Film and television works have the function of "narrative for the times", "for whom the work is filmed", "what kind of story should be told", on such questions, young directors are also giving their own answers through experimental short film works in "Let's Shoot" - such as the director Desert, who created a short film "Brake" with the theme of emotional illness, thinking: "There is no way to give a specific answer, but I want to do something, so I stand in the perspective of a living person and provide a little energy."
Author: A knife
Edit: Blue Two
Layout: Wang Wei
As early as his 2010 book "Burnout Society", Han Byung-chol, a Korean-German philosopher, summed up a typical mental state that emerged from modern society, "burnout", and he pointed out that "the fatigue of the merit society is a kind of lonely exhaustion, resulting in isolation and alienation from each other."
At present, the emotional problems represented by "burnout" and "loneliness" have become more and more prominent in our lives, and have begun to become an important realistic direction for literature, film and television works to pay attention to and reflect. Just recently, short films such as "Brake" and "Accompanying Chat" in iQIYI's variety show "Let's Shoot" have once again aroused heated discussion among the public about depression, loneliness and other symptoms of the times, which have once again aroused heated discussion among the public; and this wave of exploration of the "medicinal effect" of healing stimulated by "image pills" also empirically proves the path of image creation in the post-epidemic era as the narrative of the times and illuminating the spiritual corner with the light of humanity.
Behind the popular words of lying flat and emo, emotional illness has become a symptom of the times
In the 2021 "Top Ten Internet Buzzwords" selected by experts from authoritative institutions, "volume/inner volume", "lying flat", "breaking defense" and "emo" occupy the top four seats, and professional words such as "sunshine depression", "hollow heart disease" and "urban autism" are no longer so unfamiliar to the public, and we find ourselves more and more able to empathize with relevant social news and other people's stories.
"Brakes" clip
It is worth noting that mental health problems are getting younger and younger: the results of a survey jointly launched by the China Youth Daily Social Survey Center and the questionnaire network are quite surprising - the "companion service" that was once only related to the elderly group has been extended to the fields of "accompanying running fitness and accompanying games" in the lives of young people; 58.7% of the 1535 young people surveyed said that they had experienced companion service. In November this year, a survey conducted by the China Youth Daily and China Youth School Media showed that 80.22% of the college students surveyed said that they had a slight "social fear".
Fragment of "Chat together"
Young people's social desires are unsatisfied, and they turn to relatively stress-free companionship services from strangers to alleviate the loneliness of the soul; this corresponds to the phenomenon that Han Bingzhe mentions in his theory: this sense of burnout is destroying "all community, collective, and intimate relationships."
For example, the father-son relationship presented by director Desert in "Brakes" is this broken intimate relationship: "They are so close, but they never know each other." This led to the son choosing to end his life, the father realized that he had never really entered the son's heart, nor had he given the child the warmth and security he needed. Film critic Luo Yiji felt the same way, and he thought of his father - "I love you very much, but I don't understand you".
This reflects the pain points in contemporary social life. If the accumulated knots are not correctly resolved, they will also erupt into "adult collapses" in an instant.
The social news that can be seen everywhere confirms this phenomenon. A "deep drift" man received the news of his mother's accident on the subway, hid his face and cried for a long time in the subway, and the passengers and netizens in the same way felt that "working outside the most afraid of suddenly receiving news from home"; on the train from Nanjing to Taiyuan, a big sister cried bitterly because of the contradiction with her family, and the conductor persuaded for half an hour and could not stop the tears of the big sister. Lonely modern people, just like the adult men in the short film "Accompanying Chat" directed by Wang Luodan, holding a plush toy like a child and curled up alone on the bed. People are beginning to realize that it is imperative to seek spiritual medicine for themselves and re-learn to care for themselves and others.
Facing social emotions, literary and artistic works have become the antidote to the spirit of modern people
The premise of the right medicine is to understand the "cause" behind it.
First of all, at the moment when the pace of people's lives is constantly accelerating, everyone is saddled with scrutiny from society, family, and peers, so that urban people are busy coping with the pressure of survival and competition, falling into confrontation with themselves; at the same time, busy life overlaps with the information flow that explodes on the Internet, people ignore the sincere and in-depth emotional communication with relatives and friends around them in the real world, and the loneliness of the spiritual world is missing.
Spiritual confusion should also seek the medicine of the spirit.
Many people have experienced that when we are alone with ourselves, classical music, literature and other works of art often become our way of seeking inward because of their inspirational power to the spiritual world. Nowadays, literary and artistic works are also paying more and more attention to some social realities that are happening in society, facing social topics head-on, hoping to play the role of spiritual outlet for the audience through artistic means. The unique space created by the image puts us into the perspective of the protagonist of the story, to truly experience and think about life, and to think about the countermeasures in which we are in it.
Just like in the story of "Brakes", the father finally chooses to continue his care and redemption to another lonely teenager who is the same age as his deceased son, and the teenager also gets the warmth he has longed for a long time from the care of strangers. Director Desert said in his description of the motivation for creation: "There is no way to give a specific answer, but I want to do something, so I stand in the perspective of a living person and provide a little energy." ”
And "Accompaniment" sets the story background in the "end of mankind", the audience and the only actor in the film to listen to the "last words of mankind" - some people are angry, some people are desperate, and some people choose to say those words hidden in the bottom of their hearts, and the last words of the protagonist's father full of words of encouragement are like warm sunshine, illuminating the heart of the male protagonist who has been claustrophobic in the dark for many years, and also allowing the audience to feel the eternal power of human love from a father's nostalgia for his children and love like mountains.
This immersive soothing power allows film and television to reach people's hearts and become a "good medicine" for healing the spirit.
Feel the humanistic care, let the audience experience the life from a heads-up perspective
Works of art give people a care of their mental health and shine a ray of humanistic light into the inner world of the public. Whether it is a lonely teenager who cannot get a sense of security from his original family because of the lack of proper love from his parents, or a workplace worker who has to work hard to promote while taking care of the family's old and young, or a policeman, medical worker and other professionals who have been under high pressure for a long time due to the special nature of their professions... These "high-risk groups" who are easily wrapped up in the emotions of the times such as loneliness and anxiety deserve special attention and care, and they have always been the objects of narrative for art creators and the driving force for realizing the social value of art works.
Films such as "Chinese Doctors" focus on special people in special periods, on the one hand, are a concern and tribute to medical workers on the frontline of the fight against the epidemic, and on the other hand, they also promote ordinary people to understand medical staff more comprehensively and give them more understanding. In "Brakes", through the display of a father-son parent-child relationship full of regrets, people's attention is directed to this group of children who are in a lonely predicament, prompting society and parents to give their children more care and "right" love.
On the other hand, the immersive experience of video works also gives this kind of care a unique effect, so that people can also "visit" those spaces that have never been there, experience the different lives of others through film and television works with healing power, and get some enlightenment on how not to be stuck in the heart, out of their own small world, and bravely take the steps of change in the display of more possibilities in life.
The British BBC Culture Channel has launched a list of "soothing old movies during the epidemic" to guide people to relive those films that heal the heart and inspire people. These include "In the Rain", which can make people dance and sing along, "When Harry Meets Sally", which briefly describes romantic love, the magical adventure story "Raiders of the Lost Ark", the cute and funny "Penguins of Madagascar", the hopeful "Robot Story" and so on – each of which is an image medicine for people to restore calm, happiness and comfort. People can be soothed and enlightened even in a life they have not experienced.
In "Let's Shoot", young directors perceive the subtleties from a heads-up perspective, which gives the work a warm artistic value. In the different styles of short films presented in the program, a number of substitutable situations are set up for the audience, and topics such as "sunshine depression" and "the heartache of small people in the workplace" are explored, which can reach multiple eras of people with symptoms, so that people can either empathize with them or reflect on their lives: people see their relationship with their parents in the story of "Brake", see themselves in the workplace and family members in "Who took my takeaway", and also in the "end of the world" that does not exist in "Chat". Think of similar loneliness in reality.
It is precisely because of its unique curative effect of healing the soul that the function of film and television works "narrating for the times" is more worthy of review and consideration by current art creators. "For whom the work is filmed", "what kind of story should be told", and the aerial lamp that ignites people's hearts with artistic language are the advantages of film and television works that continue to have an audience, and they are also the responsibility on the shoulders of film and television creators in each era.