Film Name: 姜子牙 / Legend of Deification
Word of mouth is polarizing.
As a matter of fact, the highly anticipated “Legend of Deification” had already borne attention far beyond its own “magnitude” even before its release, and the high exposure brought about by the most rows of films on the first day of release, the highest box office, and countless discussions has further magnified all of its qualities! …… It’s a good thing that a domestic animated movie, which took a lot of effort to produce, deserves such attention.
I went into Legend of Deification with a normal heart (I didn’t have high subjective expectations before the movie), so I have a relatively calm understanding of the movie, and in response to the parts of the plot that many viewers are dissatisfied with, I hope that we can all figure out one thing: Legend of Deification has a good story, but it’s just not told well, and that doesn’t affect the depth and ideas of the story itself. It’s just not told well, but that doesn’t take away from the depth and thoughtfulness of the story itself.
We can feel sorry for the movie’s poor narrative, but don’t let that distract you from the good qualities and positive aspects of the movie.
[Friendly reminder: there will be spoilers below].
As a technologically advanced form of artistic expression, animation is all about the graphics, and in that regard, Legend of Deification is stunning.
The opening of the “war of the gods” came to a preemptive, these minutes of 2D animation narrative is still secondary, said to show off the skills is more or less …… imposing, bold colors, see inside a large number of borrowed from the traditional Chinese ancient paintings (such as Dunhuang mural) art style, the atmosphere and visual tension of the scene is very full. The scene atmosphere and visual tension are very full.
As for the back of the film in the scene can be more, “Legend of Deification” of the special effects lens reached 1300, accounting for 70% of the film, there are a lot of places where the audience can obviously feel inside the degree of intent, such as the North Sea tavern fighting scene, action sub-direction sophisticated and spontaneous, Nine Tails, Xuan Bird, Tianzun and other roles, the lines of detail out of the way, out of the fast there is a quick The movie’s scenic design is not as smooth as it sounds, but it is also slow and “immortal”.
In addition, the scene design of the movie is not particularly rich, but it is very eye-catching.
The sometimes bright and sometimes gloomy Jingxu Palace, the frozen North Sea where spirits tremble, the dim and mysterious Yudu Mountain, and the gentle and mysterious Returning Ruins all add to the atmosphere of the corresponding parts of the movie.
I won’t go into the merits of the production, and the results are generally recognized, so let’s focus on the setting and story.
According to director Cheng Teng, “Legend of Deification” adopts a “spiral iteration” approach to developing the script, so that there is a certain degree of nesting between the previous and subsequent parts, and the logic and subplots will not run too far.
Take some unobtrusive but important tips and designs in the movie, it’s very effective to handle them in this way.
For example, the bone bells that can be seen everywhere in the ancient battlefields and ruins, Xiao Jiu felt some familiar strangeness when she saw them, and Jiang Ziya explained that this is the living’s remembrance and tribute to the dead, as well as the significance of guiding for the dead – not only did it explain the setting for their subsequent battle with the skeleton of the spirit of the ghosts in Mount Yudu, but it also laid the emotional groundwork for Xiao Jiu when she remembered that she was the son of This not only explains the setting for their subsequent battle with the Grieving Skeletons at Yudu Mountain, but also sets the mood for the wind chimes in Xiaojiu’s home when she remembers she’s Su Daji.
Similarly, there are also the spirits, they are the lonely souls who died in the wrong way, they can not find their way home and can not be superseded, can only roam the earth, the deeper the resentment accumulates – after this, led to the Xuan Bird to comfort the dead souls of the peace, but also explains the return to the ruins of the seal of the countless foxes in the back of the spirit of the Heavenly Father that the ulterior motives of the secret.
However, even though Legend of Deification has a delicate structural design, the direct perception of the movie is not good …… Thinking about it, I can only attribute it to the movie’s “too much restraint” in shaping the characters and advancing the narrative.
We have to understand, this movie is about the war of the gods 10 years later, should be successful, ranked in the immortal class of the Jiang Ziya disturbed “cognitive dissonance” story, in addition to borrowing a batch of names and basic settings, essentially and the “list of the gods” has nothing to do with the many characters and emotional entanglements have to be redone.
At the same time, Legend of Deification is not a comedy, but a serious and cautious drama, with only a few moments of lightheartedness (the biggest laughs are in the colorful eggs), and very little entertainment, which puts higher demands on the film’s narrative ability and characterization.
It is not difficult to find that the characters in the movie appear to be “simple”, focusing only on depicting the most important aspects of the characters’ personality, which can certainly highlight the distinctive characteristics of the characters, for example, the curmudgeonly and firmness of Jiang Ziya, the cunning and resentment of Nine Tails, and the moralistic appearance of Tian Zun, but at the same time, it also leads to the result of profiling (and that is why Shen Gongbao becomes the most three-dimensional character in the whole movie). the most three-dimensional character in the whole movie).
This leads to a general lack of connection between the characters, and the emotions of many of the scenes are not conveyed. The obvious one is the relationship between Jiang Ziya – Si Bu – Xiao Jiu, the interaction, padding and so on are all quite a lot, but after the sacrifice of Si Bu’s feeling is still a bit cold ……
What’s worse, according to the characteristics of “Legend of Deification”, the space left for it to advance the plot is not generous, but the movie still has to slice and dice the story in sections, making the sparse rhythm feel even more flimsy.
It can be said that, from the Jiang Ziya out of the North Sea boundary to chase Xiaojiu, to Jiang Ziya sent Xiaojiu into the return of the market to reveal the truth, the main part of this long section of the narrative are “collapsed”, the story is not gripping enough, the viewing experience is poor (or very bad, this point varies from person to person).
You should know that at this time from the end of the movie only half an hour less than, no matter how the plot of the later peaks and turns, has lost the “lost points”, in any case, can not be pulled back.
But..! Legend of Deification does have a good script that is mature and insightful, and in the end it gets the point of the story right. Cutting and parsing the ginger in the movie layer by layer, we get the flavor of the story.
The first layer of Jiang Ziya is a righteous man with the heart of eliminating demons and defending the way of the world, and a tool man with the courage to charge into battle and win over the three armies;
The second layer of Jiang Ziya, is the view of good and evil provoked by the chaos, is kicked out of the comfort zone for “reflection” of the middle-aged social animals;
The third layer of Jiang Ziya is the defender who can’t let go of the people and the one person, and the mortal who still wants to believe in everything (the best line in the whole movie is “The immortals don’t lie to people, do they? –I won’t lie to you!” );
The fourth level of Jiang Ziya, is the return to the true and loyal pure people, but also began to detach from the mundane, with a hint of divinity, called the “return of Taigong”.
My favorite scene in the film, is the white hair of Jiang Ziya cut off the nine tails and small nine of the same life locks, Jingxu Palace to welcome him back to the position, Jiang Ziya climbed the ladder again, do not take the reward, the anti-questioning, not afraid of the twelve Golden Immortals, fearless intimidation, fear of the Heavenly Father, silent divine punishment, stepped through the palace buildings, chopping the so-called “heaven” and the earth’s another one! The so-called “heavenly realm” and the earth another “same life lock”.
Although the setting of “there are heavens beyond the heavens” is a bit of a thief, Jiang Ziya’s behavior when he dared to destroy everything was truly treacherous. …… On the antagonism and unity of the individual and the living, on the downgrading and upgrading of man and God, on the philosophical thinking about predestination and reincarnation, “Legend of Heaven” is an exploration of the concept of the “heavenly world” and the “life of the world”. The deep thoughts contained in Legend of Deification can’t be easily summarized by the phrase “My destiny is mine but not God’s” – forgive me for not being able to say anything deeper at this point in time.
Personally, I’m not a fan of comparisons, but this is the easiest way to make a point right now: last year’s Ne Zha had a mediocre script (easy to understand and even a bit clichéd) but good storytelling (great pacing and comedic relief), and this year’s Legend of Deification has a great script (deep and complex aftermath), but bad storytelling (poor viewing experience). This year’s Legend of Deification has a great script (deep, complex aftermath) but a poor story (poor viewing experience).
Both anime are good movies, but judging from the audience’s reaction, it’s clear that people need “someone who can tell a good story” more than “a good story”.
I don’t know if you have noticed, animation has become the most likely “breakthrough” type of domestic movie in terms of scripts. …… hope that the future of domestic animation, not only good picture, good production, but also a good story and will tell the story of the people, the audience is always looking for! The audience always wants more, and we all want the good stuff!
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