Explanation : Wang Jingchun and Yong Mei's performances moved people's hearts. Although I have never been a mother, under the severe pain of losing a child in middle age, I had a hopeless life like a vacuum. I felt a little bit in the expression of the voice. However, in addition to this, Wang Xiaoshuai, who cannot tell a good story and has to use a two-threaded narrative, abruptly puts their performance in a post-society where the era is indebted to a generation with a stylized deepness. In the narration of grief, the narrative that could have produced universal empathy was attached with a deliberate footnote of the era, and in the seemingly "depressed" "silent accusation" (all of which are the most desirable rhetoric for this kind of grief narrative) , "The Times" - an era that lacked a clear texture and freehand brushwork - became the source of all misery. Pointing to this "era", the director who fell in his feelings and never got up again was addicted to the "sadness of that generation" and could not extricate himself. To put it simply, the signifier of the "era" that entrusts everything to the scribbled semiotics first is probably the most provocative sensation of the "older generation" directors (the group of cultural people who have the collective memory of the socialist period and the early post-socialist period). . Thinking about it carefully, what makes it difficult for me to empathize is probably the following three rhetoric of "suffering":
1. It would be nice to have another one
What Li Haiyan can't get through in his life is to personally deprive Liyun and Yaojun of their ability to ask for another. This "work ethic" under the "anachronism" has become the whole reason for the Shen family to face their old friends shamelessly - no, no, it's not because my child pushed your child off in a hurry, but because we were there In the era of shaking, no one could help push each other into the vortex. If there can be another one, the death of the stars will not be the chasm between us. For the Liu family, if they could have another one, the pain would seem to be less: no matter how much Zhou Yongfu looks like a star, he is not our child, and Jasmine's devotion to the Mother-in-law atonement is still for her sister-in-law's love for her. The indirect castration of the old brother, and this redemption is difficult to accept, not because of other things, but because: that is not our child. Under this tacit premise, the suffering of the Liu family and his wife even seemed cruel and utilitarian because they "couldn't have another one."
Indeed, as an only child, I am accustomed to the undivided attention of my parents. Perhaps it is difficult to understand the healing effect of "fortunately they still have one"/"regenerate another" on the pain of bereavement. I should also respect the feeling of powerlessness that individuals are coerced into under the policies of the times. However, even if I agree with this default premise, I am completely unable to empathize with the film's use of this premise as the whole reason for the rift between Liu and Shen's family. Haohao's "confession" is clearly a little boy who has been burdened with heavy shackles for more than 20 years. Under this "pain of the times", it seems so light and unworthy of mention, and even has been forgiven and "tender" by his parents. ——Compared with the epochal trauma of the father’s generation, what is the significance of the personal trauma memory of the children? —A tree about to blow up? It's good to say it, our tree, but I can't say it!
2. "That era" is a hodgepodge of era symbols
For the post-socialist youth, the scenes in the film are familiar, but at the same time unfamiliar. Familiarity is because it tries to reproduce many ordinary objects in the life of parents looking up to their parents in childhood memories (electric fans with big buttons, cheese towers, tea jars) and symbols and images that are familiar to them in the process of growing up (red scarves, Nokia with midi ringtones) . However, under Wang Xiaoshuai’s double-threaded skewed timeline, or a parallel polyphony to tell two narratives with a long timeline, this kind of cultural memory that is naturally integrated into the collective experience cannot be smoothly Dissolving precipitation, but constantly subject to self-doubt and challenge. For audiences (like me) who care about historically accurate time, the film's temporal narrative is confusing. The first timeline (from when Xingxing was a child to his death) is probably less than ten years long, probably from the early to late 90s. Several major historical events (strike hard, family planning forced abortions, layoffs) have been rushed into less than a decade, as if to highlight the vicissitudes of "the era" and the ill-fated individual. However, due to Wang Xiaoshuai's weak narrative ability, these condensed imprints of the times were forcibly shelved almost like slices, lacking the necessary historical thickness in the film time. Similarly, the second timeline (from the confrontation between the second Xingxing and the Liu family to the "now" when Li Haiyan passed away) is about less than ten years. It is estimated from the time that Xingxing needs to change the second-generation ID card, it is about 2000 From the middle to the end of the year, we can see that at this time, Haohao has become a father for the first time, and it does not match his birth in the 1990s. .
Even putting aside this kind of harsh demands for historical accuracy, this movie, which is covered with "I have the stamp of the times", is also full of time-travel symbols, such as the too trendy certificates of merit, and the bright and glowing Mickey bag. And the safety knot in the Yaojun truck like the p-up, all kinds of details make people dance constantly (not to mention the proliferation of the protagonist's poetic language can easily lead to the instant collapse of the narrative of the working-class small characters in the torrent of the times that the film is trying to create)—— Although the film is not a documentary, historical truth is not the only or inevitable requirement, but in the context of this film, the random stacking of symbols of this era may not only be the unprofessionalism of Fuhuadao, but more The director's overly subjective self-indulgence and the time and space disorder caused by the abstract criticism of the times.
3. A long time is a mess
Just a few more sentences to the end, except that Haohao's tree that was about to blow up was cut down by his godparents in about five minutes, and even more people refused to accept the fake video like Douyin. The funny half-blood son and the ethical drama of "Dad, I'm a Star" have a happy ending - the plots that exist in general in these two paragraphs have almost no meaning, except for telling "life is full of foreshadowing" and " The cliché that true love will never die after suffering is gone", and this cliché is probably a universal antidote for all bitterness dramas: that is, the so-called reconciliation with the past, after a long time, life will become A confused account that no one can handle. In short, just live and don't say anything.
In addition, the confrontation between Wang Yuan and Wang Jingchun contributed to a very exciting and rare "acting hanging" scene, which is the biggest easter egg in this movie.
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