Film Name: 中国机长 / The Captain
on this year’s National Day cinema “big three” (“My People, My Country”, “The Climbers”, “The Captain”), “The Captain” is probably the “volume “The Captain” is probably the smallest of the ‘big three’ (“My People, My Country”, ‘The Climbers’, ‘The Captain’), lacking the ‘atmosphere’ of the other two in terms of both subject matter and story, and with the weakest promotional scale. ……
However, after watching the screening, I think the movie has the potential to become a dark horse, and its simple story and small size are its strengths.
And most of the Hong Kong film directors in the north, Liu Weiqiang in the mainland is also facing the same situation of incompatibility, in recent years there is no good work to get out – this time he learned smart, know how to avoid the shortcomings and focus on the “micro” level of the portrayal, coupled with the pace of the control properly! This time, he has learned to avoid his shortcomings and focus on the “micro” level.
Of course, The Captain, which is more of an assembly line product, won’t become a classic, but it’s still an above-average commercial movie in the current climate.
[Friendly reminder: spoilers below].
The movie is based on the real events of May 14, 2018, when the crew of Sichuan Airlines Flight 3U8633 successfully disposed of a special situation: the plane suddenly encountered an extremely rare dangerous situation of the cockpit windshield glass bursting and falling off and the cockpit releasing pressure at 10,000 meters, and the crew did not panic in the face of danger and disposed of the situation correctly, which ensured the lives of all the people on board and created a miracle in the history of civil aviation in the world.
How to interpret such a story, which has been finalized and has no suspense, in a richer way? The answer is: fill.
The Captain introduces a large number of trivial moments of airport affairs and staff life, which are shown in the opening credits in a detailed and to-the-point manner, such as crew report assembly, airport ground handling routine inspection, tower broadcasting deployment information, etc. Although it is not directly related to the main plot of the movie, its professional display and build-up effect can better achieve the “pre-emptive” effect.
Although there is no direct relationship with the main plot of the film, but its professional display and padding role better to do the “preemptive”, for the audience who are usually not familiar with the civil aviation workflow and the state of the audience can also see a fresh, easy to enter the subsequent main theme.
It must be said that Liu Weiqiang is quite good at filming people, and “The Captain” is especially eye-catching as he puts all his effort into filming it.
For the men, Zhang Han Yu, Du Jiang, Ou Hao, for the women, Yuan Quan, Zhang Tian Ai, Li Qin, Ya Mei, Yang Qiru, middle-aged and mature, young and vibrant, sunny and handsome, gentle and sweet, there are all kinds of –
You do not care which role they played (90% of the audience can not distinguish between the four stewards after watching the movie), and do not care how well they acted, at least once the uniforms are worn there, just sells the look is not bad …… Although a little cheesy, superficial, but “good looking! “The first thing you need to do is to get a good look.
The good looks and backdrops are only the icing on the cake, and the real merit of “The Captain” is that it takes a simple plot and makes it work with twists and turns.
To put it bluntly, the crisis in the movie looks thrilling, but there are only three key points that will really cause the plane to crash, namely: the cockpit glass breaks, the cabin pressure release is unexpected, the plane has to go through the thunderclouds, before and after the complete loss of contact with the plane, the overweight landing in Chengdu airport, and the last-minute safe landing.
In the real “5-14 Sichuan Airlines flight landing in Chengdu incident”, the duration of the whole accident is only 30 to 40 minutes, less than an hour, while the movie has to tell the most critical part of the ending without suspense in a much longer period of time in a vivid and not boring way.
After splitting the three nodes above, “filler” plays a big role.
Some of the relationships and conversations of the crew, the passengers who each have their own story or persona, the reactions of people at the airports in Chongqing, Chengdu, and Lhasa, the deployment of civil aviation and military personnel, the family and friends of the characters involved, and a wave of aviation enthusiasts and other people who are eating their hearts out ……
These people also participated together in this thrilling airplane self-rescue event, making the movie have more different perspectives, not too boring.
It’s also because of the other characters and elements mingled into the movie that a few of The Captain’s major scenes can be presented with more relevance.
“Good pacing” is the main strength of the movie (and even saves the movie from being a disappointment in itself), especially in the middle and first sections, which are well modulated, comfortable to watch, and have a strong sense of immersion. On the other hand, the middle and latter parts of the movie are a bit out of control, and the “tiredness” of the movie has increased, which is a pity.
In such a commercial movie that relies on editing and pacing to win, there is not much room for the actors to play, and it has been proved that if you take a magnifying glass to look at the performance of the characters in the movie, you will find that there is really not much that can be left.
Among the many actors, I personally think that the best performance is Yuan Quan, who plays the role of Bi Nan, the chief stewardess.
Bi Nan’s persona is a bit of a delight in the first place, in the position of “Deputy C” after the captain, always leading a group of “warblers” under her command, and having to deal with all kinds of passengers and different affairs, which gives her the richest and most multilayered performance opportunities in the whole movie. This gives her the richest and most multilayered performance opportunities in the whole movie.
Among them, the most representative is when Bi Nan calms down the passengers before the return of the airliner and when the scene is about to get out of control, which is also one of the few highlights of the whole movie.
In contrast, the performance of the first protagonist Liu Changjian is “water” – not that Zhang Hanyu is not good, but this movie really did not give him many opportunities.
My deepest impression is a small detail: when Liu Changjian found the cracks on the windshield, he reported the situation to the ground control center in a tone completely different from the usual one, and at the same time asked to return to the flight immediately, hesitant and nervous, which shows that in the face of such an unexpected situation, Liu Changjian himself was also afraid.
Of course, more often Zhang Hanyu is to maintain Liu Changjian’s cool and calm (thus causing the character character is a bit flat is also helpless) look, especially in the middle and latter part of the manual pilot part, it is the whole time no extra action, can only be fixed through the eyes, expression and even the voice of the heart to reflect the role of the difficult and difficult …… just as in order to The actuality of the event is restored at the expense of some of the thickness of the characters.
Even so, when flight 3U8633 really safe landing, Liu Changjian steadily to the passengers said “sorry”, or look particularly handsome.
Overall, The Captain is a skillfully crafted and cleverly made disaster movie, with enough extras to make it more watchable, but the movie is also countered by the fact that many of the late additions are redundant, and the movie would have been tighter and more exciting if it had been streamlined to less than an hour and a half. If it could have been streamlined a bit and pared down to less than an hour and a half, I believe the movie would have been tighter and more exciting.
The Captain was shot in just a few months, so it’s a good thing that it was made this way. After all, the starting point was so high. …… If you’re looking for a simple and relaxing movie-going experience, then this is a good choice.
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