Brian Nelson, this is an extremely unfamiliar name. Even if I searched my mind twice, I still had no impression; however, the script written by Brian left an extremely deep impression on Lance.

"Fruit Hard Candy".

In fact, the work "Fruit Hard Candy" is not famous. Many people know that this work is because of Allen Paige. After Allen became popular with "Juno", many people noticed "Fruit Hard Candy" - this work successfully allowed Allen to leave the previously active Canadian film and television industry and enter Hollywood.

Objectively speaking, "Fruit Hard Candy" has never attracted widespread attention. It did not cause a box office response during the release period, and it did not achieve more results in the videotape rental market after it was removed. Not to mention that the awards ceremony season has attracted attention, even in independent film holy places such as the Sundance Film Festival and the American Independence Spirit Awards, it has not attracted the attention of producers. Even the critics' attention to this novel is very limited, and they are not enthusiastically sought after on ImDB.

But, is this work really that ordinary? Of course not.

In the last life, Lance was discovered in the DVD rental store for many years after this work was published. It was not because of Allen, but because the poster was very distinctive. A little girl in a red hat stood on the mouse catcher, and the black thrilling meaning was presented through the paper. Curious, Lance decided to rent it and go home to take a look, and then discovered this unique masterpiece.

"Fruit Hard Candy" is an online term, "", which refers to a minor girl. This is the story of a minor girl.

A fourteen-year-old girl and a thirty-two-year-old photographer chatted on the Internet for a while and decided to meet in a cafe. Although the two had a very big age gap, they were talking and laughing and had a chemical reaction. Then the girl followed the photographer back home. But in fact, the photographer was a child-loving/fetish, and a friend of the girl disappeared after meeting the photographer. So the girl decided to discover the truth of the matter alone and punish the child-loving/fetish in her own way - castration.

This story is very thrilling, but it is also very interesting, because it is always difficult to define who is the hunter and who is the prey; it is also difficult to distinguish who is justice and who is evil. The movie constantly changes the identities of the perpetrator and the victim with an almost absurd black technique, seriously challenging the audience's moral bottom line and secular concepts.

Lance later studied the creative background of this work, and the creator was inspired by real Japanese cases. Female students began to hunt old men who were looking to date underage girls online. Once the girl contacted each other online, she and her friends would set up an ambush at the date location. This also means that this is not a fantasy, but a social reality, but the film gave it more drama.

This reminded Lance of the movie "The Girl with Dragon Tattoo" and the original novel. In the movie, the part where the girl was raped was mentioned, but neither the original Swedish version nor the American version spent a lot of writing. Later, the girl made the other party fool again by fishing, but she successfully fought back, taught the other party a lesson in her own way, and made the other party lose the ability to rape again.

Legally speaking, such behavior is wrong, and private revenge will only lead to endless troubles; but morally speaking, in the 21st century, many countries and regions, many private groups, including many social fields, fight violence with violence and tit for tooth is still a unique rule of survival.

Especially the core topic of the discussion of "hard fruit candy": love/childhood/fetish.

It is precisely because minors do not have the ability to resist or even complain that adult guardians and society are required to supervise, control, and punish. In the European and American legal systems, cases involving minors are particularly sensitive. But the reality is that most minors cannot tell their inner secrets, or adults refuse to believe it, or minors cannot find evidence to avenge themselves. Similar cases can be referred to the global sensational report of the Boston Globe at the beginning of this year.

So, this brings the question back to the core idea of ​​Lance's creation of the sin trilogy: social indifference, is this a crime?

Of course, the issues discussed in "Fruit Hard Candy" are not that profound, and the angles are different. This work really discusses the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim. The change and movement of initiative between the two protagonists leads to the perpetrator and the victim changing positions constantly, and the challenges to moral nerves become more and more sensitive.

The controversy caused by this work is that love/childhood/obsession should indeed be punished, but shouldn't this underage girl's dehumanized and severe punishment be punished? This kind of human struggle has become a hot topic for movie fans.

In the last life, Lance also thought so. His reflection on crime, human nature, morality, and lynching surged after the movie was over; but in this life, after experiencing more precipitation and the creation of the Crime Trilogy, Lance began to question himself. Is this really the core idea of ​​the movie?

Isn’t the real theme of the movie that should not be more effective, physical punishment or mental punishment after the criminal is tried? Or, closer, is it physical pain or mental fear that really effectively curbs crime? So, what role does the alienation, loneliness and fear caused by social indifference play in the process of crime?

"Fruit Hard Candy" is not, nor should it be a continuation of the Crime Trilogy. It starts from a separate individual case to discuss the nature of crime, as well as social causes, personal psychological causes, and so on in a deep sense. Without criticism, no scrutiny, no reflection, it is more like a kind of self-discussion and exploration. If the Crime Trilogy is in line with each other, then "Fruit Hard Candy" returns to the origin, stands in another position, and interprets the same social problems from a completely different perspective.

Unfortunately, in the script of the previous life, it can be seen that Brian should also be a screenwriter from a stage play. The film describes the inner changes and mental states of the two leading actors in large quantities, as if the camera is a stage, but he is unable to deeply explore and discuss the core of these themes, as if he is just satisfied with creating a psychological thriller movie.

Of course, the director is also one of the important reasons.

David Sred, the director of "Fruit Hard Candy", is not famous. This work is his feature debut, and later directed works such as "Thirty Polar Night" and "Twilight 3: Lunar Eclipse", but is more often active in the field of TV series. "Hannibal" is his work.

From his list of works, we can see that he has excellent handling of details, creating a thriller atmosphere, and outlining beautiful violence. He has outstanding achievements in thriller action movies. This is also the source of the final style of "Fruit Hard Candy" in his previous life.

However, David is not good at portraying characters, which loses many of the essence of Brian's script and the opportunity to further explore and sublimate; in addition, David pays too much attention to creating a thriller atmosphere, but loses the grasp of the plot, which makes the story slightly thin and also loses the motivation, psychology, and portrayal of characters, resulting in only thriller and fear left after the movie is over, but less reflection.

It can be said that this is a common problem in almost all thriller movies or horror movies. When Lance was filming "Killing with a knife", he sacrificed the deliberate creation of a thriller atmosphere in order to portray the characters, and instead created a sense of alienation and coldness with lights. This also comes at a cost. "Killing with a knife" is not afraid or terrifying, but always has a sense of depression and explosion; correspondingly, it also allows the movie to be deeper and more shocking.

There are gains and losses.

"Fruit Hard Candy" is a good work. The conception of the script, the structure of the stage play, the director's light and rhythm treatment, the effect of the thriller atmosphere, etc., are enough to leave a deep impression on the audience, but that's all. It can be seen from the achievements made by the movie, that the box office, the film critics, and the audience are not too fanatical.

Ten years after the release of "Fruit Hard Candy", it actually caused quite a response in the rental market. The number of people who scored on IDC reached 120,000, which shows that the movie is attractive and has caused a lot of controversy; but the scores are never up or down, and it is impossible to create miracles.

When Lance saw "Fruit Hard Candy" appear on the blacklist, his first thought in his mind was: If I were to shoot, what would it look like?

After this idea came out, Lance had no way to stop. Not only did he start thinking about how he would modify the script, how to use lines to shape the characters, and how to create the atmosphere through the actor's performance. He hoped to distinguish it from "killing with a knife" and apply more light to "thriller". At the same time, he also began to think about, in such a small stage space - the whole movie happened in the same room for more than three-quarters of the time, how to schedule the shots, how to use the narrow space to highlight the confrontation between the two people, which brought Lance back to the last time when he was outside the Broadway...

Compared to the "Queen", "Fruit Hard Candy" is a purer stage play script, and it is also more interesting and closer to Lance's idea. Most importantly, it inspires Lance's endless creative inspiration.
Chapter completed!