To put it bluntly, it's actually quite simple. When the protagonist Ouyang Feng first appeared "many years later", he "has a nickname called Xidu", and then the story unfolds in the faint narration of Xidu - isn't it just a flashback? Flashbacks can evoke memories, the sense of vicissitudes and desolation arising from the intersection of reality and the past - if we are careful enough, at the beginning of the film, we will also see the English name of the film - Ashes Of Time. So, can it be said that within a minute, we have grasped the movement, the tone of the film?
yes. At least I think that Wong Kar-wai is not afraid that people will get a preliminary understanding of his narrative intention in the film in a very short period of time; on the contrary, such a tone can be seen as a footnote that he deliberately and quietly revealed in the film, in order to Let us have a mental preparation to understand or not understand "Evil in the East".
What happened next was really confusing. The stories of Dongxie, Xidu, and Beibei are intertwined and seem to be related to each other; Xidu, as the storyteller, knows all the people in the story, but he doesn't know much about the story itself (for example, why does Huang Yaoshi every year? From the east) So many times the language is unclear, (it is said that Huang Yaoshi goes west every year to see a person) Various mysterious narrative factors unfold in a non-linear way, (such as Huang Yaoshi - Murong Yan, Yan; Huang Yaoshi) ——Blind Warrior; Ouyang Feng——Murong Yan, Yan; Ouyang Feng——Hong Qi; Hong Qi——Vengeful Girl) For many eyes who are accustomed to single-line narrative at most with dual-line narrative, director and screenwriter Wong Kar Wai seems to be a person full of Bewitching and annoying wizard.
On the contrary, behind the intricate stories, Wong Kar-wai clearly shows us the character elements that appear in several pairs, such as the darkness of the West poison and the sunshine of Beibei, the hardness of Yan and the fragility of Yan, and the pride of Dongxie. Because of Xidu’s jealousy; and all of this is attributed to the philosophical narration of Xidu (we probably all remember what Xidu said when Xidu bid farewell to Beibei-“Everyone To go through such a stage..."), to portray Xidu as a philosopher, and then let him interspersed with esoteric truths in the story, this is probably the most appreciative and the most difficult part of the film.
At this point, the narration and preparation of the film is finally over. If we only read it once, these chaotic stories and vivid characters are enough to leave a deep impression on us; but the flashback is at this time with a terrifying whistling to the audience and will eventually stay to watch the second, The lucky audience for the third time rushed forward.
In the end, desert philosopher Ouyang Feng admitted that he didn't know much about the desert he had lived in for several years - please note that this is just the beginning; in this year when Dongxie no longer came to visit Xidu, the previous doubts Finally, one by one, it was solved one by one: it turned out that Dongxie and Xidu fell in love with the same woman. The proud Dongxie was not as good as Xidu thought - he would never be jealous, but was jealous of his friend; Xidu's sister-in-law thought that Xi Du is too proud, and under his anger, he commits himself to others, and even when he died, he did not realize that Xi Du was just out of self-abasement and self-protection and refused to open his mouth. The wrong love, the peach blossom of the blind warrior, Hong Qi's perseverance, etc. have become footnotes that can make us feel angry after the whole story is over: in the film, everyone in everything is alone, and they don't know who the opposite is. From this, the scene of assassinating broker Ouyang Feng doing business is really a classic - Leslie Cheung's delicate acting skills fully express the cunning and provocativeness of a desert fox, but we can only see Ouyang Feng's professional smiling face and hear him A speech full of affinity, but he still can't see who the person opposite him is - this scene that appears twice and is the same reminds us that in the film, the listener is absent. A stranger.
This is Wong Kar Wai. At the end of the film, we are fortunate to find that the paradox of the narrative is just a means, the vividness of the characters is only a foreshadowing, and the ashes of time are to commemorate the lonely fire that once burned vigorously - just like the west drug finally bid farewell to the short-lived self and The fire set by a strange desert. Was the 1994 film a comprehensive summary or just a delicate expression of a delicate mental journey? When I was in doubt, I couldn't help but think of Marquez and Camus. Marquez's loneliness takes a hundred years as a time unit, Camus is longer, dating back to Sisyphus in ancient Greece; and Wong Kar-wai only set the time of a prequel of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" to a maximum of several years It's ten years. Is the twentieth century a century when sentimental human beings begin to experience loneliness and look back on themselves? Does Wong Kar-wai at the end of the century have any feelings for this classic topic?
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