章節 178: Cultural Differences
In his previous life, Levi saw a lot of analysis of the American version of The Departed and the Hong Kong version of Infernal Affairs. Many people attributed the differences between these two movies to the differences in cultures, so the movies are also different.
However, what Levi has been thinking about is this question: There are indeed differences between Eastern and Western cultures, but are the differences so great that Americans can't understand movies with a style like Infernal Affairs? Do Hong Kong people not know how to appreciate movies made by Americans?
Levi felt that was not necessarily the case. To say that Americans don't know how to appreciate movies like Infernal Affairs is a bit of an underestimation of Americans.
Infernal Affairs is actually more similar to spy movies, and how many spy movies have Americans shot with suspense as the main line? Many American movies are actually better in this respect.
And to say that Hong Kong doesn't know how to appreciate American gangster movies is even more nonsense. In the eyes of any filmmaker, a movie like The Godfather will think it is an unparalleled work, and the influence of cultural background is minimal.
It is actually very irresponsible to talk about cultural conflicts and different styles: the same can be said for films from different countries, the same can be said for films from different regions, and the same can be said for films by different people in different periods.
The word culture is too generalized and covers too many things, it becomes a big basket, and everything can be put in it. Blaming cultural differences for poor filmmaking is a bit of a hooligan style.
If Americans like simple and rough, don't they like Hong Kong movies? It doesn't matter whether it's a gun battle or a knife attack; is it bad for Hong Kong? Speaking of which, the aesthetics of violence in John Woo Yu-Sen's movies should be admired and studied by Europeans and Americans. Who dares to say that simple and crude has no market in the East?
But to say that people from the East like introverted culture - the Godfather movie is the most classic movie recognized by Americans. Isn't that movie a slow pace? From performance to lines, soundtrack, connotation, and any aspect, is there any movie that dares to claim it can compare with the godfather?
Even if it is a work about undercover agents, the TV series "The Wire" is also about undercover agents. What kind of praise has it received? With these things, who dares to say that the bad movie is all due to the style?
Without further ado, it comes down to cultural differences.
In Levi's view, there is no need to pay attention to culture: a good film must express the commonality of human nature, not the culture of a local area.
All cultures have differences, but all cultures also have commonalities. This kind of commonality is the human nature of all human beings, and how to shoot these is the movie's focus.
Human nature is common; everyone swears in the street and fights. Maybe the way of doing is different, but everyone does it. None of these things are the biggest issues that make the difference.
The biggest problem, in fact, is one thing, to put it bluntly: the movie's filming location.
Scorsese's positioning of this movie is not good: he has been famous all his life, and if a film is good or bad, it is unlikely to affect his name anymore. Not winning an Oscar is a small regret for him, so he only needs to shoot something to cater to the Oscar judges.
His quick success mentality ruined the movie - actually, this movie could have been made better.
The movie name 'The Departed' means a dead person. It also means a lost person or even a struggling person. This doesn't mean you are dead if you lose your name; this is a story of two struggling people. Compared to the original name Infernal Affairs, this is actually better.
It's just that Scorsese didn't pay too much attention to reflecting the emotions of the characters when he made the movie. The script wasn't good enough, and he didn't give the two actors enough roles to express their emotions. It can be said that he failed to deal with it, but this is also inevitable for him to win the award.
It's not so much the cultural conflict that caused the American version of Infernal Affairs to be so bad; it's better to say that it is the practice of insisting on changing a movie that focuses on suspense and psychological warfare into an old-fashioned gangster movie that ruined this movie.
Movies have a style problem. If the style of a movie is forcibly distorted, the taste of the movie will naturally change.
After all, this has to be a Scorsese-style movie for a figure like Scorsese to win an award for many years - Scorsese's movie rhythm must be faster, and Scorsese's films have always been keen to show the characteristics of gangster life.
There must be more shots of Nicholson in the movie to meet the conventions of his movies. Swearing, violence, simplicity, and rudeness are also his characteristics, and they must be shown.
In addition, one of the problems in American movies is that some scenes must be allocated to women. These few must come down, and the level of screenwriting is not high, so he is writing a story about a gangster movie, and he doesn't want to dig deeper to find out the struggles of the two people.
And Levi always speculates others maliciously: Scorsese made this movie, after all, to win an Oscar. For this award, he needs to showcase his directing talent rather than the actor's superb acting skills. It's not impossible for him to dig deep into the inner world of two people, but in that way, the actor's performance becomes the focus, and it's easy to overwhelm the judges, making people remember the actor's performance, not the director's level.
Therefore, Scorsese would rather spend a week filming a mouse crawling than give the actors more shots. His purpose is to deepen his story's theme rather than to provide the two protagonists more depth. If the actor is overly highlighted, it will be difficult for him. Anyway, the mouse will not win the Oscar, so just pat the mouse.
Moreover, even if these things are not considered and only consider the movie itself, if you think about it carefully, Levi also feels that it is difficult for Scorsese to make this movie the theme of the original work.
From the beginning to the end, the theme of Infernal Affairs is just a person's confusion and helplessness, but Scorsese's favorite theme is fighting against fate.
These two themes are completely incompatible.
Let a person who is full of fighting spirit and has been fighting against fate all his life go to shoot a movie that reflects helplessness and confusion. Can it be really feasible?
From the beginning to the end, this can be said to be Scorsese's utilitarian work, but the director's level is too high; even if it is utilitarian, it can still be convincing.
It's a pity to shoot such a good subject. If you don't make those style changes to suit the judges, you can just shoot a movie you want. The movie's main selling point is the suspense, the struggle of the characters, and the confrontation between the police and the robbers. Is it possible to make a good movie?
This is why Levi wants to make this movie: what he wants more is a movie that shows the flavor of the original work rather than an adapted story that is a mess. What he wants to show is the struggle between the police and the robbers undercover instead of shooting a simple gangster story like Scorsese.
It's not a culture clash; it's a matter of shooting style. Talking about culture is the work of extremely boring people.
Levi is a director. He only knows that different shooting techniques can make the same story different. Since he wanted to shoot this movie, he had to make the movie different.
Only by distributing more perspectives to both the police and the robbers at the same time can the involuntary characteristics of everyone in the story be revealed. A more depressing and tense background can be created if the two-hero model is used well.
Slow down the rhythm and increase the content of the actors' performances so that the audience can have time to think; instead of watching the gangsters fight nervously along the way, the movie can have a greater depth.
In some places, it can be more shocking when it is used to express profound scenes. Pay more attention to the lines, the context is connected, the deep meaning is linked to each other, and the movie itself can make a greater difference...
Levi wants to see a better movie and hopes he can shoot the film better.
In order to make the original style of the movie more intense, he went to find the original authors in Hong Kong and asked them to start writing the movie script.
It stands to reason that they just have an idea now, and Levi can write it himself. But Levi is worried that it will make the script lose a lot of flavor, and if he can't control it well, it will be meaningless.
Anyway, it's not difficult for him to ask them to buy the script now since he can shoot by himself and also make them so happy.
As for the fact that Martin Scorsese won the Oscar for this film, without it, Scorsese might not have won the award, Levi didn't bother to care about it. Martin Scorsese has been wooing Oscars since the Gangs of New York. With his status in the world, as long as he shoots a similar movie, he can always win the award. Without this one, just find another one.
Moreover, he even felt that if Martin Scorsese could not win an award, it might not be a bad thing — this is one of the four most famous directors in Hollywood, a veteran director of more than 30 years, and the number one achievement among living Hollywood directors. Even among his disciples, there are quite a few Oscar winners. If such a person does not win the best director in his life, he wins the Lifetime Achievement Award first, so it can be regarded as a wonderful satire on the Hollywood awards system.
Such a scene might be quite interesting.
*****
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Scott DePaepe
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