介绍:
China's huge market potential has encouraged many novice directors to join the film rush. These fledgling newcomers fall into two categories: smart ones like author and businessman Guo Jingming who use modern information technology to pinpoint their target audience, and the others, who waste no time on the trivial, but design their products to target people of all age groups.
Chen Sicheng obviously belongs to the second category. His chick flick "Beijing Love Story" bears the same name as his popular TV series from 2012, but includes five incongruent stories about the least romantic aspects of love that could happen in any place outside Beijing. Chen himself and new wife Tong Liya lead the first story as two mismatched lovers, whose relationship is put to the test against an uncompromising mother-in-law and a seductive ex-boyfriend. Next, a married woman hesitates about getting back with her infidel husband. A middle-aged couple seeks to renew their passion. A high school student has a crush on his schoolmate. And an old man finds himself in a love triangle.
Each of the stories depicts a love-related dilemma that could get the viewers brooding for a while; however, the director allows very little time for such brain activity as he sweeps past the stories like a storm on a Gobi desert.
According to Chen, "Beijing Love Story" is an artistic film in a commercial guise. But apparently his understanding of art goes no further than singling out the so-called "issues of reality". I know that some contemporary Chinese people are obsessed with the "realistic" aspect of things, but I've always hated that notion, because the word is so often abused by people to justify their low taste and lack of imagination.
Viewers who can actually get over the realistic whining still need to tolerate some of the actors and actresses. Notably, the quality of acting corresponds with the age of the characters; the veterans, led by Siqin Gaowa and Wang Qingxiang are the most memorable, while the younger ones, including the director and wife, still need much weathering.
Before I went to see this film, a colleague of mine, based on her experience with the 2012 TV series, told me to be ready for naivety. Well, director Chen Sicheng has tried very hard to sound sophisticated in the movie version, only to prove that wisdom and skill cannot be acquired overnight, not even a wedding night.
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