Text | Linghu Boguang
The 2024 summer season has officially ended, and Zhu Yilong's "The Negative Makes the Positive" now only has a box office of 70 million. It cannot be said that this movie had high hopes at the beginning. After all, it was initially predicted that its box office would be around 150 million, but now it is only 60 million. Error" really doesn't work.
However, I personally feel that although this movie is not perfect, it has the same standards as Zhu Yilong's previous films. They are all films directed by young mainland directors. The first three films have good commercial results, but except for "The Mistake by the River", the quality The second half of "Life Events" was not very good (even though it won many awards), while "The Disappearance" had the highest commercial performance but the worst reputation.
The quality of "A Negative Makes a Positive" is between "The Mistake on the River" and "Life Events", but it didn't perform very well commercially.
I personally saw polarizing reviews of this movie, but this movie is actually quite exciting, especially in the current field of urban romance movies in China. It is a breakthrough. Of course, I respect those who think it is not good. Maybe some people find it difficult to watch, which is normal, but this is definitely a movie that Chinese movies need.
The box office is not high and the clues are confusing? Zhu Yilong's new film is by no means a "bad film"
Although the film's technology and lighting are inspired by Wong Kar-wai, it is definitely top-notch among domestic films. Let's put aside the shooting techniques and just look at the content of the entire film, stream of consciousness , Magicalism, the absurdity, literary and philosophical nature of the story, every aspect of it particularly attracted me.
In addition, aside from the content, the filming techniques of the film, changes in filming techniques such as camera filters and alien perspectives that fit the times, as well as many sharp contrasts, structures, backgrounds, scenes, storyboards, light and shadow, etc. All places bring a great visual and sensory feast, as well as character creation and language expression. In short, after watching the movie, it always leaves people unsatisfied.
I read a lot of comments and found that many people confused the expression of the movie with the narrative of the movie. Yes, when I saw the other person's memories and were with him when he was a child, I know this is a means of expression, but some people think it is a plot or a narrative, so they find the narrative confusing, but it is normal, I I have seen this expression before, and I was a little confused before I saw it. Later, I clarified it after watching the movie analysis.
The first time I came across this kind of expression was in "Transcendence". If you are interested, you can watch it. I think the problem with this movie is that it is not suitable for watching on Chinese Valentine's Day, because most of the people who come out on Chinese Valentine's Day are young couples. The publicity of the film is probably If you think it's about love, it can be released on Chinese Valentine's Day, but the way the male and female protagonists interact from the beginning will definitely dissuade most young lovers.
And then there is the fact that this movie is actually niche and not suitable for very commercial audiences, especially not suitable for the big screen in mainland China.
Like Zhu Yilong's previous film "The Mistake by the River", in fact, some people were scolding it at the time, It means that suspense films are not like suspense films, and are like forced explanations that are completely rounded off. But people in the niche film circle will definitely understand what the director wants to say. Is he saying it to the point? It is good to say it to the point and express it in a non-conventional way. Movie.
When making movies in mainland China, you really need to examine the aesthetic foundation and film knowledge level of the people. Objectively speaking, mainland China’s tolerance for such slightly innovative movies is really low at present, especially in terms of mainstream public opinion. Except for masterpieces, they are bad movies. There seems to be no in-between. If a new director wants to gain reputation and increase his popularity, he really has to cater to the public (refer to "She Disappeared")
The life of the male protagonist, the narration of the alien filming him is my reflection on myself Evaluation of life, boring.
Many places in the movie contain my thoughts and questions, such as what is love?
Falling in love does not require two people to be the same, money equals freedom.
The biggest comfort for me after watching this movie is that I just know that all my doubts and ideas are not just mine. I have no problems. People around me do not have the same feelings. The world was so big at that time, and they will have the same feelings from ancient times to the present. Feel that I am not alone in parallel time and space. It is better to live alone than to have casual acquaintances.
I personally prefer to watch this movie alone on the sofa. The ending song is also very nice. Just trust your heart and live your life. The heart always seems to know what happiness and love are better than the brain. At the same time, compared with the current domestic urban romance films, the current domestic urban romance films can be roughly divided into two types.
One kind is the "Ex" series, "Your Wedding" and "I Want Us Together", films about the emotional entanglement between men and women. They have neither aesthetics nor core, and in fact have no expression, but they have a good box office. It's just very high.
The other kind is "The Next Us" and "About Winter", including the previous "To Youth", "My Deskmate" and "Left Ear", youth romance movies born in the 80s and 90s, which are for middle-aged people. Of course, there are also other movies that are remembered by those born in the 1980s and 1990s, such as "The Years I Missed You" and "There's a Canteen Over There".
Whether these youth films or romance films, the overall quality is not as high as the controversial "Young You", not to mention the aesthetic, expression, and artistic attempts of "A Negative" .
from 150 million to 60 million? Why Zhu Yilong's new film "failed miserably"
Of course, this film, like the director's debut film "Once Upon a Time in the Tropics", is very fragmented... It appealed to me at first, with the melancholic beauty of the camera, just the right music, and the discussion of sex and love. Doubts! Although I only had a brief taste of it, I still found it rare that the performance of that section was really beautiful, even pure.
"Once nudity becomes art, it is the most holy. Once morality becomes hypocrisy, it is the most obscene."
But as time goes by, it becomes more and more difficult to restrain my initial thoughts. This director has portrayed them so well. It's too stereotypical. The more I look at it, the more I feel that the flat characters and the deliberate characters are too dull. The girl seems to be particularly free and easy. She uses a nonchalant attitude of staying out all night and wearing fancy wigs, and uses words like losing her virginity, being degenerate, lying, and owing money. She is covered with a layer of dust. From the perspective of many people, many people think that she is special, free and easy, lonely and sad.
But where does this loneliness come from? Where does this sorrow come from? The answer given did not satisfy me. It was too hollow. The character almost transformed into this sad adult?
I think it is simply wishful thinking on the part of the director. The director wanted the audience to think that she is very cool and very bitter, very sad and very free and easy. He also wanted her to be full of responsibility, so he also added a father who has cancer. The director wanted too much and couldn't let it go. The editing of the film was trivial and trivial. The idea of aliens was getting worse and worse from the beginning. It looked like fantasy but felt real at the same time.
makes this point extremely incomprehensible. The male and female protagonists’ sudden feelings, sudden love, and sudden and difficult to let go of, are forcibly pieced together, and piled together with scenes and lines that seem to be very literary. It is really useless. Some of the little designs are still cute, but the characters here are too flamboyant to hold up.
I can't imagine what kind of land these two people will take root in. This is the director's ideal loneliness. He wants her to be lonely, broken, free and careless, and wants everyone to think she is very special. He wants her to be lonely again. Some responsibility was given to her father, who had cancer, and a cat that he had spent a lot of money on but had not been able to save.
The director's ability cannot support him to complete such an interesting design, why not just let the heroine die? I also feel that this story is as beautiful as blown bubbles, gorgeous and fragile, and this story should have ended the moment the bubbles burst.Where is the wisdom in looking for traces of bubbles in the air?
I am not a person who pursues movie logic very much, but this one is too incoherent and baseless. The director really missed this scene. The happy ending at the end is really boring. Let me tell you what I like about it.
1. When the male and female protagonists were chatting, they seemed to have traveled back to each other's childhood. The scene was well shot, warm and healing.
2. My favorite is the alien. Many people don’t like it and find it inexplicable. But every time the plot of the male and female protagonists is stuck, I really hope that the alien will come out and change the script.
3, the music and light and shadow are beautiful. I heard that the director is a fan of Wong Kar Wai , so the styles are very similar. I wonder if the director also wanted to learn from Wong Kar-Wai's narrative style, but unfortunately it was too jumpy, wanted to express too much, and didn't know how to cut out the complex and simplify it. In the end, nothing was said well.
failed miserably in terms of reputation, quality and box office? Zhu Yilong's new film is still worthy of encouragement
In fact, Zhu Yilong is the only mainland actor who has emerged from the film field in recent years. Others are almost breathless. He has been in "Life Events", "Mistake by the River" and "Disappearance" for three years. "She" has two hands on commercial art, from Luo Fusheng to Huang Zhenkai, it feels like Zhu Yilong is like flying a rocket, performing more and more and better works.
But in fact, Zhu Yilong worked hard and down-to-earth step by step. Last year, the commercial art of "The Mistake by the River" and "The Disappearance of Her" were both very solid. This year's "A Negative Makes a Positive" simply subverted my imagination. First of all, I didn’t expect that the film actually used the stream of consciousness theme that I like very much. Secondly, it used magical and absurd artistic techniques. The expression of love reminded me of Hermann Hesse’s "Spirit and Eros", and there is also a story about Discussion of cause and effect.
In addition, from the perspective of sociology and postmodernism, it is simply a vast world of discussion. The movies Zhu Yilong stars in are no longer just dramas that people can choose from on the street. It can be seen that he likes and enjoys them very much. Although the movie's reputation is controversial, it is not very successful commercially.
Zhu Yilong tries his best to be himself, make the films he likes, and support young mainland directors.
In today's cookie-cutter and assembly-line movies, although they are not very successful commercially, they are indeed worthy of encouragement.
Text | Linghu Boguang
The 2024 summer season has officially ended, and Zhu Yilong's "The Negative Makes the Positive" now only has a box office of 70 million. It cannot be said that this movie had high hopes at the beginning. After all, it was initially predicted that its box office would be around 150 million, but now it is only 60 million. Error" really doesn't work.
However, I personally feel that although this movie is not perfect, it has the same standards as Zhu Yilong's previous films. They are all films directed by young mainland directors. The first three films have good commercial results, but except for "The Mistake by the River", the quality The second half of "Life Events" was not very good (even though it won many awards), while "The Disappearance" had the highest commercial performance but the worst reputation.
The quality of "A Negative Makes a Positive" is between "The Mistake on the River" and "Life Events", but it didn't perform very well commercially.
I personally saw polarizing reviews of this movie, but this movie is actually quite exciting, especially in the current field of urban romance movies in China. It is a breakthrough. Of course, I respect those who think it is not good. Maybe some people find it difficult to watch, which is normal, but this is definitely a movie that Chinese movies need.
The box office is not high and the clues are confusing? Zhu Yilong's new film is by no means a "bad film"
Although the film's technology and lighting are inspired by Wong Kar-wai, it is definitely top-notch among domestic films. Let's put aside the shooting techniques and just look at the content of the entire film, stream of consciousness , Magicalism, the absurdity, literary and philosophical nature of the story, every aspect of it particularly attracted me.
In addition, aside from the content, the filming techniques of the film, changes in filming techniques such as camera filters and alien perspectives that fit the times, as well as many sharp contrasts, structures, backgrounds, scenes, storyboards, light and shadow, etc. All places bring a great visual and sensory feast, as well as character creation and language expression. In short, after watching the movie, it always leaves people unsatisfied.
I read a lot of comments and found that many people confused the expression of the movie with the narrative of the movie. Yes, when I saw the other person's memories and were with him when he was a child, I know this is a means of expression, but some people think it is a plot or a narrative, so they find the narrative confusing, but it is normal, I I have seen this expression before, and I was a little confused before I saw it. Later, I clarified it after watching the movie analysis.
The first time I came across this kind of expression was in "Transcendence". If you are interested, you can watch it. I think the problem with this movie is that it is not suitable for watching on Chinese Valentine's Day, because most of the people who come out on Chinese Valentine's Day are young couples. The publicity of the film is probably If you think it's about love, it can be released on Chinese Valentine's Day, but the way the male and female protagonists interact from the beginning will definitely dissuade most young lovers.
And then there is the fact that this movie is actually niche and not suitable for very commercial audiences, especially not suitable for the big screen in mainland China.
Like Zhu Yilong's previous film "The Mistake by the River", in fact, some people were scolding it at the time, It means that suspense films are not like suspense films, and are like forced explanations that are completely rounded off. But people in the niche film circle will definitely understand what the director wants to say. Is he saying it to the point? It is good to say it to the point and express it in a non-conventional way. Movie.
When making movies in mainland China, you really need to examine the aesthetic foundation and film knowledge level of the people. Objectively speaking, mainland China’s tolerance for such slightly innovative movies is really low at present, especially in terms of mainstream public opinion. Except for masterpieces, they are bad movies. There seems to be no in-between. If a new director wants to gain reputation and increase his popularity, he really has to cater to the public (refer to "She Disappeared")
The life of the male protagonist, the narration of the alien filming him is my reflection on myself Evaluation of life, boring.
Many places in the movie contain my thoughts and questions, such as what is love?
Falling in love does not require two people to be the same, money equals freedom.
The biggest comfort for me after watching this movie is that I just know that all my doubts and ideas are not just mine. I have no problems. People around me do not have the same feelings. The world was so big at that time, and they will have the same feelings from ancient times to the present. Feel that I am not alone in parallel time and space. It is better to live alone than to have casual acquaintances.
I personally prefer to watch this movie alone on the sofa. The ending song is also very nice. Just trust your heart and live your life. The heart always seems to know what happiness and love are better than the brain. At the same time, compared with the current domestic urban romance films, the current domestic urban romance films can be roughly divided into two types.
One kind is the "Ex" series, "Your Wedding" and "I Want Us Together", films about the emotional entanglement between men and women. They have neither aesthetics nor core, and in fact have no expression, but they have a good box office. It's just very high.
The other kind is "The Next Us" and "About Winter", including the previous "To Youth", "My Deskmate" and "Left Ear", youth romance movies born in the 80s and 90s, which are for middle-aged people. Of course, there are also other movies that are remembered by those born in the 1980s and 1990s, such as "The Years I Missed You" and "There's a Canteen Over There".
Whether these youth films or romance films, the overall quality is not as high as the controversial "Young You", not to mention the aesthetic, expression, and artistic attempts of "A Negative" .
from 150 million to 60 million? Why Zhu Yilong's new film "failed miserably"
Of course, this film, like the director's debut film "Once Upon a Time in the Tropics", is very fragmented... It appealed to me at first, with the melancholic beauty of the camera, just the right music, and the discussion of sex and love. Doubts! Although I only had a brief taste of it, I still found it rare that the performance of that section was really beautiful, even pure.
"Once nudity becomes art, it is the most holy. Once morality becomes hypocrisy, it is the most obscene."
But as time goes by, it becomes more and more difficult to restrain my initial thoughts. This director has portrayed them so well. It's too stereotypical. The more I look at it, the more I feel that the flat characters and the deliberate characters are too dull. The girl seems to be particularly free and easy. She uses a nonchalant attitude of staying out all night and wearing fancy wigs, and uses words like losing her virginity, being degenerate, lying, and owing money. She is covered with a layer of dust. From the perspective of many people, many people think that she is special, free and easy, lonely and sad.
But where does this loneliness come from? Where does this sorrow come from? The answer given did not satisfy me. It was too hollow. The character almost transformed into this sad adult?
I think it is simply wishful thinking on the part of the director. The director wanted the audience to think that she is very cool and very bitter, very sad and very free and easy. He also wanted her to be full of responsibility, so he also added a father who has cancer. The director wanted too much and couldn't let it go. The editing of the film was trivial and trivial. The idea of aliens was getting worse and worse from the beginning. It looked like fantasy but felt real at the same time.
makes this point extremely incomprehensible. The male and female protagonists’ sudden feelings, sudden love, and sudden and difficult to let go of, are forcibly pieced together, and piled together with scenes and lines that seem to be very literary. It is really useless. Some of the little designs are still cute, but the characters here are too flamboyant to hold up.
I can't imagine what kind of land these two people will take root in. This is the director's ideal loneliness. He wants her to be lonely, broken, free and careless, and wants everyone to think she is very special. He wants her to be lonely again. Some responsibility was given to her father, who had cancer, and a cat that he had spent a lot of money on but had not been able to save.
The director's ability cannot support him to complete such an interesting design, why not just let the heroine die? I also feel that this story is as beautiful as blown bubbles, gorgeous and fragile, and this story should have ended the moment the bubbles burst.Where is the wisdom in looking for traces of bubbles in the air?
I am not a person who pursues movie logic very much, but this one is too incoherent and baseless. The director really missed this scene. The happy ending at the end is really boring. Let me tell you what I like about it.
1. When the male and female protagonists were chatting, they seemed to have traveled back to each other's childhood. The scene was well shot, warm and healing.
2. My favorite is the alien. Many people don’t like it and find it inexplicable. But every time the plot of the male and female protagonists is stuck, I really hope that the alien will come out and change the script.
3, the music and light and shadow are beautiful. I heard that the director is a fan of Wong Kar Wai , so the styles are very similar. I wonder if the director also wanted to learn from Wong Kar-Wai's narrative style, but unfortunately it was too jumpy, wanted to express too much, and didn't know how to cut out the complex and simplify it. In the end, nothing was said well.
failed miserably in terms of reputation, quality and box office? Zhu Yilong's new film is still worthy of encouragement
In fact, Zhu Yilong is the only mainland actor who has emerged from the film field in recent years. Others are almost breathless. He has been in "Life Events", "Mistake by the River" and "Disappearance" for three years. "She" has two hands on commercial art, from Luo Fusheng to Huang Zhenkai, it feels like Zhu Yilong is like flying a rocket, performing more and more and better works.
But in fact, Zhu Yilong worked hard and down-to-earth step by step. Last year, the commercial art of "The Mistake by the River" and "The Disappearance of Her" were both very solid. This year's "A Negative Makes a Positive" simply subverted my imagination. First of all, I didn’t expect that the film actually used the stream of consciousness theme that I like very much. Secondly, it used magical and absurd artistic techniques. The expression of love reminded me of Hermann Hesse’s "Spirit and Eros", and there is also a story about Discussion of cause and effect.
In addition, from the perspective of sociology and postmodernism, it is simply a vast world of discussion. The movies Zhu Yilong stars in are no longer just dramas that people can choose from on the street. It can be seen that he likes and enjoys them very much. Although the movie's reputation is controversial, it is not very successful commercially.
Zhu Yilong tries his best to be himself, make the films he likes, and support young mainland directors.
In today's cookie-cutter and assembly-line movies, although they are not very successful commercially, they are indeed worthy of encouragement.