What is a geometric problem? What is an algebra problem? From common sense alone, geometric problems deal with the relationships between things, while algebraic problems deal with the number of things themselves. In other words, in this analytical framework, which is transferred from mathematics to life, all our problems can be regarded as dichotomies of geometric problems or algebraic problems: time, distance, fractions, income... these are of course algebraic problems; And emotion, ethics, memory, identity... these things that cannot be measured by numbers are of course geometric problems. What we can't forget is, "Geometry or algebra?" There is a major premise in front of the question: "What are you?" - Shen Tao's question is not an open question, but a choice question: "How do you Choose?" Shen Tao used the answer of this choice to complete the subtle prediction of the standard of mate selection and the profound choice of the life and destiny of the three people.
Obviously we know: Zhang Jinsheng's answer is "algebraic question", while Liang Jianjun's answer is "geometric question". What Zhang Jinsheng is willing to pay is cars, mobile phones, real estate... In terms of quality, all economic values that can be measured by wealth; and Liang Jianjun, who has nothing, only has undivided affection, and in the end, he was defeated to pieces, together with his choice and the "geometric problem" of the reliance.
The question does not end, however: why can this abstract choice of geometry or algebra be called the fundamental force that determines the fate of the individual thereafter? How is this math problem related to China in this time of great change in our depths? In fact, Foucault told us as early as in "The Birth of Biopolitics" that the core mystery of modernity lies in the invention of population governance: in this governance, all individual lives with huge differences and flesh and blood are abstracted. Become a unit with nothing but biological attributes ("an animal"), become a number on the demographic table. We are "people" rather than "population", this is basic political common sense; however, the invention of modern governance technology precisely needs to compress "people" into "population" first. Starting from this population governance technique, all the technical indicators adopted by modernity are ready to emerge. This is the “GDP-only doctrine” we are all too familiar with. We can understand that the so-called modernity that we have witnessed and experienced has nothing more than one mystery: the replacement and elimination of geometric problems with algebraic problems.
Therefore, the main line of "Old Man in Mountains and Rivers" reminded us from the beginning through Shen Tao's mouth is: in the inexplicable and horrifying rapid changes of contemporary China, this infinitely expanding enthusiasm for development, numbers, and capital is very important for Chinese people. The huge irreversible tear caused by the family emotions, ethical relationships and identity of the people. This tearing force is like the endless faults that stretch across the earth in an earthquake. It penetrates deeply into the details of the life of every Chinese county, village and family. Its trauma is deep, its pain is profound, its sorrow The depth is unprecedented not only in Chinese history, but also unprecedented in the grand historical process of world modernity.
The greatest tragedy of this is precisely that, in the face of the "algebraic problem" of capital, consumption, and globalized modernity, each of us must make an inescapable, inescapable personal choice: reject or embrace. However, the greatness of "The Old Man of the Mountains and Rivers" is that it simultaneously shows us the final outcome of these two choices: if you reject it, you will be shattered; if you embrace it, you will be homeless. Liang Jianjun is not a "conservative" or "conservative". None of us think that he does not want to get rich and his children live a good life. However, the cruelty of modernity is that you can only follow The only way to live that is offered, otherwise it means going against it, is to make peace with capital, or rather, to give up all dignity in the face of capital's mathematical game - the only time in Liang Jianjun's life that there is hope" The possibility of changing the fate" may only appear in: "Don't pester Tao'er anymore" in exchange for Zhang Jinsheng's sentence "Help me manage the mine". The tragedy of this choice is precisely the life event that each of us may face, and it precisely depicts the situation we may encounter in the face of capital modernity at any time.
But the biggest paradox is that this unequal process resulted in the brutal and physical exploitation of one class by another; yet it did not create any winners. The third part of the film proves and foreshadows it equally brutally to us.
If "The Old Man of the Mountains and Rivers" shows us the tearing and distortion brought about by this severely unequal, highly unjust and rational reform and development process, then the greatest tragedy of this work for us is actually It's also right here: When we saw the end of 2025 when we were bound to be homeless and wept bitterly, we wiped away our tears, walked out of the theater, and still had to continue Go West without hesitation.
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