Definition of film narrative style

Today, I watched the legendary "Shuiyun storytelling", which claimed to be an unforgettable feeling and an unforgettable knot in my life. If we only consider Shui Yun storytelling from the perspective of novels, it can be said that it is very accurate to evaluate this story with this sentence. Unfortunately, the expression of this story is a film, and it is not very successful from the narrative angle and audio-visual language of the film.

If I give a comment on this film, Ballad of Water Clouds is a dramatic and poetic film with MV narrative style.

Why do you comment like this?

First of all, its shooting and editing methods are somewhat close to the narrative MV style. Sports photography is widely used in shooting, and the external rhythm is constantly changing. However, because these sports photography didn't play the role of expressing the plot, that is to say, they just moved for the change of rhythm, without combining the needs of the story itself, ignoring the rationality of the moving lens, and the story itself lacked tension in narrative, which caused the emptiness of the internal rhythm and made people feel that it was just a form. With the frequent use of black fields in editing, the rhythm of narrative and emotion is rigidly separated, and the pictures between black fields are almost not narrative plot pictures, but emotional pictures in the sense of representation, which makes the audience have no chance to speculate on the development of the story according to the continuous plot, thus psychologically losing their sense of participation in the film and finding it difficult to identify with the film and the characters.

Secondly, the film is too dramatic in characterization, plot setting and audio-visual language skills. In characterization, I feel that the character is not full and the inner activities of the character have no foundation, so I feel that what the characters do in the story has no foundation. For example, the image of Biyun's father, his character is very unclear, his previous attitude towards Qiu Shui and some subsequent practices all make people feel very abrupt. Besides, the image of Biyun, when Qiushui went to Biyun's home to give a class to Biyun's younger brother, they had a good impression. Later, before her mother resigned from the dinner table, Biyun's performance was a bit unacceptable, because the film did not completely pave the way for their feelings, so when she had the kind of excitement in the film, it was a bit far-fetched.

In the setting of the plot, the drama is too strong. For example, the appearance of Chen Kunlun, the son of Chen Qiushui, is a little coincidence. This makes people feel that the screenwriter is unable to control the development of the story.

In terms of audio-visual language skills, film is a typical drama mode in Hollywood's early days. It is no exaggeration to say that whether it is shooting techniques, lighting, scene scheduling, actors' performances, or lines processing, it feels like a stage play shot under the studio. No matter what the scene, what the scenery, all the backlight lighting. In movies, we often see an artificial "passive" light source, which is actually an unreasonable mechanical application.

Thirdly, the poetic film style of "Ballad of Water Clouds" may be because its narrative is really unsatisfactory, and the development of the story can only be supported by some "freehand brushwork" lenses that describe the emotions of the characters. Pathetic! Only some beautiful empty shots are attractive.

There are so many directors in China, so beautiful shots and so luxurious stunts, why can't they tell stories?

This is the so-called narrative style of the film.