- from "The King's Man" to
Passionfly
After the storm of "Dae Jang Geum" in 2005, Hallyu completely swept China. It is said that it alarmed the central government, and the cultural department specially issued a document to restrict the performance of similar costume plays. At the same time as Korean film and television, Korean catering, clothing and electronic products, etc., made the foreign trade department at a loss for a while, and actually came up with a countermeasure that "the lead content of imported kimchi exceeds the standard", which surprised the Chinese people. Culture and art are not only so closely connected with the economy, but for the rulers, it affects the people's backs on a deeper level and is related to the stability of the regime. We have always had the historical experience and revolutionary tradition of "the party controls public opinion" and "spiritual civilization". Therefore, it is certainly not a problem to boycott Hallyu and other Western ideological trends on the cultural front.
Coincidentally, on the last day of the end of 2005, South Korea released a new film "The King's Man", which quickly broke the Korean box office record in just three months. "The King's Man", as the name suggests, must have a glamorous and neutral person as the protagonist, which is indeed an excellent gimmick to attract attention. But after watching the plot of the film, it is not difficult to find that it is actually just a historical literary film, not a vulgar commercial pornography. The film tells the story of a group of folk dance performers who performed political satires on the street in order to survive in the era of the Yanshan Dynasty in North Korea. They were arrested in the palace, but they were appreciated by the paranoid king. Kong Ji became the king's emotional sustenance, but the political satire of these artists intensified the political struggle in the palace. As a result, the artist's life was destroyed, and the royal power finally collapsed.
To tell the truth, first of all, it is difficult to obtain permission for filming and screening in China for such films; secondly, even if they are really filmed in China, it is estimated that they will be changed beyond recognition and become a well-behaved preaching; and more importantly, even if When released, such a preaching literary film will not have any box office at all, let alone breaking records compared with "The Lord of the Rings" and "Titanic". However, the Koreans actually did it, and not only did it not rely on pornography and violence, but instead brought the audience a heartfelt moving and shocking reflection. Such an impressive film record should be admired by domestic filmmakers!
Excellent filmmakers are valuable, but even more valuable are those in power who can tolerate these filmmakers criticizing themselves in every possible way. China has never lacked cultural soil, artistic sparks, and innovative geniuses, but as Eileen Chang said, "geniuses often don't end well"; because what is more powerful in China is political power, and there is no one who holds power. The exceptions stand on the conservative side, for them, "stability overwhelms everything"; what China lacks is precisely the political capacity and the flexibility of power, so that culture and art do not have enough room to grow; Under the conditions of extreme diversity and rapid changes in the field of culture and art, my country's political power appears to be timid, stretched, and lacks the ability to control it easily. That's why people see a strange phenomenon in China - on the one hand, domestic films are not developed and are on the verge of bankruptcy, while on the other hand, the competent authorities would rather sit back and watch foreign films continue to advance, and would rather the cultural market shrink and wither than allow domestic films to have freedom. the right to speak. A large number of excellent mainland directors and films can only be transferred underground or distributed abroad. "Farewell My Concubine", which is most similar to "The King's Man", is an example. This is rather the tragedy of the decline of cultural and national power.
In terms of film regulation, the achievements of South Korea's reforms should serve as a model for our country to learn from. In the early 1990s, South Korea's unofficial "Film Promotion Committee" played a huge role in coordinating the conflict between the government and filmmakers. Independent directors Kim Dong-won and Cho Sung-feng were arrested for showing the movie "Red". It was this organization that came to coordinate. It was only then that he was released from prison, and finally contributed to the abolition of film censorship in South Korea in 1998 and replaced it with a "film hierarchy". The rating of each movie is rated by the "Image Rating Committee" composed of folks, and there are no restrictions on pornography, horror, politics and other themes. On the other hand, the "Film Promotion Committee" is also responsible for the distribution of the "Film Grant" funded by the government, which is used to subsidize the production of experimental short films, documentaries and artistic independent films by young and independent directors, as well as to help commercial film financing.
Under such a relaxed environment and good cultivation, it is not surprising that South Korea can produce so many excellent and different styles of film and television works. Looking back, let's take a look at "The King's Man". It can be said that this film is not only a result of the reform of Korean film control, but also a summary of Koreans' reflection on the tension between political power and culture and art. The prosperity and development of contemporary Korean films makes a perfect and artistic footnote.
The plays performed by dance artists in this film can be classified into eight plays. The first part, which can be called "Flying World", is the opening performance of Kong Ji (played by Lee Junki) and his senior brother Changsheng (played by Gan Yucheng) in a noble family, which is a metaphor for the artist's struggle between survival and selling himself. Kong Ji's "flying sky" yearning for freedom while walking the tightrope is in stark contrast with Changsheng's indignant "falling to the ground" because Kong Ji can't bear to sell himself. The play of two blind men groping for each other rehearsed on the way to Seoul from a nobleman is a metaphor for the preciousness of brotherly friendship. The third can be called "The King's Bed". It was the first political satire drama after Kong Ji and Changsheng went to Seoul to perform together with artists such as Lao Liu and other artists to make a living. It became their job to mock the king, and they were arrested into the palace because of this, and they were even shown to the king, but the king was very interested in it. The fourth play can be called "Selling the Official Vendor", and it was the first play that the king supported the artists in their official performance after appreciating them. This play depicts the princes and ministers accepting bribes and selling officials to the ground, which directly led to a group of high-ranking officials being charged and ransacked their homes, which opened the prelude to the king's killing in the power struggle with the nobles. The fifth part, which can be called "Thorn Concubine Asking Mother", is a palace satirical drama specially choreographed by Kong Ji for the king after he learned that the king's mother was framed and poisoned since he was a child. The hidden pain caused by the king's series of revenge actions inside and outside the palace, laying a hidden danger for the collapse of the royal power, also made Kong Ji the focus of right and wrong in general as a concubine Yang. The sixth part can be called "Discussing Jie and Scolding Zhou", Kong Ji became the target of public criticism, and the king became more dependent on Kong Ji and more violent due to further isolation, and the retribution began to fall on the actors of the troupe. He cursed the king to death and staged a high-altitude drama of "chasing Jie and scolding Zhou", but the king was burned and blinded. The seventh part can be called "Life and Death". It is a play in which Changsheng claimed to be a scapegoat for Kong Ji and became blind in prison, and Kong Ji performed a play for the king and committed suicide by cutting his wrists, taking care of the play "Searching for him in the crowd". The last eighth part is the climax of the whole film and the reappearance of the first "Flying World", which can be called "I am the King". Changsheng and Kong Ji staged the last scene of this life together at the last moment when the palace was captured by the nobles. The classic lines expressed the artist's heart: "In order to survive, I lost myself; as a blind man, I ignored my heart and was stolen; In this palace, it's nothing but an abyss. I should be blind!" "In my drama, I'm the king, I don't see it, I'm arrogant, and I only have a tacit understanding with my companions." "You can't tell the difference between high and low, so you turn the world upside down."
From the perspective of media law, several political satires performed in "The King's Man" are similar to the famous American cases "Sullivan" and "Jerry Falwell". Case” (Jerry Falwell), which established that it is more difficult for “public figures” to be satirized by the media to constitute a “defamation” infringement, that is, to give the media and literary artists more freedom to satirize public figures. The two dramas "Selling the Official Vendor" and "Thorn Concubine Asking the Mother" are similar to the "Pentagon Papers" case, which affirmed the media's power to monitor the government in order to prevent government corruption through sunlight. And the drama "Discussing Jie and Scolding Zhou" is similar to "Jacob Abrams" and "Saturday Press", which established that only when the war was urgent or caused the "Saturday Press" "Obvious and present danger", the speech against the government and state leaders can be regulated and punished, otherwise it is freedom of speech.
Of course, the idea of "freedom of speech" contained in this political satire is only one aspect or element of the film. Movies are three-dimensional and art is vivid. They always go beyond legal norms and academic abstractions, and often even go beyond the literary language of film criticism. In my opinion, "The King's Man" is less historical and more fable than "Farewell My Concubine". "The King", movies and dramas bring us more human touch. The Korean title of "The King's Man" literally translates to "The King and the Clown", and in the film they represent the polarities of power and literature. The king is in great power, but he is extremely lonely and sad in the depths of his heart; the actor is like a mustard, but he can still yearn for freedom and enjoy the true feelings of the world. People share the same heart, and the film understands the role of criticism and reflection in the more general sense of "people"; it heals the bloody wound between the regime and literature and art. As the last climactic line says - in the actor's world, the world is a stage, and he himself is the king. From the perspective of this article, it can be interpreted as - although culture is in the hands of politics, although art is under the crotch of power; but the real feeling is in our blood, and the beating heart is in our chest. Culture cannot be controlled, art cannot tolerate insults, and the human spirit has its own stubbornness and dignity. In the real world, those in power are kings; in the spiritual world, we ourselves are kings!
2006.9.5
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