Movie Master

Brian-Nelson (Brain-Nelson), this is an extremely unfamiliar name, even after searching his mind twice, he still has no impression; however, the script written by Brian left Lance A very deep impression.

Fruit candy.

In fact, the work Hard Candy is not well-known, and many people know this work because of Ellen Page. After Allen became popular with Juno, many people noticed Hard Candy-this work successfully allowed Allen to leave the previously active Canadian film and television circle and enter Hollywood.

Objectively speaking, Fruit Candy has never attracted wide-scale attention. During its release, it did not attract a response from the box office, and it did not achieve more results in the video rental market after it was released. Even in independent film holy places such as the Sundance Film Festival and the American Independent Spirit Awards, it failed to attract the attention of producers; even film critics paid very limited attention to this work, and it was not received by IMDB. Fanatical pursuit.

But is this work really that ordinary? of course not.

In the last life, Lance discovered this work by accident in a DVD rental shop after many years of its release, not because of Allen, but because of the very distinctive poster, a little girl wearing a red cap T On the mousetrap, the ironic implication of black horror is presented in front of the eyes through the paper. Out of curiosity, Lance decided to rent it home to have a look, and only then discovered this masterpiece with a unique style.

Hard Candy is an Internet term, Hard-Candy, referring to underage girls. This is the story of an underage girl.

A 14-year-old girl and a 32-year-old photographer decided to meet in a coffee shop after chatting for a while on the Internet. Although the two were very different in age, they chatted and laughed, creating chemistry reaction, and then the girl followed the photographer back home. But in fact, the photographer was a pedophile, and one of the girl's friends disappeared after meeting the photographer, so the girl decided to discover the truth of the matter single-handedly, and with her own The way to punish this lover/child/addiction-castration.

This story is very scary, but very interesting, because it is always difficult to determine who is the hunter and who is the prey; it is also difficult to distinguish who is good and who is evil. The film uses an almost absurd black technique to constantly exchange the identities of the perpetrator and the victim, which seriously challenges the audience's moral bottom line and secular concepts.

Lance later conducted research on the creation background of this work, and the creator's inspiration came from real Japanese cases. Schoolgirls go after older men seeking online dates with underage girls, and once a girl makes contact online, she and her friends set up an ambush at a dating site. This also means that this is not a fantasy, but a social reality, but the movie gives it more drama.

This reminded Lance of the movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the original novel. In the movie, the part where the girl was raped/raped was mentioned, but neither the Swedish original version nor the American version spent a lot of ink and ink to describe it. Later, the girl used fishing methods to trick the other party again, but in the end she successfully fought back. , taught the other party severely in his own way, and made the other party lose the ability to rape/rape again.

From a legal point of view, such behavior is wrong, and private revenge will only lead to endless troubles; but from a moral point of view, in the 21st century, many countries and regions, many private groups, including many social fields, and Violence against violence, an eye for an eye is still the unique law of survival.

Especially the core topic discussed in Fruit Candy: fetishism/pedophilia.

It is precisely because minors do not have the ability to resist or even appeal, so adult guardians and the society are required to supervise, control, and punish them. In the European and American legal systems, cases involving minors are extremely sensitive. But the reality is that most minors cannot tell their inner secrets, or adults refuse to believe it, or minors cannot find evidence to defend themselves. For similar cases, you can refer to the Boston Globe earlier this year. ’ That sensational report around the world.

So, this brings the question back to Lance's core idea in creating the crime trilogy: social indifference, is this a crime?

Of course, the issues explored by Hard Candies are not as profound, and the angles are also different. What this work really discusses is the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim, the change and movement of the initiative between the two protagonists, which leads to the constant change of positions of the perpetrator and the victim, and the challenge to moral nerves has also become more and more sensitive/sensitivity.

The controversy aroused by this work is: Love/pedophilia should indeed be punished, but shouldn’t the underage girl’s dehumanizing torture be punished? This struggle of human nature has become an enduring hot topic among movie fans.

In the last life, Lance also thought in the same way. His reflections on crime, human nature, morality, and lynching were surging after watching the movie; but in this life, he experienced more precipitation and experienced the crime trilogy. However, Lance began to question himself. Is this really the core idea of ​​the film?

Shouldn't the real theme of the movie be, after the criminal is put on trial, which one is more effective, physical punishment or mental punishment? Or to take a step closer, is physical pain or mental fear really effective in curbing crime? So, what role do the alienation, loneliness and fear caused by social indifference play in the criminal process?

Hard Candy is not and should not be a continuation of the crime trilogy. It starts from a single individual case to discuss the nature of crime in depth, as well as social causes, personal psychological causes, and so on. There is no criticism, no scrutiny, no reflection, it is more like a kind of self-discussion and exploration. If the crime trilogy is in the same strain, then Hard Fruit returns to the original point, standing in another position, from a completely different perspective. Different perspectives to interpret the same social problem.

But unfortunately, from the script of the previous life, it can be seen that Bryan should also be a screenwriter with a background in stage plays. The film describes a lot of inner changes and mental states of the two leading actors, as if the camera is a stage. But he failed to dig and explore the core of these themes in depth, as if he was just satisfied with creating a psychological thriller movie.

Of course, the director is also one of the important reasons.

David-Slade, the little-known director of Hard Candy, made his feature-length debut and went on to direct Thirty Pole Nights and The Twilight Saga: Moonlight. Food and other works, but more often still active in the field of TV dramas. Hannibal is his work.

It can be seen from the list of his works that he is very good at handling details and tension, creating a thrilling atmosphere, and outlining aesthetic violence, and he has a good attainment in thriller action movies. This is also the source of the final style of the Hard Fruit Candy in the previous life.

However, David is not good at shaping characters, which lost a lot of the essence of Bryan's script, and also lost opportunities for further excavation and sublimation; The grasp of the plot makes the story a little thinner, and also loses the motivation, psychology, and portrayal of the characters, resulting in only horror and fear after watching the movie, but less reflection.

It can be said that this is almost a common problem of all horror movies or horror movies. When Lance was filming Murder with a Borrowed Knife, in order to portray the characters, he sacrificed the deliberate creation of a thrilling atmosphere. Instead, he used the lights to create a sense of alienation and coldness. This also has a price. It is not horrifying, but always has a sense of depressive explosion; correspondingly, it also makes the movie deeper and more shocking.

There are gains and losses.

Hard Fruit Candy is a good work. The idea of ​​the script, the structure of the stage play, the director's use of light and rhythm, the effect of the horror atmosphere, etc., are enough to impress the audience, but it is only That's all. It can be seen from the achievements of the film that the box office, film critics, and audiences are not too enthusiastic.

Ten years after Hard Candy was released, it has actually caused a lot of repercussions in the rental market. The number of people who rated it on IMDB has reached 120,000, which shows that the film is attractive and has caused a lot of controversy; But the score was always up and down, and no miracle could be created.

When Lance saw Hard Candy on the blacklist, the first thought in his mind was: what would it look like if I shot it?

After this idea came up, Lance couldn't stop. Not only did he start thinking about how he would modify the script, how to use the lines to shape the characters, and how to create the atmosphere through the actors' performances, He hopes to distinguish it from Murder with a Borrowing Knife and use more light on Thriller; at the same time, he also began to think that in such a small stage space-more than three-quarters of the entire film is spent on Happening in the same room, how to adjust the camera, how to use the narrow space to highlight the sense of confrontation between the two people, this brought Lance back to the time when he was off-Broadway in his last life...

Compared with Queen, Fruit Candy is a purer stage script, but also more interesting, closer to Lance's ideas, and most importantly, inspired Lance's endless creative inspiration.

Thinking of this, Lance sat up straight suddenly, startling the three people on the opposite side, he directly picked up his mobile phone and dialed Franklin, skipping the courtesy link, 'Hard Candy' is on the blacklist. ...Uh, for the work of No. 77, can you fax me the script?