Film Name: 八角笼中 / Never Say Never
There aren’t many films that do mass screenings like Never Say Never, and after I missed the screening during Dragon Boat Festival, I was still able to watch it a week before its official release. Only a movie that is extremely confident in itself would dare to do this, and the movie does have the stamina to do so – Wang Baoqiang’s second feature-length film, adapted from the events of the Enbo Fighting Club, is a realistic adaptation of the story of a group of poor kids in the mountains who learn to fight under the leadership of another big kid, and it sells really well.
My biggest feeling after watching Never Say Never is: a group of “savages” who grew up in the savage country, suddenly broke into a strange “civilized society”, they were eaten up and wiped out, and then finally relied on learning the rules of this society! The difference is that they need to put their lives on the line every step of the way. This is a movie that the more it relates to reality, the more chewy it is, and the social significance it conveys should be seen by more people, so between “a good movie with a lot of progress” and “a drama that still has a lot of room for improvement”, I’m still willing to lean towards the former, and give it a solid review. I’d like to give it a solid review.
[Friendly reminder: full spoilers below].
Viewers with a little experience and association can guess the story of Never Say Never as soon as they look at the title and synopsis of Never Say Never, with the “mass-marketed” “Dangal” + “low-intensity” “Dying to Dangal” + ‘Dying to Survive’, the feeling comes immediately. But the plot is good to guess does not mean that the movie is not good, as long as the narrative is in place, and then the “formula” story can be full of interest. Never Say Never’s first point of view is the protagonist Xiang Teng Hui’s process of establishing a bond with a wild child.
The unscrupulous trader Wang Jingfu wanted to borrow the “former city fighting champion” to Tenghui’s name to sell goods to Tenghui, to Tenghui then grabbed a group of wild dolls who had hijacked their own knocking black bricks on the stage, the results of the play did not sing, Wang Jingfu advanced to the group of children’s retention of the problem of the Xiang Tenghui. The prototype of Mt. Otaki is the Daliang Mountain in Sichuan, which was once really penniless – a little bit of “common sense”. A little bit of “common sense” of the ordinary people understand, Otaki Mountain can not help, also can not control. The next step is the routine action of both sides going forward hand in hand for the sake of “mutual benefit”, appropriately displaying the poverty and simplicity of the mountain children, with the daily routine of their training, coupled with the excitement of the children into the octagonal building to earn money by playing exhibition matches, and similar “upgrades I can’t get enough of similar “upgrading” scenes. I have a deep impression of a scene, Su Mu and Tiger in the provincial nightclub by the gangsters to find trouble, rough and fierce Su Mu will grab a knife to stab someone, which and the previous hit a few times to relieve the run, this time to prevent him from hurting (kill) people to Teng Hui in stark contrast. These uneducated” children, in addition to innocence and simplicity, there is a vibrant and dangerous impulses, if no one to teach, in the near future, they are either in the weak and helpless in the annihilation, or in the anger and hatred in the illegal and criminal.
Assistant Wang Feng’s words into the heart of Xiang Teng Hui: you do not want to look through the glass in the future to see that gang of dolls, right? Xiang Teng Hui was once such a hurtful imprisonment of the bitter child, he did not want a similar tragedy to repeat again, not to mention that he this person simply do not know how to pretend …… so, he will certainly will be fake style into a real style, seriously teach the wild children to learn fighting. In fact, in addition to having a son of hard-working perseverance, these mountain children have no other advantage, body bones and weak, but also rely on to Teng Hui to buy them meat to supplement nutrition, do systematic training …… I am quite touching this growth, combined with the recent high school candidates to choose the topic of public opinion of the profession, the more rich and powerful family, the child’s learning The more rich and powerful the family, the more opportunities for the child to learn and trial and error (children from good backgrounds have had a smooth road waiting for them since their birth), and conversely, the more ordinary/bad the family, the fewer opportunities for the child to choose, and even picking a specialty is a matter of comparing and trembling. …… And for the children in Otaki, they have no choice but to take the only road that is in front of them, to Tengfeng. The only road, Xiang Tenghui practiced fighting, they will learn to fight, if Xiang Tenghui is selling sweet potatoes, they will go to do small business.
With this kind of impetus and down-to-earth efforts, Teng Hui Fighting Club’s Big Brother and Second Brother successfully entered the final round of the “Qian Kun Secret”, and followed their paths to the bigger world. After that, “Never Say Never” moves on to the next stage, which is even more interesting: a group of marginalized people, who were originally unnoticed and uncared for, seem to be ignorant barbarians, intruding into a “civilized society”, which is also a place where the weak and the strong are preying on the weak and the weak are not spitting out any bones. For those “victimizers”, this kind of no big money, no background, no foundation of the “countryside”, not to knock, pinch a hand, that are sorry for their own social status, not to mention to Teng Hui sat in jail, have a record, but also used the minors to fight commercial fighting matches Profit, these are time bombs – “Where are we blackmailing you, set you up ah? We’re helping you.” The private school’s principal, Li, said that the children can be free of loan fees, but also return the school degree, the condition is to be two million sponsorship fee, to Teng Hui, the same as the opening of the humble charity hall club, this deal is really worth considering (of course, the school of the benefits of fame and fortune is more beneficial); Qiankun duel organizer Xie director, prompted to Teng Hui to the tiger, Su Mu and other players to other clubs, after all, Teng Hui Club After all, Teng Hui Club is only rely on “can fight” into this circle, share a little “resources” out, you can avoid a lot of open and secret resistance, which is also to Teng Hui slowly demolish the time bomb.
However, Xiang Tenghui and the Shanwazi simply do not understand the rules of the game in this world, and after the historical black information was exposed, they quickly became the object of a thousand accusations. The most ironic thing in this drama is the media behavior with a strong sense of social responsibility – the more powerless and powerless people with no background, the greater the intensity of the interviews by the media, because it is safe enough to come up with attractive reports, the body is full of negative labels and a little bit of money, “the bottom of the social ladder! “Xiang Tenghui, who is labeled negatively and has a little bit of money, is the perfect target for the report. For such a perfect object of criticism, anyone can stand on the moral high ground to scold a few feet, the intensive exposure of the media and exacerbated to Teng Hui and the pressure around him, many children were pulled away, the club also came to a difficult situation. To Teng Hui understand that he is not the group of civilized people’s rivals, play but not play, so he chose to admit defeat, the remaining dolls on his own initiative to turn out, shut down his hand to establish and grow the “place of wrongdoing”.
It’s just that the CJ Club boss is too sinister and vicious, after tricking Mahu and Su Mu, he uses them when he can, and once there is a sign of powerlessness, he wants to feed the prohibited drugs, even if he destroys them, even if he might just be running towards the breach of contract that he can’t afford to pay to Teng Hui……. People will be bullied mostly just because they’re weak, and there’s no one else to stand up for He said, “I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do. Learned the truth to Teng Hui, angry to beat the CJ Club boss to get back the contract, the result can only be the other side kicked off the arm and returned to no avail …… back to look at the road to those who change their face performance, to Teng Hui gradually understand: only a face of him can not afford to turn over the wind and waves, he not only want to play, but also have to play to win. Lack of access, notoriety, he eventually chose to borrow the media counterattack, he learned the rules, through live television played a beautiful big show. Knowing that the program team will eat himself up on camera, Xiang Teng Hui showed the embarrassment of being ambushed by sharp questions, so as to create his “can’t lie, straight-talking” straight persona; at the same time, he added fuel to the fire by confessing that he is a liar who cheats children to practice fighting, inhumane physical training, to put the people who resent and loathe their blood pressure full, but also emphasize that he is a liar, and that he is not a good fighter. At the same time, he is also emphasizing that “except for me, even those who lie to them don’t get it”, to further win the sympathy and support of those who approve of him, and he gets the attention and voice of both positive and negative groups of people.
The most desperate move, is the prison of the sloppy reprimand to Teng Hui irresponsible to sell them, if the heart is guilty to Teng Hui to tell the truth, will admit fault, but he bites the sloppy is ungrateful white-eyed wolves – although two people throughout the spit out the truth can also be effective, but on the “change of the status quo “This goal, the CJ Club implied to the Teng Hui and illegal interests of associates, more immediate effect …… to Teng Hui to bear more criticism, quickly exchanged for Su Mu and other people’s free agency. This scene, I can not help but think of the reality of Wang Baoqiang’s two past: one is the public opinion tide of divorce with Ma Rong in 2016, in the case of the unfavorable start, Wang Baoqiang timely stop loss, steady and steady, and has not exploded what substantial black material, in the view of outsiders, he not only won, but also won beautifully; the second is that in 2017, the first time he directed the movie Buddies in India, box office sales but The word of mouth is very bad, won the Golden Broom “most disappointing director” award, Wang Baoqiang party invited, personally on stage to accept the award to accept the criticism, and state to know the shame and then courage. Xiang Teng Hui in the theater is very much like Wang Baoqiang outside the theater, both have a true and sincere qualities and color, they are not necessarily all simple and honest, you can be sure that they are absolutely not stupid. In addition to the above feelings, Never Say Never also uses a lot of upscale “movie language”, such as relying on different mirror reflections to make the lens narrative, such as Xiang Teng Hui constantly learns to smoke a cigar to symbolize his growth from a fake style to a real style, and so on, all of these attempts, the careful audience will see.
The most typical is the ending of the Su Mu fight, is also the only detailed portrayal of the entire film, even if the entire black and white picture to reduce the level of violence, but also difficult to hide the objective existence of the fighting process of blood and cruelty (last night sat next to me, the big sister, watching this scene in the heart of the heart of the “tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk,” a number of times).
This fight is the best technical summary of Never Say Never and the lives of the mountain children in the movie: whether in good times or bad, whether practical or tricky, for some people, every step they take has to be made with blood and sweat.
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