外媒影評《小時代4》 Film Review Tiny Times 4.0
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、絕症、勾心鬥角、整容手術、性感美男—由小說作家轉型導演的郭敬明，在《小時代4》中加入了以上所有元素，卻唯獨沒有現實。該片是根據其作品改編的系列電影的最終一部，講述了生活在上海的四個女孩之間動盪的友情故事。
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.
和電影中的角色一樣，郭敬明在新的藝術領域中還不夠成熟：儘管有兩位“執行導演”輔佐，郭敬明卻在將作品改編成電影時完全迷茫了。他幾乎不在影片結構和細節上做文章，這一點尤其體現在爲了減少柯震東的出場而重新拍攝和剪輯的場景上。
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.
在前幾部電影中，郭敬明用最大化的物質鋪陳掩蓋了影片在情節上的諸多漏洞。當電影中那種極度物質化的生活鋪天蓋地迎面而來時，觀衆不可能選擇無動於衷。
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.
和很多系列電影一樣，《小時代4》並不適合新觀衆，郭敬明在電影中構建的世界讓新觀衆難以適應。在該系列第三部中，人物角色則有些過剩—其中大部分都是花樣美男，擁有性感發達的肌肉和眉頭深鎖的憂鬱表情。除了資深粉絲，想要弄懂如同迷宮一般的關係網，幾乎是不可能完成的挑戰。
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).
《小時代4》延續了上一部的劇情，主要圍繞對顧裏（由具有票房號召力的郭采潔飾演）的審判展開，她曾經是十分富有的社交女王，但卻發現由於父親留下的債務而導致自己陷入財政危機。也許郭敬明擔心對於受衆來說，講述財務上面的問題太難了，於是就爲顧裏安排了一個更容易讓人理解的“審判”過程—她不得不面對剛剛診斷出來的癌症。由於太過自傲，不願向周圍的人需求安慰，顧裏開始了一系列自我毀滅的舉動，導致與曾經的好友林蕭（楊冪飾）、南湘（郭碧婷飾）以及唐宛如（謝依霖飾）漸漸疏離。
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.
《小時代》系列影片迎來了最後的高潮，多數角色最後都四分五裂，以悲劇收場。林蕭的個人私生活在一系列快鏡頭中淡出我們的視線，心機美人南湘揭露了自己不斷往上爬的真實角色，她爲了獲得老闆宮洺的心而費盡心機鋪路，唐宛如，四人組中的搞笑角色，儘管極力想與衆人重修於好，然而最後卻變得不再敢與任何人聯繫。
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.
也許，郭敬明在小說中可以大篇幅地輕鬆講述這些錯綜複雜的故事，但是在電影中顯然就十分費力了。他在劇本里沒有爲演員安排那些細小但卻揭示人物個性的肢體語言，卻把賭注下在讓俊男美女擺姿勢上，卻最終也沒有傳達出影片的傷感情緒。《小時代4》是一部反高潮的電影，將前作的種種爭議與尖銳的評論，引向了一個冷冷清清的悲憫結局。
