I don't know if you have found -
Among the domestic films released in Chinese theaters, there are comedies, animations, literary films, action films, martial arts films, etc., but the only one genre film seems to be hidden behind it, "dare not" appear.
This is the crime film.
Crime films have always been considered the shortcomings of Chinese directors, not because Chinese directors can't make them well, but because they don't want to make them.
Because the box office of this genre film is not destined to be high, his audience is much smaller than most other genre films.
Secondly, under the rules of the Chinese censorship mechanism, shooting crime films is like a dancer dancing in shackles, unable to play to the fullest.
For example, Ning Hao's "No Man's Land", after being filmed, was released four years later, and it has undergone many deletions and modifications in the middle.
But even if there are many difficulties, there are always outliers who dare to try.
Xin Yukun, a post-80s young director born in Inner Mongolia, entered the public eye in 2014 for the small-scale production film "Labyrinth of Hearts", which was shot at a cost of 1.7 million.
What is the concept of 1.7 million?
It may not even be enough to shoot some domestic blockbusters in a day, but Xin Yukun, with his exquisite script and mature and stable multi-line narrative techniques, has presented the public with a suspense crime film that belongs only to China.
In 2017, he brought another crime film to the audience, and this time, he had money —
"Burst into Silence"
Douban score 8.3.
In the headlines of the Douban hot review, there is such a special film critic Oriol Paulo who left a short review of this film -
Breaking Silent is very different from the crime movies I've seen, it's a mix of genres. It's a crime movie, a mystery movie, an action movie, and it's also a social reality movie. Xin Yukun performs a good mix of different genres in this film, and has a strong ending.
Who is Oriol Paulo?
He is the director of the world-famous Invisible Guest.
So, what kind of charm does "Burst into Silence" have that makes this director leave such a comment?
First, a mysterious disappearance
"Burst into Silence" adopts a two-line narrative mode.
The beginning of the story is a missing case.
Zhang Baomin, who is digging coal in the coal mine, is a man who can't speak, and when he was fighting with his colleagues, he received a call from his wife Cui Xia, his son was lost, Zhang Baomin quit his job and returned to the village to prepare to find his son.
On the other side, Chang Wannian, the boss of the miner's company, is taking a picture with the school leaders in the office of a primary school because he has just donated money to build a new teaching building.
Here is a detail, the school leaders asked Chang Wannian to take a group photo with the students, Chang Wannian categorically refused, he believes that this is to add trouble to the students, increase the burden on students.
But on the eve of the group photo, he asked the leader to take off his coat and lend it to him because his suit was dirty.
What does this move mean?
In Chang Wannian's eyes, these bearded people have no dignity, do not have to give them face, and even disdain superficial courtesy in disguise.
One is a coal digger at the bottom and a big capitalist at the top of society, and these two people should be two parties that have no intersection.
But in fact, their fates have long been intertwined.
The story of "Burst into Silence" itself is quite simple, and as a crime film, the suspense flavor is not so strong.
The plot may be simple and brain-burning, but everyone in the plot is three-dimensional and complex.
In "Bursting Into Silence", there are a total of three protagonists, and they represent three classes.
01. Zhang Baomin
Zhang Baomin broke his tongue in a fight with someone when he was young, and he never liked to talk. He lived in a remote mountain village, his family herded sheep, and his wife fell ill with edema and was bedridden for a long time.
In describing the protagonist who can't speak, the director intersperses such a plot -
In the early years, the village opened mines, and the subsidies given by large enterprises made everyone in the village sign, but Only Zhang Baomin did not agree.
At the Hongmen banquet set up by the villagers, Zhang Baomin tore the lamb chops alone but still refused to sign, and finally poked him blind in the conflict with Ding Hai, the owner of the lamb chop restaurant.
In order to compensate Ding Hai for his medical expenses, Zhang Baomin finally agreed to open a mine and went out to work to repay the money.
Zhang Baomin represents the low-level people who are exploited and used, but this plot also shows a character trait of the baomin -
People don't talk much, and once a good person is provoked, they become a mob.
Protectors, mobs.
The fact that Zhang Baomin cannot speak also reflects the weakness of the people at the bottom.
02, Chang Wannian
Chang Wannian is the representative of the upper bourgeoisie, as a miner boss exploiting the low-level labor force, and the joint lawyer Xu Wenjie has been creating perjury and illegal mining.
For the personality characteristics of Chang Wannian, the director can be said to be the most forceful in ink.
For example, at the wine banquet set up in Changwannian, there was only one dish such as lamb rolls on the wine table.
When Chang Wannian invited Li Zong on the other side to eat together, Li Zong refused:
"I believe in Buddhism and eat vegetarian."
Chang Wannian took a sip of the mutton and said in a deep voice:
"It's not a good habit, sheep, and vegetarians."
What does this sentence mean?
It is to warn Li Zong on the other side that if you continue to refuse, then you will be eaten by me like this sheep.
Chang Wannian's greatest hobby is hunting, aiming his bow and arrow at his prey and hitting him in the heart.
For Chang Wannian, others are not fundamentally different from their prey.
The brutality and cold-bloodedness of the upper capitalists is vividly reflected.
03. Xu Wenjie
The most complicated in the film is the lawyer Xu Wenjie.
Xu Wenjie also represents the majority of this society, the middle class, the middle class people.
He has a glorious job as a lawyer.
He has a lovely daughter.
However, he chose to join the same stream with Chang Wannian because of money.
In the whole film, Xu Wenjie's performance in the early stage can be said to be almost the same as Zhang Baomin's-
Can't talk, stay silent.
It was only after he learned that his daughter had been kidnapped by Chang Wannian that for the first time there were mood swings and a large line narrative.
Why did the director arrange this?
In my opinion, this means that although Xu Wenjie helped Chang Wannian, for him, he still has a conscience, and he is different from Chang Wannian, who has long been unintentional.
But as the plot progresses, he has to make mistakes again and again.
Zhang Baomin was hunted down and killed to save his daughter, and when his daughter was rescued, Chang Wannian said to him:
"The police are coming, what to do?" You still have a daughter to take care of, and I'm sure you'll have a way. ”
At this moment, I believe that all the audience knows the truth of the facts -
Zhang Baomin's child, killed by Xu Wenjie and Chang Wannian, was buried in a dark cave.
And this warning that "you still have a daughter to take care of" made Xu Wenjie's conscience completely extinguished.
Because he can tell himself this—
I did it all for my daughter, and I'm not wrong, and once I'm found to be a murderer, my daughter will be bullied too.
This self-deception allowed him to survive the condemnation of his conscience.
At the end of the film, he put on the pair of Sven glasses, but the two most desperate words came out of his mouth-
"Gone."
I believe that after staying up for 2 full hours, the audience finally experienced the powerlessness, despair and depression of the people.
Until the end, Zhang Baomin did not find his son, and he could not even know the life and death of the child.
He didn't even know that the girl he was saving was the child of a gang of murderers.
Bursting, silent.
The upper levels are hypocritical and cruel, the middle levels are indifferent and selfish, and the lower levels are powerless and speechless.
"Burst into Silence" surprised me beyond expectations, this is not only a crime film, but also a human disqualification of the satire film.
Second, the "sheep" and "pyramid" in the movie
Although the overall storyline is not complicated, the director buried details and metaphors in many places.
Sheep, appear many times in the movie.
Zhang Baomin's family is shepherding sheep, and Chang Wannian's favorite food is sheep.
In the film, the sheep represent the defenders, and even if the defenders have the strongest force value in the film, they are ultimately inferior to the hunters with bows and arrows.
Pyramids, too, are metaphors for class.
At the beginning of the film, the stone pyramid built by Zhang Baomin's son collapsed violently, and Chang Wannian stunned Zhang Baomin with the decorative pyramid on the table, all of which represented the cowardice of the people at the bottom in the face of power and money.
Ding Hai's son, who appears in many corners of the film, has been wearing an Ultraman mask to watch the whole incident happen, if we are off-screen viewers, then he is a spectator on the screen.
What does this child represent?
Pigo thinks he represents justice, but it is justice that has lost its voice.
He saw Chang Wannian and Xu Wenjie killing the child, but he could not speak because of his mental development.
Zhang Baomin can only be reminded by some of his own actions.
At the end of the film, the child draws a picture on the wall to reveal all the truth.
Is this the real ending?
In Pigo's view, it is not, because as early as the moment of "gone", "Burst into Silence" has ended, but this is also the current situation of crime films in China .
The ending must be bright.
And this subtitle and portrait, in my opinion, is the same as the ending of the movie "Peerless", in order to pass the review and have to do it.
What surprised me the most in the whole movie was the change in front and back of Ding Hai, the owner of the lamb chop restaurant.
As a blind man who was poked by Zhang Baomin in the early years, he should have hated Zhang Baomin the most, but he rescued Zhang Baomin when he fled for his life.
Will the shift before and after appear blunt?
And this, in fact, was revealed in the details of the film.
Zhang Baomin can be said to be the only person in the ignorant and backward village who understands.
The whole village agreed to open the mine, but only he did not agree, why?
Because of polluting the environment.
Zhang Baomin's wife has been ill for a long time, and the embolus said that the smell of well water is getting bigger and bigger, and even Ding Hai's son's mental development is too slow, which is likely to be the result of environmental pollution caused by mining.
After so many years, Ding Hai has long known that Zhang Baomin's approach was the most correct decision, even if the contradiction between the two in the early stage made him blind, but in the depths of his heart, Ding Hai really took Zhang Baomin as a "Hanzi".
And his design of Zhang Baomin's rescue is also quite interesting, combined with the background and transformation of lawyer Xu Wenjie, the two groups are compared before and after, which corresponds to the couplet poem "Every time the righteousness is more slaughtered, the negative heart is more than a reader.".
Zhang Baomin also represents the last glimmer of light before the long night falls, but it is such a right and understanding person that his village is polluted, his wife is sick, and his son is missing.
Despair fills every corner.
It is precisely because I understand the details that I feel powerlessness more deeply.
Let me ask, if Chinese "crime films" were all made like this, would the audience scold the mother?
Third, there is no tomorrow for domestic crime films
Some people say that "Burst into Silence" is the closest Chinese crime film to a Korean crime film in the past 10 years
In the field of crime films, Korean crime films can be said to be unique, not only because they shoot well, but also because they dare to make them.
"Old Boy", "Yellow Sea", "Horror Live" and other films are not just crime films, each film has social problems and social phenomena that it wants to reflect.
Bloody violence is just the icing on the cake, and in the heart of the madness of crime films, there is a social essence that many people can't bear to look at.
If it is just a brain-burning suspense, then I prefer to call it a reasoning film.
The reason why a crime film is a crime film is even more because he himself contains the thinking and discussion of why he committed a crime and why he came to this step.
In recent years, domestic crime films can be said to have ushered in spring.
From 2014's "Labyrinth of Hearts", to 2015's "Burning Heart", to 2017's "Bursting and Silent", domestic crime films are also catching up with South Korea's footsteps, even if we carry the weight forward.
Even in recent years, crime network dramas such as "White Night Pursuit", "Undocumented Crime" and "Hidden Corners" have sprung up and sprouted.
Pi Ge believes that the genre of crime will no longer be the shortcomings and weaknesses of domestic film dramas in the future, and many directors of all sizes will continue to pour into this field, using crime to analyze reality and express ideals with movies.