"Alive" is adapted from Yu Hua's novel of the same name, directed by Zhang Yimou, adapted by Yu Hua himself, and starring Ge You, Gong Li and others. In 1994, the film won the Jury Award, Best Actor Award, Humanitarian Spirit Award and many other awards at the 47th Cannes International Film Festival.
The protagonist's name is Xu Fugui, a rich young master from a landlord's family, but he lost all his fortune because of his addiction to gambling, angered his father, and he himself became a tenant, living hard with his wife Jiazhen and a son and a daughter; the war broke out. Afterwards, the rich and noble were caught inexplicably and became a strong man. Fortunately, he survived the hail of bullets and returned to his hometown. After liberation, he started the Great Leap Forward again within a few days of his birthday. Although life was difficult, it was still possible. He maintained, but unexpectedly his son Youqing died unexpectedly early, and Fugui and Jiazhen were devastated; in the 1960s, the Cultural Revolution began, and the wealthy comrade Chunsheng was criticized, and her daughter Fengxia found a good husband's family, but died tragically due to postpartum hemorrhage. At the end of the film, Fugui and Jiazhen are both old and survive with their son-in-law and grandson.
From a technical point of view, the film changed the objective and cold narrative perspective in the novel, and made a secondary structure to the story from an emotional subjective perspective, which made the film more tender, and the novel was always cold and low-key. also eased. At the same time, the framing of the movie is not monotonous and dull, but colorful and full of vitality, which also adds a touch of optimism to the whole movie. Another function of the use of color is to use bright colors to contrast the paleness and powerlessness of life when a tragedy occurs. , making the plot more intense. The soundtrack in the movie is also remarkable. There is only a simple erhu that runs through the whole play. Whether it is happiness or sadness, it is all a song. Every time I reach the lyrical place, I will think of it from far and near. The endless meaning is here. It is vividly embodied in a song. When sad, it is extremely desolate, but when happy, it is also laughing with tears. It makes people feel the sour mood of fate, which is not unskilled.
As far as the theme of the movie is concerned, the movie changes the theme of the novel itself to a certain extent. Yu Hua's original intention of writing alive is not to praise the tenacity of life, nor to encourage people to pursue good things such as hope and faith in the text. The ending in the novel is that all the people except the rich and the rich are dead, and only he and an old cow depend on each other for life. The love, family, and friendship that are enough to support the existence of life no longer exist, and he continues to live tenaciously. That's why Yu Hua said, "People live for the sake of living itself, not for anything other than living." This kind of narrative about living itself seems to be Yu Hua's original intention. He is like a complete bystander, coldly narrating the tragedy of wealth and honor, without any subjective emotional color, not judging whether wealth is right or wrong, even unwilling to analyze the heart of wealth and honor, adopting a kind of "isolation style" ” narrative technique, which provides readers with such an image only through the line drawing of the character’s behavior, but does not care about the inner activities of this image at all. Yu Hua is not conveying to us his specific value judgments through his rich life, nor is he trying to tell readers how to live is good or right, what he wants to convey is a philosophical thinking about life itself that is higher than this. He wants to tell the reader what is life and what is life through words, and he is exploring what the essential form of life is, and expresses a kind of reverence for life. It is extremely difficult to express this in the film, so the film has changed the theme. At the end, Jiazhen is still alive even though she is ill. In the novel, her son-in-law and grandson, who should have passed away, are also healthy and worry-free. Although the four of them have endured all kinds of misfortune and pain, they can still sit down to eat and chat. For the wealthy here, living is full of hope. He talks to his grandson at the end, "When a chicken grows up, it becomes a goose, a goose becomes a sheep when it grows up, a sheep grows into a cow, and when the cow grows up, the steamed bun (a rich grandson) grows up, and Have a good life.” This sentence gives a warm hope. Here the ending also constructs a new theme to a certain extent, that is, as long as you live tenaciously, don't be knocked down by impermanent fate, and don't give up on yourself because of the pain of life, you will surely see the hope of living. The handling of the movie is very delicate in my opinion. I don’t think it is possible to completely restore the theme of the novel in this movie. There is a huge purchasing agent between film and literature. Even if the plot can be copied bluntly, the connotation cannot be complete. conveyed.
From the specific analysis of the role itself, Fugui is neither a wicked person, nor a loyal and good person. He is just a small person, an insinuation of thousands of ordinary people. Some people will definitely say that the purpose of this film is to reveal the changes in the social background in which the little people live through the ups and downs of their fate. It is not unreasonable to understand it as an epic work, but I am more inclined to think that the social background is only a stage for wealth and honor, the real protagonist is still the wealth and honor of singing, and the focus of the work is still people themselves. If we use the current words, Fugui is a person who has a high tolerance for pain. Although the ruin of his family caused by gambling has caused him pain, he quickly accepted his identity as a tenant. After a short period of depression, not only for the sake of Livelihood began to practice stalls, and he did not show resentment or unwillingness when facing Long Er who had calculated him. This characteristic of rich and noble character has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that he can always accept his situation in the shortest time, and continue to live without negative emotions, and even try to improve himself within a limited range. The disadvantage is that the root of this characteristic is likely to be numbness in the character. Because of numbness, he goes with the flow and obeys the tide, just like he doesn’t know why he lives, but always firmly believes that he wants to live. Sometimes This is not the tragedy of human nature. The most complicated time period in the film is the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, but I think the focus of this performance is not on the Cultural Revolution itself. It certainly reflects on the Cultural Revolution itself. Long Er was shot and so on, but this is not the fundamental purpose. During this period of time, the life and mental state of ordinary people who are somewhat numb, represented by wealth and honor, are still prominent in the face of huge social events. First of all, Fugui and others did not completely believe in the Cultural Revolution. At least subconsciously, they disapproved of some of the creeds and practices of the Cultural Revolution. He did not think it was a mistake to keep his shadow puppets, nor did he feel that Chunsheng and the mayor were at fault. So much so that they are designated as capitalist roaders. This cognition is based on the most basic human nature, which is unconscious and unconscious. But this kind of unconscious cognition in nature was quickly defeated by reason. Although he couldn't understand it, he was unwilling to fight against the government and even society. He still followed the trend, so he burned the shadow puppet and actively obeyed the instructions of his superiors. , according to the "Cultural Revolution" way of life. Secondly, although the rich and noble were in the Cultural Revolution, their thoughts were not alienated by the social environment, and they still retained the simple nature of kindness and concern. He is a dutiful little man, and his decades of life have shaped his own world outlook, outlook on life and values. This is why there is a revolution among young students When Chunsheng, the mayor, and Dr. Wang were defeated, Fugui and Jiazhen were still able to understand and help them out of human kindness. When Chunsheng has the idea of suicide, even Jiazhen, who has always been resentful, can let go of the past and use the sentence "You still owe our family a life" to arouse Chunsheng's desire to survive. Although the little people represented by wealth and honor are small and ordinary, they have simple kindness.
"Alive" is a highlight in the history of Chinese film. The reflection on human nature and the discussion of "alive" in the film can always bring us spiritual shocks and cause us to reflect and introspect. I think that's how great movies should be.
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