Hello, my dear friends, I am little Vincent.
"The Curse" is highly anticipated, right?
There has been constant news about it since last year. During the same period, there were several horror films that attracted a lot of attention, and resources were released one after another, such as " Southern Witch ", " Psychic Medium ", " Cry Sad ", these Several movies were highly anticipated before they were officially seen by everyone. However, because the appetite was so high, the movies all suffered from word-of-mouth failure as soon as they were released.
"Crying Sadly"
If you carefully analyze these highly anticipated films, you will find that they all have a common feature. They are all works from the Southeast Asian circle. "Southern Witch" is produced by Malaysia , "Psychic Medium" is jointly produced by Thailand and South Korea, and "Crying Sadness" and "Curse" are both produced by Taiwan, China.
Chinese audiences have watched too many European and American horror films and have developed aesthetic fatigue. This has led to them becoming hungry for horror works that belong to the same East Asian circle and have a common cultural context.
However, due to well-known reasons, domestic horror movies have been almost equal to bad movies. These bad movies have illogical plots and low-intelligence designs that insult the audience’s IQ. Not only do they not make people feel scary, but more often they do. Arousing people's anger and ridicule, their only contribution is to feed countless funny complaints video accounts.
"Girls' Dormitory"
On the one hand, there is a huge demand for horror films, and on the other hand, the production of high-quality horror films is scarce. This imbalance between supply and demand leads to the fact that once a new film has a good reputation, it will be touted by a large number of media. However, horror movies have always been a difficult area to produce high-quality movies. Other types of movies can be considered good movies if they reach 8 points or above on rating websites, while horror movies can often be classified as watchable if they reach 5 points on rating websites.
In this context, people’s high expectations will most likely end in disappointment.
Therefore, "The Curse" will be released online on the 8th of this month. I hope you can rationally lower your expectations and experience this rare masterpiece among Chinese horror films with a normal heart.
Chinese culture can be called extensive and profound in terms of breadth and depth. Since Chinese culture has considerable continuity, there is a huge amount that can be unearthed, whether in official documents or in folklore and folk customs. Used as an element in the creation of horror films.
What ancient legends, five elements and eight trigrams, the reincarnation of hell in Buddhism, all kinds of strange folk powers and gods, fox fairies and ghosts, monsters and spies, driving corpses in western Hunan, Taoist spells, fortune telling, dancing gods, ghost marriages and ghost coins, witches Poison spell...
If you take out any element, I think it can instantly kill settings such as curses.
During the most prosperous period of Hong Kong movies, there were indeed , Lin Ching-ying, and other creators who took some of the above-mentioned elements to a certain level. However, after all, in such a small place, the movies produced were still not grand enough, and the works were often too focused. For entertainment.
I personally believe that horror movies are actually a good medium for spreading national culture. This type of movie is loved by audiences all over the world. For example, Japan's " Midnight Bell " and "The Grudge" have been remade in the United States many times, and our understanding of some Thai cultures cannot be separated from " Ghost Shadow " and " The Art of the Devil" 》These movies.
US version of "The Grudge 3"
No one can deny that this is a powerful way of exporting culture. Only by allowing people from other countries to see more of their own lives and understand their own culture can they gain more attention. and understanding.
However, judging from the current situation, this important task can only be carried out by our compatriots in Taiwan, China, in a short period of time.
I am looking forward to this movie. After all, the previous "Crying" was not a serious horror movie. Its director Jia Youting is also a Canadian through and through. What it spreads is not Chinese culture.
Crying and Sad Director: Jia Youting
But "Curse" is different. It can be seen from the trailer that this movie is quite down-to-earth. Xiao Wenxi likes this kind of talking, and the story takes place opposite us. A horror movie in a familiar setting.
A few years ago, the domestic low-budget horror film "The Evil Within" became very popular because of its down-to-earth style.
"The Evil"
"The Curse" released a number of trailers last year. The first trailer was released on the Ghost Festival. At that time, all major online platforms reprinted it and received a good number of views. Also because the content of the trailer was too scary, it triggered the removal of from Facebook without warning, which only increased the mystery of the movie.
In the Netflix version trailer released last month, the most frightening scene of the old lady in the red coat in the last few seconds was deleted. This can be regarded as a kind of protection for the little hearts of the audience, but don't worry, the director said these are the most frightening. The horrific scenes are still preserved in the feature film.
From the most widely circulated 2 minute and 35 second version of the trailer, we can get a glimpse of the general appearance of the film.
The trailer opens with a monologue from the heroine. She says: "Do you believe in blessings?"
then two animated pictures appear one after another, one is a rotating Ferris wheel and the other is a subway entering a station.
's monologue guides the audience to do an experiment. Our consciousness can control the direction of the Ferris wheel's left and right rotation, and can also control the direction of the subway to enter or leave the station.
The heroine then comes to the conclusion that our thoughts can shape the world. This is the principle of blessing.
In fact, those of you who have been around the Internet for many years must have seen many similar gif pictures.
For example, this famous picture of a spinning dancer.
We can control the direction of her rotation, which is very magical. Some people say that the difference in rotation direction is determined by which of the left and right brains is the main thinking brain.
But in fact, this is just a kind of visual deception . This kind of picture is called a visual illusion three-dimensional dynamic picture. Some node pictures were adjusted during production, so that people can’t distinguish the left and right feet of the girl who is all black. The so-called clockwise And counterclockwise is just the result of our accepted psychological misunderstanding. If you think of it as having the left foot as the axis, it means clockwise rotation, and if you think of it as having the right foot as the axis, it means counterclockwise rotation.
We know that the basic principle of the invention of movies is to take advantage of the human physiological characteristic of " visual persistence ". The frame rate during movie playback is fixed, usually 24 frames per second. It is understood that 24 still photos are played in one second, but our human brain mistakes these still photos as coherent and dynamic.
The two animated pictures in the trailer also have the same principle.
The heroine obtained the conclusion that human thoughts can shape the world through such a simple visual deception animation. It is obviously unreliable. From this, we can also infer that the heroine's mental state has become abnormal.
Subsequently, the incantation with the words "Fire Buddha Xiu Yixin Sa Mo" appeared on the screen. In the subsequent shots, you will see the character making the gesture of a talisman and reciting this incantation.
The heroine then introduced herself. Her name was Li Ruonan, and she violated a terrible taboo six years ago.
Li Ruonan's daughter pointed to the empty roof and said that there was a "bad boy" on it. She also cooperated with her daughter and reached out to hold the "bad boy" on the roof. The atmosphere was very strange.
The next picture shows the beef squirming while the meat is being cut.
Li Ruonan explained to his daughter that if you keep thinking about monsters, the monsters will live in your head.
This passage is still in line with the blessing theory she believes in above, which shows that she firmly believes in it. She believes that people's thoughts can change the world. If you think about monsters, then monsters will actually appear.
And if we look beyond the level of her thoughts, she believes that people's thoughts can change the world, so it can be changed for her. There is a classic saying: People will only believe what they believe. For example, if people believe in the existence of ghosts, they will look for clues in life to prove it. The weird shapes of underwear racks in dark rooms at night and unknown strange noises coming from upstairs will make people think deeply and fear them. The tragedy of the heroine may be caused by her Russian doll-like obsession.
Then, there is a series of horrific scenes: kneeling in a temple; three people's names written on yellow paper; talking to their daughter; eating an unknown object similar to intestines in the mouth; a few locks of hair on the altar; a man was hit by a truck in the street collapsed; the heroine had a nosebleed in front of the camera; a child covered with a quilt; the screaming daughter; two men who looked like employees or security guards committed suicide by swallowing the gun.
The heroine was holding a rabbit doll, mumbling words, and kept telling herself: Don't think, don't think...
What she had just warned her daughter immediately came true to herself, don't think about monsters, but she couldn't help but think about it. Go and think about it.
This is like telling a person not to think of an elephant, then the person will definitely think of an elephant.
Her theory itself is a paradox.
The screen continued to switch rapidly, and then it appeared that her daughter's skin had become abnormal all over her body, and someone had several extra rows of teeth in her mouth.
It can be seen that the horror scenes in this film are very rich. It is really a feast for horror film lovers.
The lady in the red cotton coat with ulcerated arms, the black and white bugs, the man who bumped himself into the table...
is so rich in content that it really brings together all the horror elements that people are afraid of.
Then, interspersed with some scenes of daily life, several text descriptions appeared.
Your consciousness,
determines your destiny,
Kaohsiung real events,
touches taboos,
good and bad fortune depend on each other,
life and death are famous.
These words can be regarded as a summary of the theme of the whole film, and they repeat the theory of the heroine for the third time.
Seeing this, Xiao Wenxi felt that this was probably an anti-superstition movie. The heroine of
is like the character in " Inception ". An idea was implanted in her mind and she has been convinced since then. It is quite difficult to break this superstition.
In the trailer, there is a scene of the heroine’s daughter having an examination in the hospital. Maybe the heroine chose to do other things in order to treat her daughter’s illness, and this was the beginning of her touching the taboo. The so-called dependence of blessings and misfortunes, maybe at the beginning My daughter's condition has indeed improved, but the accompanying disasters have also happened one after another.
The heroine firmly believes that people's thoughts can change the world, but once they have thoughts, Pandora's box is opened, and angels and demons are released at the same time.
I believe that the final way to relieve the heroine's misfortune is to let go of her obsession. She needs to give up the benefits brought to her by Pandora's Box in order to get rid of the accompanying disadvantages.
and above are some small guesses I made about the trailer.
can make a clear judgment about the quality of the feature film from the trailer.
The dense and diverse horror scenes will be the film's strength, and the film's pseudo-documentary style shooting method will also greatly increase the sense of immersion.
However, it can be seen that many horror scenes cannot escape clichés and imitations. For example, the design of a man hitting his head on the table is exactly the same as " Hereditary ".
The shortcomings of the movie "Hereditary"
are also obvious. The heroine's lines are too preachy and unreal, which goes against the style and temperament of the movie. The core element of the movie, that is, the concept that thoughts determine reality is also somewhat untenable. Feet may make the audience suspicious and unable to enter the show.
has said so much, Xiao Wenxi has only one purpose, which is to hope that everyone will adjust their expectations to a reasonable level, so that they can have a more enjoyable viewing experience after the film is released on July 8.
And Xiao Wenxi will also analyze the plot immediately after watching the film, so stay tuned.
