From the complexity of the plot, the span of time and the completion of various technologies, "Long Time" has taken out the level of the main competition unit in Berlin, which is heavy, calm and atmospheric. Wang Xiaoshuai used an extremely restrained method to describe the 30 years of displacement of an ordinary worker family under the family planning, the tide of layoffs and the loss of the only child. The great changes have enabled audiences of different ages to find the points that touch them in the film, and see themselves, or see their parents, friends and elders who are close and distant. It was thirty years that countless people have gone through together.
The film begins with the loss of Liu Xing, Liu Yaojun and Wang Liyun, played by Wang Jingchun and Yong Mei, and leads to the cause and effect of this tragedy: in the era of family planning, the family could only have one child, and the couple who had a second child in order to meet the policy Because of physical reasons, they had no chance to have another child, so they completely became lost parents. Before and after this tragedy, the Shen family, who was close to the Liu family, was inseparable: Li Haiyan, the mother of the Shen family played by Alia, was the director of family planning, and she was the one who brought Wang Liyun to have an abortion; It was caused by the unintentional actions of my son Haohao in the frolic. Since then, the two families have had a rift. At this time, the tide of layoffs came, Wang Liyun lost her iron job, and the Liu family decided to leave the sad place and live a life of displacement all the way south.
Taking a small family as a metaphor for everyone is the most exciting part of "Long Time". The complicated editing disrupts the time, abandoning the cliché of running accounts, but the pain of losing a child leads to the cause and effect of this tragedy. This way of speaking will not deepen the contradictions and conflicts between the two families step by step in chronological order, but will be like a puzzle, revealing the whole picture bit by bit, and pointing out the helplessness and difficulties of the two families. For example, the Shen family seems to be the biggest promoter of the Liu family's tragedy, but Li Haiyan has no choice after all. Haohao has been tormenting Haohao and the sister of the Shen family who has always had a crush on Liu Yaojun; another example, the Liu family adopted an adopted son and used the deceased son's name in order to have a complete family of three, but facing the adopted son, they knew it well. It is clear that the other party has no blood relationship with him, and he dare not expect his adopted son to give them old age, but he also hopes that he can repay his kindness, then this kind of affection is given conditionally, which is not like the spontaneous love between biological parents and children; There are endless discussions about adopting children. It is also embarrassing to go to see the teacher at school. The adopted Liu Xing is not happy, and the Liu couple are not happy either. Everyone has a very helpless life, because carrying the responsibilities that society throws to them, they have to accept the reality and live a life that they cannot resist. No one can be alone, and no one is single pitiful or hateful, kind or evil. Every character is complex and three-dimensional, and at the same time, because of the inextricable connection with the larger environment, they appear small and fragile.
For the Liu family, being a model of family planning, losing the real Liu Xing and the stand-in one after another, living in poverty and looking forward to no future, they have always been ants in the torrent of the times. The good thing about Wang Jingchun's performance is that he is extremely restrained, expressing the characters' repression of self, dissatisfaction and resentment towards life, and the pain of loss in a repressed and forbearing way. . The thing that moved me the most was that he and Wang Liyun returned to their hometown after thirty years to visit their son's grave. The grass on the tomb became dead branches because of the seasons. After pulling the grass, Wang Jingchun began to sweep the soil that fell in front of the monument, and said, "Son, Dad is here to see you." His voice was trembling, but he clenched his teeth and frowned, holding back his tears. In the whole film, Wang Jingchun never broke out in all the major difficulties and turning points, and the points where he could vent his emotions. This kind of performance is very advanced. Yongmei's forbearance and restraint are slightly weaker than Wang Jingchun's, but female characters are more emotionally expressive than male characters, which is normal. In the second half of the journey, she struggled and wandered about losing her son, gaining an adopted son and then losing again. She calmly mentioned the visit of the Shen family's sister, but she was too lazy to ask her husband for any details. The difficulties in life were revealed by these deliberately created feelings of indifference. , which is a very accurate interpretation of a mental state of being ashes as death and just getting by. Both actors contributed extremely impressive performances, and the Berlin actor and actress deserved their name.
The unsatisfactory part of the whole film is concentrated in the second half hour, that is, the part where Wang Xiaoshuai released part of his repression and started to feel sensational. In fact, even if they are inciting emotions, they are relatively restrained. No one expresses intense emotions, but their emotions are full and full. Since the Liu couple went back to their hometown to visit Li Haiyan in the hospital, the sobbing of the audience never stopped. Li Haiyan used the sentence "Now we have money, we can afford to pay the fine" as an atonement, and made a sharp contrast with her image of insisting on Wang Liyun to have an abortion 30 years ago, highlighting the 30 years of her forbearance and The spiritual burden on his shoulders; Haohao mustered up the courage to repent in front of the Liu couple, confessed the crime and told how Liu Xing's accident was caused. Jumping back a few decades ago, Shen Yingming stood in front of his old friend's house with a kitchen knife and asked Liu Yaojun to cut down his son to atone for his sins. Facing everyone in the Shen family, the Lius expressed their sincere forgiveness and understanding. Even at the end of the film, Liu Yaojun returned his ID card and told his real name, and was warned to "remember how I hit you." - This kind of big reunion in the form of swallowing dates is too violent. Considering that the film took two and a half hours to set up and describe the pains and sorrows that have accumulated over time, the ending turns the fight into a suddenness of jade and silk. It is doubtful whether this is for some kind of non-continuing hatred, A big turn designed for the positive energy values of harmony: anyway, the right and wrong have been told to the audience. If the ending is to be controlled, it will be smoothed out. This is probably the most frustrating part of the film.
Even if "Long Time" is not a perfect movie, it is still the largest and most complete Chinese-language film in the past ten years. It is not meaninglessly exciting or disheartening, but thought-provoking. Parents and children, old friends, family happiness, this is the wish of the parents of that generation, and it is also their most similar wish for the concept of "happiness". In today's era of diversification of family models and happy lifestyles, the single-minded pursuit of the relationship between relatives, friends and children of that generation of parents seems to be outdated, but they are still understandable - they just want to pursue that era The best thing people can imagine is the one that is relatively more readily available and more herd among the many options. The film is not made this way to show the backwardness of the concept, nor is it to show foreigners how ridiculous the stubbornness of the older generation of Chinese people, but to sigh with emotion, how easy it was for parents to satisfy and how simple their wishes were, but even They don't want anything, they just want to pursue a little ordinary happiness, but it's still so difficult. This is seen from a well-meaning perspective, a pity, and a respect for those parents.
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