It’s time for the strange love column every Sunday again.
A few days ago, Uncle Yu told everyone that a movie has disappeared.
The movie is called "Stone Gate" and the directors are a couple: Huang Ji and Otsuka Ryuji.
Most of the entire movie was shot with just the two of them.
The couple is responsible for almost all types of work such as screenwriting, photography, lighting, and art.
It is under such simple conditions that they persevere in making one movie after another, even if they are hidden, they will continue.
As early as 2017, "Stupid Bird" filmed by the two has already rushed out of the country.
won the "Special Jury Award" in the New Generation Competition at the Berlin Film Festival, becoming the only mainland film to win this award.
However, not to mention that this movie has been released, it is completely silent.
later went online to foreign streaming media, and only then did some people know of its existence.
Compared with the director's new work, its scale is not bad at all.
And it's more vigorous and spicy.
directly brings to light topics such as child brides, school bullying, underage rape and murder, etc. that are difficult to talk about in the mainland.
So in today's column, let's talk about this movie -
"Stupid Bird"
This movie has many similarities with "Stone Gate".
all talk about the plight of women from biology to social structure.
The protagonist is also a girl named Lin Sen. The actor played by
is also the same, Yao Honggui.
poster also has the meaning of "the same".
More importantly, the two are equally straightforward and bold in their shooting techniques, picture styles and narrative methods.
However, the "Stupid Bird" 6 years ago was more rough and wild.
At this time, Lin Sen was still a sophomore in high school.
Adolescent girls are more or less sexually aroused.
Even if I can only wear a large and ugly school uniform every day, I will still wear red underwear and slim-fitting jeans underneath.
Lin Sen is more mature than girls his age.
She had long tried to feel what pleasure was through the vibration of her phone.
After all, Lin Sen entered the adult world earlier.
In the damp, cold and shabby hotel, Lin Sen was lying on the quilt and said to the boy in school uniform in the bathroom:
Do you still dare to do it?
She took off her pants under the quilt and threw them towards the boy.
Then continue to use language to stimulate the other party:
You just know how to blow, and if you have the guts, rape me.
Adolescent boys can't get excited and start directly without saying anything.
But the whole process was very unpleasant.
The boy also disliked Lin Sen because she didn't bleed.
Indeed, this may not be Lin Sen’s first sexual experience. Why is
"possible"?
Lin Sen's life is quite special. She is a left-behind child.
My mother works outside, and she lives with her grandfather and grandmother.
The boring high school life and the days without parental supervision made Lin Sen a bit "bad".
She has a good friend named Meizi who goes to a nearby high school.
The two often ran away from home and stayed in Internet cafes all night.
Meizi's mobile phone was taken away by her adoptive mother, so Lin Sen went to steal other mobile phones confiscated by the teacher and gave them to her.
The two found large-scale photos in their mobile phones and used them as a gimmick to sell the phones.
Afterwards, Meizi, who tasted the sweetness, encouraged Lin Sen to continue stealing mobile phones and selling them for money.
After they earn money, they go to the barber shop to get their hair done.
also drank with the hairstylist.
High school girls are easily drunk by these social veterans.
The unconscious Lin Sen originally slept with Mei Zi.
But was soon picked up by a man.
Another man also walked into Meizi's room and closed the door.
On the second day, except for Lin Sen's hair being a little messy, it seemed like nothing had happened.
So, has Lin Sen been raped?
We don't know.
But with a drunk high school girl and an adult man with evil intentions, it's hard not to guess something.
More importantly, after this day, the plum disappeared.
The two met again, but they were separated by yin and yang.
The movie actually has two story lines: light and dark.
The bright line is the restless youth life of "bad boy" Lin Sen and his friend Mei Zi.
Hidden under the hood is a suspenseful story about a rape and murder that occurred in a high school.
Originally the latter was just like a background, just a piece of news.
But Meizi’s death connected these two lines.
Because the rape and murder occurred in Meizi's high school.
Then, a question began to linger in Lin Sen's mind -
How did Meizi die?
At Meizi's funeral, someone gave an answer.
Several experienced priests who came to do the ritual chatted that Meizi committed suicide.
Collinson doesn't think so.
During the period when Meizi disappeared, there was not always no news.
She once sent a text message to Lin Sen asking to borrow 500 yuan.
Lin Sen saw advertising photos about the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases on Mei Zi's mobile phone.
All this made Lin Sen believe that the hairstylist who raped Meizi was a murderer.
He raped Meizi, made her sick and then killed her.
At the same time, Lin Sen also suspected that this person was also the murderer of the high school rape and murder case.
But what about the facts?
The murderer of the rape and murder case was finally caught, but he was not the person Lin Sen thought.
As for the barber, she never saw Meizi again after that night, and even forgot who she was.
Rape is real, and sexually transmitted diseases may also be real.
But what really puts Mei Zi on the road to desperation is her life.
Meizi’s parents are actually not as simple as adoptive parents.
Mei Zi was bought by them as a child bride for their son with cerebral palsy.
My adopted daughter was adopted and married.
She doesn't want to marry him, that boy has cerebral palsy.
And she may not want to live anymore. She feels that her parents don't care about her.
Meizi's daily life mainly consists of taking care of this so-called younger brother.
The false compliments she heard from the hairdresser were already one of the few good things in her life.
Unexpectedly, in the end, it was just a hand pushing her into deeper darkness.
Mei Zi was forced to go to a dead end, and Lin Sen was no luckier.
As a left-behind child, she never had a normal family education.
After entering adolescence, I never had any private space.
Grandpa is obsessed with medical fraud.
Grandma didn't treat her as an individual at all.
The naughty little cousins only think about how to tease her every day.
But when he arrived at school, what awaited Lin Sen was not a space to breathe, but terrible bullying.
There were several female students in the class. When they saw her hairstyle changed, they pulled her to a remote place and stuffed chicken butts into her mouth.
took off her pants again and tried to stuff something into her lower body.
With such a living environment inside and outside, it is not difficult to understand why Lin Sen would rather sleep in an Internet cafe than go home or go to school.
Sometimes when mother comes back, Lin Sen tells her that her stomach hurts.
After examination, it was found that the pain may have been caused by penetrative behavior.
The mother neither asked her daughter what happened nor gave her the correct guidance.
just looked at her without saying a word, and said "Don't be a bad example" when leaving, and there was nothing else.
As for my boyfriend, he only thinks about how to satisfy himself with Lin Sen every day.
After discovering that Lin Sen was not bleeding, he humiliated and abandoned her.
Lin Sen has never been a mature woman.
After being violently treated, she had no choice but to endure the pain, feel aggrieved and sad.
After all, Lin Sen is just a child who was pushed by the environment and grew up in a muddle-headed way.
What is discussed in "Stupid Bird" is by no means an ordinary topic of female growth.
As a left-behind child, Lin Sen faces a much crueler environment than girls in the city.
Just in terms of social environment, they are completely different.
Compared with the orderly city, the small town where Lin Sen lives is chaotic and disorderly.
It is extremely common for men, women and children to gather around a makeshift stage and watch sideline performances.
Although there are still elderly people taking care of them at home, the older generations with pedantic ideas are not always reasonable.
When it was revealed that Lin Sen had stolen the mobile phone, her grandmother was so angry that she beat her.
However, my grandfather did not want this incident to affect his ability to become the star of the "Health Club".
In such an environment, how can we not worry about Lin Sen's growth?
Like "Stone Gate", this film is also a reflection of Huang Ji's self.
Almost all the main characters are people Huang Ji knows well in real life.
Like Lin Sen’s class teacher, she was her high school class teacher, and also the class teacher of the starring role of Yao Honggui.
The grandfather in the play is Huang Ji's grandfather.
It is precisely this kind of cast composed of non-professionals, coupled with loose documentary-style shooting, that makes many people feel that the story of "Stupid Bird" is very "scattered". It seems that the things to be discussed in
are not "connected in series", but "connected in parallel".
But in my opinion, it is the sense of reality brought by this "dispersion" that is the most shocking.
Just like in the movie, except for the rapist and murderer, no accurate answers are given to other questions.
How did Meizi die?
Was Lin Sen raped?
How was the matter of Lin Sen stealing the mobile phone resolved in the end?
and what will life be like after Lin Sen?
None of us know.
Because these questions themselves don't have a specific answer.
Just like the image of towers always appears in movies.
Meizi also jumped from the tower.
(She) just jumped off the tower.
What continues to bring oppression and harm to these girls has never been a specific thing or person.
Instead, various problems are stacked on top of each other like a tower.
Someone once asked Huang Ji:
What is the purpose of this story?
Huang Ji said that he never wanted to inquire, but only recorded the truth.
Because the power of reality is always as heavy as a thousand stones.
There is a scene in the movie that impressed me deeply.
After learning that Mei Zi died, Lin Sen rode his bicycle along the dim and dim streets without a clue.
She is like a stupid bird, she can only bite the bullet and fly first.
But after all, there is no such thing as "the stupid bird flies first".
These kids could do without being "stupid".
It's not just that the social environment makes them "stupid" and at the same time forces them to fly quickly.
The full text is complete.
Assistant Editor: Wanda Thomas