The lowest-key film “Wandering Earth” Spring Festival Counterattack China’s ultimate world-class science fiction

Lead: If we say that martial arts is the culture of the Chinese people, it is a supplement to the Chinese people who have emphasized the collectivism to rigid mainstream culture for thousands of years, and a counterattack, then why can’t science fiction be based on the fantasy of modern science and technology? The cornerstone, bearing and inheriting this spirit and life pursuit?

“Wandering Earth” is a world-wide science fiction movie. It is certainly not a great science fiction film that has left its mark on the history of human thought, but it can definitely be said to be the world’s best. Commercial sci-fi movies are comparable to the “Top Player” “World of Earth”, and are much better than similar sci-fi films such as “The Sun Holocaust”. For Chinese science fiction movies, this is a very high starting point

Wen | Li Xiaofei.

Editor | Goldstone.

1.

Heisenberg wrote such a cold knowledge in the book “The Homo sapiens”.

The inscription on the inner wall of the “Bronze Liyu” in the collection of the Chinese Museum reads: “Wuwang Zhengshang only Jiazi is the old Ding”, “Year” refers to Jupiter, because Jupiter is about 1 2. years old, it is called It is the old star; and the word “Ding” means “Zhongzhongtian”. That is to say, in an early morning in 1046 BC, in the long and innocent sky, the Zhou Dynasty coalition forces who clashed with the merchants and saw the king of the king saw the sight of Jupiter in the middle of the sky

After three thousand years, Liu Cixin, who was also an engineer at Niangziguan Hydropower Station, wrote in his “The Wandering Earth” that humans hope to use the gravitational force of Jupiter to complete the ejection of the wandering earth and escape the solar system.

I don’t know if I am in a nightmare, or the whole universe is a nightmare in a huge and perverted mind of the Creator! Jupiter is horrifying and gradually occupies half the sky. At this time, we can clearly see the storm in the clouds. The storm stirs the clouds into a chaotic line. I know that under the thick clouds is the boiling liquid of liquid hydrogen and liquid. The famous big red spot appeared, and this large vortex that has been maintained on the surface of Jupiter for hundreds of thousands of years is so large that it can swallow a whole three earths. At this time, Jupiter has occupied the entire sky, and the earth seems to be a balloon floating on the dark red cloud sea of Jupiter! And Jupiter’s big red spot is in the middle of the sky, like a red giant eye staring at our world, the earth is shrouded in its gloomy red light??

When the movie “Wandering Earth” visually presented this paragraph on the theater screen, I linked these two pictures together and realized that this is an epoch-making moment in the history of Chinese science fiction culture. ——The Zhou people of more than 3,000 years ago regarded Jupiter’s sky as the affirmation of the legitimacy of human warfare, and in modern Chinese science fiction, human beings are challenging such “the heavens”. Just like the “2001 Space Roaming” novel, in order to survive and fight against the natural enemy, the “Wandering Earth”, when the life of the sun reaches the limit, humans fight hard again for “living”, this time their enemies and friends They are all gravitational

The pressure and fear of Jupiter’s huge red spots in Wandering Earth. Figure / Network.

Many years ago, as one of the first “three-body” fans in China, I recommended this novel to many people, even though this work was called by Yan Feng as “single-handedly bringing Chinese science fiction to a world-class height” However, many people have expressed doubts about this – the Chinese science fiction, can be good?

Not long ago, the various praises that “Wandering Earth” came out after the early release were also questioned: Can Chinese people really shoot good science fiction films?

On February 5, 2019, “Wandering Earth” was officially released. On the day of the show, the cumulative box office broke 200 million and 8.3, the Douban score shows that this is the first real science fiction film in the history of Chinese film. After Liu Cixin won the Hugo Award for his “Three-body”, some people said that he has raised the Chinese science fiction to the height of the world by his own efforts. This sentence also applies to “Wandering Earth” – this time, director Guo Fan single-handedly raised China’s commercial science fiction movies to a world-class level

As a Chinese science fiction film that challenges the hard science fiction standard, “Wandering Earth” shows a very high standard. Figure / Network.

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“Wandering Earth” is almost a special effect lens from the first shot, and the surreal picture is almost always

In the film, a giant planetary engine on Earth that overcomes gravity for escape. Figure / Network.

The story is the structure of the mainstream commercial sci-fi disaster film, and runs through the relationship between father and son, brother and sister, grandparents. Wu Mengda, an actor who made a commentary on “Eight and a Half” but became famous in comedy, finally showed his acting drama in the film – the interweaving of hope and despair, the choice of family and human destiny, alternately inciting The heart of the audience. The climax of the film, the senior point of Liu Cixin fans can be seen from another novel “full band blocking interference”, but this also makes this novel not easy to be filmed again

Wu Mengda plays grandfather Han Ziang, an experienced carrier driver. Figure / Network.

I have always felt that the gap between Chinese fantasy movies and the United States is not special effects, but in humanities. Especially in this era, if you have money, you can ask for the best special effects team, but the success of every good science fiction or magic movie is not in the special effects technology, but in the concept design before the special effects

After the Lord of the Rings”, the special effects technology has greatly improved, but the magical film that transcends the concept of “The Lord of the Rings” by Alan Lee has not appeared at all; Stan Winston is “The Alien” “Jurassic Park” The special effects of movies such as “Iron Blood Warrior” and “Terminator” are art works in the design model stage, so that there can be success on the screen later – don’t understand this, more money, better technology, shoot The science fiction film is just garbage

“Wandering Earth” let us see that the conceptual design of the film is very pleasant, and it can withstand the rigorous eyes of both aesthetics and science, whether it is a huge fleet of vehicles on the surface of the new world covered by snow. The endless urban-like structure inside the engine base, the gravity generated by the rotation, the space station that the small spacecraft travels to and from, or the earth that is attracted by Jupiter’s gravity to the atmosphere, can be seen in the conceptual design stage

At the conceptual design stage, “Wandering Earth” did its homework. Figure / Network.

I believe that many people, like me, only searched for the name “Guo Fan” after reading “Wandering Earth”, and then estimated that they were disappointed, because before that he seemed to only film “The Adventures of Li Xiangji” “And you at the same table” are at least two films that are not very successful on the word of mouth. Such a director, why suddenly succeeded in a science fiction film? The personal understanding is that the previous films are not the ones he is good at and can really control, this is the normal state of the new director

Director Guo Fan is at the shooting scene of “The Wandering Earth”. Figure / Network.

After interviewing Guo Fan, he felt his deep sci-fi literacy and unique understanding of Chinese sci-fi. He said that “Wandering Earth” is the science fiction he wants to shoot most, because it is the Chinese science fiction, the Chinese people’s inner feelings about the land and the family’s emotions – when we are going to flee, we flee with our family

How to shoot a science fiction film that Chinese people can accept? Guo Fan said that the scientific aesthetic of the Chinese is Soviet-style, the aesthetic of the big machine industry, so “Wandering Earth” avoids the picture of the cool technology in the digital age. Instead, pursuing the heavy aesthetics of the industrial age, let every Chinese see this and feel it is real. His favorite sci-fi films are the deep films of “2001 Space Roaming” and “The Hacker Empire”, but in the initial stage of Chinese science fiction, it is still necessary to take a successful commercial science fiction film, let us “live first.” “

Liu Cixin (right) provided the original novel for “The Wandering Earth”; after the initial investor exited because of lack of confidence, Wu Jing (left)’s participation and investment enabled the film to be finalized; Guo Fan (middle) completed as director Filming of the film. Figure / Network