The walls of the gymnasium, the school uniforms of students, the backs of bus seats...Blue is the most common color symbol in Zeng Guoxiang's new film "Youth of You". In people's cognition, this color symbolizes stability, tranquility and peace, but the characters in the film endure violence, guilt and pain. As if under the calm sea, there are hidden reefs everywhere.
As early as 2013, Zhao Wei's "To Youth" set off a "Youth Fever" on the big screen. The collective memory of youth in the 1980s and 1990s in mainland China is a mine, but unfortunately, for a long time, our youth movies have revolved around "love" and "nostalgia", failing to extend a broader vision and Deeper thinking. When the audience finally became tired of nostalgic youth aesthetics, youth films quickly cooled down.
It was only in the past two years that some directors with both experience and strength tried to "hunt for treasure" from our youth memories again, and the youth film genre began to appear serious masterpieces, and gradually got rid of the pronoun of "dog blood". "July and Ansheng" directed by Zeng Guoxiang and "Hello, Zhihua" directed by Shunji Iwai are the representatives of youth themes in the past two years.
Most of the plots of "Youth as a Teenager" take place on campus, which can be described as a typical campus youth film. The story time was set on the eve of the college entrance examination, and many shots were shot from a long distance. At the beginning of the film, Hu Xiaodie jumped to his death, and Chen Nian stepped forward and covered the body with a coat. She looked up and was surrounded by teaching buildings on all sides. The upstairs was full of onlookers (or accomplices), and the only exit was the small sky above her head. From a bird's-eye view, Chen Nian is thin and helpless, like falling from the bottom of a well.
Halfway through the film, attentive viewers will find that metal guardrails are installed on the balcony of the school, most of which are set up by the school to prevent the recurrence of jumping off the building. The camera watched the students' movements from outside the guardrail several times, like a prison. The life of the candidates is strictly arranged. In such a closed and densely populated small society, the evil of human nature will quickly rebound and expand. Students are prisoners of the education system, and victims of school bullying are prisoners of prisoners. Chen Nian studied hard because of his poor family conditions and the role of being bullied, and wanted to go to a university in Beijing. In her opinion, the college entrance examination is a narrow door and the only exit. Only by squeezing it out can you change your destiny.
In addition to high school students, "Youth as a Teenager" also focuses on groups other than mainstream discourse - underage gangsters on the fringes of society. The male protagonist Xiao Bei was abandoned by his parents and began to live independently after the age of thirteen. He didn't like to study, he dropped out of school early, and in order to struggle to survive, he beat others and received a lot of beatings. The identity setting of the gangster is not only to collide with the good girl to create a bigger spark, but also to carry complex social phenomena. A lot of thinking can be exuded from such a combination: good students have to seek protection from social gangsters after being bullied. Does this reflect the weakness of schools, families and society? If the victims of school bullying represented by Chen Nian deserve the attention and protection of the whole society, should the marginalized groups represented by Xiaobei also receive the same care?
In addition to the groups represented by the male and female protagonists, "Youth as a Teenager" more comprehensively depicts the living conditions of teenagers, and tries to think about the causes of school violence from the standpoint of bullies. Wei Lai, the main perpetrator of the school bullying incident, grew up under the emotional abuse of his parents and displayed some characteristics of borderline personality disorder. She is smart and beautiful, but she lacks empathy. Whether she is innocent and well-behaved when being interrogated by the police, or she regrets crying because she is worried about Chen Nian calling the police, it is her performance that she does at her fingertips. A girl beside Wei Lai acted as both the bully and the bullied. When Chen Nian was protected by Xiaobei, she became the target of Wei Lai's violence; when she was punished by the school, her father punched her in front of everyone. The names of the film's characters are in stark contrast to fate. Hu Xiaodie died, and the butterfly finally failed to break out of the cocoon; Wei Lai eventually reaps the consequences and has no future.
When teenagers do evil, the original family cannot get rid of the relationship. Violence is passed on from generation to generation. The film spends a considerable amount of space exploring the issue of the family of origin. It is worth mentioning that Chen Nian's mother is a single mother and has no education. She makes a living by selling three-no products, and often has to avoid complaints from consumers and claims from creditors. But it is such a loser from the bottom society who is the only parent in the whole film who conveys the warmth of family education. She often encourages her daughter: "You are the best, and I am also the best. We are all reincarnations of Sun Wukong." She never hesitated to express her love. When the college entrance examination scores were announced, she hugged her daughter with tears and said: "Mom loves you."
Mother's love and Xiaobei's love are the two life-saving straws for Chen Nian. A mother's love nurtured her kindness, tenacity, and self-esteem. Xiaobei's love enables her to find a partner for warmth when her mother is absent and isolated, and in the process of mutual redemption with Xiaobei, she escapes the fate of being devastated by the harsh environment.
An honor student with a seemingly bright future, and a social outcast who grew up in barbarism, should not have any intersection. But the bad upbringing and the experience of being bullied made the two throw away the contrast of their identities and come together. When Chen Nian took the college entrance examination, the film used a set of cross-cuts to express this contrast more directly: one is in the light, the other is in the dark; one is a college student who is concerned by the society, and the other is struggling to survive in chaos; one is walking under the sun , one always appears at night.
Xiaobei initially promised to protect Chen Nian, maybe because he was curious about the good girl, and also had some thoughts about the love between men and women. But as the plot progresses, that protection turns into a totally selfless dedication that goes far beyond love. Chen Nian is not only his different kind, but also his kind. She represents the world he never dared to hope for. The encounter between him and Chen Nian was a beam of light that came in after he cut a hole in the wall of life. Protecting this beam of light will make it possible to survive the long night and look forward to the dawn.
Chen Nian accepted Xiaobei's sacrifice and dedication, but not out of self-interest. She knew that she was Xiaobei's spiritual sustenance and hope to lead him to escape his fate. They are an alliance, and a symbiotic relationship. Rather than falling down together, it is better for one person to break out of the siege first. In the scene where we met in the detention center, there was no conversation through the glass, and the shadows of the two overlapped—they were always one.
Watching "Youth as a Teenager", it's hard not to compare it with the director's other work, "July and Ansheng". Both focus on youth themes, and the relationship between the two protagonists is also a psychological projection of each other. If "July and Ansheng" is to project the psychological changes of a girl's growth inward, then "Youth of You" is to extend a wider social issue outward.
At the end of the film, Chen Nian, who once vowed to go to Beijing and "protect the world" under the night sky, returned to his hometown when he grew up, became an English teacher, and silently protected a little girl who was hurt. This treatment is full of the idealism of the creator - violence and evil will eventually come to an end; love and compassion will be spread in the form of education.
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