Film Name: 热烈 / One and Only
This year’s summer season has been completely white-hot, with a number of consecutive Chinese films garnering box office and word-of-mouth successes, and the upcoming release of One and Only will add another blaze to the summer. This is the conclusion I came to after watching the screening of the film, “One and Only” is undoubtedly a very solid sports movie, smooth rhythm, smooth narrative, high degree of completion, not only to show the teamwork and blood struggle in competitive sports, but also rich in the spirit of “friendship, hard work, victory” in the teenage comics.
The movie has a pristine knack for giving such a positive outlook, and that is to pick up enough ground. Honestly, it’s hard to make a youthful, hot-blooded, inspirational movie like “One and Only”, because there are restrictions in all aspects, too conservative or too out of the ordinary, and on the subject matter, it’s a lot worse than the director’s last movie “Post Truth” – but Dapeng has done it once again, and with this time, I’m sure he’ll give audiences more surprises in the future. With this brilliant performance, I believe he will bring more surprises to the audience in the future.
(Friendly reminder: there will be spoilers below.)
When I say “One and Only” is good-looking, it is literally “good-looking” on an audio-visual level. The movie tells the story of Chen Shuo, a young man who loves to dance, who is recruited by Ding Lei, a street dance veteran, to join a dance troupe, and how he and his teammates go through many twists and turns in pursuit of their dreams. In other words, the movie has a lot of action scenes practicing, dancing, and showing off their athletic physiques.
Street dance itself is a highly visual form of exercise, and even a layman like me, who is not familiar with street dance and has never watched variety shows like “This is Street Dance,” can watch it with great interest.
Roc has kept the positive spirit that characterized the making of City of Rock, namely “respect and love for the film’s vehicle,” so the vibe that permeates the film is very real.
On top of that, One and Only is also quite “appropriate” in terms of specific filming techniques: flexible camera work, choosing between static and dynamic shots depending on the action and the scene, and clever editing, choosing between close-ups of difficult action and montages of similar action… …
The movie also plays around a bit with a few of the main scenes, such as showing Chen Shuo’s nervousness about going on stage for the first time by including completely written-out exaggerations such as the soles of his shoes sticking to the floor, falling into the audience, and the disappearance of other people – all in all, watching One and Only is like watching a good sports movie, and there’s certainly no cold feet in the spectacle. Of course, I think the bigger point of “One and Only” is that it stays true to itself while at the same time rebelling a bit: making a point about the scarcity of ideals and the importance of money. The exclamation point of the “protagonist team” members, chili pepper because of an ex-boyfriend to enroll in a class buy one get one free, by mistake into the pit, but also because of someone is good at doing a certain action, only to start dancing in a haphazard manner, Zhang Cuibiao is really love, but can not help but that he really does not have the talent, and because of the reality of the pressure on the family, had to quit! …… For real professional dancers, very few people talk about “dreams”.
More typical is Jiang Long’s role as a small manager of a home appliance company, who gives up street dancing and is willing to give sponsorship to the Exclamation Point dance troupe on the condition that he dances as a smart garbage can, which at first seems to be an antagonist who has turned his back on his past, but afterward he spends all his time playing with Exclamation Point, and also gives them a lot of sponsorship and support within his means. These “less than glamorous and perfect” characters make up the undercurrent of the movie’s persistent love and pursuit of dreams. One of the best scenes in One and Only is Ding Lei’s choice when he is confronted by Kevin, a rich young man and ace member of the group, who wants to “buy out” Exclamation Point. On one side is the road to fame and fortune, and on the other side is the thorny path, Ding Lei does not get emotionally attached to his own feelings (or else it would have been too fake), and instead obeys Kevin by kicking out Chen Shuo, who is innocent. .
The key lies in the treatment of the twist, the movie fully demonstrates the exclamation point obey “money” and “easy” after the depression, and then lead to the decision to choose the difficult, heart dance. The owner of the money more money, but also do not share it with me, if you really want to make money, would not have been dancing to dance until now, it was a figure of joy, hold your nose and swallow the anger, belong to the cart before the horse – “One and Only” is good in that it talks about the street dance, if it is to change a more “rich” carrier, persuasive, “money”, “money”, “money”, “money”, “money”, “money”, “money”, “money”, “money”. If it were a more “wealthy” vehicle, I’m afraid the persuasive power would not be so strong. This big twist makes the movie’s keyword “the strong make choices, the weak are chosen” have a more profound interpretation. For me, One and Only deserves praise for being grounded enough, and since these kinds of stories about pursuing dreams can easily become top-heavy in order to emphasize the “dream,” authenticity is especially important.
Ding Lei has already taught Chen Shuo the narrow sense of groundedness, that is, to believe in the stage under his feet, but the larger level of “groundedness” can’t be taught, and can only be realized by each individual – that is, the inextricable connection with life. In the treatment of street dance, Chen Shuo is really a big boy in order to stay in the Exclamation Point Dance Company, “do anything, do not get paid, it does not matter”, but outside the dance, he has always had a full life, and even do not dance, he did not run away from life. At home to help his mother work, take care of his uncle, went out to run a commercial show, washing cars, working to make money to pay off debts, even if into the exclamation point of the salary, he did not give up the past “take off” practicing dance, instead of his mother in order to support his son, once again on the stage singing …… these have not been The human fireworks that have never been cut off is the source of strength for Chen Shuo and all dreamers.
By the way, if you are in Hangzhou, watching One and Only should be very intimate, the story stage is clearly located in Hangzhou, there are many landmarks in the film, including the Hangzhou Grand Theater, the Intercontinental Golden Globe, the Olympic Stadium Center, the Binjiang Garbage Street, etc. Especially Kevin driving a sports car, just a little speed and immediately hit the brakes, the road conditions can be too real. The city atmosphere of welcoming the Asian Games for all people, the little red car speeding past, (empty?). Metro Line 9 Nanyuan Station …… These bits and pieces that make up daily life are all part of the earth’s atmosphere. Only by burying your feet deep into the dirt can you stand properly and let your hands fully unfold to embrace the whole sky. Last but not least, Kevin’s character is too suitable to be the boss: not bad for money, he really loves street dance, but also has real talent and strength, he can rely on buying and buying to put together an all-star dance troupe “Super Kevin” with an international style, multi-cash, excellent, tyrannical, powerful, because it is too typical, and hard to put the exclamation mark, which is a very powerful band. Exclamation Point, a very powerful dance troupe, set off the weak, so that the duel has the feeling of “small power to fight the evil dragon”.
As for the last twenty minutes of the movie, I won’t spoil it (and I can’t), but I can only say that the immersion is full, and it’s a well-deserved climax and a beautiful finale. To sum up, I can’t help but to say one more thing: if you can make a movie like “One and Only” to such an extent, you have to give a big credit to Roc as the choreographer and director.
Please specify：Anime Phone Cases » One and Only 2023 Film Review: Grounded and powerful