It is the wrestling of two women, but the silent and bleak lens still shows the conflicts between the two regions, the disputes and ambitions between the two places of importance-Chen Guoxiang is chattering and ambitious, and this time there is no exception. The gender exploration, cultural metaphors, and political innuendo of "Dumplings" are intricately intertwined. The convoluted images and symbols are like scattered beads and jade. Perhaps we can ask them this way: under the translucent pink surface, they are peacefully entangled, but they are also arousing. What is the dumpling stuffing made of?
A. Sexual wrestling.
It is said that after 1997, going to Shenzhen, Zhuhai and even more inland places in the mainland to buy a mistress has become an epidemic among Hong Kong men, and even competition has become a trend; accordingly, mainland women replaced the former "provincial and Hong Kong flag soldiers" and went there. It is also a big picture for people who are engaged in the career of skin and flesh on Hong Kong Island. The social problems and tragedies caused by this phenomenon have long attracted Chen Guo’s attention. His "Trilogy of Prostitutes" (completed "Durian Piaopiao" and "There is a Hollywood in Hong Kong") obviously wanted to record this. A piece of wild history.
With such internal and external difficulties, the pressure on Hong Kong women can be imagined, and the tug-of-war between men and women has reached a fever pitch. "Dumplings" is a study of gender relations based on such a moral platform: money and sex have become the decisive factors for maintaining each other, and everyone is exhausted in the torment of desire. The audience can easily judge that women are always in a weak position in such a fight, because aging is more cruel and ruthless to them, and the rise and fall of family status and social status all depend on this. However, "Dumplings" also borrowed Liang Jiahui to create an image of a tired man-he was also afraid of the decline of his sexual ability and sexual charm, except for desperately swallowing the "hairy eggs" with unformed chickens in it, so that he could be aphrodisiac. In addition, he eventually became a customer of Aunt Mei.
There are three very explicit and passionate scenes in the movie. Producer Chen Kexin mentioned in the interview that his main purpose of hiring Leung Ka Fai as the leading actor was to complete these sex scenes, because Leung Ka Fai was "unmatched in Hong Kong" in this regard. So, what does Leung Ka Fai's special performance guarantee in this movie?
A process is guaranteed. The first act is an affair, where Leung Ka-fai is full of life and dominates everything; in the second act, Leung Ka-fai, who has a thick plaster on his leg, is seduced, facing his wife who has just ate human dumplings and became sexy and enchanting. His limbs are anxious and his eyes are blank. , Is already passive; the third act is a contest. The loser is Liang Jiahui, not the old fairy Mei Mei who is over sixty years old. In fact, this scene has been created the most detailed, from Mei Mei’s initial seducing action to Liang Jiahui's repeated requests for sexual position are full of meaning, but it may inevitably be suspected of pornography when analyzed, so I skipped it.
Obviously, these three-act sex scenes are a regressive process, about a step-by-step loss of a man's sexual initiative. The relationship between the sexes is at war in a deformed ethical atmosphere. Women make compromises or unscrupulous in order to please men, but men are by no means the ultimate winners.
B. Cultural metaphor
Bai Ling's Aunt Mei is a very mysterious character who often makes surprising words in seemingly casual nagging. After the customer, Mrs. Chen, was frightened by the bloody fetus in the kitchen, she had some consolation, to the effect that it is not uncommon for people to eat people, and it has existed in ancient times. The expressions in "Laugh and talk about thirst for the blood of the Huns, and hungry for the meat of the Hulu", such as the idiom "sleep in the skin and eat the flesh" when describing hatred of a person, and so on.
Such lines are enough to make any Chinese think of Lu Xun's thesis that feudal society is actually a history of cannibalism. This is indeed the case-the performance of cannibalism is all the source of the sense of horror that "Dumplings" as a horror film can give the audience; similarly, the reproduction of the history of "cannibalism" is also a cultural metaphor of "Dumplings" Core content.
The evil of human nature shown in this movie can be said to be the culmination: wealthy businessmen’s nature leads to the disintegration of the family, and the wife has to resort to extreme measures to restore the marriage to rejuvenate her beauty and bear the consequences; the mistress uses the fetus as a bargaining chip, and there is no money for money. Maternally sacrificed the formed child in the abdomen; the female middle school student was raped by her father and became pregnant. Under the arrangement of the foolish mother, she died of an illegal abortion. The mother was heartbroken and her husband was handed. Make and enjoy human flesh dumplings, ruthlessly use money to encourage others to have abortions. In this evil world, everyone is a victim and a cannibal. The desperate picture in Lu Xun's "Madman's Diary" is reborn through images, but this time Chen Guo has added the folly of feudalism. The original sin of capitalism, and with the help of Buddhist thinking and expressions, put forward his accusations to the current society that is eager for quick success: When eating, is it really possible to not ask the antecedents and only think about the consequences?
C. Political innuendo In the
post-1997 era, what Hong Kong people linger on is the memory of the prosperity of the past and the confusion about the future direction. In recent years, the economic recession, the disasters caused by SARS, and even Leslie Cheung's suicide and the death of Anita Mui have made some people panic that "I am afraid that this bright city will come here." Therefore, nostalgia has become the mainstream.
Nostalgia is the belief that the past is better than the present and the future is worse than the present; nostalgia is a tribute to youth and mourning for the passing of youth; nostalgia only asks about the antecedents, not the consequences.
Chen Guo deliberately set the identity of the two women, and forcefully let "Dumplings" continue his emotions in "Last year's fireworks are so much." Mrs. Chen, a Hongkonger, the wife of a wealthy businessman, and an appendage of capital, was beautiful and lively when she was young, but now she is inevitably aging, entangled in the inextricable knot of self; Aunt Mei, a famous mainland obstetrician and gynecologist, in order to become a Hong Kong I was married to an uneducated Hong Kong chef. He divorced soon after obtaining Hong Kong citizenship. After that, he lived alone, wandering between Hong Kong and the mainland to traffic fetuses that were aborted by mainland hospitals. Now stuffing, concoct dumplings that make people young and immortal. For the other fragile characters in the movie, Aunt Mei is the master of her own destiny and the controller of the destiny of others. At the same time, she is a symbolic pile of special symbols: after watching the customer finish the dumplings, Aunt Mei is I would always sing some old revolutionary songs to the other party. The one sung to Mrs. Chen was "Honghu Water, Waves Beating Waves"; on the walls of her room are some photos of herself pasted, including photos of the vigorous Cultural Revolution; She is a master of gynecology, but in fact she is also an expert pacesetter to ensure the implementation of the family planning policy; she is quite clear about the left and right. When customers come to the house and eat dumplings, they must sit on the chair on the left, otherwise she will immediately correct it.
Mrs. Chen found Aunt Mei in order to restore her youth. The restoration of youth means the maintenance of sexual attraction. The purpose of sex is reproduction. Mrs. Chen has never been able to conceive her husband's child, "I don't know why."
Obviously, the problem is not with the husband, because the husband’s lover can become pregnant. Following this line of thought that seems to have digressed, we find that "Dumplings" is also a "reproductive" fable: Obstetricians and gynecologists, women who have lost reproductive capacity, abortion, placenta and fetus, and chicks are about to hatch. The eggs, the bitter fruit of incest, the rivalry between wives and concubines. The essence of Aunt Mei's help to Mrs. Chen is not sex, not status, but reproduction. This help ended in failure.
Reproduction is rebirth, the beginning of a new round of life. For a woman, perhaps only by giving birth to her own child can she comfort her lost youth, gain the satisfaction of the present, and face the aging in the future.
The same is true for a city.
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