The Best Director

Chapter 368: Chapter 368: Awesome! (Requesting Monthly Pass)

“Where do you all come from?”

The youthful voice echoed throughout 3845 North American Cinemas, perfectly blending with the lively music and the children’s giggles and laughters, creating a vision on screen that directly touched the hearts of the audience. The slightly melancholic end music abruptly stopped the laughter of the children, and a single frame appeared on the big screen with white text on a black background: “DIRECTED BY: YOUNG-WANG.” As the thunderous applause erupted suddenly, the screen followed with: “WRITTEN BY: YOUNG-WANG & JOSS WHEDON.”

After the director and writer credits rolled, the full cast and crew credits began to scroll upwards. Then the theme song “Serenity,” which was, according to the legend, composed by Joss Whedon, with lyrics by Wang Yang, performed by Michael Pitt, and sung by Robert Downey Jr., entered. Downey’s emotionally charged voice, along with the pleasant melody, was indeed delightful to hear, but the audience’s applause almost drowned out the song. People clapped vigorously, incessantly cheering and shouting praises: “Incredible!!”, “This is the best movie of the year!”, “All hail, Top-Captain!!”…

All the moviegoers who had been looking forward to it got what they wanted from “Firefly”—and some things they didn’t quite want. At the sight of little Ellie’s pure smile, many in the audience felt a warmness in their eyes; Evelyn even sobbed out loud, finally understanding what the marvelous Wang Yang meant by “a touch of sorrow.” Little girls like Kolo, Wash, Cyclone… it was just too desolate and oppressive!

“FUCK.” Natalie felt a storm of emotions, yet they were beautifully depicted enough to be framed as art! Bringing a cowboy into an Eastern mood, isn’t that remarkable? Isn’t being dashing remarkable? And just like that, the Top-Captain dies! The thought itself made her feel depressed. She wiped her slightly moist eyes; the character was truly too MAN and too striking! Could that guy be aiming to take on all the acting jobs himself? She cursed softly again, “FUCK.” Yet, this movie seemed simple but was actually very profound, and there were parts she still couldn’t understand, such as which Tang poem was he referring to?

Having left home young, one returns old; the local accent is unchanged, while the hair at the temples has thinned. Children meet and do not recognize each other, laughing and asking the guest from where he comes. As a student deeply in love with ancient Chinese poetry, Gejir suddenly had an epiphany. Isn’t it? He immediately started clapping and excitedly screaming, “Oh my God! This is amazing!” Other attentive audience members who pondered and were knowledgeable about Tang poetry also gradually recognized the distinct yet lucid silhouette of this poem, which unexpectedly became an iconic scene destined for cinematic history!

“Clap, clap, clap!” The fervent applause in the theater had already lasted a minute, and people, whether acquaintances or not, talked loudly to each other, praising the movie they had just seen. This was a rare occurrence, only typically observed in theaters playing classic movies. George Lucas, seated among the audience, was also clapping. Indeed, this was an absolutely fantastic sci-fi masterpiece, thrilling and meaningful. Reflecting on the various criticisms that the “Star Wars Prequel” series faced, he suddenly felt a desire to retire and return to teaching at the University of Southern California…

Everything was too astounding! From beginning to end, particularly the battle at New Shanxi was incomparable! In the IMAX theater, Robert Zemeckis applauded silently, giving his compliments, “You did great, Yang!” He even thought, “This is what an IMAX movie should be!” The moment he closed his eyes, all those unforgettable, classic scenes from the movie came to mind — not to mention the beautiful scenery shots, Serenity swooping with the Reavers toward the Alliance fleet, Serenity fluttering through the chaos of battle like a leaf in the wind, the appearance of the Independent Firefly fleet, Cyclone landing on the runway… He could even hum the tune of the background music.

Some big-budget movie scenes indeed feel grand and beautiful while watching, but they are forgotten as soon as you walk out of the cinema; others are remembered for a long time, and whenever recalled, they always evoke an emotional response, savoring the shock and emotion felt at the moment.

Because those scenes are imbued with emotion, not just simple stacking of special effects, zooming in on sights. “Firefly” undoubtedly set a perfect example: emotion, imagery, and music merged into one, with both exhilaration and sadness, right up until the last scene of the end credits. This made the film highly artistic while also being highly entertaining and visually delightful.

“Clap, clap, clap!” In the bustling AMC CityWalk theater, Clair smiled broadly as she clapped fervently with everyone, tears welling up in her eyes, moved by “Firefly” and proud of her idol, the magical Wang Yang. Tonight, he delivered those bastards a knockout punch! This is Cowboy + East + Sci-Fi!

The expansive auditorium was submerged in applause; on the 8-foot-tall giant screen, the credits were still rolling. The cast and crew of “Firefly,” along with their families and partners in the front rows, stood up clapping happily and contentedly, hugging each other in celebration, receiving praise from everyone.

“Thank you! Thank you!” Wang Yang kept expressing his gratitude to colleagues, the audience, and friends; his heart was beating intensely, full to the brim with excitement. Could it be that these cheers and applause were making him so happy he was almost at a loss? They weren’t just being polite for the premiere, were they? They really liked it, right? As he moved about, he laughed and playfully punched Heath: “Thank you! This isn’t a blue glove’s kind of thank you, thanks…” Heath Ledger also beamed with laughter: “Me too, thank you!” Little Robert Downey Jr. approached with open arms and a laugh: “Hey director! I’ve realized the handsomest guy in the movie is you! Wow!”…

Jessica gently patted her belly and continued to applaud with both hands. Watching all this, his radiant smile, and realizing that she surely had a brilliant performance of her own, she felt immensely happy, almost sighing with joy. “Firefly” would definitely be a great success! There were just some parts she didn’t quite understand yet.

In North America, the applause in various cinemas lasted a long time—one minute, two minutes, three minutes—some places didn’t stop until the entire end credits had rolled. Then came even more excitement: “Wow, unbelievable!” “I can’t wait to own the DVD!” The film had just ended, and the audience’s reflections were just beginning! Although Jaden Smith had a cameo in the end of “Firefly” without any fight scenes, he kept swinging his fists and kicking: “I want to learn kung fu, ah ah ah! The master is too cool! I want to be a captain!” This caught the attention of those around, and Will Smith was immediately recognized by the audience, “Oh, Smith!”

“What’s the deal with the Amazing Yang? Is the place Serenity goes in the end Serenity Valley?” “Is the Top-Captain dead?” The audience surrounded the Smith family, not asking for autographs but inquiring about the questions that “Firefly” had raised, “Who’s the best fighter? The Blue Glove?” “Will Smith, could you ask the Amazing Yang if he has any plans for his third science fiction movie?” “Did the Blue Glove commit suicide? His death was so sudden! I thought he wouldn’t die.”…

The deaths of the main characters in “Firefly” were all very sudden and definitive, leaving some audience members wondering “That’s it?” This has always been Amazing Yang’s “way of killing,” from “Paranormal Activity” and “District 9,” to “Firefly.”

But this setup wasn’t meaningless or rushed; on the contrary, it was thought-provoking—too much so! Yet another perfect combination of commerce and art. Richard Roeper from “Ebert & Roeper” found it hard to take; he felt he needed to see it again immediately, to grasp all the fascinating detail hidden beneath the humorous, exciting, mysterious, and blood-pumping facade, in order to write a “Firefly” review that wouldn’t be a laughingstock… But was it possible to get a ticket for tonight’s showing?

The death-by-look-to-the-sky of the soldier at the far left of the screen during the Serenity Valley battle at the beginning of the film was significant. Not only did it highlight the brutality of war, but it also had a significant callback effect—it was how Cyclone died. He, too, had been standing on the left, a nod to his line, “I died in Serenity Valley 15 years ago,” and his death, of course, led Serenity to Serenity Valley.

The death of the Reaver leader was also while “looking to the sky and being shot by an Alliance fighter,” making a grand entrance and battling River only to die abruptly, no different from the Independent soldier or Cyclone. The Reaver leader considered himself to be “Superman,” “the best of humanity.”

The ferocious Blue Glove was killed with a single shot by Megan, in the same way the Reavers were dealt with. Blue Glove & Reavers, Reavers & Cyclone, Cyclone & Independent soldiers, and then Wash, who didn’t participate in the Serenity Valley battle, didn’t harm anyone, and was suddenly killed by a fighter after just landing—he played the role of an “ordinary person” in the Battle of New Shanxi. Through all these interlinked deaths, the “same way” of sudden demise unified them, regardless of their bravery or ordinariness, no matter their different beliefs and sides; no one was different.

This type of visual language indicated the director’s stance against Nazism and terrorism: there are no superhumans! Therefore, the Reaver faction was out, and Miranda was just a paper tiger and later bloodshed.

“Mal, we are all people of one world, and in this world, no one is different from a Reaver.” Could this line from the Blue Glove be what the Amazing Yang wanted to say? The Alliance represents authoritarians, hegemonists; the Blue Gloves represent extreme idealists, anarchists (the ultimate form of communism); the Independents represent anarchists, unrestrained superheroes (indistinguishable from bandits when power is out of control); and the Reavers represent extreme dictators, Nazism, and terrorism. They’re all the same?

This is a topic of opposition, perhaps simply put, whether it is justice or evil, it is always the strong imposing their will on the weak, the hegemon, the fanatic, the lackadaisical, the dictator… Their mentality in pursuing ideals, and the way of realizing these ideals, are indistinguishable. “Did anyone ever ask us? Who do you think you are!” When Mal said this, did he ask the people, did he ask the families of the Alliance soldiers if they were willing to fight the Battle of New Shanxi?

However, Top-Captain Yang spoke of something different; when the Cyclone and the blue-gloved men were about to die, there were clever psychological montages to express their “beautiful world.”

The Cyclone’s “beautiful world” was Serenity Valley without the fires of war, with weeds fluttering in the breeze, a land of freedom unconquered and unrestricted by the Alliance; the man with the blue gloves, while saying “Look, that is the most beautiful world,” was not on planet G20 but was walking towards a family of a little girl who had long been dead, the captain of a spaceship repair factory, and others he had personally killed, all of who were smiling and welcoming him as he brought light. Why? Did he not want to go to this beautiful New World?

“Hmm,” Richard Roeper pondered hard, this psychological montage perhaps was meant to be a metaphor for the blue-gloved men’s God complex, believing they could redeem the dead, and bring light, such extreme idealists! And the big boss of the Reavers also believed himself to be God.

The death of the big boss was devoid of a psychological montage, on the one hand, depicting his incompleteness, and on the other hand, resonating with the Reavers’ concept of “the world as it is now is a beautiful new world.” When Wash died, there was no psychological montage either! Yet, in the dynamic video on his gravesite, he sat in the cockpit, smiling as he toyed with a dinosaur model—Wash, in fact, was the happiest, most “ordinary” crew member of the Serenity. He wore casual clothes, had a wife, hobbies, a job, friends, so he… “The world is beautiful as it is now.”

What kind of world is it now? It’s an unpurified world, in other words, a world where human nature’s good and evil coexist; a world governed by the Alliance, in other words, a world rule by government.

Serenity Valley transformed from an overgrown wilderness into a place where plum blossoms drifted down, from desolation to a community at peace with itself. Sometimes having a stable government, people who love life, having a government is better than not having one—is that what Top-Captain Yang is trying to say? If, in the long term, the American Civil War, the America-Iraq War, could bring positive changes, with plum trees growing out of shell craters, people beginning to forget, and scars healing—is that what Top-Captain Yang is trying to convey?

Perhaps; but “Firefly” directly addresses a core aspect of the America-Iraq War: hegemony! And it depicts the post-war situation, “Believe they can make life better for people”? Initially on the train, Alliance businessmen freely insulted the cowboy toughs, and the arriving police cuffed the cowboys and took them away; on the streets, Alliance citizens dressed nicely, drove hover cars, ran shops, spaceship repair shops, while cowboy citizens rode motorcycles, set up fruit stalls—war has never been that simple.

Politically incorrect? Looking over the list of logical points, Richard Roeper suddenly burst into laughter, what cunningly clever folks! Top-Captain Yang’s ability to use props was unparalleled; sunflowers died, but the plum blossoms of the Culminating “beautiful world” of Serenity Valley were entirely stunning, yet the plum blossoms were too Chinese, too Eastern, and given his sensitive Asian identity, it was probably for this reason he had the little girl wear a rose-patterned dress (the rose is the national flower of America), and had an American little girl, as the representative, ask, “Where do you come from?”

Is America the beautiful world? “Where-Do-You-Come-From?” also subtly implies that America is a nation of immigrants. But what place is Serenity Valley? It was a stronghold of the Independent Faction in the New Star System War, and now an Alliance little girl is asking Independents where they come from? Isn’t Serenity Valley then a new point of immigration; doesn’t the nature of the war then acquire an element of invasion? Top-Captain Yang satirically and politically correctly mocked everyone, he didn’t say anything outright, yet it seems like he said a lot, seemingly still… politically correct.

From “Firefly,” one can find a politically very correct interpretation and, of course, a not-so-correct one; also an interpretation unrelated to politics, weaving this way and that, the ending scene even more complex and poignant, presenting an explosive parallelism between what came before and after, what world is truly a beautiful world?

Besides a world where good and evil coexist, Wang Yang always mentioned, “Maintain the simplicity of a child’s heart and the purity of a beautiful world.”

The Blue Gloves had long lost all their childlike innocence. With many ruthless scene details, he even shattered a little girl’s doll, killing the innocence and the beautiful new world; Top-Captain too had lost it, Mal and Zoe also had none, Wash, who loved dinosaur toys, had it, Kaylee was at the stage of about to lose it, on one hand, she had simple thoughts “951753,” but on the other hand, she feared that others would misinterpret whatever she said casually. As the girl was at the onset of adolescent infatuation, her thoughts became complicated; Simon, who set up “951753,” had it, and River, who would reach for willows and fold paper flowers from wind chimes, had it; the goofy Jayne had it too. This character didn’t have many lines in the later stages, but each line was meaningful, “I might as well play for a while,” “My mom said,” “Who cares about some beautiful new world”… It was his “toy” that exploded the Blue Gloves’ murderous, childlike-crushing gloves.

In terms of the film’s shot expression, of the seven people on Serenity, only the two who had been to war lacked childlike innocence. This is the scar that war inflicts on soldiers who have personally participated in the conflict, scars that won’t heal, perhaps they will never be able to touch the “beautiful world” again.

Therefore, when Mal and Zoe, with their hands on their guns at their waists, exchanged gazes with children playing with tops, it was so heartbreakingly impactful. Wang Yang cleverly didn’t make any direct criticism, leaving much room for thought, imagination, and left behind two main questions, how do you view the G20? Which world do you come from?

“How should I write my one-sentence film review tomorrow?” Richard Roeper furrowed his brow, feeling like his head was about to explode, as if he just scraped the tip of the iceberg of “Firefly.” He still had to check on Nietzsche’s Over-Man, clarify all the details satirizing America and China, and work out what the Serenity design meant, and if the tops had other implications… Writing a review and doing a show didn’t need this much detail, but he had fallen in love with this film and had already decided his one-sentence review would be a full score, “Another sci-fi film by Wang Yang that puts Hollywood to shame.”

“YOU-KNOW-TOO-MUCH! YOU-THINK-TOO-MUCH!”

In the spacious and elegant living room, listening to Natalie’s excited barrage of questions over the phone, Wang Yang laughed heartily while sitting on the couch, “How about you try doing the commentary work? Forget it! It’s not that complicated, keep your childlike simplicity!” He rapidly asked a few times, “Where-Do-You-Come-From? Where-Do-You-Come-From? Where-Do-You-Come-From?” He chuckled lightly, “I just wanted to create a very beautiful and poetic scene on the screen, please, don’t ruin the beauty of the ending scene!” Natalie’s tone was still not letting go, “It’s not that simple…”

“Guess what, I’m very tired, bye!” Seeing his wife walking out from the kitchen side, and moreover not wanting to talk more about these topics that evening, Wang Yang ended the call. Unexpectedly, the approaching Jessica also frowned in quest of answers. She sat down on the couch, asking, “Dear, I have a question about ‘Firefly.'” Wang Yang wrapped his arm around her shoulder, “Hmm, what is it?” Jessica asked eagerly, “Did Top-Captain really die?” Wang Yang let out a laugh and shrugged, “Guess!”

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PS: Spent another day in the top ten of the monthly ticket leaderboard, incredibly fierce! Wowee, let’s keep pushing for the monthly tickets! Everyone, let’s do our best!! (