Please!!~~lt;lt;Crazy Stonegt;gt;Movie review

Only Chinese people can laugh?

Chen Kaige laughed when he said that Zhang Yimou could play with profundity; Feng Xiaogang laughed when he said that Chen Kaige could play with style; Ning Hao laughed when he said that Feng Xiaogang could tell stories.

DVD fans can tell at a glance that "Crazy Stone" (blog) (hereinafter referred to as "Stone") is deeply influenced by foreign black comedies, especially British director Guy Ritchie and director Ning Hao. Without denying this, "We thought about a dozen possibilities, and found that it is indeed the most mature structure for this type of film. We couldn't get around it, so we just used it." The skeleton was built based on foreign movies. , but Ning Hao’s cleverness lies in filling in the authentic “domestic” flesh and blood.

"Stone" is a film with very "Chinese characteristics", full of the rough and vivid texture unique to Chinese cities in the process of change. "I went to Nortel (the abbreviation of Beijing Film Academy) in 2001, and many students were renting a house together. Some of them knew each other, and some didn't. I liked making up stories, and I was studying screenwriting at that time, so I thought, what if the police and the thieves lived together? What would happen if we were in the same building or next door?"

The story became more and more complete during the chat with my friends, and it became a script. After receiving investment from Andy Lau, "Asian Rising Star Director", Ning Hao came up with this story. "I was thinking, where can I film such a ridiculous story? I don't know. Intuitively, it should be a hotter place, so I'll choose from the 'Four Furnaces'." After arriving in Chongqing, Ning Hao thought There is a spectrum. "It was my first time to go to Chongqing. This city is really spectacular, and the whole thing is in the transition between old and new. When I entered the city, I saw a shirtless man honking his horn, and many other drivers followed suit. The loudest one, I As soon as I saw this scene, I felt like it. "

The subway carriages, the circular viaduct, the old and cramped old city, the new high-rise buildings with glass exterior walls, the small hotels in the corners of the city, all dark and chaotic. A house full of houses, a female uncle in pajamas playing mahjong downstairs, a kebab shop, a food stall... The unique characteristics and familiar atmosphere of today's Chinese cities come to mind. "We were wandering around the city of Chongqing, and when we arrived at the Luohan Temple, this was it." Ning Hao recalled, "Chongqing is a mountain city with undulating terrain. The Luohan Temple is from the Ming and Qing dynasties, followed by the one from the 1950s and 1960s. The house was built in the 1980s and 1990s, and it was built in the past two years. At this glance, you can see three hundred years."

Some people say that "Stones" is a film only made in China. It is not unreasonable to say that a movie can be understood by talented people. A series of funny plots in "Stone" come from familiar slices of life. Three thieves pretended to be moving companies and stole everything in broad daylight; they also played the "can ring to win prizes" trick on the subway - a classic social story in the media; Brother Bao thought that the "bangbang" at the door of the temple "If they want to steal gems, just buy cigarettes and alcohol according to the rules of the rivers and lakes to get rid of them. The unaware sticks whispered, "Urban management, right?" "Plain clothes, civilized law enforcement"... Seeing this, the audience was filled with understanding. The laughter; every time the waitresses appear, they must be indifferent and stressed, burying their hair in text messages. Isn't this kind of "thumb tribe" very common in life? BMW is pronounced "Don't touch me". Do you often receive jokes like this? ...Ning Hao likes to read social news, "They are quite darkly humorous in themselves. When we make up stories, we naturally add these interesting things from society."

Putting Ning Hao and Feng Xiaogang together I guess neither of them would be too happy about it, but since "Stone" is a comedy, it would be difficult to bypass Director Feng, the only senior who has insisted on entertaining the public for a long time. In contrast, Feng Xiaogang is good at weaving a realistic story and creating original funny catchphrases. In addition to using dialects and lines to create comedy effects, "Stone" can be said to be the first domestic comedy to take the "spoof" route. .

Mike, a serious Hong Kong professional thief, hangs off a beam with the posture of Tom Cruise in "Mission: Impossible". Unexpectedly, the "profiteer" is short on weight and the rope is not long enough. He watches the gems but cannot reach them; "2002" "The first snow" was changed to "The first shit in 2001, more urgent than in previous years"; Xu Zheng's sinister real estate developer said, "We will cooperate in depth with Shuguang Arts and Crafts Factory and continue to develop "This hot land" easily reminds you of high-sounding and unscrupulous businessmen... The most annoying thing is the spoof of "Thousand-Hand Guanyin", in which a sissy male employee with fair skin and thin flesh, a sad face, puts on makeup and disguises himself as a woman. He made a flying shape and wore highly myopic glasses!

"Spoof" is a kind of joke and parody on popular culture. Only when the director and the audience are familiar with these contexts can there be tacit laughter in the theater.

Putting good looks first, don’t compromise on style

When I say “new realism”, I don’t mean to slap a label on it. Viewed in isolation, "Stones" is just a purely entertainment film. This type of black comedy has been quite mature abroad, but when it is included in the entire lineup of domestic movies, "Stones" delivers something enjoyable and playful. The message: low-cost production (investment of about 3 million, DV shooting and then transfer to film); no stars (but with a leading drama star like Guo Tao, other actors are also quite brilliant); the story is attractive and catchy; light-hearted and funny; an absurd The story reflects the familiar urban space and civilian life everywhere - in Shanghai dialect, there is finally a movie that is not "confused".

"Stone" is not the first "neo-realism" domestic film, it is just one that became an instant hit. At present, investment in domestic films is still not active. Except for Zhang Yimou, Feng Xiaogang and other first-line directors who have no one to spend money on, most directors are holding their notebooks and waiting for the pie to fall from the world. After finally getting a sum of money, naturally first Went to shoot art films. Only by participating in film festivals, winning awards, and becoming famous can investors be attracted, and niche art films are naturally the best films to participate in the exhibition. Zhu Wen ("South of the Clouds"), Wang Quanan ("Jingzhe"), Li Yu ("Beautiful Beauty") ") and so on, basically continuing the "academic style" of the sixth generation. But at the same time, there are also some new directors who are less cautious and pay more and more attention to "good-looking movies." Ning Hao, Wu Shixian (blog), Xiao Jiang and even Lu Chuan (blog) are certain representatives.

It is too rash to divide directors into generations, but the concepts, tastes, techniques and growth backgrounds of the new generation of filmmakers are indeed very different. Ning Hao was born in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province in the late 1970s. When he was thirteen or fourteen years old, he liked to go to video halls and was addicted to Hong Kong movies like the little boy at that time. When he grew up, he entered the era of overwhelming DVDs and watched too many movies. There are so many movies and there are so many favorite directors; when he gets into the industry, he starts to "hang out" in the TV series and music video circles, and he has a DV. Even if he meets a lot of investors who are fooling him, he can still make a few short stories. . "For me, there is no distinction between art and commerce in movies, only good-looking and bad-looking movies. What I want to make is good-looking movies. When I have something to say, I will make it according to my personal ideas; when I have nothing to say, I will make it according to my personal ideas. , it’s okay to make entertainment movies, but they must be entertaining enough, and this must not be blurred.”

What’s even more interesting is that the “new reality” message conveyed by “Stones” can be used in other fields of popular culture. also received a response. If you put it together with the other two popular TV series "Wulin Gaiden" and the Internet spoof "The Murder of a Steamed Bun", it is easy to find some similarities: the creator's mentality is very relaxed and he entertains others and himself. ; The content is full of civilian flavor; he is very sensitive to popular things and can easily use them to ridicule and joke; he has implicit satire on some social phenomena.

"Domestic blockbusters" such as "Hero", "House of Flying Daggers", and "The Promise" (blog) have caused the domestic film industry to become falsely popular, and it has fallen into a strange circle: famous directors--big investments-- - mediocre film - bad reputation - high box office.

The success of "Stone" in terms of word-of-mouth and box office may be a sobering drug for investors, filmmakers, and theaters: whether it is movie concepts, stories, or business operations, there are many possibilities, just like a A film critic said: "Just like this, you can shoot one small-cost commercial film after another, and be a director for the masses in a down-to-earth manner... This is so rare." The emergence of new directors will not shake the famous directors in the short term. However, with the emergence of more excellent "domestic small films", it will be easier for us to see the fragility of famous directors under the aura.