After several schedule changes, the domestic family film "Life Events" finally belatedly released on June 24. With a box office of 250 million yuan in its first weekend and a Maoyan score of 9.7, it became a dark horse for a film that has been languishing for three months due to

After several schedule changes, the domestic family film " Life Events " finally belatedly released on June 24, and became a dark horse with a box office of 250 million yuan in the first weekend and a Maoyan score of 9.7. It was sluggish due to the epidemic. The mainland film market, which has been open for three months, has boosted morale and made a good start for the summer season.

The film tells the story of Mo Sanmei (hereinafter referred to as "Third Brother"), a funeral director who lives a miserable life. By chance, he meets Wu Xiaowen, an orphan. The two go from conflict with each other to healing each other, and finally regain their courage to face the intersection of joy and sorrow together. s future.

The film’s screenwriter and director Liu Jiangjiang has no previous film credits. As his directorial debut, the performance of "Life Events" can be called an unexpected surprise. Han Yan is a filmmaker with a mature personal style and a persistent focus on the theme of "birth, old age, illness and death". He directed "Get Out!" "Tumor King" and " Give You a Little Red Flower " have aroused heated discussions; the production of "Life Events" can be regarded as another continuation of his previous works.

Although funeral themes are rare on the screen, there are still some excellent ones. Japan has the Oscar-winning "The Embalmer ", and South Korea has the well-received "Paper Flowers", but in China there have been few related works in the past 20 years - in this sense, "Life Events" takes this step forward. The courage and pattern of one step are worthy of respect, but it is not easy to follow this path well. Objectively speaking, "Life Events" is a work that is both gratifying and regretful. What is gratifying is that the film uses a light comedy and full of fireworks to examine life and death with ease; unfortunately, it ultimately makes "life and death" appear on the surface, serving a heart-warming story and failing to touch the deeper core.

Different from the elegant or solemn overall tone of "The Embalmer" and "Paper Flowers", "Life Events" arranges the story in Wuhan with a strong urban atmosphere, creating a steamy life background for the characters. The third brother who inherited his father's business has just been released from prison. However, his girlfriend has moved on, the relationship between father and son is tense, and he is ridiculed all day long because of his career, which makes him full of frustration. He lives his life idle, and his biggest wish is to get the property certificate of "Going to Heaven" from his father, sell it, and "change his life." Xiaowen was dragged away by his third brother because of his grandmother's body, and he chased her all the way to "heaven" to ask for an explanation, but this also started the fate of the two not knowing each other.

The character relationship between the third brother and Xiaowen is a typical "half-way father and daughter (son)". Classics of the same type include ", this killer is not too cold", "", "Summer of Kikujiro", "White Rabbit Candy", etc., among the characters There is a main line of being friends and relatives and growing together. The performances of the two leads are commendable. The actor who plays the third brother, Zhu Yilong , has a sense of bookishness and vulnerability. In the past, he mostly played the role of "a good man in troubled times". This time he challenged such a "bandit" character and completed the subversion of the previous image. It is not easy for a traffic niche to transform into a powerful one. Zhu Yilong’s sobriety and hard work are extremely valuable. The most touching thing in the film is the vulnerability in his eyes, which penetrates the "third brother"'s carefree appearance and injects soul into this character who is actually delicate and soft in heart. I have to lament that the actor chose the right role and the director chose the right person. The young actor Yang En also made the ghostly and stubborn Xiaowen vivid and touching. Her crying scene is especially good, she is natural and not artificial, and her scene with the third brother is sincere and touching.

The first half of the film has a lively power, which effectively arouses the emotions of the audience in the midst of laughter and tears; unfortunately, it starts to get out of control in the second half, especially the ending which seems hasty, and the sudden appearance of Xiaowen's mother is unreasonable for the third brother. culminated in the farewell.

A happy reunion can certainly soothe the audience's tears, but for a film that focuses on "life and death matters", we may still expect more. For example, behind the lively laughter and tenderness, can there be more contemplation of life?

In order to fulfill his father's last wish, the third brother put the old man's ashes into a fireworks tube and shot it into the night sky, forming a huge firework.This design is an excellent sublimation and blank space for the theme. It has the opportunity to become a classic like the seaside cello solo in "The Embalmer" or the mother chasing yellow butterflies in mourning for her dead son in Hirokazu Eda's " " scene; but the director seemed too eager to advance the plot. Although the fireworks bloomed, the audience's emotions failed to bloom. As a result, "Life Events" is finally a few "gasps" away from the classics.

Image source: Douban

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