"The Three Gorges" is Jia Zhangke's fifth feature film. It is different from the description of the urban-rural junction area in northern China, which is called "Fenyang Trilogy" in "Xiaowu", "Platform" and "Ren Xiaoyao", which has a color of personal experience. Yu's limited reflection of the fragmented and absurd experience of contemporary Chinese metropolises in The World. The appearance of "The Good Man in Three Gorges" seems to make us familiar with the old Jia Zhangke again, or revisit his unique way and perspective of looking at the world. Of course, the difference is that compared with the previous strong personal imprint, "The Good Man in Three Gorges" seems to be a little calmer, whether it is Han Sanming, a miner looking for his ex-wife, or Shen Hong, who is looking for a ruthless husband, the Individuals always seem to be weaker than those around them of all shapes and sizes—a statement that may not be accurate, since they themselves are just an inconspicuous part of the crowd. As revealed by the first shot of the film, the real sense of life that comes to you may be just an illusion. When the camera is pulled out, all enthusiasm and noise are just drowned out by the whistle of the ship. What remains unchanged is the stagnation of time— — is pushed forward by itself involuntarily.
Therefore, the function of the first shot in this film is so important that all it makes us feel is the gray state of life and its unquenchable continuity. This is very different from "Xiao Wu", "Platform", etc. In those films, even in the most desperate times, there seems to be a trace of turmoil deep inside the film, which is what makes our blood boil. At the end of "The Good Man in Three Gorges", when Han Sanming looked back at the man walking on the tightrope, no matter how brave we are in life, it is only an empty lament with nowhere to go.
Therefore, "The Three Gorges Good Man" is a film that defines the living conditions of the people at the bottom, or more absolutely, it is a video practice about the living conditions. In fact, when Jia Zhangke went to the Three Gorges to shoot the documentary "East" for artist Liu Xiaodong, the idea of "The Good Man of the Three Gorges" was not even formed at all. It is in the process of recording the material that the director has a deep understanding of Fengjie, a small city with a history of more than 2,000 years, and the people living in this city that is about to be submerged. In his view, it is no different from a "Jianghu", a real "Jianghu" without a trace, in which life, old age, sickness and death, happiness and sadness have never stopped being staged. And all of this is just fixed on trivial things like "tobacco, alcohol, tea and sugar".
It is through this that the film builds an invisible cultural structure. In this film, these things are not presented as necessities of daily life, but as metaphors for an outdated, outdated, and loose social network by which people define themselves and others and other social spaces Relationship.
At the Tangrenge Inn, the "little horse" connected the seemingly dull Han Sanming with the Three Gorges "Jianghu" through a cigarette; on the dilapidated ferry, a few bottles of old wine brought from Shanxi connected Han Sanming and his wife Brother's almost non-existent ethical affection; and when the rusty iron lock, which symbolized the deadlock of marriage, was smashed by the deep red, in the dim light, the boxed tea leaves of "Wushan Yunwu" were like a kind of tenderness. Jokingly, he pointed to the love that Shen Hong and her husband Guo Bin once had; through half of the building's windows, the city of Fengjie in the distance was dazzling, but the white rabbit toffee that Ma Yaomei handed to Han Sanming could not afford it. The happiness of the future cannot find the sweetness of the past. "Tobacco, alcohol, tea and sugar" are these ordinary trivial things, which are endowed by the director with meanings other than daily experience in the film. Just like their ordinary content and form, ordinary life seems to make everything lose its original taste.
As we all know, since "Platform", the use of paragraph-style long shots has been recognized as an important identification factor for Jia Zhangke's image style, and "The Good Man in Three Gorges" certainly follows this technique. However, unlike the former, the long shots in "The Good Man of the Three Gorges" have less of the documentary flavor that people are talking about. In fact, the long shots in this film often contain a self-contradictory attitude or factor. In other words, the use of long shots in this film is more of a technical choice, or an aesthetic pursuit caused by technology. Usually, for documentaries, the choice of long shots is often a helpless "best choice", but for feature films such as "The Three Gorges Good Man", its significance is mainly understood at the aesthetic level, about this It only takes a study of its intricate mise-en-scene to understand. Therefore, rather than sticking to a documentary style, we should say that it is a deliberate use of documentary style as an expressive element. This is probably why when the audience and the characters see the aircraft passing through Kuimen Gorge together, there is not much sense of abruptness.
In addition to long takes, the use of pop music is a recognizable characteristic of Jia Zhangke's films. However, the function of the musical elements in "The Good Man of Three Gorges" has been expanded to a certain extent compared to before. In addition to locating the background age of the story and echoing the emotions of the characters, the deliberate use of musical elements leads to an absurd sense of alienation. A major feature of the film. For example, the little boy who sings "Mouse Loves Rice" has no musical narrative function at all. To some extent, he seems to be only a loose emotional motif, just like Kieslowski " Like the old man who kept throwing things into the trash can in "Three Colors", their appearance is to a certain extent to separate the viewer from the film's narrative, so as to enter a certain situation prescribed by the director.
From a performance point of view, Zhao Tao, who plays Shen Hong, has a very precise understanding and interpretation of the role. While waiting for Guo Bin's old colleague to open the locker for her, Zhao Tao inadvertently showed the exhausted state of a woman who had no hope of marriage just by changing the center of gravity a few times. presented without any traces of engraving. The completion of this seemingly simple action is of great help to the successful shaping of the character. It can make the viewer believe all the actions and words of the character when they see the character for the first time. In addition, the details of Shen Hong's repeated search for water to drink wherever she goes, also add a lot to the character. It successfully metaphors a daily living habit into the external representation of a physically hungry woman, whether in narrative or Emotionally, it's very convincing. Of course, the handling and use of non-professional actors is also a highlight, which is also Jia Zhangke's uniqueness. The several quarrel scenes between the demolition office and the factory and the emotional connection of the whole film are very smooth, and the performance of the non-professional actors is also neat and stable.
In the film, the director used some popular visual symbols ingeniously. When Han Sanming stood in front of the Kuimen Bridge with the fifth set of 10 yuan in hand and carefully compared the real scene and the coin surface pattern, he suddenly turned the money over. When it comes to seeing the portrait of Mao Zedong on the front of the renminbi, all explanations seem superfluous, and the power of making good use of visual cultural symbols is evident. However, the situation of poor grasp and excessive force also occasionally appeared in this film. For example, Wang Dongming, who was excavating the ancient tombs of the Western Han Dynasty, adjusted all the collected watches to 13:40, which is too graphic (the demolition of the old city in Fengjie began at 13:40 on January 20, 2002), while the middle-aged woman pointed to the watch on the wall. The Nokia poster said that when her daughter was working there, it was too playful.
As far as the film is concerned, the spirit of the absurdity and reality contained in "The Good Man of the Three Gorges" is very different from the director's previous films. For example, the local leaders shouted "one, two, three" and waved their hands, and the Three Gorges New Bridge was instantly illuminated; Guo Bin and Shen Hong stared at the river for a long time, and suddenly danced to the music in the distance; Han Sanming and Shen Hong The same dull expression witnessed the flying machine across the sky; the Three Gorges Monument suddenly lifted into the sky; the man walking the tightrope in the air; A whiff of absurdity. In the way of handling, the director's paradox is that he can give the inexplicable mystery to the bland scene. It is precisely because of this that the real world in "The Good Man in the Three Gorges" is "naturally" transformed into an "objective world" that appeals to psychological reality through an "original" objective world. And the undertone of this realism is the kind of realism that is different from the realism in The Bicycle Thief, a realism with expressive meaning. Perhaps this is one of the important reasons why "The Three Gorges" is so intriguing.
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