The last time I saw the name "Wang Xiaoshuai" was because of Hu Bo, the 29-year-old talented novelist and director of the movie "The Elephant Sitting on the Floor".
On October 12, 2017, Hu Bo committed suicide in the stairwell of a residential building on the East Fifth Ring Road in Beijing, saying goodbye to the world in a decisive way. Regarding the reasons for his suicide, the outside world has always had different opinions, financial constraints, emotional frustration, mental instability... Among them, there is another reason that is hard to ignore - the creation of the movie "The Elephant Sitting on the Floor" was not smooth, and the financial support during the filming was not in place. , after the filming was completed, the director Hu Bo had a fierce conflict with the film supervisor and producer due to editing problems. The executive producers and producers are precisely Wang Xiaoshuai and his wife Liu Xuan.
Leaving aside the grievances and grievances, regarding the editing of "Elephant", Wang Xiaoshuai hoped that Hu Bo would adapt to the market and compress the 4-hour movie into 2 hours. In addition, from the chat records between Hu Bo and Wang Xiaoshuai, it seems that he still I hope he "do not express himself excessively". In short, there are two aspects, summed up in five words: compromise and restraint.
Perhaps this is Wang Xiaoshuai's "wisdom". The movie "Long Time" is also such a masterpiece of compromise and restraint.
The two families have a deep friendship. Their children were born in the same year, the same month, and the same day. I thought that the feelings of the previous generation could continue on the next generation, but unexpectedly, one of the children drowned in the reservoir. The cause of death was the other child. Take him to play in the water. A family has become a family that has lost an only child. Before that, they had already conceived a second child, but because of policy reasons and surgical problems, they lost the opportunity to continue having children forever. As a result, the couple who lost their only child moved, lived in another place, adopted a child, and the other couple was also burdened with huge emotional pressure. Twenty years later, the dead child is still a knot in the hearts of the two families that cannot be forgotten...
The film is nearly 3 hours long and spans multiple generations. From the lines, we can easily get some information from our country in the last century, such as "Cultural Revolution", "educated youth", "strike hard", "only child", "market economy" , "Laid-offs", "Going to the Sea"... In the 30 years of reform and opening up, countless Chinese and Chinese families have drifted or moved head-on in the tide of the times. Before, most Chinese lived in a cruel and cruel way. Among the mistakes, embracing the collective and suppressing the self , so that, in the process of reform, the tradition of "family planning, realizing the four modernizations", "I will not be laid off will be laid off", stressing advanced, sacrificing the individual for the country, Dedicate yourself to the society.
But the expression of "Long Time" is undoubtedly smart and gentle, without too many subjective expressions and accusations, without deliberately creating an atmosphere and a tragedy in the plot in order to express cruelty, it is just telling, or in other words, people who want to watch the movie. It is believed that movie creators are just telling the story.
In February 2019, Zhang Yimou's film "One Second" couldn't make it to the Berlin Film Festival due to technical problems. I was helpless. I can't believe that people who have made films all their lives would not dedicate their works to the audience due to technical problems.
In addition to expressing cleverness, the characterization of "Long Time, Heaven" may also follow the guiding ideology of "compromise and restraint". The male and female protagonists Liu Yaojun and Wang Liyun, typical Chinese ordinary family couples, are hard-working, kind, practical and gentle, and consider others. . When I had my second child, I was dragged to the hospital, and the resistance was only a short while. When I got into the car, I was like two docile sheep; I didn't resent the loss of my only son. Instead, I asked my friends to protect my own. Children, don't scold; if you have any suffering or complaints, you would rather bear it alone or share it with each other instead of mentioning it with outsiders.
The characters of "compromise and restraint" are used to express the story of "compromise and restraint". It is precisely because of this that the film seems logical. There is no bloodshed, no cry for grievances. This tragic couple who lost their only child will be reunited after 20 years. Go back to your hometown, hug and reconcile with good friends. Even in my opinion, that is not reconciliation. It should be considered that time has taken away some psychological burdens, and they finally have the courage to face the misfortunes of the past. Therefore, the ending of the movie looks warm and harmonious, and the happy ending is not deliberately created, although in reality, there are many tragedies of families who have lost their only child.
Leaving aside my personal impression of Wang Xiaoshuai, "Long Time" is indeed a good film of high quality. It has almost found a perfect balance between secularity and literature. We can take a glimpse of the past era and Life, through some shaking lenses, we can also spy on things beyond ordinary life, such as the unpredictable fate, and the ups and downs of emotions in the heart of ordinary people.
My personal favorite scene is when Li Haiyan was dying on the hospital bed, Liu Yaojun and Wang Liyun came to visit, she took Wang Liyun's hand and said, "We are rich, you can give birth." The reunion did not say how or how to miss it, but instead threw out such a sentence, which is light, but has a huge "lethal power" to the people watching the movie.
But there are also things I don't like about this movie, especially the relationship between Jasmine and Liu Yaojun. I don't mind the relationship between the two. Human nature is complicated, so there is no need to judge the movie by morality. I just don't like Jasmine's later The paragraph line, "I just want to make a mistake...", this large line seems to be set up to maintain Liu Yaojun's image of a loyal and honest husband. There is nothing to say about the thinking of the actor, and the male protagonist himself is a person from the last century, and it is not surprising that he has the backward thinking of the old era.
In addition, I want to talk about Wang Yuan. In the movie, his role is the adopted son of Liu Yaojun and Wang Liyun. He is a substitute for Liu Xing. His real name is Zhou Yongfu. Intruder" and, in fact, the character is indeed an intruder. He broke into the family that lost the only one and became the adopted son, bringing comfort and care to the couple. Wang Yuan doesn't have many lines, but his emotions are in place and his expressiveness is good enough. It is quite rare that he does not fall behind when he plays against his father Wang Jingchun.
The English name of "Long Time, My Son" is "So Long, My Son". Long is an interesting word that expresses both time and space. The story goes from Baotou, Inner Mongolia to Lianjiang, Fujian. The social events involved include reform and opening up, Family planning, the wave of layoffs, and the repetition of the present and the past are enough to show the misfortune of a middle-aged family who lost an only child.
Diligent and down-to-earth men often use alcohol and tobacco to relieve their worries, and gentle and kind women almost succeeded in suicide. They are not afraid of death, but they are more willing to live for each other. Sometimes it takes more courage to live than to die. At a certain moment, I even agreed. Compromise and restraint also require more courage.
Insignificant ordinary people who can't control their fate, we have no choice but to grow, and only as time goes on, we can see a little bit of hope, right? if not?
Copyright statement: The text of this article belongs to the author Paul, and the pictures come from the movie "Long Time"
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