Film Name: 浴火之路 / Tiger Wolf Rabbit / Tiger Wolf Road
When I watched the trailer, I thought that Tiger Wolf Road had the most “movie sense” among the main players in this year’s National Day slot, but I was a bit surprised when the rating came out – it was just above or below the passing line.
When I went to see the movie with three parts expectation, three parts suspicion and four parts nonsense, I had an answer in my heart: this is indeed a very problematic movie, the shortcomings are so big that it is understandable to give it a failing grade, but its strengths are even more rare, so that even if I saw that a lot of things were messed up at the end, I still maintained a good enough feeling about the movie.
I’ll start by briefly discussing what’s wrong with Tiger Wolf Road, out of the principle of “let’s start with the good”.
In this trafficking story, the director is too obsessed with “karma”, which leads to the plot, which should be based on reality, is mixed with too many non-realistic and abstract representations.
For example, Cui Da Lu, Li Hong Cherry, Zhao Zishan three people in the process of teaming up, the center of gravity falls on the speculation of their motives, the rest of the external objective factors are handled very fussy, before and after the fairy jump to escape, after the theft of the car after the private, desert ghosts hit the wall of the rabbit blowing in the wind of the demon, and the ensuing rescue, as well as Lu Yongan was killed by a thunderbolt in this laughable end.
Even from the character motivation, the film is also slightly imbalanced – the story’s most central and complex protagonist should be Cui Dalu, not only because he runs through the whole film, but also because he is the only one of the three never found the child, but the fact is that the movie puts more “good drama But the fact is that the movie has arranged more “good scenes” for Zhao Zishan, who is seeking revenge for his son, and Li Hongzhen, who is looking for her daughter, and Cui Dalu serves both of them (rescuing and fighting against the traffickers), as well as spinning around in vague and weird threads (the fairy jump).
There are so many times when the audience is left with the impression that Cui DaLu doesn’t feel like a father who has lost his child, or fights not trying to find his child, which is obviously a disservice to the film’s main message.
The worst thing about “Tiger Wolf Road” is that it knows how to start a good story, but it doesn’t know how to end it. Originally, the three-man road movie was fun, but with Li Hongzhu leaving the team in the middle of the movie, Zhao Zishan taking revenge on Racer Beard, and then Cui Dalu breaking into the traffickers’ lair, it all fell into a very short and quick crime movie routine. ……
It’s true that it’s cool to fight and kill and have bad karma and all that, but the tone of the movie could have obviously been higher and better.
With that out of the way, it’s time to talk about the movie’s flawed strengths: it does a good job of shaping a triangular relationship with ties, interests, conflicts, and emotions, and puts that relationship into a soberingly realistic road movie format.
The triangle seems far-fetched and shaky at first, but the more you watch it, the more interesting it becomes:
In the beginning, Cui Da Lu did not want to give a damn about Zhao Zishan, only want to go to Kun City to find traffickers, Li Hong Cherry does not want to give a damn about anyone, but she especially needs money, Zhao Zishan needs to find clues through Li Hong Cherry, at the same time, Cui Da Lu can not let go of Li Hong Cherry, Li Hong Cherry see Zhao Zishan’s money …… This relationship will be lost at any time, so will be disconnected constantly hanging on! , stumbling all the way forward, until the three of them cultivated some feelings.
At the same time, these three people with their own minds, and are all lost children of the same life, the difference is that Zhao Zishan’s child is no longer alive, while the other two children still have the hope of finding back, “Tiger Wolf Road” in their plight out of the film, but also through violence and other criminal elements, so that the tragic, sad (or soft, crying) of the subject of trafficking works, with a strong sense of death, and the work has a strong sense of humor and a sense of humor. work with a sense of power toward death.
In addition, the performance of the three lead actors is also a plus point of the movie, Zhao Liying’s fascination and determination, Xiao Yang’s greasiness and mellowness, and best of all, Liu Ye’s ruthlessness and concentration.
Zhao Zishan’s persona and scenes were already a bit of an advantage, and Liu Ye played Zhao Zishan’s ruthlessness to the extreme – it’s worth mentioning that his peach blossom eyes were actually more suited to playing softer roles, and this time he played a father who wanted to avenge his father’s death, and the slightly conflicting image added to the reasonableness of the character’s change of heart and hurt. This time, he plays a father who wants to take revenge and kill, the slightly conflicting image adds more rationality to the change of character and a sense of hurt.
Last but not least, I would like to mention the metaphor of animal nature in “Tiger Wolf Road”, that is, “tiger, wolf, rabbit” as the English title of the movie says.
It is not difficult to realize that these three animals in the movie correspond to Cui Dalu, Zhao Zishan and Li Hongzuo respectively. In the words of the director, “Tiger is lazy, wolf is focused, and rabbit can stomp on eagle when it’s in a hurry”, which combined with the content of the movie will make it easier for the audience to understand the meaning of the movie:
Cui Dalu is a strong man with ability and means, but he lacks perseverance, and is always interrupted by other things, just like a tiger after a hunt, he is lazy and muddle-headed; Zhao Zishan is very purposeful, and bites down on a goal, even he himself said, “I have to be a wolf on the road in order to survive”; as for the saying that Li Hongcherry is like a rabbit, more often than not, it refers to the fact that she is like a wolf. As for Li Hongzhen like a rabbit, more often than not it means that she is weak, helpless, and at the mercy of others, but those who have seen the movie know that, in addition to stomping on the eagle’s strength, she is also like a mother rabbit in the desert that only has a child, which contains the greatness of motherhood.
Three ordinary people, because of the “loss of a child”, was alienated into a very human, which in itself is a saddening thing, so “Tiger Wolf Road” emphasis on karma, heavenly reincarnation characteristics is the right taste, even if the film is not ideal, but also does not hurt its idealization of the obsession.
Without enough “idealization”, how can we talk about the vision of “no abduction in the world, good and evil are rewarded”?
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