Film Review: Tiny Times 4.0 《小时代4》

Catfights, cancer, corporate conspiracies, cosmetic surgery, Chippendale-aping striptease: true to style, Chinese novelist-turned-filmmaker Guo Jingming has thrown in everything but the kitchen sink in Tiny Times 4.0,the latest and final installment in his tetralogy of adaptations of his novels about the fluctuating friendships among four young women in modern-day Shanghai.
互撕、绝症、勾心斗角、整容手术、性感美男—由小说作家转型导演的郭敬明，在《小时代4》中加入了以上所有元素，却唯独没有现实。该片是根据其作品改编的系列电影的最终一部，讲述了生活在上海的四个女孩之间动荡的友情故事。
Just like his characters, however, Guo seems to have not matured into his new artistic calling: despite being flanked by two "executive directors," he remains completely at a loss in adapting his material to the constraints of the film medium. He simply doesn`t do structure and subtlety, as is evident in the awkwardly reshot and re-edited scenes aimed at reducing the presence of actor Kai Ko.
和电影中的角色一样，郭敬明在新的艺术领域中还不够成熟：尽管有两位“执行导演”辅佐，郭敬明却在将作品改编成电影时完全迷茫了。他几乎不在影片结构和细节上做文章，这一点尤其体现在为了减少柯震东的出场而重新拍摄和剪辑的场景上。

The myriad cracks in the previous installments have largely been papered over by Guo`s near-maximalist representation of material excess. Indifference is not actually an option when confronted with something so over-the-top and in-your-face.
在前几部电影中，郭敬明用最大化的物质铺陈掩盖了影片在情节上的诸多漏洞。当电影中那种极度物质化的生活铺天盖地迎面而来时，观众不可能选择无动于衷。

As for many a film series, the uninitiated need not apply. Guo doesn`t suffer newcomers gladly in his universe. And after the plethora of characters being thrown into the mix in the third film - most of them young hunks bearing the same muscular physique and furrowed-brow expression - the labyrinthine web of relationships poses a near-impenetrable challenge for anyone beyond the diehard.
和很多系列电影一样，《小时代4》并不适合新观众，郭敬明在电影中构建的世界让新观众难以适应。在该系列第三部中，人物角色则有些过剩—其中大部分都是花样美男，拥有性感发达的肌肉和眉头深锁的忧郁表情。除了资深粉丝，想要弄懂如同迷宫一般的关系网，几乎是不可能完成的挑战。

Picking up where the third film left off, 4.0 mostly revolves around the trials of Lily (the bankable Amber Kuo), the once-rich queen bee who finds herself near financial ruin because of the debts left behind by her father. Perhaps fearing that the number-crunching might be too daunting for his target demographic, Guo has given Lily the more relatable trial of having to combat a newly diagnosed cancer. Too proud to seek solace from anyone around her, Lily sets off a chain of self-destructive events which lead to her estrangement from erstwhile best friends Lin Xiao (Mini Yang), Nan Xiang (Bea Hayden Kuo) and Ruby (Sie Yi-lin).
《小时代4》延续了上一部的剧情，主要围绕对顾里（由具有票房号召力的郭采洁饰演）的审判展开，她曾经是十分富有的社交女王，但却发现由于父亲留下的债务而导致自己陷入财政危机。也许郭敬明担心对于受众来说，讲述财务上面的问题太难了，于是就为顾里安排了一个更容易让人理解的“审判”过程—她不得不面对刚刚诊断出来的癌症。由于太过自傲，不愿向周围的人需求安慰，顾里开始了一系列自我毁灭的举动，导致与曾经的好友林萧（杨幂饰）、南湘（郭碧婷饰）以及唐宛如（谢依霖饰）渐渐疏离。

As Tiny Times soars into its climactic grand finale, tragedies abound as relationships are cast asunder. Lin Xiao`s personal and private lives spiral into oblivion in quick succession; the femme fatale of the four, Nan Xiang reveals her true social-climbing colors as she eases her way into the heart of her boss (Vivian Dawson) and up the greasy corporate pole; and Ruby, the jester of the group, recoils from contact with anyone else as she struggles to recover from the disfiguring aftermath of her falling out with her friends.
《小时代》系列影片迎来了最后的高潮，多数角色最后都四分五裂，以悲剧收场。林萧的个人私生活在一系列快镜头中淡出我们的视线，心机美人南湘揭露了自己不断往上爬的真实角色，她为了获得老板宫洺的心而费尽心机铺路，唐宛如，四人组中的搞笑角色，尽管极力想与众人重修于好，然而最后却变得不再敢与任何人联系。

Probably more at ease unveiling his intertwining storylines across wide swathes of space in print, Guo struggles to pace his plotlines. Rather than offering a script in which characters are sketched out of small but revealing and symbolic gestures, he has instead hedged his bets on pretty faces striking poses which try and fail to signify sadness. Tiny Times 4.0 is an anti-climax that brings an erstwhile controversial and cacophonous cinematic juggernaut to a whimpering close.
也许，郭敬明在小说中可以大篇幅地轻松讲述这些错综复杂的故事，但是在电影中显然就十分费力了。他在剧本里没有为演员安排那些细小但却揭示人物个性的肢体语言，却把赌注下在让俊男美女摆姿势上，却最终也没有传达出影片的伤感情绪。《小时代4》是一部反高潮的电影，将前作的种种争议与尖锐的评论，引向了一个冷冷清清的悲悯结局。

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