As soon as I break through the iron shoes, there is nowhere to be found, where is my friend's house.
1 Forget the desire to be understood
I remember that when the Iranian director Abbas passed away in 16 years, the media commemorated him with a large article. His "village trilogy" was brought up again, and it was time to see it again. It wasn't until this year that I took a closer look.
The first piece, "Treading through the iron shoes and finding nowhere", was taken in 1987. Amerp took Lin Ma's workbook home by mistake, because the teacher said that Lin Ma had failed to write the homework in the notebook three times as required, and that if he committed the crime again, he would be expelled from school. Ahmed believed in this threat, worried about his friends, and ran to find his home with his workbook, but in the end he couldn't find Lin Ma's home.
The film has a loneliness of poetry. He shoots from a child's point of view, expressing the child's nervousness, worry, and persistence incisively and vividly. The adults around him don't understand him. His mother thought that he wanted to go out all the time, "you can play only after you have done your homework". Grandpa deliberately told him to go home to get cigarettes, "I said it three times, but he didn't care at all. We need to properly educate our children. Lazy people have no effect on society." His father was indifferent to him for skipping dinner and continued to listen to the radio. What children think of as a major event is not as good as a grain of sesame in the eyes of adults. I remembered some things that happened to me in my childhood. The disdain of adults made me sad and unbearable at the time. When I was in elementary school, my home was too far from the school. On duty once a week, I had to arrive at school half an hour earlier than usual. I was late every time. The students who were late for the day would be written on the blackboard. There was always my name, and sometimes it was just me. I've told my mom about this many times and I've been angry. The night before she promised to wake me up early the next morning, but every time she made a slip of the tongue. I was so angry that I was about to cry. She would say that it was still dark outside and that it was dangerous to ride a bicycle. She didn't know that one night a week I fell asleep worrying. Now think that it is very unreasonable for students to arrive at school at 6:30 in the morning, especially on a cold morning in winter. If you are late, the teacher will think that you are trying to sleep in and will not think about the problem from the child's point of view. Just like the gentleman in the film, even if he knew that poor children were in charge early, the students had to help at home, their hands sweated and their workbooks were wet, or their backs were injured and they couldn’t do their homework on the ground (Muslims sit on the ground, and the children also sit on the ground and lean forward to write homework). He talked a lot about a lot of big truths: "Your first responsibility is to study, you must focus on school education, and you can work for your parents or farms in your spare time." The student forgot the homework book at the cousin's house and completed the homework with a separate sheet of paper. The husband thought it was a mistake, because he couldn't compare the homework of each day. He was imprisoned by his sense of responsibility, and when he spoke grandiose truths, children used to be afraid, but when they became adults, they would disdain them, despise the kindness, kindness and beauty they had been taught. This kind of rejection will not stop, but will be deeply rooted. In words and deeds, I forgot the desire to be understood at that time, and treated the next generation of children in a way that I did not believe. I still remember the loss at that time, the feeling of flying into the classroom after entering the school. It would be great if my mother kept her promise at that time, or if she paid attention to it, and told me that it was unreasonable, even if I was named, I didn't have to worry about it.
There are two door and window craftsmen in the film, one is a middle-aged Mr. Ahan, and the other is the only one who is enthusiastic to lead the way, an old carpenter who has been eliminated by time. Mr. Ahan persuaded people to use iron gates, which "can last for a lifetime, and are durable." After borrowing the workbook paper, he turned a deaf ear to Amopp's questions and rode away on a donkey. The elderly took the initiative to lead the way, and asked Amop to pay attention to the wooden windows along the street. "Everyone has replaced them with iron doors now, but no one asks what's wrong with the old doors." How long is my life?" His old, sensitive and anxious little male protagonist couldn't help urging him several times. The old carpenter took the wrong way. The young man stuffed the homework book into his clothes and lied that he had returned it to his classmates. Such a child's response to a lonely and patient old man.
Amerp finally did the homework at the same table. When the husband checked the homework, he said: child, well done. The shot is set on a small flower clipped on a homework sheet, which the old craftsman picked for Amerp when he was drinking the spring water. These three people are connected in this way. The friendship between children, the understanding between old and young, these indescribable beauty are like that little flower.
2 Why is a long lens
There are also some "inactive hours" that touch people's hearts. In the night, the close-up of the wooden window, such as the feeling after touching for a long time. The old carpenter said goodbye to Amerp after he walked past a pack of barking dogs. Go back to the house slowly, go upstairs slowly, take off your coat, go back to the workshop, pull out the saw, and close the wooden window. It seemed he was going to stick to his space. Amerp was doing his homework when the wind picked up and blew the wooden door open. He didn't close the door, but kept looking at his mother who was packing her clothes. What is he thinking? Maybe she didn't think about anything, she just looked at her mother. Mom didn't push him to do housework as harshly as during the day. At first, the mother didn't understand the son who insisted on sending the homework book, and got angry. At dinner, the son was sad and unwilling to eat. The mother did not force him to eat, but gently asked him to go back to his room to do his homework, put dinner beside him, and said that he would eat if he was hungry. Did the director divide these scenes between two people who are gentle with the little male protagonist?
The film has several long shots of the child on a zig-zag hillside. Decided to secretly go to Posty to find a friend's house and ran up the zigzag hillside. When he found his friend's cousin's house, he went to his village, and he ran back to the zigzag hillside. The middle-aged iron carpenter didn't answer his questions and rode away on a donkey, with Amerp chasing it on the zig-zag hillside. Do children really have such strong physical strength? It's just the persistence of children. There's another long shot that's unsettling. On the way home in the dark night, Amope's heart is like an arrow, but the old carpenter is struggling. He urged softly, the old carpenter quickened his steps to the point of panting, and he looked up at him several times, holding back his anxiety. In this walk of the old and the young, there are quiet and beautiful shadows of wooden windows and dim lighting. The director uses a long shot to describe their considerate treatment of each other.
Jia Zhangke's audio program "Movies, I only know a little about a thing or two" in "Looking Ideal", the second lecture "Why is a long shot", he said: I returned to a long shot because I felt that I needed to shoot with this attitude Movie. Long shots are often emotionally restrained because of this objectivity. The restrained lyricism will prevent us from slipping into the quagmire of promiscuity, and the in-depth understanding of human nature often stops at promiscuity. As the Master Hong Yi said: "Be ruthless, there will be wisdom". I used to think that long shots were more evocative than montages, but I didn't understand the reason.
The version I read is in Persian Chinese, but the translation is in Cantonese. I remembered the first Iranian movie "Little Shoes" I watched on Hong Kong Pearl TV in high school, and I was taken away by the pure love between children after watching it. Cantonese has been declining for a long time, and now I am accustomed to watching Mandarin subtitles, and re-watching Cantonese subtitles is a long-awaited feeling. "How many times", "Otherwise braised pork with rattan", "He won't 嬲", "Back pain" and so on, I miss Cantonese with a sense of ancient pronunciation and elegance.
I have been to Turkey in 16 years, which is the closest country to Iran. The children I saw there had a similar temperament to those seen in Xinjiang. Even though the film was shot in 1987, the little boy has a similar humility. The eyes are beautiful and twinkling, the eyeballs are like gems, the eyelashes are like fans, and there is a kind of sadness like silk. Seeing a child's eyes on weekdays is like a clear stream, once you see it to the end. Japanese children also have a sense of humility, but they don't have that fog. On the other hand, the eyes of Muslim children are like wells in the countryside at night. The hazy moon is reflected in the clear water. Those eyes seem to have suction, which makes people unable to look away until they are in a daze. The eyes of adults have lost a sense of innocence, even if they are sad, they no longer feel soft. Iran gives people a sense of remote mystery, but also a sense of isolation. Even under strict film censorship and religious management, it has won many awards at the International Film Festival over the years, but I still can't think of such a good film in the 1980s. Jia Zhangke of "Looking at the Ideal" said in the third lecture "Moving, the Strongest Gene of Movies" in the audio program "Movies, I only know a little about them": I think a systematic understanding of movies will at least make us a normal person , calmly talk to yourself and the world, not to be surprised. Yes, since the iron wall is so strong, a grass-roots citizen can only watch more movies from other countries that have not been "disappeared", whether in developed countries or regions, or in economically backward or more closed countries, they will find that the joys and sorrows of personnel are similar. You will find that others are advanced and sincere, and they will not be pretentious in everything. They are like teenagers who insist on winning or losing. People who forget to be mature and rational should learn to speak calmly.
In the second spring, the wind blows again, and Qingcui meets the barren city.
The translated name "Spring Breeze Blows Again" is more poetic than "Life Continues", just as the first Hong Kong title in the Abbas Village trilogy is "Treading the Lame Iron Shoes, Nowhere to Find", and the mainland translation of "He". The place is my friend's house." The name of mainland China has always been Naozawa, and Hong Kong will be more euphemistic. Such as "The Pianist at Sea" in mainland China, "Sound and Light Accompany Me Fly" in Hong Kong, "No One Knows" in mainland China, "Who Knows the Heart of a Child" in Hong Kong, "Breaking the Waves" in mainland China, and "The Pain of Unrecognizable Love" in Hong Kong, just like the usual language , the north is straightforward, the south is subtle.
The second part tells the story of the great earthquake in 1990 that fell on the place where the hero Amope lived in the first part. The director and his son drove to Keka to find Amope. The last scene is the director driving in Z The zigzag slope, I don't know if I found Amerp in the end, but some people said that they just saw him and his brother coming back from the market. On their way to find people, they met various people, including an old lady who had died and left her alone, an old gentleman who carried him to the toilet, a woman who had lost her daughter, and a newlywed who got married after the disaster. Couple, there is the man who is installing the antenna so that people can watch the World Cup, there is grief and pain, and there is the tenacity of life.
The male protagonist who plays the director is frowning at first, taciturn, his son is interested in the things he has done, the cement factory that has not collapsed, the grass Meng caught in the puppy, the drinks in the broken freezer, all he is opening the chatterbox . He said: "Maybe the residents went to watch a football game that night.... They didn't have a TV to go to Tehran to watch it. Children do not know the rules of the world, there is a sense of innocence, everything is possible, and middle-aged people are already used to it. It is powerful and human beings are weak, and there is a sense of helplessness.
They met a baby lying in the cradle with an injured left hand, an old lady whose family of 16 was buried in the rubble, a man with the arrow of Eros painted on gauze on his left hand, and an old gentleman who was walking on the toilet on his shoulder. The director's brows stretched slightly when he played the old carpenter with a hunchback and a slow pace in the song "Treading through the iron shoes to find nowhere". The director took him back to the place of residence, which was also broken and ruined, but the green space could be seen from the broken stone wall. The old gentleman said calmly: Sometimes I think, so many civilians were killed, many people lost their homes, I can survive, indeed Allah is with me... This is not what Allah does, He needs servants. The son searches for treasures in the decayed house, finds a broken rooster and china, meets the washerwoman whose daughter was killed, and comforts her: your daughter is lucky to be killed by the earthquake, and she will no longer have to do schoolwork. You should have heard the story of Abraham. God wanted him to sacrifice his own son. When Abraham raised his sword and carried out God's will for him, it was the moment when he swung the sword straight into his son, the angel brought a sheep and said, 'You use him instead of your son', you will ask, why is God in your daughter? Killing her at the beginning of life, I believe that rebirth after catastrophe will cherish life more, and I believe that the children who survive will have a better understanding of life, grow better, and need you more. These great principles, if taught by adults, will be tiresome. But from the child to the adult, there is a trace of comfort. The director met a newlywed couple who insisted on getting married the day after the earthquake despite the loss of about 65 relatives, and an old lady who lost her wife and moved the carpet independently. The director just asked and listened, not comforting or unreasonable. It seems that he is admitting that he is a weak person who does not grasp any truth but can only observe. He also seemed to keep a certain distance from religion. When Mr. "Old Carpenter" finished his experience, he said: "Religious?" Don't get me wrong. Seeing this, I couldn't help laughing, it's really cunning.
Why can some victims live peacefully? The director asked the man who installed the TV antenna: When the earthquake caused serious injury, do you still watch TV? The man said: We are all family members of the victims. What can I do if I lose my sister and three cousins? The World Cup is held every four years, and an earthquake occurs once in forty years. This is also God's will. Almost everyone met in the film mentioned God. Is it a strong belief? So that they believe in the destiny and be safe. They seem to be able to coexist peacefully with natural disasters. Passing by, they encounter pedestrians who are carrying heavy objects. The director asks them if they want to take a ride? Many people say they can walk. They seemed to just keep moving forward step by step. There is no heroic "man conquers the sky", just do your best.
The film was shot five months after the earthquake and went back to reshoot in November. Many scenes were made up temporarily. The dilapidated houses and cracked ground in the film all describe the cruelty of natural disasters, but the whole film is peaceful. The film consists of a lot of dialogue and jump cuts. Like the first movie, the director likes the Z-shaped hillside. There is a child walking on the Z-shaped hillside during the driving. In the end, the camera freezes the director driving on the Z-shaped hillside, because for the first time, he could not go up the hill even with enough gas. He wanted to leave, but it seems that because of the person who helped him push the cart, he changed his mind and refueled and drove up the hill.
The people in the film meet with trust, and I have encountered these trusts before. I remember taking more than 10 hours by car from Liuku, Yunnan to the small village Bingzhongluo in 2015. There are cliffs on one side and the Nu River on the other. Along the way, there are sparse houses dotted with mountains, iron chain bridges, stone bridges, and ancient ziplines along the Hengjiang River. The dilapidated minibus was galloping on the mountain road with nine turns and eighteen turns. There was only one driver, but he was very confident. From time to time, he braked suddenly. Be stingy about sharing his private life with passengers. It is estimated that the long-distance driving is too tired. He even smoked, and I don't know how many cigarette butts he threw away. Shortly after the car started, I persuaded the middle-aged man beside me not to smoke in the car. He smiled and said that the master was also smoking. During that journey, I regretted it to the fullest, and worried that an unexpected event would lead to the death of a guest in a foreign land. But it seemed that I was the only one who was tensed up in the whole car, observing the clothes. All the traders or residents who were accustomed to traveling between the two places, except for an old man sitting next to me. Dressed appropriately, probably an old man traveling alone, no complaints or sighs, and the whole process was silent. Looking at him, I feel at ease for some reason, I can't change this long journey at all, what if the driver doesn't smoke and he falls asleep? If one does not dodge, it will fall into the Nu River or crash into a cliff. During that journey, I saw some people stop the car on the side of the road and ask the driver to carry things. Whether the sender gives money or not, the driver happily accepts it. These are hard to come across in the city, but when I traveled in the southwest and northwest that year, I sometimes felt the kind of randomness between people. Just like the director in the film will help people carry gas barrels, and will carry others along for the ride. I am very grateful for the personnel and affairs I encountered on that trip. Five years later, my love for travel has diminished a lot, and I am unwilling to take the trouble to take those roads.
The lover of three dramas
The third volume, "The Lover under the Olive Tree," is an extension of a scene from the second volume. It tells the story of the newlyweds that the director of the second part met were extras. They met before filming. The man Hussein fell in love with the woman Taheri and proposed a marriage contract, but because of class, knowledge, house and other reasons, they were hindered. Hussein has been a mason since he was 11 years old. He has no house and is illiterate. He loves Taheri unrequitedly and asks her mother for marriage. Her mother refused because he belonged to the lower class and was very angry for fear of causing rumors. Taheri's parents died in the earthquake that night, and the only elder grandmother left behind still refused his marriage proposal for the same reason. They were chosen as partners by coincidence. The field manager asked Taheri to change into a peasant dress, but she insisted on wearing a dress just borrowed from a friend. She said: They are peasants, illiterate peasants, and students don't wear them anymore. During their break, Hussein said: "I'm not the kind of chatter, where are my socks, if I get married, I'll put away my socks, my clothes, everything I have." I want to live a simple and happy married life, not let you cook and take care of my clothes. If you want, I will send you to study, and after work we will go to the market to eat. He also said that he would buy the house that was being filmed and make it a beautiful place with a window that would allow her to get up in the morning and see the mountains across the street. Open a page of her book if her heart is his. Taheri seemed to be moved. She used to despise him like her family, but she didn't think he was illiterate. She was overwhelmed and hesitant, she was half-turning the page when the crew shouted to start filming.
Did they end up together? After filming, Hussain chased Taheri, who walked home without saying a word, through olive groves, zig-zag hillsides, and fields with a long shot. From afar, their figures finally overlapped, and Hussein returned to the original path. Hussein was returning to pick up the fallen objects, because he once gave up following her, and then she went further and further, and she was unwilling to put down the things that were in her hand. , running towards her. When he turned back, the flat music became light and pleasant. This is also the most beautiful scene in the whole film, a long and meticulous long shot, a green field, a lover turned into two small dots, an inaudible lover's whispers, an expression that can't be seen up close, and an ambiguous ending. For example, in the film "Like a River of Love" he shot in Japan in 2012, he didn't pay attention to the director at that time, and always thought it was made by Japanese. The ending is unremarkable, impressive. He said: "My film has no beginning and no end.
A simple story, a poor boy fell in love with a rich girl. But because of the shooting technique, there are scenes outside the play. The film says that the newlyweds in the second part are fictitious, and the third part says that they are "lovers" in reality. This reality is "reality" in the third part, but outside the play imaginary. It seems to be in circles, which is true and false? Where is the beginning and the end? There are two actors in the film who play the director, the director who is filming the second part, and the director who plays the second part. Of course, the audience can also imagine the real director Abbas who directed the shooting on the set. The director is also really naughty, watching the two fictional selves chatting and laughing in front of him, like a dream. The two directors in the film are similar in appearance, with a thick body and a full face, like water droplets, round and round, making people close. The photos of Abaqi on the Internet are all wearing a pair of sunglasses, with a well-defined face, tall and straight body, like a tree, with a high-spirited spirit. It seems to be close, but out of reach, which makes people respectful. Similar temperament, also often wear sunglasses.
The director of the play asked Hussein why he insisted on choosing Taheri. He said: If the landlord marries the landlord, the rich marries the rich, and the illiterate marries the illiterate, it will be over. It is better for the literate to marry the illiterate, the rich to marry the poor, and the homeless to marry the landlord, so that everyone can help each other, I think it is better. If two people die in two rooms, they cannot have their heads in one and their feet in one. The director asked back: Then rent a room. Hussein is speechless. His love is so sincere and innocent, and it seems to insist on equality. It's interesting that the movie has an "inactive time". The director of the director's second episode in the valley said: If you greet the souls of the inhabitants here, they will answer you. And tell him to say "hello" to the valley aloud, and the valley will echo. The echo was heard by Hussein, who told the director in the car that the dead are much friendlier than Taheri, and that you greeted them this morning, and they at least answered you. I greeted her three times yesterday and she didn't answer me once. The director smiled and said: If you don't answer, don't say hello. Hussein's naive persistence is also reflected in this simple dialogue.
But the director also smiled and said in the valley: If you say goodbye, they will no longer answer your greetings. This sentence corresponds to Hussein's last action. Hussein refused to say goodbye, chased Taheri, and insisted on an answer. He just needs an answer, not an answer. That's how he was relieved.
The director still likes to turn the camera on the child, around the child watching the shooting, the child chasing the car, and the child giving flowers. They are curious and excited, and they are interspersed in the film, making the film as smooth as a stream sometimes have a rush. Persian is beautiful, like a note. Saying "thank you" in Persian is almost the same as "merci" in French. However, I only understand and understand this French, but I feel that the two languages are similar, both low and gentle. Looking at the information, it turns out that Persian belongs to the Indo-European language family like German and French. Due to historical reasons, the entire education system in Iran has imitated France for a long time. The teaching books are translated from the original French, and the first foreign language required for middle school students is French. After World War II, it was changed to English. So, a lot of Persian is a loanword from French. Thinking of Chinese and Japanese, the entire ancient Japan constantly borrowed Chinese to supplement the inadequacy of pseudonyms. After the Sino-Japanese War, China began to learn from Japan, borrowing the Spanish language that Japan has translated into Chinese, that is, "harmony-made Chinese", such as telephone, epidemic prevention, art, magazines, legal persons, etc.
The screenwriters of these trilogy are Abbas, see Wikipedia, he is also a photographer and poet, really talented. It is a pity that his posthumous work "Love in Hangzhou" was not completed. I really want to see China under his lens.
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