Every year, the National Day is a time when movies are released together, and this year is no exception. From September 28 to the official opening of the National Day file, a total of 17 films are vying for the box office, including two imported Hollywood films. "The Liar" was selected to be released in major theaters across the country on October 1st. It was undoubtedly a huge pressure. Fortunately, Du Wenhan and Fan Sijun had enough seats, and Jiang Yi was full of popular topics, and it attracted countless attention from the beginning.
On the other hand, thanks to "Song of the Silk Road" three years ago, Zuo Jiahao has accumulated a group of loyal fans in mainland China, and everyone is looking forward to his new work. After the trailer of "Liar" was released, its excellent texture and suspenseful plot design also triggered a frenzy of reposting on Weibo. Many people called it the most anticipated movie in the second half of the year.
Because of this, many people were surprised when the vague gunpowder between the two male protagonists spread to the melon-eating crowd. In Du Wenhan's words, he belittled Jiang Yi's status and contribution in the film, and even thought he was insignificant, and in the trailer, there were indeed not many scenes of Jiang Yi. Could it be that the performance was so poor that it was cut
It has to be said that Du Wenhan's provocation indirectly helped the film, and many people were curious whether Jiang Yi's performance was really as bad as Du Wenhan said. His acting skills are unanimously good in TV dramas, could it be that his acting skills are not good in movies
Will he be the drag in this film
With all kinds of doubts, many people sat in the cinema, and some people even talked about it before the opening, which caused dissatisfaction among the audience in the front row.
The girl coughed loudly, and said solemnly: "It's about to start, please don't talk?"
The two people who were discussing were puzzled, but they still shut up.
Lai Xiaoshuang helplessly supported his forehead, "If you do this again, I will avoid you, I don't want to be beaten by the theater crowd."
Jian Wei, who just coughed aggressively, curled her lips, "I don't like hearing what they say."
Today is the first day of "The Liar", and she dragged Lai Xiaoshuang to watch it early in the morning. Jiang Yi wanted to ask her to go with her at the premiere before, but Jian Wei had to do experiments and couldn't get away, so she had to wait for today Come again. Of course she also knew about these disputes, and was very annoyed by Du Wenhan's actions, and became more and more worried about the situation of the movie. Although Jiang Yi's performance was very good based on her on-site observation, but who knows if Du Wenhan used any villain tricks? He wanted to delete Jiang Yi's scenes at that time!
Jian Wei asked: "Xiaoshuang, haven't you watched the movie?"
"No, I worked overtime on the day of the premiere. Where did I go to watch it? Didn't your male god watch it? Why didn't he tell you exactly?"
Jian Wei flattened her mouth. This is what made Jiang Yi angry. He knew that Jian Wei was worried, but he refused to tell her how the movie was going. He said, "I can't influence your viewing experience subjectively first."
It’s fine if you don’t say it, but you have to add, “But you should be mentally prepared, don’t be too surprised after reading it.”
Surprised, surprised, you can explain clearly!
Lai Xiaoshuang took pleasure in his misfortune, but Jian Wei suddenly let out a long breath, clenched his fists and said, "It doesn't matter. If the performance is good, I will blow it hard, and if the performance is not good, I will close my eyes and blow it. Who is not a fan of brains!"
Accompanied by this sonorous and powerful declaration, the theater went dark and lit up again, and "The Liar" unveiled its mystery.
The first shot is the interrogation room.
In the narrow, dimly lit interrogation room, a man in his thirties with a calm demeanor sat on a chair. He seemed calm, but he reached out and pulled off his tie while no one was paying attention.
This is Gao Hong played by Du Wenhan.
The camera shakes slightly, implying the inner anxiety of the characters.
A voiceover asked, "Where were you on January 24?"
Gao Hong thought for a while, "I'm at home. It's the weekend, I don't have to go to work, I'm at home all day."
The screen went black, and when it came back on, it was still the same interrogation room, but this time sitting on the chair was Fan Sijun with flaming red lips and an arrogant expression.
The voice asked, "Where were you on January 24?"
Fan Sijun didn't even bat an eyelid, "Together with my fiancé."
"Did you meet the deceased that day?"
"No."
The screen went black for the second time, and when it lit up this time, Jiang Yi appeared.
Jian Wei had been prepared for a long time, but when she suddenly saw his face magnified dozens of times, she was still shocked. This was the first time she saw Jiang Yi on the big screen. On the one-story high screen, every trace of his expression was clearly visible.
Jiang Yi wore a white shirt and sat on the interrogation chair. Unlike the two people in front of him who showed more or less emotions, he sat very quietly, his expression neither cold nor enthusiastic, as if the matter had nothing to do with him. Her hair was a little long, hanging over her forehead. When she raised her head slightly, her eyes were as black as cold stars, piercing through the huge screen like a sharp sword.
Jane's only breath was a little short for an instant.
"Did you meet the deceased that day?"
"No."
"Then have you met Bai Yue?"
"nor."
The voice asked Du Wenhan, "On January 24, did you meet Xu Ran?"
"No."
The voice said to Fan Sijun: "However, we have evidence here to show that on January 24 this year, the day the deceased was killed, you not only met each other, but also met the deceased. On the day he was killed building."
"So, who is lying?"
The screen went black for the third time, and three large white characters appeared on the screen—Liar.
That's when the movie officially begins.
As a suspenseful feature film, "The Liar" was actually questioned during the filming process, because this genre has always been a weak link of domestic films. Nowadays, great directors from all walks of life are more and more fond of playing tricks and tricks, but they often fail to tell a basic story. Many suspense films that have failed before have also proved this point. Just as netizens complained: "There are suspense, and there are also doubts. Suspense? I'm sorry I didn't see it."
But "Liar" is not like this. The movie grabs people's hearts from the very beginning, using a murder case to lead the plot. Through the subsequent explanations, the audience quickly understood that the reason for the initial interrogation was that a mysterious corpse had occurred in a certain chemical engineering university in this city. After investigation, the police locked down three suspects: Gao Hong, a chemistry professor with a prominent family background and a successful career, his poor but beautiful fiancée Bai Yue, and Xu Ran, a second-year chemistry student.
And the story revolves around these three people.
Jane was still thinking about things at first, but before she knew it, she was completely immersed in the plot. For a moment, she even forgot her personal feelings for the actors and only remembered their roles.
Gao Hong, the professor played by Du Wenhan, was born in a famous family. His life was smooth sailing, but unexpectedly his wife died unexpectedly. He couldn't accept his lover's departure, and he couldn't let go of his previous feelings for a long time until he met Bai Yue. The beautiful and considerate woman, like a too beautiful dream, soothed his lonely and painful heart. Like a drowning person who finally got his breath, he didn't want to be dragged back into the boundless darkness, so even though he didn't love her, he still wanted to be with her, just so that he wouldn't wake up from the nightmare again in the middle of the night.
He thought he could control her, but gradually, he discovered that his seemingly innocent fiancée was hiding many secrets that no one knew.
The movie is called "Liar" partly because a third of it takes place in an interrogation room. Taking the interrogation as the framework, the process is interspersed with narrating the events before and after the case, in order to find the truth. This mode is relatively rare in domestic films, and the interrogation scene is also very exciting. Whether it is the interrogator or the different answers of the three suspects, a lot of psychological knowledge is used, and the trick is passed quietly.
That is to say, in the process of this trick, two reversals of locking the real culprit were realized. At the beginning, the focus was on Du Wenhan. Through a lot of information, the audience thought that he was the murderer, but soon, new information overturned this conclusion, and the focus of the story fell on Jiang Yi and Fan Sijun.
In other words, on Xu Ran and Bai Yue.
The son of a murderer, he was lonely and grew up bullied in a small town. During growing up, the only warmth I felt came from my neighbor's sister.
She is his white moonlight, hanging high in the sky, he loves her almost piously, even when the moonlight shines on him, he is afraid that it will tarnish her.
Jiang Yi vividly interprets Xu Ran's two states. The eccentric and withdrawn boy hides cruelty and murderous intent in his eyes. Because of a humiliating word from others, he rushes forward to fight for his life. When he hits someone, he sees blood. He is a desperado fierce determination. But when he faced Bai Yue, he turned into a docile little wolf dog. He would turn red because he accidentally saw her change her underwear, he would clumsily cook her favorite glutinous rice lotus root, and he would secretly reach out his hand when she couldn't see him, but he never dared to touch her hair.
He wanted to protect her, keep her pure forever, but she left the small town where they grew up and became someone else.
In order to get rid of her poor background, she got into one trouble after another. She was too willful, and beautiful women are always easy to be willful, but she demanded too much, and finally got herself to the point where she could not retreat.
So, she had no choice but to find the person who loves her the most in this world.
At this point in the story, it seems that everything has come to light. In order to protect Bai Yue, Xu Ran killed the man who held her handle. Jian Wei also thought so, but felt that if it was just like this, the story would not be surprising enough.
Almost at the same time that this idea came up, the painting style took a turn for the worse, and there was a rapid siren sound. The caller said that a student from the Chemical Engineering University fell from the building and was injected with deadly chemicals before his death.
That person's name is Xu Ran.
Jian Wei was dumbfounded, not understanding what was going on, but saw that the screen had turned into black and white, as if playing a video from the past, and the time of the incident was typed word by word in the lower right corner of the screen: January 24.
Therefore, as mentioned at the beginning of the film, the person who died on January 24 was Xu Ran.
Those interrogation shots actually come from two different cases. A total of two people died in this movie. The mysterious body that was discovered was the man who threatened Bai Yue, and it was Xu Ran who was killed on January 24.
Xu Ran was interrogated as a suspect in the first murder case, while Bai Yue and Gao Hong were the suspects who killed him. Through editing and mixing of information, the director misled the audience that they were trying the same case. In fact, they were narrating according to different timelines from the beginning, and it was not until this moment that they really came together.
Xu Ran, died long before the story started.
Jian Wei saw that the police found his body. Outside the experimental building, he fell from the roof, bleeding all over the floor. The cordon was tightly surrounded, but it still couldn't stop the crowd of onlookers and the noise of the world. He lay on his back on the ground with his eyes wide open, as if he was dying, or just looking at the top of the building.
In the interrogation room.
Gao Hong and Bai Yue were caught off guard by the sudden evidence. Surveillance showed that before and after Xu Ran fell from the building, the two had entered and exited the building, and the toxic chemicals injected by Xu Ran also came from Gao Hong's laboratory. The police became more and more stern, and asked if they would kill someone to silence them. The two were emotionally on the verge of collapse. They couldn't prove that they were lying at the beginning, but they just didn't want to get burned, and they didn't understand why Xu Ran had Gao Hong's experimental medicine.
At the most desperate moment, Bai Yue remembered what Xu Ran had said when she went to beg her.
"Sister Yue, I'm the son of a murderer. I understand better than anyone else that you have to pay for doing something wrong."
The young and handsome boy caressed her face with pity and pity in his eyes.
He helped her kill someone. he died.
Now, is it her turn to pay the price
Bai Yue closed her eyes and accepted her fate.
Just when she thought she would be charged with murder and spend the rest of her life in prison, the case turned around again.
The police received the suicide note sent by Xu Ran before his death, proving that he committed suicide and injected himself with the drug. At the same time, he admitted to committing the previous murder, provided all the evidence, and claimed that he had nothing to do with anyone.
The suicide note was appraised by experts, and there was absolutely no forgery, so Bai Yue and Gao Hong's charges were cleared.
The two were acquitted, Gao Hong thought of the past few months, and felt like a lifetime away. He wanted to go to Bai Yue again, but after receiving a call, his face changed drastically.
When Gao Hong rushed to the rooftop, Bai Yue was already standing on it, her clothes were thin and her long hair was messed up by the wind.
"I did it wrong," she said.
Gao Hong's face was pale, "You come down. Whatever you want to do, come down first!"
Bai Yue shook her head, "I did something wrong. Xu Ran said that if you do something wrong, you have to pay the price."
She couldn't forget that letter.
She thought he hated her, and after being cheated by her and dying for her, she thought he hated her to death. But in the end, he was still protecting her.
As if waking up from a nightmare, she realized what she had done.
She looked at Gao Hong.
At this moment, he was no longer the wealthy son she desperately wanted to grab, and she was no longer the straw he used to get rid of his dead wife.
They never fell in love, in fact, from the beginning, should not be together.
She smiled softly, "You did something wrong too, didn't you?"
Before Gao Hong could react, she had already jumped and jumped down.
The screen suddenly went dark. Can't see anything, just cry, siren, and rain. So noisy, so noisy.
Then, all these disappeared, and everything returned to silence.
When the screen was turned on again, it was a blue sky with big white clouds, and the boy was standing on the roof.
it's very windy.
The tone of the whole film is serious, and the picture is also dark. The sky is always gloomy, just like the mood of the characters. Only in this scene, Xu Ran stood on the rooftop where he had murdered, and smiled slowly at Bai Yue and Gao Hong who came over after hearing the news. The sun shone on him through the clouds. At this moment, the sins of the past seemed to be washed away. He stood in a soft light, dressed in white and handsome, not stained with dust.
There is no Bai Yue in the picture, but the audience quickly understands that this shot is Bai Yue's subjective perspective. It was the picture she had seen.
Xu Ran stared at her with such gentleness, just like when she was a child, she treated him with such tenderness, "When I was 18 years old, you asked me what my wish was. Now I tell you, I only have one wish, which is to be with you forever Together. From beginning to end, only this one."
Bai Yue didn't answer.
"I promised I would never lie to you."
He took one last look at her, opened his arms, and fell backwards a little. The endless sky above his head, when he fell, his shirt fluttered, like a big white bird, his wings were blown by the wind.
The camera moved forward suddenly, and it was Bai Yue who rushed to the railing.
The screen kept shaking, and there was a suppressed cry.
Xu Ran lay in a pool of blood, fell to pieces, but still stubbornly looked at the sky and her.
As if guessing that she was looking at him too, he curled the corner of his mouth.
Very lightly, but smiled strangely.
Before he died, he said that he wanted to be with her forever.
This is his only wish.
he made it.
When the movie ended, the ending song played and the lights came on, Jian Wei still couldn't recover for a long time.
Her face was a little wet, she wiped it away and found that she was in tears, so she hurriedly took out a tissue. The image of Jiang Yi falling from the rooftop kept reappearing in her mind. She never thought that this story would be like this, which was completely different from what she thought at first.
In the end, Xu Ran's smile had so many deep meanings that she couldn't help but think, he did so much for Bai Yue, did he want to protect her, or use another way to get her
Like he said, let her be his forever...
The more she thought about it, the more creepy she became, and she patted her forehead to wake herself up. But anyway, it's a great story.
Turning her head to discuss with Lai Xiaoshuang, she found that her brows were slightly frowned, and her expression was a little serious. Jian Wei's heart skipped a beat, "What's wrong? Do you think... not good?"
It shouldn't be, although from her standpoint, it is difficult to look at this film completely objectively, but the difference between 0 points and 100 points can be tasted by normal people. Even if this movie wasn't as good as she thought it would be, at least it wouldn't be bad!
Lai Xiaoshuang shook his head, "The film is very good, but you didn't realize that Jiang Yi's role is a bit too much?"
Yes, Jiang Yi's roles are not a little too much, but much more than expected.
Although Jian Wei has never read the script, she also knows that according to the original idea, Du Wenhan should have the most roles. But in the final version, Jiang Yi and Du Wenhan have equal parts in the roles, and Fan Sijun is slightly inferior to the two. And because of the relationship between the plot and the characters, Jiang Yi's line is more core and attractive than Du Wenhan's.
In this way, this is more like a movie with two male protagonists. If you must choose a hero, it is not Du Wenhan, but Jiang Yi.
Jian Wei was stunned for a moment, "Yes, what's going on?"
"Editing, the problem of editing. I seem to have heard that director Zuo Jiahao did the editing this time himself, and no editor was hired. It seems that he came up with many new ideas after seeing the scene of the two of them. Brother Ming was worried about this at the beginning... "
Post-editing is equivalent to a re-creation, and sometimes, it can even change the structure of the entire movie. Although there are not many such examples, they have always existed, so He Fangming would be worried.
Lai Xiaoshuang said in a daze: "I thought it would be Jiang Yi who was cut, but it turns out..."
Jian Wei: "As a result, Jiang Yi was not cut, but Du Wenhan was cut?!"