After class at noon today, I rushed to the library to watch "Rashomon", and then trot all the way to watch "The Last Night on Earth". The time span of the two films is very large, from 1950 to 2018, nearly 70 years, and the look and feel are completely different, but I like them both.
I like Bi Gan's film style. I started paying attention to "Earth" when it first became a blockbuster in Cannes, and I have been looking forward to seeing this movie. I was so excited when I heard the news that it was finalized, I danced in my mind.
In the face of the groundbreaking announcement before the release, I was completely stupid. The only thing I know for sure after watching Roadside Picnic is that it's not easy to take. Less than a day after the release, the rating has already dropped below 7 points, especially after watching the movie and walking on the road, holding the mobile phone to read everyone's comments in the strong wind of Beijing winter, it is really cold to the bottom of my heart. "Earth" is not perfect in my mind, but it is by no means below my expectations. In fact, I want to give four stars, looking at the ratings that have been going downhill, or I want to do my part. I am looking forward to seeing more works by Bi Gan.
Having said so much off topic, let's talk about movies. After reading it, the first reaction is that I have no idea. I want to write something for a while, but I don't know how to express it. It's definitely not enough to watch it once. I've combed the plot carefully on the road, and finally I understand a little bit, so I briefly talk about my understanding of the plot, but there are still many parts to be answered.
I think "The Last Night on Earth" can be divided into three parts, corresponding to the three stages of Luo Hongwu (hereinafter referred to as Luo):
The first part is the youth stage when Luo first met and fell in love with Wan Qiwen because of the death of his friend Bai Mao.
The second part is the middle-aged stage when Luo's father died and began to search for Wan Qiwen again.
The third part is the dream stage that Luo entered after falling asleep in the theater
The film begins in the second phase, with Roin returning to Carey on the death of his father. Through this short paragraph, we can see that Luo's mother at this time is not his biological mother. Luo took the broken clock from the Xiaofeng Hotel and found an old photo without a face inside. After returning to the house with the leaky roof, in the reflection on the water, the hands of the clock being adjusted by Luo began to run backwards, which also indicated the reversal of time in advance. Following the name behind the old photo, Luo started searching. Starting from the prison, and through the call machine on the other end of the phone, the whereabouts of Wan Qiwen were finally found.
I can't really remember when the first episode of the episode started. In the first stage, Luo Yi, who went to seek revenge, accidentally fell in love with Wan Qiwen. The two carefully developed their relationship, for fear of being discovered by Zuo Hongyuan. When the love grew stronger, Luo and Wan began to plan to escape. Unexpectedly, after the camera turned, Zuo Hongyuan, who was singing, was behind Luo Yuwan, who was embarrassed. After failing to escape, Wan Qiwen proposed to kill Zuo Hongyuan with the help of gunfire in the cinema. Whether it was successful or not, I don't know.
In the process of looking for Wan Qiwen, I don't fully understand which timeline this plot belongs to when Luo came to the white cat's house. Bai Mao's mother, Sister Zhang, is a single woman who runs a barber shop. Through the dialogue, you can learn that Bai Mao's father is in prison. Sister Zhang likes to dye her hair, and the house leaks. As for whether this leaking room is the same as the one at the beginning, I personally don't think so, but the leaking water may indicate the identity of Sister Zhang.
Back to the second stage, I followed the clues and searched all the way, and finally found the nightclub where Wan Qiwen sang. This is my Luo Hongwu's last chance to see Wan Qiwen, and to him, it's like the last night on earth. After following Luo Hongwu to put on 3D eyes, the film entered the third stage. In the dream, Luo returned to the past, and possibly part of the future, a process that ran through his entire life.
He first met his childhood self (or the stillborn child), a teenager who wore his father's leather jacket and loved table tennis. He played ping pong with his past self and named him the name of his deceased friend "Little White Cat", which may also imply the relationship between the white cat and him, or perhaps Luo Hongwu has always known about it. Taking the zipline to the opposite side of the valley, Luo Hongwu saw the person who appeared repeatedly in his babble in a trance. But at this time, she didn't know Luo Hongwu, and Wan Qiwen still had short hair. But the two were destined to be attracted to each other, and they came to the foot of the mountain together to separate, while Luo was attracted by a red-haired woman holding a torch. He followed all the way, and eventually discovered that the red-haired woman was his lost mother when he was a child, and was about to leave with the beekeeper. The mother mentioned that the child is still young, so it can be explained that Luo Hongwu did not recognize that the mother of the white cat was actually his mother. He finally said goodbye to his mother with his own hands and swallowed an apple with tears in his eyes. They found Wan Qiwen again, and the two came to Luo's parents' room together. Luo Hongwu thought of the bird parachuting, the room began to rotate, the two kissed, and the fireworks burned alone.
At the end of the video, the above is my entire understanding, not accurate and incomplete. There are a few questions, which I hope will be answered in the future. What is the meaning of the theft that Wan Qiwen and the woman in the prison committed together? What does that green book mean? Is there a fourth timeline in the film that could explain the leaky house? In fact, through careful and calm combing, you can greatly deepen your understanding of the story, and you can accurately find the places that you don't fully understand.
After briefly talking about the plot, I want to talk about the overall feeling.
It is said that "Last Night on Earth" is a comprehensive upgrade of "Roadside Picnic", and they are right. But the two films are by no means completely alike, and each has its own merits. The similar play structure and the familiar long-shot setup make it easy to feel that "Earth" is simply fried rice. But a careful comparison shows that, compared to the completely fragmented story of "Road", "Earth" has clearly improved its narrative. The multi-line narrative structure of interlude and continuous flashback can be drawn into multiple timelines of a character through sorting. Many people think that the story is too broken, but if you look closely, you can find that although the sequence is reversed and changed back and forth, the context is clear, and the integrity of the entire story is much improved than "Road".
"Last Night on Earth" also made a qualitative leap in potential expression. Bi Gan's works (although there are only two works, and the sample is very small) is the eternal discussion of time. Although most of our attention is paid to the shaping of "dream", the fundamental composition of dreams is still the transformation of time. The clock running backwards on the reflection on the water at the beginning echoes the pointer passing by the train at the end of "The Road", suggesting the direction of the story going back in time. In the multi-end timeline, the clearest sign is the white hair on Luo Hongwu's head. It is through white hair that we can distinguish different time and space and complete the puzzle of the story. Bi Gan is open to the small endings of each story in the film. For example, the glass on the edge of the table, as well as the fireworks burning at the end, all stop abruptly near the end, which makes people think about the ending and gives the story more room for imagination. In the use of imagery, the clocks that appear in many places and the cobra in the glass box imply the continuous loop of time. The design of the Mobius ring makes time the most important, yet the most unsolved mystery. The hints of motherhood are even more pronounced, with the constant appearance of the honeycomb pattern saying it all. It is said that the movies Bi Gan watched should not look for the plot, but to look for a mood and an atmosphere. The only emotion and atmosphere that belongs to time is nostalgia, as is the case with Roadside Picnic, as is the case with The Last Night on Earth. What we see is a man trying his best to find the figure of the past, emotional enough, moving enough.
Compared with "Road", "Earth" is slightly inferior in the portrayal of the characters' emotions, but it is not bad overall. The background and motivation of the characters are relatively clear. The mystery of Wan Qiwen's character also exudes a strong appeal. Emotions between characters are short encounters and long misses. The emotional portrayal of Luo Hongwu is more delicate. In the last dream appeared the two most important women in his life, his mother and his lover. The roles of the two gradually merged due to the long separation, and eventually became the most precious and unreachable fragments in memory.
Compared with "Road", "Earth" is a little less spiritual. Perhaps there is no poetry recited by Chen Yongzhong in Kaili's words. As a representative of contemporary poetry films, Bi Gan's poetry in "Earth" is slightly inferior to the former. Perhaps because it pays more attention to the expression of the plot, there is no casualness and freewheeling unique to poetry, and the expression of emotions is deeper and more rigorous.
I like "Last Night on Earth" very much, so when I see its ratings gradually decline, I can't hide my disappointment. I understand the purpose of marketing. In this era of fast food, literary films need a lot of financial support and public attention to gain a foothold in the market. But literary films do not belong to the majority after all, and forcibly expanding the audience base will definitely bring about a cliff-like decline in word of mouth. Ironically, the word popularization has always been irrelevant to niche literary films, but now it has become a necessary condition for the survival of literary films.
It doesn't matter if the word of mouth of "The Last Night on Earth" is broken, but I just hope Bi Gan can stick to it. Maybe because I watched movies for a short period of time and had little exposure to movie works, I saw a brand new, unfamiliar movie in him, an exciting and fascinating way of filming. In any case, I hope Bi Gan can continue to shoot, continue to convey emotions, and continue to write poems in lovely Carey words.
Now, the people of the New Year's Eve have already sat in the cinema. In any case, please enjoy this night, the last day of 2018, follow Bi Gan's last dream.
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