The one star that fell off lies in two questionable points: the pretentiousness that can't be gotten rid of, and the rushed presentation of the plot.
Bi Feiyu's original novel was written in character-based chapters, with each chapter focusing on a single person and unfolding a psychological depiction from his/her point of view. There are many characters in the massage parlor, the blind masseurs are a group and the able-bodied are a group. The latter include the cooking aunt and the two front desk girls. The fights in the blind are silent, and they have to observe them very carefully with their ears and figure them out in their minds. And the conflicts among the able-bodied are resorted to words and publicized.
It's extremely difficult to handle group portraits in a movie, like making a movie out of Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Water Margin, and the level of difficulty is unimaginable. How to balance the drama without losing the depth, the movie found a very good confluence: Xiao Ma's love for Xiao Kong fell out of love, pick up Du Hong's love for Xiao Ma fell out of love, pick up Sha Fuming's love for Du Hong's love fell out of love, from these four people constitute the backbone of the love line, and the side stretching out, is the Wang Dafu and the prostitute Xiaoban, and no surprise Jin Yan and Zhang Zongqi. This covers the blind characters throughout the play, and one can feel the powerful tension of the connection. Their desire for love is so natural and uninhibited, yet harmless. The "meat dispute" is certainly a great irony to the world of the able-bodied. Is there any scene in the movie that shows the human evil of the blind? The massage parlor was opened by Sha Fuming and Zhang Zongqi, which is why they were jointly named "Sha Zongqi". In the latter part of the novel, there is a dispute between the two men over the ownership and leadership of the massage parlor, but this is not shown in the movie. The director and screenwriter have seized almost all the obvious conflict scenes in the novel, but not this one. It's a tendency to take the image of the blind and make the best of it. This is the approach that clearly points to the moral position, and it is also the approach that is most comfortable to the hearts of the public. Of course, it certainly diminishes the complex side of their character as human instincts. The presentation of Pony's dark perspective is very interesting. He's the youngest, and the one with the most varied character states is also the best looking. Lou Ye was one of the first directors to experiment with HD cameras with a positive mindset, and we get to see a film that's brighter and more detailed than both "Spring Fever Night" and "Mystery of the Floating City," even if there's still endless falling rain and gloom. With Pony's subjective point of view, the camera captures a gritty, out-of-focus, intense, film-like image texture that not only mimics what Pony's eyes see, but is also a visual externalization of what his psyche craves. The two styles of photography, light and dark, day and night, are not watersheds, they are the same for the blind, but for the viewer, there is a strong sense of immersion, and a striking mark of recognition.
Fellini once said that he liked to collect photos of people's faces and stick them on the wall, and that different people's looks, expressions, and feelings of happiness, anger, and sadness could stimulate him to think of stories. The movie is full of delicate close-ups that bring the viewer closer to the characters, and fortunately the actors are excellent and can withstand close-ups and observation. The wandering camera connects points of view and emotions, as fluid as Chinese brushwork, the beginning of Lou Ye's concept of poetic cinema. At this point, the addition of narration is an even better legacy in terms of audio-visual language after "Spring Fever Night".
There is no doubt that Lou Ye, as one of the sixth generation directors, has now become one of the most accomplished and stylized. What should be recognized is that the choice of themes reveals vision and character. Lou Ye's senior resigned; Wang Quan'an and Wang Xiaoshuai are still taking lessons from the past and can't get out of the so-called complex; Zhang Yuan has already made customized microfilms for the furniture; Guan Hu is working hard on his commercial transformation. Only Jia Zhangke and Lou Ye are left to be the recorders of the present with their movies. But Jia Zhangke has the shrewdness of a businessman, while Lou Ye doesn't resort to anyone's political ideas or social consciousness. His films are universal, or that delicate little lover who can't get rid of the eternal proposition about love, even if the packaging is ever-changing. His love of square dancing, and his fascination with tattoos, and the diffuse, hazy shading, would become footnotes to his films, adding interest to the author's thesis research.
The fact that Kong's character doesn't match the handsome Guo Xiaodong as Dr. Wang in appearance is a prejudice born of what we, as "sighted people," see. As a blind person, beauty or lack of it is not as important as the attractive scent of the body. That's why the reasons for their love are so different from those of the able-bodied.
The scene in which the note left by Du Hong is passed around is my favorite. The paper is inscribed in Braille, and Sha Fuming and the others carefully touch the raised dots, read it, fall silent, and pass it on to the next person, while none of the able-bodied have the ability to listen to Du Hong's heart. Reading letters, without eyes, without voice, no movie has ever depicted the two worlds in this way. And Sha Zongqi massage parlor, they experienced as an individual to sprinkle dog blood, and as a group supported by the company of the roar, in this kind of no goodbye, the silent end.