Global Lords: I Have Information System

[Anti-theft Chapter, old time refresh]

To explore the reasons, on one hand, there are differences in the content form between film and literature itself. On the other hand, Zhang Ailing’s writing is excessively extravagant. Even if the presentation and arrangement of rooms in the film are exquisite, even if the hillside mansions are splendid, there is still a sense of not being quite reached. Of course, the rapid transitions of scenes make it inevitable for audiences to overlook some details, which is a factor to consider.

Image source: Sina Weibo @Film First Incense official account

To Zhang Ailing’s book fans, everyone has their own Ge Weilong and Qiao Qiao in mind that no matter how the director films, it cannot satisfy.

To ordinary audiences, the original work talks about ”brothel domesticity,” the descent of beautiful women in a glamorous city, a dilemma and struggle that is both forced and voluntary. So, when things of that era are placed in today’s environment for film adaptation, dismantling the literary barriers and confronting the Market, ordinary audiences find it difficult to empathize with the characters and may not understand some of the characters’ choices.

The story background of ”First Incense” is bleak. It’s not merely a story of a woman falling in love with a scumbag; it tells more of the pre-war reality of Hong Kong.

Brothel literature has a function of social critique, and it’s this part that the film has weakened, causing it strangely to turn towards ”unrequited love, youthful pain literature, occasionally seeming like a comedy film.”

Books are difficult to understand, films are difficult to make

Zhang Ailing’s works are hard to film, but still, a large number of adaptations emerge because directors are willing to film, and readers want to watch. Xu Anhua is the one who keeps trying and learning from mistakes.

At the 77th Venice Film Festival, Xu Anhua was awarded a lifetime achievement award, as the world’s first female director to receive this honor. However, the biggest controversy she faced was ”not filming Zhang Ailing well,” this evaluation lingered around her film career like a Nightmare.

In the 1980s, while filming ”Love of the City,” Xu Anhua encountered casting Confusion in public opinion.

Chow Yun-fat played Fan Liuyuan, and Miao Qianren played Bai Liusu, criticized by film fans for miscasting compared to the original novel. Even in Xu Anhua’s later autobiography, she mentioned, ”Miao Qianren’s dramatic performance was poor, and Chow was too. Although both are excellent actors, they are film actors, not dramatic actors. Actually, the most attractive part of ’Love of the City’ is the rivalry between the two protagonists; their dynamic performance should dominate the whole play. Actors need to be excellent dramatic roles, but the two are very low-key actors. Acting is very ordinary; doing this play doesn’t work.”

At the time, Xu Anhua hadn’t left Shaw Brothers, so ”Love of the City” from casting to filming was constantly intervened by the company.

In 1997, she challenged ”Half a Lifetime’s Fate” again, with a box office of over 7.5 million Hong Kong dollars, ranking 26th in box office sales that year. Compared to ”Love of the City” which had 8.13 million, at least in terms of box office, it wasn’t seen as a comeback for Xu Anhua.

Image source: Sina Weibo @1905 Movie official account

So it’s conceivable that ”First Incense” was not favored from the start, and marketing even used a bottom-up reverse marketing to create buzz.

Netizens once moved the TikTok promotional video of ”First Incense” to Weibo, ridiculing ”First Incense” as youthful pain literature, and explaining in the comments below, ”This isn’t really a spoof; it’s officially released by First Incense.”

In the movie, one of the two businessmen standing on the balcony at the tea party in Madam Liang’s home is cameoed by the famous Zhang Ailing research scholar Xu Zidong.

In past interviews, Xu Zidong said Zhang Ailing’s novels are difficult to film because critics and professional readers can read very complex information in the works. In short, this complex information is difficult to present through films. Simultaneously, Zhang Ailing’s works themselves are not suitable as entertainment for mass consumption.

Screenwriter Wang Anyi in a recent ”Southern Weekend” interview said the biggest difficulty in adapting Zhang Ailing is the difference in eras between the two, and also a difference in worldviews.

She mentioned, ”It’s hard to adapt Zhang Ailing; the hidden things are too much, requiring me to conjecture, especially across generations. I grew up under the influence of left-wing thought; understanding her is still a bit difficult.”

Zhang Ailing excels in leaving blank spaces in her writing. The narrative of ”First Incense” is detailed at the front and concise at the end. To meet the needs of a film, the screenwriter must enrich the content. Wang Anyi frankly said that she kept most of the dialogue, slightly deriving in places that are vague. This conservative approach may also be further proof of the difficulty of adapting Zhang Ailing’s works.

Image source: Sina Weibo @Film First Incense official account

In 2018, Xu Anhua invited Wang Anyi to be the screenwriter for ”First Incense,” mentioning her original intent for filming this movie: ”I just want to make a love film. I’ve reached this Age, I’ve never truly loved properly, you must let me love once.”

The English name of ”First Incense” is ”Love after love.” The movie’s character posters bear the promotional tagline ”Give everything, love one person.” From the start, the conception by the director and creative team seems to be just a pure love film, not what audiences expect as a recreation of Zhang Ailing’s world.

And from the moment the cinema lights go out, it’s the beginning of a Misreading.

However, this is both a merit and a flaw.

In order to accommodate all the dialogue and plot, the pace of the first half of the film is somewhat fast. Additionally, the film clings too tightly to the original work, with the first half of the story’s plot relying heavily on dialogue to advance, yet relying solely on dialogue tends to remain on the surface.