As an actor, Ryan Gollings directed his debut novel "The River of Lost" (2014). Although the film styles of Terence Malick and David Lynch are mixed, I still think it has something special. The construction of the story, such as setting up a stage to sing a play, should not be biased in any part. The so-called Mihe River is a small town in the past that was flooded by river water. Since then, it has become a place of misty and slumping, just like some of our country's major and third-line decayed and lonely small mountain towns.
The middle-aged woman, Billie, faces the danger of being demolished because her house cannot repay her loan, so she has to resort to financial black hands like Dave. In order to get the money as soon as possible, she can only go to the night market and star in for entertainment. She also has two sons with very different ages. The grown-up son Burns sells small money by picking up scraps of copper and iron, but he is regarded as theft by the local bullies, so he is demanding his life, which makes Burns panic all day long.
Fortunately, the girl next door, the mouse, stretched out her warm hand from time to time, soothing his restless heart with all her heart. The name Mouse is because she raised a hamster named Mark. After she rescued Burns, the hamster was stabbed to death by a bully. When the mouse told Burns about the cause of the Misty River, he wanted to dive into the Misty River to find out, in order to break the deep curse that the Misty River brought to the small town.
The movie crosses in parallel. On one side, Billie starred in a closed space. On the other side, the bully instructed his faceless subordinates to burn down the house where the rat grandma lived. On the other side, Burns went down to the river to open the gully and grab the baby and go ashore. Later it turned out to be a bully. In the end, they were able to converge.
The rich color style of the image allows the film to advance freely in heavy metal percussion and light-man songs, which creates a strong contrast and enhances the film's texture and contrast. The overall feeling is permeated with the smell of gunpowder from the end of the century. The so-called weak are like ants and the evil like crocodile. After incurable, only self-help.
The girl mouse is a bright color in the film, like a wise girl who saves a small town, guiding Burns to go forward after being lost, so far. The girl mouse said to Burns that "the way to break the curse is to expose the submerged part of the river of confusion." This shows the brilliance of human nature, that is, the goodness of human nature completely drowns out evil. And Burns's childish and cute little brother represents vitality and hope. The mouse's grandmother has not said a word since her husband was drowned in Mihe River, but repeatedly showed videos of the beautiful scene of the couple every day, but was burned to ashes by the evil fire of the devil.
The film focuses not on narrative, but on creating an overall atmosphere. I think there are not too many such movies, but fewer. Too much nitpicking is not conducive to the development of this type of film. Especially when Hollywood dominates the world, such attempts are especially precious. It is better to reveal the sinisterness of this world than to cater to it. If you ignore the darkness, then all living beings will never be able to live in peace. As a part of art, film must take on greater responsibilities. As Roy Anderson did. "Singing from the Second Floor" and "The Mis River" actually have the same effect. Although it cannot be compared with "Two", it is enough to make us happy in sorrow.
2015, 5, 7
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