The beginning of the film is very attractive. The little gangster He Bing first experienced a high-tech bath: the bath is coin-operated, and you can choose various modes like a washing machine. Wipe dry. This is a film from 1999. I suspect that there was no such equipment at that time, but the props team assembled it by themselves. The equipment is not high-end, like a machine in an old workshop, but its futuristic motive still reminds me of "Blade Runner 2049", where the high commander takes a bath like this (although the latter has more advanced equipment). After that, the style of the film changed, and He Bing entered a traditional public bathhouse in Beijing. It's a gentleman's paradise: you can soak in the pool, wash your clothes "on the shore", give baths, kill chickens, and cup cups, and fight crickets with old brothers in the rest area.
The man who runs the bathhouse is Lao Liu (Zhu Xu). His eldest son, Daming, is "making a lot of money" in Shenzhen (Pu Cunxin). The second son, Arming, is an idiot (Jiang Wu). He is very cute and obedient and can fight him. Here are the three main characters. And the "pattern" of the whole story is very small: small environment - around the bathhouse; small-time - from the time when the eldest son goes home to visit relatives to when he leaves. But the topics discussed are not small: family ethics, neighborhood relations, and social change issues in the context of the new era.
In terms of family ethics, it is about the indifferent father-son relationship and the oil bottle relatives. The first is the intensification of the contradiction: Arming sent a postcard to Daming, the text on it was unknown. Daming thought his father was in poor health, so he flew back. The son who has not been home for a long time suddenly came back. The father thought he was coming back for a funeral and was slightly dissatisfied because he had always looked down on his own business. Later, Daming lost Arming, and the anxious father was even angrier. Then came the resolution of the conflict: the elder brother, who had always been in a straight suit, finally changed into the work clothes of the bathhouse and began to help after seeing his father's difficulties. But it was when the conflict was resolved that his father died suddenly. Er Ming's whereabouts became a problem. He concealed the existence of the foolish younger brother from his wife in Shenzhen. Now, the younger brother must live with him. Where to go? The film gave an open ending, but according to the inference, Daming will divorce his wife and may not return to Shenzhen for development. (The plot is a little confusing: Daming called to tell his daughter-in-law in the distance that his father had passed away. Huh? You can call your daughter-in-law, but can't you call your father in the imperial capital? The father himself does not have a phone, and there are always neighbors. Right? But if I can fight, my son doesn't have to come back and don't make a movie. This movie, pawn.)
Although the discussion is about more serious issues, the overall atmosphere of the film is relatively joyful, and the laughs are mainly on Er Ming and many bathing friends-Beijing people will enjoy it, and the Beijing dialect is bald, which is more than the Northeast dialect. To be happy. Let's see: Li Ding and Lao Wu are fighting crickets in the rest area. The two people who are over 150 years old are both angry because of cheating. Both of you will sing and I will come on stage with great irony; Lao Zhang is with his wife. The reason for the divorce was that after the woman's wife was stolen the gold necklace in the bathroom two years ago, she went to the street with her bare buttocks to chase the gangsters. Only in the shower can he sing "My Sun" bravely. Arming is his loyal fan. In the final area demolition art show, Miao Zhuang, who could not sing a voice, got the award with the help of Ermine's artificial shower. There was applause in the hall; Lao Liu and Lao Zhang were drinking and talking in the bath, and the wine plate became a float on the water.
However, the film ends with the demolition of the bathhouse, which also shows the decline of an entire era. The city will always turn into a high-rise building, the neighbors and neighbors who love each other will eventually be scattered, and the original bathhouse will eventually be replaced by a family bathroom that "can take a mandarin duck bath". A new era has come, and there is no such thing as a feast in the world. The unmanned "clear water pool" in the last scene echoes and contrasts with the modern bathing equipment in the first scene."Bath" was produced in 1999. It retains the simple and dry style of Chinese films of the last century and is generally a good work. The actors are also strong. I have always liked He Bing, although he only used soy sauce in this film; I love Jiang Wu more than Jiang Wen; I am ashamed that this is the first time I have an impression of Pu Cunxin's work because when I knew him He is already a walking charity ambassador and rarely appears in works.
However, this film is not without its shortcomings. Let's start with the Tucao mode below.
I think the name "Bath" is a bit too common, and it's a bit bigger to replace it with "Public Bathroom" or "Big Bathhouse": the atmosphere created by the former four words is very literary (why did I think of "Roadside Picnic"?), the latter not only reminds me of "The Gate of the House", but also reminds me of Guo Degang, which can be magnificent and comedy. And the English title of the film is a bit ill-considered in translation - "shower", which corresponds to "shower", and the highlight of this film is "bath" that can be soaked, is it wrong?
Two embarrassing scenes forcibly sensationalize and sublimate the theme: Erming's mother in northern Shaanxi takes a bath when she gets married; In the first one, the camera shot from the Hutong Chuanzi in Greater Beijing to the Loess Gaopo with a very different painting style. The performance lasted for about ten minutes, which was confusing and detrimental to the development of the main line. The audience will be confused: Was Lao Liu from northern Shaanxi before? Doesn't it sound like the accent? If he was originally from Beijing, how could he go to the remote Loess Gaopo to marry a wife? The little girl didn't have the slightest joy before she got married. Was it an arranged marriage, was it bought? In addition, is it appropriate to make Erming's mother look so good-looking? What did the little girl do to die young? What's wrong with giving birth to ugly and silly dolls? These associations are very entertaining. As for the scene where the Tibetans take a bath in the holy lake, there is no other connection except for the "bathing". If you want to say that what you wash is the soul, the whole film is also a kind of soul torture, then I have nothing to say.
There is also Lao Liu to "cure" the old Zhang who can't help it. Old Liu, who has been a widow for half his life, is quite slippery in mediating the relationship between husband and wife. The method he gave to see a doctor was to ask Lao Zhang's wife to wait in the bathroom, and Lao Zhang could take a bath after entering. By the way, is the bathhouse such a romantic and healing place? Not to mention I don't know how the old Zhang's wife, who had been divorced for two years, was coaxed into the bathroom by him. Even if he agreed, why did He Dongshi's woman become so affectionate when she arrived at the bathroom, and the divorce was written off? And according to the subsequent emotional development of the couple, it seems that the passion for the bathhouse cured Lao Zhang's disease overnight. It's amazing.
In addition, Lao Liu told Daming, "I have the opportunity to bring her back to meet." At that time, I thought it was only the stage of dating, but it turned out that they were already married. How much hatred is this, or how poor can't afford a plane ticket and didn't see it with your own eyes when you got married? In addition, after your father's funeral is over, you only inform your daughter-in-law. Let's not talk about whether the relationship between husband and wife is deep or not. At least the etiquette is always to be performed when you come back for the funeral, right?Okay, the rant is over. I'm looking forward to a story about women's bathhouses. As someone who has been in a women's public bathroom, I said that there are also many stories about women's bathrooms. But this is not good to shoot, and it is really hard to shoot without missing a point. The existing works that can see this infinite spring are probably only Angel's "Turkish Bath" and some love-action movies.
View more about Shower reviews
