Film Review ｜ The Three Battalions： ＂I hold＂ is also a philosophy of life.
Text | Hu Xueyi Zhou Haoyu
Recently, the film "Three Battalions" was released, which broke through the box office of 100 million yuan on the first day, and the douban score rose from 7.8 to 7.9 on the second day.
"Three Battalions" is adapted from real events, and the prototype comes from the nonfiction work "Please tell the director that the task of the three battalions has been completed" by the author of "Netease Human Studio".
The film mainly tells the story that the three teams led by Cheng Bing, the captain of the Criminal Investigation Brigade, caused one of the suspects to die unexpectedly in the process of handling a vicious case and was sentenced to prison. After he was released from prison, he still insisted on tracking the story of the fugitive suspect as an ordinary person.
Twelve years’ pursuit of the murderer can be said to be a kind of "self-persistence" of Cheng Bing. What about the persistence in truth, the persistence in principles and the pursuit of ideals?
The "I hold" of storytelling is the key point of double harvest at the box office.
The blueprint for the creation of the movie story, "Please tell the director that the tasks of the three brigades have been completed", was the winner of the annual click of Netease Literature in 2018, and was "asked by ten thousand people to make a movie". Director Dai Mo once said in an interview: "The story is touching enough, so there is no need to show off your skills. Its foundation is thick enough."
"There is no such thing as a big overhead shot, a big empty mirror, and aerial photography." In the director’s lens, there is only a slightly "flat" narrative. However, the calmer the picture and the more stable the rhythm, sometimes, the more it can highlight the risks of criminal investigation, the darkness of crime and the bitterness of life.
In recent years, the "new mainstream" movies have swept the Chinese film market. There are many movies and TV works like The Battle at Lake Changjin’s "Wolf Warriors" and My People，My Country’s, which tell grand stories closely related to the value orientation, such as feelings of home and country, national righteousness, etc. The movie "Three Battalions" tells the group story of sticking to the original heart and pursuing justice from the personal fate of police Cheng Bing.
Cheng Bing, once the captain of the third brigade, has strong professional ability and rich experience in handling cases. He had a bright career prospect and a happy family, and was sentenced to prison because the suspect died during the trial. However, the focus of film storytelling is not how Cheng Bing proves his ability with enthusiasm, but how he keeps looking for Wang Eryong in prison and after his release from prison, so as to reflect the professional belief of a policeman. It has nothing to do with identity, occupation and interests. What Cheng Bing does is also what the film wants to convey-"I hold" is an attitude towards life. It is not a "one-track mind" or a "dead end". It helps you to tell you the direction of your initial heart at the roundabout time of every life.
At the same time, the film also presents other characters with short but complete story auxiliary lines, such as Cai Bin, who deliberately went to a far-away place to open a bracelet shop, Ma Zhenkun, who "cleaned up" his daughter-in-law with only one kiss, Liao Jian, who is stingy but worried about his son, and Xu Yizhou, who was the first one who clamored to follow the captain to pursue the murder, etc., so that every turning point or conflict can be traced and followed logically, and the group portrait of the police will also come alive.
It is worth mentioning that in the plot after catching Zhang Eryong, Cheng Bing asked, "Can you be convicted without a confession now?" It makes people feel emotional. After leaving the public security system, the change of the times, the progress of science and technology, and the perfection of the legal system only surprised Cheng Bing for a moment, and then showed his joy in the progress of criminal investigation technology and mechanism. In the future, no more "Wang Eryong" will escape from the French Open.
Realistic "ego-holding", looking for the core of emotional resonance
At the beginning of the film, the elements of the crime suspense are "straightforward": the stairwell crisscrossed with cold and warm, the girl’s body covered with blood on a pure white nightgown, and the sultry and irritable southern summer night … Although the director does more imitation, who can refuse a crime movie with a lens picture like "Seven Deaths"? Subsequently, solving the case, deciphering and arresting the murderer were carried out step by step, until Wang Eryong escaped, the story became different and the emotion began to change tone.
If Cheng Bing’s promise of "solving the case within five days" is a policeman’s idealism, then what the film depicts next is a realistic "whipping" for more than ten years.
The police became prisoners, criminals became husbands of ordinary people, and several groups of misplaced relationships piled up the bones of the story. Even a policeman wearing prison clothes and carrying prison rules is still a policeman at heart. This dramatic conflict can be seen in many criminal investigation movies, and it is also the part that can best complete the three-dimensional and shining point of the characters. Whether it is the writer’s portrayal of characters, the director’s use of camera language or the actor’s interpretation of details, "Three Battalions" is undoubtedly handled properly, showing the forbearance of falling status, the despair of finding a needle in a haystack, and the "self-holding" of professional beliefs.
In the era when the reconnaissance system was not perfect, there was no monitoring and door-to-door search; No technology, relying on eyesight to compare faces; Without a team, a person travels all over the country, setting up a night market, working as a porter, a night taxi driver, a courier, a security guard in an Internet cafe, and a doorman in a community … The audience also substitutes from these daily and common real scenes. The alienation of his wife and daughter, the departure of his partners, the provocation of fugitives and other plots make those helpless, unsolvable and helpless feelings "reasonable" and strong, thus understanding and empathizing with Cheng Bing’s "I"
Although the whole film of "Three Battalions" is slightly weak in historical weight and humanistic speculation, it has found a "universal formula" for the new mainstream films in the current film market, which is one of the meanings of the work.
Everyone may have a "I hold" in their hearts, even at the moment of "I hold".
Don’t we spend our whole lives just to swim to the other side of "I hold" and really bid farewell to the past and move towards the future?
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