◎Dong Ming
The backbone of Dong Ming's business suddenly lost his job. It is difficult for people to find jobs in middle age. His children go to school and the elderly see a doctor. He has a monthly mortgage payment of 15,000. He has no choice but to deliver food...In the movie " Retrograde Life ", Gao Zhilei, played by Xu Zheng, is the epitome of millions of his peers, burdened with ubiquitous anxiety, and the so-called middle-class elites turn out to be so fragile and vulnerable.
Consumables from large factories that cannot help themselves
Compared with " I am not the god of medicine ", which also starred Xu Zheng, the characters in "Retrograde Life" are not special groups such as patients and family members. The identities of employees of large factories are more ordinary. , and its experiences are more resonant. "Have you heard that Lao Gao has been laid off and can only deliver food?!" Imagine this tone, as if you are talking about an acquaintance in your circle of friends. When you hear it, you will sigh with emotion, and you will have more. " The desolation of "the death of a rabbit and the sorrow of a fox". After all, such an encounter may happen to you one day. This kind of empathy is exactly what is necessary for realistic works.
In the eyes of outsiders, Gao Zhilei is a standard middle-class person in first-tier cities, graduating from a prestigious school, working in a large factory, and having a harmonious family... But this beautiful and stable life was shattered by the ruthless reality soon after the film opened. The strength of large companies lies in the fact that they do not care about individual feelings when laying off employees. Instead, they will cleverly create names, just like the absurd-sounding "Guangjin Plan" in the movie "The Annual Party Can't Stop", and most of the laid off people can only bow their heads and accept it. Just leave with the cardboard box.
is the first dramatic climax of the film. As the business team leader, Gao Zhilei’s only resistance to the layoff conversation was to smash the glass wall with a chair. The p7 level he had worked so hard to achieve did not bring him much protection. Even the statutory n+1 compensation has been cut in half. If "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop" still retains a bit of idealistic self-verification and self-rescue and the "incense love" that wins the pity of big leaders, then the big factories in "Retrograde Life" are downright cold and ruthless. Laying off those old employees who have high wages, are old and cannot work hard is the KPI (performance indicator) of personnel. Old employees are like consumables on the production line. After a batch is used up, young people will naturally replace them with new ones. Come up. In the
film, the pressure of competition within a large factory is so great that the survivors have no time to pity others, and those who are laid off can only find their own way out, highlighting the insignificance and helplessness of individuals. After Gao Zhilei left the company, he returned to the office twice as a delivery boy. The first time he was embarrassed for fear of meeting an acquaintance, but the second time he calmly delivered the food. At this time, the person who was roaring and crying in the conference room was his replacement. His young team leader. Only then did Gao Zhilei break away from the false reputation of "middle-class elite" and observe the group he once belonged to with a calm and joking look - whether it is a p7 supervisor or a senior programmer, in the final analysis, he is just a "proletarian". In the event of an accident, health, real estate, and children's education, these seemingly reliable but overdrafted things in advance, are enough to crush them in a short time, and they are not even as free as the fish that struggled to jump into the Suzhou River.
The affectionate take-out knight
Gao Zhilei, who is not young, is no longer in good health, and has failed to find a job, did not wake up to life until halfway through the film, and fully understood that he was destined to be a "worker", but on the contrary, he had looked down upon him before The delivery rider became a straw in his low life. Delivery workers and programmers seem to be in different "parallel worlds", and they only intersect when delivering and picking up food. However, as the plot deepens, the audience will find that these two professions actually have many similarities, and even It can be said that they are "mirrors of each other", with hidden cause and effect, and Gao Zhilei became the "intruder" who bridged these two identities.
Despite the low threshold for delivery workers, it is not friendly to "newcomers" like Gao Zhilei. Whether it was his familiarity with takeout routes or his communication skills with takeout restaurants and ordering users, Lao Gao once couldn't find his direction, so there was a scene of "dangerous hands destroying flowers" in the alley. The food delivery industry earns hard-earned money. In addition to having to "retrograde" in heavy rains and scorching heat, they will also encounter various difficulties and grievances, and traffic accidents are also common.There were three or four car accidents in the film. As for the various inexplicable bad reviews, timeouts, account bans and fines, they "ravaged" Lao Gao's body and mind all the time.
Xu Zheng's past grassroots screen image helps this character gain sympathy, and the more reasonable his wife is, his daughter is well-behaved and sensible, and his parents endure hardships, the more "sadistic" Lao Gao's feelings are highlighted. It cannot be said that these plots are sensational. After all, many delivery people have experienced similar experiences. The details come from real life. The audience can't help but reflect on whether they have been too harsh on the delivery people. Thinking of the hot news of "delivery workers kneeling down" in recent days, how to protect the most basic rights and interests of this group has attracted social attention.
Compared with the indifference of people in big factories, "Retrograde Life" deliberately makes the group of delivery workers more warm and full-bodied, whether it is the young man who brought the boss into the industry, the big black who never transfers orders, or the one-pointer. The old man who is reluctant to spend money and the webmaster who "position determines his ideas" all appear to be affectionate. In this section of climbing up from the trough, the shadow of "I'm Not the God of Medicine" can be vaguely seen. In urban villages, barbecue stalls and other grassroots environments, there are sufficient reasons for the people at the bottom to desperately make money. If it weren't for paying for medical expenses and high monthly mortgage payments, Gao Zhilei would not have experienced this "retrograde" life. It was precisely through these hardships that he also extended a helping hand to injured workers and mothers and children who were caught in the rain. , when he said the phrase "You have worked hard enough" again, he felt helpless and encouraged himself, and also won the respect of the audience. The ubiquitous algorithmic curse of
is similar to that of
workers. Whether it's a programmer typing on the keyboard in an office building or a delivery boy on the street, they are all experiencing the reality of "taking others and themselves too". The too realistic background and the small details that are too real make the film more interesting. Those comedy scenes make people "laughable" and are considered "black humor" at best. The most ironic thing in the
video is that Gao Zhilei's "programming skills" and the "algorithm" he once believed in have become a magic weapon for large factories and platforms to "beat" workers, especially when he fell to the ground and couldn't get up. At that time, he was also asked by the system to pass the smile test. This completely exceeded the scope of comedy and became a curse that sent chills down the back.
And this absurd setting is due to the algorithm, and the algorithm has become Gao Zhilei's "fate" throughout the film. In a large factory, Gao Zhilei wrote an algorithm to optimize layoffs, and finally used it on himself; as a delivery boy, he developed the "Passport" app, trying to improve efficiency by optimizing delivery routes, and wanted to "use magic" Defeat the Magic” may well backfire in the end. As a top student who graduated from Tongji University, even in the position of rider, he can still exert his subjective initiative, use his professional learning and many years of experience to "benefit" his peers... This seems to be a very inspiring story, if you put it into a simple pursuit. In the economics of profit, it may not be so beautiful. When capital discovers that technological innovation can improve production efficiency, they will not hesitate to raise assessment standards, lay off employees to increase efficiency, and use new algorithms to extract more profits.
Gao Zhilei’s original intention was to provide convenience for riders. “Single King” Dahei even contributed his own “cheats (local algorithm)”. In fact, in Dahei, the film has already touched upon the cruelty of the algorithm: Although he ranks first every month, he has also raised the computing standards of the platform, making it difficult for other colleagues to saturate their workload, causing both parties to fall out and even move. Get started. This is exactly the same as what happens to programmers. Large companies are also using algorithms to involute employees, thereby improving performance, eliminating the elderly, and seeking to maximize profits. At the end of the film, the "Passepartout" app that the old programmer and new deliveryman Lao Gao finally completed was chosen by the platform boss. If this algorithm is "recruited", what will be waiting for the riders?
The statement that "algorithms are inherently neutral and technology is inherently innocent" is not convincing in today's world. Otherwise, why would there be so many practitioners worried about the rapid advancement of AI? Even Hollywood went on strike for more than half a year to defend itself.What is the real conflict between food delivery riders and between riders and platforms? Is it algorithms or people? "Retrograde Life" has actually touched the edge, but it was easily transformed by the main creator into Lao Gao's inspirational story, which ignited in the intense "last-minute game". Although the second half of the film is handled in such a way as to avoid the "core", fortunately it does not stop at the passion, but returns to reality-the monthly reward of several thousand yuan for winning the championship is not enough to maintain the Gao family. Due to the mortgage loan, they had no choice but to sell their big house and move into a cheaper old community. This is the reality of class decline, and all this man can grasp is the mentality of "peace is blessing, contentment and happiness". After all, a family smiling at life neatly is the simple pursuit of the delivery guys on the movie poster.
