Inside and Outside the Night Banquet
"Blossoms inside the wall and fragrance outside the wall" can be said to be a common feature of the so-called domestic blockbusters in recent years. Since Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" stimulated the expressive desire of major domestic directors, the birth of "Hero", the birth of "Ambush on Ten Sides", the birth of "Wuji". Several films have been cursed domestically while winning awards internationally. By virtue of the power of public opinion and the cast, they have also been well received at the box office. In fact, it is very difficult to compare their strengths and weaknesses, it should be said that several films have their own characteristics, I think, on the emotional power, to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" as the top, on the visual effects, to "Hero" as the top, on the language of the movie, to "Wuji" as the top ("Ambush on Ten Sides" aside, not that he was very bad, but just really and the hero is too much of the same).
It's true that these films are far from the classics of the century, but they have ushered in a new era of Chinese cinema. I think we should all recognize that domestic cinema is now progressing by leaps and bounds, and whether or not such progress is along the lines of what we'd all like to see, at the very least, China has gained a higher profile in the international film world. This is evident from the world premiere of "Wuji," and from Zhang Ziyi's star-studded performance.
However, under the molestation of Oscar's plot, Chinese directors have tried to show their goodwill while repeating themselves over and over again. In this way, not only the Oscar lost patience, the domestic audience and the media also more and more do not buy it. Imagine if "Wuji" had appeared five years ago, the sensation it brought would have been no less than that of "Hero".
But it is this spirit of perseverance that has moved more and more directors. Last year, Star Chow came along for the ride, and this year, Feng Xiaogang went down with it.
The Night Banquet sets sail.
After the clamor of last year's "Wuji" and "Kung Fu," this year seems to be exceptionally quiet. The Night Banquet" opted for a relatively low-key approach to publicity, without making a big deal out of it. This is a smart choice, as the audience is already allergic to this kind of movie, and a high profile would only be counterproductive. However, the other worry and disappointment is the cold reception of the cast and crew in Venice. It makes sense, actually. With the exception of Zhang Ziyi, most of the stars in "Night Banquet" are native-born, and with the addition of Ge You, who hasn't been out of the country in decades, there's a reason for people to despise you. Although Zhang's pomegranate skirt made the country proud for a while, the trip to Venice was not very successful as far as The Night Banquet is concerned. After all, this is not Zhang Ziyi's movie alone, she is not yet that in the star who can hold up the whole movie by herself, such as Maggie Cheung's Clean, just her radiant is the success of the movie.
I believe that the audience that still has the courage to approach "Night Banquet" after being ransacked by last year's "Wuji" must be looking forward to the different surprises that Feng Xiaogang, a truly entertaining director, can bring us. Coupled with a cast list that is full of iconic power stars, there is still enough box office appeal.
I never hid my opinion that I thought "Wuji" was good, so I have no fear of "Night Banquet" either. I just didn't have high expectations for it even after hearing a lot of reviews. Walking into the theater and taking my first peek at The Night Banquet, I found myself still thinking a lot of the same things as I did then when I saw Wunderkind for the second time. This feeling is not like watching "Kung Fu" and feeling speechless, unable to say what's good about "Kung Fu" or what's not.
For "Night Banquet", I dare not say that I criticize it, but I can only say that I express my own opinion and comment on it.
From the plot, the first half is basically a copy of "Hamlet", just change the time and space to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, or a prince's revenge story. At the end, the prince's revenge fails, and the usurping emperor chooses to kill himself when he learns that his beloved empress is going to put him to death. So the empress succeeded in ascending to the throne.
Before the movie was released Feng Xiaogang said that it was actually a female version of Hamlet, which should have been Revenge of the Empress. A woman who was originally weak gradually becomes more venomous and complex in her struggle for power, eventually reaching the top and putting herself in a more sinister position.
It should be said that this is a story with more dramatic tension, and although the first half of the prince's revenge is already well known, the subsequent plot is still gripping. Feng Xiaogang plays to his strengths of being able to tell a great story here, and keeps the whole plot going with flavor. At the very least, viewers won't doze off during the movie. The ending is interesting, although it is a slightly clichéd sequence, but it leaves more suspense, and allows people to feel the sinister power struggle as well as the sadness of the characters' fate. The assassin, who never shows his face, gives the audience plenty of room for imagination.
In terms of general direction, Feng Xiaogang has basically succeeded. The story itself is a success, but refining the issues leaves a lot to be desired. Feng Xiaogang himself has said, "It's actually very simple to make a big production." It's his words that make "The Night Banquet" a mediocre production that any professional director could have mashed up with enough money and a large enough crew lineup.
It has always been thought that the essence of Feng's films lies in those that capture the details of life and poke fun at the real world, expressed through a form of cold humor, so that people can appreciate the true meaning of life while laughing and joking at the same time. He succeeds because he uses these bits and pieces of life to touch the people who make them.
But in "Night Banquet," Feng Xiaogang can only bury all these talents, and the whole movie is not exciting, nor does it offer deep humanistic or emotional power. The visual effects alone deserve some praise, but the audience is getting tired of Tim Yip. Such a lukewarm commercial movie will not be well received by the audience. So those who were hopeful were left disappointed, while those who were already uninterested found an argument.
In fact, there are some highlights of the movie in terms of directing skills and camera use, such as the opening credits. A scorpion ambushes a picture of a night banquet in a blazing fire and attacks the figure with its venomous tail. The venom spreads on the paper and is burned by the fire, and the subtitle "Night Banquet" leaps out along with the fire, suggesting the death of the late emperor, the royal strife, and the Hongmen Night Banquet. The visual effect and the mood are perfect.
Afterward, Zhang Ziyi slowly entered the hall in a luxurious red dress, and the camera followed her softly. The hall's elaborate but depressing tone is obvious to all, and Zhang's red dress is very conspicuous in it, which sets the tone for the entire movie of vengeance, desire, and gloominess. There is not a single moment of blackout during the credits, a long shot that allows the viewer to immediately enter the movie and look forward to the plot. Tan Dun's music would have been excellent as well, except that the cello's main theme is reminiscent of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which detracts from the expressiveness of the music. Still, the subtitles are one of the few gems in domestic cinema in recent years.
When it comes to the music, Tan Dun doesn't just repeat himself, except for this opening sequence. In this movie, he employs a more diverse range of styles, from simple Chinese minority instrumental music, such as the songs of the Yue people, to Western orchestral compositions. In the opening scene of the assassination of the prince by the feathered guards, the director handles the killing in a particularly bloody manner, but in such an atmosphere, the soundtrack chooses a melodious and soothing piano piece. In Lang Lang's interpretation, this music with a light sadness to bring the cruelty quietly into the audience's heart, only this one detail, for this scene brings a strong emotion, so that the audience sympathize with the weak, at the same time, the heart surging. I think this is where the music in the movie shines the most. Unfortunately, such wonderful directing skills only lasted for a few dozen seconds, the music and flowed in the cliché, the next episode, basically still fighting when the drums, sensational when the piano, nothing new. I really wish Feng Xiaogang would have used the techniques described in the previous article throughout the movie, then at least the music would have been the highlight of the movie.
In addition, the overuse of Western instrumental music in such an ancient Chinese drama creates a sensory disharmony in the movie. Often, the events take place in an ancient oriental building, but these events are hardened by a modern soundtrack played by a Western orchestra. If you look at the melodies alone, you can't fault them, and perhaps Feng was looking for a blend of Chinese and Western styles, but this makes the whole movie a little distracting in terms of form and content.
As for the martial arts, it's not something that the whole movie should focus on, just add a couple of strokes when necessary, and with Yuan Woo-ping's ability to accomplish this task, he should be able to do it with ease. Unfortunately, the movie uses a lot of ink in the description of martial arts, and even some scenes are not necessary. In the process of watching the movie, I even suspect that the director and editor were not dozing off while working, and some unnecessary scenes were also added (such as the polo segment that showed nothing ......). And in a large number of martial arts scenes, Yuan Woo-ping didn't dedicate superb direction, which is hardly top-notch in terms of creativity or visual effects. And the killings under Feng's lens are also extremely realistic, cold, and even a bit overly cold. In itself, the sudden outbreak of killing in a mountainous and beautiful place is shocking enough, but to over-express the brutality and bloodshed is hard for the audience to accept.
And Zhang Ziyi and Daniel Wu's sword scene flirting, camera scheduling is very good, the whole process of martial arts was filmed like a dance, which is suitable for this scene, "martial arts to send love," the main idea. Just to say that this paragraph is very necessary is not necessarily, in order to indicate the labor after the Prince and the martial arts strong? Or to show that the Prince is weak? It would not be a shame to cut out the martial arts part of the story.
Next, let's talk about the actors in the movie. The rich dramatic tension of "Night Banquet" should have been very suitable for the actors to play, especially Zhang Ziyi, the complexity of the character of the queen and the transformation from weak to strong provides a very deep and layered role, and the usurper of the emperor in addition to the cruelty of the political tactics there is also a sincere love for the empress of the heart, the crown prince sleepless days and nights waiting for revenge, but the contradiction of the weakness of the hesitant. It should be said that each of the main characters from the general point of view have a very deep digging, but throughout the film we can see that almost all the actors have chosen to "put" the way of performance, making the whole movie very "dramatization", the actor's performance and lines at first glance seem to be slightly exaggerated. At first glance, the actors' performances and lines seem exaggerated. In fact, after careful consideration, it is not difficult to realize that this is a very smart decision Feng made for the whole movie.
Beginning with "Hero," Chinese cinema suddenly gave birth to a whole new form of so-called costume blockbusters. One of the distinctive features of these films is that their lines are so over-the-top that they often provoke laughter in theaters. These so-called "funny" and "fake" lines are taken to the extreme in Wuji. Some people have criticized the film by saying that the lines were written to make it easier to translate into English and make it internationally accessible. In fact, for a costume epic, many of the lines will be "big" and "empty" problem, after all, many of the stories in the drama are very far away from our lives, the lines will inevitably appear to be detached from the life of the situation, and the movie is an art from life and high and life. Moreover, movie is an art that originates from life, but is also higher than life. But many viewers and even critics don't understand this, and while they accuse these movies of having "fake" lines, they also watch some poor-quality TV dramas where the lines and performances are horrendous.
How to get the audience to accept, or ignore, these lines is something that the previous directors have given a lot of thought to. In "Hero", director Zhang hoped to make the audience ignore the emptiness of the lines with visual impact, while in "Wuji", director Chen tried to make up for it by asking the actors to perform in a "collected" way (the actors in "Wuji", except for Nicholas Tse, who had a less than successful "put on", were all "collected"). (all the actors in "Wuji", except for Nicholas Tse, who is not very successful in "release", are "retracted"). None of these efforts were really very successful in the eyes of the audience. So in "Night Banquet", Feng Xiaogang tried a new approach, which is to ask the actors to "put". A "dramatized" style is used throughout the play to undermine the abruptness of the dialogues in the movie. In my opinion, this is not only smart but also effective. The Banquet has its share of over-the-top lines, but they don't jump out at you in the middle of the movie like they did in its predecessor, and they blend in with the movie and with the actors' performances.
But because of this requirement, it also somewhat limits the actors. So for the most part, what we see is just Ge You's cold, expressionless face, Zhang Ziyi's weeping and condescension, and Huang Xiaoming's anger, all of the characters are slightly faceted. In such a situation, a really good actor needs to prove that he can play any style, any character. So we have to marvel at Ge You's portrayal of the emperor. He has put away his "Feng Xiaogang" face, although most of the time he is cold, people can't see any expression on his face, but every moment he stares at the camera, the loneliness, fear, surprise and helplessness in the depths of his eyes can always bring us enough shock. What is also admirable is his grasp of the lines, although it is a drama-style "put", but for the use of tone, the choice of voice are just right, exaggerated but not over the top, calm but not lose passion. People know that he is acting, but they can't help but be moved by his performance. Through this role, I am even more convinced that Ge You is one of the best actors in China at the moment.
International superstar Zhang Ziyi was held in extremely high hopes by both the director and the audience, and Feng Xiaogang has said he placed his greatest hopes for "The Night Banquet" on Zhang. And she used her international reputation to bring widespread attention to "Night Banquet". But as an actress, her performance in the movie was not up to the standard that an international superstar should be. Although she is beautiful and dignified in the film, although she is the center of the camera in many scenes, and although some of her inner complexity is expressed in a silky way, her performance still reveals a lack of hierarchy, just as in "Jasmine Blossoms". Perhaps these things are needed to accumulate seniority, and Zhang Ziyi is still so young, we have reason to believe that she can go farther. After all, from "My Father and Mother" until now, her progress, both in terms of fame and acting skills, is there for all to ****ing see.
While almost all the actors chose to "put on", Zhou Xun, one of the country's leading actresses, chose to "put on" in her performance. Although her role is very light, but in the plot is indispensable. Zhou Xun doesn't have a lot of lines, she speaks more with her eyes, and there's hardly any plot for her to shine, and she has to wear a mask in the final song-and-dance scene. But even so, she still shines in every appearance. She portrayed the love-struck, weak on the outside, strong on the inside, Green Lady. When she danced to the song of the Yue Ren after drinking poisoned wine by mistake, she interpreted a kind of strength, heartbreaking strength. I've never liked Zhou Xun's singing, but when the drama came to this point, I even felt that only Zhou Xun's magnetic, rustling voice was perfect for this Yue Ren song. In addition to the mask, the Qing woman's tears and blood dissolved together, still no trace of performance, but all the broken heart. In a movie with a strong flavor of drama, this kind of "collected" performance is easy to be ignored, but Zhou Xun with her aura makes people remember the green girl.
In terms of performance, the director's job is to tell the actors what kind of expression they need. Before the ending, Wu Luan passed away in the arms of the Queen, Zhang Ziyi has been sobbing uncontrollably, I suddenly thought of the "hero", the last broken sword trips in the arms of Flying Snow. This time in fact, Maggie Cheung's performance is wonderful, the cathartic emotions are pressed behind the silent tears, but I was about to praise when, seek to direct or let her let out a cry of pain. Immediately, the power of profound emotion diminished to vulgar sensationalism at this point, and it was the character's feelings, not the director's, that really moved the audience, so the scene became less flavorful.
Now sitting on the scene of "Night Banquet", I prayed Feng Xiaogang must not let Zhang Ziyi here unrestrained crying up, do not let the emotional power that was not easy to brew up in an instant with the catharsis of the chapter and disintegration. However, Feng's approach was even worse than that of Mou's director. Chapter loudly cried out "No Luan ......!!!" And then the music wanted to take for granted the sadness. At once, it seems that the whole movie is reduced to a cliché.
But all in all, "Night Banquet" is a moderate movie, although there is not much too much, but not to be verbally abused. If you look at it as the director's attempt at a whole new style, it should be encouraged. After all, as long as the publicity is right and the cast is large enough, such a commercial mega-production is a sure thing. It's just that, for me, I would have preferred Feng to see this movie as just a playful endeavor. There's no need to follow in someone else's footsteps when no one can replace your own style. Feng Xiaogang is probably the best director of entertaining, "New Year's Eve" movies. How long will "Night Banquet" stand the test of time. Maybe after a few years, the audience will still remember the word aesthetic fatigue, will remember who Princess Ai Tula is, but forget which Zhang Ziyi acted in which Feng Xiaogang's movie. Hopefully, the next to lose themselves in the commercial mega-productions will not be Jia Zhangke, Xu Jinglei, and certainly not Feng Xiaogang. These masters bring us emotion, laughter and wisdom. As for the so-called martial arts blockbusters, let's leave our memories to Jin Yong, to Hero, to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or even to Wuji and Night Banquet.
I remember after watching "Wuji," someone said to me that no matter how disappointing this blockbuster is, it is undeniable that Chinese movies are progressing and Chinese audiences are making progress. Indeed, the bombardment of blockbusters for several years in a row has made the audience's ability to appreciate a movie not just stay on a particular movie, and the directors even if just to satisfy the audience's ever-increasing appetite will also try to make themselves to discover more and better ideas, to produce better movies. The audience is happy with the good movies, which makes the movie environment better and better. With a good environment, won't more good movies be produced? Week after week, the Oscar plot is probably not a plot anymore.