"Crispy young man" Wu Di (played by Hu Ge ) suffered a setback in his career in a big city. He returned to his hometown to restart his life. By chance, he reunited with the former "class beauty" Feng Liuliu (played by Gao Yuanyuan)... It seemed like a simple escape from the big city. The story of returning home, but it is difficult for the audience to guess its ending.
's currently showing movie " stop and go " is director Long Fei's first theatrical feature film. As a low-budget comedy with distinct regional characteristics, "Stop and Go" was dubbed by many as the "Sichuan and Chongqing version of "The Myth of Love" after its premiere at the Beijing Film Festival."
Long Fei himself defines it as a "life flow comedy" - it is all about the trivial things in life. There is no ups and downs in the plot narrative, and there is no ultimate emotional explosion. He heals people's hearts with stories of laughter and tears.
一
The story begins when the older young man Wu Di ends his career as a drifter in Beijing. Wu Di, who was working as a screenwriter, was frustrated both at work and in love, so he decided to return to his hometown in Sichuan. His sudden return to his hometown caught his parents by surprise and broke the family's originally peaceful life.
The father who had never begged for help in his life shamelessly found a stable new job for his son. He wanted to pretend to be the head of the family and give a "speech" at the dining table. However, Wu Di said that he had turned down the job and was so angry. Dad picked up the wine glass at hand and threw it at Wu Di. The younger sister also complained about her brother, "It's a matter of endurance. Men can't last long in anything they do."
Among the family, only the mother knows what Wu Di is thinking best, because her son is the same as she was when she was young, loving literature and art and wanting to do something. creation.
Wu Di, who was unemployed at home, had to bow to life. He took to the streets to receive free eggs from his uncle and aunt, and happened to meet Feng Liuliu, his former classmate who worked in a TV station.
Feng Liuliu saw a certain representativeness in Wu Di. She suggested that Wu Di make the script " is like an old friend coming to " into a movie, and she filmed the process of him making the movie in a documentary way to explore those reasons. The inner thoughts of young people who have returned to their hometowns in first-tier cities and the difficulties they face.
Wu Di, who was at the end of his rope, nodded and agreed, and the wonderful scenes within the scenes began...
"Returning Youth" Wu Di did not appear suddenly. In 2017, the family comedy "The Sofa Sleeper", a collaboration between director Long Fei and screenwriter Huang Jia, was screened on the video platform. The film revolves around the experience of the lonely young man Su Yike, showing the difficulties faced by young people and their gradual growth. Long Fei found that the audience liked this type of film very much, so he decided to make a film with Huang Jia with a larger format, more laughs, and an overall more mature film, so "Stop and Go" was born.
Although it touches on social hot spots such as "Escape from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou", "Stop and Go" does not deliberately intensify contradictions and sell anxiety like many current film and television works that advance issues, but instead handles "Stop and Go" in a relaxed and humorous way. Realistic issues such as "looking for a job" or "looking for yourself" and "the company does not recruit people over the age of 35" avoid heaviness and depression.
Wu Di’s state is actually the state of many young people today. In terms of current popular concepts, Wu Di should be regarded as a "light person". Although he was rejected by the city and was not recognized in his hometown, his life was in trouble and he once drove a taxi. In the eyes of Liu Zhengyi, the leader of Feng Liuliu, he was a loser with "no self-awareness". But in this gap between "unable to roll up" and "unable to lie flat", Wu Di behaved casually and peacefully. He was not anxious or depressed due to the pressure of reality. He neither complained about the environment nor denied himself. Stable and self-consistent.
Regarding this role, Long Fei said that they wanted to write about the life of an ordinary person, "Sometimes the power of a very small ordinary person is limited. When there are dissatisfaction and setbacks in life, then you can only stop." "Pausing is an opportunity for us to think about our original choice. Why did we choose this path? After thinking clearly, you can start again and continue walking, "it's the so-called 'stop and go'".
二
After "Stop and Go" was released, many viewers compared it with "The Myth of Love", and some viewers called it the Sichuan and Chongqing version of "The Myth of Love". In addition to the fact that both films are produced by Matt Film and Television, more importantly, they are both low-cost comedies with obvious regional flavor.
However, in terms of regional color, the "Shanghai attribute" of "The Myth of Love" is obviously stronger. It is a story that can only happen in Shanghai. The story of "Stop and Go" takes place in the virtual "Jianggong City" - the filming location of the film, collectively known as Neijiang and Zigong, Sichuan.
In fact, there is a certain degree of chance in choosing Sichuan. Long Fei said that he originally wanted to shoot at the beach. If young people return to their hometowns from big cities and return to the beach, there will be a visual contrast. After discussion, the crew decided that it would be more down-to-earth to use dialect when filming Wu Di back in his hometown. Since Long Fei was from Chongqing, he selected the Sichuan and Chongqing areas as the filming location. The art director first went to Neijiang to have a look. When he arrived, he felt that it was right. The streets of the ancient city are shaded by willow trees and have mottled light and shadow, which is very suitable for filming movies. The crew also found bougainvillea climbing all over the wall on a street in Zigong, where the classic scene of Wu Di and Feng Liuliu walking in the movie was filmed.
Although it is not a "predetermined" Sichuan story, the director, who is from Chongqing, did well present the innate sense of relaxation from Sichuan and Chongqing people in the film.
The audience can see many light and small fragments of life in the film. For example, Wu Di would press the remote control with his foot when he returned home; when arguing with his parents, he would always hold a teapot or a small fan...
Faced with Wu Di's decision to return home for development, the family took turns to comment. Father Wu Mingfa (played by Zhou Yemang) attacked his son: "Wherever it is gold, it is gold, and wherever it is shit, it is shit." Mother Jiang Meiling (played by Yue Hong) added: "What you lack is your strength."
In Long Fei's view, this sense of relaxation in daily life not only gives the film a comic color, but also makes the movie-watching process relaxed and enjoyable. More importantly, this sense of relaxation is exactly in line with the concept that the film wants to convey. "The sense of relaxation that I understand may mean that it doesn't matter. Most people in Sichuan and Chongqing can let it go no matter what happens, and accept the good and bad in life calmly." - As Wu Di's mother repeatedly emphasized, "Life cannot be like this It's good as you imagine, but it won't be as bad as you imagined."
三
In the film, at Feng Liuliu's suggestion, Wu Di decided to try to film his own script into a film with the style of Yasujiro Ozu. In fact, the entire film "Stop and Go" is also full of Ozu Yasujiro's feeling: focusing the camera on the interior of the family, presenting trivial life details in a seemingly calm way, delicate and delicate It perfectly presents the subtleties of conflict and harmony in Eastern/Chinese-style families.
The family would sit around the dining table and discuss various daily chores while eating.
Brothers and sisters will habitually bicker and hurt each other.
The stingy father would secretly hide private money, but the mother, who controlled the family's economic lifeline, knew it all and turned a blind eye.
They have been a model couple all their lives, but they also have their own "spiritual cheating partner" who they can't tell but can't explain.
Director Long Fei said, "The flow of life is often that you don't know what will happen next. For example, Wu Di returned to his hometown and couldn't find a job after losing his job. Unexpectedly, he started making movies again, but the movie was not finished..." Days We live so peacefully, even if we are born, old, sick or die, the manifestation is just the subtle vibration of the massage chair that is not easy to detect.
In addition to Ozu in the movie, attentive viewers discovered that Wu Di’s English name is woody, which is a tribute to Woody Allen. There is also a Woody Allen movie poster next to Wu Di’s bed. Long Fei also revealed that the screenwriter is actually a fan of Woody Allen, so there will be many small details in the film that reflect Woody Allen's temperament.
Perhaps it is these intentional or unintentional influences that make "Stop and Go" a very rare and unique type of life-style light comedy in current domestic films. It is difficult to make a movie like
. It requires the creator to have enough rich life experience, with a high degree of observation and sensitive capturing ability, starting from the details of life to dig out those inadvertent little humors. At the same time, it needs to be real and grounded enough to allow the audience to resonate with the characters' lives.
Long Fei said that many details in the film come from real-life fragments, such as the "hairline" discussed in the film, Wu Di doing the splits when he was a child, and throwing his neighbor's shoes into the trash can. These weird things These are all things he has experienced.
"Stop and Go" won three "Tiantan Awards" for Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress at this year's Beijing International Film Festival, becoming the well-deserved winner. After the film was released, it received a good reputation, with a Douban score of 7.9. It is a rare and refreshing domestic film this year. But it is a pity that this "Sichuan and Chongqing Version of Love Myth" failed to repeat the miracle of "Love Myth"'s box office and word-of-mouth win-win. As of the end of the Dragon Boat Festival, "Stop and Go" has been released for 3 days, and the cumulative box office has only collected 51 million+, which is regrettably last among the new films in the schedule. The overall sluggishness of
's market, the failure of marketing to fully reach the audience, and the insufficient exploration of regional characteristics prevented it from gaining widespread resonance with local audiences like "The Myth of Love"... These are all reasons. But perhaps the most critical thing is the "meta-cinema" narrative adopted in the film and its authoriality that is difficult to digest. Just like Wu Di in the film, "He always wanted to do something in the style of Ozu Yasujiro, but there is no market for this kind of thing."
can't help but say it's a bit regretful.
Red Star News reporter Zhang Shihao editor Li Jie
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