Female director rejects the label of female film "Today's Film Critic" reviews the film "Barbarian Invasion"

An actress takes her son to film a movie. With the strained parent-child relationship, highly intensive fighting training, and the camera never stopping, how can she find herself? The film "Barbarian Invasion" directed by Malaysian director Tan Chui Mui won the Jury Award at the 2021 Shanghai International Film Festival and attracted much attention from the industry and fans. However, the movie only received 80,000 yuan in box office on its first day of release, with only 0.2% of the film scheduled, and less than 3,000 people wanted to see it. Why is the former darling of film festivals so neglected now, and what discussions have arisen behind the creation of a female perspective?

Independent temperament and diverse expressions

Sincerity and freedom return to the essence

Ski Fujii, who was a guest at "Today's Film Review" and hosted the Shanghai premiere of "Barbarian Invasion" with thousands of people, pointed out that although the ticket sales were booming at the time and the dialogue atmosphere was very lively, it It is still a film with a strong independent nature and does not have high public awareness. Its schedule is also the most competitive summer season, so it cannot achieve good box office expectations. However, she also pointed out that once you are immersed in the story of the film, you will gain a lot of sense of puzzle solving and game, which makes you want to stop. The film starts out like a documentary, and then it has fighting, suspense, thriller and other elements. It is a film within a film. The structure is similar to filming "The Bourne Supremacy", "The Matrix" and even Hong Sang-soo movies.

Although it is dominated by female filmmakers and is more popular with female audiences, the director of "Barbarian Invasion" Chen Cuimei does not agree with classifying the film as a female film. In this regard, Fujii Shu pointed out to "Today's Film Critic" that director Chen Cuimei's expression is very free and sincere. Because there are fewer female directors in Malaysia, he feels that he has taken advantage of the gender dividend. In fact, it returns to the essence of the creator, that is, you create The expression has nothing to do with your gender.

Director rejects gender label

Savage expansion of identity exploration

In an exclusive interview with "Today's Film Critic", Chen Cuimei admitted that when she was making short films, female scholars often described her films as women's films, and she was "quite resistant". Since then, I deliberately made a movie without female characters. In her opinion, the characters written have their own projections, "The male and female protagonists are actually all me talking." When it comes to women's movies, Chen Cuimei bluntly told "Today's Film Critic" that everyone is eager for women's movies, but imagination and stories are based on people. The difference is that it doesn’t mean that male directors must not be good at filming, or that female directors must be better at filming, but her relationship with others will affect how she handles roles of the opposite sex. “I think not to care too much about this label. ”

Although the director rejected the label of a female film, the film’s promotion surface was packaged in a female perspective. As a mother, Fujii Shu pointed out to "Today's Film Critic" that she was able to see the social dilemma of a single mother at the beginning of the movie. After entering the fighting training scene, the child's role gradually decreased, and the film also focused more on "who am I" The proposition does not only refer to women, but uses the pain and reshaping of the body to question how people are defined in society. For the audience, she also suggested "invading" the movie like an "intruder, a barbarian". "It is not dull and obscure. After watching it, I believe everyone will not feel that they have paid wrongly."

It is reported that, The daily film and culture review column "Today's Film Review" is broadcast on CCTV-6 Movie Channel at 19:45 every night, during prime time from Monday to Sunday, to light up every night of light and shadow.