"Kekexili" is the second feature film of young director Lu Chuan. Different from the absurdity in his first work "Looking for a Gun", this film is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people with its rough and real documentary style in both form and content. .
Generally speaking, feature films will follow a certain screenwriting mode, relying on different character settings, so that the audience can establish a certain psychological identity with the character, such as liking or disgusting, supporting or opposing a character, and mobilizing the audience's emotions. reaction. When a character's moral leanings are too concise, the character image becomes more conceptual, and the character's believability decreases accordingly. Therefore, the shaping of a full and credible character must depend on the cross combination of multiple textures. In this regard, "Kekexili" has done a very good job. When faced with many characters in the play, the audience often finds it difficult to have a clear and clear moral judgment, but constantly falls into that kind of emotional and ethical entanglement. In other words, in the process of watching the movie, it is difficult for the audience to simply define the Ma Zhanlins as "wicked people", or define the "Japanese and Thai people" as the so-called "good people". Maybe except for the poaching chief at the end of the film, all the characters in this film will win deep sympathy and understanding from the audience.
If we put aside our feelings and calmly analyze the situation of the two sides, we will find that the Japanese and Thai collectives are not much better than Ma Zhanlins in terms of civic quality. Among his team members are demobilized soldiers, social homeless, and a graduate of Qinghai Normal University - the college student's explanation for his behavior is "this job is interesting", except for this exception, we use the standard of normal society. Looking at it, this group is basically composed of people outside the powerful groups in society, that is to say, if they do not serve as patrol members, they can only be the silent majority in this society, and they do not have an enviable society. Their status is only enough to maintain their current economic status. They are a group that is ignored by society, or disdain to be looked up to under normal order. However, it is shameful to suspect that they have pure feelings for Tibetan antelopes. Of course, there may be special geographical factors and religious taboos, but it is also part of human nature for a normal person to like animals, which is not enough for them to protect Tibetan antelopes. His behavior is more noble in spirit. As Ritai said, it is you journalists who are protecting Hoh Xil. That is to say, after the reporters preached the irreversibility of Hoh Xil ecology in the name of environmental protection and green, the actions of Japan and Thailand really have meaning, or in other words, it is the media and the abstract country it represents that give Japan the legitimacy and significance of their actions. In this way, the Japanese and Thai people are included in the discourse circle of the national order, and thus develop this into a belief that can be relied on - an ordinary person can serve the country through his own efforts, which indirectly proves their value. where. One wants to fight the Tibetan antelope and the other wants to protect the Tibetan antelope. For Ma Zhanlin, it is about survival, that is, how to survive; for Japan and Thailand, it is a matter of belief. If we equate Ma Zhanlin, the precarious groups of life in the human biological chain, with those Tibetan antelopes that are about to be hunted, the audience will have to make their own judgments in the face of issues of survival and belief, then in the usual sense, Good or bad standards lose their validity.
The film captures many details to explore these questions. The director carefully compiled a lot of one-to-one correspondence structures, and put the characters on the "positive" and "negative" sides into their own embarrassing situations. In the film, both "good guys" and "bad guys" show the audience their ethical and affectionate side. After being arrested, Ma Zhanlin asked the reporter for a cigarette in the crowded and dark carriage. He took a puff almost symbolically, and then handed it to his younger son, and then to his second son and eldest son in turn. The family exchange was diluted in inadvertent little actions, which was deeply touching. A similar situation also occurred before Ritai entered the mountain. He gave his daughter an arm around the shoulder. The light effect from the top of the head made this action more ritualistic and less casual. If the director did reveal his own position in the film, then this contrast can be regarded as a piece of evidence-the effect of the top light effect on the deification and sublimation of the characters is far stronger than that of the dim lighting effect in the car. In addition, there have been similar comparisons in the treatment of their own players and followers. Most of the time, Ritai was too serious with his teammates, and rough situations seemed to happen very often (Liu Dong neglected to let Ma Zhanlin go and got punched by Ritai, at this time Liu Dong's status was almost It is no different from those hunters, let alone self-respect), and the team members can accept such rude behavior, just because their captain Ritai is a holder and enforcer of a legitimate belief, and their tolerance It is full recognition and respect for this belief. Ma Zhanlin is very old and rarely gets angry, but he obviously enjoys a high prestige in that group. He has entered the area many times, and his rich experience and experience required him to play the role of "an old horse who knows his way" when necessary. Later, it was he who led the hunters out of desperation. The most meaningful dialogue was between Ritai and Ma Zhanlin. In this common area, Ma Zhanlin went deep into the hinterland again and again to seek a meager life. At the same time, Japan and Thailand have repeatedly practiced his beliefs by capturing Ma Zhanlin. Both sides admire each other's sense of smell, just like evenly matched opponents on the battlefield, but it is regrettable that the camps of the two sides are different. This is a subtle Although they can't speak of mutual sympathy, they are thought-provoking enough. Every fight between them is a naked torture of the value of life. In the confrontation, Ma Zhanlin appeared to be more plain and helpless, while Ritai had a fearless complex that put his life aside. For him, faith is obviously higher than life. This is actually an extreme form of a humble individual who hopes to realize his own value. , this is also his and Ma Zhanlin
There is another detail. When the food was running out, Ritai's team easily killed a rabbit. Through the close-up, we can see the rabbit's physiological twitching. Eating raw rabbit meat directly seems to be limited by realistic conditions, but it has other hidden meanings. The representative from the civilized world, Mr. Reporter, was the first to start killing. Whom does his bloody act remind us of? Of course the Ma Zhanlins, because they have the same motivation - to survive. However, our wonderful ethics and morality will not condemn reporters, just because there are far more rabbits than Tibetan antelopes in the biological chain, does it deserve to be eaten? Which one is more damned, rabbit or Tibetan antelope, is there any essential difference between them? Here, the director inadvertently gave us an intriguing question, the moral judgment seems so pale, and the complex meaning of human nature emerges spontaneously.
The most explosive scene in the entire film is Ritai's death. At a complete disadvantage, what force made Japan and Thailand demand that the hunters lay down their weapons? In fact, everyone understood that at that moment, Ritai had nothing but the belief that he believed to be true, so even if he gave up his life, he could not shake his belief. The shuttle of bullets for Ritai is especially critical. The audience immersed in urban civilization may be a little shocked and a little stunned. However, this is indeed the case. A life disappears, and the dramatic conflict does not appear, but it is true. It is this truth that magnifies the cruelty of death. In fact, in that no-man’s land, the initiators of all things—Tibetan antelopes, Ritai and his team, Ma Zhanlin, those innocent rabbits, and Miss Karting who gave Liu Dong infinite warmth They are all naturally vulnerable groups in this world, who will win the continuation and dignity of life in the end? The director virtually portrayed the no-man's land of Hoh Xil as an "animal world" where the weak eat the strong. There is a set of natural laws operating in the blind spot of the civilized world. The tragedy of Japan and Thailand lies in the forcible execution of the tricks of the civilized world in this blind spot. But that's what strikes us, it's his consistent belief that gives his death a radiance.
In this scene, the director's shrewdness is also in connecting the climax scene with a long shot and a big perspective. From the shooting of Ritai to the departure of Ma Zhanlin with three sighs, the whole picture only uses telephoto. The narrow angle of view of the lens controls the scene, and the physical duration of the long lens is used to control the emotions, making the whole scene immersed in a state of anxiety. The long, steady shots seem to force the viewer to be a bystander, unable to save the events in front of him, but also to endure the frustration brought about by moral powerlessness. Here, the director's calmness and composure are admirable. The subtlety and forbearance of the lens conveys its position in the most refined form and with the fullest strength, shocking, terrifying, sympathetic, pity, or blank. The process of silence, no close-ups, no panning, and no sensational music. The mountains in the distance are dark and gloomy, as still as an old man who has experienced hardships, but the posture is still chillingly beautiful - the ups and downs of life seem to be never seriously watched here.
It can be said that it is this almost "brutal" handling that has won the unparalleled tension for "Kekexili". A gust of wind and sand blew past, and everything returned to calm, leaving the frightened viewers to reconsider the meaning of the word "life". Therefore, the fascinating core of "Kekexili" is not at all in its attention to the so-called environmental protection theme, but in its torture of issues such as life value and dignity. And all this, to a large extent, comes from the director's "non-intervention" attitude and calm image processing method.
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