How to choose the right daddy? "Fengsheng" talks about this

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Argoon

"The First Part of Fengshen can't fail", which is an undiscountable demand for Wuershan, for its production company in the midst of drift, and even for Chinese films that are recovering.

But gods and demons blockbusters, or magic, fantasy, in 2023 today, is indeed an outdated, greasy genre. Over the past decade, it has accumulated far more pompous failures than successes. In this sense, many people are not optimistic about "Fengshen ", which was released four years late, of course, it makes sense.

However, the paradox is that in the past five years, we have spoiled our appetites because we have been bombarded day and night by some other specific variety of blockbusters, and now as long as we give normal blockbusters, it is good. So under the cyclical logic of this trend, gods and demons blockbusters are not necessarily an old type

The key is whether Urshan can come up with something that we are not tired of seeing.

Before I read it, I knew that this movie will not be very similar to the original work of "Feng Shen", which is a self-evident tacit understanding between the audience and the director

Wuershan said that every nation must trace, refine and re-express its own culture and spirit at a certain stage.

"Fengshen ", like "Journey to the West", is a classic story "prototype" and a "meta-myth" of a nation, with unlimited potential for adaptation and remake in theory. Although the literary level of the original work of "Fengshen " is actually relatively limited

The background of the big confrontation between good and evil does not need to change. The new framework that Urshan built in this episode has several points worth talking about

Those who have read the original work know that the main body of the story of Feng Shen is middle-aged and elderly, although there is a large number of young heroes, but as soon as they come to the front, they collectively play soy sauce, and only Yang Jian often performs brilliantly. But Wu Ershan obviously gave this film a very high proportion of the attributes of the juvenile growth story, and a group of teenagers such as Ji Fa, Yin Jiao, Jiang Wenhuan and others obtained a lot of scenes, and there was no lack of violent psychological shocks and stance repetition

The mythological story is young, and there have long been attempts to chase the light and other label pearls and jade. The mythological system, the bold renovation of character relationships, and the bold use of modern perspectives have successively raised the threshold for expression of this theme. Therefore, the film launches a group portrait of human teenagers, and in 2023, it is indeed not enough to make the audience's eyes really shine.

As for "growing up", Ji Fa has been a proton in Chaoge for eight years, as if he has been successfully brainwashed by Yin Shou, and when the vague biological father in his memory appears, he still can't accept this father ideologically for a while.

But in the end, what exactly changed, it is far-fetched to say that he woke up, and it is not reasonable to say that forbearance is lurking, in short, the movie's treatment of Ji Fa is not very adequate and convincing.

Yin Jiao, who walked with him, took another relatively simple path of enlightenment, with a more straightforward idol collapse and value reconstruction, unlike Ji Fa dragging mud and water.

In addition, the discussion of patriarchy and the relationship between father and son in various senses is clearly brought to the fore by Wuershan. Seeing that many viewers were first shocked by the density of "daddy" in this film, they knew that this was by no means a hidden motif.

Movies often talk about one thing, who should be recognized as a father?

Is it the biological father of blood relatives, or the godfather who raised himself?

Is it the dad advocated by the official ideology, or the dad who goes against the official ideology?

Li Xuejian's Ji Chang actually said the answer to Ji Fa a long time ago: It doesn't matter whose son you are, it only matters who you are

But I don't see Ji Fa doing anything about "finding himself", and he finally chooses between two dads who he thinks is right.

Of course, the significance of the "God Sealing List" must also be revised. The original work was to help the Heavenly Court select civil servants, so a number of unlucky eggs from the three sects who could not cultivate immortals were allocated to the establishment

This is too fatalistic and has nothing to do with ordinary people, so Urshan has established a new goal of finding the "co-master of the world"

Even played a suspense, Jiang Ziya in the film did not know who the true destiny was, and Yuan Shi Tianzun did not tell. So he thought that Yin Shou was the co-master at first, and after witnessing Yin Shou's atrocities, he began to think that Yin Jiao was the co-master

At this time, it is useless for the audience to be anxious, and can only pretend not to understand history and look down.

In fact, this is the same thing as the above-mentioned growing teenager how to choose a correct father - this is Jiang Ziya choosing a good father for the world.

From the perspective of the three views, is it a little more progressive than the original?

Moreover, this film is bound to rewrite the theory of "red face and bad water". Just like shooting "Water Margin", you definitely need to reimagine Pan Jinlian's image. Otherwise, you won't get past the level of a contemporary audience (not limited to women).

Part of Nadaji's motive in this film is probably interpreted as repaying grace. In fact, the film does not arrange for her to take the initiative to do too many bad things, and killing Queen Jiang can be regarded as a reason to have to defend herself. It was Yin Shou who took the initiative to take the identity of the first person responsible for the crime

A scene in the Zongmiao Temple expressed this meaning particularly clearly, at this time Yin Shou already knew that Daji was a fox demon, and he still stood on her side without complaint. He knows what he is doing, don't throw the pot of disaster to the country and the people to women. I don't know if this kind of treatment can pass the test with the audience.

This film also appropriately weakens some "male condensation" and improves "female coagulation" at the same time.

A group of carefully selected fresh meat has been trained to build muscle, reaching the peak of gaze when half-naked group dances and shirtless Yinjiao carefully bound around the chest muscles, coupled with the frequent exposure of the more masculine charm of the king, so that the male flesh concentration of this film overshadows the female, I don't know if this is the "restoration" of the masculine attribute that Wuershan hopes to achieve.

The rapid out-of-the-loop of such scenes, whether it attracts rotten women or non-straight male audiences, is in short, a new stage of aesthetic taste of some kind of male consumption. It can be said that it is a willow, but it can be said that it is unintentional.

As in the entire film, trying to swim out of the modern novelty within the framework of the classical text is often better inadvertently than casually.

Anyway, the most profound point of this film is that because the film has too many plots corresponding to the real history of the continuous cycle of later generations, which may objectively help this movie to last longer.

Of course, this includes the common tragedy of the father killing the son and the son killing the father, including the son's first reaction after eavesdropping on his father's "not quite right" is to report, including Yin Shouyan as a ruler without faith, brainwashing skills... All of this film faintly has the taste of the creation of scars in the special historical period of the last century.

Therefore, whether it is fantasy or gods and demons, it must settle in a visible position in the real historical coordinate system, and a movie will have its meaning, even if it is not intentional.