Reminder: This article is a serious spoiler!
In this summer season full of surprises, "Galaxy Tutoring School" has become the biggest seed and "bailout" work. The screening and publicity path of "Galaxy Tutoring School" is very similar to the biggest winner of last summer’s "I am not the God of Medicine". Two months before its release, "Galaxy Tutoring School" held an advanced screening on Father’s Day, and before its official release, it also launched several consecutive days of screening in many cities across the country. The advance and large-scale film reflects the creators’ confidence in the quality of the film, and they hope that through the accumulation of good reputation, they will usher in an explosion after the official release.
"Galaxy Tutorial School" poster. Originally set for July 26, but later raised to July 18
But there was no denying that many people did not trust the names of the director column "Deng Chao and Yu Baimei" at the beginning. After all, the embarrassment of the "Breakup Master" and "Villain Angel" co-directed by the two people was still lingering. Can "Galaxy Tutorial School" make the audience admire the director Deng Chao?
Big Dreams: Ma Fei’s Space Ideal
If it is simply summarized, "Galaxy Tutoring School" is a movie about education and fatherhood. But in detail, its timeline is quite long, spanning from 1990 to 2019, and it also contains three clear narrative threads. Each narrative thread will be integrated in the specific analysis below, involving very serious spoilers, please read carefully.
The first narrative line of the movie: In 2019, Ma Fei (played by Bai Yu) is the youngest astronaut in China. He follows the manned spaceship to the sky for a mission, but the spaceship is hit by a UFO and loses contact with the ground. The spaceship is in danger, and the astronauts may not be able to return. In the greatest desperate situation of life, Ma Fei recalls his most amazing father.
When an adult horse flies, he becomes an astronaut
The spaceship will definitely go back in the end. In the drama creation, the protagonist is in a dangerous situation, and what wants to highlight is the protagonist’s aura of saving from danger. And "Galaxy Tutoring School" also cleverly links this with China’s aerospace industry, patriotism, and the rise of a great power, giving the film the temperament of a gift film.
So, how did Ma Fei survive the danger?
In the critical moment, he remembered his father Ma Haowen (Deng Chao, played) once taught him, "Don’t admit defeat" and "always think", and how he escaped with the encouragement of his father during the catastrophic flood in 1998. In different time and space, his father’s teachings are just as effective, and Ma Fei solved the crisis of the spaceship.
Ma Fei’s Space Rescue
It needs to be mentioned that the movie is very scribbled and endless when dealing with Ma Fei’s sky self-rescue. After a while, life and death are rendered there, but the process of Ma Fei getting out of the cabin is very easy.
Since Ma Haowen’s influence on Ma Fei is so great – astronauts can only carry one thing with them in space, and Ma Fei also took away the globe made of football that Ma Haowen gave him; why was Ma Fei’s family seat empty when the spacecraft set off? Why didn’t Ma Haowen personally show up to see the child off?
The football globe held by the young boy Ma Fei is the most important "token" between him and his father.
Because Ma Fei felt that Ma Haowen’s "dark history" would affect his bright future. This enters the second important main line of the story, the "dark history" of his father Ma Haowen.
The Harsh Reality: The History of Ma Haowen’s Misfortune
It is not so much a "black history" as a history of suffering.
Wei Wei is familiar with "Asian Heroes". On the eve of the 1990 Beijing Asian Games, the Torch Relay movement was carried out in Dongpei City (the fictional city in the movie). Ma Haowen, as the construction engineer of Dongpei Bridge, also became a torchbearer, and he would run across Dongpei Bridge with the torch. But in the live TV broadcast and the attention of many people, the Dongpei Bridge, which had not yet been opened to traffic, collapsed.
Ma Haowen used to be a successful engineer
Ma Haowen took the blame for the entire design institute and was imprisoned. His wife Xinyu (Ren Suxi, played) divorced him, and the teenager Ma Fei was also bullied by his peers. It was already 1997 when he was released from prison early after commuting his sentence. After his release, Ma Haowen was ridiculed, criticized and insulted by his former friends and colleagues. He struggled to find information, write a complaint letter, and go to court, but there was no way to appeal.
Ma Haowen has no way to appeal
This is the sharpest part of the movie, which contains various criticisms of reality: the sophistication, calculation, indifference, and cruelty of the human heart; the contempt and neglect of the rights and interests of the little people by the arrogant and rigid administrative organs, and the habitual "kicking of the ball" to their demands… The idealism portrayed in the movie may be illusory, but these real predicaments that Ma Haowen faces will make the audience feel the same: Why is it so difficult for an ordinary person to live calmly and with dignity?
Ma Haowen persisted for more than 20 years, and the case finally had a bright moment. When Ma Haowen came to Ma Fei’s base for the first time and told him the news, what made Ma Haowen cold and unexpected was that Ma Fei persuaded him to give up the appeal. Because Ma Fei’s leader (Wu Jing, played) told him that the astronaut would become the focus, his birth experience would be dug up, and Ma Haowen’s past would become some kind of "obstacle" to Ma Fei.
Ma Haowen told Ma Fei that he thought his education of Ma Fei was a success, but now he found that he failed. He did not expect his son to despise his insistence for more than 20 years – to restore his innocent reputation – for his own future and interests. Ma Fei is not unaware of the hardships and hardships he has endured for this.
Although this clue is not the main point of the movie – many viewers may have ignored it in tears, but in my opinion, it is the most colorful chapter of the whole movie. It is a hard core hidden under the positive energy and sensational shell of this movie. If you bite it, you will be stung.
It even deconstructs the educational idealism of the entire film: How are egoists who are filled with the adult world or delicate or crude are cultivated? Why can the quality-oriented education that Ma Haowen insists on not prevent Ma Fei from becoming selfish? Could it be that the grand cause is important, and the rights and interests of an ordinary person can be ignored?
These all point to deeper issues, and it’s all up to the heart to understand.
The ideal education: Galaxy cram school
How did Ma Haowen train Ma Fei to become an astronaut? This was the core narrative thread of the movie, which took the most time and was the most colorful. It was also the origin of the movie’s title.
When Ma Fei was young, his teachers thought that his brain was lacking. After Ma Haowen was imprisoned, Ma Fei was bullied, and his mother and stepfather were busy with business sending him to boarding school. Ma Fei became a runaway wild horse. He was the last in his class, read Jin Yong’s novels in class, often missed class, and was expelled by the director of the teaching department Yan (Li Jianyi, played).
When Ma Fei was expelled, it was the day Ma Haowen was released from prison. After his ex-wife begged Director Yan to no avail, Ma Haowen made a bet with Director Yan in front of many teachers and students. Director Yan said that if Ma Fei was in the top 10 of the final exam class, he would not be expelled. Ma Haowen said: Not the top 10 in the class, but the top 10 in the grade.
This moment is very hot, and it also constitutes the biggest suspense in the movie: Can Ma Haowen really make Ma Fei, the last in the class, enter the top 10 in the grade?
Director Yan represented the older generation of educators who had gone through years of hardship and changed their destiny through education. They believed in the set of exam-oriented education, where grades were supreme and the college entrance examination was fixed for life. Therefore, there were only a few things in Director Yan’s educational "arsenal": more homework + sticks + a sense of shame. He looked down on bad students and regarded Ma Fei as a thorn in his side.
Ma Haowen’s understanding of education was completely opposite to Director Yan’s. Although it was 1997, Ma Haowen’s education method was far ahead of that era, and even today, it is still ahead of its time.
It is first and foremost an encouraging education. It is not to inspire the child’s sense of shame (as Ma Fei’s mother said, "This child is like this, it is hopeless"), but to sincerely believe that the child is a genius. Ma Haowen told Ma Fei, "You are the smartest child on earth." When he said this, he was not perfunctory, but his eyes were full of light, full of trust and firmness, which allowed Ma Fei to build up his confidence. Even after betting that Ma Fei’s first exam was fifth from the bottom of the class, Ma Haowen praised his son as great, and improved compared with the original last.
Ma Haowen kept telling Ma Fei, "You are the smartest child on earth"
Ma Haowen did not urge Ma Fei to study much. When Ma Fei asked him whether to sleep or read a book, he let Ma Fei make his own decision. The school assigned too much homework, and he also let Ma Fei love to complete it or not. In Ma Haowen’s opinion, children’s interest in learning is the most important. At the stage of their strongest learning ability, the heavy learning load every day will make them lose interest in learning and feel tired.
Just like at the end of the college entrance examination, senior high school students were tearing books frantically, and the pieces of paper fell like snowflakes. Director Yan thought this was a kind of release for the children. Ma Haowen asked, If senior high school students can’t wait to tear books, do they really love learning? Do they still have enthusiasm for learning?
When Ma Haowen asked Ma Fei what his learning goal was, Ma Fei said, "Go to Tsinghua University and Peking University." Ma Haowen said no, this is the process, not the goal, and what he wants to do in the future is the answer. Then Ma Haowen said the "golden sentence", "Life is like archery, dreams are like archery targets. If you can’t even find the target, what’s the point of pulling your bow every day?"
Ma Haowen understands that the purpose of learning is not for the temporary college entrance examination, the child’s interests and goals are the end of learning. Therefore, even though the final exam is coming soon, he still takes the child to "skip class" (the leave was rejected by Director Yan) for half a month to go to the aerospace exhibition. The head teacher Xiao Gao (Wang Xi, played) said that the final exam is the most important moment in Ma Fei’s life. Ma Haowen said: No, there is no most important moment. The most important moments in his life should be evenly distributed every minute and every second of his day.
In the final exam, Ma Fei really entered the top 10 of the grade, and his love for aerospace also contributed to his dream of aerospace.
defect
Obviously, in terms of differences in educational concepts, the film stood on Ma Haowen’s side. In several debates between Ma Haowen and Director Yan, Director Yan was defeated. The film also exaggerated Director Yan’s "unreasonable" and "deified" the feasibility of Ma Haowen’s education for Ma Fei.
In other words, the film’s discussion of exam-oriented education and quality-oriented education is simplified; its advocacy of quality-oriented education is too idealistic. The simplest reality is that the vast majority of civilian parents, without Ma Haowen’s ideas and insights, are exhausted, unlike Ma Haowen who could afford nearly 10,000 yuan of 586 computers for his children in the late 1990s, and have time to take their children on a half-month trip. And most children are also ordinary, and it is impossible to be like Ma Fei who can enter the top 10 of the grade in one semester without much study or review. In the case of uneven education quotas, exam-oriented education is still the best choice for ordinary families. You have to take the exam first to have more freedom of choice.
At the same time, the movie’s understanding of homework, exams, etc. is also very narrow. Ma Haowen’s comparison of steamed buns seems reasonable, but it is actually a little nonsense. Repeated steamed buns are indeed not delicious, but for most children with poor learning ability, they do have to be strengthened through repeated preview, review and homework to improve their understanding of knowledge. Although Ma Haowen has always wanted Ma Fei to learn ideas and methods, not just knowledge, knowledge is the premise of ideas and methods. The most basic knowledge is not firmly mastered and the foundation is not solid. What about further ideas and methods?
The director took it for granted too much, which determined that the influence of "Galaxy Tutoring School" on reality is very limited. It simply understands the current many educational issues, simply understands the differences in educational concepts, and does not touch the complex national conditions behind education in the slightest. It involves factors such as the duality of urban and rural areas, uneven educational quotas, cultural segregation of education, and difficulties in class mobility. On the contrary, there is such a suspicion that the educational problems with the nature of social problems are pushed to the parents, and become the parents’ personal concept problems.
Any parent who has been coerced into an education competition knows that there are many involuntary moments. As Ma Haowen’s ex-wife in the movie yelled, "Ma Fei is not your experiment." Few parents dare to experiment with their children’s future.
The essence of education is not as simple as believing in children or not
The conceptual level also affects the narrative level. Most of the characters in the movie are very flat, and they go to the end in one line, without any human hesitation. Like Ma Haowen, he is sure that his education of Ma Fei will be successful, but when he thinks of the situation where he was wronged and damaged, he has not worried about what kind of world Ma Fei will face when he grows up. The flatness of the characters serves that every turn and every touch in the narrative can reach the audience. Under the strong soundtrack, some parts of the movie are indeed tear-jerking, and it is very easy to cry, but it is over when the crying is over.
"Galaxy Tutoring School" could have been better. If the three threads interact with each other, rather than independently of each other, it can be a masterpiece to reach the real problem. As mentioned earlier, the second thread is the most colorful chapter in the movie. It is precisely because the director makes the three threads interact with each other. "The cruel reality" is dismantling the "grand dream" and "ideal education". The selfishness of the adult Ma Fei slaps Ma Haowen in the face, giving us a glimpse of something more powerful that affects education/reality. Although the director handles it this way, it may just be a simple suppression first and then a promotion, allowing the father and son to have a sublimation in their feelings.
Better than sincerity
Even so, "Galaxy Tutoring School" is still the best film co-directed by Deng Chao and Yu Baimei so far. It has many flaws, but it also has a valuable advantage: seriousness/sincerity.
The film’s time span is very long, and it reflects many major historical nodes in the 1990s, such as the Beijing Asian Games in 1990, the Asian Football Cup in 1992, the return of Hong Kong in 1997, and the flood in 1998. The director cleverly strung the whole story through a few familiar songs in the 1990s, such as Wei Wei’s "Asian Majestic Wind", Mao Amin’s "Desire", Han Lei’s "Walk Around", Liu Huan’s "Bending Moon", Chen Ming’s "Happy Home", and Leslie Cheung’s "Love of the Year". There is a strong sense of nostalgia.
The film’s reflections on education are immature, but also very sincere. This part reflects the growing experience of Deng Chao and Yu Baimei, as well as their current experience as fathers educating their children. Therefore, the film has Deng Chao’s "class limitations". I remember he said before that he should not give children cram schools, but let children have a happy childhood. This concept is of course not wrong for people in Deng Chao’s class, but if it is promoted to everyone as a concept, it will reveal a childish side.
And sincerity is even more reflected in the father-son relationship in the movie. Although the movie uses educational reflection as the "bone", it uses the father-son relationship as the "flesh"; one of the movie’s slogans is, "Dedicated to the father, for the child". The movie also has the feelings of the two directors as sons/fathers, full of their love for their respective fathers and children. The father-son relationship fills most of the details in the movie, which is true, delicate, moving, and tear-jerking.
It should be admitted that Deng Chao as an actor is much more attractive than Deng Chao as a variety MC, and variety shows consume a lot of people’s knowledge of the actor Deng Chao. One of the fundamental reasons why this movie stands up is that Deng Chao convincingly portrays the great father Ma Haowen, and interprets his unconditional "trust" and "love" for his son. Many of Ma Haowen’s lines are very chicken soup and empty, but Deng Chao’s body, expression, eyes, and speech skills make these slightly empty things fall to the ground. Ma Haowen really "believes", and everything is natural.
Deng Chao’s behind- the-scene photos when taking close-up shots, his eyes are very infectious
The screenwriter also condensed too many dramatic and strong plots in Ma Haowen, such as selling blood, being beaten by gangsters in order to protect his son, and searching for children in the flood. Every point is very tearful. Ma Haowen once said to Ma Fei, "The bridge will collapse, but Dad will not collapse." He silently endured all the injustices and suppression that fate gave him, and then showed the best qualities that a father should have in front of his children: bravery, confidence, wisdom, and not admitting defeat.
During the flood, the moment when Ma Haowen and his son were separated was a moment when many viewers grabbed paper towels
As far as the author is concerned, I would give "Galaxy Tutoring School" 70 points. This is a film with obvious flaws, whether it is the scribbling of the space line, the deliberate pandering with a little fake space, the redundancy of the emotional line between Ma Haowen and Teacher Xiao Gao, which can be completely eliminated, or the exaggerated portrayal of Director Yan and the naive thinking about education issues. But we should also see how rare it is for a film of the size of "Galaxy Tutoring School" to be released smoothly in this not peaceful summer season. It is "playing tricks", but it is also "balancing": Deng Chao and Yu Baimei will be the type of directors that investors like the most, because they are "safe" and profitable.
It is not a shameful thing to be a "moderate-minded person" and produce commercial blockbusters that are seriously lacking in the market. On the contrary, it is very important for the Chinese film market – just like the summer season, you have to rely on "Galaxy Tutoring School" to "save the file". The ideal ambition of film critics should not be expected to be realized by a movie for themselves. What’s more, if you carefully consider Ma Haowen’s injustice line, combined with the "betrayal" of the adult Ma Fei to his father, you can still feel a lot of complexity about reality.
"The Galactic School" is not the best realist work of its kind, but it belongs to realism.