Perhaps it is because the good reputation of "Fame and Li Wan" has given the industry a lot of confidence. In recent years, script-killing movies have sprung up like mushrooms, and even Zhang Yimou's "Man Jianghong" during the Spring Festival this year can be classified as one of them. "Great Night" also quickly entered the track of script killing after the opening scene.
Screenplay killing movies has its own advantages, the most prominent being that the cost is low enough. Except for the opening scene, all the stories of "A Great Night" took place on the same set. In addition, this film employs a lot of comedy sketch actors.
"Amazing Night" Stills
However, the script kills the movie so well? You know, it is not an easy task to let the audience in the theater sit with peace of mind for nearly 2 hours when the scene is already very simple. If Agatha's novels back then can still make readers' eyes shine, what new tricks can film creators come up with today?
There must be a reversal, and there must be more than one. It must be reversed continuously so that the audience can never guess the truth in order to maintain the attractiveness of the narrative. The problem is, everyone knows that there will be a reversal, so what novelty can the reversal bring? What's more, due to well-known reasons, everyone knows that the so-called "female ghost" in this film must be fake, and the so-called "ghost" incident must be man-made. That being the case, the two retrospectives and revelations in the second half of the film, which are done in a serious manner, may hardly stir up many waves in the hearts of the audience.
"Amazing Night" Stills
Another difficulty in setting up a script-killing movie is whether or not group portraits of characters can be established in the text content of about 2 hours. The group of down-and-out filmmakers in "Rising Fame", not to mention impressing the audience, each has its own characteristics. However, the memory points left by the characters in this film are almost zero.
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The three brothers composed of leopard, monkey and dog, what else is left besides being startled and chattering? After watching the whole movie, you can't tell their most basic characters. Xiao Shan, whose acting skills are clumsy, was able to act well in the end out of nowhere; the presence or absence of another actor, Dou, seemed to have little effect on the plot. The only thing that is interesting is the director played by Liang Long, but his transition before and after the film is very blunt - at the beginning he was still a philistine who only wanted to make money and complete his tasks, and later he suddenly became an artist willing to sacrifice for the film career . Of course, this is nothing compared to the countless logical flaws in this film.
"Amazing Night" Stills
When the script kills the movie and feels that "suspense" is not enough, they will move closer to the composite genre. For example, "Rising Fame" and "Manjianghong" are all in addition to reasoning, and also add elements such as comedy and action. Another example is that many scripts kill movies and add "spectacles". For example, the story of "Rising Fame" took place in the Republic of China, and "Man Jianghong" took place in the Song Dynasty. This film is also very hard-working. It is a so-called high imitation of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", and it is also a horror film in a confined space. After all, it is to add a little "freshness" to the audience.
However, composite genres often place higher demands on movie scripts. For example, the content of the story is much more solid than this film, and "Uninvited Guest", which is blessed by powerful actors such as Fan Wei, has been complained by many netizens that it should not marry the heavy theme of child trafficking and absurd comedy. And the effect presented by this film is not flattering-short video, horror film, play within a play, all kinds of elements are mixed together, but what exactly do you want to express?
This leads to the next question. A script can kill a movie with many characters and complicated clues, but it cannot be without a spiritual core that dominates the overall situation. Although "Manjianghong" has been criticized by many fans, the motivations of all the characters are generally relatively clear-no matter how many reversals and tricks, they will ultimately serve to restore Yue Fei's reputation.
"Amazing Night" Stills
But the chaos and ambiguity of this film are unacceptable. We can't even tell whether this film is to affirm or deny the role of short videos in this Internet age? The pranks played by the three brothers in the opening scene cannot be described as absurd or boring enough, it is simply a very bad act. Later, during the filming stage of the crew, he also helped the main actors to hype themselves, which is another typical stinky behavior of "traffic is king". Just these guys, in the second half of the film, they suddenly brought up views such as "likes of short videos are equal to self-affirmation", which seems to be raising the grassroots value of short videos. But after watching the whole movie, the short videos of the three brothers are still in the eye-catching stage, and the style is quite low.
The film's attitude toward film is even more ambiguous. In the first half, none of the crew members were reliable, and even the director regarded making movies as a business, but when the producer said that he would no longer invest in movies, all the members suddenly became extremely passionate about movies. I don't know whether this film is to praise the behind-the-scenes heroes of those movies, or is it a satire of the whole film industry's posturing? The characters in the movie are fooling around, and it seems that the creator of the movie has also directly entered the situation of breaking the jar, just like the producer played by Zhou Yiwei - he can describe the movie made of short videos as "artistic". "It's all because of drinking too much.
"Amazing Night" Stills
"A Great Night" finally came to an end in chaos, and it was not a loss for the audience to spend 2 hours amidst the excitement. However, the thinking brought by this film to the script killing movie is not over yet. In the final analysis, script killing is a kind of game, a way for players to get an immersive sense of substitution and participation. Therefore, its essence does not conform to the characteristics of movies as a narrative medium. To put it bluntly, since it is a game, as long as you have fun, you don't need to carry too much "meaning", but movies, like literature, cannot have only form and no content.
Perhaps, after a brief period of glory, script-killing movies have reached a crossroads of fate. Perhaps, if there is no very solid and wonderful script, and no actors with outstanding acting skills, the creator should not just challenge the script to kill the movie. "The Suit" starring Mark Rylance can be called a masterpiece of script-killing movies in recent years. Despite this, many netizens still think it is very "dull" and "boring", not to mention the immature "Great Night" Woolen cloth?
