At the beginning of the movie, Zhao Tao and others danced to the passionate music of "Go West"; in the electrical appliance store of Zhao Tao's father (it seems that the old man is the police teacher Hao in "Xiao Wu"?), the guests who came to watch the audio took out During the CD audition, what came out of the speakers was Ye Qianwen's "Precious". Zhao Tao praised the song as good, and Zhang Yi then went out to get this CD and gave it to Zhao Tao; after Zhao Tao's father died, Zhao Tao's son returned to China for the funeral. On the train, Zhao Tao and his son listened to the "Ipad" playing together. Treasure"; in 2025, Zhao Taoyuan's son in Australia listened to the Chinese teacher's "Precious" vinyl record, and felt familiar; ” danced the last dance to the sound of the music.
It can be said that these two songs played a key role in expressing the theme of the film and promoting the development of the plot. There are other songs, for example, I seem to have heard the prelude to Luo Dayou's "Four Rhymes of Nostalgia", but this time, with the various old songs in "Hong Kong 囧" and "Charlotte Trouble" began to flood, like in the movie Instead, Jia Zhangke, who used songs to convey the sense of the times, restrained himself. He only used "Precious" and "Go West" in "Old Man of Mountains and Rivers".
Let's talk about "Precious" first. In the early years, Lord Gu liked Ye Qianwen very much, and liked this song very much. This is the title song of Ye Qianwen's album "Precious" in 1990. But in that album, the big hit was another song "Burning the Heart with Fire". This should be due to Zhang Yimou's blessing. In his film "Ancient and Modern Wars Against Qin Terracotta Warriors", Gong Li smiled and rushed to the fire in the singing of Ye Qianwen's "Burning Heart to Fire". I don't know how many tears he made us.
"Precious" achieved 4 platinum sales in Hong Kong, which is Ye Qianwen's success after the failure of "Face to Face" the previous year, and also eliminated people's doubts about whether Ye Qianwen was a flash in the pan.
By the way, "Face to Face" itself is well-made, and part of the reason for its failure is that another singer released a record "Always Your Friend" during the same period, which sold 7 platinum, this singer is Chen Huixian, and the record is for her to go abroad Farewell to the music scene while studying abroad. That's right, "Thousand Thousand Que Songs" is that kind of album.
At that time, Lin Yilian and Ye Qianwen were both at their peak, Anita Mui's sword was not old, and even Chen Huixian's farewell song before studying abroad could become a classic recorded in history. And in that era of Hong Kong female singers blooming, I met me when I just started listening to songs.
Let's go back to Ye Qianwen's "Face to Face" album. The "Drunken Life" in the album is the theme song of the movie "Blood Two Heroes" starring Chow Yun-fat, and Ye Qianwen plays the singer in the film. This song appeared in Jia Zhangke's 1998 film "Xiao Wu". At that time, the scene was Xiao Wu, played by Wang Hongwei, standing at the door of the video hall, trying to protect the singer in his life: Mei Mei.
Unlike other theme songs, "Precious" did not find its own movie until 25 years after its birth. I've always felt that a song really has a long life if it's placed in a specific context. Ye Qianwen's "Burning Heart to Fire", "Dawn, Please Don't Come", "Small Drunk Life" and even "Walk Away" are all film and television theme songs. And "Precious" is not, I haven't even seen its MV. It also made me a little worried all the time that people would gradually forget about the song.
Because I like this song so much. Ye Qianwen's treble is elegant. At the beginning of this song, her warm alto is also intoxicating. Her eloquent performance is calm and restrained. When facing a friend who is about to travel far, the repressed emotion is full of words. Stop, "I don't know how to talk about years of love." But under this repressed emotion, is the promise of "Waiting for you even in the two places for a lifetime". This Eastern-style emotional handling contrasts sharply with "Go West," another song in the film that runs throughout the film.
"Go West" was a song promoting homosexuality in the early years. Later, it was adapted by Pet Shop Boy and evolved into an ideological political song. I remember that in 1993, I could see this song on the MTV music station of satellite TV every day. The content of the song's MTV lyrics is to call on young people in the East to go to the western world where they can make great achievements. MTV is very gorgeous and imposing. At that time, not long after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the popularity of this song seemed to have a sense of celebratory carnival. At the beginning and the end of "Old Man of Mountains and Rivers", Zhao Tao danced in the song, and its ironic intention was very obvious. "Tell all our friends goodbye, We will start life new", such words are similar to the words of "Treasure" "If you can't want to part with you, if you can't, you can't bear to lose you, I hope there will always be a turning point in the world, hold hands and shake hands and say goodbye. Goodbye, I'll be waiting for you even in the two places." In stark contrast, the theme of one expression is that we are leaving, we must bravely go out and go to the West, while the theme of another expression is to hope for the return of the deceased. One is full of hope, the other is on guard, they form the two poles of this film.
"Treasure" is adapted from the Mandarin song "Speaking of Treasure", but the lyrics are obviously better. Due to the characteristics of grammar and pronunciation, the words of many Cantonese songs have ancient meanings and are full of rhythm, which makes the singing better. Ye Qianwen later changed to Mandarin songs, which became more popular, but in my mind, the artistic conception of those songs is far from what it used to be.
The song is almost perfect in my mind, it just lacks a main character all the time. We don't know who's going away, where he's going, or when he'll be back. And "The Old Man of Mountains and Rivers" fills this gap. Thanks Jia Zhangke and Ye Qianwen. I hope Ye Qianwen can live happily with Lin Zixiang forever.
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