This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Shanghai International Film Festival. As one of the highlights, the films participating in the Golden Goblet Awards are full of excellent films and exciting. In the important year of the film festival, it brings a feast of light and shadow carefully crafted to movie fans, embodying "based on Asia, paying attention to Chinese language, and supporting newcomers". Festival positioning. Among them, the 12 shortlisted films in the main competition can be called "responsible for attention", demonstrating the film selection principle of "each is beautiful, and beauty is shared" that has been consistently adhered to in previous Golden Goblet Awards.
It is very interesting that the filmmakers participating in the main competition this year include old friends such as "Hello, Mom" director Yoji Yamada who has participated in the Shanghai Film Festival many times and won awards such as best director, as well as "Hello, Mom". The director of Joseph's Son, Haubam Paban Kumar, and the star of "Nina", Yulia Bereshild, and other new friends who participated in the Shanghai Film Festival for the first time and came to Shanghai for the first time. In media interviews and reports, many international filmmakers admitted that they were infected by the enthusiasm and literacy of Shanghai film audiences, and expressed their love for the Shanghai Film Festival. I believe that many of them, like Paul Genovese, the director of "The First Day of Life", will have a special liking for the Shanghai Film Festival after coming, and become good friends who are willing to come again and again.
On June 16, director Yoji Yamada attended the "Hello, Mom" media meeting.
The age difference between participating directors this year may also become the largest in history. Director Yoji Yamada is invited again. "Hello, Mom" is his ninetieth film. The 91-year-old director was in high spirits at the film meeting, answering questions with humility and wisdom. Chen Shizhong, the director of the Chinese film "Looking for Her", was born in 1994 and has a deep connection with Shanghai, having studied at the Shanghai Vancouver Film Academy. His first feature film was shortlisted for the Golden Goblet Award, which became a great encouragement for his career. New and old filmmakers compete on the same stage. In comparison, young people are naturally lacking in skill and experience, but the innovation and persistence in their immaturity are also moving.
The above borrowed the participating guests to focus on the main competition unit from the horizontal axis (many guests) and the vertical axis (large span). The following is an attempt to briefly outline the content and style of the film.
After the world returns to normal order, "redemption" and "healing" films that review pain and soothe the soul are still the first choice for current film and television creation. Among the twelve participating films, half of them were based on this theme. The Japanese film "658 Kilometers, Yoko's Journey" takes Yoko, a single woman who lives alone away from her family, as a case. The reason. Yangzi constantly switches between reality, fantasy and memory, and finally reaches a reconciliation with her father, herself and the past. The British film "Tinder" focuses on preparing for the farewell ceremony one month before the young man's death. It discusses the profound impact of keywords such as "love, family, friends, home, and place" on life, and asks what is eternal in the ultimate sense. With He Yong.
"658 Kilometers, Yoko's Journey" "Tinder"
The Italian film "First Day of Life" adopts a fragmented structure, telling how the soul after suicide re-examines its own pain from the perspective of a bystander, and finally obtains the ultimate healing in the sense of life. The protagonist of the Chinese film "A Worthy Trip" earns a living by writing eulogies. After facing death many times, he opens his heart and accepts the unbearable lightness of the hit. In order to find her daughter's whereabouts, the heroine of the Chinese film "Looking for Her" stubbornly challenges power, tradition, and prejudice time and time again, gradually awakening her repressed self. The Belgian film "The Sound of the Piano" tells the story of a young female pianist who, while preparing to participate in a world-class music competition, keeps talking to her childhood trauma and is healed by music and the kindness of humanity.
"The First Day of Life", "A Worthy Trip", "Looking for Her", "The Sound of the Piano"
Among the remaining six films, the Indian film "Joseph's Son", the Iranian film "The Angry Filmmaker", and the Russian-Georgian co-production "Nina" can be a group that complements each other. The first two are grand themes from ordinary people, with clear realistic criticism and theme appeals. They discuss Indian ethnic conflicts, Iran's death penalty, women's status, director's creative ecology, etc. at different levels of history, culture, and status quo. For specific issues, the latter part has a more focused vision, penetrates into the hearts of women, and presents the complex, changeable, sensitive and fragile emotional world of the characters in a very rich and delicate way. Added depth to the story.
"Joseph's Son," "The Angry Filmmaker," "Nina"
The Spanish film "Voice of the Remains" and the Chinese film "The Eighth Suspect" constitute another set of contrastive relationships between art films and commercial films. The former uses documentary-style black-and-white images to tell the folk songs and folklore in northern Spain. It has been passed down orally by local women for more than 500 years, but it is on the verge of being lost today, leaving an elegy for the times. The latter is adapted from a real case and tells a journey of chasing murderers after a lapse of 21 years. The whole film not only has the suspense and criminal elements of crime genre films, but also has a strong sense of realism, making it extremely watchable.
"Voice of the Ruins" "The Eighth Suspect"
"Hello, Mom" deserves special attention at this year's Golden Goblet Awards. Unsurprisingly, the film still has the distinctive image characteristics of Yoji Yamada, with bright tones so bright that the shadows of the interior scenes are almost invisible, with a distinct studio photography style of the last century. The lives of ordinary people under his photography are full of obvious and inevitable Troubled, but also warm and affectionate, with frequent jokes. This kind of film that downplays or even avoids real suffering may seem old-fashioned, but compared with the exaggerated and false popcorn daydreams of many Hollywood commercial films, Yoji Yamada's human warmth and comfort are more sincere. He constantly reminds people to cherish the happiness that may be neglected, and tells the audience that life is like an olive with all kinds of flavors, and the bitterness will eventually come. This is Yoji Yamada's belief in film with dozens of films, so what's the old-fashioned, in this era full of changes, such old-fashioned is actually very precious and meaningful. He's still filming, and we can still see it on screen, which in itself is something to be thankful for.
"Hello, Mom" poster
"Hello, Mom" Stills
Many of the above twelve films are world premieres or Asian premieres. The 30-year-old Shanghai International Film Festival is constantly improving its brand influence and cultural appeal with "internationality, professionalism and authority". However, compared with other top film festivals in the world, the overall positioning of the film festival shown by the main competition unit seems not clear enough. For example, the Oscars in Hollywood have clear standards for the artistic quality, genre expansion, and content theme of selected commercial films, and award-winning films often become the benchmark for film creation in the following years. The Venice Film Festival focuses on artistic experiments and thematic pioneers, the Cannes Film Festival focuses on venture capital, and the Berlin Film Festival wins with inclusiveness and dialogue. The road ahead is long and the future is promising. I wish the Shanghai International Film Festival a new peak in the next ten years.
