Soul on a Leather Rope: A delicate and careful work of the picture

Last year, I watched Zhang Yang's magic film "Soul on the Leather Rope" in the cinema. It is based on two works by Tibetan writer Tashi Dawa, "Tibet, the Soul Tied to a Leather Rope Knot" and "On the Way to Lhasa", and is co-written by Tashi Dawa and Zhang Yang. I haven't seen the original book yet, only the movie itself.

Stills from Souls on a Leather Rope

The story is not complicated: Tabe, a hunter who once killed a life, got an ancient dzi one day while hunting deer, and as a result, he was struck by lightning and nearly died. The monks of the temple rescued him, persuaded and guided Tabe to put down the butcher's knife and return the Dzi back to the palm print of the legendary Lotus Master, so Tabe reluctantly embarked on the road.

The main story of the movie is what happened on the way to escort the Dzi. The screenwriter divides the narrative into three lines. The first is the Dzi escort line formed by Tabe and the shepherd girl Joan and the boy Pu who can't speak; the second is the revenge line of the brothers who hunted down and killed Tabe as Guo Ri and Zhan Dui, who killed their father's enemy; the third is a line of revenge for the brothers who have been chasing and killing tabe at first, who can't see what he is doing, and has been looking for tabe's traces.

The three narrative lines alternately extend, sometimes overlapping, sometimes with a branch. Along the way, the story gradually became clear, the characters became vivid, and the layers were highlighted.

The grumpy and aggressive Tabe stumbles all the way and clashes with everyone; the kind and persistent Joan, who follows the tabe he loves and advises him to have fewer troubles; the clever and predictive Pu adds color to Tabe and Joan's journey; the reckless and stubborn Guo Ri, who has been looking for revenge for more than ten years; GeDan, who does not know what identity, is always half a step closer to tracking Tabe.

Overall, behind these characters, they all have their own personal backgrounds. If you have read the original novel, you may be able to say one or two. Judging only by the final effect of the film, the character direction of these characters is also standing.

The biggest surprise came from the actor Solonima playing The Heap. This role is a supporting role, and he appears relatively late, but the layers he gradually shows are the richest, and the character personality is also the most contradictory.

Zhan Dui's father was killed by Tabe, and Zhan Dui and his brother Guo Ri have been searching for Tabe since they were teenagers. Guo Ri was impulsive and reckless, once confessed and killed the wrong person, but did not learn a lesson from it, every time he saw a person named Tabe, he would still raise a knife and cut it without asking.

As Guo Ri's brother, Zhan Dui is a meticulous and gentle character. He already had a fiancée who talked about marriage, but in order to fulfill the vow he made to his mother to bring Guo Ri home alive, he gave up his beloved girl. He carefully wrote down the characteristics of Tabe described by his mother, and when Guo Ri almost killed the wrong person, he intervened in time to stop it and let go of the passerby who was implicated because of the same name. When the real Tabe was found, Tabe was in a critical moment of life and death, and Zhandui not only did not take advantage of the danger of others, but also helped to ensure the safety of Tabe and his party.

The shaping of the heap is also gradually plumped. At first, like Guo Ri, he wanted to find Tabe to avenge himself as soon as possible. However, with the passage of time, after experiencing the joys and sorrows of the world, this Khampa man who has experienced many vicissitudes began to reflect on the value of life. He was not blinded by hatred, and when he found Tabe and found that Tabe had begun to get lost, he did not rush to take revenge, but instead blocked Guo Ri's attack. At the same time, in the face of killing his father's enemy and his own brother, Zhan Dui was also once contradictory, but in the end he chose to put down his hatred and start over. At the end of the movie, it seems to be an unfinished story, and the identity of Gedan is also revealed at this time.

As a magic movie, "Soul on the Leather Rope" does not have many special effects, but the visual effects are quite decent. Compared with the plot of the movie, the costumes, makeup, props, and scene selection of this film are more worthy of reference and reference. What kind of clothes the characters wear and what kind of natural landscape is chosen as the background are closely related to the scenes of life in Tibetan areas. A small accessory on the character, a seemingly casual prop in the shot, these details reflect the intentions of the producer and the use of Tibetan cultural materials.

According to statistics, the total box office of national films in 2017 was 55.911 billion yuan, and the box office of Chinese films in China was 30.104 billion yuan, accounting for 53.84% of the total box office. At the same time, it is gradually replacing North America as the world's largest single box office market. In contrast, there is the scarcity of magic movies. And works like "Soul on the Leather Rope" can just make up for the shortcomings. From a close perspective, in the upcoming "May Day" file, a movie "God of War" that is also a national fantasy theme will be released immediately; from a distance, the magical giant production with the theme of the Tibetan epic "King Gesar" has also entered the planning stage. If we can uphold a sincere heart to shape fine products, I believe that in the near future, domestic magic films can also achieve better results in the market. (China Tibet Network Text/Yang Yueyun)

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