Poetry Immortal Li Bai once lamented that "Once the heaven and earth go against the journey, we will be sad forever." This poem undoubtedly points out the essence of life. But facing the ultimate destination that turns into dust, is "sad" necessarily the only emotion and attitude? The movie " Life Events " gives different answers. The film has a unique perspective on the position of "funeralist" and cleverly writes the grand life and death issues into subtle emotional relationships. In addition, the metaphorical characters and delicate detailed design make the film extremely warm and realistic aesthetic connotation and aesthetic characteristics. It should be pointed out that the heated discussions caused by the film also inspired the Chinese film market, which has been hit by the epidemic for a long time, and showed the vigorous vitality of its industrial dimension.
The strong atmosphere of urban fireworks
When talking about the funeral industry, the Japanese movie " Devourer " is undoubtedly a classic work that portrays such characters. Compared with the quiet beauty and restraint of "The Immortal", "The Great Events of Life" is filled with a strong atmosphere of fireworks in the city. The rich and straightforward Wuhan dialect shows the customs and character personality of a city. What is particularly obvious is that the protagonist Mo Sanmei (known as "San Ge") likes to use "Laozi" instead of "I", which is in line with the expression habits of Wuhan people and also in line with his irritable and rude character positioning. Xiaowen's sentence when eating, "Eat noodles but not garlic, the fragrance is half less", not only shows the eating habits of Wuhan, but also reflects the rhyme and fun of folk slang and the innocence and cuteness of children. Even when the characters quarrel, dialects also highlight the advantages of conveying information and the appeal of language, without causing obstacles to understanding. For example, Xiaowen's aunt had two arguments with her third brother and husband respectively. The short dialect sentences that popped up in succession allowed the conflicts to quickly advance. The complex situation of Xiaowen's family was revealed, and the character's shrewdness was also revealed on the screen.
In the process of urbanization and globalization, "unification" once became the core word of development. People speak Mandarin , copying one square after another. However, although dialects are niche and difficult to pronounce and deviate from the trend, they contain special regional culture, historical traditions and living conditions, eliminating the anxiety of people being assimilated in the process of globalization, thereby finding self-identity and sense of belonging. The deeper meaning is that it presents the characters, regional culture, living habits and historical past the most realistic way, allowing "reality" to be implemented.
Of course, the iconic dialect complements the living landscape more. The "Going Heaven" run by San Ge is hidden in the alley, and the gatehouse is very narrow. With the development of San Ge's business every time, the audience can feel the daily state of the streets and alleys. The simplicity of living conditions makes Xiaowen's grandmother's funeral ceremony only held in an open space corresponding to the window, and can only accommodate a few relatives and neighbors. After the coffin is lifted, it is necessary to turn the direction immediately. Because of the cramped space, every household does its best to allow the limited space to exert unlimited value. The ground and the sky were filled with "taken for granted". Therefore, when my third brother goes to the client's house, he often has to walk through the layers of sheets in the alley. Or, it is clearly visible that the balcony where each household has its shoes drying, the intersection is full of withered green plants, broken boxes and dried mugwort. The movie itself is a complex living organism constructed from diverse social and cultural elements, and it has the genes of geo-culturalism. The simple dialect and life landscape in "The Great Events of Life" exudes the atmosphere of the city, which can further drive the audience into the context of discussing important issues in life.
Metaphor and questioning
"The Great Events in Life" not only has a sense of life, but also hits people's hearts with sharp thoughts on death, which is achieved through metaphor settings and questioning. The relationship between San Ge and Xiaowen is particularly worth reading. Xiaowen always has a pair of buns and holds the red tassel gun toy. She is a very vivid little " Nezha ". The third brother has always worn a gold hoop bracelet and often wears a pair of tiger-patterned shorts, which is a typical image of Sun Wukong . Influenced by traditional literature and film and television works, these two characters have long been deeply rooted in people's hearts.Nezha and Sun Wukong had an intersection in the fourth chapter of "Journey to the West" - Nezha was ordered by the Jade Emperor to capture Sun Wukong. The two fought fiercely, and the latter finally won.
Specifically in "The Big Events in Life", Xiaowen was raised by her grandmother since she was a child, and she didn't know her biological parents at all. She had a very distant relationship with her uncle's family, and was even despised by her aunt as a burden. Xiaowen also gave back to his grandmother in an incredible way like Nezha. With just a photo taken with children's watch , he boldly traveled through every corner of the city. Finally, he found his third brother and kept asking everyone where the "big box" containing his grandmother went. The young Xiaowen cannot fully understand death, but only knows that the grandmother she loves the most will eventually turn into a curling cloud of smoke; those sweet pasts can only be recalled by playing back the voice records in the watch; those deep concerns can only be relieved by looking up at the stars.
The third brother, who seems to be unscrupulous, is always out of place with society like Sun Wukong. In his father's heart, he is far less at ease than his second brother's incompetence; in his girlfriend's heart, he has no money and has been in jail; in his neighbors' hearts, he is very unlucky to run the funeral industry. Faced with his father's distrust, his girlfriend's betrayal, and social doubts, he kept asking questions, repeatedly saying that he "want to change his life" and was unwilling to engage in the funeral industry again. When he saw Xiaowen, who was also unreliable, faced the tragic car accident of his past rival Lao Liu, and dealing with his father's funeral, he re-understood his life and death and began to realize the value of himself and his profession.
is different from the ending of "Journey to the West". In the relationship between the third brother and Xiaowen, the third brother is the one who was changed. Even though she is sloppy and takes care of Xiaowen's diet and daily life, she is never vague. Knowing that Xiaowen is always immersed in the sadness of losing her grandmother, she compiled a fairy tale about "Stars" to comfort her and tried her best to repair the chat records in her watch. Although she was rebellious, she was always in a manner in the parent-child meeting at Xiaowen School; she also reorganized the store and painted the "Stars" in the fairy tale with Xiaowen for the walls and vans. Xiaowen will share it with the third brother as soon as possible when there is delicious food; when Mr. Mo beats the third brother, he waves a red tassel gun to protect the other party; after the father and son have a big quarrel, she takes the initiative to help them clear the estrangement.
is based on reality and warm-oriented
Due to the impact of the epidemic, the film market after the Spring Festival has been severely hit. Up to now, the cumulative box office of "The Great Events in Life" has exceeded 800 million yuan, setting a new box office high after the Spring Festival. This fact can undoubtedly inspire the great changes in the Chinese film market that have not been seen in a century, and put forward higher requirements for film creation: the great changes in the times, the progress of China, and the needs of the people should all be widely paid attention to and presented. The film is also providing a sample to promote warm realism for the market that is showing signs of fatigue.
This film finds unique materials and inspiration from the various aspects of society, and ingeniously depicts the funeral industry. First of all, the operating specifications of this industry have been fully presented, such as the conventional decoration of the past, the pronunciation of rituals, etc. In addition, the actual situation of practitioners in society has also been truly presented. Next to the "Shangtian" run by San Ge is a wedding store. The owner of the store not only does not allow San Ge's car to park in the alley, but also looks down on this industry very much and feels very unlucky. Even if you operate honestly and have good professionalism, funeralists will still be misunderstood. Ru Xiaowen's aunt had no reason to suspect that the third brother and the others had stole the ring from their grandmother's hand. Even if the truth was revealed later, she found a new excuse to scold her again. When neighbors heard the dispute, the first thing they did was not to investigate and guide, but to record videos, believing that the third brother who had been in prison was not trustworthy.
In addition, what you can see is the current view of family and family affection. In China's traditional culture and national psychology, the family occupies an extremely important position. Generally speaking, various ethical relationships constructed by family members are the main content of family ethics. With the development of the times and society, the composition of the family has changed, which has also led to changes in the family's ethics.In the film, the reason why San Ge and Xiaowen can become their support for each other is precisely because of the incompleteness of their respective original families. The third brother only has his father and sister, and the in-depth contact between them is still about real estate matters. Xiaowen had never seen his biological parents before. After her grandmother passed away, her uncle and family abandoned her like she was worn out and would rather entrust her to a stranger. Even though the third brother and Xiaowen are already in love with their father and daughter, due to the adoption system, they cannot become relatives in the legal sense. When the two had no choice but to separate, the third brother ran hard, trying to leave a small article at the last moment. After being adopted by others, Xiaowen ran back to find her third brother, surpassing the traditional concept of family and family affection.
Chinese people are very secretive about "death". Another practical significance of "The Great Events in Life" is a discussion of life and death. The film talks about this grand and profound issue, and is not as profound as the "living towards death" proposed by the philosopher of existentialism, nor is it as complex as the "unknown life, how can you know death" discussed by Confucius , nor does it exaggerate "death is as quiet and beautiful as autumn leaves." On the contrary, the death in the film can be as light as the "smoke" and "big box" in Xiaowen's heart; it can be as romantic as the last star fireworks, echoing the "star" fairy tale of the third brother's idea; it can be as happy as holding a funeral for himself during his lifetime, and the soundtrack is the old man of " Make a Fight in the Heavenly Palace ". It is able to see that the film skillfully adopts various narrative techniques, ensuring that the content adheres to the realist logic while also having high audio-visual quality.
But one issue still needs to be paid attention to. The tone and core of "warm realism" is "warm", but it does not mean "chicken soup in the soul", nor does it mean cheap sympathy and optimism, and it cannot transcend conventional logic and be deliberately consumed. At the end of the film, Xiaowen's biological mother suddenly appears, but this character has no description on the plot line and does not conform to the reality. What we need to be more vigilant is that, for example, the long-term flood of story techniques, the emotional mechanism discussed by Deleuze is likely to be transformed into a logic for operating emotions - the audience will empathize with because of the story or characters, but it is easier to be disciplined in it, which is not conducive to the re-expansion and re-innovation of realism. Therefore, when creating works on such subjects, we must also observe reality from the two dimensions of morality and history, have intuitive expressions of problems, and have our own cognition and considerations.
In any case, when faced with "big events in life", we should and must have a more open-minded life philosophy and attitude towards life.
Author: Rao Shuguang (film theorist and president of the Chinese Film Review Society)
Planning: Wang Yan
Editor: Xu Luming
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