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August 12, 2024 | Total Issue 3691

The trend of consumption downgrade finally reached the Chinese Valentine's Day.

Sales of flowers and chocolates have plummeted, and romantic movies are not able to keep up at the box office. Young people today are no longer keen on dating, so how can they be willing to be tempted by artificial sweeteners on the big screen?Consumption.

so"Two negatives equal a positiveThe fact that the film was not selling well was completely expected.Zhu YilongThe traffic halo has faded.Life Events"and"Mistake by the river》The box office miracle is more due to the film’s excellent quality and extremely high level of discussion.

But I still have to praise Zhu Yilong for his good taste in choosing scripts.Although its market performance is not impressive, but in comparison, "Negatives Make Positive" is still one of the most worth-watching movies in this summer.

It abandons conventional narratives and breaks down media barriers. It does not tell the rise and fall of a love story in a conventional way, but uses a more jumping, dreamy and light way to depict the smell and color of "love".

It can be described as an emotional movie or an atmospheric movie, however you like, "Negatives Make Positives" attempts to capture the non-figurative hormones that arise from love.In terms of understanding of modern love, it is enough to surpass most of the boring and syrupy films in recent years.

01 

Director Wen Shipei treats love as a science fiction film.

Science fiction is a wonderful combination of science and fiction, just like the elusive human love. Although most of the scenes are close to reality and seem to conform to laws and algorithms, the moment of love always contains countless factors that cannot be explained by science.

Huang Zhenkai, played by Zhu Yilong, is a salaried worker who drifts in a big city. He is like a "constant" in society, with a constant and unchanging trajectory of activity. His bright blue hair is the most rebellious expression he can think of, but it doesn't attract anyone's attention.

What’s different is that he can see aliens.Since he was a child, he could see a group of aliens carrying cameras, microphones and scripts, pointing and gesturing not far away, filming his life in real time. He told his family about it, but no one believed his lies.

Until one day, he met Li Xiaole (played by Qiu Tian). Li Xiaole is a "variable", she is always changing, she is lying, she has countless identities, but none of them is real.

And Li Xiaole can see the aliens Huang Zhenkai has.

That's enough. The so-called resonance of the heart is to find that each other has the same Hertz at a certain moment. Just like in the British TV series "London Life", the priest can see at a glance that Fleabag is talking to the audience. Realizing that there is someone in the world who can understand you is enough for two people to love each other to death.

I particularly like the scene where the two of them watch TV together in the living room.There was a program on TV teaching how to make fried rice. It was a particularly boring program, but the ambiguous atmosphere still spread uncontrollably between the two people.

The alien director appears, pushing the close-up, using the bubble machine, and saying that at this juncture, they need to enhance communication, "Let's share how each of us had our first time." The subtlety is that at this point, the two people are not very familiar with each other, and talking about sex is actually a bit awkward, but the progress seems reasonable, and the eagerness flows in their eyes, and they have already understood each other tacitly. The next scene is in the room, and the adults begin to be direct.

The plot is very jumpy, but close to the psychological reality.The science fiction of love cannot deduce the intermediate process, and cannot progress step by step with every detail. The brain always goes blank suddenly, and it falls into the climax chapter and enters the romantic montage.

The cute thing about this movie is that it doesn't follow the crowd. It's really about love and real sex.No whining, no hysteria.

They are like most lovers in real life, in love and hate each other so much that they wander around Buenos Aires. The movie uses science fiction to deconstruct love and life. Aliens and their galactic film studio are just a way to record life. The established rules and the nameless fear of love are the goals that this couple needs to break.

02

If we make an analogy,The styles of "Negatives Make Positive" are closest to "Safe Evacuation from the 21st Century" and "Space Exploration Editorial Department", which are unorthodox, unruly and imaginative.

These three films do have a lot of connections. The editor of "Negatives Make Positive" is Kong Dashan, the director of "Cosmic Exploration Editorial Department", the "alien director" wearing a mask throughout the film is Wang Yitong, and Jiang Qiming plays the Rosen clerk named Daomingsi. One of the directors Kong Dashan admired most during his college years was Li Yang, the director of "Safe Evacuation from the 21st Century", and his creative style was somewhat influenced by him.

Since his last work, "Tropical Memories", Wen Shipei has presented a rare film aesthetic on the mainland big screen. He has a rare talent. His stories are indeed a bit abstract and scattered, sometimes brilliant, sometimes inexplicable, but the control of emotions and atmosphere is very accurate.

But this also creates a distance with the audience. The sales of "Tropical Past" were not ideal, and it seems that "Negative Negatives Make Positive" will probably repeat the same mistake. The strong author style is destined to have a polarized reputation. People who are in the same frequency will love it very much, and people who are not in the same frequency will have no feelings at all.

Some people also accused Wen Shipei of "copying" Wong Kar-wai.

There are indeed many tribute elements. Ambiguous colors, stream-of-consciousness narratives, slow-motion shots, Zhu Yilong who looks like Tony Leung, Qiu Tian who looks like Faye Wong from certain angles, and a lot of Hong Kong-style tributes and dialogues. The way Huang Zhenkai talked to himself in the rental house after his breakup was hard not to associate with the "soap became thinner and the towel cried" scene in "Chungking Express".

But on the other hand, these stylized fusions increase the watchability of the film, and some of the clever ideas make people smile. When most creators are stuck in their safety and comfort zones, I can't help but give extra points to such works that dare to explore fun.

Moreover, Wen Shipei is so friendly to my vision. His exquisite and sophisticated composition of light and shadow makes the whole love story romantic and wonderful, especially Qiu Tian in his lens, who is so beautiful."Negatives Make Positive" is like Zhu Yilong's eye-catching blue hair in domestic romance films, pleasing to the eye but also abrupt.

I like the name of "Negatives Make Positives" because it is full of sunshine. Two lonely bodies with energy below zero generate positive current after crossing and colliding. An encounter of soul resonance creates ripples in the lives of both parties.

But all love lessons will eventually come back to oneself.In the process of pursuing love, Huang Zhengkai gained the ability to love. He smashed the alien's remote control, broke the conservative social clock, and took back the dominance of his life.

The modernity of this love story lies in the fact that it is not about the fusion of two lonely individuals, but about building a bridge between two independent islands. First, find your own freedom, and then connect with each other.

Love it or hate it, at least "Negatives Make a Positive" will not be mediocre. In an era where big data algorithm movies are everywhere, I cherish movies that can bring surprises more and more. Maybe Wen Shipei's third movie can "Negatives Make a Positive".

【By Brin】