I don't know how many people will remember the movie released four years ago, "Old Man in Mountains and Rivers". But I believe that Jia Zhangke's unique Chinese story, and the gap between time and space in it, will not be easily forgotten in this life.
Many people like Jia Zhangke, perhaps from the very beginning, such as "Xiao Wu" and "Platform", which were rough and clumsy in the early days. "Old Man of Mountains and Rivers" is a film with a good reputation from director Jia Zhangke. In the film, the adherence to the hometown, the pursuit of the distant place, and the nostalgia for the hometown that comes with the growth of age are real and heavy. Once some people leave their hometowns, they never come back, and some people stay in their hometowns all their lives without waiting for their loved ones to return.
From the dance of the century at the end of 1999, when Shen Tao was still skydiving, Liang Zi and Jin Sheng were still brothers, and Shen Tao was still in a dilemma. In 2014, Liang Zi, who was out and about, finally returned to his hometown. He was seriously ill and lost the spirit of his youth before he understood the true meaning of life. And Shen Tao and Jin Sheng have also divorced. What is surprising this time is that Director Jia has added elements of science fiction. In the envisaged year of 2025, Dollar can't remember what his mother looks like. Jinsheng, who lives in a foreign land, has a strong Shaanxi accent and can only find solace in a group of fellow villagers. Everything is so dreamy and ironic, and our life is not a joke.
The three time points in the film can be understood as past, present and future. In the past, we were all chasing beautiful things and dreaming about distant places, but we still couldn't recognize our own mind, and we couldn't choose the right person. Just like Shen Tao's question at the beginning: "Is this a geometrical problem or an algebraic problem?" Perhaps we can only understand the essence of this problem later. Who she chooses to combine with is of course an algebra problem, one with another, and then it becomes a home with many people. And the triangular relationship of the three of them is by no means as simple as the Pythagorean Theorem. It is like a complex spatial structure that firmly ties the fate of the three people.
Jia Zhangke used his original fireworks and his usual style with a sense of sand to write a poem that spanned his entire life in a county town in China. I've always thought of him as a man who can both walk the international red carpet and drink tea in some backcountry corner. But his too realistic shots, the unfamiliar feeling and the deep intimacy he brings us, are destined to be a story created by this storyteller. These are the days we live every day, the status quo that we are not satisfied with, the life that we do not want to sigh, the past that we do not want to look back on, who wants to go to the theater to be mentioned again and force you to recall and digest it?
Of course, in the context of China's reform and opening up, we have also seen different choices of that generation of young people. Like the current post-90s generation, they also faced the choice of floating outside or dying in their hometown. Zhang Jinsheng chose the distance. His distance is different from Liang Zi's. His distance is full of ambition, adventure and confidence. This is a group of people who seized the opportunity in the context of the times and changed their lives. His hot-blooded youth was completely ignited when he wanted to kill Liang Zi with dynamite, and until old age, he could not reduce his love for guns. That might be the only thing that would give him a sense of security. And Liang Zi's distant place was just an impulse to leave. He was exhausted from working hard in a foreign land and became ill, and finally the leaves fell back to their roots.
Shen Tao is the only one who always sticks to his hometown.
The son of Jin Sheng and Shen Tao can be regarded as a victim who witnessed the misfortune of his parents. When he was hesitating whether he should kneel down for his dead grandfather as a child, a rough slap from his mother might have interrupted a child's initial desire for family affection. Although he has a good environment and a good education, he has forgotten his mother's appearance and hometown, or he is simply a person without a hometown. Hometown is the root of a person, especially a wandering person. How can a person be happy without roots. He has been carrying the bunch of keys given by his mother, and even later fell in love with his divorced language teacher. Such seemingly crazy things are actually due to a child's lack of the most primitive feelings. His misfortune, like his name - Dollar. But it was the most vulgar yearning for money in his father's generation. Rough ambition numbs every heart.
The two episodes in the film can be said to be used very successfully. Ye Qianwen's "Treasure" itself has a sense of age. This song can be said to be Shen Tao's emotional sustenance, so that it is also imprinted in his son's heart. After many years in a foreign land, it still feels familiar to him, just like a taste. If you smell it, you know you are back in your hometown. Even if you don't smell it for a lifetime, it will still be deeply engraved into your bone marrow. There's also "Go West" by the Ret Shop Boys, which is equally textured.
All in all, in my opinion, this is a film made by director Jia Zhangke that is most like a small person’s body in a Chinese county town and a small person in the county town. Everyone can find their own shadow in it. We also really felt the pain. pass. It doesn't have so many illusions and eye-catching things in "The Good Man in Three Gorges", but it still does not lack the warmth of gray matter. The people in it are all transparent, and they can see the sincerity, good or bad true feelings.
All the departures, cares and returns, lifelong mistakes and regrets, love and hatred, and once the sea were all relieved when Shen Tao danced to the music in the snow. As it says in the video:
Everyone can only walk a long way with you. Not everything can be destroyed by time, caring is the most painful part of love. You only feel love when you are in pain.
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