Written | stars in the deep sea
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When it comes to Jigong, more people subconsciously think of the "Jigong" series played by Grandpa You Benchang, when the TV station always rotated, but it had a taste of not getting tired of watching.
As a big IP that looked very dazzling in that era at that time, such a figure of a monk who was not jealous of wine and meat, crazy and crazy, what was implied behind it was actually a cultural brand from the old era.
The work I want to share today appears in our sight earlier than the image of You Benchang, and it is also a more imaginative animation image than the perspective of a real person, but there is a kind of illusion between the two.
Released in 1959, "JigongDou Cricket", is a color paper-cut animation short film, for the value of the appreciation of paper-cut pieces, I once made a detailed introduction in the article: "Mr. Nanguo" "Behind the charm of paper-cut animation, it also shows a clear irony", and for this animation, the most special place is still in its narrative angle.
So I will start mainly from its narrative aspect, talking about the social conflict that evolved from class conflict to social conflict in the context of that time, and the distinctive characteristics of the times behind it. The final part will be an appreciation of the overall artistic value of the work.
Mythology and stories have always occupied a very important position in our traditional culture, as a kind of folk literature, it represents the struggle of ancient peoples for the natural world and the pursuit of ideals, which is itself a metaphorical cultural symbol.
In folk narratives, this desire to "send gods from heaven to save people from suffering" is the most common method used in many literary works.
Folk narratives
So let's look at the presentation of the whole short film, the story is about a carpenter who accidentally lost the crickets raised by his master, so he was claimed a thousand taels of silver, and he could only commit suicide by throwing himself into the river, but was saved by the passing Jigong and helped him resolve the crisis.
This section is characterized by a distinct folk narrative, the contradiction between the people at the bottom and the bully, in order to put forward its central thesis "how can a cricket be worth more than a human life".
When we appreciate the value of literary works, we usually put forward a concept of "people's nature", whether it stands on the position of the broad masses of the people and shows real life.
Therefore, for a mythological story with distinct characteristics of the times, whether it can show that "universality" and "penetration" is particularly important.
In the short film, the carpenter once said that "the money a rich family buys a cricket is our income for several years", pointing out that the root cause of this contradiction and conflict is because of the gap, and it is precisely because of this conflict that the key word of the whole story is "class".
The difference in values caused by the gap between the rich and the poor represents the conflict between the working people and the exploiting classes in that era.
Official narrative
Combined with the more rigorous official narrative, the short film forms a contradiction between the workers' and peasants' class and the landlord class, and it is actually the political metaphor of "the people at the bottom are in charge".
This is also the label that the film and television works of that era are easy to carry, such as the animated feature film "Nezha Noisy Sea" produced after experiencing the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution period, which is a very obvious representative, and the final tragedy of the four evil dragons is not a metaphor for the final ending of the Gang of Four?
Ji Gong did the same, "Walk around, swim around, dashing, I have no worries and no worries." Glory and wealth never love, a torn dress is happy. Heaven and earth, north and south, through the mountains and mountains, where there is an uneven affair, I Jigong will swim wherever. ”
The motif of punishing evil and promoting good has a sense of atonement in essence, and the character image of Ji Gong is too rich. It is both a man of divine power and a man who is not trapped by the world.
We all know that Buddhism pays attention to the crossing of sentient beings, but JiGong is a person who has never been taboo to eat meat and drink wine, and it is also the opposite of our traditional sense of enlightened monks, but what he interprets is precisely in the contrast of this state of madness, the image of Pudu sentient beings is more prominent.
And for the official narrative, he has always been serious about decency, why is he willing to present such an image? This has to be combined with the social context of the time.
Dramatic conflict in the context of the times.
For this dramatic conflict, what the times need is a person who can break the feudal shackles and dare to fight against the entire era, so as to achieve a purpose of salvation.
Therefore, for the antagonism portrayed in the story, it is necessary to first understand the background of the times at that time, and China in 1959 was completely completed after the "three major transformations", so the "working people" were destined to be a very important part of the time.
Finally completely free from the exploitation of the landlord class, everything is thriving, the release of "all men are equal" is particularly fierce, but at the same time gave birth to an extreme perspective.
For example, the comparison of this value, the rich man spends a lot of money to buy crickets, but he is lost by the carpenter, his embarrassment seems to be excessive, but in the end, the loss of the rich man is even greater.
When we recognize all the content presented in the short film, we actually recognize that his behavior as a carpenter is "reasonable", but it is clear that the difference in ideas under the class gap represented by this behavior is not correct.
So innuendo to our current society, is also the same existence, and quite solidified of a problem, to take a simplest example, under the ecology of the entertainment industry, many people are convinced that it is easy to make money as a star, so whenever a disaster comes, the details of the star's donation have become the object of discussion of many people, and even countless people have come forward to denounce their lack of money.
This kind of self-righteous justice, which can also be seen in this short film, can never change the fact that classes solidify objective existence, and cannot change anything except highlighting the ugly selfishness of human nature.
So the direction that the short film really wants to express is not to zero everything, but how to balance it all.
The values of the times behind social sentiments.
The ever-changing nature of the world will eventually shape different values in different social environments, and the meaning represented by the Living Buddha Jigong is not traditional preaching, but a kind of wisdom that is wise and foolish.
He was a "variable" of the society at that time, but it was precisely because of his existence that the integration of an old society with the new era became more rational. If we look at the right and wrong presented in the whole short film from an objective point of view, we will find that the rich man represents never the most heinous bad guys. And what the carpenter represents does not necessarily make everyone sympathetic.
How to make the transformation reasonable, how to make us accept the theme ideas presented in the whole story, is actually to turn the line of sight upside down in this subtle hint. The compensation gained by the carpenter tells us that the cultural imprint of the old era is backward.
The social mood highlighted in the film first shows the huge gap between the carpenter and the rich man, and then the emergence of JiGong alleviates the contradiction for a while, and what its essence wants to express is also an awakening of the consciousness of resistance.
By making the rich man bear the price of "long memory" for this, but also allowing the poor carpenter to get rich compensation, the root cause of the end of everything lies in one can recognize his mistakes, one can learn how to protect his rights and interests, so as to achieve a purpose of balancing the gap.
In terms of artistic value, the full opera elements can make it stand out in addition to the content.
The film uses opera facial elements such as "plaster stickers", "eight-character eyebrows", and "square scarf ugly" to portray the absurd, delicious and lazy character images represented by rich men, and sets off the atmosphere of the whole story through opera dubbing, which is a good combination of traditional symbol images into the story.
Facebook has a very important role, that is, to "three-dimensionalize" the overall image of the character, that is, how to conform to the basic characteristics of the character.
And when the short film clearly distinguishes a group of rich men and women in this way, perhaps part of the reason is to "ugly" their image, but the most important thing is actually to highlight the guidance of the mainstream view.
Rich men occupy better resources of society, and they are destined to bear a greater price because of their ignorance. Through such a specific perspective, the short film actually criticizes the core face of the old society.
Opera dubbing and graphic presentation
"Shoes are broken, hats are broken, the robes on the body are torn, you laugh at me, he laughs at me, a fan is broken..." Judging from the overall character image of Jigong in the short film, it is also obvious that it provides material and inspiration for the role of Teacher You Benchang later.
The opera dubbing of the whole short film adds a sense of humor to the story, especially when the rich man does not hesitate to tear down the wall and punch holes in order to find crickets, the huge sense of irony reflected in the dubbing also adds to the fun of the story, making it like watching a stupid and clumsy clown, causing people to laugh.
The most rare thing about the presentation of the picture is that the artistic style of the short film is a combination of paper cuts and ink style, especially the portrayal of crickets and hens, lifelike fluff, or clearly visible tentacles, which are very vivid images.
So overall, the whole short film is full of Chinese elements, creating an idealized "hero" image for us how to resolve contradictions and convey a beautiful story.
And Jigong is indeed just the illusion of the common people, but the justice it represents has always been the most missing part of an era.
We think about why the deeds of Jigong in that era can be loved by such a large base of users, the key is that Jigong represents the image of "savior", but it is not only that.
In the first episode of "Ji Gong Travels", the past belonging to Li Xiuyuan was portrayed, before becoming Daoji, he was also a teenager with a sincere heart, but on the day of his marriage, he became a monk, and when he returned to his hometown again, his parents were long gone, his wife was crazy, and even the family property was cheated away by the housekeeper, this was the first time he saw such a terrible ugliness, and finally burned his past.
The presentation of the whole story has a clear perspective, but there is no prominent direction of good and evil, but it only proposes the end of a causal cycle, leaving the blank part of it to the audience to extend.
And we look at the entire narrative thread, Ji Gong is always helping the weak side, that is, how to let the people at the bottom escape from an exploitative class, so what he himself represents is not the confrontation with evil behind a suffering?
Class contradictions exist in any epoch, but the fact that the prince can compensate the rich man's money to the poor carpenter is also to tell us that we should not look at the world with a selfish and narrow eye.
Today,our society still overemphasizes a class gap, consciously or unconsciously dividing the population, but we can't eliminate the existence of this gap, and there is no Master Jigong who can help us, the only thing we can do is to make everything no longer the opposite level.
The exploitation of the rich is unreasonable, but the vision of the poor and the world are not the reasons for his mistakes, in order to make the world harmonious, never deny the difference, but how to seek common ground while reserving differences, recognizing people in every position.
Thanks for reading!
Image from the animated short film JigongDou Cricket