Text: Overnight flowers
Wang Xiaoshuai's "Seventeen-year-old Bicycle" is a rare and valuable masterpiece in domestic youth films, which won the Grand Jury Prize of the Silver Bear Award at the 51st Berlin Film Festival, and the reason why he chose to introduce this film is closely related to some hot topics this year.
From Wang Jingchun and YongMei winning the Berlin Film Festival in February with Wang Xiaoshuai's "Long Day long" to October When Wang Xiaoshuai was nominated for the Golden Rooster Award for Best Director, it can be seen that Wang Xiaoshuai has finally won wide recognition from mainstream film circles, critics and audiences at home and abroad, and has also made everyone more interested in his previous masterpieces.
Li Bin, who appeared in the popular annual variety show "Actors Please Take Place", re-evoked the audience's memories of him, and it turned out that in addition to the CCTV TV series "Magic Mobile Phone", he won the Newcomer Award at the Berlin Film Festival at the age of 18 with "Seventeen-year-old Bicycle" (together with the same film Cui Lin).
The most direct reason is the popularity of "Young You", the box office of more than 1 billion, the high score of 8.4 Douban score shows that more and more audiences for youth films demand to get rid of the routine chicken soup, began to think deeply about the real youth and life. Therefore, looking at and thinking with the current vision, this youth theme film "Seventeen-year-old Bicycle", directed by Wang Xiaoshuai and co-starring Cui Lin, Li Bin, Gao Yuanyuan, Zhou Xun, etc., is more meaningful.
Whether it is the confusion and persistence of individuals or the real living conditions and real psychological states of a generation, "Seventeen-year-old Bicycle" gives a complete presentation through the survival conditions and psychological states of the personal growth process of two urban and rural youths. Wang Xiaoshuai once confessed that he "uses the simplest Chinese factors to communicate with Chinese audiences" and pays attention to "their emotions as human beings".
The bicycle is one of the most common means of transportation in life, once upon a time, together with the radio, sewing machine, watch, it was a symbol of a decent, rich family "four pieces", although it has lost its former glory, it still gathers the joys and sorrows of generations.
It can be seen that in the era when materials were not yet abundant, the bicycle projected a yearning for a rich life in a hard and arduous living environment; and in some classic Chinese youth films, such as Yang Dechang's "The Story of Time", it was endowed with multiple meanings such as sincere friendship, innocent ideals, and harsh growth of teenagers.
"Seventeen-year-old Bicycle" cleverly unifies the image function and narrative function of the bicycle itself, and perfectly applies it to the unique discourse of the film. As a result, it is often compared to italian director Vittorio de Sica's neorealist masterpiece, The Bicycle Thief. In fact, it is more thoughtful to place the artistic style and practical significance of the film in the context of Chinese films and the authorized image world of Wang Xiaoshuai.
01. Individual growth and changing times
In addition to "bicycle", another key word in the film is Beijing in the English name "beijing bicycle". The film was filmed at the turn of the century, and in Feng Xiaogang's "No Thief under the Heavens" a few years later, we can see the bitterness and bitterness of urban drifters in that period through Wang Baoqiang's humming chen Xing's "Children Leaving Home". In the change of the times, groups of people began to drift for the ideal.
Although as early as the 1980s, the fourth generation of directors began to focus on exploring the cultural differences and identity gaps under the dual structure of urban and rural areas, but often it was aimed at the confusion and confusion of intellectuals. Most of the sixth generation of directors represented by director Wang Xiaoshuai will focus on urban civilians or marginal people, and Wang Xiaoshuai's uniqueness since his debut film "Winter and Spring Days" lies in placing individual growth and fate in the changing times, and this kind of depersonal narrative technique has been reflected to the greatest extent in this year's "Long Days".
Xiao Gui (Cui Lin) left his hometown to come to the ideal Beijing, in order to survive and be willing to be the "camel Xiangzi" of the new era, finally became a courier by hard work and was about to earn the bicycle he belonged to. At this time, the car was stolen, and just when the employer was dismissive and scornful, he took out the stubborn spirit of "Qiu Ju fights a lawsuit" and began to find the car.
For Xiao Gui, a foreigner who has come to Beijing to work, the bicycle is not only a tool for making a living, but also a symbol of identity, allowing him to integrate into Beijing and become a part of the city. His obsession with bicycles is the pursuit of self-worth and the defense of individual dignity.
02. The ideal chase of gain and loss
Xiao Jian (Li Bin) is an ordinary young man living in Beijing, from a reorganized family, whose broken and alienated family makes him have a lingering inferiority complex. By "stealing" his family's money to buy a second-hand bicycle, it is not so much vanity as it is the resistance of his extremely depressed heart, he longs for the approval of his friends, and more eager to get the patronage of love.
Because of this bike, he was able to play on the same level as his friends and use the girl he wanted. For him, the bicycle is the weight of love.
The bicycle that Xiao Jian bought in the second-hand market was stolen by Xiao Gui, and the film links the fates of two 17-year-olds and triggers their own stories. The film is based on the identities of the low-level civilians and the wanderers of the city represented by the two protagonists, and then extends the perspective to other classes of the city, portraying a variety of multi-layered urban groups.
From the gain and loss of the two protagonist bicycles, they develop sympathy for each other, and finally reconcile under the compromise of one person using a day. Behind their reconciliation is the disillusionment of common ideals in the process of gain and loss.
If the perfect integration of the narrative and image function of the "bicycle" reflects the director's keen perception of the confusion and anxiety of the middle-aged and young generation in the changing times, then the perceptual capture and rational presentation of the cold and warm of youth and the sadness and joy of life can make people feel the charm of the film itself.
01. Poetry and black humor
"Wang Xiaoshuai's films have a kind of persistence and poetic dignity that they do not give up." (Li Daoxin, "History of Chinese Film Culture")
If the youth in Jiang Wen's "Sunny Day" still has the arrogance and arrogance of the old Beijing stubborn lords, then the youth in "Seventeen-year-old Bicycle" is the most touching sorrow and joy in the lives of ordinary people. It is presented in a subtle visual form of imagery, a poetic capture of ordinary life that touches the softest part of the human heart, so it is very easy to cause empathy.
The use of head-up perspective, depth of field composition, large panorama, long shots and other techniques makes the film have an objective perspective of waiting and watching, and Beijing in the film also presents a multi-level life scene, with modern reinforced concrete jungles lined with high-rise buildings, old alleys with intertwined canine teeth, old people playing chess, and children playing, so as to present a picture of urban life in modern society.
This visual beauty, incorporated into the characters' emotional experiences, breeds a unique poetry. For example, after Xiao Jian rode side by side with his beloved girl on a bicycle, the joy in his heart was indescribable, and on the road next to Shichahai, he spread his hands and waved his school uniform to enjoy the beauty of mercedes-Benz youth and dancing love. After his father reneged on his word and sent away the bicycle, on the roof of the courtyard, he shed a line of clear tears and hesitated helplessly on the eaves. Under the poetic presentation of the blending of scenes, the cold, warm and sad joy of this youth is particularly moving.
In addition to the seductive poetry, the biggest feature of the film is that the pain and joy are presented in an absurd way, not only in the language style, the employer uses the literary way of "Camel Xiangzi" and "Qiu Ju Fights the Lawsuit" to ridicule Xiao Gui, but also reflects in the arrangement of the fate of the characters, with a strong sense of black humor.
When Xiao Gui used the "shaft" on his body to impress the mean employers and forced the overlords of Beijing to compromise, his nest, resignation and aphasia became an effective resistance in the weak, and when he was about to fully obtain the right to use the bicycle, he was completely destroyed. At the end, as he stubbornly weaves through the city with his broken bicycle, this black humor is amplified to the greatest extent.
02. The ignorance of love and the fierceness of youth
The nanny played by Zhou Xun is small and exquisite, and the appearance in high heels and red dress is full of ceremony. On the one hand, she is another portrayal of the portrait of the people on the fringes of the city; more importantly, the elaborate design of each appearance of her highlights her idealized and holy position in Xiao Gui's heart, like the white moonlight of barren life and cruel youth.
Xiao Xiao, played by Gao Yuanyuan, has a similar role, and the surreal fresh and pure school uniform and refreshing smile also create the appearance of youth dreams. Different from the general youth films, the love in the movie is not only not very high, and even the male protagonist in the strict sense is not considered to have real love, but in the kind of ignorant and hazy crush and chase, the beauty and essence of youth have been shockingly presented.
In addition to the ignorant love, the film's fanaticism and restless presentation of youth is also fascinating, in the last alley chase scene, this fierce youth is dissolved in violent confrontation, and they each defend their ideals and paranoia.
At the end, everything is not resolved, but it seems to be growing up in the struggle of reality, there is no win or loss, and some are just writing their own lives with their own persistence and persistence.
"I always feel that a director, you should face these ordinary people, these big machines living in society, very weak people, use the film to express care, to face them." 」 (See The Paper's "Interview with | Wang Xiaoshuai: Society Needs More Works of Art with Attitudes")
Audiences accustomed to commercial chicken soup will even use words like "aggressiveness" to describe Wang Xiaoshuai's films, which is undoubtedly biased. Behind the criticism in Wang Xiaoshuai's works is more of a gentle attitude, whether it is the struggle, the pursuit of ideals in confusion, or the sadness and joy in ordinary life, which are based on the love of life itself and the yearning for a better life. It is precisely because of this that the true temperature of youth life can be revealed.
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