Today’s film review ｜ Why did the finless porpoise dance in the wind disappoint the audience？

Special feature of 1905 film network The animated film being shown tells the story that the ecology of the modern Yangtze River has been destroyed, and the finless porpoise fairy Jiang Ling shoulders the mission of saving the people, breaking into the world and encountering the human boy Lin Sheng, restarting a story that spans a hundred years. The preview material of this film focuses on the three elements of environmental protection, love and national style, but the guests in this issue of "Today’s Film Review" said after watching the movie that "this is a rare work that disappoints me."

What are the problems in the film "finless porpoise dancing in the wind" and why did it disappoint the audience? Listen to Professor Jiang Zhulang, a professor from China Communication University, disassemble them for you one by one.

One mistake: environmental protection concept empty shell

The three themes emphasized in the preview of finless porpoise dancing in the wind are "environmental protection, love and national style", among which environmental protection is a relatively scarce theme in film and television works at present, and environmental protection is an important thing that permeates the audience’s daily life.

Therefore, when the works arouse such an appetite for environmental protection before the release, it will inevitably make the audience expect to see more stories about environmental protection in the film, but after the film is released, the audience finds that environmental protection is just a "sheep’s head" and actually sells a "dog meat" with a very bad romantic story.

Two mistakes: love stories are vulgar.

Aside from the problems in conception, as far as the romantic story of the main line of the film is concerned, it is also very lacking in originality and sincerity. To sum up, it is actually a collage of all kinds of love bridges such as Xian Xia, Gu Ou and Ba Zong, and even the word "original script" is enough.

Three mistakes: perfunctory production of national style

In addition to the shoddy content and theme, the style of finless porpoise dancing in the wind is disappointing, even the national style that has developed rapidly in recent years, and it only stays on the very superficial side. In fact, it only caters to some audiences who don’t really understand the national style, and deceives the audience with some superficial "national style symbols", which is also a great disrespect for the word national style.

In view of the "three sins" of "finless porpoise dancing in the wind", how should the film prescribe the right medicine? How should other countries avoid it in production? Professor Jiang Zhulang also gave three targeted suggestions.

Subject: animal protection should be detailed enough.

First of all, in terms of subject matter, there is a very important main line in the story of "finless porpoise dancing in the wind" that is to protect the finless porpoise. As the last baiji died in front of Chinese people, in fact, baiji is a pain in the hearts of many Yangtze River basins, and it should be the starting point of "finless porpoise dancing in the wind".

But the film only introduces the finless porpoise shallowly, and tells another love story with the finless porpoise as the guide, and even smears the finless porpoise in the film. There is a tragic detail at the end of the film — — Water dragon robbery, which can destroy human habitation, is actually brought by finless porpoises in the film. How can this antagonistic plot between people and dolphins arouse the audience’s psychological protection for them?

If you want to tell a good story about the theme of animal protection, the producer should first understand the habits, physiological characteristics and other information of this animal. Only when you are familiar with them can you really protect them.

The film and television works that have done well in this respect, for example, show the underwater world, which not only has magnificent marine scenery, but also the habits and characteristics of marine life, and clearly explains the biological knowledge such as fish return and migration in the form of stories. When the audience knows them and likes them, it will naturally produce a mentality of protecting the environment and protecting animals.

Content: the logic of love story should be clear

On another main line — — In the love story of the hero and heroine spanning a hundred years, the film also has a lot of room for improvement.

The hero and heroine in the finless porpoise dancing in the wind, one is human and the other is a finless porpoise fairy. This setting is not uncommon in love stories, but it does not mean that all the conventional bridges can be packed into it.

At the beginning of the film, the finless porpoise fairy came ashore like a "little mermaid" and met the man, who happened to have brain cancer, and a proper Korean drama routine began to be staged.

As for why the two love each other, it is also out of the sky. From beginning to end, all the man needs is a tool, one that can help him fulfill his mother’s wish — — A tool for dancing in the wind. Therefore, the male host has always regarded the female host as his own accessory, and he is in charge of the choreography and all the design, and the female host is only purely cooperative in it. In other words, in fact, changing the finless porpoise fairy into any ordinary girl can complete the plot.

Therefore, on the basis of the establishment of their love, the film can actually consider more comprehensively, and make a more detailed treatment on the details such as why the woman fell in love with the man, how the woman helped the man realize his mother’s wish, and what caused the love between the two to erupt.

Style: the national style should be made with enough heart.

In the third layer of national style production, the finless porpoise Dancing in the Wind has a huge room for improvement. Before the film was released, many viewers wanted to go into the cinema for reasons such as supporting the national style or supporting the national style, but the characteristics of the national style did not meet the audience’s expectations after the release.

From the perspective of character design, the image of the characters is particularly biased towards many current B-girl mobile games, and the whole is a shoddy game style; Judging from the title of "Wind Dance", the design in the film also deviates from the tradition of wind dance itself. "Wind Dance" is a popular dance of finless porpoises in Chu, which should have been a dance with strong Chu customs in imagination, but it was actually made into a ballet in the film, which obviously contains great deviation from history.

Moreover, when the hero and heroine meet again at the end of the film, the girl is playing the guzheng in the shade of the tree, but the music is slowly drifting out of a pipa. As a film focusing on the national style, making mistakes in such details really shows the carelessness of production.

In sharp contrast to this film, for example, the elements of national style such as stepping songs, zhezhi dance and Hu Xuan dance in Three Wan Li in Chang ‘an are very exquisite and delicate, and even the golden bells on the dancers’ feet are exposed. It can be seen that both the research in advance and the production are very elegant.

Therefore, when a particularly good idea is put on a movie, what an animator should do is not to simply regard the idea as a "gold medal to avoid death", but to polish the work with real heart and blend the good content with the good idea.

In the end, there is an old saying in China that it is the buying and selling that is critical. It is precisely because the audience has a strong interest in Guofeng animation and has a strong expectation that they are more willing to criticize it. Only by pointing out the problems can Guofeng animation really grow.