Xi Shi, whose real name was Shi Yiguang, was a beautiful woman of the Yue Kingdom, who was honored by posterity as "Xizi", and was born in Zhuji Ramie Village, Zhejiang in the late Spring and Autumn Period.
Released in 2002, "Xi Shi Eye" was originally a "city business card" created for Guan Hu at the invitation of Zhuji City, the hometown of Xi Shi, which has a long history and a rich humanistic atmosphere, belongs to the hometown of Yue Guo, one of the ancient Yue ethnic settlements, and is also a place where the Yue King plotted to restore the country.
However, Guan Hu is not limited to shooting a tourist scenery film, but takes the city as the background, focuses on the discovery of the character image, and integrates the current survival dilemma of several female characters into this piece of green mountains and beautiful waters with unique regional style.
The film "Xi Shi Eye" is based on the film literary script created by the writer Zhou Guangrong, telling the life story of three women in Zhuji, Zhejiang, who sell tea girls Ah Xi, young teacher Shi Yu, and middle-aged Yue opera actor Lian Wen, who are strangers to each other. According to the order of age, the film is divided into three stories, three parts: Ah Xi wants to go to Shanghai with the Miao brothers, and is finally left behind; Shi Yu misses her first love boyfriend in Shanghai, but has to choose her honest hometown to register for marriage with her fiancé; Yue opera actor Lian Wen has accepted a new life after divorce, and the fact that she has retired from the front line, but because of the rookie's job hopping, she has to accept to become the protagonist again...
These three stories intersect with each other and are more or less related to each other.
Like the movie "20, 30, 40", "Xi Shi Eye" describes the lives of women at all ages, including the hearts of young girls, youth emotional distress and mid-life crisis, although the three female colleagues in "20, 30, 40" are at the trough of their respective lives, but in the end they have found a way to continue to move forward. However, the three women in "Xi Shi Eye" continue to stay in the ethereal and deep town space, falling into confusion and confusion that they have never had before.
The three of them did not seem to come out of the pain, and the wounds of the women were buried mercilessly in the closed town.
Regarding the title of "Xi Shi Eye", Guan Hu said that this is a subconscious thing, you must watch the movie to have an understanding, there is a legend in the movie: who is smart can eat the fruit in the middle. Whether it is people or things, there is an inherent beauty, and there is always a concise way to explore it, and the title of the film is a bit alluded to. Because Zhuji is rich in a nut called fragrant, it has an eye on it, called Xi Shi Eye.
As a local specialty, the price is not cheap, although everyone loves to eat, but it is not something that can be eaten if you want to eat, so the chamomile has also become a thing that the local people take out during the New Year's Festival, who if they carry the incense, it must be asking someone to do things. In addition, the xiangyu in the movie also implies the meaning of "xiangfei", which is another name for Xi Shi.
In fact, the earliest film called "Water" was called "Water", because the director felt that "water" was more accurate to describe women, but later felt that "water" was too neutral, so it had the name of "Xi Shi Eye". Films can always properly convey the mood with details and influence symbols, and in the film, "water" is an important image. Since ancient times, there has been a saying that women are like water, and at the beginning of the movie, the first scene is Ah Xi washing her face in the Anhui River, which is lively, clean, like her people and her soul.
16-year-old Ah Xi sells tea by the river, her dream is to live in Shanghai, for this goal, she hides from her family, gives the money she saved to her friend Xiaomiao, although it is still far from the goal, but she has always been a well-behaved business, has been looking forward to her beautiful future...
On the other side of the rain shot is her slowly sinking into the bathtub, motionless.
Let the body be completely immersed in the water is also a quiet way, calm like a pool of stagnant water, when Shi Yu found out that she was pregnant, she was also completely dead hearted, not to mention that she would not have a hint of uncertainty about the future, obediently obey her mother, obey her fate...
And the lotus pattern off the stage, in the shot, she buried her face in the basin of water, all said that the woman removed the makeup is herself, but she is a Yue opera actor, into middle age she has accepted the conversion from the protagonist to the supporting role, the basin of water seems to be able to wash away all her grievances, here to explain, "Xi Shi Eye" in the Lian Wen has long regarded herself as the "Xi Shi" in Yue opera. Every glance can bring Xi Shi's style to the inside and outside of the play. In an interview, the reporter asked her if she wanted to play Xi Shi when she entered the Yue Opera Troupe at the age of 16, and Lian Wen replied: "Playing Xi Shi is the dream of our (Zhuji) Yue opera actors here, and whoever can play Xi Shi is to think of himself as Xi Shi." ”
The role of "Xi Shi" has been integrated into her life to some extent.
Xi Shi is a household name in China, as a well-known character, "Xi Shi Eye" will be Xi Shi and a small person associated, the three women in the film, respectively experienced the most important moments in a woman's life, this is a movie about people, about the living conditions of people, focusing on ordinary people, the story of small people, Zhuji there is a maternal culture, because of Xi Shi, so the locals gradually worship her as a totem, although the women of Jiangnan look weak, but if you really understand them, contact them You will find that they have the strength to not accept defeat, and what the film wants to express is such a vitality.
The first story in the film is a dream; in the middle is desire; the last is actually life.
The beginning of the story of the third lotus pattern, and the disillusionment of Ah Xi's first love and the compromise of marriage with Shi Yu, are exactly synchronous, as a connection in narrative time, the third paragraph has been laid in the first two sections of the story. For example, in Ah Xi, Xiao Miao, and Da Miao, the three people walking on the embankment, the lotus pattern in the background is practicing by the lake, singing Xi Shi's grudge knot: "Regret to leave, regret to leave, infinite love strings to send, the sound of the strings cut like drizzle." ”
In Shi Yu's perspective, when she came home, she happened to meet Lian Wen making costumes in her mother's tailor shop, only to hear her mother praise in a row: "Lian Wen, you really have a heart, such a good material, you have to pay for the money yourself?" ”
These details in the third story highlight the intersection of the fates of the three people, Lotus Pattern spent his youth on the stage, more than twenty years because of the role of Xi Shi became popular, high cold and fragile, and now it is also considered to have tasted the sour, sweet and bitter, and finally accepted himself to become the past. Bitterness, the main color of the three women, although a little cruel, but this is the truth.
The ancient beauty Xi Shi, under the majesty and etiquette of feudal male power, also became a victim of male political struggle, whether it was the people she sincerely agreed with, or the people who coveted her beauty, in the end, these men around her failed her and hurt her. Although today's women no longer have to carry a heavy past and feudal life, they still have a lot of troubles, dilemmas and difficulties. Looking at this 2002 work now, although the scene is very far away, because at that time, it had just entered a new era, and now it was a new day, and the material was no longer the same, but the female theme that the film wanted to express did not change much.
A 16-year-old girl, a 26-year-old female teacher, and a 36-year-old Yue opera actress are relatively independent and slightly intertwined in a play that looks slightly astringent in people's hearts, but I don't know whether it is bitter or sweet, and the helplessness of those realities is only helpless.
Original text, figure network