Eight hundred miles in Qinchuan, the sky is filled with yellow sand, which bears the infinite scars of China, and also gave birth to five thousand years of Chinese civilization. "Yellow Land", released in 1984, is a splash-ink painting directed by Chen Kaige. It tells the story of the heroine Cuiqiao, a woman from northern Shaanxi, who rescued herself from her tragic fate with the help of Gu Qing, a literary soldier of the Eighth Route Army. The dim picture, the expanse of the land, the roaring wind and the endless singing of Xintianyou, the white turban, black cotton coat, and small rice bran are like a traditional Chinese "freehand painting". This film is full of director Chen Kaige's exploration of the spiritual restriction of Chinese human history and traditional concepts.
The oppression of traditional feudal ideas. The unchanging white turbans and black cotton gowns have become a symbol of the millions of farmers living on the Loess Plateau. These ordinary people living in the northern Shaanxi Plateau are simple and not good at conversation, but in the eyes of director Chen Kaige, they are actually "numb and ignorant". The embodiment, such as the "Wooden Fish" in the movie, is enough to reflect the director's intention.
couplets often appear in "Yellow Earth". When the protagonist Cui Qiao leaned on the door frame to watch the marriage scene, the red paper and black letters read "Three Obeys and Four Virtues". When Cui Qiao got married, the Xilian on the door reads like this : Since ancient times, marriage was determined by heaven, but nowadays, your luck is hitting. "Accept fate", "obey the rules of farmers" and "be willing to be a slave to the land" became the creed of thousands of farmers like Cui Qiao's father. The harm of arranged marriages to Cui Qiao is obvious. It stimulated Cui Qiao's idea of crossing the river overnight to go to her family, but she drowned in the rushing Yellow River.
Redeem yourself, follow the light. Cuiqiao is an ordinary woman from a farm in northern Shaanxi who has experienced too much suffering. She has witnessed the sorrow of women under arranged marriages, and at the same time she has also experienced arranged marriages. In this movie, there are two identical marriage scenes, which are actually emphasizing the repetition of the tragic fate of women in northern Shaanxi, and the winding paths suggest the tortuous life fate of these women. Cui Qiao’s clothing in "The Yellow Earth" has always been dominated by red. In fact, the red color here implies a kind of enthusiasm and tenacity in Cui Qiao’s bones. This is also the result of her decision to redeem herself with the help of Gu Qing. To pave the way.
's parents, when Cuiqiao later decided to cross the Yellow River to join the Eighth Route Army, she cut her braids, enough to witness her determination. Except for Cuiqiao, her younger brother, Hanhan, also completed self-salvation. When Hanhan ran towards Gu Qing against the crowd in the scene of begging for rain at the end of the film, the scene was shocking enough that he was about to be submerged in a million "wooden fish". In the crowd, his red bellyband is like a flame of hope. The road to redemption itself was full of obstacles, and Cui Qiao gave his life for this, struggling and drowning in the numb crowd.
Through tragic characters like Cui Qiao, Chen Kaige launched criticism and reflection. In "Yellow Earth", apart from the criticism of arranged marriages, it also witnessed the persecution of arranged marriages on women. At the same time, the oppression brought by patriarchal society is also worthy of reflection. China has been a patriarchal society since ancient times, in Cuiqiao’s family Father Cuiqiao is an absolute patriarch, and he has absolute power in this family. In this film, the director not only satirized the ignorance of millions of farmers living on the plateau in northern Shaanxi, but also witnessed the tragedy of Cui Qiao drowning in the Yellow River for self-salvation. Everyone in the yellow land can't escape, and the water of the Yellow River can also drown them. With the help of a tragedy, the director criticized the imprisonment and oppression of traditional Chinese thought on people, and at the same time reflected on the spiritual restriction and influence of Chinese tradition on people.
In the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization, the Chinese children are called "the descendants of Yanhuang", with yellow skin, and the mother river is the Yellow River. The Chinese are inseparable from the "yellow". As the debut work directed by Chen Kaige, "Yellow Land" deeply analyzes the heavy traditional Chinese history through simple narratives, and reflects on the spiritual constraints of Chinese history and humanity on people through the bumpy road of self-salvation by Cui Qiao. As the rise of the fifth generation of directors, this film fully embodies the characteristics of the fifth generation of directors who like to criticize and reflect on Chinese society from the perspective of human nature.
