In the past few years, there have been a lot of movies that have been made in China.
Therefore, after more than a decade of development, domestic movies have gradually found their own way of doing things on the path of incongruity. This method has been gradually recognized by the general audience.
Of course, the reason for this approach is the scope of the framework of western films and TV dramas, but we have grasped what we need to value or what is suitable for us according to the local conditions. This thing is called story.
The essential difference between Eastern and Western film and television culture is whether it is rational or emotional. The East focuses on the building up of emotions, while the West is more concerned with the integrity of the story. Before the advent of movies, we had stage plays, we had drama, and in the West we had dramas.
The emotional expressions that theater focuses on and the truthfulness that drama focuses on are complementary to each other. As a result, theater was more of an eclectic genre, which was seen more often on a daily basis and enjoyed by the public. There are very few full-length plays, and in contrast to plays, dramas are essentially complete storytelling.
As Western culture began to spread around the world, the tide of drama gradually overtook the theater. So much so, that in the industrial development of modern cinema, storytelling gradually overwhelmed consciousness.
As a result, the art film became essentially a niche. The feature film, on the other hand, has become very popular. In the beginning of the development of Chinese films, we borrowed the logic of the West, but if we want to add some Eastern traditions into this logic, it is naturally unnatural.
Therefore, if you want to follow the existing trend, you have to find something that suits you. In the past, people in domestic movies advocated commercial logic, high risk, high return, investment, and naturally, high return. However, this logic has been more and more despised in recent years.
We can see that most of the movies and TV shows with big production name are not able to live longer. In the “voting” of the audiences, most of these works lost miserably.
On the contrary, some of the small-budget films have been unexpectedly successful. As a result, many films and TV shows have to start rethinking their production. Do we want a well-made masterpiece, or do we want to follow plain domestic logic?
Obviously, more and more films and TV shows are choosing the latter. It is the national value of simplicity to make the best use of all the elements that are already there. Therefore, with this value in mind, today I would like to recommend this movie as a reference.
Parallel Forest is a work similar to “Cruise Terror,” “Sins of Time” and “The Butterfly Effect,” where time and space are the dominant cores. Of course, there are many such examples.
However, it is true that there are not many works that have been made in China. The reason why this film deserves to be recommended is simply because it has done everything it was supposed to do, and it has finally gained acclaim. It has also shown all audiences that there is a way out for Chinese movies, and that there is still room for us to play without big investments and big productions.
How small the cost of Parallel Forest was: three actors, a villa, a limited forest. However, in such a scenario, we can make an already rotten story more vivid, which depends on the creator’s ability to borrow various elements.
First, naturally, there is the construction of a story with limited elements. With limited scenes, either a logically rigorous story is needed as the core, or the framework can be borrowed from a time-travel story.
The director is smart, and it is too difficult for a very logical and rigorous story to unfold through three people, and all stories that unfold in a limited space basically require more actors.
If the story can’t be told in space, it can be told through time. Thus, the concept of time and space is applied. The film also unfolds under this logical structure, and the end result is quite good. In addition, when we focus on the integrity of the various travel concepts, it naturally weakens the emotional conflict of the protagonists in the story itself, which the film does well enough.
Although the spatial concept is more complete than in films on the topic of “Terror Cruise”, the author, in abandoning these completenesses, however, strengthens the emotional conflict, and this strengthening of the conflict somewhat diverts the audience’s attention from the narrative logic and spatial structure. Thus, the focus is thoroughly on the characters’ emotional conflicts.
And ultimately, the core of humanity needs such emotional conflict. In doing so, the director kills two birds with one stone. He successfully avoids his own weaknesses while at the same time shifting the audience’s attention to his own strengths, which is very clever and can give some inspiration to many Chinese directors who want to make small-budget movies in the future.
In short, the film makes up for its weak logical structure by strengthening its sensibility. Overall, the film provides a complete viewing experience, and at the same time indicates the core meaning of the film.
With these trade-offs, this small-budget film has been able to make its mark. Cost is not a limiting factor, but the key to a successful film is to make the most of all the elements it possesses.
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