There have been people who have raised questions like this: If Leslie Cheung and Zun Long were replaced in the "Farewell My Concubine" and "Butterfly" released in the same year, would the two works be successful. This is an interesting and interesting question.
Personally, this shouldn't be a problem, because both of them were once regarded as the top Chinese leaders, and they are both top-notch players. In theory, the two exchange roles and operation should not be a problem. Especially after watching "Mr. Butterfly", I really feel that Zunlong is really amazing.
How can a man with such sharp edges and corners deduce such a powerful feminine charm? Zun Long did it.
In the second half, when the dragon came to the trial scene with the power of the gods descending from the earth, the face like a Roman sculpture was really a man. This kind of fine acting skills is really surprising.
However, it is a pity that compared with the excitement known to women and children in "Farewell My Concubine", "Mr. Butterfly", starring the dragon dragon who is also a big man, is far behind the former in terms of word-of-mouth and popularity, even because of the sensitive content of the film. , Especially the setting that the East is portrayed as a scam initiator and a betrayer, has made this movie largely infamous, and few people have discussed it publicly.
Frenchman Gao Renni is an executive of the French Embassy. On this day, he and his colleagues went to see the opera "Madame Butterfly." This is a tragic love story. It tells the story of an American military officer's unrest and abandonment of a Japanese girl, and finally the woman commits suicide for love. What Gao Renni doesn't know is that this story will happen to him in many years, and he will become the protagonist of this tragedy.
During the performance, Gao was completely attracted by the singing of the heroine. He was fascinated by it, and the light shone on his eyes, suggesting that at this enlightening moment, his heart was actually stolen.
At the end of the performance, he found the other party-Miss Song Liling among the crowd. She is indeed very temperamental, like a cold aristocratic young woman. Gao Xiang expressed his admiration for the other party, but was rejected by the other party with a cold attitude.
Song Xiang expressed to him the "post-colonial" complex behind the story of "Madame Butterfly", which is a cultural gaze of Westerners towards the East, even in Song's eyes, it is a kind of discrimination. If you want to see the real Chinese art , To experience the beauty of the East, then come to our theater.
Gao Renni wanted to continue the conversation, but the other party turned around and left. A well-planned conspiracy starts here.
Back home, Gao complained to his wife about the arrogance of the performers. When she fell asleep, the wife began to learn the movements of the heroine in the performance, dancing with fans and singing. At this time, the director deliberately led the camera to the mirror. This painting in the mirror has a Lacan meaning at this moment, especially for oriental people. It's more obvious when you get up.
The next day, Gao came, and Song was performing "The Drunken Concubine" on stage. Compared to Chen Kaige, an old fancier, the Beijing theater scenes taken by Westerners did look a little awkward.
After the performance, Gao Renni walked backstage, and the subjective lens that was gradually advancing here seemed to be such a Western-style spectacle.
Song was dressing up at this time. He deliberately let Gao Renni see it, but did not let the other party see it completely. This fake female and real man had a sharp grasp of male desires.
Then, the two walked on the street and talked. Song led him to the house but at this moment Yu Li refused to let people in. This seems to be just a normal step in the relationship between men and women, but after knowing the ending, let’s look at you. You will find that every step here is a lie to seduce this man.
Gorenni stayed up all night, and he wandered the streets of the city. Back home, in order to prevent his wife from doubting, Gao had to lie and promised that he would not do it in the future. But as soon as the camera turned, he came to Song Liling's house.
When Gao walked into Song's boudoir, there was such a couplet in front of the door. The first word of the couplet was connected with the word "Li Ling".
Song told him his own experience and the story of his father. His father was not welcome in the new society, and he would be punished if he lived to this day. This is the details deliberately revealed to Gao Renni. Comparing with the plot of Song being taken away later, it can be seen that these are also carefully designed to ambush future plans.
After all, his father had such a personality, he was persuasive when he suffered the same fate, and he was able to arouse Gao Renni's sympathy even more. As the so-called Lao Tzu hero is a hero, Lao Tzu is a reactionary bastard
Entering the next dialogue, Song continued to imply all sorts of male and female sentiments to Gao Renni and wanted to catch him. Gao's sentiment was repeatedly picked up, but Song used extremely high means to let it fall. Finally Gao couldn't help it. He wanted to contact Song. The two even kissed. At that moment, he hoped that the other person was his butterfly. He wanted to go further, but Song refused.
Rejection at the peak of emotions will make Gao's desire even stronger. Gao has taken the bait, and he is completely in love with his butterfly.
However, something unexpected happened. Gao's work had some problems. He received threats from his colleagues, which made him neglect his contact with Song. Song began to take the initiative to launch an offensive and continued to attract Gao's attention with letters. These letters made Gao Renni confused.
At the same time, current affairs changed drastically, and the friction between the United States and Vietnam continued. Gao was given a heavy responsibility as a result. All his colleagues became his subordinates. The previous problems were no longer a problem due to the increase in power. He had peace again. The conditions of Song communication.
He came to Song's house that night, and this time the relationship between the two people was even closer. As for how the two men were not exposed, only the screenwriter and Song Liling knew.
The relationship between the United States and Vietnam deteriorates further, and the war will begin at any time.
In the evening, the superiors came to Song’s house. The leader asked Song why he had to dress up as a woman when there was no one. He explained that in order to better complete the task, he must always play Song Liling so that he can be flawless at critical times. .
And our side also successfully learned the latest development of the situation in Vietnam.
After several close contacts, Song told the other party that he was pregnant. Gorenni was so happy that he believed it. I know it sounds totally incredible, but the story is set like this. After all, Gorny believes it, so let's not take it seriously.
In order to prevent exposure, Song made an excuse to go back to the countryside to spend production, and promised to bring a son to Gorenni in ten months.
Ten months later, the son really came, still with yellow hair! Gao Renni was so happy, he was completely crazy for Song, at this moment he did not hesitate to give up his future and divorce his wife and then take Song Yuan away. But Song refused. The world has changed. The past scenes can no longer be performed, and the scenes on the stage have also become like this.
In this context, the fate of the actor has naturally changed. Song was taken away, and his son was taken away with him. Gao Renni was very sad, his eyes were dripping blood, and he was curled up alone in the corner of the stairs like a disappointed child.
How much he wanted to save his lover and children, at this moment, he was completely hooked.
Gorenni and Song have been separated since then. In a theater in Paris, France, Gorenni in a suit and leather shoes sat in the audience watching Madame Butterfly singing loudly and tears like rain.
He may think that he is the protagonist in the play, betraying his son and lover like the American officer, but he does not know that he is the betrayed person.
After the performance, his Madame Butterfly actually came, and the newlyweds who had been long-awaited kissed wildly.
Lost, he was willing to hand over all the documents to Song to save Song and his children, but when he continued to act like this while riding a motorcycle, a group of people in suits appeared and Gao was arrested.
A few days later, in a courtroom, Gorenni, who was on trial, saw his butterfly, which was a man.
A man with a face cut completely, he appeared on the stage as if a god descended from the earth, this is the man he loved, a man.
At that moment, Gao became the laughingstock of the world, his eyes dripping with blood.
It turns out that everything is a conspiracy. In the past so many years, Gao has been playing as a monkey!
Throughout the trial, Gao was in a state of aphasia, because the immense emptiness and sadness brought about by this scam surpassed all words.
But does Gorenni know that you are a man? The judge asked
This is a mystery left to us by the movie, yes, does Gorenny know he is a man? In so many close contacts, did he really not notice it at all? He still loves his lover wholeheartedly and doesn't want to expose it at all.
Maybe what he cares about is not whether the other party is a man, but just can't stand this betrayal and deception. When he knows that everything he loves is a scam, he is completely defeated.
Gao and Song were imprisoned in the prison car that escorted the two of them together. The two talked for the last time. The sadness behind this can only be unspeakable. From the conversation, it can be seen that Song loves Gao Renni, but Gao will not forgive him. This is a complete disappointment at this kind of lie.
I don’t know how much time passed. In a closed prison, Gorny became the Madame Butterfly in the opera, became the betrayed person, and completed the most poignant and tragic performance of his life. Everyone was watching. , They don't know what will happen.
In the stern vocal music, Gao Renni told the story of his own version of "Madame Butterfly." Everyone was moved by his narration and gave applause. In this applause, Gao cut his arteries open, in pain Died in convulsions.
At that moment, under the editing of the parallel montage, Fu Song was also watching, perhaps this is Gao Wang Song watching.
With such a sad and frightening ending, the story came to an end.
Gao Renni's death was a complete despair of love. At that moment, he became the Madame Butterfly. Unlike Puccini's original work, it was a man who died this time instead of a woman. It was years of deception and betrayal that had been planned to kill him from the very beginning. For so many years, he had been heartbroken and loved by a man who had been using him from the beginning. The so-called Madame Butterfly did not exist at all. What he loved from the beginning to the end was a scam. How deep the love is, the pain can be felt. If we can understand how much Gao Renni loves his Madame Butterfly in the movie, we can understand how painful he was when he was betrayed!
Korenni’s love for Madame Butterfly is almost religiously religious. He respects everything about Madame Butterfly. Such details are everywhere in the movie. From the first time he heard Song Liling’s singing, the whole world was quiet. Now, the light hits his face. He is the center of the whole picture. At this moment, Song Liling grabbed his heart through music, and he listened piously as if he had received divine inspiration.
The second time I went again, I was invited to watch a Peking opera performed by Mrs. Butterfly. After the performance, he "dared" and walked backstage. When he saw the other party dressing up, he was very gentleman's choice not to be rude. This is an admiration for the other party. And respect.
And when he walked and talked with Mrs. Butterfly, his whole person changed when he left the other party's house. You can feel this change through subtle details. Such as the dragonfly in his hand, such as the lie he told his wife.
Gao Renni has always respected Madame Butterfly like the goddess of love. Such respect has not changed even when the two have the closest contact. He still fully respects the etiquette and culture of the other party and allows the other party to keep the clothes.
All this is the respect for the lover out of love, but he never expected that it is the respect that is most out of love that is the best use of the other party for himself! He didn't even know that he was falling into the trap that Song Liling carefully designed for him step by step.
From the first meeting, the trap was designed.
But the biggest logical problem of this film seems to lie here.
This scam is too much to stand up to scrutiny. What if the male lead is not moved by the singing that night?
Or even if he is moved, why does he happen to find Song Liling and then fall in love with him step by step?
Scams can of course be designed, but can even love be designed? What if the other person is not in love? Even if these can be achieved, why use the way of pretending to be a man disguised as a woman in one fell swoop? Wouldn't it be better to find a woman directly? Is it not easy to disguise the trick of a man pretending to be a woman? Couldn't the screenwriter think of such a flaw? Or did he deliberately design it this way?
The story of "Mr. Butterfly" is adapted from real events. The relationship between the two people in reality is indeed unusual, but this is the difference between the movie and the reality. In reality, Peipu did not approach each other in a female way. The two people are probably just confidants who appreciate each other, or even have some kind of fetters of the same sex. Two people may indeed know each other through art, but they are in a male identity when interacting. Since the screenwriter is based on other people's stories, the screenwriter will certainly not know this, but he still chooses to design Song as a man disguised as a woman. This is actually the intention of the original author Huang Zhelun.
In addition to deepening the tragic and shocking nature of the story, the reason for this is also a strong post-colonial motivation behind it.
In post-colonial theory, scholars believe that the West, with its powerful political, economic and cultural international influence, always shapes and assimilates the East in its own imagination, and stitches the East into the process of Western discourse in its own way. Therefore, when dealing with the relationship between the East and the West, the relationship between the West and the East is always portrayed as civilized and barbaric, enlightened and enlightened, and civilized and civilized.
The author wrote straightforwardly in the postscript of the original script: Under the dominance of the Western patriarchal hegemony, the Eastern world has always been regarded as a feminine female body with submissiveness, obedience, and loyalty. In "Mr. Butterfly", the male protagonist expressed his knowledge of the East and the Orientals: "No matter who it is, as long as they show great power and power, the Orientals are willing to be with him... Orientals always ask for one A stronger force succumbed. Song Liling immediately retorted: "The West has a mentality of international rape against the East. The West considers himself male, with huge guns, huge industry, and large sums of money, while the East is female. Weak, delicate, poor..." Through this passage, we can see the clear directionality of Song Liling's gender setting.
According to Western imagination, Song Liling portrayed herself as a woman, and further relied on this identity to complete the use of the male protagonist. Huang Zhelun used this gender dislocation to complete an ingenious satire of the West's actions in shaping the East. Some people even call it a story of "revening the West by taking advantage of the Westerners' Madame Butterfly complex".
Of course, these are just some of the views that have been interpreted in the original work. As for David Cronenberg, as a Westerner, he may not have this meaning. The temperament and content presented by the film still obviously have this post-colonial imagination. , The details, dialogues and tendencies that are full of the imagination of Western others can be seen everywhere in the movie. It is precisely because of these spectacle performances and the sensitive content of the film itself, coupled with the plot of the Orientals being portrayed as deceiving and betraying characters, the film has stimulated the national sentiment of many people, thus indirectly affecting the film. The reputation and status of the Chinese-speaking movie fan circle, in many evaluations, it is not even an exaggeration to call this film "notorious".
But this does not deny the artistic level of the movie. If we focus on this "distorted (non-ambiguity)" love and the tragic story composed of deception and betrayal, this is definitely a good thing that makes people feel painful and chilling. The story, especially when Gao Renni convulsed and fell into a pool of blood in a poignant voice. Who doesn't feel that his back is cold?
Regarding the other aspects of the film, the benevolent has different opinions, let's express our own opinions.
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