The 25 years since Hong Kong returned to the mainland is also the 25 years that Hong Kong films have embraced mainland films, but in these 25 years, it is not difficult to find that due to the colonial nature of Hong Kong, most directors are entangled in "Chinese" and "Western" Among the disputes over identity, there are both those who are firm in their "Chinese" identity, and those who are determined to "leave", and more are like prodigal sons, full of a sense of loss and exile. Therefore, in their writings, most of the genre films they create are catering to the mainland market, or they are thinking about the local consciousness of Hong Kong, but the return of "home-country consciousness" is avoided intentionally or unintentionally. The emergence of "When Will the Bright Moon Come" has broken this ice to a certain extent. It is an imaginary proposition for the confusion and helplessness in the identity of Hong Kong people.
Marx said: "All history is contemporary history", literary and artistic creations with historical themes have become a bridge between traditional culture and contemporary consciousness. The re-creation of historical themes is inseparable from the observation of traditional cultural consciousness and the reflection of contemporary consciousness. [1] As an important national consciousness of the Chinese nation, "family and country consciousness" is the most natural emotion rooted in the Chinese people's loyalty and concern for the nation and the country, which is the most natural emotion of blood relationship. It has played an important role, and "When Will the Bright Moon Come" is based on this basic foundation. First of all, the film is no longer obsessed with discussing the local consciousness of Hong Kong or the gangster culture, martial arts culture, business culture and other symbols with strong local characteristics of Hong Kong, but focusing on eulogizing the times when Hong Kong was occupied by ordinary people. Second, Xu Anhua intends to avoid the homogenization of the main theme movies that follow the trend of the mainland, but adds his own feminist discourse under the ideology of grand narrative. expression, and deeply excavated and recognized the value of women that was lost in the revolutionary wave. This is reflected in the film in three ways.
First, women are no longer responsible for men and families. Fang Lan, as an ordinary girl from a private family, originally had nothing to do with the revolution in her life. Like her cousin, she could agree to Li Jinrong's proposal and live a well-off life in her country loft. But she categorically rejected the path that women should take under the traditional system. As an ordinary mother, Fang's mother could have lived a stable life after Fang Lan got married, so when Fang Lan joined the revolution, out of concern for her daughter, she hesitated, but after understanding Fang Lan After her ideals and practices, she no longer went to find her husband to return to the female standard, but finally threw herself into the torrent of the revolutionary cause; secondly, the women in the film began to appear on the stage of history. In 's previous theme films, the director chose to portray the heroic characters in the film mostly as men, who are tall and stalwart, while women are the ones who were lost in the revolutionary war and needed to be rescued by them. Even if there are women, they are mostly related to the war as "medical workers", " cooks " and other subordinate identities, but in "When the Moon Comes", Fang Lan and Fang's mother have a relationship with cultural people. The retreat of women played a crucial role. They no longer shrank from the background of the historical stage, but stepped onto the historical stage with a clear and open mind; thirdly, women began to have the spirit of independence and self-reliance. They have the awareness of equality between men and women because they have not flinched, and began to realize that they are no longer passive viewing objects for men, but have the initiative to choose their own, and their contributions are recognized and included in the revolution and the revolution. in the national discourse system. From this point of view, the director has made the most basic recognition of women under the dominance of "home and country consciousness".
Xu Anhua not only shows recognition of women's value in the film, but also publicizes them to a certain extent, which is reflected in two aspects.
First, Fang Lan and Fang's mother did not join the revolution because of the pain, confusion, helplessness, and despair caused by being enslaved, humiliated, ravaged, and damaged.
They were on the edge of confrontation and resignation before they joined the revolutionIn the world, they made the choice to join the revolution when they felt deeply that their homeland had fallen and were unwilling to surrender. Fang's mother's heroic spirit is highlighted, and she has a deep love for her daughter, but she also has a revolutionary righteousness that is hidden from ordinary people. This righteousness comes from the misery and solemnity of the wounded she saw when she sent information, which is in harmony with Fang Fang. Lan's expression was the same when she recited Mao Dun's "Dusk". It was an expression when she accidentally touched the grandeur of the revolution, and this grandeur was unfamiliar and at the same time shocked them. At the same time, this kind of vibration is something they can participate in, so they transcend the ordinary women's firewood, rice, oil and salt, and the choices they make have a metaphysical sense of value. This sense of value makes them also face death. Being able to face it calmly is different from the image of female revolutionaries in the past. In the previous mainstream discourse system of family and country, authoritative historical discourse used a specific method of political chronology to divide women's narrative into two historical periods that were clearly black and white and incompatible: Society turns people into ghosts, and the new society turns ghosts into people.”
Therefore, even female directors put women's narrative in a dark background, and only when they are oppressed will they make a voice of resistance. However, the director's portrayal of Fang Lan and Fang's mother in "When Will the Moon Come" is not a metaphor for the common destiny of the oppressed classes, nor is it a reference to the common destiny of the toiling masses in old China. They are independent women, even if they do not If you choose revolution, you can continue to live, so in the scene where Fang Gu sent the information, she also had to go to her cousin's wedding by the way. Therefore, from this point of view, they chose the revolution for the sake of the homeland and the nation. This is also just like the line that Fang Gu said, "If everyone thinks this way, there will be no victory."
Second, Fang Lan and Fang's mother are revolutionaries, and the director did not portray them as "iron girls" in the "Seventeen Years" period. The starting point of their revolutionary righteousness and heroism is impure and personal. of.
But it is precisely because of this "impurity" that their value is more publicized than that of "iron girls". Fang's mother is a woman who is "stingy, humorous, affectionate, and loyal". She did not support Fang Lan's participation in the revolution at first, because at this time she still had a little fantasy about the patriarchal society, but later, she did not support Fang Lan's participation in the revolution. Knowing that her daughter was involved in it, she warned her that "death is not terrible, but don't implicate your teammates." In the end, in order to send information for her daughter, she risked her own life, and she still blamed herself for not being able to dig a hole and implicated her comrades in helping. Xu Anhua used a few strokes here to portray a humble human nature who hesitates between good and evil, wants to protect himself but cannot destroy the last bit of conscience. And this change between good and evil is small, difficult to detect, and does not involve a change in family hatred. If it is placed in the image of the "Iron Girl" created in the past, this bland transition will be exchanged for the audience. The yawn, the transformation of the norm, must be a gallant patriotism that is full of power, inflamed with blood and hatred. But Mother Fang is not like this. The reason for the change given in the film is her love for her daughter, and it is this love that makes the film so aptly show the humanity and divinity of a woman. It is based on these two points that the women portrayed by the director in "When Will the Bright Moon" live in a trivial real world, far away from those conceptualized or even deified female heroes, but at the end, let us see a kind of human nature and gods. The women who are sexually integrated make Fang Lan and Fang's mother show the greatness in the small in Xu Anhua's warm and beautiful images, and the value of women is publicized on the basis of recognition.
Feminist scholars believe that the discourse of homeland and nationalism conceals the meaning of gender politics. Under the grand discourse system of homeland and nationalism, women have always been the concealed gender discourse. "Nationalism is a hegemonic ideology like patriarchy and capitalism because, politically, its inclusiveness places the nation/state over other categories such as gender, class, religion, etc.; in narrative , which provides an integrated set of 'grammar' and 'rhetoric'". Under this system of discourse, the interests of women at the bottom are unanimously ignored, but in the waning years when the beacon is everywhere and powerful enemies are invading the territory, women are required to appear in history, sacrifice and contribute to the interests of the country. For a low-level woman like her mother who was on the edge of resistance, sacrificeThe most important way of devotion is that men often "request women to defend or return to traditions in the name of the nation".
In "When the Moon Will Come", men, as the agents of the patriarchy, are often the embodiment of grand discourse systems such as the state and the nation at the same time. Liu Heizai is a typical representative. Fang Lan's family was originally Mao Dun's landlord. Because of the fall of Hong Kong, Mao Dun, Xia Yan, Zou Taofen and others had to be rescued to a safe area. During this process, Fang Lan, who was originally out of the picture, and her snobbish mother were there. By mistake, they witnessed the process of Liu Heizai slaying traitors and shooting opponents. In the process, they saw Liu Heizai's wit, bravery, resourcefulness, and invincibility. All of this reflects the deep national righteousness. And this kind of national righteousness is exactly what Fang Lan needs, so she joined the revolution under the leadership of Liu Heizai, the "guide" or "enlightenment", which means that women devote themselves to the discourse system of the family and country .
After Fang Lan and Fang Mu threw themselves into the embrace of the revolutionary cause, they no longer existed as objects of male desire, but they also never existed as a gender group independent of males. It should be said that before they joined, they still had a trace of the characteristics of women in the traditional sense - resignation, which no longer exists at this time. At this moment, all the characters in the film are in a "non-gendered" state. They all belong to the guerrillas of the Dongjiang Column and the same class dedicated to the revolutionary cause. They all exist as a common narrative image. Their relationship with each other is a kind of close, pure white and polluted siblings, which is why the love clues between Li Jinrong and Fang Lan have been weakened in the film. They are absolutely loyal to the revolution, just like Althusser's so-called " ideological call ", a kind of absolute loyalty that the rescuer demands from the rescued. This "non-gendered" character image and narrative is also a denial of personal desires. Whether it is material desire, lust, or life and death, they cannot shrink back and can only be absolutely loyal. This is also the mother's. The profound meaning of the line "Death is not important, don't implicate teammates" is also the profound reason why Fang Lan gave up on rescuing Fang's mother.
At the end of the film, the victory of the war is coming, and Fang's mother sacrifices, Fang Lan and Liu Heizai are separated, and the film returns to silence. The mother and daughter of the Fang family may end up on the main stage of social history in the name of revolution in the historical trend. Like the mother of Fang, they may be buried silently in history, or, like Fang Lan, may be reborn again. Banished from the historical scene. In this series of backward movements, men once again stepped onto the stage of history and once again became the main body of history. They have survived the storms of history unscathed and continue to dominate new processes. In the film, the 800 intellectuals still enjoy the best supplies during the transition of war and chaos. When they are safe, they continue to fight for the revolution with their pen. Only Leung Ka Fai knows the heroism and greatness of these women. Played by the old driver.
Their unknown ending and the evacuation of intellectuals at the beginning form a strong metaphor , which may be to apologise for the fall of Hong Kong during the anti-Japanese era, but to a greater extent it is for those who did not Women who influence the historical process, but also contribute to the development of the historical process, open their eyes. In this sense, the author believes that director Xu Anhua's unique expression of female consciousness in "When Will the Bright Moon", although is not as powerful as radical feminism, it truly reflects the changes in the times, and most women under the commercial wave , Female Directors, The Real Situation of Female Films .
Dai Jinhua once pointed out: "Discourses like women and individuals, and their manifestations of cultural dilemmas, have always been only a corner of the discourse of left-wing, elite intellectuals, and have almost never succeeded in entering Chinese film - this urban/ Commercial/popular culture, to be precise, has failed to be a successful and effective cinematic expression in it."
Xu Anhua's film successfully broke the deadlock of women's film and pushed the creation of "women's film" to a new level The height of . In the 25 years since Hong Kong's return, the directors of the two places have nourished and penetrated each other, thus creating a better film market in China.
China's main theme commercial film should be just like the innovative expression of the film's theme creation, uphold and carry forward the spirit of not following the trend, insisting on innovation, and finally being accepted and praised by the film audience, the Chinese film market will create a bigger market. brilliant.
