(Posted on the private WeChat account Thestylus on January 17)
"Moonlight Boy" is divided into three chapters, in chronological order, from little as a child, to Chiron as a youth, and then as black as an adult, telling the story of the growth of the black boy named chiron.
The first part of the story focuses on Chiron's childhood experience. The director uses the supporting actor Juan, the protagonist's mother, and other children's bullying to show Chiron's growth environment and try to clarify the cause of the protagonist's personality.
In the second part of the story, the only emotional bond with the protagonist, Kevin, appears for the first time, expressing the ignorant emotion of the protagonist, and using Kevin as a mirror to reflect the protagonist’s psychology and the surrounding discriminatory environment. Even though the protagonist has a hearty vent and revenge, but there is social order to punish him, so you see, order and law cannot protect the weak in time. The environment has become the protagonist's hard shell. It seems that he has to hide his inner "I", leave the city, and become what he didn't like when he was a child.
So entering the third part, the male protagonist has become a muscular "straight man" wearing a big gold chain and silver teeth. After years of separation, Kevin reappears, calling the protagonist "I" wrapped in a silent shell. Back.
The film is divided into three parts, which to a certain extent caused the audience's emotions to be interrupted twice by shady scenes, and it does have the problem of diluting the emotion of the film. However, the creator has done a little bit of cohesion. In addition, three independent stories at different stages of life are expressed in three acts, and they inherit and reflect each other. The inner meaning is like a short story, which is naturally different from a long story.
The casting of the movie is perfect. The three actors present Chiron's three stages. They are surprisingly consistent in their eyes, personality, manners, ways of thinking and even temperament, so that the director does not need to explain too much. We cannot forget the "Blue" eyes of the hero. We Can be recognized immediately in the crowd, ah, this is the grown-up Chiron.
The only constant is the role of the protagonist's mother. From beginning to end, from moody to pitiful, from young to white on the temples, the role of mother is a string in the creator's emphasis on the relationship between personal growth and the environment. After all, parents are the first people a person comes into contact with in the world. The appearance of our parents largely determines who we become.
The film does not have excessive symbolic expressions of comrades, blacks, and social contradictions. We can't even see any white characters that promote the plot. Emotions, growth and changes are the true subject of this film from beginning to end. Except for the suspicion of putting too much perspective on Juan in the first part, the story, as well as the straightforward, smooth and not fancy shots, basically focus on the actor Chiron.
There are multiple main plots of the film, using continuous front and back fights to show character dialogue. In such a dialogue, coupled with the excellent performance of the actors, the audience can naturally understand the potential meaning of the text.
For example, at the end of the first paragraph, in the conversation between Juan and Chiron, Chiron asked him, "Does my mother take drugs?" "Are you selling drugs?" In Juan's two consecutive admissions, the director did not even need to show Juan too much. In the original life of this character, the little Chiron can naturally understand what kind of society he is in: a fierce-looking drug lord who has nothing to do with him, but knows how to be a loving father; and give birth to himself But her mother doesn't know how to be a mother; between the two people, there is a pair of perpetrator and victim.
In a short line, it is possible to tell such a large, complex and profound connotation and relationship between characters, probably because the film itself is adapted from a stage play, and the script has been polished many times on the stage.
For another example, in the third part, Kevin asked Chiron several times in the reunion conversation, "Who are you". Chiron looked silent and thoughtful, but Kevin was already a man who had a son and lived a stable life. The creator used the question to raise the story of the boy's growth to the level of all of us, in the form of a basic philosophical question. He did not give up on deeper themes. In this way, Kevin leaned against Chiron, bringing a sad end to the movie.
Of course, there are also the tribute to Wong Kar-wai that the director personally admitted, the overlapping ambiguous feelings, the stunning display space of the rotating lens, and the subtle use of the soundtrack. The sea, the beach, the moonlight, the look in the eyes, the calmness, the light-colored coat, the boy, the youth, the music... the delicate expressions that are quite oriental, give this western gay film a feminine, dreamy charm, without the western style, African-style direct, salty and wild. Which of the two poles is chosen, this is understandably its advantage.
By the way, the original stage play was called "In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue", an extremely beautiful and appropriate name.
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