Film Name: 绑架游戏 / Welcome To The Game
As the only significant new film to open on the first weekend after the National Day, “Welcome To The Game” has not made much of a splash at the box office or in the conversation these past few days. ……
When I saw the trailer, I didn’t find it very appealing, and after watching the movie, I was even more convinced: it’s a rather sketchy and awkward suspense movie, from the costumes, to the sets, to the characters, to the relationships and the plotting, all of them are hardly outstanding, and the only part of the suspense and the reversal that is worthwhile is just superficially established – the more you think about it, the more you’ll realize that it’s not a good movie at all, and that it’s not a good movie at all.
As soon as you think about it, the more you think about it, the worse it gets, and if you don’t think about it, you can barely watch it, after all, the whole movie is only 90 minutes long.
In addition to star Peng Yuchang, “Welcome To The Game” most well-known sign, in fact, is the original author Keigo Higashino, as well as the producer Han Yan: the former although famous, but its novels in the domestic film and television drama adaptation, quality work is really a lack of good; the latter’s resume is more beautiful, and to a certain extent, I was holding to see the “mini version of” Animal World “””. I went to the movie with the mindset of seeing a “mini version of Animal World”.
I went in with the intention of seeing a “miniature version of Animal World”, but apart from a couple of similarities in the first few scenes, the movie is not at all comparable to Han Yan’s Animal World of 2018, and it’s hard to get into.
First of all, there is a very impressive point, the lack of funds, but also hard to concave high-end – I rarely think of the crew poor, after all, how much money to do how many things, but “Welcome To The Game” is poor to make me feel very harsh, which puts the story stage in “a country in the Pacific”, trying to create a sense of “a country in the Pacific”, trying to create a sense of “a country in the Pacific”. It sets its story in “a country in the Pacific” and tries to create an environment where “the surface is thriving and prosperous, but the reality is that the rich and poor are so different that they are mixed up with the rich and the poor,” but in terms of the hardware performance, it is a patchwork of a few second-, third- and fourth-tier cities in China, plus a few unsuitable scenes stitched together.
A lot of things are measured, but the movie reveals a state of overwhelm and a small-mindedness that those who have seen the movie will understand.
Another problem with “Welcome To The Game” is that its characters are almost always missing, and you can’t tell what they really want.
The plot of the movie is simply that Qin Haipei, a mega-rich man who is preparing to run for Congress, devises a fake kidnapping in order to cover up a family scandal, with his daughter Qin Xiaoyao and poor boy Lu Fei both being important pawns in the scheme.
I always found it strange when watching the movie because the theoretical personas of the main characters were often at odds with their actual words and actions: Lu Fei is supposed to be a kind, intelligent, and calm person, but the source of his kindness is unknown, and he falls into traps due to greed and loses his mind due to his anger; Qin Xiaoyao seems to be obedient to her father but at the same time, she wants to be free and doesn’t want to be a part of the family scandal. Qin Xiaoyao seems to be obedient to her father, but at the same time, she also longs for freedom and doesn’t want to be a “bird in a cage”, but her behavior in the movie is not a dilemma, but a change of face, and she doesn’t rely on the left and right; Qin Haipei is a big man who plays with human nature and is skillful at scheming, but since he has so many powerful resources, he doesn’t need to play this risky game at all! ……
There was also the true and false feelings between Lu Fei and Qin Xiaoyao, the unimpressive relationship between Qin Xiaoyao and Qin Haipei, and the one-on-one rivalry between Lu Fei and Qin Haipei, all of which were unsatisfactory.
To put it bluntly, the characters and relationships in “Welcome To The Game” are too flat, and they are all just there to serve a suspenseful plot, like a one- or two-hour scripted kill-off in an impromptu group, and even if the story succeeds, it’s still a lame duck that loses sight of the bigger picture.
Besides, the suspenseful plot part of the movie was not shot well ah.
In a good suspense movie, the clues should be laid out in a clear but unintentional way, the narrative process should be smooth and not downright intellectual, and the reversal of the explosive point should be natural, smooth, and unexpected, but it is a pity that “Welcome To The Game” can step on these rhythms in the pace of very few.
The clues are buried too deliberately (close-ups of the fifth person on the way out of the door, etc.), and there are many sudden plot twists (Lu Fei’s chance encounter with Qin Xiaoyao, and the various incidental events on the trip to Haicheng, etc.), and all of these unnatural places are hinting at, or indicating to, the audience that “there’s going to be a big reversal later on”, and the movie has already reached the point of being head-over-heels in order to create an atmosphere of reversal. In order to create an atmosphere of reversal, the movie has reached the point where it does not care about the head but the butt, and there are situations such as repeated characters and awkward lines.
When we really see the last few reversals, really can not talk about how much pleasure …… suspense film should be the ideal state of the thunder, water to the canal, rather than beating the drums, boasting, not to mention blowing still not work.
Of course, all of these feelings are based on the unconscious brain when watching the movie, if you can let go of the past experience, simply watch the process, “Welcome To The Game” is not impossible to watch, at least the story is complete, Hu Bingqing is very eye-catching, Yao Yura’s performance of the action is also a little something, but that’s about it…. …
That said, after last year’s box-office cold spell for a large number of rough remakes of suspense movies, this year there are significantly fewer of them, and this time “Welcome To The Game” continues to be cold, so there should be even fewer people to follow the trend, right? If that’s true, it’s a good thing.
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