Poster of the movie "Dog Formation".
"Cow" in the movie "Bullfight", "Starling and Ostrich" in "Lao Paoer", "Mouse, White Horse and Peacock" in "Eight Hundred", ...... These animals are not only important characters in the films directed by director Guan Hu, but also through the interaction between humans and animals, they carry out two-way metaphorical construction of animal nature and human nature, constituting a unique narrative strategy and perspective of his films. The new film "Dog Formation" released a few days ago won the "Un Certain Regard" award at this year's Cannes International Film Festival, and the animal actor Xiao Xin in the film won the "Dog Palme d'Or Jury Award". The film continues Guan Hu's consistent "animal narrative" strategy, this time he turns the narrative perspective to the observation of individual life, integrates the primitive impulse and vitality of animals into the survival and mental state of people, and touches on the survival dilemma and spiritual redemption of small people in the big era with more real and profound expression.
After Guan Hu successively completed mainstream commercial films with historical themes such as "Eight Hundred" and "King Kong River", he combined his personal life course and social thinking to focus on the marginalized people in the town again in "Dog Formation". The story tells the story of Erlang, a popular figure in a local theater troupe, who was imprisoned for manslaughter, returned to the northwest town in 2008, and became silent when he "returned", forced to join the dog fighting team for his livelihood, and accidentally went from hostile temptation to mutual redemption with a black dog, and drew tenacious vitality and warm emotional comfort from the black dog, and "set off again" with this spiritual power to start a new journey in life. Jia Zhangke and Zhang Yang, who are also directors of the "sixth generation" with Guan Hu, make special appearances in the film, and their collective appearance and depiction of the appearance of small people reflect the continuous attention and expression of the times to the survival form and mental state of the low-level characters who are engulfed by the torrent of the times.
Stills from the movie "Dog Formation".
In the video writing of "Dog Formation", the director creates a number of symbols that carry meaning, and encodes them at different levels. Through the metaphorical and symbolic signifier of "dog", the film gives a specific cultural referent and social meaning to the spiritual connotation behind it. In traditional Chinese cultural cognition, the image of "dog" represents loyalty and companionship, which directly corresponds to the cultural value of "goodness". However, the stray dogs of different sizes and types that can be seen everywhere in the film were tragically abandoned due to the outward migration of their owners, and they gathered together to form a "dog array". On the other hand, in the social space of the town, it can be seen everywhere and even flooded, affecting the local investment and economic development, and constructing the social value of "evil". Mirroring each other: those who abandoned their "loyal friends" in the local area because of the relocation, as well as the dog-fighting team members with Uncle Yao as the core, are on the surface "law enforcers" who maintain local security and development, but in fact they are "lawbreakers" who resell dogs privately, disguise "evil" human nature with "good" behavior, and finally point to a profound criticism of human nature through the distinction between good and evil.
In the movie "Dog Formation", the character setting between the protagonist Erlang and the black dog adopts the narrative text of the ancient myths and legends of the mainland "Erlang God" and "Roaring Heavenly Dog", which constitute a symbolic intertextuality with each other and produce three levels of narrative meaning. First of all, in terms of character creation and relationship interaction, the image of "Erlang God" in mythological stories is mostly represented as "three eyes, a roaring dog and a three-pointed two-edged knife", while the "roaring dog" is a black Chinese thin dog. In the film, Jiro's name and the breed and size of the black dog effectively echo the former from the external form. Secondly, at the level of character subjectivity and value construction, different from the previous marginal writing that regards animals as understanding man and nature and highlighting the spiritual character of people, the "animal narrative" in "Dog Array" puts people and animals in the same subject of life, and emphasizes the subjectivity and independent value of animals through Erlang's rescue of the black dog's life, and endows it with the brave and resolute character of "human nature", not only in daily life such as washing and eating, playing guitar, riding a motorcycle, etc., but even when Erlang was beaten by Boss Hu. jumped through the window to save Erlang, who was fighting alone. As a kind of otherness, the black dog breaks through the traditional dualistic structure of humans and animals, further deconstructs anthropocentrism, and emphasizes the social significance of animal subject value. Third, at the level of cultural significance, "Erlang God" and "Roaring Heavenly Dog" belong to the "gods" of the heavenly realm, and bear the responsibility of maintaining the social order between the divine realm and between gods and humans. In the film, Erlang and Black Dog are "game-breakers" who constantly challenge the current social norms and order. As a member of the dog fighting team, Jiro did not hunt dogs for profit, but took various opportunities to rescue them in order to maintain his own life and freedom and the emotional connection with his master; Instead of selling the black dog to the dog farm, Erlang also applied for a certificate for the black dog to legalize his identity. Jiro and Black Dog subverted the order of social reality with a strong sense of life and reconstructed, not only safeguarding their right to survival, but also realizing the reconstruction of their inner spiritual world.
Stills from the movie "Dog Formation".
Guan Hu uses a calm and restrained lens language to outline the barrenness, decay and loneliness of the remote towns in the northwest with a large number of medium and long-range shots, and people and animals are completely immersed in this "empty space" field, which further highlights the insignificance of life, and tells the loneliness and struggle of Erlang and the black dog trapped in it with allegorical lens language. If the thinking about social relations is embedded in the construction of space, then space becomes a container of power, which disciplines people's time and body. In such an enclosed space, Jiro twice tried to cross the border of the town on a motorcycle, but both failed to fall into the ravine, which also confirmed Jiro's "admonition" to him when he was first released from prison: do not cross this boundary. In the film, the zoo guarded by Erlang's father can be described as a collective representation of animal imagery: the Siberian tiger trapped in a cage and losing its wild and animal nature, just like Erlang's helplessness under social discipline after being released from prison; The gray wolf who broke free from the cage and sought freedom, although "absent", existed as Erlang's inner desire and spirit for freedom. The emergence of a total solar eclipse, a super astronomical phenomenon, creates a surreal time and space: the iron cage of the zoo is opened, and tigers, peacocks, and monkeys roam the streets, restaurants, and residents' homes calmly.
Stills from the movie "Dog Formation".
Guan Hu, as a representative who is good at constructing "animal narratives" in the expression of film images, skillfully connects people, animals and society in the film "Dog Formation", places the character characteristics and fate of Erlang and the black dog in the process of transformation of modern society, and gives humanistic care and spiritual observation to the weak vitality and incomplete life dilemma of the little people in social survival. The director focuses on the two-way narrative writing between humans and animals, and lacks sufficient logic and storytelling in the construction of the relationship between Jiro and his father, and the dancer Grape. The aphasia and wandering state of these low-level characters still have a large narrative space at the level of spiritual writing, and the life consciousness of "animal people" has not been able to give spiritual salvation and vitality to the decadent and backward rural society in the transition, which is a little regrettable.
(Author: Du Zidong)