zhao liying’s new national day movie, a cool movie with over-the-top marketing?
2024-10-05
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to put it simply, the main plot tells the story of these three parents whose children were abducted, looking for their children, and seeking revenge against the traffickers.
this movie is definitely not a bad movie that makes people sit on pins and needles and have a lump in their throats. it is a commercial film with a qualified production level.
but it also illustrates once again that the most scarce qualities in domestic films now are sincerity and restraint.
my biggest feeling after watching "the road to fire" is that as an audience, i was not treated sincerely by the creator.the movie chose the theme of anti-trafficking, but in the end what was presented to the audience was a satisfying revenge film.
that’s not to say that filming a film about trafficking has to be very miserable, but at least you have to really try to show something and discuss something in order to respond to the concerns of the audience who choose to enter the theater about the real issue of trafficking.
however, the abduction and family search presented in "the road to fire" is completely divorced from reality.
not only is cui dalu (played by xiao yang) and li hongying (played by zhao liying) looking for a child in the movie, but there are also a hundred legal education column dramas between them and reality;
moreover, the film's portrayal of the illegal industrial chain of human trafficking, the living conditions of abducted children, and the real plight of families who lost their only child... these aspects are almost blank.these anti-trafficking themes, which were originally unavoidable, have been roughly processed into a few sporadic symbols and pictures——for example, ma zai, the black boss, the young girl in captivity, and the mentally disturbed parents.then it flashes as the plot requires, without digging into the details.in other words,the movie just wants to find a child as the protagonist to start an adventure., it's just the starting point, not the kernel.changing the origin to other pursuits of revenge, asking for money and debts, or looking for family heirlooms would not have much impact on the narrative logic of the film.
it's just that these reasons don't hit social pain points as much as looking for children, and it's not as easy to consume the audience's emotions.this thought of the film crew is particularly direct in the short video marketing.
one category is behind-the-scenes footage, focusing on one"hate"——hate human traffickers.the titles of these videos are:"how much i hate human traffickers after watching "the road to fire", xiao yang, zhao liying and liu ye are my mouthpieces"
"how much does xiao yang hate 'human traffickers'?wu xiaoliangon the set‘lives are at risk'"“feng delunhe acted as a villain and was strangled until he was 'suffocated', and the audience said it was very satisfying."
who doesn’t hate human traffickers? the filmmakers just took advantage of this public sentiment.it is not difficult to create a few extremely evil and heartless human trafficker villains, and then use short videos and other marketing methods to amplify the "evil" of these characters;
then the blood pressure of the spectators soared and they cursed "damn". anyway, by jointly conveying a strong attitude towards combating human trafficking, the audience and the movie seemed to have naturally been in the same camp.
all i have to say is: "friends, how much you hate human traffickers after watching our movie. buy a ticket and go to the theater and let's curse them together!"
the second type of marketing is plot slicing, focusing on one"tragic"。
two video clips that are very popular on the internet, one ispan binlongthe leader of the family search group played by him was originally the most positive and optimistic person in the group, always smiling;
then after i received a call and learned that my missing child was dead, i was so dejected that i jumped off the overpass↓
in another section, zhao zishan, played by liu ye, went through all kinds of troubles and finally found the trafficker who killed his son. after questioning and confirming the situation, he untied him and lit a cigarette;then he suddenly took out a knife and sealed his throat for a second, killing his enemy with his bare hands.these scenes, which are highly publicized by the film crew, have very strong dramatic conflicts;it is to emphasize the human tragedy caused by child trafficking through the end of life and bloody violence.
but apart from the misery and hatred highlighted in the promotional film, the main film does not show anything deeper about the complex topic of human trafficking.
in real life, those parents who are repeatedly tormented by hope and despair, overwhelmed by self-blame, and hampered by various realistic factors on the road to finding relatives, are not focused by the camera;they are not as powerful and witty as the protagonist group, so they can only become the background of the protagonist group's adventure, and become numb and confused passers-by on the bus, a, b, b, d;it was swept away by the camera, leaving no words behind.
to put it bluntly, these passers-by a, b, b, and d, who are closer to reality, are just like the anti-trafficking theme of the film, they are just decorations.with these, a crime film that is not very good in all aspects can dress itself up as a realistic work, relying on the seriousness of the subject matter itself to cover up the emptiness of the creative core.
there must be some people who think that, putting aside the mission of special issues, shouldn’t it be okay for me to just watch it as a purely enjoyable film?
but the problem is that "road to fire", as a genre film, also has the problem of obviously using too much force.the filmmakers wanted too much to achieve visual enjoyment, but they didn't know how to exercise restraint, and the result was that it went too far.
on the one hand, "path of fire" piles various elements into one movie, and it's a mix and match.
the first half is styled like a northwest road movie, with scenes of desolate gobi, dry riverbeds, sky full of yellow sand, and howling winds.there are shabby jeeps, abandoned trucks buried in the sand, ghosts building walls in barren mountains, and life-saving rabbits falling from the sky in desperate situations...the second half shifts the space to the southwest border, with palm trees, water-splashing festivals, and splendid mysterious villages;there are also rampant drugs, children begging on the street, weird wedding ceremonies, a huge buddha statue that fell to the ground...
one of the great advantages of changing regions is that a large number of wonders can be naturally packed into different spaces.
after all, it tells the adventure story of a three-person anti-trafficking team, so the sense of curiosity must be high.various pictures with strong visual impact are spread all the way from north to south, lest you feel a little dull.
the visual aspect is 100% effort, and the plot is no less impressive.
crime, revenge, battle of wits, adventure, family affection, love, friendship, responsibility, loyalty, cause and effect, reconciliation...
in 120 minutes, the film touches on all these propositions one by one.for fear that if any part of the plot is discarded, hundreds of millions of viewers will be missed, so we seize every possible communication point and develop some side stories.
therefore, the protagonist group also had to flirt with each other on the way to find the child. the night before they risked their lives to go into the tiger's den to save others, they still had the heart to express their affection and tenderness.
i didn’t say that additional questions are not allowed, but do we have to get the basic points first?
the main plot, the male lead played by xiao yang is looking for trouble with the child——in fact, from the dragon sign at the beginning of the movie to the credits at the end, the progress of the male protagonist's search for his son has not changed at all.
in the past two hours, i had spent the past two hours accompanying others to find their children, killing enemies, driving, fighting, and falling in love. not even a single valid clue had been updated about the whereabouts of my son.
when the main plot has a hasty ending without any explanation at all, spending a lot of time on getting the rain and dew evenly, is a waste of effort.
in addition to the over-mixed content, another manifestation of "road to fire"'s excessive use of force is that the plot direction abandons logic in order to create excitement.in the fighting scene, xiao yang and liu ye took down an entire criminal lair at every turn, and relied on the halo of the protagonist to force an exaggerated 2vn fight scene. i was too lazy to complain;when the two of them couldn't beat each other anymore, zhao liying used her moral brilliance to save all sentient beings and finished a set of righteous little words, which not only had the effect of enlightening the mind, but also made the ultimate villain collapse on the spot and break his defense;
killing people and killing their hearts, letting the bad guys destroy themselves, is how the light of the right path shines on the earth, and it is the height of happiness and the perfection of happiness.i believe that the filmmakers did not think this treatment was outrageous, because there are even more outrageous things in the movie.wu xiaoliang played a human trafficker who was inhumane. just when the villain was proud, a thunder fell from the sky and killed him.
uh... what a cool plot where the sky has eyes and the evil will be punished. just try to resolve your hatred happily, regardless of whether it is reasonable or not.
it felt like i was severely shocked even outside the screen.
the bad guy was struck by lightning, but the audience was bombarded with countless emotions, spectacles, and excitement for two hours.
when discussing movies about anti-trafficking and finding relatives, it is inevitable that people will think ofpeter chandirected byhoney》。but these two movies,the ideas for presenting anti-trafficking are quite different."dear" is not pleasant or surprising at all. the atmosphere of the film is relatively heavy and depressing, and a lot of pen and ink are used to write about suffering, pain, helplessness, and helplessness."road to the fire" is closer to "put all one's eggs in one basket"the creative idea of but the borrowed reason was changed from telecommunications fraud to human trafficking.but they are all embellished with a certain real social problem, making thrilling crime films, showing various spectacles, and mixing in a little bit of the emotional line of ma zai × dealer.
i have no intention of judging the superiority of these two creations. each style type has its audience.
but in ten years, the film about anti-trafficking and family-seeking has changed from "dear" to "desperate 2.0". it is not just the difference in the director's creative style;
in fact, it also reflects the changes in the domestic film market ecology.in 2024, it will not only be cpus that require multi-core operation, but also movies。
a movie with a single core and focused theme like "dear" will be considered to have too narrow an audience and too little potential to win in the market.today's movie producers are trying every possible means to find gimmicks and stack elements. they wish they could evolve several story lines into an octagonal radar chart, with all the skills on each side being full.
just to throw out more hooks and hook more audiences into the cinema.
in such an environment, the more sincere and restrained a movie is, the worse it will look;
therefore, this "useless" virtue should be put away.
