When faith is saved by grassroots heroes, our youth movies are flourishing

Introduction:

In recent years, with the expansion of the Chinese film market and the development of new media such as the Internet, film criticism that has been silent for many years has also regained its vitality and has shown the characteristics of "grass-rooted".

From the end of 2008 to the beginning of 2010, various media and movie fans focused on "Certificate of Name", "If You Are the One", "Red Cliff", "Mei Lanfang", "Nanjing Nanjing", "Three Shots Surprise", "The Founding of a Country" Popular films such as ",", "2012", "Avatar" and "Confucius" have set off a round of public opinion debates, and even online "criminal wars" that originally deserted movie criticism have once again become popular areas of popular culture.

The "Renaissance" of the movie poster

film reviews of the "Voting Name Certificate" is characterized by the popularization of online media platforms and the extensive participation of ordinary netizens. This undoubtedly has unique cultural significance, at least reversing the over-authoritative and elitism of traditional film reviews. , And the unified pattern of popular film critics in the background and margins has made film criticism truly return to the folk and return to the public as a public speech space expressing colorful folk wisdom and aesthetic appeals.

11 The trend of the youth series of films

is also because of this trend, which brought a different landscape into the eyes of netizens in August 2010. 10 short films jointly produced by China Film Group and Youku, collectively called "11 degrees" "Youth Series" was officially aired on Youku.com.

These ten short films carefully prepared by ten directors of different ages and styles for the post-70s and post-80s audiences have set off a huge craze among netizens. Some works received one on the first day after uploading. More than tens of thousands of comments can be described as a smash hit, but the reason behind it is thought-provoking.

The directors of these ten short films are Zhang Yaguang, , "The Boxer's Secret", , Yin Lichuan, , "Hey", , Zhuang Yuxin, , "Evening Flowers" , Li Feng , "Journey to the West" Pi San "Miss Puff" "The Goldfish Bowl" Shen Yan "Farewell" Fang Gangliang "Li Lei and Han Meimei" Zhang Yuedong "Aze's Summer" Zhang Yadong "LI" Xiao Yang "Old Boy" .

"Goodbye Jianghu" movie poster

11 degrees The theme of this semi-propositional composition is "the emotional reality and dreams of the post-70s and post-80s". It can be seen from the naked intention to please the current consumer class, but the performances of ten directors are really one. Encyclopedia of flavors.

"Boxer's Secret" is eye-catching with its dreamy polyphonic narrative structure and grotesque jumping editing techniques. "Hey" tries to integrate the love of men and women into a layered structure of expression.

"The Boxer's Secret" movie poster

"Evening Flower" The fifty-seven-year-old self is extremely humorous and warm to face the twenty-something self "East and West Journey" is the Journey to the West The deconstruction of the series and the use of "Miss Puff's Goldfish Bowl" takes another big step forward in the effort to express adult ideals and themes in animation.

The movie poster of "Evening Flowers"

"Farewell" is intertwined with young men and women's longing, fear and hope for the uncertain emotional future. "Li Lei and Han Meimei" uses the sixth-generation perspective and unmodified lens to express the tenderness between the little people.

"Goodbye Jianghu" movie poster

"Aze's Summer" carefully weaves the dream of narrowing the gap between urban and rural areas and how to make the countryside rich. The sci-fi movie "L.I" is permeated with the emotional anxiety of the urban middle class and the aristocratic delicateness and emptiness. "Old Boy" won the invisible crown in the series of movies with the exquisite advertising-style story of mixed sadness and joy and the image of small characters ready to emerge.

"Old Boy" movie poster

What's interesting is that these films are very similar and unique in expression, but in the spirit of the theme, they all seem to tell the exit of heroism and the rise of grassrootsism, which are slightly exaggerated. The opposite of mainstream commercial films presents a warm and stubborn attitude.

, as we all know, "Journey to the West" , which was released in 1996, had a mediocre response in Hong Kong, but it became popular because of pirated discs flowing into the mainland. Young people in mainland China have not come into contact with such novel and interesting joking stories. They do not know that they will face high housing prices and fiercely competitive jobs in 10 or 20 years.

The movie poster of "A Westward Journey"

"A Westward Journey" became popular in the Mainland, thanks to the inspiration of Western postmodernism and deconstructivism on Hong Kong commercial films, and it also provided examples of enlightenment to the deconstructive spirit for the active students at the time.

Nowadays, when they truly experience the inflation and speech expansion brought about by the rapid development of society, their works naturally reflect a kind of spoof spirit of sorrow.

"Journey to the East" once again draws on the innocent Tang Seng four masters and apprentices as an image to reflect on life. The four Journey to the West characters who have walked into real life from comics are difficult to follow in the fast pace of contemporary life. Drifting as a cook, Bajie as a migrant worker, Wukong gangsters, and Tang Seng looking after the warehouse. They relentlessly pursue the eternal philosophical question of "Where do I come from", but at the end of the film they find that they have fallen into the mortal world only because of their creation. Of cartoonists died of illness.

"Journey to the West" movie poster

The interesting thing is that they exist only because the cartoonist wants to chase a girl he likes, and has created so many cartoons for her. Faith in the fall of the gods collapsed, and the significance of learning from the Western Heavens was so worthless. The four masters and apprentices have not been defeated. Why? They represent love, a cartoonist's unswerving love for a girl. I don't know how many times the story of Tang Seng Xitian studying the scriptures can be reread. Perhaps Wu Chengen never expected this explosive effect.

But we can see that the warmth of human nature is portrayed more and more clearly by the four masters and apprentices walking over and over again. Existence itself is so strong and beautiful, which is precious in the fast-paced life of industrialization.

​​A dualistic society

A dualistic society brings a dualistic way of thinking "Li Lei and Han Meimei" and "Aze's Summer" show the friction, attraction and understanding between the children of peasants and urban citizens. .

"Li Lei and Han Meimei" movie poster

There are many similarities between the two films: the acceptance of rural children by urban citizens, the rural origin of urban citizens, the current situation of peasant children’s difficulty in earning a living, and the habits of peasant children bring trouble to urban citizens. And they understand and trust each other, and finally the relationship is reconciled.

However, the difference is that at the end of "Li Lei and Han Meimei" , Li Lei did not find his Han Meimei in the crowd. The look of crying

and not smiling is the same as Jiang Wen in the ending of "Looking for a Gun" . However, Aze used his ox-like diligence to bring citizens and friends back to his hometown to enrich the countryside.

The movie poster of "Looking for a Gun"

intertwined with each other, seeming to tell the current theorem of peasant children, the lack of personal love and the pursuit of money. This theorem is expressed more skillfully and concentratedly in the film "Hey" by . A pair of men and women who drifted northward in the crew gradually developed a good impression, and they agreed that they would become popular in a few years.

"Hey" movie poster

A few years later, the man bought the house as agreed, but the woman was empty and ready to leave. Under the obstacles of reality, could they still be together? The word "hey" condensed the two All the longing and compromise also left unsolved questions for the film.

This is also a problem in the lives of many farmers born in the 70s and 80s who entered the city. Love is so incompatible with reality. They don't care about Keynes's absolute income hypothesis and Davidson's revised income model. The bare numbers in the passbook are the real motivation for life.

So how is love measured, relative to the lack of female images in these three films. Music talent Zhang Yadong's first movie "L.I" explored the love of urban men and women with the theme of science fiction. A high-tech love contract stipulates that both men and women must be loyal to each other. If they cheat, they will be transformed into pets, who will accompany them for life. This seemingly romantic contract pushes both men and women intoThe abyss of loneliness has created countless people living alone with pets in the city. Will we really not fall in love with others? With pets, can we really get spiritual comfort?

Another animation "Miss Puff’s Goldfish Bowl" also discussed similar issues. As a high-income group of beauty, Miss Puff has never talked about true love. The deeper the love, the less freedom. In the end, the excessive pressing made the love of both men and women deteriorate. The two films

seem to expose the common crux of the urban citizen's view of love, how to maintain the purity of love

in a materialistic city. Inflation gives us many unnecessary commodities. They compete with each other and reduce prices again and again. So does love also Has it become cheap? What can continue to guarantee its luxury and preciousness?

The confusion and longing for the city, the desire of the elite and the confession of the elites seem to be parallel to each other's world, which is divided into two factions in several films.

However, this spirit of courage to examine one's own plight is the common flash point of several films. It pierced the scars that were difficult to conceal by the post-70s and post-80s, which made people sober.

​​Germination of moral will

Since the sailing ship of Dagama crossed the Cape of Good Hope, humans isolated from each other began to contact each other, and various value systems continue to conflict, merge in conflict, and develop in fusion. Although

has not reached much consensus on the multi-polar and diverse human value system, it has also achieved some peace in commonality. As a multi-ethnic country, our country has no exception to explore this. Taking Confucianism as an example, "Book of Rites • Li Yun" wrote " a trip to the road, the world is for the public, the selection of talents and capable , Stresses faith and cultivating harmony. Old people do not only kiss their relatives, not only children and their sons, so that the old can have end, the strong can be used, the young can be supported, and the stubborn, widowed, lonely, alone, and disabled can be supported. Divided, women have their own return. The goods are evil and they are abandoned in the ground, do not have to be hidden in themselves, and they do not come from the body, and do not need to be self. Not closed, it is called Great Harmony. "

With the development of the times, today's Neo-Confucianism still does not reject the wonderful ideal of "Great Harmony in the World". However, the premise of "sameness" is that there are "differences". The premise for the germination of universal morality, as we call it, is the difference in various values. It includes both the questioning and deconstruction of past authority and system on the basis of diachronic clues, as well as sharing Questions and reflections on the duality gap between urban and rural values ​​based on time clues.

On this basis, every film extols a kind of similarity in moral values, which we can understand as the germination of universal morality. Universal value is a universal and true value principle that has been highly recognized by people in various human cultural traditions.

It mainly includes two levels of content. One refers to the common or universal value principles and norms needed to safeguard the common interests of all mankind, and the other refers to the various value principles and norms, including the unified cultural traditions. Moral values ​​in the sense of commonality between the various different value systems, including traditional values ​​and modern values.

​​Grassroots culture rises

Under the red curtain of today's China, the post-70s and post-80s have experienced the whole process of the birth and fall of their personal dreams. The thirst for dreams is their common desire, and the experience of failure calls for the germination of universal morality. The films "Old Boy", "The Boxer's Secret", and "Xihua Chaoxi" all discuss the relationship between belief and dream to varying degrees, and the troubles of the characters in these films are precisely the difference between people. Crisis of confidence between.

"Evening Flowers" movie poster introduction

"Old Boy" In Xiao Dabao and Wang Xiaoshuai, their dreams were cut off by Bao Xiaobai. The role of Bao Xiaobai represents the cowardly and ugly part of human nature, but also Tears shed in the song at the end of the film. "The Boxer's Secret" is a fight between the boxer and himself. He doesn't believe in this ugly world. The boxer chooses to look at it with the eyes of his soul. He found some good things that he had never felt before, but was blinded by it.

"Old Boy" movie poster

"Evening Flowers" , the young man Wang Kai meets his 57-year-old himself unexpectedly. He throws his life's problems into the elderly to solve them, in order to eliminate this moment. Anxiety and anxiety, but in the end he did not get a clear answer.

these three videosWhat they have in common is that they break away from the impetuousness of the juvenile and wash away all the youth born in the 70s and 80s in a process of memory. They only leave us with the beautiful words of trust, struggle and persistence, calling them over and over again. These most basic ethics.

But behind this call, we cannot help but see their lack of faith. An important hidden clue in "Old Boy" is the life experience of Michael Jackson, a so-called superstar who influenced the life trajectory of the two protagonists in the film.

"Old Boy" movie poster

Because imitating Michael who just became popular, Xiao Dabao and Wang Xiaoshuai found the spiritual sustenance of adolescence, but also because of Michael's scandal, their dream of entering art school was ruthlessly shattered and fell into an ordinary life. , Everyday mediocrity and Michael's death rekindled their pursuit of youth dreams and participated in the selection of happy male voices. The

boy has his old dreams, and we are pleasantly surprised to see that blindly following idols has evolved into persistence and affirmation of their own lives. The three films ended with a non-tragic ending, an optimistic summary of life, and a new universal moral code with a lifetime of enthusiasm, tolerance, trust, and persistence.

When creation and criticism are in conflict, criticism does not have natural legitimacy and moral advantages. Especially since

lacks the necessary academic preparation and cultural self-discipline, its legitimacy should be subject to reflection and questioning.

​​People-friendly film development

Today's rapid social development also promotes the vigorous development of the film industry, but the film works created every year also expose a huge gap between white-collar workers, elites and grassroots audiences. If

compares these audiences with different tastes to vegetarians and meat eaters, the crux of the problem is not who has more reasonable and dominant tastes, but that they don’t have more choices and have to squeeze in. Eat in a pot.

This is one of the embarrassments and difficulties faced by the Chinese film market. Most of the commercial theaters in China are concentrated in a few large and medium-sized cities. The majority of small and medium-sized cities are still in a situation where there are no movies to watch. The film type structure is still relatively simple and the market is developing. The degree is far from sufficient to form a segmented market.

Today's film industry "The Wind" movie poster

due to differences in viewing tastes, cultural conflicts between different regions and different classes will continue for a long time, and the formation of a segmented market pattern will take time. In this case, audiences of different cultures and classes also need to be more patient and tolerant towards domestic film newspapers, and watch movies with a rational and fair attitude.

Healthy and constructive film criticism should maintain a benign two-way interaction between film production and film public opinion, criticism order and market norms.

Today’s film industry "You are a teenager" movie poster

should take the initiative to create a relaxed and harmonious public opinion environment for the construction of contemporary Chinese culture and the sustainable development of the film industry. Although maintaining the autonomy of discourse is always the natural right of critics, genuine well-intentioned criticism never evades the initiative to seek consensus with opponents, and seek common ground while reserving differences.

In fact, no matter how complex and changeable the reality of current film criticism is, no matter how different the cultural positions and attitudes of different critics are, there is still an open space for consensus to be reached through dialogue in jointly safeguarding the sound development of the Chinese film industry. .

Grassroots films and grassroots film reviews both focus on the grassroots. Nowadays, the films are more grounded. They are not something that the original directors could touch, and film evaluation is no longer controlled by the mainstream media. The development of emerging media has made everything that were once unattainable become civilians.

We cannot hardly see how tenacious and unyielding the grassroots spirit is. Grassroots doubts everything, but uses everything to explain itself. Grassroots has no faith, but it has to compromise with a society that pretends to believe. Grassroots has dreams, but they dare to survive tenaciously in a world without dreams.

All in all, grassrootsism is the beginning of the 21st century with a well-developed civic culture. In the absence of universal beliefs, the Chinese questioned authority and money worship, while striving to explore the germination of universal morality, in order to pursue the spirit of realizing individual dreams. .