Half a month before the scheduled premiere of "Jiang Ge Freed" in Mainland China, Quentin Tarantino Just passed my 50th birthday. People are always nostalgic in middle age. Quentin used the vintage logo of the film’s publisher Columbia in the 1960s style in the beginning of "The Rescue Jiang Ge". Attentive movie fans can notice that Quentin’s own " "A Band Apart" (A Band Apart) company name is the first time since "Pulp Fiction" was absent from Quentin's solo film two decades ago. The choice of the opening logo seems to indicate a certain change in Quentin’s style. "Jiang Ge Rescued" confirms this change: Quentin’s aura is less playful. Heart, a little more ambiguous gray.
The plot of "The Rescued Jiang Ge" seems simple and crude: In the American South, two years before the outbreak of the Civil War, the black slave Jiang Ge (Jamie Fox) rescues his long-lost slave wife. It follows Quentin’s usual B-level taste in the title, but the content has nothing to do with the Italian western film "Ginger" filmed by Sergio Corbusi in 1966, but this is also Quentin’s influence on western Italy. A joke in the history of the film: In the five or six years after the commercial success of "Jing Ge", there were nearly fifty Italian Westerns that had nothing to do with the content of the sequel to "Jing Ge". The market is flowing, and most of them are crude and third-rate productions. The sequel that is most faithful to the original "Jiang Ge" will not be shot by Japanese director Takashi Miike until 40 years later ("Sukiyaki Western", English name For Sukiyaki Western Django, Quentin has a guest role in it).
As a well-known old urchin with bad taste, Quentin will naturally not let go of the opportunity to be included in the film pedigree of "Ginger". However, "Liberated Jiang Ge" is difficult to possess the rough and fierce B-grade temperament of other "Jiang Ge" movies, because this is a Hollywood movie costing 100 million US dollars. Leading the box office star, and the constraints of commercial pressure prevent Quentin from returning to the reckless game state of "Kill Bill" and "King Kong Is Not Bad". In addition, the single-line narrative outline of "Liberated Jiang Ge" also prevents Quentin from using his best group play mode to create many interesting small characters. Therefore, how to use fine techniques to carve the story in the single-line structure, Simultaneously creating complex and interesting characters is a major challenge Quentin faced in "Liberated Jiang Ge".
Among the main characters in this film, Schultz played by Christopher Waltz is undoubtedly the one who can gain the audience's most recognition. He came to Jiang Ge's life like an alien savior, gave him freedom and tried his best to help him achieve his goal of saving his wife. At the same time, like Jules in "Pulp Fiction," he is a man who insists on his own principles in any situation, even if the methods he adopts for him are surprising. Such a character also makes his final ending unexpected but reasonable.
If Schultz is the obverse of a coin, Leonardo’s farmer, Candi, is the reverse. He is the embodiment of another principle. He represents the mentality of most white characters in the film. These people are not. Despise or hate black people from the bottom of their hearts, but have become accustomed to the deep-rooted racial order, so they regard the lives of black slaves as ill-fated. Candi is not on par with the classic villains in Quentin’s previous works (such as Mr. King in "The Dog" and Hans Landa in "Inglourious Basterds". Strictly speaking, he is not even the number one villain in the film. He has heavy makeup. The looks and sissy demeanor will make people feel harmless and ridiculous most of the time. But when someone wants to touch the racial principles he is accustomed to, his anger will make everyone retreat.
Candi’s most trusted butler, Stephen, is the most impressive character in the entire movie. He is the second-in-command in the manor, and can even sit on an equal footing with Candi in private. In front of him, Candi’s oppression of blacks It looks like a little shame. This despicable figure who used a cane to pretend to be lame in front of Candi to gain sympathy and dominate in front of black slaves reflects Quentin’s reflection on racial issues. After all, if there is no kneeling cooperation of characters like Stephen , Slavery could not exist for so long in the United States. Samuel Jackson’s brave performance made this role brilliant. As a young man who participated in the radical civil rights movement of the Black Panther Party, he was taken by the black director Spike Lee during the performance of "Jackie Brown" (1997). An actor who was scolded as a minion under Quentin, Jackson needed outstanding skills and talent to play this role, but also outstanding courage. His excellent interpretation of this role is precisely because he knows the eternal and universal relevance of this role: such a person who is enslaved by the system and order, forgets the meaning of freedom and tries to kill all hopes for freedom in front of others, Live in every corner of every era.
Compared with the above three supporting roles, the real protagonist Jiang Ge is not easy to shine. This is a character who is unsmiling and unwilling to reveal his thoughts easily. In addition to the love for his wife and the hatred for white people, we are in this role. No more emotion can be seen on his face, and the common sense of humor in Quentin's character is also absent from him. He knew that in order to accomplish his mission, he had to distinguish himself from other blacks, so he would watch his compatriots fight each other in Mandingo wrestling, or be cut off by Candie’s hounds, and always Remind my compatriots that he is "the white of the blacks." His distinguishing strategy is not much different from Stephen, but Jiang Ge's approach is only a means to save his wife, and Stephen makes this means his ultimate goal. Jiang Ge did not have much feelings for Schultz. After all, although Schultz was his mentor, he was still a white man. He also had no political consciousness. He never used words to persuade his compatriots to unite against the rule of slave owners. But his dashing back as he drove his horse back to the Candi Manor made the three compatriots who had just been freed see another possibility. At that moment, the fire of hope may have been planted in the hearts of the three blacks.
As the second work in Quentin’s subversive history trilogy, "Liberated Jiang Ge" lacks the rich texture of "Shameless Bastard" and the hearty feeling of happy enmity, but under the surly coat of its B-level film , But injected some more subtle and ambiguous thinking than "Shameless Bastard". Under the social order of a certain period, the abuse of the strong against the weak is disgusting, but is it justified for the weak to use violence against the strong under the banner of political correctness? This question was reflected in Jiang Ge, and Quentin put a cryptic question mark. Quentin, who is more than half a hundred years old, is no longer the treacherous outlaw he used to be. Now he is more like a bounty killer like Schultz. He who abides by the rules may have lost his previous vitality and sharpness, but he is better than before. I know more clearly what I want, and I gradually understand how to achieve my goals in a stubborn, perverse but reasonable way.
Originally published in "Oriental Morning Post"
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