Wu Wu's Movie Essays
Ten years ago, when I accidentally tuned in, I heard a soft and sad voice coming from the TV. In the picture, a girl in a maid's costume is walking aimlessly on the street, and there is an indescribable feeling when combined with the background music. Out of curiosity, I watched the entire MV, which is "Gone with the Wind" by Lin Youjia, and also the Chinese theme music of the movie "Air Figure". Out of curiosity about "The Maid", I immediately downloaded the movie. Thanks to 2010, when the Internet was not strictly regulated, I could see the uncensored "Air Figure".
It is now ten years later to look at "The Air Figure". In the past ten years, I have systematically studied film knowledge and watched all the films of Hirokazu Koreeda. But the most impressive thing is "Air Figure".
"Humans are troublesome"
Every time I watch a movie, I involuntarily put myself into the perspective of the protagonist, pretending to be going on a fantasy movie adventure again and again. There are many people in the film, the buyer of Xiaowang, the little girl Moe and her father, Junyi, the owner of the video store, the girl with bulimia, the middle-aged receptionist, the voyeur, the uncle of bibimbap, and the old man by the park. Undoubtedly, Xiao Wang is the heroine, and the people around him seem to have no "faces". Their external images are different, but their hearts are empty.
Buyers of Xiaowang want a stable and stable partner, without talking or interacting, just waiting for him to come back quietly. As an older worker, he has to bear tedious and a lot of service work every day. Even if he is older, he will still be reprimanded by the boss and dare not retaliate.
Chunyi, who has emotional interaction with Xiaowang, is also "empty". Scattered clips tell the audience that Chunyi had a wonderful love, and we don't know why he is single. I think he, like Xiaowang's buyers, lost love but doesn't know how to make it up, maybe not, maybe not wanting to.
The bulimic girl, the middle-aged front desk lady, the voyeuristic boy and the bibimbap uncle, they all have their own confined space. In their own world, they can unbridled overeating, pouring out the loss of youth, addressing their sexual desires, or mixing eggs or rice first. To the outside world, they will undoubtedly behave normally and silently. How much they resemble you and me in real life.
What is it that we are eroded by our true self, and we just want to live a simple and rude life.
People, why people are people, who gave people the right to name themselves. Is it the earth, is it nature, is it other animals? No, it's us. I never felt that people were people. Just like morality and praise, it is always true from the eloquence of others, but narcissism from oneself. When do other species open their mouths to admit that humans, people, are real people.
In the film, Xiaowang has a "heart", which can be regarded as a new life. When Xiao Wang found out that he was "alive", he was full of curiosity about everything around him. She took to the street, repeating the words of others, like a baby babbling. If you see a bottle with bright stars, you will like it, and you will be pleasantly surprised when you see a flower. It is very similar to the way a child sees the world, even if the bright sparkling bottle is just an empty soda bottle. Slowly, Xiaowang discovered that she was different from others. Her hands were cold, her neck, body, and thighs had "lines", and the shadow under the sun was translucent... Xiaowang began to look for a solution. She went to the beauty store to buy concealer Fan, walking on the side of the road, she wants to look like everyone else. This is not exactly what we humans are best at "following the flow", in order not to be different, in order not to be excluded, we desperately disguise our differences, just to integrate into the torrent.
Xiaowang knew the feelings of Chunyi and the buyer towards his ex-girlfriend, and Xiaowang felt the "pain of the heart", and she wanted them to only like herself, not someone else's substitute. Slowly Xiaowang is no longer a newborn baby, her heart begins to think, she keeps telling us that she is a tool to vent her sexual desire, but she also has a heart. After being sexually assaulted by the boss and replaced by the buyer, Xiaowang found Junyi who once said to her that "I am also hollow", and she wanted to blow air with her own kind. However, Chunyi's heart is empty, Xiaowang's body is empty, but his heart is hot. Junyi didn't have a big reaction when he found out that his stomach was cut open. I think Chunyi didn't want to live for a long time.
We were all newborn babies, facing the world extremely fresh, childlike words, extremely kind. We grow up, discover that there are many rules in life, and learn to fold our wings and become one with the torrent while asking why. Slowly, we still can't forget our true self, some continue to suffer silently, and some fight back. When we reach middle age, we seem to underestimate life and rules, and always like to teach the next generation how to put aside their edge early. Children are puzzled. At that time, we felt a little bitter in our hearts, and we didn’t want our children to experience the same repetition in the future. Those who can endure to old age are true warriors. Too many people choose to free themselves before they can't hold on to their heads.
"I have a heart"
This world is amazing, no matter what species there are only two kinds of males and females. They're all people, but they're all different.
Xiaowang is a living inflatable doll. In the world of dolls, being loved is inevitable. Work, youth, and vitality are not so important. Love is the core. A woman, that's not it, wants to be loved all her life. With a heart of Xiaowang, they are like women with awakened female consciousness. They want to seek true equality and explore pure emotions, instead of asking men to be obedient to themselves or to maximize female privileges as women.
In the film, two questions, "what is a woman" and "is a woman a human", keep popping up in my mind. Xiaowang said through monologue three times, "I am an air puppet, a tool for venting sexual desire." Every time this sentence appears, Xiaowang is being "eroded". Xiao Wang reminded herself that she was not a human being, and also emphasized that no one would truly love her.
Women, why not. In the real society, sex cannot be mentioned publicly, and everyone is looking for one night sex with a change in color and law. Women can't take the initiative to propose sexual desires. Women must cover up their desires, induce men to satisfy themselves, and more to satisfy men's sexual desires. If a woman actively seeks sex, or expresses her sex openly, she will be regarded as a slut and a bitch, which is also mixed with stigma and prejudice against the same sex.
As a woman, you can't have the appearance you like. You must dress yourself according to the patriarchal world. You can do whatever you want to look innocent, innocent, and white and tender. All extravagant dresses are regarded as debauchery. Men can wear tight shorts to show off their muscles unscrupulously, women can't wear low-cut tight skirts, men can be forgiven for whoring and cheating, and women must end it from the beginning, no matter the heart or the womb.
I don't know why Hirokazu Kore-eda chose women as the main subjects of the film. In the following works, "Diary of the Sea Street", "The Thief's Family" and "Deeper than the Sea", women are the main objects of the director's expression. They are gentle and strong, sensitive and vulnerable. If Xiaowang is not an inflatable doll but a real woman, then the social criticism of "Air Figure" is too direct and naked. Presumably the director is using inflatable dolls to show the plight of women and the plight of the general group in the metropolis. People are trapped not only by social rules, but also by their own world.
Fairy tale and reality
As an early work of Hirokazu Koreeda, "Air Figure" does not show the family elements that Hirokazu Koreeda is good at. He uses the protagonist as an object and gives life to it, with a hint of fairy tale color in the literary atmosphere. The real fairy tale has always been an admonition from adults to children, but Hirokazu Kore-eda's fairy tale is to rub the cruel reality into the frame of the fairy tale, showing the cruelty of life in a gentle and delicate halo.
Chunyi said that many people were empty, and Xiaowang responded happily. The emptiness that Junichi said is the emptiness of everyone except Xiaowang in the film, and it is also our "empty" in the real world. Life is not empty, it is the endless repetition of life, the powerless social rules, the helpless parting, and the painful feelings that create our "emptiness". Although we are alive, we are already dead. Although Xiao Wang was empty, her heart was warm.
After reading a lot of film reviews, they said that the reference to "The Air Figure" is very rigid, and most of the plots are very deliberate. Watching the movie again after a ten-year absence did make me feel the pain and sadness that I did not have when I watched it for the first time. Deliberateness and rigidity do not have a clear experience, but more to resonate and empathize with most of the people in the film. Life is so helpless, so helpless that if you want to express your emotions, you have to choose the scene and way, otherwise the hypocritical and gloomy criticism will hit like a storm.
Fortunately, at the end of the film, Xiaowang freed herself in her imagination. Fortunately, the breath blown by Xiaowang made everyone who was in contact with her re-examine themselves, opened the curtains (heart door), and saw the rising sun (hope).
Sunday, November 29, 2020 at 2:50 am
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