“My Racing Dad and Me” shows the ambition of cutting-edge directors

Participate in the Kaohsiung premiere of “My Racing Dad and Me” on September 5th. Thanks to the Kaohsiung City Cultural Bureau for inviting me to watch the movie. This is Taiwan’s first film with a rally as the background. It is a niche subject that is difficult to shoot well, and it also shows the director’s ambition. (no thunder)

The second feature film of the young director Zhang Shuwei challenges such a difficult theme, and it is a domestic film. I dare not expect too much, but the overall performance is a pass. This is actually quite rare.

My impression of Wen Shenghao is still that of the Internet meme “But Rui Fan” that has been circulating for many years in “The Sharp Wife” thirteen years ago. This time he plays Zhou Dalong, a lame security guard who is unkempt and has no family responsibilities. Because of a call from the social bureau, he suddenly has an extra son to live with him. It is in stark contrast to the glamorous and handsome characters in the past. His performance is good, and he should be the best of all the actors in this film.

Child star Chen Shaohui plays Zhou Dalong’s precocious son Yu Dong, and Chen Zeyao plays the former rally driver A Jun that their father and son meet by chance. They are both competent and able to lead the audience into the story.

It’s a pity that the character creation is still a bit flat. But this is not an actor’s problem, it is a director’s narrative problem. For example, Zhou Dalong’s past work and family experience brought him to his current character and situation, but only in the second half of the film did he explain a little bit. If brought in from the beginning, the characters themselves and the parent-child relationship will be more vivid and believable.

The problems of Zhou Yudong and Ah Jun are also similar. The other supporting characters are more flat. Therefore, the interaction between the characters when watching the movie inevitably makes people feel a little awkward, but it does not affect the integrity of the movie and the credibility of the story.

The story and narration are okay. It’s an interesting, entertaining story. There are not many pictures of the rally (after all, it is the background in this story, and the foreground is the parent-child relationship), but the Meishan 36 bends are used as the track, which also has a little more real texture.

The two axes of “parent-child” and “racing” are connected by an outsider. It’s the usual narrative of a parent-child relationship going from strange to familiar, from conflict to reconciliation, only in this film the car is chosen. The subject of racing certainly has contributions, just not unique ones. You will feel that any competition can help the characters and the story to advance, such as the fun competition in the rainy winter school sports meeting.

On the other hand, this movie is actually more like a “promotional rally”. All the characters and all the stories set off the reality of the last rally in the film, which accounts for a small proportion of the film. Just from this point of view, some of the intensity of the game is not enough.

So the two axes are in an awkward balance. Of course, this is just like what I said at the beginning, it is the director’s ambition. He could choose a field with less trouble, but he chose this one. I rushed in and took pictures, and I was able to pass, which is already very good.

Another small issue is splicing. The narrative of the movie is in chronological order, and the audience’s memories will gradually connect and stack. Some words are said again, and the picture appears again, which seems redundant. If the director has more confidence in the audience and boldly cuts more, the movie will be smoother.

More than 70% of the film’s scenes (stories other than the competition) were filmed in Kaohsiung, and Kaohsiung people watched it very kindly. There is another event this time: on the first three days of the official release (9/8~9/10), watch the movie in Kaohsiung theaters, and the ticket price is only 160 yuan.

“My Racing Dad and Me” just took over the momentum of the recent “Sandao Monkey’s Life”. It’s an interesting coincidence, hopefully it will help the box office.

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