I wrote an article last year on the tenth anniversary of the release of "Let the Bullets Fly": "Let the Bullets Fly for a While, This Flight, It Flies for a Whole Decade", which analyzed in detail why the movies from ten years ago were even hotter and even higher and higher than they were just released. I'll summarize the thrust of that article in the most concise language:
Young people are calling for the return of the long-lost "revolutionary narrative".
It can even be said that "Let the Bullets Fly" is a small microcosm of China's modern history, and anyone who has a sense of family and country will resonate with it - as long as you are not Huang Silang, or "spiritual Huang Silang".
"Let the Bullets Fly" constructs many systems, such as the simplest binary contradiction: the opposition between Zhang Mazi and Huang Silang, the opposition between the people of Goose City and the three major families, the opposition between the old third and the nine barrels, the opposition between the five-five and the two-eight, the opposition between the master and the unpretentious confusion, the opposition between the little sixth son and the indifferent masses... These systems and structures can facilitate young people to understand history, politics, and society.
When I talk about globalization's exploitation of China's manual workers, I use the "five-five- and "three-seven- open" models. In the climactic passage of the three movie emperors' drama "Hongmen Banquet", the master began to ask for "three seven open", and later came to see Huang Silang's promise to be happy, saying "two eight open" can be, indicating that the master's heart is weak. And Zhang Mazi opened his mouth to "five or five open", the meaning is also obvious - I and you Huang Silang are equal status cooperation. In order to practice the Chinese the people of the revolutionary ancestors stood up and demanded equality with the traditional powers everywhere in the international arena.
We think of Huang Silang as the United States. Master Shi's viewpoint of "two eight openings" represents the comprador class and the compromise faction among our managers; and Zhang Mazi's position of equality, independence, and sharing of benefits is not only adhered to by some old revolutionaries, but also the common demand of the people of the whole country. However, some people believe that the United States is the world's number one power, and his willingness to do business with us is "Huang Laoye's gift to us", so "two eight open" can also be.
Shi Ye is a typical comprador image: it is better to build than to buy, and it is better to buy than to rent - "Can't be desperate, how to make money if you are desperate?" ”
As far as the comprador strata are concerned, if imperialism can reward them with "two percent," they will be thankful to the Lord for their kindness; for a small number of cadres whose revolutionary position is not firm, the Americans are so strong, so advanced, and so developed, it is reasonable to do business with us and earn a little more money. However, in the eyes of the old-school revolutionaries represented by Chairman Mao Zedong, we are on an equal footing with the Americans, either for mutual benefit or for the benefit of each other; or you should not regard us as cheap labor and leeks to be slaughtered.
To give a simple example, everyone understands the significance of the narrative system constructed by "Let the Bullets Fly". Of course, the objective world is complex, many times, and we cannot understand every aspect of the world through a binary opposition. But for a beginner, for a young man who has just come into contact with the essence of the world, it is necessary to simplify and difficult, and this is the meaning of works such as "Let the Bullets Fly".
The construction of this system is called "narrative mode" or "historical view" in more technical terms. In recent years, there have been various narrative methods on the market, including the narrative methods of foreigners, the narrative methods of capitalists, and the narrative methods of cultural elites, but the narrative methods of the people, the narratives of the East, and the narratives of China are missing.
For example, Jin Yong's novels have more nationalist feelings in the early years, and those in the later years are political suggestion systems. For example, we all know what Zuo Leng Zen and Shenlong Sect imply. This is the narrative constructed by the old literati. Therefore, some people use Jin Yong's novels to make hints and make them happy, that is because the system is well built.
For example, "Fu Manchu narrative" is also a category of discourse power, in which a series of solidified prejudices against Chinese, such as yellow peril theory, squinting eyes, and hades makeup, are constructed. The hanging of the eyes that the people are very disgusted with now is actually the "Fu Manchu narrative" that subtly affects a large group of cultural kneeling people, who have produced a sense of fanaticism in the narrative of kneeling and imitating the foreigners, and finally spread discrimination and solidification prejudice without shame.
Once the cultural elite's favorite narrative method, represented by "scar literature", there are also self-dwarfing such as reflecting on the "inferiority of "marine civilization" in the Great River Mingwen. Young people may not know much now, but the literature, film, photography and even installation art of the 1980s and 1990s are all constructed paradigms of this type. Forget these things, forget it, it is doomed to have no vitality, and it is part of the historical counter-offensive reckoning.
The TV series "Towards the Republic" is also a narrative method, a way to distinguish it from "Let the Bullets Fly". For the proposition of "saving China", zhang Mazi found the road of "gun in hand, follow me"; the road found by Sun Dacang is the monologue in the last episode of "Towards the Republic", which seems to say a lot, but it is actually the core concept of "universal values". So both of these are excellent works of art, but the traditional cultural elite likes to use the system of Towards a Republic, and the proletariat and the left like to use the system of Let the Bullets Fly.
So the crux of the matter is here: there are more imperialist narratives, more capitalist narratives, and even more numerous cultural elites. But in addition to the works of the fifties and sixties, the revolutionary narrative has also been a "Let the Bullets Fly" in recent decades. When Ant Huabei advertised, the first thing that everyone thought of was the classic red work "White Haired Girl", because the white haired woman built a narrative method with combat effectiveness that reached the heart of the capitalists, but it must also be seen that we can only come up with works from decades ago.
The root cause of the prosperity of "let learning" lies in this - B station takes young people as the most important user group, and young people exchange their own narrative methods, so the base camp is naturally set in station B. At the same time, we must also see that just like this "Let the Bullets Fly", we want to engage in a hint system, but we have to catch this work, and Jiang Wen is like Ge You. For young people now, it is our common mission to create more works that belong to the people's narrative, the Oriental narrative, the proletarian narrative, and the revolutionary narrative.
Behind the fire of "Let the Bullets Fly", there is another layer of social connotation: the rise of young people's sense of ownership. It is said that the post-80s are the beat generation, but the post-80s have proved themselves in the disaster relief of the Wenchuan earthquake; they also say that the post-90s are the beat generation, but the post-90s have become the absolute main force in the front line of the fight against the epidemic; the future post-00s will also prove themselves.
In the social practice again and again, young people have gradually cultivated a sense of ownership and responsibility for society, the country, and the nation, we are eager to make our own voices heard, we are eager to practice in society according to our own ideals, we are Li Tian, who is full of enthusiasm, and we refuse to hand over the future of this society to the hands of Huang Laoye, Shiye, and Laosan.
In "Let the Bullets Fly", Jiang Wen portrayed the masses as a group of "gangsters" who only had spontaneity and no self-consciousness, and were not allowed to kneel down and fall down, and before they reached the tower with a gun, they all ran out... However, in the real history, the enlightened masses have promoted the historical process; today, the "brainstorming" of the masses has given "Let the Bullets Fly" a farther, broader and deeper connotation, so that the vitality of the work continues to shine, hoping that Jiang Wen can look at, think and think about this grand situation.
In short, the reason why "Let the Bullets Fly" is popular with the majority of young people, and the popularity has not dropped but risen after ten years of release, is that it has established a new narrative method. Now that young people have gradually become the main force in the fields of fighting the epidemic, flooding, and defending the frontier, a vigorous force is eager to express their voices, and we should call for the emergence of more similar works.