Film Name: 热带往事 / Are You Lonesome Tonight？
Dragon Boat Festival holiday release of a host of new films, I only have interest in the only Are You Lonesome Tonight, for the simple reason that the origin, the card, the configuration are quite sellable.
At present, the reality of the market has given a reaction: from June 12 row rate first, box office second, to June 14 row rate eighth, box office directly knocked down to the million-dollar level …… Obviously, the audience is not too buy.
Personally, I have a positive attitude towards this film, especially from the perspective of a “domestic crime” movie – Are You Lonesome Tonight has to a certain extent jumped out of the homogenization of the genre. Are You Lonesome Tonight is to a certain extent out of the homogenization of the genre, focusing on psychological depiction and audio-visual experience, which is very innovative and flavorful.
What’s more, it’s the debut feature film of newcomer Wen Shipei.
[Friendly reminder: there will be spoilers below].
Before talking about the film, I have to mention the “Bad Monkey 72 Changes Film Project” organized by Ning Hao.
As a program and platform for Chinese filmmakers to “pass on”, although there aren’t too many films out there, they are all basically of some strength, including three debut films by new directors, namely Wen Muye’s Dying to Survive, Shen Ao’s My Dear Liar, and this time, Wen Shipei’s Are You Lonesome Tonight? Wen Shipei’s Are You Lonesome Tonight.
Producer Ning Hao, while bringing in newcomers, has also been able to take care of their explorations and experiments in film genres to the fullest extent possible, and Are You Lonesome Tonight is one of the few domestic crime films in recent years that presents its story in a more purely “cinematic language”.
The main reason why many people don’t like “Are You Lonesome Tonight” is that the movie uses a lot of time and space intertwined “broken” narrative structure to tell an uncomplicated crime story, which is too much of a mystery, and the movie-going experience is not good… …I don’t really agree with this, because “suspense” is not a necessary condition for a crime movie.
In recent years, crime movies (regardless of Chinese and foreign), most of them will go to the “suspenseful brain” or “exciting hot” two directions to rely on, and the former is often better reputation masterpiece, so we are a little bit as an indispensable element, but any type of film should not be “formulaic”. But no genre film should be held to a formula.
In fact, “Are You Lonesome Tonight” begins with the fact that the main character, Wang Xueming (played by Eddie Peng), has been sentenced to prison, and if we have to say that there is any suspense, it’s just how he ended up in this situation.
But if you watch the film with all your heart, you will realize that the focus of the film is not on setting up and solving puzzles, but on the psychological changes and entanglements of the “suspect” Wang Xueming himself.
This is my favorite key point of “Are You Lonesome Tonight”, it puts Wang Xueming that kind of illusory contradiction, panic, frantic, guilt and also some of the complex state of mind of the sweet, in a more figurative form of expression, self-conflicting and organic combination of the more depraved, the more difficult to extricate themselves.
Thinking that he ran over the victim, Lao Liang, and threw the body in a panic, after a short period of panic and fluke, after seeing Lao Liang’s missing person notice, there is no doubt that Wang Xueming’s heart was immediately occupied by a deep sense of guilt, but he is the kind of forward-looking, hesitant “wimpy” character, and so there is a lack of resolute to the police to turn themselves in, to the survivors of the So there is a coy scene in which he is not resolute in surrendering to the police and apologizing to the survivor, Liang Ma (played by Zhang Aijia).
The best part is that in addition to the dominant atonement mentality, Wang Xue Ming also has a little bit of enjoyment of crime wrapped up in it.
Atonement mentality naturally need not be detailed, Wang Xueming went to great lengths to get close to Liang Ma, the original intention and purpose is to personally confess the crime to her and apologize …… But in fact, the corresponding words and deeds in the end but always changed flavor, the desire for truth and confession of the action, often alienated into the uncontrollable voyeurism and nonviolent aggression.
One of the strongest pieces of evidence is that, whether they like the movie or not, most viewers believe that Peng Yuyan should have rolled a cooler with Zhang Aijia in that dry heat.
There’s something to be said for a progressive atonement/criminal mindset that’s extremely repressed, extremely silent, and yet cautiously explosive, and that can be captured so beautifully on paper.
However, the above feeling only lasts for half of the film, and the second half of Are You Lonesome Tonight switches to a different style, shedding the psychological changes of the characters as well as the story line of Liang’s mother, and replacing it with a more intuitive, externalized multi-stranded narrative and audio-visual techniques.
After learning that Lao Liang was “shot to death”, the movie suddenly enters a more “conventional” narrative rhythm, Wang Xueming begins to find the truth, chasing after one case after another, the heart less tortured, jumping around in a tawdry operation more.
For example, some seemingly inexplicable but very in tune with the black humor, blind and not blind constantly singing “Are You Lonesome Tonight” blind singer, want to show a homemade pistol but let himself see the blood of black gun dealers, a big grin towards the sky to shoot to stop the bloodshed of the market security guards, etc., are very interesting! .
Another example is the chase scene between Wang Xueming and the toolman killer, which has large sections of all-black or bright light to create a sense of realism, as well as the sound of key chains and footsteps to amplify the feeling of the scene, and the effect is first-rate.
The styles before and after Are You Lonesome Tonight are different, if not ripped apart, and while my personal esteem for the movie stems mostly from the first half, the second half is just as good.
At least one thing is certain: the audiovisual language of the movie is quite good, both before and after.
The first half of the movie is filled with a lot of translucent warm colors, and even the night scenes have a lot of red and yellow accents. Director Wen Shi-pei, who is from Guangdong, has fully mobilized the looks and smells of the summer in Guangdong as he remembers them, with waterlogged puddles, damp buildings, wilting cicadas, fans and air-conditioning units. …… has created the best choreography for the hot, depressing, and boring Wang Xueming’s mind and soul. mind to create the best choreography.
The second half is the opposite, dominated by large sections of dark tones, and even some scenes with a lot of light are cramped and disturbing because of the green or purple or bleak white color scheme, adding another three points of crisis to the kind of atmosphere that contains life-threatening dangers.
By the way, the 1990s is really suitable for domestic crime movie material library, opening up and the market economy has begun to bear fruit, the gap between rich and poor is widening, the old and new concepts are in constant conflict, technology, the rule of law and the social environment has not yet been transformed into a perfect …… It was a “freedom “Relatively generous era, looking forward to the future there are more based on the 90’s crime movie appeared.
Of course, saying such good things about Are You Lonesome Tonight doesn’t mean that I don’t understand why many viewers were not impressed by the film. After all, the audio-visual techniques and the language of the movie are quite praised, but they are not particularly innovative or unique, and the slight achievement is not enough to make up for the weakness of the movie’s story.
However, in my opinion, this is not a big deal. It is not easy for a debut film to be so successful, and director Wen Shipei’s basic skills and ideas are impressive enough to believe that he can come up with something better next time.
Please specify：Yescase Store » Are You Lonesome Tonight 2021 Film Review: Another way to play crime movies