2018 120 Movie Watching Program Part 01
by / Director of Bow Valley
From the first time I met Wang Xiaoshuai's film in "The Intruder", to this "Seventeen-Year-Old Bicycle", I would like to say that the director's work is "very powerful"!
I don’t know if I can compare him with Lou Ye. It is also through the life of ordinary people to see the contradiction between society and class, but the difference is that Lou Ye prefers rough and casual camera language, and the lines and pictures seem quite thoughtful. Wang Xiaoshuai was more like a well-rounded director, every scene scheduling, picture composition and stabilization seemed to have been deliberately rehearsed and designed.
Therefore, in comparison, Wang Xiaoshuai is more like a storyteller, because the audience's psychological needs are met, making the movie story look immersive; while Lou Ye is more like a book writer. It felt dull and boring, but in retrospect it is endless aftertaste.
The reason why I compare them is mainly because I see similar shadows in their work. Such a comparison, in fact, can probably understand the difference between the two movie audiences.
"Seventeen-Year-Old Bicycle" is a movie about youth , and it reminds me of Jiang Wen's "Sunny Day" a lot. I found that youth films over the years have more or less its shadow, and "Seventeen-Year-Old Bicycle" is, in my opinion, the best youth film of the 20th century.
The movie is about two teenagers and a bicycle. A young man is A Gui, a migrant worker who uses bicycles to deliver couriers. He is stubborn and commits the second crime; a young man is Xiao Jian, a child from a lower-class family, who has low self-esteem but does not want to be looked down upon. Agui used this car to deliver the courier diligently. When he was about to get the ownership of the car, the car was stolen unexpectedly, and Xiaojian happened to buy the car on the black market, and the two had a youthful relationship because of this. intersection.
In fact, I feel sorry for Agui. After the car was stolen, he faced the fate of being fired from the express company. In order not to be fired, he could only find his bike on the streets of Beijing. Although he finally found it, he was faced with the question of who the bike belongs to.
Just think about this problem: if the car you bought was stolen, and then you met a person riding your car on the road, and when you wanted to go back, he said that the car was bought by me in the second-hand market, But the car is yours. At this time, how should the two sides solve it?
The two teenagers in the movie chose the compromise of two matchmakers riding for a day, from hating each other to getting to know each other later.
Of course, the story is not so simple. If it is just a story of a bicycle, it will be boring. Because of this bicycle, Agui was beaten several times in the movie, and even in the days when there was no bicycle, he relied on the courier to deliver to Beijing city; and Ajian also stole money from the family for this bicycle, because this He had a conflict with his beloved girl, even provoked the underworld, and was chased and beaten.
The last scene where A Gui and A Jian played in the underworld was really disturbing. But what made my heart hurt even more was the scene where Ah Gui was beaten by Ah Jian's buddies in the abandoned high-rise building. The ground in the building is full of vertical steel bars, and the surrounding area without guardrails is a cold concrete floor. Four or five people rushed for the bicycle that Agui was clinging to. In the end, Agui shouted hysterically, which was heartbreaking...
It was the sound of being bullied and oppressed by life, and it was also the sound of a seventeen-year-old boy facing the despair and pain of his life experience. The viewers listened to it, not pity, but contemplation.
Wang Xiaoshuai understands what youth is, so in the film, he uses a bicycle, such an ordinary means of transportation, to describe the living conditions of people of different social classes. In fact, you can't see such a twisted story in the movie. It's just the price that two teenagers paid for their impulsiveness and stubbornness in their youth in different living environments, and the white shirt and stubborn eyes make people feel distressed.
I feel sorry for them in the movie, and I also feel sorry for myself who came from youth.
Every experience related to the age of seventeen, in a destructive state, teaches young people to learn to grow. These experiences will inevitably be cruel and realistic, but growth is like this, otherwise it will just refuse to grow up.
Of course, the deeper level of the movie is the sadness of the lower-level characters and the disparity of social classes revealed in the progression of the plot.
The courier manager said to several employees: "Have you never seen a bicycle from the countryside?";
The owner of the commissary said: "People in the city are not satisfied with such a big house. They frown every day and ask me to eat pork ribs noodles every day.", "There is music playing in the toilets of the hotels in the city.";
A Jian's father had to deceive A Jian's promise to buy a bicycle over and over again because of his financial constraints;
There is even Hongqin, the nanny played by Zhou Xun who doesn't even have a line. She steals the householder's clothes to buy, wears the hostess's high heels, steals cosmetics and so on.
In fact, they are also city people from the countryside, and they work so hard to live like city people, yet they still live so humble, whether it is Ah Jian trying to maintain his inner pride among his classmates, or Hong Qin trying to satisfy Their own vanity, they are all living sadly, like ants.
It is also a coincidence that Wang Xiaoshuai's "Seventeen-Year-Old Bicycle" and Lou Ye's "Suzhou River" have the same experience of being banned, and the reason for the ban is the same because they went to the Berlin Film Festival without the approval of the radio and television. The same two have won many awards at the film festival.
What's more interesting is that Wang Xiaoshuai also opened a personal column on Zhihu, and also commented on the movie "Seventeen-Year-Old Bicycle". He said: "The filming of "Seventeen-Year-Old Bicycle" also made me find the courage to make independent films again. I will defend the autonomy of the image just like defending my life. "
Defend the autonomy of the image. How proud to say that, how many directors can do it under the corruption of business?
Take a look at the current youth-themed films: abortion, picking up girls, drugs, fighting, love, hormones, sex... All-round satisfaction of human sensory needs and abandoning the appearance of youth.
I think, maybe in at least three or five years, it will be difficult to see such a pure youth film like "Seventeen-Year-Old Boy", let alone "Sunny Days".
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