Xu Zheng is a director who is good at shooting comedies. His new work "Retrograde Life" also has some funny passages. But the overall character of the film is realism.
The character of realism first requires the ability to keenly observe, capture and truly reflect real life, which is inseparable from the exploration of new life phenomena and themes, thus bringing about artistic innovation.
"Retrograde Life" meets this point in two dimensions.
First of all, it pays attention to the phenomenon of middle-aged unemployment - as the mainstay of the family, the unemployment of middle-aged people is often an unbearable burden for the family. In recent years, the world economic downturn has been compounded by the impact of the epidemic, and stories of urban elites losing their jobs are common.
The protagonist of the film, Gao Zhilei, was originally a programmer for an Internet company, and also served as the captain of a team. He has a happy family. He bought a big house in a high-end community a few years ago. His parents opened a small supermarket in the community. He studied art. The wife works as a full-time housewife at home, and the daughter is about to enter an international school.
However, due to mediocre team performance, when the company needed to downsize, he became the first person to be laid off. Although he could get a severance package, his father's sudden stroke and the high monthly mortgage payment became a huge rock weighing on Gao Zhilei. As a last resort, he started a "retrograde life."
Secondly, the film focuses on a new group-delivery workers.
With the rapid development of e-commerce, express delivery has become an important part of solving the last mile of logistics. In recent years, instant food delivery has been developed to meet the fast-paced life needs of urban people. But these delivery guys, who wear eye-catching clothes and ride electric scooters through the streets every day, are closely related to our lives. Where do they come from, why do they engage in this profession, what kind of families do they have, and what kind of life do they live? As ordinary people, , we don’t know much about it.
When Gao Zhilei, an unemployed programmer, encountered age discrimination and submitted a thousand job applications with no results, he had no choice but to work as a delivery boy. In this way, "Retrograde Life" connected these two new social groups and achieved realism. Capture and reflection of real life.
Realism reflects life through typification, especially through the creation of typical characters.
Gao Zhilei has parents and children. He has to support his family and a house. He works overtime at night and catches the subway in the morning. He is a typical middle-aged urban worker. After he was suddenly laid off, he faced an age disadvantage when re-employing, but his family's difficulties increased day by day. This was a typical pain for a large group.
In addition to Gao Zhilei, the film also creates a group portrait of multiple takeaways at a takeout site.
Dahei, who has repeatedly won the title of food delivery king because of his fast cycling, skipping meals, and a map secret - because his food delivery speed has become the standard of the platform algorithm, it has continuously pushed up the degree of involution of delivery workers. For a time, Become the target of public criticism;
There are also people who are extremely stingy. They will use a roll of tape to fix anything that is broken, and even use tape to wrap their legs when they are injured;
There are also young mothers who deliver takeaways with their dolls, and sidemen. The optimistic guy who delivers food while live streaming, Lao Zhang, who is still delivering food at the age of 60, etc.
's colorful group portraits break the audience's stereotype of delivery workers. They come from all over the world and have different backgrounds, but when faced with the difficulties of life, they do not lie down, but work hard.
Shan Wang Dahei worked so hard to compensate for the young colleagues who were injured because of him, Lao Zhilei was so stingy to collect medical expenses for his daughter with leukemia, Gao Zhilei went from being clumsy to using his own advantages to write the novel "Passepartout" The program also has to shoulder the responsibility of supporting the family.
This group of typical characters conveys the spirit of refusing to admit defeat.
Humanistic care is an essential quality for realistic creation. "Retrograde Life" does not rely on dreams of windfalls or spending huge sums of money to show off wealth to create screen illusions, nor does it rely on inciting group antagonisms and deliberately creating dramatic conflicts to please the audience, but on infecting people with its deep humanistic care for grassroots workers. .In the
film, the fiercely competitive internal environment of the food delivery group, the not-so-friendly external environment, traffic accidents that occur from time to time, the special difficulties of individual families, and the huge pressure from individuals to family members after middle-aged people are laid off are all fully explored. exhibit.
But the film does not dramatize suffering or reinforce stereotypes. When Gao Zhilei's wife found out that her husband was unemployed, she did not complain or dislike him. Instead, she immediately re-recruited students to teach drums. She generously included her husband in takeout clothes in the live broadcast room, and they helped each other share joys and sorrows.
His wife's understanding and generosity also allowed Gao Zhilei to "take off Kong Yiji's long gown" and get rid of his previous concept of professional hierarchy. He went from being secretive to bravely walking into his original company and delivering takeaways to his colleagues.
Looking at ordinary workers rather than condescendingly; promoting social progress rather than solidifying social concepts are the most valuable qualities of realist creation.
In fact, under the appeal of public opinion and the influence of art, all aspects of society are paying more and more attention to the delivery workers. For example, platforms have begun to sign formal contracts with delivery workers and purchase necessary insurance; many rest stations have been built in the community. , for delivery workers to rest. The delivery workers themselves are also strengthening their awareness of traffic safety and assuming social responsibilities. News about courier boys who are willing to help and save people are common in the media.
promotes the harmonious progress of society, which is exactly what warm realist works such as "Retrograde Life" want to achieve.
According to reports, in order to shoot this film, the main creator researched more than a dozen express delivery sites and placed the filming location next to the real site to ensure the authenticity of the filming. Including the protagonist Xu Zheng, all the actors skillfully rode electric scooters and shuttled through the city. In some scenes, it was obvious that they were blended into the real flow of city people.
Artists have their own personal lives, but it is the duty of directors and actors to go deep into the story world, understand and experience the lives of characters, and create believable character images, and it is also their professional norm. "Retrograde Life" does this.
Therefore, the so-called "rich people acting poor" and "low-class consumers" and other instigating comments on the Internet have obliterated the serious work attitude and sincere care of art workers, and are really nonsense.
Of course, "Retrograde Life" is not impeccable in terms of art. The repeated use of scenes about a family being sick and the insistence on delivering food after a car crash are all manifestations of insufficient artistic means.
At the end of the story, the "Lulutong" applet written by Gao Zhilei entered the vision of the company's senior management, indicating that he may return to a familiar position and end the transitional period of being a delivery person. How can the entire group of delivery people break through? To unlock their life dreams due to the puzzle of algorithms, it will take a long time for the entire society to work hard.
Author: Liu Haibo
Text: Liu Haibo (Professor of Shanghai Film Academy, Shanghai University, President of Shanghai Film Critics Society) Editor: Xu Luming Editor: Shao Ling
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