Even a film as warm as "Central Station" has shots of people killing people on the street, which shows the extent to which violence in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has spread. "City of God", "Elite Troops" and "City of Mankind" show the slums of Rio de Janeiro from the three different perspectives of gangsters, policemen and civilians, which together are a turbulent panorama of the underlying world. I have to admit that what we see in this Brazilian trilogy is entirely a life outside of our experience. Violence can happen at any time, no matter who you are, you may die on the streets one day, crime is a way of survival, life is an adventure. If given the choice, no one would want to live such a precarious and dangerous life. The poor people in the mountain towns of Rio de Janeiro have no choice but to live in that absurd, absurd, rough environment. It is reasonable to say that in such a hell on earth, everyone's face should be full of despair, suicide has become a common thing, and the air is full of decadence, but the mental state of the characters in the three films is quite high and uplifting, and the attitude of life is very happy. What makes them dance even in the pit of fire? In my opinion, there are at least three reasons.
First, vigorous vitality
The Latin people are enthusiastic, they have a strong original vitality, as if the blood is full of sunshine particles, most of them are enthusiastic, wild and spontaneous, extremely adventurous, exciting and crazy, the pursuit of life's blooming carnival, they jump samba, play football, dog fighting cockfighting, play is the heartbeat. Compared with those peoples whose civilization has been passed down for a long time, and everyone is gentle and disciplined, the Latin people are undoubtedly some "savages", but it is precisely with such an unstoppable vitality that they can survive in the turbulent land of Latin America, which is governed by the law of the jungle.
In the three movies, the fight between the gangster and the gangster, the gangster and the police, all use a lot of fast mirror cutting, people move quickly, full of spirit, up and down the mountain, in the alley, in the streets, fast running, interspersed, like a violent competition, with the excitement of hormone chaos, although the scene is cruel, but full of vitality. "City of God" and "City of Mankind" tell the story of when Xiao Douzi and Benny, Wallis and Ace two pairs of small hair and small together to make a living, there is no sensational, miserable picture, although only a small teenager, facing this unpredictable world, but they are not passive, do not shrink, brave to break in, let go to do, there is no haze on the face, but often smile, triumphant, and finally won their own survival. There are song and dance scenes in all three films, or celebrating birthdays or celebrating the seizure of territory or gang parties, they gather together to find joy and youthful excitement in the rhythmic music.
Whether they fight, make a living, or have fun, they all have plenty of energy, they do it when they think of it, they are always energetic and explosive, they don't know what is called fatigue and fatigue, and no matter how bad the situation is, they must win their own place and declare their existence. Rio de Janeiro is a fierce sun, dusty, chaotic social order, is an active volcano, the fire of life is dark people have no chance and are not qualified to survive, only these Latins, these vigorous and strong Latins can roam here without fear, without heart and lungs.
Second, superior blunt force
Japanese writer Junichi Watanabe said that in the stressful modern social life, everyone needs some blunt sensitivity to alleviate psychological fatigue and cope with the anxiety of the soul. Blunt sensitivity means the ability to be too sensitive to the affairs of the surroundings. "Blunt sensitivity" does not equal dullness, it emphasizes a kind of endurance for difficult encounters, and the ability to fight against the outside world with a thick skin. It is still a positive attitude towards life. As Li Ao said, even if you are poor, you must not forget to be poor and happy.
In addition to surviving by strong vitality, the people of Rio de Janeiro also need to live, in the city of smoke, the land of tigers and wolves, want to live optimistically, and the psychological quality is naturally not generally good. They seem to have a natural bluntness, everyone put an end to self-harm and self-pity, in the collision with life, there is not much ideological baggage, emotional burden, always able to go shirtless, brave and tenacious, despair, fear, depression and other extreme emotions will not become their stumbling blocks. The unique physical strength and psychological talent allow these people to move forward with thick skin and flesh and create their own lives.
A Bao, the protagonist of "City of God", is a somewhat cowardly boy. If you want to fall in love, people look up to rich people and gang bosses; they want to avenge their brothers, and they don't have the courage to take pistols next to them; they love photography and have no money to buy equipment; after being fired, they meet with friends to rob and can't get their hands on them; in short, they can't achieve anything, and they can't do anything. His life can be described as full of helplessness, according to common sense, he should find a piece of tofu and crash it to death, but this person is extremely skinny, still shyly dangling in the street, and treating life with a rogue attitude. Although there is no hope, the daughter of the police chief, who still has the courage and social status, watches the sea side by side, enthusiastically runs errands for her, and strives for the opportunity to get along; although she is scared to death, she still trembles into the wolf's den of the little bully and takes pictures for the gangsters. This man lived stoically like the undead Xiao Qiang, and did not give up hope, after losing his job, he found a job delivering newspapers, and enthusiastically asked the newspaper reporter for photography skills, and finally when the clouds cleared, he became famous for taking photos of enemies killed. In the end, the little bully who crossed the street was a fugitive from childhood, and he was also a tough figure who was not afraid of being beaten. The two male protagonists in "City of Mankind", Wallis and Ace, are orphans and have been begging for a living in the street market since childhood. Being beaten and chased by people, it is common, they are not right, happy to grow up. Wallis heard about his biological father, went to the door, was cold-faced, and refused to leave, realizing his long-cherished wish to live with his father. Ace's wife ran away and became a single dad, a man who didn't care and was in the mood to seduce passing women while on night shift at the ranger station. If these two people sigh bitterly, love face, are sensitive and easily injured, then it is a big problem to say that they can grow up in the City of God.
In "City of God", we glimpse the lawlessness of the Brazilian police, and the policemen who collude with gangsters and traffic in arms perfectly interpret the statement that "the police are licensed hooligans". However, when we see the full picture of the Brazilian police in Elite Force, the urge to accuse them will cool down a lot. In Brazil, where police revenues are extremely low, the government also requires the police to bear their own responsibilities. The weapons of the drug cartels are up to military standards, better equipped than the police, and drug dealers attack the police frequently. Look for it, there is such news: "On the evening of May 12, 2006, police stations and police officers in various parts of the State of São Paulo, Brazil, were suddenly attacked by gangsters, and as of the 14th, there were 115 attacks on the police, which occurred in 3 days after the 12th, at least 60 policemen were killed, 1 policeman's girlfriend, and 2 passers-by suffered misfortune. On May 15, the largest gang attack on police in Brazil's São Paulo region is still not over, and the entire São Paulo region is shrouded in a shadow of blood and panic. "---- the plight of the Brazilian police is probably unimaginable to the police of other countries. In such a situation where the economy is insecure, weapons are backward, and their lives are often hanging by the line, the Brazilian police are corrupt, brutal law enforcement, indiscriminate killing, arms trafficking, protection fees, and banditry of the state apparatus.
The police in "Elite Force" move corpses to handle cases, compete for territory, collude with gangsters, and poisoners in "City of Man" want to swim down the mountain and will notify the police under the mountain in advance to give way. It is a fool's dream to enforce justice in such a situation where the police and gangsters are entangled. But when the state wants to use thunderbolt tactics against gangsters to eliminate them, an "elite force" of a well-trained police elite with no corruption record will be dispatched. The Elite Devotes a great deal of space to the outgoing Captain Nasimondo training his successor. The training methods of the members of the elite army can be said to be inhumane, and the commanders beat and humiliated the cadets as the first lesson; in order to punish the dozing cadets, give him an open grenade to hold, and as soon as he lets go, he will blow everyone up; when eating, he pours the rice on the mud and asks the cadets to eat the food; ... The hellish inhuman training of the cadets by these demonic instructors has repeatedly lowered the psychological and physical boundaries of the elite policemen, turning them from human beings into outright beasts. Captain Nasimondo, because he was his father, was quite remorseful about his inhumanity, cruelty, and indiscriminate killing of innocents in the execution of his mission, and had to go to see a psychiatrist, but his heir was to be competent for the work of the elite army and must inherit his cold-blooded style, so Nasimondo constantly demonstrated to the two candidate heirs when he was on the mission. Carrying plastic bags with him, he coerced confessions on suspects, planted bribes on the spot to force people behind the scenes, and abused suspects to interrogate intelligence. At the end of the film, Nasimondo and Matthias find the drug dealer who killed the elite member Neto (Nasimondo's more satisfactory heir), and want to execute him on the spot, the drug dealer asks not to punch him in the face, and Nasimondo orders Matthias to shoot the drug dealer in the face with a shotgun, which allows Matthias to complete the final spiritual training, and Nasimondo successfully trains a qualified successor with iron-blooded style. Matthias, the Sven glasses man who was supposed to be a lawyer, transformed into a beast, no, a monster. In fact, many of the training contents are to enhance the bluntness of the trainees, forget the physical pain, put aside the insults in personality, put aside the moral laws in their hearts and the legal provisions of the country, in order to survive in the crisis-ridden Rio de Janeiro, in order to fight crime and complete the task, you can be cruel and ruthless, and do whatever it takes.
With superior blunt sensitivity, it is equivalent to adding a layer of insulating paint to itself, which can shield many negative feelings, so that the fear, worry, depression and other corrosive bad emotions brought by the outside world cannot penetrate, so that the heavy pressure does not affect people's mental strength, does not dissolve people's enthusiasm, and does not wear people's hopes. The police, civilians, and gangsters of the City of God continue their dangerous, turbulent, and fiery lives under the protection of this layer of paint.
Third, flexible cushioning force
The women living in Rio de Janeiro can say according to the grammar of "Li Chun": I don't want to have love in this city. The love in the three films, indeed, none of them is complete. In "City of God", one of the three young heroes and his girlfriend escaped, he was killed by the police; the handsome man Schneider's girlfriend was raped in public by the bully, and the Schneider family was also destroyed; Benny and his beautiful girlfriend wanted to retire together, but at the farewell dance, Nee was mistakenly killed by drug dealers who came to seek revenge; in "Elite Force", Matthias fell in love with a beautiful classmate, but because his identity as a policeman was exposed, the two broke up. In City of Man, Wallis had to leave his girlfriend due to gang fights. The love that takes place in this city is extremely easy to be destroyed, and it is a place where love dies. As for family affection, it is also rare and beautiful, the family affection in "City of Mankind" is sour and miserable, mutilated, Wallis and his father are reunited, but his father is soon arrested for committing a crime. In the three films, only friendship was preserved and used to celebrate. Life force and blunt sensitivity are indispensable, but these two forces are not enough to cope with all problems, so it is also necessary to find allies in interpersonal relations, since love and affection are unreliable, then only friendship can be counted on, indeed, the friendship in this city is tested, warm, and deep. These god-forsaken people, in the face of the shock of life, a solid and eternal friendship provides a flexible cushion so that they will not be destroyed.
In "City of God", Xiao Douzi is murdered, and he and his friend Benny are wandering in the rivers and lakes, desperate, adulterous, cooperative, and have a good name. With Benny's mediation, the gangs can coexist peacefully. As soon as Benny died, the little bully who killed people without blinking was extremely sad, without Benny's brake valve, it was completely out of control, so he was mad and killed, which eventually led to his own downfall. The cowardly Ah Bao also has a good friend, and the two rob and take pictures together, inseparable. In "City of Mankind", the two iron brothers support each other, and after a gang war, they put aside their father's grudge and leave the dead end together, planning to raise Ace's son Clayton together. In "Elite Force", the two young hair, Matthias and Neto, in the police force to fight each other, conspire for a just cause, Neto de Matthias gave glasses to the little boy, was ambushed and killed by the gang, inadvertently saved the life of a friend, Matthias was heartbroken, his heart changed, he gave up his plan to be a lawyer, bent on avenging his friend, and eventually grew into a ferocious beast criminal policeman.
No matter what the identity, the friendship established by these people is the same sincerity, the same unbreakable, and once the friend is lost, the flexible buffer is no longer there, and the parties are all crazy and have the impulse to self-destruct, which shows how important that friendship is to them. If the vitality and blunt sensitivity can ensure a person's survival and life, then the buffer brought by friendship can penetrate deep into a person's life and change a person's destiny. This power of spring wind and rain has added a little peace to the fierce city of God and brought well-being to the people in the depths of the water.
4. Scotland vs Brazil
The protagonist in "Guess the Train" attempts to rebel against mainstream society, subvert the stable outlook on life values, refuse to live under a mediocre system, think existentially about the absurdity of survival, and achieve self-renewal through a betrayal of friendship. Under the gloomy skies of Scotland, Mark and his gang are decadent and confused, and they have reached the extreme of passivity and inaction, and in the scorching sunshine of Rio de Janeiro, those energetic and fierce young people have gone to the other extreme, they are sensual and vivid, dare to fight, rampage, fierce and fearless, there is a youthful spirit, they have a trinity of vitality, bluntness, and cushioning, they can dance in the fire pit, they have the particles of sunshine in their blood, they are loyal to friendship, they do not guess trains.