Chapter 15 Times hit hard

Every time I watch Xu Xiaoming's "Mirage", it's like taking a hot bath. As a writer, after writing for a long time, I gradually have supernatural powers.When reading or watching a movie, when encountering a hearty work, the creator's pleasure at that time will be restored in his own body, his passion erupts like a god's help, and the thoughts in his heart are like a sky-piercing fireworks, chirping all the way Braving sparks, I headed towards the night sky, thinking that breaking through this layer of atmosphere would be the end, but I still have the strength to pass through another layer of atmosphere. Although it is labor, the whole body has become a tool for pleasure; Yes, the creator's anxiety, lack of self-confidence, and even adverse physical reactions at that time inevitably came one by one. He had a dry mouth, a sore back, and he procrastinated and refused to start work.

"Mirage" belongs to the former.In the mirage, the photographer saw a mysterious and beautiful woman of a foreign race, and never forgot it. He left his family and business to do a hopeless search in the desert of Xinjiang. The moment he took off the veil of the bloodthirsty bandit leader, he found that it was the man of his dreams.This story, the motive, conception, succession and transformation, are all novel, sharp and hearty. Although it surprised me twenty-three years ago, it is still the same twenty-three years later.Although it can’t be considered completely original—it’s adapted from Ni Kuang’s novel, it discards the fantasy color in the novel, changes Arabia into Xinjiang in the 1930s, adds folk customs, is full of worldly affairs and human feelings, and is more solid. More mellow and more convincing.

For twenty-three years, every time I rewatched it, I kept thinking, how could Xu Xiaoming be happy when he wrote this script?When the idea of ​​changing the background of the story to Xinjiang flashed, everything around him seemed to have been processed by special effects in his heart. The smell of wind and sand, camel bells, spices, and exotic music appeared together, making him not know where he was.A desire to grasp the idea immediately, sparked a hot sweat like an electric shock. But it has never been remade, even in this age of great shortage of good scripts.Probably because it is not the kind of Hong Kong movie before it, with rich colors and eccentric colors. Now it seems that at least it has documentary value, and it is not the kind of Hong Kong movie after that. have contributed to the accumulation.It is a melodrama that tries its best to eliminate the color of its origin. It has no schools and no distinctions. No one is interested in it, so there is no reason to remake it.

What's more, in the 1980s, there were many such hearty stories.What also amazes me and never forgets is Zhou Xiaowen's "The Price of Crazy".It is the kind of deep tragedy, but full of gimmicks, the whole story line is simple, but it is done in one go.Also, the movie wasn't remade.Even if remakes, I doubt that they will be shot in fragments, difficult to justify themselves, and lack the support of inner emotions, so that the adverse reactions of the creators when writing will be reproduced on the audience, like almost all movies now. What went wrong? I had a serious illness in 2006, and not long after that, I happened to read Paul Auster's novels - all his novels are about "grave trauma", and then I understood that if a person suddenly feels like With a dead gray complexion and a haggard face, if a person's living conditions are suddenly fragmented and inconsistent, one must consider the occurrence of a serious injury.For the film world, if one or two creators lose their ability to tell stories, it is only their problem. If this happens to all authors at the same time, then it must be a problem of the times, and it must be where the times are There was a serious injury, which made them incoherent and lost their self-confidence, so that the audience could feel the dry mouth and tongue at that time through the screen.

I don't know when and in what form this mysterious trauma happened, but I can feel its consequences: the fragmented stories on the screen that made me feel dry and on pins and needles.