Do you know the story behind such an excellent movie as Farewell My Concubine?

As a film with the same historical and humanistic value as Farewell My Concubine, it is rarely mentioned. I think, when we stand at the turning point of the period and look back, we will find that Face Changing/Off is undoubtedly a better domestic film. Different from the rich thinking and aggressive design style of the fifth-generation directors, Wu, as the leader of the fourth-generation directors, pays more attention to taking care of a sense of responsibility and mission. When the traditional culture is about to be forgotten by historical time, he once again picks up the most valuable traditional culture and once again lets it quietly hide in the hearts of the audience.

As an excellent film Farewell My Concubine, I know the existence of FACE/OFF indirectly based on the film "A Hundred Birds Facing the Phoenix", and it is precisely because of the purer love for traditional culture in "A Hundred Birds Facing the Phoenix" that I have to indulge in the atmosphere of traditional cultural inheritance built by director Wu again. FACE/OFF movies are not only more sober records, but also more detailed restoration. It permeates the concern of postmodernism, and at the same time it always shows the weakness in the inheritance of traditional culture.

The grand narrative and its rich accumulation are all focused on the emotional changes of the face-changing king and the dog doll. Focusing on the big pattern is to better grasp the key points, and through the key points, to show the detailed characteristics of the times and the impressions left by everyone in their period. Therefore, when we look at the development trend of FACE/OFF's short stories, we become guardians, and when we experience the emotional transformation of FACE/OFF, we become participants.

The inheritance of China's traditional culture is not a cold teaching, but a certain personality that has caused a lot of harm. If you look at it from the eyes of the world, it is likely to be a bit sentimental. However, when we really entered that period and experienced the enthusiasm for culture and art, the maintenance of culture and art, and the inheritance of culture and art, I found that it was not them who were funny.

Although people in the world are indifferent, there are true feelings in the world. Director Wu has deep feelings for his films. Therefore, he not only treated "changing face" as a traditional culture, but also gave it emotional attachment, and the king of changing face became the main expression medium of this emotion. Generally speaking, the cool color technique selected in the film gives people a very serious feeling, and in this serious atmosphere, the face-changing king is used to set off the face-changing culture and art, and the face-changing king sets off the dog doll, which makes the audience enjoy it warmly.

This film was made in the 1920s. In a chaotic era when chemicals cannot be guaranteed, people try to meet the requirements of daily life with the numbness of spiritual essence. So from the beginning, the film deliberately arranged a scene where many people pursued the sound of the world. Using this interface display of feudal superstition and ignorance can reflect the plight of everyone's spiritual essence in that period, and the plastic arts with protruding sides and changing faces seem insignificant in the chaotic period, which is also the first encounter between the famous Sichuan opera actress and the changing face king.

After Guan Yin played by Liang Sulan, the audience who were watching the lively performance of the face-changing king were crowded in the past, leaving only the face-changing king who stood still and looked suspicious. This comparison just shows the dilemma that the traditional face-changing culture encountered at that time. Face changing, like monkey playing, was just an insignificant game and entertainment at that time, and people who had difficulty in getting enough food and clothing could only pray for God's care with the help of this fabricated fairy.

Naturally, in addition to the theme of this embarrassing situation, the film director also arranged many themes with a sense of the times to penetrate, such as warlordism, rampant bureaucratic capitalism, male superiority over female inferiority, feudal superstition, religious belief and so on. A variety of themes are the most likely to lead to indecision, but the film director appropriately bypassed this trap and only focused on the changes in the emotional connection between the face-changing king and the dog doll. Wu, the film director, knows what is the key to this film and what is its spreading value. Therefore, other themes are just the main line, and the main line task that is really closely around is to maintain and continue the traditional culture after getting rid of the old rules.

Unlike Farewell My Concubine's description of "one minute on stage and ten years off stage", FACE/OFF's film focuses on getting rid of the concept of "passing on men but not women". To put it bluntly, the ancestral system is particularly serious in this martial arts star, the face-changing king, which is also a major reason for the decline of many traditional skills, and the emergence of dog dolls has become an important figure in getting rid of this decadent rule.

The Excellence of FACE/OFF depends on his purest love. Seeing my face always reminds me of Farewell My Concubine, because these two films have one thing in common, that is, perfect artistic beauty. This kind of beauty is not posturing, but a simple and easy-to-understand blend of folk fireworks. With the help of emotion, the traditional culture that has become smaller and smaller will be integrated into the characteristics of the times, as close as possible to the daily life of understanding, and then the declining spiritual quality and cultural value will be discovered from trivial things.

FACE/OFF chose China traditional ink landscape painting as the opening, and a boat slowly approached in the fog between green mountains and green waters. At this time, when the camera turned, the bustling commercial street showed the folk crafts of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Everyone is in high spirits and has a strong sense of the times. They are not familiar with the scene, but they are not familiar with the emotion. Because, in today's urbanization development trend, it is precisely this feature that is disappearing.