"Roadside Picnic" is a literary film directed by Bi Gan. With this work, he won the 52nd Golden Horse Awards for Best New Director. The film is based on the story of the director's uncle, the protagonist Chen Sheng (formerly known as Chen Yongzhong). The filming location is the mysterious Guizhou countryside. The movie
tells the story of a clinic doctor with a heavy past, Chen Sheng, in order to find a child abandoned by his brother, and also to help another old doctor living alone in the clinic to bring memories of the past to the "love" of the past, set foot on his way to Zhenyuan The story of the train. Chen Sheng in Zhenyuan seemed to have experienced the past and came to the future. He rethinks his life. In the end, he gave up bringing the child back, but took a long look with a telescope and returned to his life. The film is about the art of time. This film also uses the medium of time to interweave the past, present and future, bringing people into a magnificent and bizarre dream, and narrating the life of the protagonist Chen Sheng through a single line and multiple lines. It is presented in such a way as to tell us that the past cannot be traced, only to move forward with a burden. The narration of the film
is mainly one-line narration, which also uses abstract narration to explain Chen Sheng's history more clearly, and presents a man with a vicissitudes of life in front of us. As soon as the film was promoted, it explained Chen Sheng's profession-a doctor in a rural clinic. This doctor also had some literature and art. The dual identity of himself with poetry, poet and doctor made us curious about this man. Then he explained Chen Sheng's family relationship, an irresponsible gangster brother Lao Wei and his nephew Wei Wei who was indifferent by his father. The younger brother's defense against Chen Sheng made us wonder what happened between them. The mystery was revealed little by little, and it was learned from others that Lao Wai was Chen Sheng's half-brother. Mother did not leave the house to the old crook who has been taking care of the family. It was left to Chen Sheng, and Lao Wai was always dissatisfied with this. After clarifying Chen Sheng's family relationship, the film explains Chen Sheng's history through interludes. Chen Sheng went to avenge the man who chopped off the finger of the monk's son, so he was sentenced to nine years. After he came out, his lover had died. In the fragmented fragments, Chen Sheng walked out of the prison door, sat by the lake, and said in the car that he had learned a song and wanted to sing to his wife. This scene will show Chen Sheng, a man who is full of love and stories. The image is fully displayed. The multi-line narration of
film is a major feature of showing the relationship between characters. The motorcycle driver Wei Wei in the film is like Chen Sheng's growing up nephew, and also like Chen Sheng in the past as we imagined: he was left in Zhenyuan, lacked care, and was bullied by youth in society. The section of the film crossing the river to buy a windmill is out of Chen Sheng’s perspective. It is a story about Wei Wei and Yang Yang. Wei Wei’s true love is fully reflected in this section. This multi-line narration method, in a single time process, borrows multiple spatial developments, not only reduces Chen Sheng's loneliness, but also enriches the level of the film and the relationship between the characters.
Multiple narrative structures gather different spaces on the same plane is a unique language narrative method of the film. This narrative structure makes "Roadside Picnic" as beautiful as a poem. Chen Sheng's poems are consistent with the film pictures, the words of the poems are truly presented in the pictures, and they are like a continuous line connecting multiple narrative structures. For example, on the way Chen Sheng went to Zhenyuan, the train entered the track, and the alternate dark and light occupied the carriage. The sound of Chen Sheng reciting poems reached our ears, "Many nights overlap and quietly form darkness, and roses absorb light... ··" Then he turned to the scene when Chen Sheng was released from prison. Various narrative structures not only make "Roadside Picnic" look like a poem full of rhythm, smooth and long-distance, but also through this narrative structure to interweave the past, present, and future three time and space to show the theme of the film. He sang the song "Little Jasmine" that he had no chance to sing, and gave the tape of "Farewell" to the barbershop girl like his wife, saving himself from the abyss of guilt in the past. He did not stubbornly pick up Wei Wei, but chose to believe in Monk Hua and let him stay in the future. And he boarded the train back to Kaili and back to the present. The train speeding by outside the window painted the time that Wei Wei wanted to go backwards, and Chen Sheng stayed in the present.
"What day is today?" "No, it's normal." This is the conversation between Chen Sheng and the old doctor in the clinic. This line made me tremble, and it was deeply imprinted in my mind. Today is an ordinary day, and we are ordinary people, and Lao Chen is also an ordinary person.The ordinary person who reads the story is trapped in the guilt of his mother and his wife, and the regret of being stained with blood when he was young and frivolous. Even with such a heavy life, one has to take heavy steps forward, and only oneself can save his heart disease. We may also be trapped in the darkness of our regrets and guilt for the past, but only when the train goes forward can time flow backwards, and only when we go forward can we make up for the past and see the light of the future.
