In Yang Dechang's films, deliberate plots are replaced by events; this way of capturing stories is similar to some neorealist works, rooted in facts, as Bazin commented on Rossellini's " Guerrilla," said: "A fact bears a certain meaning, but it is not like an instrument whose shape is predetermined by its use. Similar to each other, they always end up showing some meaning that all facts have in common, and that is the moral of the story. It is a moral that can be understood because it comes from reality itself” (3). In Yang Dechang's films, events constitute such a polyphonic structure, and together they convey profound meanings indirectly and in an obscure way.
However, on the other hand, Yang Dechang's films have more artificial traces, and this kind of intentionally manipulated events and time does not belong to the category of realism. Solomon believes that "modernism advocates a way of telling film stories in a way that adapts to the modern view of life. Because life lacks structure, it produces unstructured films that explore the modern spirit expressed by the lives of some interesting modern characters. "(4). This point of view just explains why Yang Dechang adopts a multi-clue and non-linear narrative method in his films. This narrative method in which the stories of multiple threads and characters go hand in hand reflects the fragmentation of contemporary daily life. Similarly, in various other techniques, he is also exploring freely, not "arranging real faces, but capturing the metaphysical moment when these faces are combined" (5).
As Yang Dechang's most internationally recognized work, the movie "Yi Yi" is undoubtedly the master of Yang Dechang's artistic style, highlighting his style characteristics. The film shows the spiritual predicament of contemporary urbanites with calm brushstrokes and a soothing rhythm, forming an allegory about introspection. He pays special attention to the relationship between scene frame, space and characters in the film. The space he shoots not only represents the actual scene, but also has an expressive aspect. The figures in the city are surrounded by a frame of various buildings that become symbols of the inescapable life that surrounds them. This type of image processing is so common in Antonioni's films that his characters "often trap themselves in the geographic landscape or situation that represents their inner reality" (6). On the other hand, in order to achieve a multi-clue narrative, he uses a series of complex editing techniques, including sound montage and the use of cross-editing, connecting independent events and contrasting the fate of different characters. This article will focus on the analysis from the above two aspects, and explore Yang Dechang's efforts to give the film a form of modernity.
Space: In the treatment of space, the enclosed wall
film places special emphasis on finding the scene frame in the scene frame, thus forming a natural and easily recognizable visual style. In the space where the characters are located, there are always various lines that tear the picture. These lines come from the real existence in the space, such as buildings, bridges, window frames, etc., but also from the monitor screen, which is full of modernity. Sexual Metaphor Mechanisms. In such a picture, only limited space is left for the characters, creating an alienated and cramped urban atmosphere. Life in the city has become an eternal oppression that every character cannot escape.
Except for the deceased mother-in-law, everyone in the film could not escape the restriction of this kind of frame; whether it was Adi, Minmin or Yangyang, they were often in a closed frame, and even Adi's children were caught by B. Surrounded by a super screen and a glass box after birth. Yang Dechang used a large number of medium and short-focus lenses to shoot the scene, deliberately avoiding the use of close-up shots, so that the focus of the scene frame in the environment is clearly revealed, and the characters are frozen in the environment. At the same time, in slightly more open scenes, his mise-en-scene often places the character in the center of the frame formed by the objects in the environment, further limiting the character's space.
This approach is even more obvious when expressing a very important theme of the film - love in the city. The emotions in the film are always in a state of incompleteness, and the main characters all have missed loves, and they are still struggling to find a way for their conflicts with reality. But the film also tells the difficulty of communication in contemporary society through Minmin's story. Apart from disillusionment, love is destined to be reminiscent. Corresponding to such content, people who fall in love in the film can't ask for space. restrictions in various barriers.
The closed composition is already revealed in the opening scene. Lily and Fatty walked slowly to the open space surrounded by the overpass and the trees, and embraced passionately, and the subsequent shots revealed that this voyeuristic shot was Tingting's point of view. Here, the bushes seem to provide them with an environment full of security, but also become an enclosed space that wraps them around. The space of the overpass also plays an important role in the love story between Tingting and Fatty. Under the bridge has always been the place where Tingting and Fatty met, and where their first kiss took place, which is of great significance to their emotions. However, the deck and piers of the overpass naturally constitute a closed space, so the audience can see whether it is their dispute under the bridge over the relationship between Lily and Fatty, or their first kiss under the bridge at night, where they are The spaces are deliberately enclosed. The latter in particular, in this scene they are in the center of the frame, the deck, piers and the ground form a sloping, gradually narrowing space, and the traffic lights behind them flash dangerously red the moment they kiss. , the colors and lines in the space symbolically foreshadow their emotional ending in this scene.
In addition, the glass that does not have obvious lines on the screen also appears repeatedly in the film as a form full of meaning. As revealed by the scene of Minmin staring at the night view of the city outside the window, the glass that reflects people's reflections can be seen as another expression of the film's theme of introspection. At the same time, the reflection of the glass makes people and the city as the background appear in the same picture. The infinitely spreading city outside the window forms a sharp contrast with the gloomy reflection of people. The transparent and closed space composed of the hard material glass has become the theme of this urban allegory, pointing out the relationship between people and the city and the living state of people in the city. At the same time, for those who have intimate feelings, the transparent glass also plays the role of the wall in the film. The most typical example is the scene of the cafe that appears many times in the film, and these scenes are shot in a very different way. The camera is placed outside the glass frame of the building, and the characters enclosed in the enclosed space are photographed through the glass barrier. The metal frame supporting the glass and the posters on the glass further compress the space where the characters are located. In such a scene, the camera consciously does not enter the space where the character is located, and the glass isolates the character from the colorful city reflected on the glass, making the state of the character both depressed and alienated.
There are, of course, exceptions in the film. In the scene where Tingting and Fatty go on a date night, the closed frame is accidentally broken by their movement. The dialogue shots after they came out of the movie theater used one of the few panning shots in the film, breaking the solidified airtight space constructed by a large number of fixed-camera long shots. However, after this scene, the film cross-cuts to the scene of NJ and Ari in Japan. Although they still continue the momentum of walking in the previous scene, the space they are in is once again surrounded by bridges, buildings and wires. The rods split and they were closed again by lines. Tingting and Fatty were also quickly surrounded by people, their world ended quickly, and endless cities and various restrictions were imposed on them again.
The unexpected warmth brought about by a moving camera ended so quickly and so cruelly, this short-lived freedom instead re-emphasized the closure and restriction of the space in the film. Everyone is in such a closed wall, unable to get rid of its troubled.
Editing: Fragments and Mirrors
Compared with those realist films composed of long shots, such as the common montage in Hou Hsiao-hsien's films, the editing style is replaced by the scheduling in the mirror and the editing skills are deliberately obscured. The editing of this film is undoubtedly very obvious and style. The narration complements the multi-clue, non-linear narrative, highlighting the modernist side of the film.
In Yi Yi, technical transitions are rarely used, and the fields are often directly connected by editing. As a result, the time and space in the film are often separated by editing, and the same or different characters in different scenes are in constantly changing time and space. The extracted events reflect the ever-changing and fragmented state of existence of people in contemporary life. And each adjacent segment conveys different and even contradictory emotions and content, just as the scene of the hospital immediately after the noisy wedding, just like the conflict editing in the montage theory, the conflict generated by the different tone of each scene. Makes the film express the meaning beyond a single scene. Moreover, in the jumping of this scene, the emotions of the characters are not determined by the short-lived dramatic conflicts in each scene, but continue to ferment, approaching the structure of an endless, inescapable life.
On the other hand, when this method of direct editing of the picture is combined with the transition composed of sound, the film relies on the editing of sound to convey a richer meaning. Through the connection of the Sound Bridge, Yang Dechang presents dialogue and sound from another scene in one scene. Although the time and space of the film jump, the meaning conveyed by the sound in the film is different in different scenes. be continued. In such a transition, the sound that appeared in the previous scene in advance acts as a voice-over, creating a tension between the picture and the sound. The most typical example is the B-ultrasound image of a baby, which is accompanied by an introduction to video games with life, and Oda's assertion that "we don't know enough about people - ourselves". Subsequent clips reveal that the voice came from NJ's translator, who was translating Oda's speech. This method not only makes the two scenes that were originally unrelated to be connected naturally, but also gives new meaning to the image of the baby through the lines in the latter scene, and points out the theme of people's self-reflection about their own ignorance.
In addition, the cross-cutting technique common in Hollywood films to enhance the tension of the narrative has been creatively used in the film to show the similar emotional destiny between different characters, forming two generations. an almost mirror-like structure in between. When father NJ went to Japan to reunite with his first love, Ari, daughter Tingting was also on her only date. The camera switched back and forth between the two groups, subtly comparing the feelings of father and daughter. When Tingting and Fatty were waiting for the red light at the intersection after watching the movie, her father was walking towards the railway crossing with Ari, recalling the past; when the camera cut back to Tingting who was waiting for the red light, her father was talking about the memories of watching a movie and holding hands , the cross-editing also uses sound to connect the two scenes, making the father's voice-over seem to directly explain the emotions of Tingting and Fatty, closely linking different characters together, giving the film a reincarnation-like mirror structure.
Through a direct and complicated editing style that is compatible with the narrative, the film successfully depicts a picture of all living beings in a contemporary city, which not only expresses the atomized and fragmented existence of people, but also finds a kind of traditional, A fatalistic mirror structure. It belongs to the modern editing style, so it has sneaked into the blood of culture, showing the unique meaning of the oriental contemporary city.
This philosophical thinking is reflected everywhere in this work that embodies Yang Dechang's great efforts. He used his compassionate feelings and keen observation to tell such a story about the loss and self-examination of two generations in a contemporary city, and the success of the film is inseparable from his genius application of modern film language, whether it is the construction of space Or the processing of editing reflects his unique ingenuity. By identifying the aesthetic style in his films, we can further improve our understanding of Yang Dechang's artistic creation. And always paying attention to those things we have not noticed, inheriting the spirit of reflection and introspection expressed by him, is the best memorial to him.
References
omitted
View more about Yi Yi: A One and a Two... reviews
