"Suzhou River" is a film by sixth-generation director Lou Ye, which won several international awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress at the 25th Paris Intemational Film Festival. "Suzhou River" is not an allegory about a life's double life style, but a spiritual drift of a modern man in search of a lost love, a journey of the life of Ulysses of the hero Mada: Kielovsky's The film is more of a metaphysical life experience, and the film is still in search.
At first glance, the shaky footage and the narrator's muttering are reminiscent of some of Wong Kar Wai 's films, and some even pointed out that it is a parody of Wong Kar Wai, but "Suzhou River" is only similar in appearance, but its The connotation is completely different from Wong Kar Wai's film language, and it has its own set of feelings. In contrast, Wong Kar-wai's works have the temperament of Faye Wong, blurred and fearless; the temperament of "Suzhou River" is more like Zhou Xun, smart and real.
"Suzhou River" is a representative work of Chinese modernist independent film. For a film director, no matter how outrageous his artistic ideas are, storytelling is always the basic requirement for him. "Suzhou River," despite being modernist, does a very good job of telling a story. This is a highly dramatic story, and Lou Ye's narration is clean and neat, and the dialogue is kept short and concise, making the film fast-paced, jumpy, and not sloppy at all. Although he used flashbacks, interludes and other seemingly fancy narrative methods, he completed it naturally and without hypocrisy. His talent for storytelling allows "Suzhou River" to impress the plot with just the atmosphere without any scene packaging. In the story, he wants you to constantly think, to be nervous, to ponder, to be in pain and despair with the characters in the play, and to make you feel lost after being attracted to the play, but this is just a very simple feeling. After you have finished watching it, you will relive it, but there is no way in your mind not to be complicated. The various fragmentary shots that you are eager to capture and have no time to ponder when you watch it, in this recollection, the boundaries are melted, and they are mixed into a whole that is not very clear but has a clear impression. Life itself is composed of such fragmentary fragments. When the details of the corners and corners are removed, a whole piece of memory will be formed in the mind. Maybe this kind of hazy is the image that reality should have.
"Suzhou River" is a deliberately imperfect film, telling a fairy tale in an imperfect life. The vulgar heroine's name is used to symbolize the powerlessness and helplessness of common mundane life, and the subjective first-person narrative is used to see life, just as the photographer himself said in the film "My camera never lies", constructing a true and gorgeous scene. not perfect. It was in this imperfection that it left me with a twofold beauty. On the one hand is the plot, the story of two similar girls is reminiscent of "Veronica's Double Life" and "Love Letter", but the difference is that the story of "Suzhou River" takes place in China, and the familiar scenes are easier to make I resonate. More importantly, this film is a pure love movie, and the theme is the pursuit of love, which is why people feel lingering in their hearts for a long time after watching it. On the other hand, the aesthetic feeling that I want to talk about in detail is the aesthetic feeling of the audio-visual language of this film.
"Suzhou River" has a cool dark gray tone, but it does not hesitate to show the color when presenting the feasting and feasting, which reflects a corrupt atmosphere. Its pictures are dark and irregular, as if the weather has always been gloomy and sunless, and there is no aesthetic picture in the traditional sense, and even some of the clips are messy. Although it is full of urban symbols such as bars, high-rise buildings, vehicles, etc., it gives the impression of tacky buildings and people at the bottom, and I believe it expresses the cruel reality. Its image features are not delicate, but extremely rough, always giving people a dirty and foggy feeling. The photographer doesn't care about taking some messy things into the lens, and this is precisely the embodiment of reality, because life Everything that's real in it is just disorganized and fragmented. Shaking shots reflect the urgency of searching and the uneasy throbbing of people’s hearts. People who are looking for love, immersed in love, or people who are eager for material benefits have such a mentality; and timely long shots can also reflect people and people. The atmosphere of communication between people and the subjective psychological activities of people.
The film begins with a dialogue between a man and a woman on a black screen. The female voice is dull and lazy, while the male voice is a little careless. The dialogue is full of philosophical thinking, leading the viewer into the author's subjective situation. The next 3 minutes of footage showed Lou Ye's talent. It can be said that these 3 minutes made the audience look forward to the film. From the water shadow to the leaves and rubbish floating on the water, there is a hint of "floating life like a dream", and then quickly turned to an upside-down shot in one shot, a dilapidated building to be demolished appears, accompanied by the sound effects of the demolition workers. In this sound, sad and life-rhythmic music plays. Then, various houses, construction sites, bridges, and boats by the Suzhou River appeared in the image, revealing a sense of broken depression. Through constant or long or short shots of jumping, shaking, and pitching, we saw various Such people, everyone's expressions are different, but they all have the taste of dazed fate, as the voiceover said, here we can see everything and see the possibility of all life. This is a kind of flowing gaze, which has the author's obvious aestheticism idea. The richness of the real scene makes this kind of aestheticism not to be exaggerated and flooded, but to remain true. Those on the boat, on the street, and on the bridge have the most authentic gestures and expressions. It seems that the author is also looking for the possibility of the story in this gaze. Here, Lou Ye perfectly combines his own perception and capture of life with his own technology. Such a beginning left a deep impression on people.
A shocking passage in this film appears in the part where Peony shouts "I'm so cheap" and then runs away. After the beautiful and romantic love is destroyed in front of the source of all evil - money, the shock of running and chasing is mixed with Peony's despair. The cry gave a very strong sense of brokenness. Peony shouted "I'm so cheap", then pushed away the motor, knocked down the motorcycle, turned around and started running, the camera followed her, followed by the motor chasing, swaying, the dilapidated street, and the passers-by, all of which had nothing to do with them , are gradually and lightly across the screen. The camera shakes, and sometimes Peony's crying and shouting expression is shot from the front. When running to the bridge, the rear camera shakes the most, symbolizing the advent of crisis. Peony turned over the two railings and looked back at Ma Ma, and then the two started a conversation. At this time, they used a front and back fight, comparing Ma Ma's panic and eagerness with Mu Dan's blurry eyes and smile that seemed to be hidden. In the next shot, the peony falls straight into the Suzhou River like a bird, and a mermaid swims and appears. This paragraph is amazing. Lou Ye has a sense of rhythm like the rhythm of music when editing, and attaches this sense of rhythm to the content of the film. For example, the scenes of running and chasing are fast and messy. There is a editing point for every street when you run. The scene of jumping into the river is long and very poetic, and the slow whereabouts make people feel the brokenness and impermanence of love and life.
Another thing that impressed the audience in this film is the description of Zhou Xun's changing clothes several times. The longest time was when Ma Ma found Meimei, and the part where she looked at Meimei from the seam was a 3-minute long shot. This long shot has two functions. One is to imply Mada's anxiety and hesitation when he thinks he has found Peony. He uses prying methods to understand the "Peony" in front of him and detect all her information to prove that she is Peony; two It is through Zhou Xun's natural performance that the audience can see the whole process of a girl turning into a mermaid, putting on her black hair and putting on blond hair, changing her secular clothes, putting on a mermaid's costume, and finally taking off her watch and walking towards the water tank. This is a very vulgar process. It symbolizes that the mermaid in life is just a plaything for people to watch, and no longer has the symbolic meaning of love. It also indirectly tells the viewer that Meimei is not a peony. In reality, the peony will not become a mermaid. Romantic imagination is nothing but water bubbles. The other long shots were when Meimei was about to leave "my" house and changed clothes at the door. "I" watched Meimei leave as a subjective point of view, and the sense of loss in her heart was revealed in the complicated and orderly changing process of Meimei. Undoubtedly, Meimei's melancholy temperament, wandering character and disbelief in love gradually penetrated into the viewers. So, all long shots have their role.
The sound effects of this film are often real sounds in reality, and highlight metal characteristics, such as car sounds, human voices, and labor on construction sites. The soundtrack is mainly composed of strings, supplemented by electroacoustics. The main melody of the passage where Ma and Peony are in love is very beautiful, and there is sadness in romance. Most of the other times the strings are empty, reflecting the monotony and emptiness of people's hearts. And Lou Ye wisely chose Dou Peng's song as the theme song, using such a cold and mainland temperament song is very suitable and the feeling of this film.
"Suzhou River" uses its unique audio-visual language to bring viewers to think about love. This Chinese-style pursuit of love can only be experienced by young people and cannot be imitated. Lou Ye constructs a bizarre fatalistic story that reveals a sense of authenticity, which is not something anyone can do.)
