still wants to cash in on this domestic film.
has a complete and detailed story and a tone of laughter with tears. Compared with domestic movies of the same period, the quality should be nothing to criticize.
so that the Douban score rose all the way to 7.3. What about the box office of
?
only received 55 million in 10 days of release.
The audience doesn’t know the goods?
maybe.
Behind the failure, what is hidden is the social sentiment that we are unwilling to look directly at.
Laifu Hotel
1
"Chen Haonan" job search diary
Laifu Hotel, named "Grand Hotel", is crowded and narrow. Small, located behind the big hospital Alley, the camera always focuses on a small window at the front desk.
Compared to a "hotel", this place is more like a "guest house", with a 90s-like feel.
It is actually a cancer hotel.
Laifu is also the transliteration of "life". In fact, it talks about the other side of "life", that is, death.
People living here often cannot afford the high hospitalization fees in large hospitals. They settle here with their seriously ill relatives, waiting for a hope of rescue.
The proprietress Xiaolin (played by Liu Yan) runs this small hotel and makes little money.
Moreover, under the real pressure of illness, the boss and the guests did not say many pleasant words to each other.
Difficult patients, heavy work, meager salary.
What kind of people would work here?
A dead man.
To be precise, they are the type of people who are treated coldly in society and sentenced to "death".
Li Qingrang (played by Huang Xuan).
A serious social man from the Northeast, "Chen Haonan" was sentenced to ten years in prison for fighting and wounding others.
The sentence is over.
However, he found that this modern society, which had been separated for ten years, was not willing to give himself "face".
He returned to his home where he had not returned for ten years. His father disowned him and was so angry that he fainted.
When he woke up, he found out that he was seriously ill and needed 150,000 yuan for surgery.
Looking for a job?
He could even accept unpaid overtime, but he was stuck with the sentence "Please show a certificate of no criminal record."
Borrow money?
The only brother who is willing to talk to him is Chili Pepper, who has also been in prison. He earns a monthly salary of more than 1,000 and can only work in a garbage dump.
is another option.
Once upon a time, there was a real estate company boss named Da Ji (played by Dong Baoshi) who wanted to acquire the "nail house" "Laifu Hotel" at a low price for development.
hopes that Li Qing will let him go undercover and use his dirty tricks to make this small hotel unable to operate.
The condition is the 150,000 yuan that my father urgently needs for surgery.
Therefore, this film has gone from birth, old age, illness, death, and social death to the third level, the "death" of friendship and dignity.
Li Qingrang sighed:
In today’s world,
only those with money have face,
only with face, can they have everything.
In the past, the “face” was brotherhood and helping each other.
The current "face" is to bend down and rely on the powerful and wealthy businessmen, lending you a little light and giving you a little face.
Therefore, the main line of the whole movie is how the classical alternative hero who was sentenced to three death sentences was reborn in this small hotel.
To be honest, such stories are very common and even "old".
As early as 1976, Hong Kong director Long Gang filmed a similar story, telling the story of a gangster brother who encountered public discrimination and search for self-worth after he was released from prison.
was later remade into a movie of the same name by John Woo.
" hero's true nature ".
But is the obsolescence of the framework the reason why the audience is not interested?
no.
Compared with the job hunting path of the big brother in society, what scares many people away is actually the tone of this comedy story
How should the abandoned marginalized people live.
2
"Please pretend you can't let me go"
Yes, the so-called "Yang Gang Job Hunting" is just the shell, the lively part of the film.
Highlights of the video.
are the group of patients and elderly people living in the Laifu Hotel.
as the outcast group.
How should they live? What is their attitude towards life and death?
These constitute the flesh and blood of the film.
is also a real-life issue that is further touched on in the movie.
One word: home . In the movie
, there is a heartbreaking pair of ordinary mother and son.
After a fall, my mother became seriously ill and was bedridden with a tube inserted.
The son spent all his money and was unable to pay for the last "life-extending" operation.
Between the continuation of survival and the choice of life will, the old man wrote a note to his son: "Go home." Can
go back?
The end of the story.
The son did not want his mother to continue to suffer in the treatment, so he gave up the rescue.
’s mother died in the hospital.
What she was brought home was just a heavy jar of ashes. Same for
.
The same is true for another old man who is most trouble-free in Laifu, Master Fu (played by Ren Luomin).
This Peking Opera lover speaks chivalrously, sings lyrics, and likes to do some little cultural tricks to do justice.
As a childless person, his economic level is actually better than that of most residents. He stays at Laifu just because it feels like home.
enjoy themselves? Neither is
.
Before his death, Li Qingrang, who had a close relationship with him as father and son, found an old DVD player, which contained Peking opera images of Mr. Fu when he was young, and what his previous home looked like in his memory.
Then, on the screen, a Chinese-style dreamcore video recorder stream-of-consciousness clip unfolded.
The old man’s face is superimposed on his younger self.
He returned to his memories of a summer with abundant water and grass.
last minute.
There is no airs, no politeness, no social identity, only a cry like a lost child:
"Mom, Dad, I want to go home."
These details that truly treat the dilemma of life really hit Sir of lacrimal glands.
The so-called going home in the video.
In fact, to put it bluntly, it means refusing to continue suffering in this world and returning to the place before birth.
They hope to live with dignity and face..
as a real "person", not just a body that continues to live and "waits for death".
It shows the inner states of the elderly that are unknown or never cared about.
and this.
is probably the real humanistic care of " Laifu Hotel ". Is
realistic?
Sorry.
sir can only say that in this utilitarian society, we seem to pay little attention to the needs of this group of elderly people.
Just like the forced demolition in the movie
Daki and his gang killed Alzheimer's old man Xiumei by feeding them drugs, and created public opinion to close the hotel. Li Qingrang came to confront him, but in Daki's words, human life is an understatement.
In the material age, they were the first to be forgotten.
Have you seen your mother once?
So let’s go back and look at the party in the video.
Xiumei comes on stage.
sang a song, singing the first sentence and forgetting the next sentence, "Please Pretend You Can't Leave Me".
Please pretend that you will be reluctant to let me go
Please put away your indifference for the time being
Please hug me gently
Give me tenderness for the last time
I can’t help but think about
When these old people come to this stage in life The end, no longer Then there is the so-called social function, which has become a "burden" that will eventually pass away for the entire family and the world.
is not sometimes.
We don’t even want to pretend to be reluctant to let go?
3
"Life has a special meaning"
So the question is, what is the relationship between the gangster brother and the sick and elderly people?
Just question the indifference of this society?
If you want to answer this question, I'm afraid you have to take a closer look at the third act that many people criticize and it is easy to guess after reading the beginning.
is correct.
The third act of "Laifu Hotel" was filmed without any surprises at all.
Even its story frame, scene environment, and image style are all Northeastern-style nostalgia and joy in hardship.
But when the movie faces real difficulties, it is better not to look too far ahead.
It occupies the "hospital back alley", a terrain shadowed by the traditional elderly care and medical systems, but it has failed to dig deep into this problem.
hesitates between comedy and reality.
But why is this?
Perhaps, this is inseparable from the original intention of the film.
Cancer is only side A of the story.
As for its b-side, when we connect the place and era where the story takes place, we will find that what the director really wants to say -
is actually the decadence of the entire Northeastern society. How do you say
?
A key prop
watch.
At the beginning of the film, Li Qingrang was released from prison. The prison guard found his belongings and said to him with an old-fashioned mechanical watch, "This watch no longer moves."
This watch is from 1999. It is the prize that Li Qingrang's father won as an outstanding teacher.
Even if it is broken now, Li Qingrang still wears it on his hand. What does
mean?
Perhaps you can understand that this is proof of Li Qingrang's affection for his father, but thinking of the age and the "mechanical" characteristics, Sir feels even more
This is the last proof of glory for the Northeastern people in that industrial era.
is a pity.
Time has long stood still, and this kind of stagnation also happens to every Northeasterner.
Li Qingrang was released from prison.
He has no ability to learn the "ability" to keep up with the times, and cannot find a job that "advances with the times". He has no choice but to stay in the Laifu Hotel with a group of dying old people.
Who are these old people?
Master Fu’s video tape finally gave us the answer.
in the screen.
Not only the former courtyards, but also chimneys and factories appear. It records not only the warmth of the family, but also the glory of the heavy industry era.
They were all the trendsetters of the times.
now.
They are "cancer patients" and don't even deserve their names. Is
decadent?
is decadent.
What the director wants to say is exactly a group of people who have pressed the stop button on time and are involuntarily depressed.
is.
The way the film solves this decadence is to let Li Qingrang continue to search for "the special meaning of life" to the music of "Real Man" several times. What does
mean?
is actually dignity, which is "to make yourself think highly of yourself."
Reality cannot be changed.
But the problem is, we can’t give up just yet.
Even if "Tiramisu" is understood as "Lamisu" being "carried", if it is given away, it is always an improvement, right?
Even if you are trying to protest against the demolition, you must always find a way to prevent justice in this world from being thrown into the ditch, right?
This is the end of the video.
When Li Qingrang came out of the police station again, the police helped him repair the watch.
"You can't always carry a bad watch, it will lose your face."
Time will not be suspended because of a watch.
people, you have to continue walking with dignity.
is correct. The ending of
does give people a loose, light and incomplete look.
There may be a director's unbearable here.
also has the actual and not .
There is a very heartbreaking scene in the film where Li Qingrang was questioned by the police while drunk on the street. The light of the flashlight shone on his dishonorable face. He cried and begged for mercy, saying:
"I plead guilty, I miss home!"
The father does not accept a stained son, and the screen does not accept a son who faces real problems. s story. So
can only.
Find an emotional and disengaged goal again.
pretends to be reborn with positive energy.
But even so.
sir still wants to recommend it to friends who haven’t seen it. If there are still films scheduled and you have time, you can still take a look. After all,
is different from many theatrical films.
Its failure is not due to poor quality, but a pity in creation.
is more scheming than workmanship.
Those clumsy sincerities will be more lovely, won't they?
Speaking of this, sir remembered a scene in the movie.
Go back in time.
The lens starts from the demolition of Laifu Hotel to Li Qingrang’s release from prison, and goes back to 1999, stopping at the watch that was still brand new at the time.
This is moving.
But we know that this is just a beautiful fantasy.
There is no second chance in life.
watches will not always be new.
But even Lin Zixiang, who is over 70 years old, is still shouting hoarsely without giving up, "Success and failure, try hard, if you are ambitious, you should not be afraid of delay."
Perhaps we can also ask ourselves
What is the reason for being depressed?
after all.
"Death is not terrible. What is terrible is waiting to die."
The pictures in this article come from the Internet
Editorial assistant: Tu Yile
