Wild Pear Tree, 3 hours long, the narrative pace is flat, the dialogue fills most of the plot, and there are few obvious explanations; trivial daily life pervades the 3-hour narrative - just beginning to dig a well, talk to a woman and kiss, take an exam, When my father gambled, I couldn't help feeling a little dull and boring, but as the narrative gradually unfolded, my mind was drawn, and I had a deeper and deeper resonance with the characters. As director Ceylon said, people's memory secretly stores the daily life, and his films "awaken" the memory of the lost daily life by reappearing.
Controversy is a big part of it, and it comes from the conflicting values of different characters. The protagonist is a sharp, aspiring man who loves reading, literature, and writing, and does not want to just be a teacher or be assigned to a police position, but dreams of publishing his own book. He was seen as withdrawn and strange by others because he had too many conflicting values with others. He hates his father who only thinks about gambling and doesn't want to make progress. He doesn't like his mother who shoulders the burden of the family alone but defends his father everywhere. The writer who is not used to envy and wants to befriend is just a mediocre person who cares about his own situation and has no literary revenge and philosophical ideals. All interests are the first, and he is always evasive; so he often irritates others, with his sneer, contempt, and straight and fierce words, and then others will ask, do you want to provoke me? How does this benefit you? Then he will say, no, you misunderstood, I have absolutely no intention of this, I just want to discuss the problem with you. His attitude towards the world and the living conditions of the people around him can be said to be "cynic", but given the derogatory connotations of the word, it would be better to say that he is "mourned for his misfortune and angry with him."
He is a sleepy beast in a small village with high ambition and ideals. If you look closely, three-quarters of the film is arguing and arguing, which may be another reason for the anxiety, but it may also be the effect the director wants to present. It strips away all external manifestations through dense viewpoints and lengthy dialogues, and only reveals a certain intensity and purity of the essence of language. As for the film's main theme, it gradually makes you feel that "life is actually a spiral", as if all your life, no matter how hard you try to climb up, trying to escape the vortex, it will eventually slip, slip, slip, and return to the origin. I suspect that some people will be very interested in the philosophical discussion of the film itself, to list here: Is language central to writing (is writing about language)? Does a person's talent come from talent or nurture? How can one truly know oneself? Does man have free will? Will the increasing perfection of technology lead to the vulgarity and frivolity of life? What is the meaning of religion? To what extent does abstract religion change and affect people's actual life? How to deal with the relationship between different understandings of religious texts? Its spirals and discussions of philosophical perspectives might remind you of existentialism, choice-made ego, resistance to the absurdity of life; the constant struggle to climb up, with its imagery of stones, the repetition of well-digging images, all of which May remind you of Camus' Sisyphus' repeated, relentless pushing of the stone.
The grandfather said that his father was covered with ants when he was a child, so the protagonist dreams of his father who is still a baby. Just like the grandfather and angry baby in "The Yellow Bird", the repetition of the pictures in "Wild Pear Tree" shows the echo and continuation of life in the river of time; in the end it only has a pair of closed eyes of a baby and the gaze of a hanged man. Staring at the changes and constants in life, the rise and fall of human life and death.
The lens language of this film, especially the many scenes about the scenery, has a clarity that is close to poetic, and I like it very much. The transformation and pursuit of light and shadow, the rustling maple leaves and fluttering hair, the overlapping and evacuation of colors all make me feel so right. Its lens language is very layered, full, and very pure in itself. It seems to pass through layers of leaves, just to chase light, shadow, or the carefree wind. People's quarrels and daily trivialities are drowned in the great wind. At the same time, it also has some gorgeous shots, such as flying white birds and surging waves, which are very brilliant. Whenever its lens begins to capture these natural phenology, such as wind, rain, snow, time seems very quiet and slow.
The "clarification" of the lens language and the high-density quarrel in it also present a strong tension. On the one hand, there are cramped spaces, barren reality, and endlessly sharp quarrels; While trapped between the helpless triviality and the irresistible nature, the endless pursuit of Sisyphus is constantly pushing stones.
Finally, I wrote about my favorite and most moving part, that is, the protagonist's family, the value conflicts of two or even three generations, and the intricate relationship between them. There are two scenes in the film - to paraphrase this sentence: I've never seen a movie where the dialogue is so boring, and I've never seen a scene that's more heartbreaking, more genuinely romantic and sad. In the first scene, in the dim light, the mother said that she had other choices back then, and other men also proposed to their family, but the father was the most handsome, decent and talkative man among them; the protagonist was angry when he heard this. He sneered and said, "Look, since you want to enjoy sweetness, you have to pay the price of living with such a bad, unmotivated father now; the mother defended the father again, saying that other men were talking about it at the time. Money, how much money, who can bring what to our family, what kind of status he has, he is the only one who describes to me the smell of dirt and lambs, and the color of the fields; and this has not changed for him to this day; of course , that's the part we hate him now, but, at the time, he attracted me and I eloped with him that night. Suddenly being stabbed in the lacrimal gland, it is a bit like Cao Qiqiao finally pushing the bracelet into his armpit, and it is a bit like Fugui's story that his great-grandson died from eating beans; on the contrary, it is a little bit of honey treasured by treasures under thousands of bitterness.
In the second act, towards the end, the protagonist sits with his father on a wooden chair and talks about the book written by the protagonist. Father smiled and said, don't think I can't see something written about me - you didn't say anything nice about me. The protagonist is a little embarrassed, laughing and muttering whether there is no or not, and then said, there is actually a good thing, do you remember, that wild pear tree is actually a story you told me when you were a child. There is a wild pear tree planted in front of our house... The two of them reminisce about the past in a subtle and awkward atmosphere, like a bow that is not fully drawn, which makes me feel real.
The protagonist's feelings towards his mother and his father are very complicated. The mother gives him material support and spiritual care. He is distressed for his mother's troubles. ——Language is like a knife and an axe; as for his father, he despised his depravity and inability to make progress. Only at the end did he truly reconcile with his father. He knew the spiritual support his father gave him, and knew that no matter what, his own The pursuit, the ideal, and the incompatible with the secular, only the father really understands.
While watching, this film often reminds me of Dolan's "Mummy," especially the rhythm and themes, as well as the individual shot language and color scheme. I won't go into details here.
If there is only one word to describe "Wild Pear Tree", I am willing to use "clear", and the "clear" of the lens language and the high-density quarrel in it also present a strong tension. On the one hand, there are cramped spaces, barren reality, and endlessly sharp quarrels; While trapped between the helpless triviality and the irresistible nature, the endless pursuit of Sisyphus is constantly pushing stones.
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