Recently, the highly anticipated TV series "Flowers" finally ushered in its premiere, breaking the double-digit ratings in only 8 minutes, which is undoubtedly the best proof of the show's popularity.
After all, this is the first time that the high-profile film director Wong Kar-wai has set foot in the field of TV dramas, and the actor is still played by Hu Ge, and the joining of these two alone is enough to ensure that the ratings of "Flowers" will not be bad.
What's more, the play also gathers many native Shanghai actors, and there are even rumors on the Internet: Shanghai actors who were not invited to star in "Flowers" are a little embarrassed to admit that they are Shanghai locals.
After all, Wong Kar-wai has invited countless Shanghainese actors, which fully proves that he attaches great importance to this drama, otherwise it would not have taken two full years to complete the filming.
However, while the high attention and excellent ratings, the audience's evaluation of "Flowers" seems to be a bit mixed, although some netizens think that the Shanghainese version of "Flowers" is still quite attractive.
But the vast majority of netizens feel that Wong Kar-wai actually uses the method of shooting literary films to shoot TV series, and the result can be imagined, although the picture is beautiful, it continues Wong Kar-wai's consistent color style, and even every frame can be regarded as a beautiful poster.
However, no matter how beautiful and gorgeous the picture is, it can't hide the drag and confusion of the plot, and many netizens tend to have a chaotic plot and a lengthy narrative after the first few episodes.
Therefore, they did not comprehend at all, they were forced to be helpless, they could only choose not to continue**, many people only watched one episode, and they felt "discouraged" because of "Wong Kar-wai's unique narrative style".
There are also some netizens who poked at the "key issues" and unceremoniously said that Wong Kar-wai's "Flowers" has a strong ""Little Times" style", and even ridiculed Wong Kar-wai as "Xiao Guo Jingming's directing method".
Because the works of these two directors have some elements that are too cumbersome and unrealistic, and lack a sense of being close to life, it is usually difficult for the general audience to understand and resonate. We also have no way of knowing how Director Wang felt after seeing these comments.
You have to understand that he is a famous director with international prestige, and he won the Best Director Award at the Cannes International Film Festival 26 years ago, but why did he become "Little Guo Jingming" after filming a TV series!
Perhaps many people think that Wong Kar-wai, who focuses on movies, should not get involved in the field of TV dramas, so that he will not see those negative comments and will not be involved with Guo Jingming.
This time, Wong Kar-wai, who was surrounded by negative reviews, should have deeply experienced the "cruelty" of the entertainment industry, although there is no box office pressure to make TV series, but the reputation is so bad that it is enough to destroy the confidence of a well-known director!
However, Wong Kar-wai is not an ordinary famous director, and fans who are familiar with him know that many movies that have been hailed as "classics" in the past have also been criticized when they were first released.
Being questioned and misunderstood seems to have always been the situation Wong Kar-wai has been facing in the process of working as a director, after all, in the eyes of many netizens, Wong Kar-wai has always been the "unique existence" in the director group.
Just as many people can't describe him without sunglasses, the field of cinema in his eyes is difficult for us to understand, and it even takes years to comprehend, no wonder he was praised as a "genius" by Ang Lee!Excellence is often very different from the experience of ordinary people, and this is well reflected in the life of Wong Kar-wai, who was born in Shanghai in 1958 and is a native of Shanghai.
This also explains why he insisted on filming "Flowers". As a native of Shanghai, he aspires to create a work that is truly Shanghainese. However, when he was 5 years old, he moved to Hong Kong with his parents. Since then, Wong Kar-wai's film dream can only be realized on the land of Hong Kong, and coincidentally, he has just caught up with the "glorious years" of Hong Kong cinema.
Of course, that's all for later. As for the mystery of Wong Kar-wai's relationship with films, or the natural directing talent in his body, it should be attributed to his mother. Wong Kar-wai's mother is a movie fanatic, and even if the family is not financially well-off, she will spare no effort to take Wong Kar-wai to a movie to relieve the stress of real life.
When he was young, Wong Kar-wai showed a talent that was different from ordinary people when he watched movies. When he saw the wonderful picture, he would ask his mother how it was filmed. From this point of view alone, Wong Kar-wai is definitely "born to be a director". It stands to reason that he is so talented that it would have been a matter of course for him to embark on the road of directing and become a generation of famous directors, but the reality is not the case.
Wong Kar-wai was very eager to become a director, and he confirmed this dream early. Before going to university, he had planned to apply for the directing major. However, his father was adamantly opposed and insisted that he learn graphic design.
If he insisted on studying directing, his family would not have provided him with tuition. Wong Kar-wai was smart and did not clash with his father head-on, but listened to him. Eventually, he chose to study graphic design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Although there is a big gap between this profession and the director, it must be admitted that it has cultivated Wong Kar-wai's talent in picture composition. In addition, while in college, he also developed an interest in photography.
All of this has led to the result that even though Wong Kar-wai did not study directing, he indirectly acquired many skills necessary for directing. He is very sensitive to color and images, and can accurately grasp the degree of control, etc.
Most importantly, Wong Kar-wai has always wanted to be a director. Therefore, in 1982, when he had just graduated from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, he seized the opportunity to study in TVB's choreography and directing training class.
Ostensibly, Wong Kar-wai learns how to become a screenwriter. However, he is shy by nature and is actually trying to lay down a big plan. During his studies at TVB, he secretly learned a series of skills related to filmmaking, such as photography, editing, lighting, etc.
After learning these skills, Wong Kar-wai left TVB because of its low salary and tiring. Soon after, he came to a place that once created the era of Hong Kong films"New Arts City"。
We all know that "New Arts City" was undoubtedly the most promising film company in the Hong Kong film industry in the 80s, and their "Best Partner" series of movies did not know how much revenue they brought them.
The "New Art City" is more well-known as the "Seven Monsters of the New Art City" represented by Huang Baiming and Tsui Hark, all of whom are talented, can write scripts and act, and are geniuses in the film industry.
But what we don't know is that Wong Kar-wai also worked as a screenwriter in "New Art City" for a period of time, and his ** work "Caiyun Song" was produced and filmed by "New Art City".
However, Wong Kar-wai is very fond of delaying the delivery of manuscripts, and his manuscripts are rare to see, which often confuses his boss Huang Baiming, so he was fired by Huang Baiming.
After this, Wong Kar-wai had a long period of unsatisfactory time, until in 1987, he was finally nominated for Best Screenplay at the Academy Awards for the screenplay of the film "The Last Victory".
This can be regarded as his popularity in the film industry, but there is still some distance before he realizes his dream of directing, but fortunately, Wong Kar-wai met his noble and confidant, that is, director Liu Zhenwei.
In 1987, Liu Zhenwei collaborated with Wong Kar-wai on the movie "Ghost Inn", Wong Kar-wai was still a screenwriter at the time, and it is said that he completed the script of "Ghost Inn" in one night, although this is a comedy that he is not good at.
The most important thing is that Liu Zhenwei likes this script very much, and after he finished filming, this movie also achieved very good results, investing more than 1 million yuan, and actually won more than 10 million box office.
After this incident, Liu Zhenwei was completely impressed by Wong Kar-wai's talent and recommended it to Deng Guangrong so that the two of them could work together to make a movie.
Since joining Deng Guangrong's company, Wong Kar-wai has officially started his career as a director, and his brilliant life has begun, however, we can only see his superficial brilliance, and we don't know how much criticism he has experienced behind it.
We all know that Wong Kar-wai's ** work is "Carmen in Mong Kok", which was shortlisted for the "Best Director Award" at the Academy Awards and the Golden Horse Awards when it was first released.
And to this day, this movie is still a classic, and Jacky Cheung's most famous "emoji" on the Internet comes from this movie.
Judging from these, Wong Kar-wai is really suitable for being a director, and his ** work is a classic, but for the boss of the company, Wong Kar-wai is not a qualified director, because the movies he makes are generally not very good at the box office, and can even be described as "bleak".
He and Liu Zhenwei are exactly two extremes, Liu Zhenwei makes comedies and has a good box office, but it is difficult to win awards, but these two people with completely different styles are very good friends in real life and appreciate each other.
In 1990, Wong Kar-wai deceived Deng Guangrong again, saying that he wanted to make a police film that could sell well, but after the film was released, Deng Guangrong knew that he had been deceived by Wong Kar-wai.
Wong Kar-wai is still shooting art films, the one that helped Leslie Cheung win the Academy Award"Best Actor"Trophy of "The True Story of A Fei", through this movie, Wong Kar-wai won the Academy Award and the Golden Horse Award in a row"Best Director"Award.
Since then, Wong Kar-wai has completely made a name for himself in the Hong Kong film industry, but the poor box office of "The True Story of A Fei" put Tang Guangrong in a difficult situation, forcing Wong Kar-wai to leave voluntarily and find another job.
Fortunately, at this time, his good brother Liu Zhenwei did not abandon him, left with him, and founded their unique film company together.
Sometimes I have to sigh at the layout of fate, if Wong Kar-wai hadn't met this money-making master Liu Zhenwei, his movie "East Becomes West", which only took 27 days, could sell more than 20 million, and he would have no funds to make his movie "East Evil and West Poison".
However, what we don't know is that "East Evil and West Poison" was actually filmed earlier than "East Becomes West", but Wong Kar-wai has not finished filming for a long time, and the moment of delivery is coming.
In desperation, Liu Zhenwei could only use the filming location and original cast of "East Evil and West Poison", and without a script, it only took 27 days to shoot the comedy "East Becomes West", which is completely different from "East Evil and West Poison".
In this way, Liu Zhenwei was also inspired by Wong Kar-wai's persecution to create a classic such as "East Becomes West", and the two of them are mutually fulfilling.
However, Wong Kar-wai's "East Evil and West Poison" is still very bad at the box office, and it did not make any money for him and Liu Zhenwei's company, which was already expected by the two of them.
Despite this, Wong Kar-wai has not changed his filmmaking style since then, and has always adhered to the unique narrative of color and fragmented time.
It was with this insistence that Wong Kar-wai made international debut with "In the Mood for Love" in 2000, further cementing his position as the most distinctive director. His uniqueness is reflected in the films he has directed, which have won numerous awards at various award ceremonies, but for the vast majority of audiences, understanding his filming intentions is like "bullets flying for a while" to understand.
Just like the movie "The Grandmaster", which took him 10 years to complete, it still won many awards for Wong Kar-wai when it premiered in 2013, and it also brought Zhang Ziyi back to the peak of his career. Even so, the film was named one of the "Top 10 Films of the Year" by Time magazine, but many viewers didn't initially appreciate the film.
However, that hasn't stopped the film from becoming a classic today, as the classic line says, "Remember it and it will resonate". The film contains a lot of plot and lines that are worth pondering, and after the audience remembered it, it finally resonated, and many fans are now deeply obsessed with the work.
It's a pity that after "The Grandmaster", Wong Kar-wai bid farewell to his identity as a director and turned to serve as a producer. At the end of 2016, the film "The Ferryman" produced by him was officially released.
The film performed well at the box office, approaching 500 million. However, the audience rating is only 41 point. Most fans may understand the film, but there is a general feeling that it does not fit Wong Kar-wai's usual style.
Wong Kar-wai may not have expected that "The Ferryman" is only a work he supervised, but it has aroused fans' nostalgia for his previous film style, especially the style similar to "In the Mood for Love".
This story tells us that as filmmakers, it is indeed not easy to satisfy the tastes of every audience. Wong Kar-wai's literary films are esoteric and difficult to understand, but they frequently win awards. He supervised commercial films, which were easier for the audience to understand, but some people thought that this had deviated from the style of "Wong Kar Wai", just like this time he shot "Flowers" in a rather "Wong Kar Wai" style.
Perhaps he had expected to be questioned in various ways, as he said in the interview, there are many "silent" contents in the ** "Flowers", and he chose to leave it blank. For him, there are some things that cannot be expressed directly, and "not ringing" is not silent, this is his insistence as a creator.
Wong Kar-wai has adhered to this style from the beginning of his directorial career, which is contrary to the popular aesthetic. He is used to being questioned, and perhaps there will be a stunning "reversal" in the future.