Therefore, during the creation of this film, Hollywood ensured the capital and technology, and also stipulated the direction of the script and the rhythm of the film, among which Zhang Yimou really "danced with shackles". At the same time, "Sailing with water and exporting China culture" is another motivation and idea for Zhang Yimou to shoot this film: "I have always advocated that we should have such cooperation. We should borrow the power of Hollywood and what they like, even popcorn movies, but we can slowly and subtly convey some cultural symbols of China. " Therefore, when the film director was kidnapped by Hollywood capital, and the director's theme tried to export the cultural symbols of China for the first time with the help of films, such a nondescript freak mixed with Hollywood genre films and China cultural symbols came into being.
As a typical Hollywood film, The Great Wall is a mixture of China's The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, China's Mummy 3 and China's Warcraft. All kinds of elements of Hollywood commercial blockbusters are available in the film: the scene is grand enough, the special effects are realistic enough, the audio-visual is shocking enough, and the main story line is basically smooth. It combines monsters, horror, adventure, disaster, love, basic feelings and many other elements. On the theme, we should not only show the chivalrous demeanor of generals who "serve the country and the people", but also show personal martyrdom and sacrifice, as well as the growth and sublimation of human nature, the many contrasts between good and evil, selflessness and selfishness, the loyalty and betrayal of human nature, and the entanglement and perfection of brotherly love between men and women. Director Zhang Yimou is obviously familiar with the production mode of Hollywood commercial films, and also intends to cater to the commercial interests of Hollywood films such as "fast pace", "big scene" and "entertainment". Therefore, when a film or director is kidnapped by capital, the director's subjectivity is lost, and the film only becomes a bizarre decoration, destined to become a movie with characters but no image, stories but all accidents, feelings but no truth and feelings.
In terms of personnel, the Great Wall almost produced the worst all-star disappearance in 20 16 years. At the beginning of the film, all the generals of "Tiger, Deer, Bear, Ape and Crane" appeared because of the unexpected appearance of William Garin, a foreign character played by Matt Damon. At this moment, five stars, including Jing Tian, Zhang Hanyu, Kenny Lin, Eddie Peng Yuyan Swift and Huang Xuan, all made their debut, which made people look forward to it even more. But all the characters soon became "Mr. Wallflower" after their collective appearance. After commanding the first battle, Zhang Hanyu's Dian Shuai died in a hurry to protect Jing Tian's Mei Lin. His death was cowardly and hasty. It seems that his existence is only to pass on the position of the temple commander to Mei Lin, so as to show Mei Lin's perseverance and responsibility in times of crisis. "Three old fresh meats" Eddie Peng Yuyan Yu Yan, Kenny Lin and Huang Xuan are naked human flesh background boards. Not only do they have no personality at all, but in the end they simply become invisible and become the biggest "melon eaters". The strategist played by Andy Lau was able to stick to the end because he needed to explain the source and various characteristics of gluttony to the audience, so after his mission was completed, he was ruthlessly swallowed up by gluttony. Ryan plays a special envoy from Beijing to inspect the Great Wall. His role is to paint the emperor played by Karry. The little emperor struggled to recite three words in one minute, and each line was the biggest joke of the whole movie, which made people embarrassed by various charges. The most pitiful thing is Cheney Chen. The whole film has lines and a straight face, and the clothes are still stripped from "The Golden Flower in the City". These characters, not only have no story, but also have no personality, just like a moving prop. They appeared in the film in a hurry and magically into thin air, all of them became vain, bluffing and unintelligible, which fully exposed the core shortcoming of China's blockbuster "not treating people as people". All this seems to set off Mei Lin's "wonderful flower" and shape it into a "superwoman" image with wisdom and courage, justice and courage and sacrifice. The film completely ignores the logic of the story, all the plots are designed by Mei Lin, all the characters make way for Mei Lin, all the branches become anticlimactic in the second half, and all the characters are in the story.
The director's design and display of colors, scenes and props is not so much the output of China cultural symbols as the flattery to the western audience. If it is subjective and arbitrary that Zhang Yimou was criticized by scholars as "satisfying the western audience's voyeurism and imagination of the' East'" in the late 1990s, then today's Great Wall shows Zhang Yimou's consciousness of pleasing the western audience.
First of all, he imitated the "Five-Animal Play" and concocted the "Five-Color Army". But apart from artificially labeling the so-called "tiger, deer, bear, ape, crane", it has no meaning, neither can it show its unique power in battle, nor has it any discipline and war. The so-called five colors of red, black, purple, blue and gold just confirm Zhang Yimou's films again. However, it failed to play its due role in portraying characters and expressing movie themes. Compared with Zhang Yimou's previous film Red Sorghum, it expresses the freedom, enthusiasm and high-spirited stretch of human nature in red, Ju Dou hangs a red lantern to express the oppression brought by transcendental order in red, The Story of Autumn Chrysanthemum expresses the fierceness and perseverance of personality in red, Alive expresses the warmth and firmness of human nature in yellow, and The Great Wall uses five.
Secondly, when defending against the gluttonous siege for the first time, the director demonstrated various weapons, instruments and combat tactics in a colorful way, such as huge waterwheels, slowly rising elevators, wooden stakes opened like umbrella ribs, and so on. There were also women in the crane army who were assassinated while performing bungee jumping at high altitude, sword rain when thousands of arrows were in full swing, and giant stones like the goddess scattering flowers, and so on. Without paying attention to the authenticity of this mechanism in the Song Dynasty, and without considering whether the tactics of the crane army to fight monsters are appropriate and practical, you can clearly feel that the director completely regards the film as a stage for stunt display, turning the fierce war into a grand and gorgeous stage performance, and people are completely reduced to a stage performance. And all this, besides satisfying the selfish desires of western audiences and giving them a spectacular and unfamiliar experience, I really can't think of anything without aesthetic significance.
According to the data, there are not only various weapons and props in the Great Wall, but also a considerable number. Vita Studio in New Zealand designed and produced props for this film. Vita Studio incorporated China's traditional decorations and patterns when designing weapons. The decorations carved on weapons such as knives, swords, bows, crossbows, arrows and shields are all very classic in China, among which the gluttonous image Vita Studio took seven or eight months to design. In order to meet the demand for a large number of props for the film, the workshop staff of Vita Company increased from 150 to 330, and 4,500 weapons of various colors were manufactured for the film * * *, of which more than 10000 were eagle arrows. This series of figures can not prove the Excellence of the creator, but only reveal the creative mentality of quick success and instant benefit.
Thirdly, every colorful drumming action of tactical change, dazzling lanterns set off in memory of the dead Shao Dianshuai, and the roaring Qin Opera That Thing are all so stiffly interspersed in the film. All kinds of wonders with China elements are like a fragmented stage show, counting the performance time with watches, rushing to debut and rushing to make a curtain call. Such a straightforward China element, such a clumsy and blunt implantation, such a straightforward expression, and the grandiose reason of "exporting excellent China culture" have naked insulted the IQ of the audience and desecrated the film art.
Qian Zhongshu once said: "Reason lies in poetry, such as salt in water and honey in flowers, which is traceless and tasteless." As an art, the film's profound theme, the director's artistic ideal and humanistic spirit should naturally run through vivid and emotional characters, logical and meticulous storylines and vivid pictures, instead of being so eager and eager for quick success. Our complaint about this film is not only because of the poor quality of the film, but also because of our disappointment with an artist who once had ideas, personality and talent and was called a "ghost talent" and a "wizard". With such abundant capital, luxurious stars and top technology, it is unacceptable for most audiences who still have expectations for Zhang Yimou to integrate such mediocre assembly line works. The Great Wall proves once again that any best-selling work can't be just the secretion of commercial calculation. If we don't solve higher problems and let the global audience see "an active, spiritual, imaginative and curious life", then exporting culture will be empty talk.