Although I always brag that I understand Soviet and Eastern European films, in all fairness I pull the most American films. American films are novels, with strong skills, easy to analyze and easy to learn, while Russian films are poems, how to analyze poems! It's like "Looking up at the bright moon, bowing your head and thinking about your hometown." This is almost a vernacular, and even elementary school students can understand it. What can be analyzed? But this is the most awesome cultural heritage. As long as there are people who can speak Chinese, then this poem will be passed down forever. This is the power of poetry. I remember it most often, and what moved me the most are several Soviet poetry films. .
At the beginning of the month, I drove to the grassland and found the feeling of digging for oil in Inner Mongolia a few years ago. Along the way, I always think of "The Horse Pole" and Zhang Chengzhi's "Black Horse" that I watched many years ago. It seems that I also have some nostalgia for the grassland. I dare to analyze this "Horse Pole" that I like very much. Look at Russia Where does poetry in poetry come from?
set of horse poles
The title of the film "Urga" means set of horse poles. It is translated into "Mongolian Spirit" in China. Does this have anything to do with Mongolian spirit? Simply inexplicable. In addition to the animals, the horse pole has another function. When the Mongolians have sex on the grassland, they will set up the horse pole to signal the people around them not to disturb, so the film also has a subtitle "Love Territory". In the film, the horse poles represent the inheritance of tradition. When modern times roll in, the traditional way of life will change. When Mongolians don't need to have horses anymore, after they live in buildings, the disappearance of horse poles as a tradition will disappear. became inevitable.
birth and death
The grassland is infinitely vast like the sea, and time and space have lost their meaning, so Mongolian long tunes will be born in this environment. One person sings two parts at the same time, which is the loneliness of Mongolian riders on the grassland to accompany themselves. the sound of. In such a vast environment, all problems are small matters, only life and death are major matters.
The opening of "The Horse Pole" is magnificent. The film begins with the back of a woman on a horse, the prey. What follows is a moving shot that starts with the horse's eyes, then moves slowly to the hand holding the horse's pole, and finally stops on the face of the protagonist Gangba, a Mongolian hunter. The prey is riding a horse and standing on the far flat grassland, and the hunter is standing on the hill. The beautiful still shot is to emphasize the next thrilling "movement". As the hunter howled, the prey ran away in fright, and the two started chasing. A red tassel is decorated on the horse pole, and it is a symbol of masculinity. The background music consists of the howls of hunters, the sound of hooves and drums, a raw vitality.
Finally, at the end of the shot, the hunter's horse rod caught the prey's horse, and the two dismounted and continued to chase. The hunter used the horse pole to tie the prey repeatedly, and finally caught it. The two fought on the grassland. Finally, both of them were tired and ran to the yurt on horseback.
This is not a story of robbing relatives. The hunter and the prey are actually a couple living on the grassland. They have given birth to 3 children and are troubled by a problem-whether or not to use contraception. Their mother, who lived in a yurt with them, said that she had persuaded Gangba not to marry a woman from the city. For people in the old days, having children is a good thing, why do you still need contraception? Contraception is a fairly new and fairly modern everyday issue.
Gangba and his wife Badma's thrilling "grabbing" has a misleading effect on us modern audiences. The Mongolian family actually lives quite happily. A large herd of horses, and a large flock of sheep, lived prosperously. The men are herding herds and the women are weaving. The two of them raise their children together.
The Russian Sergey's appearance is on a truck driving on the endless grassland. The truck in the shot looks smaller than a horse. In front of the scale of the grassland, the horse and the car are insignificant. Driver Sergey's cab was hung with a babbling radio and pictures of his family. He was drowsy, the car pulled off the road, and Sergey woke up just as he was about to plunge headlong into the lake, taking his life.
Sergey got out of the car for activities, accidentally bumped into the sky burial, saw the body torn apart by the eagle, and fled back to the truck all the way. In the panic, the truck plunged into the river.
The appearance of the Mongols represents the new life, and the appearance of Sergey represents the death. In addition to the inheritance of life and culture from generation to generation, the meaning of rebirth and death in the film also represents the death of the Soviet Union and the rebirth of Russia. Mikhalkov especially likes the design of getting lost while driving. In "The Burning Sun", there is also a driver who asks for directions everywhere, which symbolizes the soul of Russia in Stalin's time when he didn't know where to go.
barbarism and civilization
The Gangba family has the unique hospitality of the Mongolians, killing a sheep to entertain Sergei who escaped death. The film used a long shot to film the process of Mongolian killing sheep in great detail. Gangba first pushed the sheep down, plucked out the hair on its stomach, cut a small incision swiftly, and reached in with his fingers to cut off the arteries and blood vessels on the sheep's back. The gentle hostess Badema told the sheep to close their eyes, and the killing was over. There was no blood in the whole process, which seemed no different from picking fruit. Then the whole family enjoys peeling, even the children have to get started.
There are several close-up shots of Sergey interspersed in the middle of this segment, he is first shocked, and then turns away, unable to bear to see it. This is a clash of civilizations. In the eyes of the civilized people or urbanites represented by the Russians, this is barbarism, while in the eyes of the Mongols who believe in shamanism, it is civilization. To eat sheep is to kill sheep. This is just and righteous. It is not barbaric. Civilization is not to waste, not to let sheep suffer.
Sergey, who witnessed the whole process, firmly believed that the Mongols were barbaric, while he was civilized, and would rather eat bread outside the yurt than eat meat in a yurt. The Gangba family was not annoyed, just waited quietly. The child couldn't help but want to get started. Gangba gently and quietly took the child's hand away. Sergey couldn't stand it anymore, walked into the yurt, and after a few glasses of wine, the civilized Russians and the savage Mongolians found a common topic. Sergey asked for Gamba's eldest daughter to play the accordion, and the hostess proudly agreed. Sergey put his arms around Gangba and showed a surprised and admiring smile in "The Matador Waltz", the Gangba family showed a proud smile, and finally the camera stopped again on Sergey's tearful face, it's useless here Close-up, but close-up, all the feelings on the grassland are faint. What follows is an empty shot of a full moon and grassland, with the background music changing to a pipe organ. Emotionally, the theme of this passage is homesickness, but where is this township? The accordion representing "civilization" or the moon and grassland representing "primitive barbarism"? Sergey couldn't tell.
The so-called civilization and barbarism are actually cultural concepts of adults, and children do not see these complicated things. When Sergey was washing his face, he inadvertently revealed the tattoo of "On the Hills of Manchuria" on his back. The younger son ran over in surprise and said to his sister: The words on his back are the same as those in your book! This is a wonderful design. The accordion is undoubtedly a symbol of civilization in the film. The music score has become a common language for Mongolians and Russians who do not understand the language. Killing sheep is also a common language, but one is civilized and the other is barbaric. But these are not high or low in the eyes of children, they live like this.
traditional and modern
The "grabbing relatives" and sky burial in the title can be said to be the conflict between civilization and barbarism, but the scene of killing a sheep resolves the moral judgment of civilization and barbarism. Moral judgments about what is civilized and what is barbaric on the steppe are meaningless. The problems faced by the Mongolian family are more appropriate with the conflict between modernity and tradition, and the arrival of modernity is unstoppable. Do not resist the arrival of modernity. There is an interesting man in the film, Bayato, who is a neighbor of the Gangba family. From the hostess’s words, we learned that this Mongolian has no cattle or sheep, only a thin horse under his crotch, and he wanders around drunk every day. He is not so much a person as a ghost, that is, a tradition The ghost is also a modern ghost, and he appears five times in the film:
The first time was at the beginning of the film, when Bayatu rode on a horse with a small red umbrella and sang a long Mongolian tune.
The second time was before Gangba met Sergey, he gave Gangba a banana, a small trumpet and a poster of Stallone, he said that Stallone was his younger brother in America
The third time, before Gangba and Sergey entered the city, gave the Gangba couple an egg and an apple.
The fourth time he rode down the corridor of the hotel and gave the little girl an apple
The fifth time was in Gangba's dream, Bayatu incarnated Genghis Khan, and taught the descendants of Gangba and Sergey, the two incompetent descendants.
Before Gangba entered the city, all the modern things in the Gangba family were brought by Bayatu. Every time they came, they were welcomed by the Gangba couple, and the children were even more happy. His third visit was important. He appeared when the couple were discussing going into the city to buy condoms. He gave them an egg and an apple, and the two ate them carefully, as if it was the first time. Women eat apples first, men eat eggs first, and swap halfway through. From a Christian point of view, apples represent wisdom and eggs represent rebirth. We know that Gangba and Sergey will enter the city later. The hostess Badma expects that Gangba will bring TV (wisdom) into the city. Family brings new life.
Gangba is obviously unable to adapt to the environment in the city. He is wearing a gorgeous Mongolian robe with gold trim and riding a horse on a concrete road. The surrounding factories and chimneys are obviously superior to him. Here, a long-range lens is used to express this scale. Relationship, it seems that Gangba is incompatible between the two.
The first thing Gangba did when he entered the city was to go to the pharmacy to buy condoms. All the salespeople in white coats were women. The camera moves from Gangba's face to the note his wife wrote, to the condom, and from the condom to the big, round face of the salesperson. The salesperson took the initiative to ask him if he wanted to buy condoms. He shook his head shyly and hurriedly said if he had escaped from the pharmacy. I saw a sugar gourd while walking on the street and bit one; I went to the playground and took out a bunch of money to play with a small spinning plane for an hour. I was scared enough on the first lap, and the children in the city were already fighting. Contra. Gangba is interested in things that children like, and has no concept of urban people: money, time, distance, and everything has to start from scratch.
But it is not difficult to adapt to the urban environment. Gangba, who was screaming in fright on the first lap of the small plane, soon fell asleep, and that is the case in modern times. The filming of Gangba in the city was very relaxing and interesting. The shyness and childishness of the Mongolian man contrasted with his discomfort, and resolved the conflict between modernity and tradition. He was just learning like a child, not afraid. Not resisting, even a little like it.
Sergey navigates the city with ease, drinking in the ballroom with friends and Gamba in the evenings. Russians like to talk about souls when they drink too much. Just like Gangba, who is very confused in the face of modern times, Sergey also has to face an unknown world. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, what will be the future of the world? Make some money. How much is the soul worth? Two dollars! Sergey and his friends were arguing about the name of grandfather's father, but neither of them remembered it. It turned out that everything would be forgotten. Is there any meaning to these worries and love and hatred now? Sergey got up and left, and felt wrong again, as if he saw his ancestors in a trance, and returned to the karaoke hall.
The drunk Sergey stepped onto the stage and took off his shirt, and asked the band to play "On the Hills of Manchuria" according to the music score tattooed on his back, and then sang to the audience. This is a pretty funny scene, a one-man show. Although Sergey Sergey is from the city, he is also out of tune with the surrounding environment. Only Gangba seems to understand his song. This passage is not a story about a Chinese who doesn't understand Russians, but that everyone doesn't understand Sergey. In the eyes of friends who are also Russians, Sergey is also a drunkard. In the eyes of the already drunk Sergey, he was able to resonate with everyone in the dance hall, and people danced the waltz to the music. Here is a clip of a white church on a hill. This is Mikhalkov's answer to the change. Russia's future direction must be found in the Orthodox Church. He Gangba intends to ask the lama if he wants to use contraception. Same problem with sets.
We soon learned that this passage is entirely Sergey's fantasy, quite a bit like "The Duel of Lao Mo" in "Sunny Days". In fact, what should everyone do? No one paid any attention to Sergey. He was really drunk and was soon called out of the ballroom by the complacent manager in a tuxedo. Such surreal plots appear 4 times in the film, all of which show the inner transformation of the two protagonists.
Next, Gangba went to find his friend Wang Bin to rescue Sergei together. The plot that should have been tense was still relaxing and interesting. The two rode on horses and discussed whether to use condoms. Here, Gangba is the first The second time he expressed his thoughts: Genghis Khan is the fourth child, and he has only given birth to 3 children. He has to be reborn. Genghis Khan cannot be strangled. The Mongols have been waiting for their Genghis Khan.
Genghis Khan, American Elements and Gorbachev
Gangba, who came back from the city, bought a lot of things, except condoms. Gangba sat on the grassland watching the unplugged TV, then started eating canned meat, drinking from tea bowls, and riding a bicycle on the grassland, when he was actually asleep. In the dream, Bayatu, who incarnates Genghis Khan, and Badma, who incarnates Boerte, appeared and taught Gangba and Sergey a lesson: You are Mongolians, why don't you have horses? In this scene, the TV is a very interesting symbolic prop. When the army of "Genghis Khan" was standing in front of the TV, the TV suddenly turned on and began to play the second episode of "First Blood" Stallone in Afghanistan and the Taliban Playing with a sheep on horseback, the film is exactly the story of Stallone's Rambo leading the descendants of Genghis Khan into Afghanistan to beat the Soviets. Then the Mongol army smashed Gangba's TV and burned Sergey's truck with cheers.
The meaning of this passage is very rich and cannot be simply understood as the conflict between tradition and modernity. It is an indisputable fact that the world will inevitably follow the United States after the end of the Cold War, but the image representing the United States is Stallone, a muscular man, which is a symbol of violence. Although he didn't buy condoms, Badma understood Gangba, and the two walked into the TV, representing the combination of tradition and modernity. Previously, images of Gorbachev appeared repeatedly on the TV, and a tooth extraction picture hung on the back of the TV. Badma's Stallone poster.
In the singing of "On the Hills of Manchuria", a horse pole was erected on the grassland, and the pole was folded into a chimney. The narrator was their fourth son, named Temujin, who became an oil worker.
Eagle, Moon and Church
Eagles are sacred birds in Tibetan Buddhism. In Buddhist stories, there are Buddhist scripture stories of "King Shibi used his body to give pigeons" and "Mahasattva devoted himself to feeding tigers". Giving one's body after death is a kind of charity. People eat sheep and eagles eat people. It is a cycle. When I was drilling a well in Inner Mongolia, I went to the Mausoleum of Genghis Khan. It is said that the coffin was opened, and there was no bones of Genghis Khan inside. It was a tomb. However, shamanism believes that a white camel's hair should be placed in front of the nose before the person's breath. After death, the soul will be attached to the camel's hair. It is more important to bury the soul than to bury the body. When an eagle eats a person, the soul of the person becomes an eagle. Tibetan Buddhism emphasizes "flying with the eagle's back with glory", which is also a worship of the soul and spirit.
There are many eagles in the film. The first time is when Sergey accidentally bumped into the sky burial and scared a group of eagles flying. The second time was when Sergey went back to get his hat, the camera moved slowly forward, and just as the body was about to be revealed, an eagle flew up. Mikhalkov made a little joke with the audience, but it was very consistent with Tibetan It is a wonderful design to spread the spirit of Buddhism.
The last time the eagle appears is near the end of the film. Gangba, who woke up from a dream, dances under the rainbow "Eagle Dance". This is the dance before Bock wrestling, which symbolizes the bravery of the samurai, ready to fight like an eagle. Here is a clip of an eagle, which seems to hang motionless in the sky. In the film, movement is the norm, and stillness is abnormal. The still eagle represents the eternity of the prairie spirit.
The church appeared twice, once when Sergey sang "On the Hills in Manzhouli", and once was a church ornament on the window sill when Sergey was teaching his wife about horse poles. Churches, like lamas, symbolize that in times of change, both Mongols and Russians should look to religion and tradition for answers.
The moon appears as an image when Sergey listens to "The Matador Waltz", which is a sign of homesickness, as if the moon is closely associated with the homeland in various cultures. The intention of the moon also appears in "On the Hills of Manchuria". There are multiple versions of this song, Sergey sang the pre-war waltz version, where the moon also represents homesickness.
Mist shrouded in mist
moon exposed clouds
Light up the silent tombstone
Pale cross in the night
Protect the sleeping hero
The dead souls wander forever
They speak of the people who died in the war
Gangba's fourth son
The first time I went to Inner Mongolia was because of oil digging. I drove 1,400 kilometers a day and a night to a deserted village in Wulatehou Banner to send drills to people. The village looks a bit like the set of a doomsday movie. There are only two streets in the whole village, and the only four families occupy the four houses on the street: a bathhouse, a small shop, a restaurant and a long-abandoned one. empty school. I drive a Toyota Tundra, a client drives an Infiniti SUV, and the two vehicles meet at a midday intersection. We were both bald and in sunglasses, and Infiniti walked away after we shoved a drill bit into a client's trunk, leaving me on the deserted street. That scene really should have been filmed, like a gangster movie, like a Western.
After the delivery, I went to eat at the fake yurt restaurant. Although the yurt is made of cement, the Sulu ingot standing at the door is a real guy. There is a cross-stitch of Genghis Khan hanging in the room. It seems that they have been waiting for a new Genghis Khan. The owner's family has a Mongolian big round face, and they are not very fluent in Chinese. His daughter is fat, wearing a Taobao T-shirt, and constantly swiping Taobao. There is only one dish in the store, which is the meat in the hands. After ordering, I kept pouring salty milk tea from the thermos, but I still couldn't stand the sleepiness and fell asleep on the sofa. I didn't dream of Genghis Khan. After waking up, I ate a big meal of mutton, and when I walked out the door, I felt the scorching sun, and I was too tired to move. I think the boss may be Gangba's fourth son, or I may be Gangba's fourth son.
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