In this year when the national football team is not as good as a day, making a football-themed movie itself requires a lot of courage, and when the old and the new alternate, "Beyond the GreenEry", directed by Guo Zhirong, brings the audience a movie-watching experience full of courage and hope, mixed with bitterness and warmth.
First of all, we must thank the "2021 New Works of Art • Winter Warm Theme Film Festival" sponsored by the National Art Film Screening Alliance, so that we can have the opportunity to enjoy a number of literary and artistic films with very unique intentions and styles, among these works, "Beyond the Green" is a very special one, both creative standards and strong entertainment colors, especially the details of life of single-parent families, but also let the viewer's original hard tears continue to break through.
Contrary to many richly packaged commercial films, the film uses a simple and unpretentious realist video language to tell the story of a father and son living in a northern county town, whose relationship has been at the critical point of collapse and quarrel without a word, but is forced to change because of a football match. Friends who have not been to Inner Mongolia may not know that "sugar goods" is roughly the meaning of stupid, similar to "melon" in "Eight Hundred", "spoon" in "a spoon", not a good word, and here, the use of "sugar goods" to describe the old horse father and son is indeed the most accurate.
Ma Lu, the father who first appeared as a sanitation worker, while hanging Er Langdang to drive the unit to collect garbage, overtime can hide and hide, can rely on Lai, after the end of the work, the excuse to wash the car to drive home, the family still drives the farm yard can earn some living money, the income should be quite a lot, but it looks very undignified, go out to wear broken overalls, go home directly take off, revealing wrinkled tattered autumn pants, the hand is not pinching a cucumber or carrot, when eating, it will be replaced by garlic. Garbage trucks, garlic, torn autumn pants, full of life "taste".
Son Ma Feng is the striker of the middle school team, practicing dribbling and shooting in the field every day, before the final of the cup held in the county, the goalkeeper suddenly transferred, and the final kick could not be done, making him both lost and angry, and even went around to block the goalkeeper to fight, and the coach once again "summoned" the parents.
Dad can't do anything about educating his children, he just kicks and scolds, and the principal and coach can't do anything. The relationship between father and son is obvious, the son is originally lonely and rebellious, self-esteem is strong, in the face of such a rude and rude father, it is natural to avoid it, there is an invisible wall between father and son, or do not speak, talk is the right pinch, can not be crossed.
Around the emotional conflict between the father and son of the old horse, "Beyond the GreenEry" unfolds the true face of the current county life, peeling off some flashy illusions, revealing the true essence, adults seem to be cynical, do not care about everything, but silently provoke the burden of a family, when the old man is ridiculed by the guests, he can also launch a counterattack without hesitation, but also let people see that the blood of the past is still not completely cold. On the contrary, the teenager seems to be impulsive and aggressive, with unrealistic dreams (fantasies) for the future, but in fact, he is also very delicate and sensual in his heart, he understands his love very well, and can only store his youth where there is nowhere to rest, and cannot become Messi on the green field.
Therefore, "Beyond the Green" has the external core of blood, but it has the spiritual core of realism. It is not only a high-level realistic masterpiece, showing the current city style of the county, restoring the real situation of the sanitation workers represented by Ma Lu, his work is boring and tedious, but it is the cornerstone of the environmental cause, although he has a side of dissipation, but he takes care of life with taste, through his mid-life crisis, the audience can see the vitality, the most simple licking feelings in the heart.
This is also a youth film, which is equally meticulous and sharp in exploring the growth situation of teenagers, through football, reflecting Ma Feng's spiritual world and yearning for a better life. Although he and Ma Lu are in tit-for-tat everywhere, this kind of single-parent family relationship that is soft on the outside and soft on the inside, not good at words, but affectionate and common, brings positive reflection and discussion to the audience. Many times, family affection is not simply education or communication, but the need for spiritual understanding and even mutual stimulation, just like the old horse father and son, everywhere is collision and estrangement, but through such a small exit as football, a consensus and understanding have been reached, such a scene, for the father and son in the real world, should be regarded as a very useful inspiration.