And the name of the person I want to mention here undoubtedly belongs to this category - Wang Xiaoshuai; the same is true for the title - "Seventeen-Year-Old Bicycle". Might be too old topic.
Thinking of the first time I saw this film, I wonder if I was lucky or not, but it was probably at the age of seventeen. Later, the trajectory of life moved to Beijing, and when I watched it again, I noticed that the original English version of the title had abandoned the age limit - "BEI JING BICYCLE"; after the ban was lifted, the Chinese version also changed into a new life. "Beijing Bicycle". Overpasses, traffic lights, people passing by, signs with the word "Beijing" vaguely visible, and many deja vu scenes have to make people detached from the so-called "cruel youth" that they were obsessed with when they first watched the film, and instead focus on the city itself.
A lot of people mentioned the film and were noncommittal about whether it was heavily influenced by "The Bicycle Thief", and some were of the opinion that, at least, Anton Ricci's search for bicycles was an "outward" reflection of post-war Italy. The social status quo, while Xiaogui Xiaojian and the people next to them "inwardly" show the spiritual process of the growth of the two boys. But after all, the director also has expressions that are separated from age and region. Behind the trauma of youth, there must be a force rushing out from the inner core of the city and affecting everyone, shaking us.
Qian Zhongshu's "siege" theory of "rushing in" and "going out" is well known to many people. And when we put aside all kinds of wonderful metaphors and talk about the city entity itself, in a sense, perhaps Lao Qian's words should be slightly modified here.
There is no doubt that "people from outside the city want to rush in". It's just that it's not as easy as tearing a hole and drilling inward. The city entry permit and temporary residence permit are just the most superficial signs. After all, the intertwined integration is different from the confusion of simple machines, and more people who come with dreams, to the city, are more like the mixture of oil and water, rather than the compatibility of sugar and water.
But "people in the city want to walk in" is not always the case. Naturally, there are a lot of people who want to go back to nature today, whether it is to break through the mundane or return to nature. After all, many of them are the fantasy of busy and tired people in the world in their leisure time. In "Party A and Party B", Boss You, who is tired of eating mountain delicacies and seafood, underestimated the days when there were few noodles in clear soup. Even if people "going out", most of them want to come back. In this way, there are hardworking people struggling on the fringes, and elite elites who are exhausted at the top; the former is ultimately difficult to escape from the misery, which is the misfortune of life;
Therefore, I don’t want to comment on the “sixth generation” people’s collection of their deceased lives and their true self-expression, and I don’t want to talk too much about the so-called heavy topics of broken and dislocated youth. Memories of gray or warm colors of people hidden in the city. Among the high-rise buildings and the rushing traffic, how many individuals do not belong to it, or are we all equally helpless on this point?
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Central " and "Centrifugal" - the owner of the grocery store, who lives with "outsiders" and "marginal people" , swears at Xiaogui's bicycle. , the revolving door that makes people dizzy, and the toilet music that makes people "can't pee", it seems that "paradise" can't be described as an exaggeration; fashion, lipstick, high heels, cool when alone, proud when walking , Even if it was made up by herself, Hongqin in the end relied on her identity as a nanny to contaminate her master's glory. Fragments are intertwined, and we vaguely see the reason why the so-called "people from outside the city want to rush in" and the so-called "outsiders" "toward the heart".
These foreign people, on the one hand, do not care about many things. From the beginning of the film, the migrant workers who apply for courier jobs are questioned like interrogation, and finally Xiaogui carries a tattered bicycle through the instantly stagnant flow of people. The level of their lives and the perspective of others have not changed much. Whether it is humble, ignored or despised, this should also be the normal living condition of migrants living in the city in reality. But this situation does not prevent them from staying here and struggling to climb up, let alone the desire of more peripheral people to live in the city. After being fired for missing the car, Xiaogui kept crying and begged the manager to take him in. We have no reason to doubt the sincerity of tears. And if you magnify this sincerity, you can probably see their persistent desire to be tolerated by the entire city.
On the other hand, there are more things they don't understand. The simplest example is that too many objects in urban life are just objects, just symbols. For example, a bicycle sent to a courier is just a tool, no matter what the manager says. But Xiaogui doesn't understand that the business itself is much more important than the tool. The huge attraction of the urbanization wave is also accompanied by a large number of "desired objects". Xiaogui and his peers can only choose "the most basic means of production" as "desire attachments in modern urban space". The initial intrusion was driven by desire, but the environment in the future did not provide them with fertile soil for transplanting desire.
The "centripetal" gesture is thus constructed on their entire understanding of the city.
And their nature is too simple, just like the simplicity of this understanding itself. The word "axis" that describes Xiaogui from different people in the film should be the most incisive commentary. He is stubborn by nature, but he can't find the object of his stubbornness, so he searches for a bicycle for no reason; he is willing to be silent, but misunderstandings always follow, so he loses the car, so he is detained, so he is beaten.
At the beginning of the film, the manager told a group of couriers who had bathed, had their hair cut, and been neat and tidy in the attitude of a philanthropist: "From tomorrow, you will be the 'Camel Xiangzi' of this city..." Xiangzi, who has been widely used by many Beijingers The image of people taking Libi was originally presented in Lao She's pen as follows: "The decent, the strong, the dreamy, the strong, the great, Xiangzi, I don't know how many funerals I have accompanied others; I don't know when and where. The earth will bury himself, this selfish, depraved, unfortunate, the child of the sick womb of society, the individualistic demon..."
This is probably the misfortune of this group of "Xianxin" people.
Similarly, just because of a car, Xiaojian and his father turned against each other, broke up with his girlfriend after a short time together, quarreled with others, and was beaten all over, and he didn't even have the strength to stand. Of course, sometimes there is the excitement of playing tricks on the bicycle, the wonderful encounters caused by the car, the gorgeousness of the amusement hall, and the righteousness of the brotherhood. But the messy interspersed between the two still makes it difficult for people to relax in the happiness of dismemberment.
When talking about "Xiao Wu", Jia Zhangke mentioned the issue of "edge or center", talked about the fate that "people on the edge" should have, and talked about the inseparable connection between "edge" and "center". The "centrifugation" of the so-called "marginal people" is not a subjective thing after all. The sprouting of desire is expanding under the optical fiber of the city, which is inevitable for everyone. However, when there is a slight conflict between the way their life instincts are released and the urban operating system, they will be quickly thrown out at some point and lost outside the picture of urban civilization.
There are two details in the film. One is that Xiaojian sat alone on the roof of the roof after a conflict with his father. The younger sister brought by the stepmother came to comfort him. A child who had just been admitted to a key middle school spoke mechanically like an endorsement. I don't know if it was intentional or what. But the anachronistic, almost comical tone of voice makes people feel sour. Just like the family's tight living expenses and messy daily life, they have left the normal life of peace and comfort. But what should the so-called "normal" look like?
The second is the place where children race, brag, bicker, and fight. It is a high-rise building under construction. They search for their dreams in the unfinished world, just as they look into inexplicable distances on the edge of a city.
The city is too big, and the crowds are too crowded, and the people nearby have no time to take care of this group of people who are wandering around the outer edge. Therefore, there is the perfect excuse for exile. And the crisis of "centrifugation" of the fathers will always be passed on to later people. Xiaojian's younger sister has achieved the key points in the test, can it really help the family get rid of the crisis of marginalization for generations? Probably not.
Of course, it is precisely because of the possibility of chasing dreams and escaping exile that this group of "centrifuged" is still wandering around the city wall, and will also run for an unfinished and unknowable life. There would also be "another, stronger commitment to modernity" that would reabsorb them into the "black hole of urbanization's desire".
This is probably the sadness of this group of "centrifuged" people.
In a sense, the two groups seem to be very similar. "Marginal people" undoubtedly have the characteristics of "centripetal", while "outsiders" have more reasons for "eccentricity". Many people are willing to put them on the same level, and use them to express the helplessness of "urban drifting" or the difficulty of "breaking out of the center". But in essence, their detachment and persistence are not exactly the same.
The little nobles are frustrated because of "ignorance" and excited because of "ignorance". The enthusiasm of the newcomers is transferred to their full identification with the city and is slightly naive, and even after some time, they still do not really understand the whole world outside some material entities of the simplest reality. The boss of the express delivery company pointed to the dense color blocks and lines on the map of Beijing, and ordered the group of people who lived by bicycles to clearly remember every lane and street corner. But even if they can measure every corner of the city with wheels and even their feet, they can only accept pure happiness or inexplicable punishment. It is precisely because of this that they can still run stubbornly and happily after the tangible and intangible rejection, towards the most core direction in their hearts. Just like what the grocery stall owner said when he peered into Hongqin's indifferent and detached eyes behind the floor-to-ceiling glass from a corner: "If I want to live in such a good house, I will drink sugar water, brown sugar water every day; three meals a day, one meal at a time. Rib noodles." After all, they're an easy-to-satisfy bunch.
While Xiaojian lives in front of clear memories and a sober reality, teenage children will all accuse adults of repeatedly breaking their promises over the years, and a father's slap in the face is a disgraceful anger and an unanswerable helplessness. Of course, young children can still simply imagine and look forward to a certain period of happiness, such as the simple love that misses the first kiss, such as the dashing and handsome man who spins the wheel. But Xiaojian's gray-yellow and desolate eyes on the rooftop can almost let us extend the aging and helplessness in his father's expression through time and space. Likewise, their premonitions of pain and injury are clear and numb. At the end of the film, Xiaojian shoots a brick to steal his girlfriend's big joy, and naturally he can think of his inevitable fistfight after this. Much like when Wang Xiaoshuai missed the past, he even mentioned the memory of waiting for his head to bleed peacefully after fighting and beating bricks. And in this section, Xiao Gui also suffered inexplicably. It's just that this encounter between him and the bicycle was probably something he couldn't imagine before, and he couldn't understand it for a long time after that. Just like in the end, picking up a bicycle and walking alone, no one knows where he is going.
And such two groups were pulled together by a bicycle in the film, to be precise, "stealed". But several times of theft, disappearance and re-recovery are not the same. For Xiaojian, the car was not stolen, but bought at the flea market; the money was not stolen because he should control the money he bought the car; A violation of the sphere of power ought to punish the aggressor—and it all seems right. Xiaogui is quite different. He recognizes his car, but relies on a mark that no one can prove and believe; he finds the lost car and rides it, but in the face of other people's accusations, he can only say "This is mine. car”; and when Xiaojian’s group of righteous brothers taught him a lesson with fists and feet, the only thing he could do was to hold the bicycle and howl, even if others were fair and offered to exchange money for a car or a car for money, the condition was only Shaking his head - he was still stubbornly silent.
This difference in nature also allows us to see that even though they are at the bottom of life, the "outsiders" will still look up cautiously, while the "marginal people" can still look proudly with a glance.
In the end, the little nobles will only recognize the so-called difference between the so-called city and the city, just like the three meals a day of brown sugar water ribs noodles and cocktail French food can be basically classified into the same category; no matter who is applied to, high heels The noise from far and near was enough to make them nervous. Because they can touch the lower edge of the city and never know where the upper limit is. It is as if the atmosphere several kilometers above the ground and the vast galaxy in outer space belong to the sky in our eyes.
And Xiaojian can finally find comfort in the ignorant look of "outsiders". Also facing a bicycle, he and his companions can also stand up in front of the weak and unpretentious Xiaogui. One of his brothers said indignantly, "We've never suffered from this." Obviously, not only because of the matter itself, but also because of the object of the act.
On a high-rise building under construction, a city child handed Xiaogui a cigarette, and looked at him contemptuously until he was unable to say a word. But later, it was also a cigarette. In the dank rainy season, Da Huan, who was holding an umbrella, used almost the same gesture and expression to stuff Xiao Jian, who was soaked all over his body. Not much difference.
The main theme of the jump sounded again. We saw Xiaogui galloping on the streets of Beijing as always, and a shallow smile gradually climbed up his face with confidence. This is almost the only shot of him in the film. .
On the same bicycle, the short soothing and long tone like the boy's love, together with the sunshine, the school uniform waving in Xiao Jian's hand and the expression on his face, were so bright that people's hearts would be happy. This also seems to be one of the few bright spots in the film.
The luck and misfortune of the two children have both found a connection on the bicycle. The former, it seems, was cut down by the stingy director without pity. Therefore, many people find cruel and misplaced youth here, and, more precisely, it belongs to the memory of people of an era, and it belongs to Wang Xiaoshuai's subjective reality. But I also want to believe that outside of youth, the so-called unprovoked or peaceful suffering should be a reality that all "centripetal" or "eccentric" people can't avoid.
At the end of the film, Xiao Gui and Xiao Jian, who were covered in bruises, looked at each other and slowly got up. Xiao Gui also picked up a brick and smashed it at Da Huan's accomplice. As uncomfortable as the gore and brutal footage was, it was an emotional moment. Without words, we can see his impulses beyond his silence. Although this time, the reason was nothing but a bicycle that was smashed for no reason, and he just chose life for a simple symbol.
Burned towards the sun, frozen away from the sun, they walked cautiously and with difficulty. But I don't know if we can find hope in the end. All traffic stopped for them, I wonder if it was just a beautiful dream.
"Centrifugal", "Centrifugal" and "Center" -
who the so-called "center" in the "bottom" and "upper-class" films points to, it seems that it is not well defined, but at least, the faceless face being pulled by a group of masseuses in the bathroom The "Mr. Zhang" of the car, the mother and daughter in heavy makeup and gorgeous clothes who stared indifferently at Hong Qin after the trick was exposed, and the owner of the express delivery company who always reprimanded people and was reprimanded by others, and so on, probably all of them. It can be included in it.
The dialogues of people at different levels are placed in a special visual range in the film - although this model is also criticized for imitating the traces of the predecessors - I do not want to judge too much of the technique itself, but I want to talk about the real lives of different classes that are hidden behind "seeing" and "being seen".
The first is the peeping from the bottom to the heights.
Xiaogui and the grocery stall owner looked over the low wall, looking up from the narrow gap in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the tall building opposite, the glamorous city girl pacing back and forth proudly. But "this kind of voyeuristic behavior is not suitable for Laura Morvey's feminist 'visual pleasure' critical mechanism, on the contrary, it is more like a conspiracy of an unexpected desire between the urban simulacrum consumption system and the folk world." As mentioned earlier, they rushed into the city with the original desire and impulse, and this spy is obviously hidden in the folk world's yearning for the future of the city. Of course, when the disguised little nanny walks back and forth in front of the window and walks in and out of the store to make soy sauce and rattling her high heels, she undoubtedly finds a trace of imaginary satisfaction of noble status in the frenetic eyes of others.
Xiaogui walked into the lobby of a high-end hotel. The high ceiling and the bright metallic color of the ceiling lights clearly imprinted the look in his eyes when he looked up. It seems to herald the inevitability of this bottom-up look-up and top-down look down from the very beginning.
Then there is the vision of the upper-class people towards the rest of the sentient beings.
Almost every character with such an identity can only see the back, profile and even a simple voice-over. I believe they are not the subjects of expression, but this should also be the environment and perspective that people of different classes in the director's mind should be placed in.
At the beginning of the film, there are old or young faces, facing a harsh and indifferent voice with no face, but they are all smiling, because there is a reason for them to survive; they are dizzy in the bathroom for a long time and then take a shower in a confused way, and then What Xiao Gui was facing was a hasty conversation with Manager Zhang, who was standing sideways; while he was sleeping at the door of the company with a bicycle he found only after rummaging through Beijing. under the eyes.
The people's view of the city is usually expressed as "innocent and dramatic 'peeping'", but the city's "see" of the people is full of "doubt and oppressive forces".
In the end, these are still the grief of the people at the bottom. On the other hand, those who are unrestrained in the upper class are equally unavoidable.
Too many people live in gorgeous packages during the day, but they're all just spectators. The gentle and beautiful girl at the front desk of the bathroom is probably just a low-level girl who works and earns money to get by. Faced with a series of misunderstandings that Xiaogui took a shower but couldn't pay the bill, he could only repeat "But...you have to pay after taking a shower". The female accountant of the courier company nodded and bowed to the boss when Xiaogui and others arrogantly approached the boss. What she can point out is really limited. And the little nanny Hongqin, even if she decorates her beautiful appearance and cold expression to the extreme, it cannot change the truth of her identity. When the fantasy is debunked, her punishment is equally unpredictable. Even Xiaogui himself has walked among those noble people more than once, and once enjoyed the influence of elegant music in luxurious hotels, and once received free and thoughtful full-service service in expensive bathrooms. There are "water and oil" and "water and sugar" distinctions.
There are still many people, who can be regarded as the masters of the upper class who can instruct others and dominate themselves, but they also have to worry about the pressure of the higher-level detachment. Back to the boss of the courier company. Xiaogui lost his car and looked for it, but he couldn't take care of that important business, so the boss had to bow down before the phone to make amends. The chubby back looks far less domineering and heroic this time, which makes people feel sad. Later, he became a life-saving straw in the hands of Xiao Gui, who was detained as a car thief after rushing into the car park at night. gave us a helpless figure. Naturally, the termination of the contract without the joint relationship at the same time, this kind of indifference between people is deeply sad. But think about it carefully, these so-called upper class people, don't all live a life that is maintained by contracts. The strict and cold regulations have supreme power, and at the same time suppress the softest and weakest sincerity and compassion in people's hearts.
It seems too pessimistic to say that. But in the hustle and bustle of the city, there are hidden sorrows and sadness that everyone is not aware of.
As a background group and others the
first thing to say is the bike itself.
China is known as the "Kingdom of Bicycles", no matter how the number of people who own cars is increasing today, for most Chinese, bicycles are undoubtedly the most important means of transportation. The huge traffic flow carries the same huge flow of people slowly forward, and there is almost no difference between each person in each car. Just like the owner of a courier company scoffed at Xiaogui's idea of finding a bicycle: "How many bicycles like this are there in Beijing, and where can I find them?" can be easily ignored. In other words, even if the "outsiders" and "marginal people" who are vigorously rendered in the film, or the "upper-class people" who can't see their faces, get on a bicycle, how can they tell them apart in the vast crowd? The civilization of today's metropolis is slowly piled up by too many people, and today we seem to be learning the minimum respect; but in the final analysis, if any individual or even a small group is extracted from here, the city wall will not be able to Collapse easily.
There is such a scene in the film, a bicycle carrying a refrigerator, staggering forward under the support of three people. In the end, the car could not support the huge pressure and fell to the ground. The pressure that bicycles carry is undoubtedly something that people themselves need to face. More often, more people encounter, I am afraid it is far from staggering forward and failing to fall.
Then there are several sounds in the film.
An all-pervasive force almost makes one feel a little intimidated.
The gongs and drums of the Yangko that many people have mentioned replaced the rhythm of Xiaogui's driving, and the heavy mechanical drum beats seemed to herald the misfortune that the trip might face from the very beginning. There is another place that is easily overlooked. Xiaojian went home and squeezed into the crowded courtyard from the slender alley. The radios of each house rang one after another with morning news, advertisements, cross talk jokes of "Tiger's Mouth Reverie" and some vague "Hukou". National quintessence" singing. It naturally reminds people of the sixth set of radio gymnastics in "Qinghong", and thinks of the propaganda broadcast in "The Polearm • Girl" about cracking down on prostitution and whoring, and eliminating social unrest. Everything can be seen as a representation of the local normality of life at the time. The memories of the times evoked by the sound and the noisy life revealed have inadvertently built up an extremely realistic and extremely abstract life, full of ideological significance. Of course, regardless of whether this deliberate expression is true or pale, at least we can think about it. Whether Yangko or radio, these ordinary things in daily life flash in the camera, but they are unfamiliar and disturbing. It turns out that the purest and authentic presentation of life not only means kindness, but also indicates the pervasiveness of pressure.
And the crowd of onlookers swept by the camera.
Especially the several chases, fights, and quarrels, without exception, matched the curious and indifferent eyes of the people around him. Xiaojian ran after Xiaogui and the car, until the bicycle collided with the oncoming truck loaded with flour and fell to the ground; at the gate of the courtyard, the angry father faced his hoarse son, and finally Xiaogui got into the car and left quickly. Xiaojian cried heart-to-heart while being dragged by his father's powerful big hand; and in the end, Dahuan and his comrades chased Xiaojian, who had just gotten into trouble, and Xiaogui, who just knew how to escape, and made a quick run in the long, narrow, and staggered streets. fly over. Others stood still or gathered, watching with interest, but no one made even a single cry of dissuasion. Maybe they are used to this kind of innocuous pursuit, maybe they even like the occasional exciting seasoning in the dull, maybe they are heartbroken but they have no time to care about other people's lives after all.
In some kind of overarching terms, this is a lack of the so-called "responsibility". But think about it, this requirement is too harsh. Regardless of whether they have lived here for generations, have recently migrated here, or have lived here occasionally, even if they spend their entire lives, few can jump out arrogantly and say that they can observe the whole world, even a city. Beijing Bicycle, of course, we can read too many details of life in Beijing, but in a sense, if Wang Xiaoshuai did not come to Beijing to study after the age of 15, maybe what we see today will be "Shanghai Bicycle", "Shanghai Bicycle" Shenzhen Bicycle" and other different scenery. If you can temporarily put aside the regional cultural value infiltrated by the urban landscape, as far as a city is concerned, as far as a besieged city is concerned, those who have just rushed into the city gates, or those who live under the city walls, or those who are busy in the city, are of all kinds. , cherishing dreams, working all day, but inevitably suffering depression or numbness. Cities can't really give people what they think they are, after all. Therefore, I am afraid it cannot ask its citizens to do their best for every detail of the city. In other words, maybe we all just chose this land for one reason or another, given by our parents or by the day after tomorrow, but if time changes and space changes, maybe we can all find another place to live and live in another latitude. place. Naturally, busyness and depression, too many things that are not available are also inevitable.
It seems too cruel to say this, as if the survival of all people and the survival of the city has become utilitarian and hopeless. In fact, I just want to say that lack and suffering are omnipresent in any city we live in, even in towns and villages, and it is also true for everyone. It is futile to seek absolute domination and integration. Whether it is outside the city gate, under the city wall or in the city, people cannot and do not have to demand the absolute approval and full tolerance of the entire environment. What really needs to be in charge is our own life in the world, not the world in which we live.
References
Nie Wei: "contemporary urban folk cinema and desire drift: Wang Xiaoshuai theory", "Hangzhou Teachers College (Social Science Edition)" 2006 No. 1
Chen Lei: "From the
Ling Xuedong: "Where Dreams Are Broken: An Analysis of the Cultural Phenomenon of the Movie "Beijing Bicycle", Journal of Qinzhou Normal College, March 2005, Vol. 20, No. 1,
written by Xu Gang, translated by Nie Wei: "My camera does not Lying": Cinematic Realism and Chinese Urban Landscape in "Beijing Bicycle", "Journal of Hangzhou Normal University (Social Science Edition)", 2006 No. 1
Torrent: "Dream and Dislocation of Youth - Wang Xiaoshuai and His Films" "Seventeen-Year-Old Bicycle", "Reading and Writing", 2004-08,
"Wang Xiaoshuai: The Dream of Knife Carving", "Cool", 2006-06
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