It is probably difficult to find an exact corresponding word for "Jianghu" in the Western context. When a person speaks of "Jianghu" in Chinese, he first expresses a feeling of the vastness of time and space, because the rivers and lakes are not bounded by the actual space, Therefore, it can be so vast that it has no boundaries, or it can be so empty that it does not exist. But in any case, when a person says "Jianghu", he is using language to construct an ideal inner geographical picture, and the material that defines the Jianghu is not a brick and a stone, but the scale of affection: brotherhood, sons and daughters. Affection has a strong character, and it is legendary. It can be said that the boundary of love defines the boundary of rivers and lakes. And when a person devotes himself to the "Jianghu", it always implies a desire for self-exile (the height of the temple, the distance of the rivers and lakes), and at the same time shoulders a hidden mission, that is, he will use his life's deeds to prove him The rivers and lakes in the heart.
This time, Jia Zhangke gave his hometown Shanxi, which he has been staring at repeatedly, the familiar scenes: KTV, dance halls, small town streets. It is still the familiar daily life at the bottom, but with the sublimation of the rivers and lakes, it is even more scribbled: the children of the rivers and lakes gathered in the mahjong hall, the five lakes and four seas of wine in the enamel iron basin, the national standard dance at the funeral, the disco dance. A gun accidentally dropped. Jia Zhangke focuses on depicting these ordinary life moments full of Jianghu spirit. As for Jianghu business and Jianghu festivals, it can be taken lightly. For example, the downfall of Brother Bin's generation does not require specific reasons. debut. This is the law of nature. Brother Bin's enemy is not even a certain junior, but time, and the powerlessness of an aging heart to face time.
Therefore, we see another narrative strategy of Jianghu: this is an anti-legendary contemporary Jianghu, a life story in which the children of Jianghu face their own collapse with different strategies. Brother Bin and Qiaoqiao are connected through a relationship, and they are separated because of two life strategies. This is also a typical strategy for men and women: men focus on expanding the external world, and women take on the lost inner emotions. Among them, the key symbol is Bin. The "money" beside my brother and the "ring" on Qiaoqiao's hand. After all, another title of "Children of Jianghu" is "Money and Love".
Money is not money in the sense of consumption and circulation, but bears the decency and dignity of people like Brother Bin. ——The Hong Kong dollars I received were sent out at the funeral; I received a box of money, and I was empty-handed in an instant. When Qiaoqiao was released from prison, she traveled thousands of miles to find Brother Bin and asked him "what do you think is important". Brother Bin replied, "What does it feel like to be a man without a penny?" Even in the end, Brother Bin left, leaving Qiaoqiao with money. Even if the money is meaningless to Qiaoqiao, it is the most precious thing that Brother Bin, who has nothing, can deliver.
This is the material anxiety at the bottom of the mainstream, an anxiety so ingrained and unshakable that it deprives people of the ability to comprehend the richness of life - there is no alternative way to add luster to their lives other than money.
Money, as a purely material symbol, has become the core spiritual image of a contemporary small town in the mainland - this is one of Jia Zhangke's most acute insights. In 1998, Jia Zhangke made his first movie "Xiao Wu". Xiao Wu went to a friend's wedding with money, but he couldn't get a trace of sincere friendship. At that time, Xiao Wu was the younger brother Bin. In 2018, Brother Bin left the money to Qiaoqiao, and left the most sincere love in his life in the cold monitor. At this time, Brother Bin became Xiaowu in old age. And Brother Bin completed the spiritual self-rescue of the uncertain future through the final farewell.
At the same time, Qiaoqiao uses another female life strategy to provide a contrast and correction to the former abnormal life. She can act like a spoiled child to her lover, dance under bright lights, be magnanimous, shoot a scapegoat, endure day-to-day labor, be lost, search for people a thousand miles away, practice charlatans, bid farewell to her lover, You can say goodbye, but still guard your original heart.
Qiaoqiao is not changed by the external world. When the boat crosses the Three Gorges, Qiaoqiao's property is accidentally stolen - when women and men face the same material predicament, men are at a loss, but women's world has not collapsed. On the contrary, moving the camera away, we see how the woman calmly surveys the world in front of her in the face of material predicament: the buildings, the streets, the old faces of the men. The travel broadcast said: The Three Gorges continue to store water. People living on both sides of the strait are about to lose their hometowns and move to other places. The landscape in front of them is about to become an underwater relic. This scene is really a wonderful metaphor. The person traveling in the river becomes the person in the process of time at this moment, and is constantly submerged by the rising river. And all one can do is stare at the disappearing landscape. She knows that the past is over, and even the time she has at this moment is fading away, but she chooses to look stubbornly, even if she takes one more look— It is this gaze that pours out the infinite nostalgia for the world.
It is this nostalgia for the world that gives birth to women's weakest and most tenacious strength. At the beginning of the movie, Qiaoqiao wears a brilliant diamond ring on his hand. This hand holds a cigarette, beats people, counts money, and smokes a cigar. Later, this hand shoots for his lover, and later, this hand is tied by a pair of handcuffs. Go, in the years of captivity, can only hold the heavy cart - at the same time, this hand is also forgotten by the lover. Years later, the ring was put on again—a restrained jade ring, taking three sticks of incense, and worshiping the statue of Guan Gong, who was no longer worshipped. In the end, this hand was withdrawn from the hand of the former lover, placed on the steering wheel of the car, and controlled the way forward.
This is the history of the defeat of Jianghu men and the growth history of Jianghu daughters. But what Jia Zhangke really wants to say is the history of a generation as ashes. In the past, when I was young and the world was green, I Qiao Qiao asked Brother Bin under the volcano, "Is it the cleanest ashes? After high temperature, it burns." And Brother Bin said, "No one will know about our place, even if it becomes ashes." Five years later, Qiaoqiao was released from prison. In the guest house in Fengjie, Brother Bin lit a newspaper symbolizing the official history, and Qiaoqiao stepped over the ashes of this great history, washed away the filth and cleaned it again. Years later, Qiaoqiao, Brother Bin and the former volcano walked into the dry autumn together. Qiaoqiao stood upright like a tree in the autumn wind, silently encouraging the lover who came to him and was learning to walk again. . In the end, when the lover leaves, the movie shot is switched to an electronic monitor shot, we see Qiaoqiao leaning against the wall, with a blurred face, this is the ashes of the electronic age, made of pixels, a generation is so rough and stubborn to live and struggle With the memory, it was gently erased. Whether it is the failure of the boy or the growth of the daughter, they have all become ashes in time. But ashes are the cleanest, just as Binge's collapse is clean, so is Qiaoqiao's growth.
Twenty years after "Xiao Wu", Jia Zhangke gradually became conscious of video media (the opening DV, an unrecognizable hometown that only exists in the mobile phone navigator, several aerial photography, electronic monitoring screen), and completed a review of private history. and restructuring. This unique memory method is exactly what Jia Zhangke is precious to today. He extracts the nobility of people in the contemporary vulgar daily life that cannot stand the stare, and tries to express his view of the rivers and lakes: in this era of deformity, dislocation, and rapid fission , the nobility of personal spirit does not match diamonds, cigars, and international tastes. On the contrary, it is in plastic flowers, street art, low-quality deception and outdated love songs - in the ashes of the raging era - that there was a brief period of rivers and lakes. , and the cleanest and most precious things in the world of rivers and lakes.
View more about Ash Is Purest White reviews
