character
nature Jarmusch film style may not always like the passage of a road movie images on the road, or rather abruptly poke people about the cold humor, but the characters in the film Jarmusch common . Jiamuxu is a master at expressing the character's personality in details. At the beginning of the first short story "Far from Yokohama" in "Mystery Train", a pair of young Japanese travelers met an old man who borrowed fire at the Memphis train station (the legendary musician Lu Firth Thomas), the old man asked them if they had a match, the girl understood it and translated it to the boy with a sense of accomplishment, while the boy kept squinting at the old man with a high attitude. The boy took out the lighter and fired but did not approach him, so the old man had to bend down and put the cigar up. After lighting up the fire, the boy took the lighter back into his mouth very skillfully, but he was amused by the old man's Japanese "thank you" and a gesture of "thank you" in Japanese. Several well-designed actions succinctly draw out several aspects of the character: self-protection in front of strangers, adolescent psychology to show off pretending to be cool when the fire is turned on and off, and easy-going mentality when being amused. Most of the characters in the early films of Jamusch didn't talk too much and seemed quite wary, but their estrangement was not forced by life, but some were childlike laziness and shyness, and did not know how to conceal their likes and dislikes directly.
After the two came to the hotel, there were only two scenes from the reception to the room, and there were a few jokes: the girl greeted the duty manager with "Goodnight"; the manager didn't know the price of the room before he said the price. The English girl replied "too expensive"; the doorman stayed in the room waiting for the tip after carrying the luggage upstairs, only to get a Japanese plum that the girl enthusiastically searched out. Jiamuxu’s humor comes from playing with the audience’s expectations. The simple communication that we expected to complete through normal etiquette or dialogue is easily subverted by Jiamuxu, so while giving us the stunned humor, it also draws him into his habit. Subjects that are difficult to communicate between people to be explored. These humours are also a good reveal of the character’s personality: Although there is a language barrier in this clip, if the manager tries to correct the wrong way of greeting the Japanese girl, if the girl admits that she does not understand the manager’s words instead of answering directly, if she is waiting for a tip The doorman can cough twice to attract attention in the room, and these laughter will not appear. It is the common personalities of these characters that cause these humours. They are not proactive enough. Although they are kind-hearted, they are always immersed in their own world. They don’t know how to think in terms of empathy in interpersonal communication, and they don’t know what others want. What, showing their lack of communication skills. It is their own flaws that ultimately caused the typical poor communication and interpersonal alienation in Jia Muxu's works.
The Italian woman Luisa in the second story is more passive than the Japanese couple in the previous story. As a new widow, she had to spend a day in the strange city of Memphis because of changes in flight schedules. She walked in the city, was persuaded by the clever newsstand owner, passively bought a stack of newspapers and magazines, and passively spent money to listen to a story about Elvis told by a liar, and then passively escaped from the liar. Chasing, finally happened to meet a woman who could share a room with her.
I don’t know if Jamusch is taking the opportunity to express his respect for the old Italian movies in this clip, but Louisa walking on the streets of a foreign country is somewhat similar to the Antonioni heroine, and they have the same indifferent expression. , It seems that many things have been difficult to arouse their curiosity; they are also always walking, but they don't know where they are going.
Elvis, the protagonist of the third story, happens to be the ex-boyfriend of the woman who lives with Louisa in the second story. Because the two had just broken up, Elvis, who was in a low ebb, was emotionally unstable and caused a lot of trouble with his white "brother-in-law" Charlie and his black friend Will. This section is like a separate chapter in the film. The crazy actions of the three people are all smelling of alcohol, but behind the humor there is a bit of sorrow and sorrow in the life of a small person. In 2007 Wong Kar-wai's movie "Blueberry Night", there was also a character who was abandoned by a woman and mixed up in a bar like Elvis (played by David Strezern), and in the jukebox in the bar, he accompanied him. Like the songs that accompany Elvis in this film, the songs are the soul songs of Memphis singer Otis Redding. In terms of
time and
space, the meeting point of the three stories in "Mystery Train" takes place in the same hotel, and in terms of time, Jia Muxu's arrangement of the narrative sequence has also been carefully designed. The couple in the first story first checked into the hotel and fell asleep in the singing of Elvis Presley's "Blue Moon" after sex. The Italian woman and Elvis's ex-girlfriend arrived later, and the Italian woman hallucinated in the singing of "Blue Moon" and saw the phantom of Elvis. At the same time, the panicked Elvis and two friends were fleeing to the hotel, and the same song sounded on the truck's radio.
The three stories in the three rooms together constitute the whole of "Mysterious Train". In the separate narration of the three rooms, Jia Muxu cuts the narrative with the falling asleep of the characters as the boundary, and pieced together the entire time and space as it gradually advances. The original appearance. In the overlapping parts of these stories, Jamusch selected a few moments as reference markers, such as the passing of the train at midnight, the dialogue between the duty manager and the doorman, the doorman’s boring behavior of hitting fake bugs and wearing sunglasses, and of course. The song "Blue Moon" appeared three times. These parts strengthen the connection of the three stories, and at the same time make the three stories into three variations of one theme. The constant repetition of time dispels the subjectivity of a single perspective narrative, but as we obtain more and more information at the same moment, we are increasingly confused by time. Will the deconstructed time be more subjective or objective? This question probably can't even be answered by Jia Muxu himself. Maybe time is just like the song "Blue Moon." Different people hear/get different understandings in different moods.
In addition, Jia Muxu's grasp of the rhythm of the whole movie has also changed over time. The first story with the earliest sequence of occurrence has frequent humor, and the second story begins with a scene where the protagonist loses his husband. The tone of the story is naturally less relaxed than the previous one. The third story is full of exhaustion after a short adventure, and the rhythm changes from fast to slow, which corresponds to the feeling of exhaustion of the three drunks at midnight.
The bystander
Jia Muxu almost never analyzes the characters' behavior motives and inner activities in the movie, and "Mysterious Train" is no exception. We can't read much of the pain of losing her father in Louisa's expression, and the Japanese couple was not bothered by Iwai Shunji's puberty. In the last story, the dispute between the three drunks and the convenience store owner seemed to be triggered by the store owner’s racial remarks, but Jia Muxu did not use racial contradictions as a motivation. Instead, he handled the scene like an emergency. What the store owner said It just gave Elvis a timely reason.
In my opinion, the scene in this film that best symbolizes the aesthetics of Jamusch’s film is the climax of the third story: Elvis accidentally injured the grieving "brother-in-law", and the conflict between the three was on the verge of breaking out. At this moment, the hotel doorman opened the door, and the three people looked unexpectedly embarrassed when they saw him, just like a kid who was found in trouble. The doorman didn't say anything, as if embarrassed for his interruption, he said "sorry" and left. When facing his own characters, Jia Muxu is quite similar to the doorman in this scene. Regarding the shortcomings and weaknesses of these characters, Jia Muxu never judges, nor does he use the twist of the plot to induce them to correct themselves. , It seems that any interference with them will make Jamushu feel guilty. For him, keeping a watchful distance from the characters and letting them go their own way is probably the greatest respect for them. This kind of onlooker attitude reminds me of Bazin’s evaluation of Rossellini:
“Rosellini’s scene scheduling lies between the audience and the performance. Of course, this is not as an artificial obstacle, but as an insurmountable section. Ontological distance is a natural defect of human existence."
The same is true of Jiamuxu's aesthetic attitude. He does not comment or sympathize with the characters in his works. He has never been interested in explaining what happened to them, but this does not mean that he is indifferent to these characters. On the contrary, he fully faces all the characteristics of these characters, whether they are defects or It's the advantage, it's selfishness or kindness. It is this respect for human nature that makes "Mystery Train" reveal a warm fairytale color under the distance he deliberately maintains.
Originally published in "Midnight Field"
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