"Manslaughter" director Ke Wenli's new film "Murderful Kill" has a box office of over 100 million in its three days of release. As a film that has been released on weekdays, "Murderful Kill" has created a rare good result in the summer season that continues to be sluggish.

"Silent Kill" poster

The story of "Silent Killing" takes place in Jinghua Girls' High School in the fictional city of Duma. Wang Shengdi, who played Pu Pu in "The Hidden Corner", this time plays Xiaotong, a mute girl who suffers from school bullying. After being bullied once, the bullies were killed one after another by heavy hammers. Behind the serial murder case, people who are hard to escape suspicion have surfaced one by one: the mother, played by Zhang Junning, witnessed her daughter being sealed with glue, but kept silent; Lin Zaifu, the school worker played by Wang Chuanjun, appeared in the lives of the mother and daughter at this time. ...As Zongzong’s filthy past was uncovered one by one, everyone was pushed to the forefront.

In the process of searching for her daughter, a series of cases such as school bullying, serial murder, domestic violence, charity fraud, etc. The elements of blood, violence, and horror fill the senses with excitement, layer by layer of suspense, and the characters are reversed one by one. The theme gradually emerges.

Wang Shengdi as Xiaotong

As a suspense film, the suspense of this film does not lie in who the murderer is. Although the real murderer is not identified in the first half of the film, viewers with a little experience in watching suspense films should easily be able to understand the director's sufficient lines and scenes. Find the answer among the hints. It can almost be said that less than halfway through the film, the audience can almost identify the murderer. Of course, there can be more twists and turns hidden in the scraps for fun, but the main line of the story, the father's revenge for his daughter, is very clear and clear.

Beyond revenge, the real core of this story is even more intriguing.

"Silent Killing" is a very topical title. "Silent Killing" has multiple meanings. The little girl, the protagonist of the film, is mute. As the core of the whole incident, she can certainly be synonymous with silence. At the same time, the father's blade of revenge is not only directed at the evil bully, but also in the entire campus and even the social environment where bullying breeds. In every link, the silence of witnesses out of their own selfishness has also become a breeding ground for tragedy. .

Wang Chuanjun as Lin Zaifu

Junning Zhang as Li Han

The crimes in "Silent Killing" involve perpetrators, victims and bystanders. The voyeur taking secret photos from across the building, the landlord behind the door who has witnessed atrocities for many years, including the pastor who witnessed the tragedy, the principal who protected his daughter, the security guard who broke up the bully... Everyone's silence becomes a wave towards the victim. A knife; as for that knife, it eventually fell on him. Only a mute girl can tell the truth to the public, but she herself has become a sharp blade.

Not long after the film opens, the daughter and mother witness a group of ants gnawing on the body of a dead cockroach, which has already hinted and summarized the truth of the entire case. Director Ke Wenli likes to use animals as metaphors, from the sheep in "Manslaughter" to the pigeons in "Silent Killing", which are accurate and natural in the same vein. "Some children are children, and some children are animals" still applies in this movie.

At the same time, the entire film of "Silence" is filled with large-scale violent scenes. From an intuitive visual perspective alone, its scale is the best among domestic cinema films. Especially the scenes of school bullying, whether it is Xiaotong being glued to the wall and sealed with glue; or Huijun wearing a crown of thorns and being force-fed "hair soup", the impact of the scene is exciting and full of excitement at the same time , a metaphor full of religious implications, also opens up a deeper space for interpretation of the bullying drama. The man in black's murder on a rainy night is also full of tributes to "Memories of Murder". Director Ke Wenli continued the highly acclaimed cinephile Easter egg implantation in "Manslaughter", "Kumquat planted by my husband", which is so creepy. It's even funny with a bit of inexplicable humor.

Stills of "Silent Kill"

What's interesting is that "Silence" started a very new operation in Chinese-language films. Remakes are not uncommon, but remakes of oneself are rare. This version of "Silent Kill" is a remake of Ke Wenli's feature film debut.

During last year's Shanghai International Film Festival, the Malaysian version of "Silence" starring Huang Jianwei, Yin Xin, Zhang Shi, etc. was shortlisted for screening in the Chinese New Style section. Ke Wenli told the audience during the post-screening communication session that this is actually his first feature film. Before Ke Wenli was chosen by Chen Sicheng to shoot "Manslaughter", "Silent Killing" was his graduate work and was considered his first feature film. Later, because I was filming "Manslaughter", the later stages of this film were delayed. After encountering the epidemic and the director taking over other projects, this "debut" was not officially completed until 2022.

At that time, Ke Wenli revealed that he had received some negotiation intentions at the Shanghai Film Festival, and the film was intended to be released in mainland China in the future. Although the name and story of the version of "Silence" released today are exactly the same, the cast and management have been completely changed, making it a "pure-blooded" domestic film.

In short, after the original actor broke negative news, which affected the release of the film, the film studio was not willing to waste a good story, so they came up with a remake that is "more suitable for Chinese babies' physiques."

It can be found from public information that the registration and establishment of the "Silent Kill" project was in March this year, and the filming permission was just obtained. In other words, it only took 4 months from start-up to release. One thing to say, the film is mature and complete in terms of production level and completion, and can be regarded as a sophisticated genre film. Such efficiency is amazing.

An interesting phenomenon is that at the Shanghai Film Festival last year, after the first version of "Silence" was screened, the Douban score once soared from 8.2 to 8.4, and now it has dropped to 7.9. However, the new version of "Silence" retains the same story as the original cast, the actors' popularity and acting skills are online, and the production is more mature and sophisticated. However, the Douban score is only 6.9. The audience evaluation shows a polarization between some people love it and some people criticize it. Among them, What's the reason?

As of 15:00 on July 5, the Douban ratings and the number of people who rated the two versions of "Silent Kill".

In fact, the two films were shot in different periods and share the same "maturity". At the time of the Malaysian version of "Silence", Ke Wenli, as a fledgling director, was both "fierce" and "sophisticated". In his first feature film, he showed mature film techniques and sophisticated vision of human society. , amazing.

It is worth mentioning that when talking about this "graduation work", Ke Wenli once revealed that the crew only had six or seven staff at the time, and everyone switched back and forth between several types of work. Even the actors would help with other tasks. This fledgling agility is a great plus and worthy of recognition for the completion of a full-length film.

As a "replica" that was changed in a short period of time without changing the medicine, the new version of "Silence" appears to be "full of craftsmanship" in terms of its mature performance. The director quickly concocted the same recipe. After several rounds of successful practice in film and television dramas, he already knew how to use audio-visual language to capture the audience's emotions, whether it was color or sound effects. But at first glance, it was all a tacky routine operation.

Audiences who want to experience "thriller" can open their eyes wide and prepare for various audio-visual shocks; and those who don't like this set like the author can also be prepared at any time under the suggestive shots created by the atmosphere. Look away to "avoid lightning" (actually measured to avoid being frightened by shifting your attention in time, the probability is as high as 100%). As for the actors' performances, I can't say anything wrong, but most of them are full of stereotypes. You can tell how bad this character is with every move and gesture.

Stills of "Silent Kill"

"Everyone is evil" and "everyone is crazy", such labeled concepts are obviously easier to make some kind of footnote for the movie, and even replicate the successful experience of last year's "The Vanishing" and "All or Nothing". The film material is short video marketing Be fully prepared. However, in a movie that is full of all the evils in the world, including sexual assault, child abuse, domestic violence, bullying, criminal police, secret photography, fraud, etc., the crime elements are redundant.

Although the audience will have a sense of "great value" for spending a penny to watch several crime films, the "double-sided" space for each character to show his or her duplicity has also been compressed. The characters are no longer living individuals, they are just puppets used by the creator to show off his skills. The protagonist's extreme situation is too dark and cannot be empathized with, and the supporting cast is even suspected of being reduced to tool people.

Last year at the Shanghai Film Festival, the author watched the original version of "Silent Kill", and I had the impression that more words were used to describe the lives of each family in the building where Xiaotong disappeared. Living in the same building, in a space that is both closed and open, people peek into each other's secrets and remain silent together. And this part of the narrative will somewhat distract from the main narrative of the father's revenge for his bullied daughter.

As a movie with clear supply demands, in the new version of "Silent Kill", the director pays more attention to "audience friendliness" and puts almost all information clues into his mouth. There is a huge amount of information in the film, but there is almost no room for digestion and digestion. While the events are quickly advanced, there is no conclusion to be drawn through reasoning. The "direct" can only be killed through a large number of lines or flashback memories, even in car chases, fights and other actions. The movie gives a "refreshing" feeling, and even basic logic is ignored, which affects the movie-watching experience to some extent.

Wu Zhenyu as Dai Guodong

There is also a strange feeling brought about by the actor's mixed accents from the east, west and north. In an imaginary city, Taiwanese, Hong Kong and "Sister Ma" flavors blend seamlessly. This suddenly reminded the author that a producer previously mentioned that the biggest difficulty for Hong Kong actors to perform in Beijing is language. Hey, put it in the fictional Southeast Asian criminal universe, and this problem is easily solved!

Of course, the new version of "Silence" is not a bad movie. It has both advantages and regrets. Advantages come from "original intention", while regrets come from "craftsmanship".

In the author's opinion, it is still better than most mystical suspense films. It not only provides the audience with sensory satisfaction of audio-visual experience, but also involves powerful social thinking and expression. However, under the operation of "self-remake", the efficient "craftsmanship" somewhat concealed the fledgling energy and edge.