"My two favorite things in this world are watching Animal World and dancing."
The second brother, a real estate businessman, said this to Brother BIN, played by Liao Fan, at the party before his death. In his mouth, the "animal world" is the joy of watching animals eat, drink and fight for survival. It is a survival rule constructed by instinct. It may be the true nature of "Jianghu". After all, people are animals. Wherever there is, there will be rivers and lakes.”
After watching "Children of Rivers and Lakes", it is hard to say that Jia Zhangke's work is in the forefront of my heart. It is rumored that he does not have much time for editing and post-production. This has been confirmed in the final film shown, with a small amount of waste writing and repeated scenes. There are better possibilities, the slightly rough ending drags and rushes.
But ask if I like it, of course.
The film tells about the emotional entanglement between Brother BIN and Qiaoqiao played by Zhao Tao, which has dragged on for many years, showing the appearance of "Romantic Death History". Taking advantage of this character's situation, Jia Zhangke sang a lament about the decline and fall of the contemporary "Jianghu" born and raised in a small place. The English name "ASH IS PUREST WHITE" means that ash is the purest white. In my opinion, it is a metaphor for the word "love", which is hard to buy. The bold and passionate song "Shanghai Beach" is used as a mourning number. , has also become the best footnote of "decline". Just like the words of BIN and Qiaoqiao——
Qiaoqiao: "Is this an active volcano or an extinct volcano?"
BIN: "I don't know."
Qiaoqiao: "You say volcanic ash is the cleanest, right?"
BIN: "It's possible."
Qiaoqiao: "After high temperature and combustion, soot is not the cleanest."
BIN: "This damned place has become cannon fodder and no one knows about it."
Qiaoqiao: "You have a gun, are you afraid that others will kill you?"
BIN: "Those with guns die faster."
In the picture of the human society, the brothers poured the wine they brought into the washbasin and drank it from a cup, regardless of whether the wine was high or low, regardless of the grade of the wine. Of course, it was also mixed with Chinese-style calculations that they should not trust each other too much. . Jianghu, in their imagination and behavior, may be such a kind of boldness. It is the imagination of Go West in "The Old Man of the Mountains and Rivers", the "Lin Chong Ye Run"-style tragedy of "The Destiny of Heaven", and the righteous spirit of "Red-faced Guan Gong".
In the final analysis, the "Jianghu" that "Children of Jianghu" wants to make clear is still the spirit of letting me go free, and it is the Zhuangzi-style philosophical theme that Jia Zhangke's works have always conveyed.
Therefore, it can be said that "Children of Jianghu" is a film with very Jia Zhangke's characteristics. It is Jia Zhangke of "Platform" of "Imagining Guangzhou", Jia Zhangke of "Legend of the Sea" who walks, and Jia Zhangke of "Old Man of Mountains and Rivers" who questioned the future. It's just that the Three Gorges of the past has now become a cruise ship scenic spot, and the "Ren Xiaoyao" "Qiaoqiao, is no longer that wild model Qiaoqiao.
Of course, in the overall sequence of Jia Zhangke's works, "Children of Jianghu" seems to be a space for his own film creation. He uses an audio-visual language that is only in line with the international avant-garde art that only a few domestic directors have. His artistic creation has also entered the middle-aged stage. Instead, he does not restrain his sharpness. The narrative blend of documentary has also become more sophisticated. I saw his more "smart" inside, and greater "ambition".
This film is a fictional story, but it retains a pair of staring eyes. Qiaoqiao is not only a C heroine, but not only assumes the meaning of a fictional character. The director uses her stop-and-go process to show China in three different eras. A cross-section of society, filled with a large number of landscape displays and symbols of meaning——
Tool changes. The movie is divided into three parts in three time periods, just like "The Dead in the Mountains and Rivers". There is no obvious time mark between the parts, but they are separated by changes in transportation, communication tools and the environment. Slow iron trains, luxurious high-speed trains, flip phones, smart phones, WeChat, new media live broadcasts... Jia Zhangke has captured the rapid changes of the times, and this change forms a contrast with the protagonist of the film. In the character, the habit has changed, but the inner essence has remained;
Group portrait exhibition. The film shows and closes up a large number of group actors in the car and on the street. Jia Zhangke spares no effort to paint and repeatedly shake the camera to them, showing the images of the living beings at the bottom. A true portrayal of a large number of Chinese people running around for a living. And thieves, liars, profiteers, prostitutes and treachery, and many other minor supporting roles appear one after another, and the group presents the "crime and punishment" of this material society.
Territory depth. From Datong to Fengjie, from the high loess slope in the "Bend of the Yellow River" to the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, from Guangzhou, which is always on the lips, to Xinjiang, which is destined to be unreachable, from Shanxi dialect to Chongqing dialect... It is Jia Zhangke's consistent "mountain and river" of the grand picture.
Use of music. The continuous manifestation of discos and square dancing is a true depiction of the current state of Chinese entertainment and life. And Cantonese songs such as "A Light Drunk Life" and "Shanghai Beach" are the spiritual tray of a generation. The skewering of popular golden songs such as "Always Friends" and "How Much Love Can Come Again" has awakened the audience's memory of the times. In terms of artistic style, the background soundtrack selects the percussion sound similar to the drum beat, which increases the sense of oppression of the story and strikes out the rhythm...
Jia Zhangke is good at capturing Chinese-style social landscapes, as well as fictional Chinese people's own stories. The two have established such an order: fresh individuals are entrapped by the torrent of this era, they are powerless to change, and unable to break free, but even if there is no spring, flowers will still bloom quietly.
So, in the movie, she has experienced a thousand sails, but she has never changed. She seems to be cherishing and confronting.
Just like what Xu Zheng said to Qiaoqiao next door on the train: "We are all prisoners of the universe." Even if they are "prisoners", they will still dance their own unique dance. That kind of uniqueness is the brand of "prisoner".
From worshiping Guan Gong to not worshipping to worshiping again, from loyalty to perfidy and then to looking for loyalty, Jia Zhangke tries to show us the changes of a contemporary "Jianghu" in the midst of the times. From "Animal World" to "Cosmic Prisoner", he also showed us a freak society of "ligers and tigers in the same cage". (Sanskrit 1/Text)
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