Film Name: 永安镇故事集 / Ripples of Life
Yesterday’s release of Wei Shujun’s new film “Ripples of Life”, in the sequence of domestic literary films is quite a remarkable gossip, publicity, gimmicks, attracted a lot of people’s attention.
The movie is not as bitter or dull as other movies of the same genre, but still has the banter and comedy of life in it, so it’s not hard to watch, no matter what the preferences of the audience, more or less can find fun in it.
The movie is divided into three chapters: Waiting Alone, It Looks Beautiful, and The Pluto Moment. It can be simply summarized as – those who are in Wingate can’t get out, those who are out of Wingate can’t get back, and those who are in Wingate can’t get in.
Ripples of Life is about “ripples of life” through three chapters of stories and characters, which is something on a narrative level, but on a larger creative level, it still has a lot of room for improvement.
(Friendly reminder: spoilers below.)
Ripples of Life is a play-within-a-play about a film crew that arrives in the town of Wingate to shoot a movie, bringing a ripple of calm and then a return of tranquility to the little place.
The protagonist of the first chapter, “Waiting Alone”, is Xiao Gu, a pretty young woman who does not fit in with the town and has no way out.
Originally, she could have lived a peaceful life in the midst of discontent and ignorance, buying food and cooking to serve customers when she was busy, and walking her children to get a tan and a melon seed when she was not busy-until the theater crew moved into Yongan Township.
Xiao Gu, who has not yet been completely worn away from the edges and visions, gradually became more active, she began to draw eyebrows, do nails, weaned her child, and put more thought into contact with the crew, especially after the director chose her as the “real boss lady with a sense of life” to try on costumes and styling, Xiao Gu even had the illusion of getting away from the original boring life.
Because the film crew is a variable from the outside world, a ray of hope, Xiao Gu will unconsciously want to grab it …… However, after the film heroine Chen Chen came, the documentary director abandoned her, everyone watched her “performance” fish, she realized that Everything is an illusion and a bubble.
Waiting Alone makes extensive use of fixed camera angles, which symbolizes the theme of this chapter, “Nothing happens in Yongan Town”.
In addition, Gu hears Mr. Wan Feng’s frantic words in his husband’s car urging people to get divorced, which is absolutely brilliant, as anyone who is a little older and used to listen to the radio regularly will understand.
The second chapter, “Little Red Flowers,” features Chen Chen, the “big star,” an actress who left Yongan Town but can never return.
The title of the chapter already explains the character’s predicament: she looks glamorous and honored, but in reality, she’s struggling to make it, with thorns and thistles all over the place, and no way back.
Chen Chen has terminated her contract with the original company and has not filmed for nearly a year, but she will take on the role largely because she has no choice. But now that she is back, she tries to find some lost things in her hometown, such as relief from nostalgia and the friendship of her classmates, etc. However, everything has been wrong for a long time.
However, everything has long been characters are not: all dealings with Chen Chen friends and relatives, only want to borrow her reputation to achieve their own goals (for the new tourism area, to the children to go to school, acting to make connections); not snobbish classmates Xin Xin, but also feel ashamed of themselves, and find ways not to deal with her; and even the familiar streets and lanes, but also in the township of large development in the flood of the face is not the same.
After being “hurt” by her old classmate Chen Hong, Chen Chen is once again convinced of why she wants to leave Yongan: not for the money or the awakening of women’s consciousness, but simply to get away from the life here.
Yang Zishan’s performance in the movie is beautifully out of place, not quite out and not able to come back, meaning that she is trapped in a spiritual Yongan town.
The third chapter, The Pluto Moment, features the director and screenwriter of the production, a pair of happy-go-lucky characters caught in a creative rift, always wanting to break up but having to hold together.
Unlike the characters in the first two chapters, the director and writer, Chun Lei, are both outsiders to Wingate, not rooted in the area and not discovering the story in the town, which is the key eye of the play in this chapter.
At first glance, it sounds like the two are finally talking about the concept of film creation, and the content of the dispute makes sense, with Chun Lei insisting on “nothing happens here” and the director emphasizing “the actions of the characters”, and all sorts of lofty/metaphysical… …But to the audience, the two of them say things how to listen to how twisted.
Because the two are essentially the same, are the Yongan town of “come”, Xiao Gu and Chen Chen and others on the real Yongan town story they can not find, they only want to Yongan town, this ordinary, ordinary, lack of shocking town to tell their own stories, self-expression of art.
This chapter of the story is full of banter, irony and self-deprecation, standing on the filmmaker’s point of view to be extremely derogatory and deconstructive, the love affair between the director and the screenwriter is not to mention, there are also misunderstandings about the female lead actor, pulling the strings of the producer, and the politeness of the critics and so on are all reflected in the story ……
They’ve never really fit into Wingate, but the world they live in is just a bigger Wingate.
It should be said that Ripples of Life accomplishes the ripples in the town that rise and fall away, and the buzz of the opening ceremony at the end of the film signals a greater serenity, and is overall a funny, watchable, chewy literary film.
But it’s still some way from being a great movie.
I guess it’s really a matter of “feeling” – especially in a movie that’s full of ideas, quotes, imagery, and self-reflexivity, it requires a light touch of expression, as well as the power to make it work.
To be honest, I didn’t know much about Wei Shujun before, and Ripples of Life was my first contact with him. While the movie is “good-looking and watchable”, my impression is that “the creator is ahead of his work”, and that it still needs more The movie needs more precipitation and play, especially the most crucial third chapter shows a certain degree of confusion, which is a sign of lack of fire. ……
Of course, the above slander will not affect my approval of the film, so I still recommend that those who have the conditions, you can go to see “every day there are stories happening in the town of Yongan”.
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