Rio de Janeiro does not guess the train

Russel 2021-10-19 09:48:39




Even a warm film like "Central Station" has scenes of killing people on the street, showing the extent of the violence in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The three films "City of God", "Elite Force" and "City of Humanity" show the slums of Rio de Janeiro from three different perspectives: gangsters, policemen, and civilians. Together, they are a turbulent bottom layer. Panorama of the world. I have to admit that what we see in this Brazilian trilogy is completely a life outside of our experience. Violence can happen at any time. Regardless of your status, you will go on the streets someday. Crime is a way of survival, and life is an adventure. If there is a choice, no one will be willing to live a life of precarious and perilous life. The poor in the mountain town of Rio de Janeiro have no choice but to live in that absurd, absurd, and rough environment. It stands to reason that in such a hell on earth, everyone’s face should be filled with despair, suicide has become commonplace, and the air is full of frustration. However, the mental state of the characters in the three films is quite uplifting and living. The attitude is very self-contained. What makes them dance happily even in the fire pit? In my opinion, there are at least three reasons.

1.

Exuberant vitality Latin people are passionate and unrestrained. They have a strong original ecological vitality, as if there are particles of sunlight in their blood. Most of them have passionate and unruly personality, wild and reckless, extremely adventurous, exciting and crazy, pursuing Life is full of carnival, they dance samba, play football, run the dog and cock, all they play is the heartbeat. Compared with those peoples who have a long history of civilization, everyone is gentle and courteous, the Latin people are undoubtedly some "savages", but it is with such an unstoppable vitality that they can be in the turbulent area of ​​Latin America. , Survive on the land where the law of the jungle prevails.

In the three movies, the fight between the gang and the gang and the gang and the police was cut with a lot of quick footage. People moved quickly and were full of spirits. It's like a runaway competition, with the excitement of hormones running wildly. Although the scene is cruel, it is full of vitality. In "City of God" and "City of Humanity", it is described that when Xiaodouzi and Benny, Wallis and Ace made a living together, there were no sensational and miserable scenes. Facing this unpredictable world, they were not passive or flinching. They bravely went ahead and let go. There was no haze on their faces, but they often smiled and triumphantly, and finally won their own survival. In the three films, there are singing and dancing scenes, or celebrating birthdays or celebrating the winning of turf or gang party. They gather together to find joy and youth in the strong rhythm of music.

No matter fighting, earning a living, or looking for fun, they have enough energy. They do what they think of. They are always energetic and explosive. They don’t know what is called fatigue and sub-health. No matter how bad the situation is, they must win their own place. , Must declare their existence. Rio de Janeiro’s sun is fierce, dusty, and social order is chaotic. It is an active volcano. People with gloomy fire of life have no chance and no right to survive. Only these Latins, these Latins with strong vitality and strong will to life can have no worries. Fear and heartlessly roam here.

2. Superior insensitivity

Japanese writer Junichi Watanabe said that in a stressful modern society, everyone needs some insensitivity to relieve psychological fatigue and deal with the anxiety of the soul. Insensitiveness means the ability to be overly sensitive to the surrounding affairs. "Insensitive power" does not mean dullness, it emphasizes a kind of endurance to encounters, the ability to resist the outside world with a cheeky face. It is still a positive attitude towards life. Just like Li Ao said, even if you are poor, you must not forget to be poor and happy.

The people of Rio de Janeiro not only rely on vigorous vitality to survive, but also need to live. Living in a city of smoke and tigers, and wanting to live optimistically and freely, the psychological quality is naturally not ordinary. They seem to have a natural insensitivity. Everyone has put an end to self-injury and self-pity. In the collision with life, they do not have too much ideological burden or emotional burden. They can always go into battle naked, brave and tenacious, desperate, fearful, and depressed. Waiting for extreme emotions will not become a stumbling block for them. Physically unique and psychologically gifted, these people can move forward with rough skin and create a life of their own.

A Bao, the protagonist of "City of God", is a little cowardly boy. If you want to fall in love, people are after the rich and the gang boss; if you want to avenge your brother, you don’t have the guts to take a pistol beside you; you love photography and you don’t have money to buy equipment; after being fired, you make appointments with your friends for robbery, but you can’t get them. ; In short, nothing is accomplished, nothing is accomplished. His life is full of helplessness. According to common sense, he should find a piece of tofu and hit him to death. However, this person is extremely skinny, still shaking his face in the street, treating life with a rascal attitude. Although hopeless, she still has the courage to watch the sea side by side with the daughter of the police chief who has a disparate social status, enthusiastically running errands for her, and fighting for the chance to get along; although she is terribly scared, she still enters Xiaobawang’s wolf den with trepidation, for the gang The members took pictures. This man survived as stubbornly as Xiaoqiang who could not be beaten, and did not give up hope. After losing his job, he found a job to deliver newspapers. He enthusiastically asked newspaper reporters for photography skills. When the clouds were cleared, he was caught for photographing his enemies. Killed the photos and became famous in one fell swoop. In the end, the little overlord who died on the streets had been desperate since he was a child, and was also a sturdy figure who was not afraid of being beaten. The two male protagonists in "The City of Humanity", Wallis and Ace, are orphans who have been discussing life in the streets since they were young. Being beaten and chased by others is commonplace. They don't take it seriously and grow up happily. Wallis found out about his biological father and went to the door, but he was cold-faced and refused to leave, fulfilling his long-cherished wish to live with his father. Ace's wife ran away and became a single dad. This person didn't care and was still in the mood to seduce a passing woman while on the night shift at the forest range station. If these two people sigh hard for their lives, love face, and are sensitive and easy to get hurt, then let alone a foothold in the city of God, it is a big problem whether they can grow up.

In "City of God", we have seen the lawlessness of the Brazilian police from what we know about the lawlessness of the Brazilian police. Those policemen who collude with gangs and traffic in arms perfectly interpret the saying that "the police are licensed gangsters". However, when we saw the full picture of the Brazilian police in "The Elite Forces", the impulse to criticize them would cool down a lot. The police income in Brazil is extremely low, and the government also requires the police to be responsible for their own profits and losses. The weapons of those drug cartels have reached military standards and are better equipped than police. Drug dealers also frequently attack the police. Just look for it, and there is news like this: "On the evening of May 12, 2006, police stations and police officers across the state of São Paulo, Brazil, were suddenly attacked by gangsters. As of the 14th, there were 115 police attacks, all of which occurred after the 12th. In 3 days, at least 60 policemen were killed, and 1 policeman’s girlfriend and 2 passers-by suffered misfortune. On May 15, the largest gang attack on the police in the São Paulo region of Brazil was still not over, and the entire São Paulo region was enveloped. In the shadow of blood and panic." ----The miserable situation of the Brazilian police is probably beyond the imagination of the police of other countries. The economy is insecure, weapons are outdated, and life is often hanging by a thread. Under such circumstances, the Brazilian police has internal corruption, brutal law enforcement, indiscriminate killing of innocents, arms trafficking, protection fees, and banditization of the state machinery. Such chaos is not all Their responsibilities, in order to survive, their disgraceful deeds are excusable and unreasonable.

In "The Elite Forces", the police move their bodies to deal with cases, compete for territory, and collude with gangs. In "City of Man", the drug dealers want to go down the mountain to swim, and they will notify the police under the mountain to give way in advance. To enforce justice in such a situation where the police and gangsters are entangled in a situation like this is a foolish dream. However, when the state wants to use thunderbolt methods to wipe out the gangs, an "elite force" composed of police elites with no corruption records and rigorous training will be dispatched. "The Elite Forces" has a large space to tell about the training of his successor by Captain Nassimondo, who is about to step down. The training methods of elite troops can be said to be brutal and inhumane. The officers beat and humiliate the students as the first lesson; in order to punish the students who dozed off, they were given an opened grenade to hold them, and when they let go of them, everyone would be taken away. When eating, they pour the food on the mud and ask the students to eat all the food;...The hellish, inhuman training carried out by these devil instructors to the students has made the mentality of the elite policemen, The bottom line of physiology has been lowered again and again, and people have turned into complete beasts. Since Captain Nassimondo became a father himself, he was quite remorseful for his dehumanization, cruel methods, and indiscriminate killings of innocents during the mission, so he had to see a psychiatrist, but his heir must be qualified for the elite troops. Work must inherit his cold-blooded style, so Nasimondo constantly demonstrates the two candidate heirs when he is on the mission. Carrying a plastic bag with him, hedging a confession against the suspect, planting on the spot to ask the person behind the scenes, torturing the suspect to interrogate intelligence and so on. At the end of the film, Nasimondo and Matthias find the drug dealer who killed the elite member Neto (Nassimondo's more satisfactory successor). They want to execute him on the spot. The drug dealer asks not to hit him in the face, and Nasimondo Duo ordered Matthias to blast the drug dealer with a shotgun in the face. This shot allowed Matthias to complete the final spiritual experience. Nassimondo successfully trained a qualified successor with no taboo. . Matthias, the gentleman with glasses who was supposed to be a lawyer has transformed into a beast, no, a monster. Regardless of the training of the elite class, Nassimondo’s precepts and deeds, in fact, there are a lot of training content to enhance the students’ insensitivity, forget the physical pain, put aside the personal humiliation, and put the morals in the heart. Put aside the laws and regulations of the country, in order to survive in the crisis-ridden Rio de Janeiro, in order to fight crime and complete tasks, we can be cruel and unscrupulous.

With superior insensitivity, it is equivalent to adding a layer of insulating coating to oneself, which can shield many negative thoughts and prevent the fear, anxiety, depression and other corrosive bad emotions brought by the outside world from infiltrating. Make the heavy pressure not affect people's energy, dispel people's enthusiasm, and don't wear down people's hopes. Under the protection of this layer of paint, the police, civilians, and gangsters of the City of God continue their dangerous, turbulent, and full-blown lives.

3. Flexible buffering force

. Women living in Rio de Janeiro can completely follow the grammar of "Li Chun" to say: I don't want to have love in this city. Indeed, none of the love in the three films is complete. In "City of God", one of the young three heroes and his girlfriend was shot dead by the police when he escaped; handsome Schneider's girlfriend was raped in public by the bully, and the Schneider family broke down with them; Benny and his beautiful girlfriend are going to retreat together, but are bidding farewell At the ball, Benny was accidentally killed by a drug dealer who came to seek revenge; in "The Elite Force", Matthias fell in love with a beautiful classmate, but because his identity as a policeman was exposed, the two broke up in a big quarrel. In "Human City", Wallis had to leave his girlfriend due to gang fighting. The love that occurs in this city is extremely easy to be destroyed. This is a dead place for love. As for the family relationship, it is also rare and beautiful. The family relationship in "The City of Mankind" is sour and miserable and incomplete. Wallis finally reunited with his father, but his father was arrested for a crime. In the three films, only friendship is preserved and used to sing praises. Vitality and insensitivity are indispensable, but these two powers are not enough to cope with all problems. Therefore, it is necessary to find allies in the interpersonal relationship. Since love and family relationships are not reliable, then only friendship can be counted on. Indeed, The friendship in this city is testable, warm and deep. When these people who have been abandoned by God face the impact of life, their solid and permanent friendship provides a flexible cushion so that they will not be destroyed.

In "City of God", Xiaodouzi was killed in the murder case, and he was living in the rivers and lakes with his friend Benny. With Benny's mediation, the gangs can still coexist peacefully. As soon as Benny died, the murderous little bully was extremely sad. Without Benny's brake valve, he was completely out of control, so he became frantic and started to kill, which eventually led to his own defeat. The cowardly Abao also has a good friend. The two of them robbed and took pictures together, and they were inseparable. In "City of Humanity", the two iron buddies support each other. After a gang war, they put aside the grievances of their parents and left the dead end mountain together, intending to raise Ace's son Clayton together. In "The Elite Force", the two young men, Matthias and Neto, work hard with each other in the police force to conspire justice. Neto de Matias sent glasses to the little boy, but was ambushed and killed by the gang, unintentionally. After saving his friend's life, Matthias was heartbroken and his temperament changed drastically.

Regardless of their identities, the friendship established by these people is the same sincere and unbreakable, and once they lose their friends, the flexible buffer is no longer, and the parties all fall into madness and have the urge to self-destruct, which shows the friendship. How important to them. If vitality and insensitivity can guarantee a person's survival and life, then the buffering power brought by friendship can penetrate into a person's life and can change a person's destiny. The power of this spring breeze and rain has added a touch of peace to the hostile city of God, and has brought happiness to people in dire straits.

4.

The protagonist in Scotland VS Brazil "Guessing the Train" attempts to rebel against mainstream society, subverts the peaceful outlook on life and values, refuses to live under a mediocre system, and thinks existentially on the absurdity of survival, and through a friendship Betrayal leads to self-rebirth. Under the gloomy sky of Scotland, Mark and his group were depressed and perplexed, and went to the extreme of negativity, while in the scorching sun of Rio de Janeiro, those young people with energetic temperament went to the other extreme. They were sensual and fresh. Dare to fight and fight, rampage, fierce and fearless, there is a youthful spirit of youth. With the trinity of vitality, insensitivity, and buffering power, they can dance as much as they like in the fire pit. There are particles of sunlight in their blood, and they are loyal to Friendship, they don't guess the train.



View more about City of God reviews

Extended Reading

City of God quotes

  • Zé Pequeno: Can you read?

    Gang Member: I can read only the pictures.

  • [after seen his pictures printed in the front page of the news by mistake]

    Buscapé: Fuck... I'm dead!

    [cut to slum]

    Zé Pequeno: What's the name of that friend of yours who took this pictures?

    Thiago - Tiago: Buscapé.

    [Enjoying the pictures]

    Zé Pequeno: Buscapé! The guy is good!