately after earning the first pot of gold, but when he returned home and wanted to let his father and Fang Xiaoxiao move, they met with opposition from the two. At this stage, they had their own house but they came out. The estrangement. This was originally all the hope Fang Xiaoxiao struggled with, but when she was within reach, she rejected Lin Jianqing's house and ended the relationship with him.

It can be seen that in movies, love and family affection are always the same narrative themes. For the audience, it is easy to have the same or similar life experience, so it can resonate more. Although the film is the first work directed by Liu Ruoying, it can be seen that she does not want to stick to the rules, wants to break the routine of traditional art films, and also wants to make the audience understand and resonate. Judging from the box office, she did it.

Conclusion

"The Later Us" has experienced ticket-swiping and refunding storms on the Internet. If we deeply analyze the artistic expression of director Liu Ruoying and break the conventional youth literary film, it is indeed a movie that can resonate strongly with the audience. film. The 10-year emotional line is very long. This film is cleverly divided by color, which is easy for the audience to understand and accept. The two narrative clues are also very clear, rendering the theme of the movie very deep. Of course, there are also some flaws. Generally speaking, it is a relatively successful movie.