Teenage You” tells a good story. The main background of the story is the college entrance examination. As a narrative timeline, we can understand the development of the story from four time points: before, during, and after the college entrance exams, and the time change. And the eye-catching countdown on the blackboard, the huge banners hanging on the campus, the class teacher’s bitter encouragement, the exciting pledge on the playground – these very immersive mnemonic symbols can almost take the teenagers who are preparing for the college entrance exam, the youths who have passed the college entrance exam, and the middle-aged youths who have taken the college entrance exam, each hit, all in one.
The second level of narrative background is school bullying. In the past few years, it has been a hot topic in society, and many films and dramas have tried to portray this realistic subject, but because the cut is too shallow or pompous, it has not received much response. The story is completely different, as it shows almost every aspect of the school bullying phenomenon in a panoramic way.
The whole story, the core of which revolves around the bully’s various situations, develops from pouring red ink on the classroom bench to the after-school roundup, from volleyball strikes in gymnastics class to deliberately pushing people in the stairwell, from three people chasing and shouting in the street to gangsters joining the recording of nude videos on the Internet, from the beginning of one life to the end of another, layers and layers of escalating school bloodshed. The violence, from beginning to end, is heart-wrenching.
On the periphery of the school bullying incident, the director also interspersed a series of social characters, such as the expelled class teacher, the exasperated working father in the hallway of the school building, the bully’s glamorous parents, the persecuted single mother who is hiding because of selling counterfeit goods, the father who is an e-commerce boss, and the new and old police officers of the police station task force, who together constitute a vivid floating world picture of the current society.
The third layer is teenage romance.
Since the “blue door” “nine descending winds” “to our eventually departed youth” “you at the same table”, this type of campus theme of film and television drama to a bit of a flood, even to the point of making people snicker. But the two main characters of “Teenage You”, Chen Nian and Xiao Bei’s emotional development vein, completely break through the concept of campus romance. In the whole story development process, their emotions have been changing, in the flow, at first because the kind Chen Nian happened to meet the street was beaten up Xiao Bei, lend a helping hand; later because Chen Nian’s mother fake incident, isolated Chen Nian thought of Xiao Bei; later because Chen Nian can not stand the bullying, seeking protection from Xiao Bei, and slowly become grateful, dependence, and even a promise of kindness; finally, on a murder case, Chen Nian and Xiao Bei, the two main characters of the “teenage you”. Finally, in a murder case, they began to cut their hair to establish an alliance, life and death together.
This series of events paved the way for Chen Nian and Xiao Bei’s love affair, not because of the flowering season, the kind of hormonal attraction of handsome and beautiful girls, the kind of ignorant temptation and response, but because of mutual brokenness, mutual warmth, because they depend on each other, each to become, which makes them together – their fate of chance encounter, acquaintance, superposition There is a sense of watery, natural finality.
The fourth layer is juvenile crime detection.
This line has been dormant, and finally revealed at the climax, pushing the story to a sobering and emotional ending, which is both sensible and unexpected.
In short, from the above four levels of view, “Teenage You” is a good story that combines four dimensions: universal topics, social hotspots, suspenseful cases and school romance. The whole story is not only extremely layered, but each level is integrated and supported by each other from beginning to end.
Compared to “Over Spring”, “Teenage You” involves a wider social aspect, more factors behind the characters, and a deeper touch of human nature, so that the film’s capacity becomes broader and more diversified accordingly, and the portrayal of the theme is fuller and more touching.
Secondly, “Teenage You” gives a good performance. It’s no doubt that a good story needs a good performance to interpret. 27-year-old Zhou Dongyu plays this 17-year-old high school student who is underage and subject to school bullying, most likely the most stunning and touching role this year. The story is layered to match the multiple identities of the characters.
The character of course refers to Chen Nian, played by Zhou Dongyu. She is a high-achieving repetition student; a good girl from a single-parent family; a weak girl who is bullied; a youthful girl pursued by social punks; a suspect interrogated by the police; a young woman in love; a teacher at a training institute whose fate has been rewritten by mistake.
Combining these identities, in the scenes with teachers, classmates, bullying girls, mothers, punks, police, and students, Zhou Dongyu copes with the scenes on many occasions and at different levels, showing either calmness, nervousness, shyness, fear, vulnerability, despair, remorse, patience, determination, tenderness, sweetness, hysteria, or relief, every emotion, every hint, and every nerve. Every emotion, every expression, every nerve, like the second hand of a tourbillon watch, is precisely portrayed by her.
Zhou Dongyu’s face, the face of the human beast, the face of the fireworks, the face that looks up to the stars but soaks in the gutter, was countless times close-up camera, focus, capture, and therefore, in the big screen erupted like a volcano, like a tidal wave of energy, may make many viewers for the amazement, or even dazzled, so much so that after watching the whole story, do not know how to describe her that there is like a divine gift good.
In other words, if the role of Chen Nian had been played by Zhou Xun twenty years ago, I wonder if she could have performed this feeling. I had a crush on her “Suzhou River” and felt that her performance, too, was as good as a godsend. But even the impeccable Zhou Xun has never acted as intensively as Chen Nian’s crying scenes in “Teenage You”.
The face of the death of her best friend Xiaodie, her hidden hatred and anger tears; the face of street punks fist-fighting, she cried in fear and helplessness; the face of lonely and helpless home and their own mother, she cried with tears and smiles; the face of sudden bullying, she cried in fear; the face of Xiao Bei’s heart and love, she cried in pain; when the police told her that Xiao Bei was sentenced to death, she was furious, furious and crying. When all the baggage is removed and she faces him in prison openly, she cries with gusto. These weeping scenes are moving, heartbreaking, and even a mixture of flavors. Or rather, that cry, let you and I feel the five flavors of life are hidden in it.
