"Yes."
"Will you find me like a motor?"
"Yes."
"Will you keep looking?"
"Yes."
"Will you find death? " Yes
."
"You lie, I don't believe it."
...
This is the opening remarks of the movie "Suzhou River". After that, the image of Suzhou River appeared, and the film began to tell.
Suzhou River, a dirty river in Shanghai. At the beginning of the film, there is a long shot of Suzhou River: scattered boats with dark skeletons exposed; boatmen who have been relying on the river all their lives to support their families, with dry and cracked skin exposed to the sun, some melancholy and some confused eyes; across the river bank The reinforced iron bridge, the vehicles that shuttle back and forth on the bridge make the river a little modern. "Nearly a century of legends, stories, memories, and all the rubbish piled up in this river, making it one of the dirtiest rivers." This is the narration of "I". The entire film is told through "I". "I" is a photographer who often shoots Suzhou River with a camera. "I" did not appear in front of the screen from beginning to end, and occasionally "I" could be seen reaching out to pour a drink or snuff out a cigarette butt. As for what "I" is like, no one sees and doesn't need to be known. Maybe "I" doesn't exist at all, it's just our hallucination; maybe this "I" is you, me, and everyone around me, so ordinary that he doesn't need to be interpreted alone. In the film, Zhou Xun plays two roles, Peony and Meimei. This way of expression has once become a fashion in the history of film. When the first such film came out, we would say it was unique, and the more we saw it, the less meaningful it should have been. Although it is still two women who look the same but are completely different that keep the film going, the themes of the film are much more than that.
The biggest feature of the entire film is that its pictures are always beating, sometimes tilted, as if peeping through a small hole to see the behavior of the characters in the play. Such beating images give people a sense of unease, a kind of emotional and intellectual dissociation, a kind of nostalgia, and a little bit of stimulation like peeping. The beating Suzhou River and the people on the river are endowed with a mysterious atmosphere, like a story breaking in from far away. The surrounding Suzhou River is a dilapidated scene. Dark fishing boats, unfinished buildings and half-demolition houses stand riddled with holes by the river. The man smoking on the boat was covered in oil, and the child's face was flushed with a smile. Standing on the boat and looking forward, you can clearly see the tall Oriental Pearl Tower standing not far away without any obstacles.
Such a turbid gray river runs through the entire bustling city from east to west.
At the beginning of the film, "I" said, "I once saw a mermaid sitting by the Suzhou River brushing her golden hair." Then he said, "Don't believe me, I'm a liar. "
Later, this mermaid really appeared, who is lying?
Meimei is "my" girlfriend, she works in the Happy Pavilion. Her job is to entice customers by posing as a mermaid in the bar's large fish tank. Every night, there will be a person watching Meimei's performance silently. After the show, he will chat with her in the dressing room and tell her the story of him and Peony.
Who is he? According to people, he is a lunatic. However, he is not the kind of madness with physical or psychological defects. This madness may be called "attachment", "repentance", and "persistence".
He is the motor, a delivery man. Many years ago, because of delivery, he met a girl named Peony, and they fell in love. However, he gets a large ransom from her rich dad in the bootleg liquor business for his involvement in a gang that tries to kidnap Peony. In the end, Peony jumped from the Suzhou River in grief and indignation after learning all this. That scene is one of the few scenes in the film that are considered beautiful. Peony fell off the bridge of Suzhou River and fell into the river on its back. The moment before she jumped off, she said to Ma Ma, "If I jump off, I will become a mermaid and come to you." There were grief, resentment, sadness and disappointment in her eyes.
Zhou Xun's acting skills have been recognized to the greatest extent in this film. Peony is an innocent and lively image with a little girl. Wear two braids, red and white tracksuits, black pants, and sneakers. The peony in the film is always laughing non-stop, like a carefree child sitting behind the motorbike and singing loudly. Ma said, "She is the happiest girl I have ever met." And her love is as simple and direct as her personality. But the ending was a downright tragedy. At the moment she jumped, there was still an indelible mark of love in her eyes. This led to the legend that followed.
After Peony's death, some people claimed to have seen a mermaid on the Suzhou River, sitting by the river brushing her golden hair. They said that it was Peony who came back to look for the motor, and at this time, the motor had disappeared and disappeared.
Meimei is a woman of another style. She has short, loose hair, and wears a green satin skirt and red velvet coat. Messy dance moves on the ecstatic streets of Shanghai. "I" like to take pictures of Meimei. In the shaking lens, the beautiful and tender eyes and coquettish expression, the fine hair fluttering in the wind, and the neon flashing. Meimei lives on the boat and plays the mermaid in the bar at night. During the day, on the balcony of "my" room, drinking and chatting.
A few years later, Ma returned to Suzhou River to look for Peony, but met Meimei, a woman who was exactly like Peony. The legend about the mermaid was confirmed by Meimei. However, the mermaid is fake, and so is the peony. Only the relentless search for the motor is true. This seems to be a metaphor, but also a kind of irony. Is it because of the peony's mermaid legend that Momo has the motivation to persevere in search, or is it because of his crazy search that this moving legend is created?
The ending of the story is somewhat unexpected. I always thought that the reluctance of the motor would not get results.
When he came to "me" for the last time, he said, "Meimei likes you, although she doesn't say it, but I know she only loves you. I'm leaving and continue looking for Peony. I always believe that she is there A certain corner of the city." The lines of Ma Ma in the film always give people a very hypocritical feeling, especially this one. In an art film that does not focus on dialogue, such lines are not uncommon, but from the mouth of a courier, it seems a bit incongruous. And it is this incongruity that makes the role of the motor uncoordinated, which is what sets him apart from other couriers.
Later, Mada met Peony in a 24-hour convenience store over a bottle of smuggled Eastern European spirits. The two sat by the Suzhou River, looking at the Oriental Pearl in the distance, silent. Then, "I" was taken by the police to the river to claim the body, it was Ma and Peony, because of that bottle of spirits.
In this way, a nearly crazy, but persistent relationship ended. Death came abruptly, but to a certain extent, death is the best end to the love between Ma and Peony. Such a paradoxical love staged on such a dirty river full of garbage has an illusionary color in itself. In addition, in the film, the whole story is told by "I". A "me" who never shows up, a simple and somewhat unreal girl, a courier called "madman", and the constantly shaking images make this story engraved in everyone's mind and memory. , and it seems to exist only in our fantasy, become a dream.
At the end of the film, Meimei sat on the boat and said to "me",
"If one day I leave, will you find me?"
"Yes."
"Will you find me like a motor?"
"Yes."
"Will always be Find it?"
"Yes."
"Will you find death?"
"Yes."
"You lie, I don't believe it."
…
The next day, when "I" went to find Meimei on the boat, she had already left. A note was nailed to the door, "Come to me."
Motor was dead. Peony is dead. Meimei left.
"I" said at the end, "I would rather close my eyes and wait for the beginning of the next love." The
film ends in a fierce music, and "I" succumbs to reality.
Everything is back on track. The love story that grew out of the filthy Suzhou River became a legend together like a mermaid.
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