This time, Jia Ling won. I believe that most people will be like me, when Du Leying in "Hot and Hot" walked to the ring, when he looked at himself in the glass reflection, he was moved to tears.
At that moment you understand that no matter what the outcome of the boxing match is, Du Leying has already won, and the film has won.
Once again, it has entered our hearts.
In "Hot and Hot", we have seen Jia Ling's growth as a director, and we have also seen her sincerity as always.
First, let's talk about the director's part.
I believe you have also seen that Sony Pictures officially announced on the first day of the Lunar New Year that it had won the global distribution rights of "Hot and Hot".
And before that, Sony also announced that it would remake "Hello, Lee Huanying", and the film is currently in production.
I'm looking forward to what kind of feedback "Hot and Hot" will receive around the world, and I'm also looking forward to seeing the name Jia Ling go to Hollywood. After all, we watched her grow from an actor to a director, and then to a more mature director and creator.
Obviously, in this work, Jia Ling is more familiar with the narrative of the comedy of small people.
Maybe most people are running for the growth and transformation of the heroine Du Leying, but in fact, this is not a big proportion in the whole film. The focus of the plot is more on the original Du Leying.
This is undoubtedly the director's creative intention: Jia Ling hopes to let the audience see that Du Leying, love her, understand her, empathize with her, and finally empathize with why Du Leying has to change.
In this process, it is very commendable that Jia Ling did not scandalize anyone.
She didn't scandalize herself, she didn't scandalize Du Leying. It is conceivable that in the traditional narrative, a comedy about plus-size girls could have used some kind of visual presentation at the sensory level as a laughing point. She didn't do that.
She also did not scandalize the people around the protagonist and turn them into simple and crude "villains".
The sister Le Dan is beautiful and philistine, and she obviously wants her sister's house, but she can't help but sneer at her.
Good best friend Lily also betrayed her, not only hooked up with her boyfriend, but also asked Le Ying to be her bridesmaid.
Although there are some comedic expressions in this, there are actually very real human feelings.
Life in the market is like this, even the people closest to you will not be unconditionally good to you. They have their own little calculations, and they will take advantage of you for their own benefit.
People who you think are good people one second may turn their faces the next. And the person you still think is annoying one second, the next second will move you a little.
For example, I think a very interesting character, Lao Liang, the owner of the boxing gym played by Sha Yi, looks like he is full of cards and cards in front of him, and he has the face of a capitalist, but in the end he is the one who has been standing behind Le Ying and accompanying her to finish this game.
So, this is actually one of the most moving places in "Hot and Hot". The film's shots are always level-eyed, and there are no good guys or bad guys in black and white. That's life.
The comedy of life does not necessarily need to be achieved by distorting life, exaggerating and flattening life. Jokes can come from life itself, found in the details of the lives of the little people.
Another very touching scene is the night when Le Ying is determined to change.
This scene is very functional, it is the darkness before dawn, and the protagonist decides not to break it.
Surprisingly, the camera is not close, but zoomed out. No close-ups, no tracking. It doesn't even take a picture of what Le Ying went through, you just see the lights in the hallway come on and out, the storm hits, and finally the dawn shines back on the dilapidated building.
Of course, when you see it later, you will know that there is actually a foreshadowing here. The truly tearing truth will surface with Zhao Yingjun's "Send You a Little Red Flower".
But the narrative skills used here, as well as the design and choreography of the whole scene, will let you see Jia Ling's calmness, restraint and control as a director.
In some of the most critical moments, she doesn't want to use too much sensationalism to give the audience emotional cues, she is anti-routine. She doesn't want to push you. She wants the audience to discover and see for themselves.
Just like the process of losing weight for the characters in the film, she did not magnify the difficulty and pain of this process, and did not make a fuss about this change, but only used a minute or two of footage to complete it lightly. But you just want to cry.
When you see Le Ying gritting her teeth and persevering, or watching her turn pain into a habit, running and practicing boxing with a blank face, you will be moved to the point that you even get goosebumps.
You will feel that Jia Ling, as a director, uses a very restrained and cinematic approach to express a very high concentration of emotions. But on the other hand, she is also sincere and unreserved.
Hello, Li Huanying" is touching with true feelings, while "Hot and Hot" is a story of an ordinary person's inward exploration. Jia Ling let us see the sincerity and courage of an ordinary girl, and outside of the story, she also truly experienced the pain and awakening brought about by the character's experience of losing weight and gaining muscle.
The pain that Du Leying has experienced, she has also experienced; The rebirth that Du Leying has experienced, she has also experienced. In the end, when you see Du Leying standing in the ring, you will understand that the original time of a year is not long, and it is not short, but it is enough for a person to completely change himself.
You can't help but ask yourself: if everyone only has one chance in life, have you done your best to live for yourself once?
In this sense, the appearance of this movie on the first day of the Lunar New Year is very appropriate. It shows a vigorous vitality and an absolute, unquestionable convincing.
In fact, I will also feel that Jia Ling is too "stupid".
could have chosen to use CG or makeup to show the character's weight loss and transformation, but she chose to spend a year to turn herself into a character and complete a break and reconstruction at the same frequency as the character.
But it is this process that will make people see that training can't fool people, and sweat can't fool people. High-intensity exercise can change a person. And from before weight loss to after weight loss, the biggest difference is not only in the external body shape, but also in the change in the character's entire mental state.
Before losing weight, Du Leying's biggest feeling was actually "not confident". She spoke in a very small voice, softly and timidly, and seemed to be tall and big, but she always followed behind others, as if anyone could bully her.
And a year later, Le Ying, what shocked people was the explosive growth force in her body, like bamboo shoots breaking the ground. Her eyes became very powerful. No more hesitation, no more doubts, always firm.
There are only a few shots in the movie, and it takes a long year to lose weight and gain muscle outside the movie, which makes us really feel the pain and strength of breaking the ground. This will make you understand that sometimes you want to change, not to be beautiful, to please someone, or to conform to a certain social standard, but just for yourself.
The experiences inside and outside the film together make this character plump.
This also corresponds to the theme of the film. "Hot and Hot" is actually anti-routine.
Before watching the movie, you might think that this movie is about the myth of a small person's counterattack.
But Le Ying has been on TV shows, and they don't really help her, they just want to use her as a spectacle, a harlequin to entertain to death, and make the best use of everything.
In the process of watching the movie, you may also think that this is a romantic narrative that transforms for the sake of love.
But the story between her and boxing coach Haokun is really not beautiful. The two little people warming each other at the bottom is nothing more than a romanticized imagination.
The real situation is that she wants to help Haokun realize her dream, and even gives everything, thinking that she can get love in this way, but the other party only treats her as a dispensable stepping stone.
Those memories she thought were precious, drinking beer late at night, were just a time-limited pastime to relieve loneliness for him.
A man who met in Pingshui and a TV show that fell from the sky could not save Le Ying's devastated life. No one can "lend" her dreams, no one can reach out and carry her out of the quagmire.
If she wants to get sunshine, she has to come out on her own.
Therefore, as Jia Ling said on Weibo, "Hot and Hot" is not complicated, and there is no need to label it too much. It's just a story of a kind man learning to love himself. It breaks down a lot of "mythological narratives", and it tells you that the change of an ordinary person is never easy to come by. It even wants you to kill your past self in order to be able to regain your life.
This kind of unbreakable and unstanding requires you to get strength from your own body, and you can only get strength from your own body.
So, every day, you have to love yourself more than yesterday. "Love yourself" also has a double meaning.
The first "love yourself" is to face yourself.
At the beginning, Le Ying tried to protect herself in a self-enclosed way, trying to seek a sense of security by constructing a shell of escapism. But in the end she will understand that such "self-consistency" is false. Escape is not reconciliation with the self.
She has to face her life head-on.
She wants to see her face in the mirror.
The second "love yourself" is to believe in yourself. As mentioned earlier, Le Ying has actually gone through a process of "finding meaning". But in the end, she will understand that her dreams are her own and her life is her own. Only by believing in herself can she get the opportunity to change.
In the end, Le Ying said that she wanted to "win once", which is not to say that she needs to prove herself with a victory in a boxing match.
The moment she stepped into the ring, she had already won. At this point in the story, it has nothing to do with competitive sports.
Because she has taken power from herself, she believes that she can do it, so her wins and losses are also defined by herself.
In the final analysis, it is the relationship between a person and life, as well as a relationship between a person and a person. Maybe you give life a punch, and life will give you a heavier punch. But the important thing is to stand up and tell yourself that you can still go on.
At the end of the film, there was no family reunion dinner, no man invited her to eat bullfrogs, and Le Ying was alone in the dark, throwing another punch at life. There is no need to reconcile, and there is no need to forgive. And so it goes.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, one of the very happy things is that the Taotao Movie Group watched this movie with everyone.
At ten o'clock in the morning, many people still came.
Queue up in an orderly manner. Take a look at our custom ticket stubs.
Celebrating the first day of the Lunar New Year in the cinema is really a very ceremonial thing, and I am glad that we chose "Hot and Hot".
After the screening, many viewers also told us that they really wanted to watch it again, and this time they will definitely bring a pack full of tissues. Truly. "Hot and Hot" is really suitable for second brushing, no matter how many times you watch it, you can feel that vigorous vitality and that crazy beating pulse.
It's too burning. It's so handsome.
Thank you Director Jia Ling for bringing another work that is so sincere and brave, in the new year, let's be hot together