Film Review in Winter and Summer Vacation 1000 words

Winter and Winter Holidays written in 1984 is Hou Xiaoxian's early works. It was born in the 1980s during the New Film Movement in Taiwan, and it has an approachable realistic style. There is also the freshness and sincerity of Taiwan's new film movement. It looks at the world from the perspective of children, including nature and society, life and reality.

About the original work and the script

Winter Holiday is adapted from the novel Silent Night by Taiwan Province native writer Zhu Tianwen, who has close cooperation with Hou Xiaoxian.

The brushwork of "An An's Holiday" is delicate and gentle. It's just a simple story about a little boy named An An and his sister who went to his grandfather's house for the summer vacation. Compared with the film Winter Holiday, the original novel is more immature, childlike and simple, and the director has added more and more profound things to the movie script.

At the beginning of A Holiday in Peace, the little boy and his sister Tingting went to grandpa's house, because their mother was full of joy because she was going to have a little brother, just like any child who went to the countryside for a happy, free and long summer vacation. But in Winter and Winter Holiday, the reason for going to grandpa's house in winter and winter became that my mother was seriously ill. Some heavy parts in real life are added to the calm narrative, and some sadness brought by the adult world is added to the happy summer vacation in winter and winter, which brings a touch of sadness to the whole film. The setting of this plot also paved the way for the later development of the story, especially when portraying the character grandpa.

Many of the plots added in "Winter Holiday" seem trivial and even unnecessary, but after careful taste, we will find that these settings are actually ingenious. They make movies deeper and richer. For example, before going to the countryside by train at the railway station in winter and winter, they obviously talked about things that children in big cities are keen on, such as Disneyland. Dongdong's classmates are talking excitedly about this colorful thing. Dongdong, on the other hand, looked blank and just answered the voice. Undoubtedly, all this has great attraction to Dongdong. However, they are so strange, even though they are not so far away from Dongdong's world. The last conversation between the two children was that Dongdong asked his classmate for his address to communicate, but the classmate loudly said how convenient it was to make a phone call and immediately reported a series of phone numbers fluently. Dongdong doesn't seem to have carefully written down his classmate's phone number either. Maybe he remembered his mother's advice not to call casually at grandpa's house. It turned out that Dongdong finally forgot his classmate's phone number during the summer vacation.

There is such a huge contrast between the children who play with turtles barefoot in the countryside and the students who meet at the railway station in winter and winter, but the two life forms are not far apart in space, they are only separated by a short train.

Think about it, at the same time, almost in the same space, there is such a completely different state of life. I have to say that this little detail implies great changes brought about by social change, urban development and social progress. The infiltration of this change is so rapid and extensive that even children of several years old can absorb it immediately. But which is more fun, going to Disneyland in winter or going to the river in the country? Dongdong is confused when standing in the middle, and we seem to have no answer.

In addition to the addition of this small detail, we can feel that what is really added in the script is the various inspirations of children like Dongdong and Tingting in the complex world of adults, or that they are presented to the audience from the perspective of children. For Dongdong and Tingting, these things just show a slight crack in the door, and they still can't understand and think through it, only a little feeling and confusion. This disclosure is secret and implicit, depending on whether the audience can understand the helplessness and sadness. For example, in winter and winter, through the crack of the door, I vaguely saw that crazy cold boy was insulted by hooligans, or in winter and winter, I accompanied my little uncle to the church to get married, and I saw my little uncle and aunt Lin dressed in plain clothes, while another bride and groom pretended to attend. There is no plot in these original works, which makes the story not so simple or just a happy memory of childhood. It has added some doubts and inexplicable melancholy to Dongdong's time and elegant beginning of life. What is given to the audience is more emotion and thinking about the world and the adult world.

Film Style and Image Processing

Let me start with a concrete example. There are only four shots from the moment when the pavilion falls on the track to the moment when Zi Han saves the pavilion.

The first shot: the plane position should be between the pavilion and the railing, and then the pavilion begins to run to the railing. At this time, the plane position remains unchanged, but the nose moves with the operation of the pavilion, and the camera is fixed when the pavilion runs to the right of the plane position. The picture shows a slim figure. When we fall on the track, we can only see a slim hat. After the fall, there was only the gentle whistle of the train.

The second shot: it is also a panoramic view. Dongdong ran away from a group of boys. When the boys disappeared, Dongdong ran back to have a look.

The third shot: it should be subjective shooting, and the shooting location is Dongdong Station. It is rare in Hou Hsiao-hsien's films. It is a very special shot in this film, representing everything that Dong Dong sees. A little shaky, first shaking on the viaduct and in the field, I didn't find the graceful shadow, then the camera shook to the right and the train came. This shot is panoramic, and it is at a distance from the railway track, which also shows that the location of Dongdong is far from where the pavilion fell.

The fourth shot: panoramic view, Hanzi ran over, picked up the pavilion and jumped out of the tracks, and then the roaring train. At that time, Hanzi clung to the pavilion on the other side of the train, and the director filmed the two of them across the train. We can't even see the expressions of Hanzi and Tingting, but we can only see two people crowded in the gap of the fast-moving carriage. The train occupies most of the picture. At this time, we can only hear the huge friction of the train running over the tracks. The picture of the train passing by lasted 14 seconds. After such a fierce action scene, there is no role to show.

Most other directors would find it incredible to change to any action blockbuster in Hollywood. It can be said that do or die's action scene is so thrilling, and Hou Xiaoxian only uses one shot, and it is a panoramic view. I have to say that he has a seemingly calm spirit. He is like this, like long shots, like fixed seats, and like to watch this, even if it is magnificent. As he himself said, "nothing more than a bystander overlooking the world." Warm, but there is a distance, so you need to be absolutely awake. "

In fact, there are also such scenes. For example, in the part where Han Zi was insulted by hooligans, there were two scenes like this:

From the perspective of winter and winter, Hanzi and rogue come out of the back room. Two walls account for two-thirds of the picture, Hanzi and rogue are in the middle of the picture, and the camera is far away from them. We can only vaguely see the movements and expressions of two people in the room, even abuse or rape, and the whole movement is not fully shown. We only infer the fact of rape because of the expressions of hooligans and cold children and the later accounts of adults.

The other shot is more extreme. The director used illusion for the plot of Zi Han's father chasing hooligans. The picture is a large sky and field, and only two chasing figures and sounds can be seen vaguely from a distance.

Hanzi's character is sad, and so is Hanzi's family. As my grandfather said in a later film, "Hanzi is an unfortunate person in this world, but she won't feel that her father's care and love is lifelong and pitiful." In fact, the director wants to express many things through Chinese characters. For example, the dialect spoken by Hanzi's father is obviously from the mainland. We can guess what the fate of the Hanzi family is. They may have fled from their hometown in mainland China to Taiwan Province Province during the war. They have no foundation and no friends here. Others may think of them as aliens. They may be full of yearning for their hometown, but there is no other way. The director didn't make it clear, nor did he express it so clearly. He just buried these sorrows in one affectionate shot after another, just waiting for you to feel them sensitively and touch the heartstrings. But the director did not exaggerate the tragic characters in the world, and the audience, like the characters in the film, could only sigh deeply in the dead of night. The director seems to have a fatalistic view. Is everything doomed?

Hou Hsiao-hsien's lens is long-distance, static and seamless. Ordinary and simple is Hou Hsiao-hsien's style, but more importantly, behind the seemingly ordinary and simple image, there are secretly surging wounds and sadness.

Winter and slim summer vacation are over, and they may have some incomplete memories when they think about this summer vacation many years later. They may forget that at that time, some kind of eyes and expressions of adults brought them loss at that time. Of course, when they grow up, the sadness and confusion of these adults may befall them.