Introduction: "Alive" is a feature film produced by Age International Co., Ltd. in 1994. The film is adapted from Yu Hua's novel of the same name. In the same year, at the 47th Cannes International Film Festival, Zhang Yimou won the Jury Prize for this film, and Ge You also became the first Chinese actor in Cannes Film Festival.
Alive: A Helpless Shadow Play
To be a cow tilling the fields, a dog to watch the house, a monk to beg for alms, a chicken to announce the dawn, and a woman to weave, this has been the truth since ancient times.
——"Alive" Yu Hua
"Alive" is a Chinese-style black humor film. It is based on the background of the Chinese civil war and the political movements of New China. It tells the story of a person's life experience driven by the tide of history . "In the beginning, he told us eloquently, and told how Fugui, under the guidance of history, followed the turbulent fate to accept the suffering and the ups and downs in his life. He is like a shadow puppet in the hands of an artist, manipulated and manipulated by a great artist named "History", helplessly enduring the ruthless crushing of the giant wheel of the times.
Sing a powerless shadow play
From the third-person narration of the novel to the first-person interpretation of the movie, Zhang Yimou and his team are realizing this change of person, selectively adding the special prop of "shadow puppet", which is a "thing" in the hands of shadow puppet artists. ”, shadow puppet artists manipulate shadow puppets to tell stories to the audience behind the scenes, and as a shadow puppet itself, it has no life or soul, and it is left to the artist to give it life and vitality.
In the film, the clue of shadow puppets runs through the whole time, and it also runs through Fugui's life manipulated by fate. The drunk young master Fugui wants to listen to the shadow play, the poor peasant Fugui wants to sing the shadow play, and the displaced strong Ding Fugui wants to sing the shadow play. Shadow puppet show, the crazy steel-making Sheqing Fugui wants to sing shadow puppet show... At every important turning point in Fugui's life, shadow puppets have never been absent until the shadow puppets are burned, and the shadow puppet box left behind is also a symbol of captivity The chicken of socialism, when we are still immersed in the beautiful imagination, but we are warned by the director, even if it is a good shadow play, it may not be able to make great strides into communism.
Fugui's life is like this manipulated shadow puppet, which has become a "historical" thing, being crushed and ravaged to his heart's content, like an ant without antennae, without vitality and vitality, like walking dead Usually looking for excuses and solace, in the end, after careful recollection, the more I feel the powerlessness of life, isn't this a helpless shadow play?
cry out silent grief
"Poor Fengxia, I can't say it if someone bullies her", this is a description of the mute Fengxia in the film. Director Zhang Yimou set the role of Fengxia in the film, which is also a silent expression of the director. Fengxia's identity in this film is a mute. She witnesses this special history, but she can't express it. Can only watch quietly, but can not comment.
Although Fugui, the protagonist in the film, is a normal person who can speak out, driven by history, he has lost his opinion and expression, and can only endure being bullied silently, with only helpless obedience in front of him. Not being able to speak is a form of suffering, and being able to speak but not being able to speak is not another way of expressing suffering. In the face of a bumpy fate and being washed away by suffering, he wanted to complain, but he had nowhere to avenge. He wanted to shout, but he couldn't open his mouth. At this time, Fugui is like a mute eating coptis, and there is no words to describe the suffering. All he can do is to endure silently and survive tenaciously, letting fate go with the flow and being dragged by history, and this desperate, helpless, powerless and difficult survival may be the creed of "living".
In the face of life, we are sometimes like a phoenix-like mute, who can only watch, but can't speak, can only be bullied, but can't shout, although we shout and never compromise, although we sing and never give in , but has become a silent coward again and again, that is because we simply cannot penetrate the fog of life.
Play the helpless erhu song
Previously, the Internet bragged about suona, saying that there is a mysterious musical instrument in the East, which can sing life with music, from birth to death. In this film, director Zhang Yimou brought us to another oriental artifact. It is a mysterious weapon that controls joys and sorrows. From happiness to sadness, from happiness to suffering, the erhu shuttles through it with ease.
In this film, the desolate and mournful erhu tune runs through the whole film, which is undoubtedly a major highlight of the film, and the fate of wealth is also exposed more thoroughly against the background of erhu music. The extravagant life of the feudal master is an erhu song, the road to return from adventure is an erhu song, and the back of his daughter's departure is still an erhu song..., an erhu song of joys and sorrows, expressing the protagonist from "hard to endure" The helpless change to "stoic" has become a main line that combines the theme of the story with the mood of the characters, so that the audience can vaguely see a high-spirited figure through the dark temperament of the movie.
The suona blows the tactful sorrow from life to death, the erhu plays the sadness and desolation from joy to sadness, there is no need to repeat who is the oriental artifact, and there is no need to debate who can reveal their hearts better, the appropriate tone sets off the characters Sadness, along with emotions convey gray hope, fate has been constantly experiencing misery, has become riddled with holes, but living has become the last strength.
Towards the hope of happiness
After watching "Alive", I was immersed in the dark haze of the novel for a long time. I gasped and tried to breathe the oxygen of hope. I was determined to let the storm come more violently. Click to download, I want to see how director Zhang Yimou expresses this suffering In the scene of Fugui’s family eating steamed buns together, I even found poems and fields in the distance. When I think about the film carefully, life is not only helpless every time Cowardly.
"Alive" is like a testimony to a tragic life, and various misfortunes make the expression a little heavy. Suffering is not necessarily active under the wrapping of history, and life has become a manipulated shadow puppet. The inescapable fate is unchangeable, and even hope seems to be useless. The ruthlessness and cruelty shock people, but the tender ending conveys a touch of tenderness. The passage of time has left behind the rationality of inspection, and we need to be calm in the face of the problem of relics. Excessive interpretation is a bit blunt, and it is necessary to find and find the toughness to live. We must firmly believe that beautiful things are constantly being born, and the future will definitely be a vision of happiness and hope.
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