There is no denying that the Tangshan earthquake did achieve sincere feelings, delicate details, shocking scenes and tears, but all this is only a primary indicator for the Tangshan earthquake. To put it more bluntly, with the current development level of China's film industry, these aspects are guaranteed by technology, experience and funds. As long as you don't do spoof subversion, the emotions involved in the "earthquake" element must be sincere; The old rice, oil, salt and heavy money contributed by the whole people can be used to build scenes, and the details can be easily completed (after all, it is not a costume film or a science fiction film); The foreign special effects team hired by more than 30 million people is more than enough to cope with the short three-minute special effects lens (not to mention the special effects); The earthquake scene after IMAX transformation is also shocking enough; An imaginary story (adapted from a novel) in which three or five stars with excellent acting skills sit in the town, through dramatic "separation" and "encounter" and emotional performances of the stars, it is not difficult to stop crying. It is precisely because this film has too many "artificial" traces that many people think that the emotional level of this film is closer to the level of TV series.
Xiaogang Feng's works, the starting point is well chosen. His works are always different at the point where the story takes place, thus firmly tying the audience. Every story in his comedy works is wonderful, and it takes less than 20 minutes to describe a very creative unknown framework. For example, the idea of a "sweet dream day trip" and a super funeral for the dead all started from the beginning of the story. It is this strong sense of concern that prompted Xiaogang Feng to choose Zhang Ling's novel Aftershock. In fact, the probability of the story in this novel is extremely low. Twins, a concrete slab hit them and saved one, the other died and the other came back from the dead. That link is not ultra-low probability? This situation will also bring different degrees of psychological trauma to several people involved, including general collective pain and personal fatalism. It can be said that the film is very good at the beginning of drama. Thirty-two years later, Xiaogang Feng found the best starting point to re-examine the "Tangshan Earthquake".
However, after the cut-in, the subsequent situation seems to be less well controlled. The long-term cooperation with Ge You makes Xiaogang Feng the most familiar way to focus the story on a person with a unique personality. There will be many unconventional qualities in this hero. Even Gu, played by Zhang Hanyu in Assembly, is a very uncooperative diehard. Xiaogang Feng is good at pushing ordinary things into the unusual with unusual characters. If the role of Ge You had not been so stubborn, our daily experiences such as Sweet Dream, A Day Trip, Taylor's Funeral and Marriage Journey would not have shown unusual or even crazy effects. However, once Xiaogang Feng's works are designated as "unusual" characters, his personality will not change much, and there are only two "true feelings" or "consciences" at most.
The Tangshan earthquake is very different from his previous works. Aftershock is a typical story-driven role. Through a series of "unusual" experiences, layers of shadows are formed in the characters' psychology, and then the pain caused by these shadows is revealed through the unusual words and deeds and personality of the characters. If we can go further, we will use another "unusual" event (the Wenchuan earthquake is used in the film) to resolve the psychological shadow of the character, thus making up for the pain of the past years. Between a wound and a healing, we can promote the theme of good and evil of human nature and human love. Both the original author of the novel and Xiaogang Feng hope to follow this path in his works. It's a pity that both of them walk a little affectedly, and one walks badly. In the film version, the protagonist develops from her sister to a three-line cross narrative with her mother's original Ni as the main part and her sister and brother Fang as the auxiliary part. Xiaogang Feng is not good at this narrative technique and characterization, which makes the film tired of explaining the experiences and latest situation of many characters. The experience of each character is handled smoothly, but the shadow left by the experience is hard to see. The suffering of the people after these earthquakes is straightforward, but the step-by-step formation process of this pain lacks sufficient persuasion and appeal.
I couldn't help crying when I saw the magazine's previous report about this movie. What I saw on the subway "scared others". But at the movies, I only cried when Xu Fan knelt at the end of the film. The reason is very simple, this tear point is the plot point. The tears here are the embodiment of my true feelings. When shanzhai comedies were popular before, many fans described them as "tickling people's laughter". Although this film doesn't make people feel "twisted to tears", what they present outside the technology is really unsatisfactory. Personally, I think that the movie Tangshan Earthquake does sum up and improve China movies in terms of technology (both industrial technology and creative technology) (for example, the IMAX effect is equal to Hollywood blockbusters), but due to the objective constraints of lack of experience and immature production system, this movie is still lacking in film art. Perhaps most viewers may only have perceptual requirements for the theme of Tangshan Earthquake at present, but we still expect to appreciate China movies more rationally.