film is directed and written by Yi'an on the 3rd floor of html, starring Mo Ziyi (" Dear Tenant "), Wang Yuxuan ("Lights on the Lights"), Huang Shengqiu (" Who Falls in Love with His ") and so on.
This film has won the Best Screenwriter Award in Taipei Film Festival in 2022, and its script has been modified 13 times, which is indeed very ambitious.
You can see the shadows of many works such as "Girlfriend, Boyfriend", "The Distance between Us and Evil" (hereinafter referred to as "Evil") and "Sunshine" in the film.
At the same time, the screenwriter tried to present a new narrative drama.
Whether imitating or creating, "Asura" still has the consistent exploration of subtle human nature in Taiwanese films. When we watch a complete film, it is not difficult to understand the significance of being given an Oscar.
video is inspired by the report literature such as "How Blood Cools" (author: Hu Muqing). The story is the 2014 Taipei MRT random murder case, which is also one of the prototype cases of "With Evil". In the case of
, the murderer Zheng Jie randomly slashed and killed passengers on the MRT, causing 4 deaths and 22 injuries. Two years later, he was executed.
Beijie murderer arrested on the scene
"Asura" changed the case, changing the "MRT" to "night market", changing the "kill" to "shooting", and changing the "4 deaths and 22 injuries" to "one death and many injuries".
revolves around this case, the film unfolds three story lines.
The protagonist of the first line is Awen.
Awen's parents divorced, but the family's financial conditions are very good.
His father is the boss of a big data research and development company and has strict requirements on Awen in all aspects. Although Awen is unwilling, his father insists on sending him abroad for further studies.
Awen's close friend Axing secretly fell in love with Awen. At the same time, he and Awen are co-creating a comic.
But what Ah Xing didn't know was that Ah Wen, who had been suppressed by his father, was preparing to enter the night market on his 18th birthday to create an indiscriminate murder.
The protagonist of the second line is zero.
Zero, who also has divorced parents, is a little girl in the eyes of others, but she has extremely high math talent.
zero lives with his mother, who is a small vendor and often drinks alcohol. The family environment has caused Zero to have an unclear relationship with local drug traffickers.
At the same time, she was addicted to online games and agreed with the other party to "live" in the night market in order to deceive senior players' equipment.
The protagonist of the third line is Vita.
Vita is a social animal who works in a game advertising company. Her fiancé Xiaosheng is a civil servant. The reason for her work makes the two get together.
The wedding date is approaching, but Vita is getting busier. During this period, Xiaosheng falls in love with someone else and is preparing to show off with Vita.
Vita asked Xiaosheng to wait for her to get off work in the night market before talking...
finally gathered in the night market. Mei Junzhi, another important figure in the
video, also appeared at the night market that night. Because of the interview needs, he became the key to connecting the three lines.
The three lines are also connected to each other. For example, zero was Awen's previous crush, and the person who made an appointment with her to "live" at the night market was Xiaosheng. When the random murder case in the night market occurred, Awen was the murderer and Xiaosheng was the only deceased.
However, this is just the first plot direction of "Asura".
"Asura" adopts a narrative model that leads reality in comics.
The development of real-life stories strictly follows the plot of the comics created by Awen and Ah Xing in the film. As long as the comics are changed, the plot will also change. There are three chapters in the comics in
, the first chapter "Angry Zero", the second chapter "Damn Asura", and the third chapter "Naihe Bridge".
This is also the three chapters of the film, corresponding to three different plots and endings.
These differences often only require an accidental introduction.
For example, in the second plot, Awen, who was preparing to commit a crime, met zero in the night market. After the two of them exchanged greetings, Awen instantly tasted the beauty of life and turned around and left the night market.
A random murder case disappeared in time because of this accidental encounter.
Of course, such a complex structure is also a great test for film editing in a 114-minute film length.
film effect shows that the editing of "Asura" is fragmented and vague, which is also the reason why its online score is not high.
Audiences must carefully remember every face in the film and outline the behavioral connection between different characters in order to barely grasp the narrative logic of the film.
Based on this narrative level of insufficient control, it is probably almost interesting to win the Oscars.
Above mentioned that many outstanding Taiwanese film and television dramas can be seen in "Asura".
For example, the relationship between Awen, Axing and Zero imitates the relationship between Feng Xiaoyue , Zhang Xiaoquan , and Gui Lunmei in "Girlfriend, Boyfriend".
"Girlfriend, Boyfriend"
The anger and strange feeling of Asura comics in "Sunshine" are similar to the comic interpretation of the story of "Sima Guang smashes the jar" in "Sunshine", presenting the secrets and darkness that cannot be shined by the sun.
In the random murder case of night market, the film uses the role of Mei Junzhi, a reporter played by Mo Ziyi, to compare with Wang She, a lawyer played by Wu Kangren, in "With Evil".
thus continues the classic theme of "With Evil" - what is the social soil that creates indiscriminate murders? In the
film, Mei Junzhi said to Vita: I have visited all the families of victims in
, including those vendor owners (night markets). Everyone just wants to find the answers quickly to make this society a little more normal and clean.
If I had been a few seconds earlier that day, I would have been the deceased, and if I had been a few seconds later, I might have been the murderer.
This just corresponds to Wang She's attitude when defending the murderer Li Xiaoming in "With Evil":
Everyone wants him to die, and the media also wants him to die, but why does he do this? After he died, no one knew about it again.
Faced with vicious crimes, the public often hopes that the murderer will be punished as soon as possible. Almost no one is interested in the murderer's heart and the world in their eyes.
But Mei Junzhi tried to understand the significance of the time point of the murder case, while Wang She was always exploring the psychological basis for the murderer's crime.
These two angles are delicate and difficult. However, compared to the simple opposition between good and evil, it will undoubtedly help prevent the recurrence of vicious crimes.
In "With Evil", the screenwriter always lets the prisoner Li Xiaoming hide behind the story, creating a sense of mystery.
In "Asura", the screenwriter clearly pushed Awen to the front stage, allowing the audience to use the role of Axing to communicate directly with Awen.
But no matter how close Ah Xing and Ah Wen are, they cannot open Ah Wen's heart. Ah Wen does not explain any of his behavior.
If Li Xiaoming hides his criminal psychology in the fog of society, then Awen puts it behind the wall of his growth.
are both random murderers, but their spiritual backgrounds are very different. It can be seen that Mei Junzhi and Wang She have their own profound significance.
In the latter two plots of the story, the film presents other murderers and criminal psychology, but each plot revolves around what Mei Junzhi calls "point of time".
In other words, opportunities determine destiny.
Based on this, "Asura" provides a very novel view -
Emotions in the world are constant, and a certain emotion disappears here and it will emerge there.
In the second plot, Awen's anger was dissolved because of his encounter and love with zero, and the night market murder case did not happen, but Awen's anger was transferred to Axing.
Awen's love made Ah Xing's secret love unable to find an outlet. Due to the cause and effect, Ah Xing picked up Ah Wen's bullet gun and walked onto the street...
night market murder was Xiao Sheng. Because of the murderer Ah Wen's cold attitude, Xiao Sheng's parents could never forgive Ah Wen.
When the plot is reshuffled, Xiaosheng becomes the murderer who killed Zero, but Zero's mother accepts Xiaosheng's parents' apology in the chapel.
It can be seen that in this world, there are always people who are angry and forgiven. The video uses this to ask the audience:
What about your emotions? Where is it in the world?
and above prove that "Asura" is a work with strong creative consciousness.
Although its Oscar journey is likely to end in the selection and delivery stage, it can be regarded as a masterpiece worth seeing in the past two years.
Author: County Hao
