Since the 21st century, with the increasingly prominent contradictions of human living environment, the concept of "ecological film" has gradually moved from the edge to the mainstream, and has become a major topic that countless filmmakers are eager to explore. The "Kekexili" directed by Lu Chuan has attracted attention from all walks of life with its real and natural film design and thought-provoking conceptual structure, and has become a model for ecological film research. In this article, I want to start from the film itself and talk about some of my humble opinions on "ecological film".
First of all, what exactly is eco-movie talking about? Gayu is a policeman who came to Hoh Xil disguised as a reporter in order to investigate the killing of Tibetan antelopes. In the more than ten days that he followed the mountain patrol team into the restricted area, he saw fierce conflicts between people and the environment, and between people and society. In a speech, Professor Lu Xiaopeng once classified China's ecological films into six aspects, one is to reflect the impact of environmental degradation on people, the second is the impact of urban planning and demolition on people, and the third is physiological , the lives and struggles of people with intellectual disabilities, the fourth is the description of rural life far from urban civilization, the fifth is people and animals, and the sixth is the return to the overall idea and practice of religion in a commercial society.
Comparing "Kekexili", it is not difficult to find that this film covers several aspects of the above definition. First of all, the most prominent are people and animals. Tibetan antelopes are wild animals that live on the Hoh Xil Plateau. Because of their cold-resistant leather and very good quality, there is a great demand for them in Europe, which has attracted countless people to take risks in the restricted area to hunt Tibetan antelopes. From the founding of the People's Republic of China to the end of the last century, the number of Tibetan antelopes has dropped sharply from one million to less than ten thousand. Mountain patrol members find tens of thousands of Tibetan antelope bones from the restricted area every year. Secondly, for people and the environment, I want to analyze it from two aspects, one is the national life far away from the city, and the other is the influence of the environment on people. First of all, from the perspective of being far away from the city, the director's story is placed among the "special" ethnic group "Tibetan". The special feature is that they live in the plateau area, and their unique geographical conditions determine their culture. Some members of the team have been in the restricted area for several years and have no contact with the outside world. The happiest days are when teammates come to visit and sing and dance together. This kind of happiness is the most primitive and the most real. It is a reflection of a national culture, and it is also a hot response to people's life. On the other hand, it is the impact of environmental degradation on human beings. Ma Zhanlin said that he used to be a horse herder in the past, but the grassland has gradually turned into a desert. The cattle and sheep have died one by one without food, and people are slowly dying of starvation. . He skins Tibetan antelopes, and he earns 5 yuan a piece. Gradually, his three sons also became skinners, and they also reached out to the restricted area and the Tibetan antelope.
Now let's go back to the question at the beginning, what exactly is eco-movie talking about? Whether it is humans and animals, or humans and the environment, they are inseparable from a fundamental starting point - "people", but the performance of ecological films on people is from a "non-human-centered" perspective. We can understand this special perspective with the help of the film. The mountain patrol team led by Ritai captured illegal hunters, but they did not have a formal establishment and no salary. Some of the sheepskins they collected were handed in and some were sold. A kind of "powerlessness" of people to the social status quo. Hoh Xil is considered to be the last primitive plateau in China, where countless poachers, forest rangers and scientists are buried. The unique feature of eco-movie is that it places people in the natural world, looks at various contradictions and conflicts from a macro perspective, follows the laws of nature, does not exaggerate, and does not make deliberate changes. In the film, Ritai put the captives in the restricted area and let them go out on their own because there was not enough food; the teammates of the mountain patrol also stayed in the restricted area because their car broke down; Liu Dong came to find them with food and gasoline. They were trapped in quicksand; in the end, Ritai also died under the guns of poachers. Hoh Xil means "beautiful girl" in Tibetan. This very tempting name has also made countless people buried in it.
In this film, what we need to reflect on is not only the relationship between humans and animals, but also the most important issue discussed in ecological films - "capital's unrestricted pursuit of capital". If "people" is an entry point for us to enter ecological films, and "non-human center" provides us with an entry point for observation, then "capital's pursuit of capital" is the most intuitive content reflected in the film. This kind of "chasing" is not limited by regional culture, and reflects not only the problems existing in China, but also the real problems existing in the world.
There are many scholars who want to put a complete Western theoretical framework on ecological film criticism, but the themes it reflects have the "commonality" of the world, and can ecological film criticism really exist as an independent form? What kind of context should be built in is still worth exploring. Regarding the understanding of eco-movie, this is just the beginning. Its theoretical research still needs the participation of more filmmakers. I also hope that China can establish its own unique viewpoint in eco-movie.
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