文|Linghu Boguang
On the evening of June 28, the results of the Magnolia Awards came out. Although it was a bit unfair, "Flowers" was indeed the biggest winner. "Flowers", which received 9 nominations, won the top prize. It won five awards including Best Chinese TV Drama Award, Best Actor Award, Best Screenplay (Adaptation) Award, Best Art Award, and Best Cinematography Award.
It’s not interesting to rip it back and forth about whether celebrities win awards or not. In fact, "Flowers" is the most popular domestic drama in the beginning of 2024 (it is really popular), and its quality is unquestionable. However, if you still remember, this drama was actually quite controversial when it was broadcast.
What? It has the same background as "Mountains and Seas", where there is poverty alleviation and there is busy traffic and so on.
In fact, there is a very widespread criticism that if it were not for Wong Kar-Wai, the drama "Flowers" would be no different from Guo Jingming's "Little Times", that is, it is an emotional story of men and women full of light and shadow, camera language and music. There are also many problems at the commercial level.
Compared with "Flowers", why is "Tiny Times" so bad? Because Guo Jingming
is a matter of time. "Little Times" can be regarded as modern after 2010, while "Flowers" is about Shanghai in the 1990s when it was just opening up.
Another thing I believe everyone will admit is that the quality and reputation gap between these two works is the gap between Guo Jingming and Wong Kar-wai. The soil for growth is so critical. The starting point, the height of vision, and the inner structure are all related to artistic creation. Only by talking about these can we tell objective facts, otherwise we will just focus on differentiation.
When talking about Wong Kar-wai, we need to talk about "Carmen" to "The Grandmaster", and about the disappearance of film movies and the rise of digital movies from the 1980s to the 2010s; when talking about Guo Jingming, we need to talk about Under the Banyan Tree and the New Concept Competition , talks about Han Han, talks about the magazine Sprout, talks about the post-youth expression in the early days of the development of the Internet, and talks about how Guo Jingming’s media communication gained popularity among teenagers in the early days of the development of the Internet in China.
The era created Wong Kar-wai, and it was also this era that chose Guo Jingming.
Guo Jingming came to Shanghai from a small city. We don’t know what Guo Jingming went through, but his psychological gap must be very different. In fact, the background color of Guo Jingming's early works should be light colors. Although the writing style is a bit too frivolous, what is written is nothing more than sentimentality and nostalgia for youth. Although it is a bit exaggerated, it is by no means as cold as in "Little Times".
The culture that Guo Jingming comes into contact with is closer to modern times, so his works are basically as superficial as this era, and the characters are also very superficial and stereotyped. However, this is also the current situation of most young people in modern times. Take a look at various works on the Internet How many people will actually analyze the problem if you tear up the x post.
And how many people exaggerate a certain behavior because of the label-based propaganda of marketing accounts, and then brutally convict them? The current situation of the Internet, various popular trends without connotation, exactly reflect the characters in Guo Jingming’s lens, with no superficial superficiality. I don’t think deeply about it, but when I look back at the people I interact with, how many of them have core values and thoughts of their own?
I can give countless examples of Lin Xiao but I can only find a few Miss Wang. I appreciate Wong Kar-Wai's core and aesthetics more. I am also more willing to make friends with people with warm backgrounds in life, but this does not affect The existence of a large number of characters in Guo Jingming's works does not affect the observation and understanding of those symbolic groups through Guo Jingming's works.
I feel that the tragic undertone of Guo Jingming’s works contains negative evaluations of his expression group. Perhaps his position is the same as that of most people who belittle his works. It is just a matter of his growing environment and personal level. He cannot find a better way. A good angle to show and criticize.
The ridicule and belittling of his works is actually another interpretation of his works, and it also reproduces the experience he mentioned before.
Compared with his works, Guo Jingming's life of trying to gain recognition is more exciting.
The money worship, indifference and numbness in "Little Times" are his feelings towards Shanghai. Does he like these? Not necessarily, he just imitates them, so as to make himself a rich man who does not feel inferior. He is confused and pessimistic about the future, so his performance is gorgeous but gloomy. The description of emotions is very awkward, maybe because I can't accept the complexity of emotions, so there is nothing in the last fire, it's all white.
seemed to express a lot, but in fact he couldn't explain anything clearly because he didn't know it himself.
Compared with "Little Times", why "Flowers" is a classic work
The essential reason why the two are so different may be the 'era'. In the early days of economic opening up in the 1990s, when Wong Kar-wai lived, people were full of yearning for a new life.
In addition to the beautiful shots and atmosphere of "Flowers", I actually think what's even more amazing about "Flowers" is that both the big and small characters in the drama have their own charms, and both the male and female characters have their own personalities. Everyone has their own story.
"Flowers" is a real group drama. The director and actors bring vitality to the characters. Take Xiao Jiangxi and Mei Ping as examples. They don't hate it when they see it later. Instead, they feel the humbleness of the little people and their desire to get ahead. After watching "Flowers", I can feel that director Wong Kar-wai wanted to film all kinds of people in the mainstream of that era.
From "Flowers", we can feel Mr. Bao's affection and righteousness, Uncle Ye's rationality and sophistication, Ms. Wang's warm, bright, straightforward and lively style, Lingzi's sharp-tongued talk, Li Li's sobriety, sense, boldness and ambition, and Mr. Fan's businessmanship. Lu Meilin is strong but also fragile, Du Honggen is affectionate towards Lu Meilin, Qiang Mujie is headstrong, Teacher Ge and Linghong are funny, they have their own Xiao Jiujiu, but they still value friendship.
Tao Tao is loyal to his brothers but his marriage is a mess. In the beginning of the play, there is a scene with Fang Mei. At that time, Tao Tao was in love with Fang Mei. Later, Fang Mei often did not show her face. Tao Tao disliked Fang Mei and empathized with the little sister-in-law. And only when Tao Tao wakes up, Fang Mei shows her face.
There are too many metaphors in Wong Kar-wai's scenes. In addition to this metaphor, there are many other metaphors. For example, the number of goldfish he raised at the Peace Hotel where Mr. Bao lived changed. Li Li looked at the back of Mr. A and turned into Mr. Bao. The rhythm of the plot is very fast. After Mr. Bao was hit by a car, his uncle appeared to stabilize the morale of the army, and flashbacks were inserted to talk about Bao's interpersonal relationships and how to earn the first pot of gold in life. From then on, it gradually got better and better.
I think the shooting techniques of "Flowers" are easy to understand and the plot is easy to understand. In the business war part of the plot, I most like to watch Mr. Bao go to the meeting alone to collect imitations, Mr. Bao’s marketing methods make the Sanyang brand an instant success, the crisis in Zhizhenyuan, the Wal-Mart order, and the stock war between Mr. Bao and Mr. Qiang.
Wong Kar-Wai is best at photographing emotional affairs between men and women. There are too many classic famous scenes in "Flowers", including a heart-stealing song, Mr. Bao getting a slap in the face for Miss Wang, a catapult hug, ribs and rice cakes, Li Li will not kiss, Bao The close rivalry between Zong and Li Li, the ambition in their eyes, the ambiguity of walking together at night...
is indeed an "orphan", and it is indeed a "masterpiece" of domestic dramas
"Little Times" and "Flowers" are both The difference between Guo Jingming and Wong Kar-wai's fantasy Shanghai is that Guo Jingming's directorial ability and artistic creativity are far less than Wong Kar-wai's, so this resulted in different results between "Tiny Times" and "Flowers". Not only "Flowers", but actually those Hong Kong films made by Wong Kar-wai at that time were also about Hong Kong in a fantasy world, not the real Hong Kong.
Most directors would be scolded for making films that involve lewdness and lewdness, but Wong Kar-Wai, with his unique super artistic creativity, makes people unable to scold him even if they want to, because the filming is really done with care and excellence.
The rare and valuable thing about "Flowers" is that Director Wang really treats people as human beings. Everyone has their own pursuits and yearnings, and love is not everything in life.Women or men in his movies are not "beautiful empty shells" but people with their own shortcomings and weaknesses, flesh and blood, which is what "Tiny Times" lacks.
I have always felt that people are inseparable from the times and environment, and literary and artistic works themselves are naturally marked by the times. The meanness and weakness in "Tiny Times" may be echoes of Guo Jingming's experience in Shanghai. Therefore, the Shanghai in "Tiny Times" is nothing more than a golden exterior made of various luxury goods and a shallow and empty interior. Live with an ugly face.
Guo Jingming has no confidence in Shanghai like that, so he will seize everything to chase the success he sees, eagerly looking for his own place in the Huangpu River. When they were young, Gu Li, Lin Xiao, Nan Xiang... all of them were just duckweeds floating on the river.
Because of the lack of security, as long as the root catches something, it will cling to it, no matter the cost, it will fix itself on it, and it will appear to be bright and stable, but in the end it will be ruthless by the river. wash away.
Wong Kar-wai's Shanghai is always warm and steamy. Even during the day, it is similar to the life described in childhood, but at night there is only the firewood smoke coming out of the chimney, the gossips of the aunts playing bridge and the dead of night. A light that lights up alone.
The Shanghai that Wong Kar-wai talks about is full of life and warmth, because what Wong Kar-wai has experienced, or in other words, the Shanghai in his heart is full of life and warmth. Wong Kar-wai is not a duckweed without roots, so the characters of the flowers are not empty duckweeds under their feet, but aquatic plants rooted in the soft mud at the bottom of the Suzhou River. Although they are swaying with the river, they always have their feet on the ground.
Again, there is the Huangpu River and the Suzhou River in Shanghai. Some people wander in the Huangpu River and some people take root in the Suzhou River.
No need to argue, "Flowers" is by no means a literary version of "Little Times"
Finally, there is also the controversy about "Flowers" as to whether it reflects reality. Shanghainese say it does, while outsiders think it was possible in the 1990s. Then He also criticized "Flowers" for making a nouveau riche movie. How can I say
? The works reflect a corner of an era and cannot be said to be necessarily true. After all, the directors do not specialize in history and social sciences, but we can get a glimpse of this person's attitude towards the surroundings from their works. Tolerance or glare, warmth or cold eyes.
This must be related to their own encounters and experiences, but don’t forget that the wheel of the times keeps moving. Ordinary individuals have no ability to stop its rolling forward trend. The only and key thing is that as we slowly move forward On the way, can we choose to look at people and things from a gentle perspective?
Because they have always been complex and diverse variations, many things are not absolute. And I can't guarantee that Wong Kar-wai is just blessed by fate, but I believe that he just made his own choices time and time again. And Guo Jingming also has his own attitude. As for which one is good or which one is bad, it depends on everyone's individual value choices.
Just like the work "Flowers", it is absolutely unique among domestic dramas and is difficult to copy, but some people don't like it.
As for "Tiny Times", it seems that except for a very small number of fans, most people will not think that it is an excellent work. It has no high or low value. There are still abilities and levels of art, right?
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