Film Name: 攀登者 / The Climbers
Before the release of this year’s “Big Three” (My People, My Country, The Climbers, and The Captain) in National Day theaters, one of the most hyped films was The Climbers: the theme was appropriate and prominent, and the main actors, such as Wu Jing, had enough appeal to make audiences look forward to it. Wu Jing and other key actors had enough appeal to make audiences look forward to it.
However, after watching the screening of the film on September 28th, I am certain that “The Climbers” will not be able to achieve the expected results in terms of both word of mouth and box office. ……
Many people’s fears have been realized once again – writer-director Lee Yan-kong really hasn’t made much progress, and even though there’s a quality subject matter this time around and producer Tsui Hark to help keep an eye on things, the final result is still not the right flavor.
For mountaineering, it’s crucial to bring the right gear and remove the unnecessary weight, and the biggest problem with The Climbers is that it doesn’t add enough weight to what it should, and it adds more to what it shouldn’t.
[Friendly reminder: there will be spoilers below].
Let’s start with the strengths and then move on to the weaknesses.
“Why Everest?” This question has different answers inside and outside the movie, in the past and now. For the members of the Chinese mountaineering team in 1960 and 1975, it was more like a mission and a dream to reach for the moon in the ninth heaven.
Regarding this part of history, those who have the heart can go to understand on their own …… Nowadays, the modern ordinary people who are relatively more affluent materially and spiritually may find it hard to imagine that kind of spiritual pursuit of sacrificing their lives and forgetting about their own deaths, but in that era when the world was more backward than the world, with three years of disasters and ten years of catastrophes, “Faith “was the last stubbornness that many people had no choice but to have.
All of the above is to show that the subject matter of The Climbers has unparalleled advantages and plasticity, which allows the film to be open to “melodramatic” output, even if some slogans and sensationalism are acceptable – from this point of view alone! The film accomplishes the bare minimum, and any accusations against the subject matter itself are untenable.
At the same time, The Climbers’ location shooting, highland landscapes, professional coverage, and action design are all plus points, and deserve praise.
The highlight of the movie is undoubtedly the experience of the Chinese mountaineering team’s two ascents of Mount Everest before and after, with one end brief and the other exhaustive, each with its own focus.
Fang Wuzhou recalls that the 1960 summit was responsible for “starting”, encountering an avalanche, sacrificing the camera to save Qu Songlin, the old captain handing over the baton, and the three of them making their first summit of Everest in the early hours of the morning, which is not very long, but is rich in content and solid, and buries a number of the movie’s drama in it.
In contrast, the 1975 second ascent has more and more content, and despite the obvious loss of compactness, there’s plenty of room for more moments of overcoming hardship and excitement, such as the scene where the team encamps in high winds before the first summit attempt.
The Climbers did not have enough warning, and their tents, belongings, and people were successively blown away. In the limited time and conditions, the people made full use of the self-rescue means at hand, such as ropes, ice axes, ladders, grappling hooks, rocks, and so on, and finally, under the power of Fong Woo-chow’s saving grace, they were all able to save themselves from the disaster.
Although according to some “objective” mountaineering documentary, some of the scenes in “The Climbers” are not in line with reality, but taking into account that this is a commercial film adapted from history rather than a documentary, the appropriate “magic” is not wrong, as long as the scenes look good! As long as the scenes look good, it’s fine.
In addition, the performance of some of the actors also adds a lot of color to the film, especially the linkage between Fang Wuzhou and Qu Songlin, which is one of the main clues in The Climbers.
As a companion of the first summit, the two should have been close friends, but due to Fang Wuzhou in the rescue of Qu Songlin lost the camera, resulting in the summit did not leave the video data, domestic and foreign voices of skepticism, which should be a real performance clouded with darkness, the Qu Songlin heart of the “grace” more into the “hate” for a long time can not be resolved until Li Guoliang sacrificed for the sake of his former grudge. Qu Songlin’s heart “grace” has become more into “hate”, can not be dissolved for a long time, until Li Guoliang sacrificed for the camera after he was released from his former enmity.
The two main actors (or in all actors), Zhang translation performance is the best, in addition to his own historical precipitation (Jun see the “head” in the crippled little masters and other flirtatious), Qu Songlin’s role depth and sense of hierarchy would have been the most easy to color, reluctance, obstinacy, radicalism, remorse, fear, Zhang translation are presented; Wu Jing’s I always feel weak in the literature, but the movie tries to use more dull, stifling scenes for him to interpret, and this feeling is exactly the same as most of the time Fang Wuzhou’s situation.
Moving on, it’s time to talk about the problems. Most notably, the pacing is out of whack, the martial arts scenes are poorly distributed, and a lot of the effects that should have been there don’t come out.
The Climbers” is a melodrama movie to show the ‘spirit’ of our countrymen, and to show the indomitable character of the protagonists, the most simple and effective way is to add more details related to mountaineering, but it is a pity that each of the three climbs in 1975 was a bit slapdash, and I always felt that it was ‘trying to make a close-up but not trying hard enough’. It feels like “trying to get a close-up but not trying hard enough”.
The second half of the movie is oddly distributed and paced, and there were times when I was clearly moved, but the next moment’s performance immediately stuffed that emotion back ……
Well, less action scenes, more literary scenes is fine, to express the spirit of the film’s main theme would have been more than one way – but add drama should also be added to the point ah, Fang Wuzhou and Qu Songlin’s grudge entanglements obviously the most interesting, the actors are also capable of interpreting more, but to the back is gradually floating on the surface, playing the word like gold, but it is the love scene between Fang Wuzhou and Xu Ying The love scene between Fang Wuzhou and Xu Ying occupies the C-suite.
Of course, I have no problem with the arrangement of the love scene, in fact, “the family’s righteousness under the children’s love” has always been very interesting; I have no problem with Zhang Ziyi or Wu Jing, both are good actors, only from the point of view of Xu Ying and Fang Wuzhou, their performance is not a problem.
The problem is that these two people do not come to electricity ah …… before the two have little overlap in the scene, so watch them play this kind of rivalry will be easy to get out of the scene, can be said to be the film’s inherent shortcomings, Zhang Ziyi and Wu Jing is very hard to ultimately can only be said not to be successful, however.
The love scene between Fang Wuzhou and Xu Ying is not ideal, but at least it is well-packed and not too awkward, while the love scene between Li Guoliang and Black Peony is really a disaster. ……
Frankly speaking, Jing Bo Ran and Quni Ziren in the film to fry CP, to be easier than the previous two, the actors are younger, good-looking …… helplessly their performance is too formulaic, most of the time are in order to complete the task, you have to say that the people of that era to fall in love with the too subtle it, but they are even on the face of the communication is also godless stiffness …… Until Li Guoliang sacrificed, this pair of bitter lovebirds are not too able to cause the audience’s touch.
Do not go to the heart, perhaps is the director Lee In-kong’s biggest problem, he always wanted to release the film to express things, but in the end, always fall a generalization – the previous resume of a number of films, so many people worry that he will not be the “The Climbers” the weakest ring, and now it seems that he still did not escape his own “curse.”
Moreover, there is a problem in the overall design of the movie, which in my opinion is a flaw that should be deducted points: no matter the basic intention or the actual performance, “The Climbers” focuses on “inheritance”, Qu Songlin, Fang Wuzhou, Jeb and these first-generation climbers do a good job in passing down the torch to help Li Guoliang and Yang Guang. The new generation of climbers such as Li Guoliang, Yang Guang, etc., are helped to create glory again, but in the end, the impression is that “the sacrifice of the new generation of climbers is exchanged for the glory of the new generation again”.
A movie can focus on the portrayal of the character is not much, according to the second generation team members can focus on the development of two or three characters is already considered good, the result of Li Guoliang fell off a cliff and died, Yang Guang disabled off the line (Yang Guang’s persona is not good, Lao Hu can not save), the other new team members and the lack of ink, so there is a “once again to the top of the head of the wind are stolen by the Fang Wuzhou! ” – even though that’s not the case.
In a movie like The Climbers, which values the spirit of continuity, this is a very awkward and inappropriate design, and it’s not something that can be remedied by Jackie Chan’s geriatric Yang Guang’s dream of making it to the top.
The Climbers” started and finished this year for release, the production cycle is not long, and it is said that Tsui Hark and others also made up a lot of late editing to do perfect …… from the film many times in the audio and visual lines out of sync, the possibility of this is not low, we have reason to believe that, if it is not in a hurry to the National Day tribute to the theater, and then We have reason to believe that if we were not rushing to release the movie for the National Day, and then give the creators more time, the quality of the movie could be better.
It’s too late for that now. The Climbers” is still worth watching for interested viewers, but it is not destined to become a new generation’s hit.
In the end, I hope that those who have seen the movie can forget some of the regrets in the movie, and instead remember the history-making Chinese mountaineering team, the world-famous “Chinese Ladder”, and the magnificent and vast Tibetan Plateau, where …… “the mountains are. There.” This is a great line.
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