has always been talked about by everyone as his early representative works. What I am concerned about is that it selects the traditional image of shadow puppetry, which runs through the whole film. Compared with the same classic "Farewell My Concubine" of the same period, it is a movie that tells about the life and emotions of the actors. Although their expressions and forms of expression are different, they also give people a feeling that life is like a play and a play is like life. A colorful or shattered opera; or what the people in the play have experienced, in fact, it is his life with thousands of twists and turns and ups and downs.
The protagonist Fugui
, the protagonist at that time, was a playboy in a quaint town in the south of the Yangtze River. Fugui Fugui, blessings come from all over the world, and gold and precious are gathered widely. It seemed that all the favors were gathered in him alone. After leisurely wandering around the casino, there is still a virtuous wife in the luxurious mansion to manage the housework and a lovely daughter. Although an old father would repeatedly curse himself as a prodigal son, he would only sneer when the left ear goes in and the right ear goes out: Humph. Who cares about him. It wasn't because of this old man who smoked a lot of cigarettes, how could the vast family property be reduced to only one luxurious house? Fortunately, no matter how much you lose, there is still money left. After gambling, you can be carried by the groom to the car and go home. You can hum along with Xiao Qu during the shadow puppet performance. After that, the indifference is signed on credit.
Of course, at that time, he could be said to be complacent, drunk and dreaming of death. How could he know that the class leader Long Er, who was hiding behind the shadow puppet play, looked at him with eyes that were half envious and half cunning. Fugui, like a shadow puppet on Long's second hand, stepped into the trap they designed for him step by step, without realizing it.
The second act changes overnight
After many credits, Fugui finally lost the only remaining prestigious property in the family. The old man got angry and let go. Long Er checked in proudly, stroking the carved beams and painting the building and tutting his tongue in praise. Where is the house handed down from the ancestors, which is not exquisite and gorgeous, and the style is very high? His wife, Jiazhen, was so angry that he left home, and Fugui lowered his head and cried, but in an indifferent life, he never showed sympathy for tears. Fugui, the once favored child of fate, was once banished to the mundane world. Forced to find another hut, with broken tiles in all directions, the faint candlelight in the cramped hut is like the same precarious road ahead. Fortunately, Jiazhen finally returned, and Fugui hopes to borrow money to start a new life. But "rescue the emergency but not the poor", the class leader Long Er only lent Fugui a set of shadow puppets that he had used before, as if to abandon the poor and cheap singing past to Fugui.
Fugui formed an opera troupe and began to rely on it for a living. With the influence he received from listening to operas when he was young, he could sing the last paragraph, and the emotional part also looked down and regretted it. But in the end, he started a dull but stable singing life day after day, and began to understand the warmth of human feelings. Just like her daughter Fengxia's smile, she was terrified and cautious about this world, but she was unprepared to trust.
In the third act, there is a lot of war and nostalgia
. Fate always likes to play tricks on every little person who prays for a peaceful life. Looking down at all living beings, and fiddling with one's hands, is another round of vicissitudes of life. Even for those who sing opera, their lives outside the theater are often caught up in the whirlpool of history, and they cannot turn around or escape.
In the process of singing, Fugui was dragged by the Kuomintang to join the army. The world is in chaos, and who has ever paid attention to whether you were once glorious or bleak. The world has taken a turn for the worse, and even Fugui has no room to breathe. He had to hold the box of broken shadow puppets every day and look forward to the days when he went home. "If you borrow someone else, you have to pay it back, and you will point to it to support your family in the future." The years of polishing have made him a dutiful and honest citizen, accepting realistic arrangements, and at the same time keeping every promise, even his future plans are so simple and sincere. Holding a big shadow puppet box is like holding a promise to yourself, to go home, to return other people's things, and to support the family well. Therefore, Fugui, who fled for his life with a shadow puppet box, accidentally survived the hail of bullets and became a prisoner of the People's Liberation Army. And because of shadow puppets, Fugui can sing to the PLA in the barracks. Across the bonfire of Xiongxiong, the soldiers looked forward to it, applauding and applauding along with the storyline in the play. Everyone is flesh and blood, watching other people's stories and licking their nostalgia for not returning from the battle. The plot in the shadow play is about the old man's aftertaste of the traditions of his hometown, and it is also about the pride of the happy battlefield.
In the fourth act, how is it like Chaolu
fluttering home and returning home, the short bluestone alley is turned into an uneasy worry and memory. The shadow puppet box accompanied him back to his hometown. But history did not allow us a chance to breathe, and Long Er was executed. Fugui, who was trembling as he listened to the gunshots, was also secretly glad that the shadow puppet master took his place. Then, the peasants who turned over and called the shots with their blood, widely supported the national steelmaking, and a box of shadow puppets almost became the raw material for steelmaking. Fugui sang operas for the whole town at the steel-making site. Fugui's second child, Youqing, mischievously sent Fugui tea mixed with vinegar and chili peppers, thus adding a touch of humor and warmth to the whole movie. But also in the process of acting, the bad news of Youqing's death came. The indirect murderer who killed Youqing also happened to be a comrade-in-arms with whom Fugui once died. Accompanied by the mournful singing of the erhu, the master of the shadow puppet play, once again, was mocked by the hardships and drama of living. What is performed in the shadow puppet show is, after all, someone else's story. Outside of the play, Fugui still needs a person to experience the joys and sorrows of the world, the pain of separation of flesh and blood. It cannot be rehearsed, but it is staged over and over again in the rings of life.
In the fifth act, weeping at night
The Cultural Revolution era was a period full of passion and dreams, a period full of impulsiveness and absurdity. With the idea of hitting all the legacy of the old era, shadow puppetry has not been spared, and it has become one of the insignificant funeral objects in the corner of this era. Fugui also tried to save it, and proposed to establish a Mao Zedong Thought shadow puppet propaganda team to act for everyone to see. At this time, the shadow play has become a witness and memory for Fugui. He was his silent friend in the past decades, quietly watching the trajectory of his life over the years. Shadow puppets are dead, dead in the brazier, turned to bleak ashes. But Fugui is still alive, and this generation is still alive.
Fengxia got married, and the elderly Fugui couple found a peaceful and stable home for their descendants. Like geese returning to their nests, like sunsets returning to the ocean. This is how life goes on from generation to generation. But Fengxia once again sacrificed her young life for this continuation. I can't forget the silent pain and forbearance in her big young eyes, which finally turned into eternal silence. Before I saw the flowers bloom, I was already decadent, and before I spread my wings, I died prematurely. The white-haired man sent the black-haired man, and another child of Fugui was reduced to bleak ashes under the torment of the times. But Fugui is still alive.
In the sixth act, the turmoil in the evening scene and the morning light will
return to calm, and the grief and sadness will return to the light of the cloud.
Fugui's family went to visit Fengxia's grave. Fengxia's child looked at the portrait. Is the young and moving woman on it her own mother? And mother in heaven, will she continue to smile unsuspectingly to the world because she can't speak? Mommy mommy.
At the end of the film, the child called Mantou bought a chicken and took his grandfather Fugui's hand to go home, with a golden sun shining behind him. After returning home, Fugui dragged out the shadow puppet box from under the bed. This old thing has now become a new nest for chickens. Fugui's voice came from far away from the camera, but it was already an unreachable story about the past: "The chick will become a goose when it grows up, the goose will become a sheep when it grows up, and the sheep will grow up. When you grow up, you will become a cow..." The shadow puppet box, which once held so many memories and the past, now begins to breed new hopes and a new round of life. live and grow. And what happens when we grow up is something we can't predict, whether it becomes a goose, a sheep, a cow, or our dream of realizing communism. But as long as you live, there is still room and hope.
Closing
Throughout the play, shadow puppetry is used as a means of earning a living from the very beginning to a place to shelter new life at the end. In different eras, they play different roles. This also alludes to a rich and noble life, from the young master Hua Hua, who was ignorant of the suffering of the people at the beginning, to the grandfather who kindly takes care of his grandson in the end. By delineating Fugui's life in a unique context, the dramatic and intense colors also reflect the life of ordinary people in that era in the most authentic way. The gradually aging back of Fugui can gradually fade away and disappear in time. But living itself is the only proposition that spans different eras. It can be turned into a drama and sung over and over again, and it can also allow later people to reflect on certain aspects of their soul through such a drama of life. Emotions, and thinking.
View more about To Live reviews
