A good person from the Three Gorges in the eyes of a Three Gorges person

Eleanora 2022-01-24 08:02:15

I was born on the side of the Yangtze River, and my grandmother’s wooden house has permanently become a memory of the river bottom with the Three Gorges Project. I was in a foreign country and saw a movie about the Three Gorges, which in itself made me lose my discernment. The mountains and rivers, the plants and the trees, are as familiar as the bacon of the hometown specialty that my aunt just sent, Let me lose interest in all kinds of French ham. So I can only think about this movie when I feel calm now. Jia Zhangke is from Shanxi, so he continues to write about the Three Gorges from the perspective of two Shanxi people. Although it is not as close to the social situation of the hometown as in "Ren Xiaoyao", it is more exciting than in "The World". With the Three Gorges Project as the background, it is easier to grasp a sharp sense of change of the times than in a complex metropolis. . Compared with "Xiao Wu", this movie has less cathartic climax. Despite the clues of extramarital affairs and looking for a wife in a thousand miles, the suspense is not exciting, and its excitement is not as good as the tabloid social news. This is precisely the value of Jia's films, or Jia Zhangke has found his own way of narration, not relying on plot and suspense to perfect the audience and himself, because reality has never been perfect. Perhaps the director dare not arbitrarily make up his unfamiliar life. The film does not describe the living conditions of the Three Gorges immigrants in detail, but the whole environment is successfully displayed. The real Three Gorges is just like the mottled walls and those blank eyes. Those naked and black shoulders are definitely not as elegant as in TV landscapes. All the scenery is beautiful, as light as paper money, and the life represented behind is often heavy. The economic level of the cities and towns along the Three Gorges Line has always been hovering near the poverty line. Even after the Three Gorges resettlement, many blind constructions, false projects, and even embezzlement of embezzled resettlement funds have caused the Three Gorges resettlers to sacrifice more than their hometowns below the water level. Even more frightening is that the environmental effects brought about by the Three Gorges Project have begun to appear. The extinction of the Baiji Dolphin is an example. As a person from the Three Gorges, the Three Gorges Project was once a boasting capital. "Achievements in the present age, benefits in the future", there is such a propaganda slogan on the Three Gorges construction site. But gradually, I felt a kind of vain. When I told a foreigner that we have the largest dam in the world, I didn't win much envy. It's like boasting that you have the most precious gold tooth in your mouth, but everyone knows that it is not natural. Regarding UFOs, this one has a Marquez-style magical realism. In fact, China is full of all kinds of absurdities. For example, people of all colors in movies have mobile phones, but they may not be able to solve the problem of food and clothing. For example, the leader showed off the bridge built with minzhimin paste to others, just like showing off his own plaything. This kind of absurdity may be far greater than the appearance of UFO, so the protagonist in the movie is indifferent to this, they are concerned about the survival of firewood, rice, oil and salt. More than one Chinese director tried to use extras and original ecological performances to reflect the attention to the bottom, but either used a fairy tale style The ending of the movie allows the audience who wiped their tears to forget those sufferings in the feasting after they walked out of the cinema. Either look down on sentient beings from the perspective of a compassionate God, and make the audience think that their viewing is a kind of mercy and charity. Jia Zhangke's movie puts this ambiguous concern aside, just telling you the fact that whether you watch this movie or not, whether you are moved or not, there are such people in reality and such a life. At the end of the movie, Sanming and the migrant workers will rush to Shanxi to work in a coal mine with a high casualty rate. For them, there is no hope, but one kind of misery goes to another kind of misery. The so-called Still Life is just living numbly like an object. A person who walks into a movie theater is either looking for fun or looking for truth. If he wants to feel sensual pleasure or obscene reality, then he can go to another hall, of course you know what film I am talking about. Therefore, in business, you will be business to the end, and sincere, you will continue to be sincere.

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Extended Reading

Still Life quotes

  • Brother Mark: You're a nostalgist.

    Shen Hong: We can't forget who we are.