(Text/Ghost Foot Seven)
As a "road film" mixed with youth growth and ridiculous reflection, "Catch the Barbarians" has gained a good reputation for its not-new story themes and a step-by-step rhythm. It seems that all this can be attributed to the unique New Zealand flavor of comedy. The style, and the "Little Black Fatty" protagonist actually performed. Indeed, "Hunting the Barbarians" is a case in point. It uses a "non-Hollywood" method to copy a traditional genre story. Behind the seemingly absurd story, it still tells the warm feelings of returning to the family. The journey, what the film touches us, is still the optimism and courage to live in a barren life.
The protagonist of the film, Ricky, is a complete "bear boy". He did all the bad things he could do at his age. In the end, he was almost kicked by the welfare agency to the homes of Heck and Bella who wanted to adopt a child. In the face of Ricky’s rebellious personality, Bella’s mother-like care and Hekyan’s paternal indifference complement each other, which seems to make people think that this story will end with a reunion that the family understands each other after a laugh. After all, this is a routine we are familiar with. But "Hunting the Barbarians" turns the story of a family comedy used in Hollywood into an absurd adventure. With Bella's unexpected death, two men, one old and one young, have to face the reality that they must live together. The indifferent Heck plans to send Ricky back to the welfare agency, but for Ricky, who has just felt the warmth of the family, returning to the welfare agency is undoubtedly the worst outcome. So this little fat man who had watched too many adventure stories and was full of inner drama decided to fake his "death scene" and then began to wander alone. He may realize in his heart that even burying his body in the jungle is better than being treated as a burden in the indifferent and rigid welfare institution. The gangster stories and adventure legends that Ricky is passionate about have become his guidelines in reality. The male dignity of "I would rather stand to die than kneel to live" was looming in this little boy. The act of running away from home may be just a farce of the child's rebellious character in the adult world, but for Ricky, it is undoubtedly a destiny decision related to life and death. It was precisely through the twists and turns on this journey that he had chosen that Ricky finally got rid of his identity as a "bear kid" and grew from a "little black fat man" to a "sensible little black fat man". "Hunting the Barbarians" is just such a growth film in the first sense. A child who has nothing in this world must also face the process of growing up, and must also walk out of the forest and fog in the process of groping alone. This process is full of crisis and Unknown, and Ricky's luck is that he at least has Heck as a company.
In the film, as Ricky ran away from home, Heck also embarked on a journey to find Ricky. This was originally just an easy journey trying to establish a father-son relationship, but under the misunderstanding of coincidence, it became full of misunderstandings. A thrilling escape with adventure and excitement. In a sense, "Hunting the Barbarians" still follows the usual paradigm of similar movies: Heck taught Ricky the skills of survival in the forest, and Ricky also used his unpolluted childlike innocence to impress his life. Heck was already numb, and at the same time, although the two men had very different personalities, ages, and no blood relationship, they were tightly held together by the same emotions. It was Bella's sudden death. Heck lost his wife and Ricky lost the maternal love they had just touched. They were enveloped in similar feelings of loss and sadness, which became the deepest resonance between them. But it was on this point that they also stalemate almost the entire film, whether they think they are "gangsters", Ricky who fantasizes about adventure, or Heck who is cold, stubborn and grotesque, they are unwilling to be Acknowledge your emotional weakness in the face of the other person. So what we saw was the adventure story of these two men who were "abandoned" by Bella in this world, pretending to be "I'm fine without Bella". In the film, their bickering, spitting, and arguing are actually rooted in this "cute and ridiculous stubbornness". Until the end of the film, as Ricky missed and shot Heck by accident, they wanted The tense emotions of words and cessation were finally released and vented. After the film's witty adventure, the two protagonists finally realized the communication with each other by sudden gunshots and bloodshed. From here on, the rebellious Ricky and the stubborn Heck both learned to show their inner tenderness in front of each other. The ending embrace was clumsy and affectionate. They had a new family and a new beginning. , A new future.
It is undeniable that "Hunting the Barbarians" finally returned to the universal value that we are familiar with, but director Taiga Viditi's clever ideas and sense of humor still endow the film with a certain trait of rebellion. Ricky and Heck are undoubtedly marginalized people in this society. After Bella's death, their last contact with the world also disappeared. From this point of view, the journey into the jungle created by the film is also quite symbolic. The direction chosen by Ricky and Heck to escape from the civilized world and modern society has invisibly become a resistance to the lack of tolerance and understanding of this world. The child welfare agency’s bad attitude towards Ricky, the media’s hype about the "kidnapping case", and the arrogance of the militiamen who came to hunt down are the culprits who have driven Ricky and Heck into desperation; and On the contrary, treat Ricky so well that it was a pair of "unreliable" father and daughter living in the forest who finally accepted them as family members. In this contrast, the film’s criticism of modern society is self-evident, and the true intentions of the "barbarians" in the film have also shifted from the combination of "fugitives and bad boys" to those well-dressed but indifferent and selfish "civilized people" Body.
Of course, just as Ricky’s rebellious temperament is more presented in a comic style, the film does not deliberately emphasize the criticism and irony of the social environment. "Hunting the Barbarians" is not a tearful accusation, but a humorous growth fairy tale. No matter how we are treated by this world, we at least still have a childlike innocence who never forgets our original intentions to fight against the indifference and prejudice around us. Ricky proudly declared in the film that "I did not choose the gang life, but the gang life chose me." Perhaps he is the revolutionary chosen by fate.
Originally published in the November 2016 issue of "Movie World"
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