"Happy Family" was released in China. Although its reputation and box office were quite good, it was actually only average among Li Yi's many films.
But after this movie was released on the Bangzi side, it caused a tear-jerking whirlwind.
At the same time, the cress rice rolls naturally became popular in the sushi restaurants over there.
According to Bangzi viewers, that’s not water celery, that’s mother’s love!
Of course, there are still some negative reviews for this movie after its expanded screening.
"The plot is quite cliche, and the plot of realizing the dream is not new. If it weren't for the twist and tear-jerking ending, it would have been pretty average!"
"Among Li Yi's movies, "Happy Family" is difficult to rank, mainly because the previous plot is too ordinary. Of course, it may also be because the requirements and expectations for dog directors are higher, right? But
, the director of Tear-Jerking Fan Love Dog really showed off his skills."
"As a co-production, Director Gou still compromised. Why is it kimbap instead of egg fried rice?"
Etc., etc.
However, these are still only a small part.
The vast majority of movie fans are quite tolerant.
"I really don't understand why so many people say that the bad director still compromised. It's kimbap rice instead of egg fried rice. This movie is a co-production, right? If it doesn't have any good elements, then why is it a co-production?
The title of the film?"
"On the whole, maybe "Happy Family" is still far away from being a classic, but it's not that bad, right? I'm really speechless about the so-called old jokes and cliched plots. There are several plots in current movies.
Not cliche? The movie has been around for more than a hundred years, and the routines have long been worn out. The whole story is touching and the script is very well done. Isn’t that enough?"
"I don't think it's cliché. I don't understand other things, but I think the big head shapes of the four ghosts are quite innovative. At least, the soundtrack is obviously very spooky, but I can't help but laugh when I look at it.
That’s very creative, right?”
"The public's eyes are sharp. The ratings on the Popular Film Critics Network and the reactions of everyone at the movie viewing site can't be fake, right?"
Of course, there are always only a few people who are critical.
More people still feel that even if this movie cannot be called a classic, it is at least an excellent work.
"I don't know anything else, but I only know that when I watched this movie, I laughed very happily, and of course I cried very hard afterwards!"
"How does a movie count as a good movie? Everyone has different standards, but for me, a comedy that makes me laugh is a good movie. The plot of this movie may not be new, but I was indeed attracted by it.
It made me laugh out loud, and the atmosphere in the theater was quite good, and the twist of Celery in the back really made me blush. When watching the movie in the theater, many people around me were like this. If this were all
If it can’t be considered a good movie, then what is?”
"Isn't all this enough? If so, what about the original "The Story of Hachiko"? In fact, the plot is more cliché, right? Isn't the story of a man raising a dog cliché enough? But I don't believe it.
You people won’t cry after reading this! Of course, if you’re not a human being, just pretend I didn’t say it!”
The fact is that insiders are also full of curiosity about this movie.
Because to be honest, this movie is really nothing new.
This is true in all aspects, but these things are obviously not new, but when combined, they can produce such a good effect. It is also a typical example of a small and broad film. Naturally, many people can't help but be curious.
Let’s analyze why this movie did so well at the box office and in terms of reputation even though it didn’t have much new content.
As the editor-in-chief of "Film Weekly", Zhou Qingquan is very familiar with Li Yi's movies.
To this end, he wrote a special review analyzing why the film "Happy Family" received such good reputation and box office.
"To me, the movies directed by Li Yi seem to have a certain charm. You can watch them when you are happy, you can watch them when you are depressed, you can watch them when you are lonely, and you can even watch them when you are depressed.
Li Yi is recognized as the director who is best at capturing emotions, telling stories, and earning tears from the audience. In fact, he is not omnipotent.
What he is best at is not special effects or action. If we look at the movies directed by Li Yi, we will find that his movies have very few special effects blockbusters and very few action movies. At most, they are just gun battles, and even the gun battles are mostly on point.
That's it, we pay more attention to the artistic conception rather than the visual impact.
So what is he best at? It is the emotion that slowly seeps into people's hearts bit by bit. In his movies, you may not be shocked by a single scene, but you will definitely be moved by a certain shot inadvertently.
Whether it's the farewell scene between father and daughter in prison in "The Gift of Room 7", the scene of the mother-son reunion in "Mom Love Me Again", or the lame and funny pace of the final farewell between father and son in "Life Is Beautiful", and more.
Needless to say, the waiting scene in "The Story of Hachiko", which is regarded as a tear-jerking classic, will make people cry with heartache.
Those shots carefully crafted by director Li Yi allow the audience to personally experience the experiences of the characters in the play and empathize with them. If motivation is needed to appreciate a movie, isn't this a convincing reason?
"Happy Family" uses a funny and humorous style to tell a warm family story.
The film uses fictional stories to explore profound topics about family love. Even if our loved ones leave us and cannot accompany us when we grow up lonely and helpless, their love will not disappear.
Their love is like an invisible ghost that stays with us in those lonely moments.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! So why is this movie praised?
Obviously the plot doesn't seem that novel, but it makes people burst into tears at the end?
First of all, I personally think that director Li Yi used the funny story tone and reversed narrative strategy to make the plot more cheerful and warm!
Someone once said: The best way to understand a movie is to know how it tells a story!
In fact, the same story, told by different people using different methods, may show different results. This is why the director is the real core spiritual figure of a movie, and "Happy Family" is
In the narration of the story, a special treatment method is adopted.
We all know that "Happy Family" is a ghost movie. It is not the kind of ghost movie that pretends to be someone else's. There is really a ghost in this movie!
Ghosts, this kind of supernatural element, when we think about it, most of the time we label it as scary.
But in this movie, it is obviously a ghost movie, but it adopts a funny story tone!
In order to make the theme of the film touching but not heavy, the director deliberately added many funny elements to the plot design. It is these cheerful elements that determine the cheerful story tone of the entire film.
Let’s look at the title first. The title of a work can easily allow the audience to define the scope of its narrative. "Happy Family", this simple, positive and cheerful four-character title, looks very much like a simple comedy.
.
But in fact, it is a drama film that expresses human emotions beyond life and death. The title of the film deliberately makes the audience mistakenly think that it is a pure, non-nutritious entertainment film. It deliberately uses this illusion to make the real theme of family love appear.
be more intense.
Furthermore, there is the opening of the movie. In any movie, the elements and atmosphere presented in the opening story predict the development direction of the narrative.
In the first 30 minutes of "Happy Family", the protagonist Shang Wan kept trying to commit suicide, but failed every time. "Suicide" is a serious element about death, which conflicts with comedy. But "it will definitely fail"
"Suicide" has a hint of playfulness, which coincides with comedy.
In summary, at the beginning, the director uses the most playful lens to tell the most serious things!
This is undoubtedly a huge contrast. We often say that the dead are the most important, but in this movie, it precisely captures the point that the audience will not be disgusted with. That is, although he committed suicide, he did it in a funny way.
Come to "rescue", so that everyone can laugh without any moral burden!
In addition to the "suicide" element, another obvious element is "ghost". The moment the audience sees the ghost, they will understand that this is a fictional work based on reality.
The fictional content is that the dead exist in reality in the form of ghosts. If by chance, the living can see them.
The combination of comedy and ghosts has paved the way for us to set up the premise of the story and determine the atmosphere of the story. This movie looks pessimistic, but it is actually warm; it seems negative and scary, but it is actually funny and relaxed; it seems unreasonable, but it is actually well-founded.
Not only that, the development direction of the story is also foreshadowed, and the audience can easily imagine the subsequent plot, and there will be a "romance" between humans and ghosts. This is closely related to the theme that the movie wants to present.
I remember reading a review of a movie: I felt very disappointed after four-fifths of it, but I cried like a fool after one-fifth of it!
This short sentence summarizes the thoughts of most people watching this movie. The director spent a full four-fifths of the time laying the groundwork for the last fifth of the ending.
Many people will say that making movies is actually telling stories, but writers use words to tell stories, while directors use lenses and pictures to tell stories.
What is the highest level of a director? I don’t know, but I once heard Director Li Yi say that the greatest sense of accomplishment as a director is to be able to control the audience’s emotions through movies, make you laugh, make you laugh, and make you laugh.
Whenever you laugh, you laugh whenever you want, and when you cry, you cry whenever you want.
Although these words make us as the audience very unhappy.
But I think a director who can do this is definitely not an ordinary person!
Take "Happy Family" as an example. In this movie, perhaps only a director like Director Li Yi has the confidence to use four-fifths of the content to prepare for the final ending. Because of this, the reaction at that moment
Only those who have watched the ending can really understand the story told by the director. And those who have watched the ending can't help but go back and look at the ignored details again.
Shang Wan doesn't know why the four weird ghosts keep clinging to him, nor why their "last wishes" are so strange.
Why did he have to find a strange camera, watch a childish cartoon movie, and swim in the cold sea that he couldn't swim? Why did the crybaby obviously want to cook for the person he loves the most, but said that as long as he was with him?
can.
Before watching the ending, I thought these were random things written by an "incompetent director" just to liven up the atmosphere.
Shang Wan was afraid of cars for unknown reasons. When he committed suicide by taking pills, his full water bottle suddenly became empty. He died many times but could not die every time.
When I didn't know the ending, I thought it was the director's "failure" to make things mysterious. It wasn't until the ending came out that I realized how big a move the director had made.
These four ghosts who seem to have nothing to do with the male protagonist are actually his grandfather, father, mother and brother who died in a car accident. In order to remind the amnesiac old boy of the past, even if they are disgusted and despised by him, they still use a series of nonsensical jokes.
requirements and fulfilled the agreement that could not be completed that year.
In order to clarify the theme of family love, the director manipulated the expression of the story. In the seemingly meaningless plot in the first and middle parts of the film, he left small doubts one by one, waiting for the audience to become curious about these unreasonable details.
Then at the final moment when the truth is revealed, the satisfaction of facts and doubts brings a huge psychological impact to the audience, thereby sublimating the theme of the entire story and leaving a deep impression.
In order to achieve such a goal, the director must have racked his brains and had good intentions!
Secondly, I have to mention the extensive use of light and shadow, tone and color in this movie!
Many ordinary viewers often ignore small details such as day and night, color or tone of clothes when watching movies. In fact, directors often spend a lot of energy on these details.
In "Happy Family", these carefully studied details are not just for the beauty presented in the camera, but also affect the psychology and emotions of the moviegoers without affecting the plot. They are in inconspicuous places,
Silently telling other stories related to the plot.
The use of light and shadow, tone and color will also affect the expressive meaning of the plot.
The most obvious thing that everyone can find is that when the four ghosts appeared together for the first time, the darkness made the ghosts look spooky, but the big heads made the ghosts look funny!
There are many styles in the use of lighting, and they are often related to the atmosphere of the movie. In the film, there is obviously more use of light than darkness. Even in dark environments, local lighting techniques are used to reduce the darkness.
of depression and fear.
The reason for this has to do with the relaxed atmosphere the movie intends to create.
The ghosts that people subconsciously feel are spooky and scary, but the director uses lighting to make them friendly and cute. For example, when the protagonist encounters these ghosts for the first time, it is either in bright daytime or with warm lights. Another example is on a busy road during the day.
, carrying four "newly met" ghosts home.
The use of these natural lights makes the existence of ghosts more real and also hints at the safety of the protagonist. Although there are ghosts, it does not endanger his life. At the same time, this also pave the way for the warm ending later.
Let’s talk about color. Psychologists believe that people’s first feeling is vision, and color has the greatest impact on vision. In life, different colors often represent different emotions.
Therefore, using color to express character or emotion is a common method in many movies, including "Happy Family". The director not only uses color to express character, but also uses color to imply people's psychological changes.
Let’s talk about the characters first. If you carefully observe the people in the film, you will find that their clothes have different characteristics. The most conspicuous difference is the color of the clothes.
The ghost grandfather is red, the ghost brother is yellow, the ghost dad is dark blue, and the ghost mother is blue. As for the protagonist himself, because his life is lonely and boring, he is the least energetic gray, black and white.
Each color has a corresponding style, and each color also has its own meaning. The bold, passionate, and energetic red and yellow symbolize impact and excitement. The peaceful, stable blue and green symbolize security and love.
.
Of course, the above are all details, and the reason why the movie can really resonate with so many people is that its theme is universal.
Love is written as a ghost, and ghosts are regarded as the carrier of love. By filming the communication between ghosts and humans, and vividly depicting the communication between humans and ghosts, the director powerfully demonstrates the main theme of the story - love cannot be
It will dissipate due to death. The departure of every family member is a heavy blow. Some people are depressed because of it, and some people are in panic all day long because of it. But we should believe that even if birth, old age, illness and death take away their lives, they will never take away their love for them.
