There is an old Chinese saying: It is better to die than to live.
Our ancestors seem to have a strange and powerful force in them, which has supported them through those difficult years.
Being able to endure hardship has become a label on Chinese.
But the recent spate of suicides by young people seems to have changed the old saying above today: it is better to live than to die.
There is a network phrase at the moment, which I just learned in the past two days, that is, "I emo". Meaning "I'm decadent" "I'm depressed".
Why is there such a big shift?
A large part of the reason why young people are depressed now is that they have understood too much and seen too thoroughly at a very young age, but they often do not have the ability and cannot change the status quo.
I think maybe this is also a drawback of the Internet age.
If we think about history with such an idea, we may see something different. For example, the classic film we are going to talk about today uses a contemporary thinking to deconstruct the grand history -
"Here Comes the Devil"
Most people must have seen this film, after all, it has long been famous.
So far, "The Devil Is Coming" has maintained a high score of 9.3 points despite nearly 500,000 people watching it.
"The Devil Is Coming" is adapted from the novella "Survival" by writer You Fengwei.
Not only was it adapted, but it was also a large-scale adaptation, and even caused You Fengwei to be very dissatisfied, believing that the film infringed on the right to adapt.
However, Comrade Jiang Wen is naturally not careful, and he bluntly said that this film is not only a reproduction of the atrocities of the Japanese army that year. It is also out of a cautionary duty:
"I want to tell the Japanese audience through this film: You have to really face this history. Don't think about denying it again. I also want to warn the Chinese audience in this way: Face the evil. We cannot repay kindness for no reason. In the face of these facts that have already happened, Chinese and Japanese people should have a correct understanding. In order to avoid this from happening again. ”
Then something interesting happened, the film that called "Devil" was released in Japan to rave reviews and won the Japan Mainichi Film Award.
Sigh, the recent Fukuhara love divorce storm has united the people of China and Japan, and jiang Wen's "The Devil is Coming" has made the people of the two countries reach a consensus.
To be honest, this movie Pi Ge did not understand when he was a child, and only after adulthood did he find that it originally hid so many metaphors and irony.
The main content of the film is actually very simple, that is, it tells a story of "the devil is coming".
On this day, on the night of the last year of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the "Hanging Jia Tun" near the sea at the end of the Great Wall was quiet, and Ma Dasan, a bare stick villager, was with the beautiful widow of the same village, "Hu Tianhudi".
While I was in a good mood, there was a knock at the door.
Ma Dasan lifted his pants, and because good things were mixed up, he asked with anger, "Who?!" ”
The visitor was silent at first, and then replied, "I." ”
Me me me, who am I?
Ma Dasan only got out of bed and opened the door, but he didn't see "me", but he had a gun on the door of his head.
The man was very domineering, there was no inducement, only coercion, leaving two sacks behind and then flying away.
Before leaving, I left a sentence: Chinese New Year's Eve come and pick it up at night.
The gun came down from his head for a while, and Ma Dasan eased up, dragged two trembling legs to open the sack, and found that there were actually two large living people inside.
A Japanese devil, a traitor translator.
Good fellow, next to this is the gun tower of the little Japanese son, the Japanese honor guard every day to put this blowing and beating through, to hide these two people, is not it fatal?
There was no way, Ma Dasan had to push his physical desires back first, and went to the most learned fifth uncle in the village for consultation overnight.
All in all, a small meeting.
This Ma Dasan looked timid and afraid of things, in fact, there were not many eyes in his heart.
Obviously, "I" said that if he didn't see well, he would kill his dog, and as a result, when he conveyed it to the villagers, it became "if he didn't see well, he would kill the whole village."
Look, what was originally the death or death of Ma Dasan's person has now become the death or death of the whole village.
Presumably, this is one of our little clever ones.
Sure enough, the old and young masters in the village panicked.
In the eight years of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the fighting outside was fierce, but the villagers who hung up Jiatun still lived in the way of their ancestors.
They did not know the righteousness a little deeply because the devils came, they were more patriotic.
At first, their relationship with the devils could even be said to be harmonious.
Every morning, a small team of Japanese troops would blow and beat the passing of Hangjiatun, and the children in the village would line up in a row and hold out their hands to wait for a few pieces of sugar from the Japanese commander.
When you are in a good mood, you will touch the head of a little ghost a few times.
Naturally, the villagers of Hangjiatun also realized that ghosts were not a good thing, and it was disgraceful to be a traitor.
But compared with what kind of national righteousness and patriotism, their goal is more practical and more self-sufficient, that is, -
alive.
To live, to live at all costs, even if it loses its dignity.
Compared with living, what can't be tolerated by a few slaps from a devil?
Without the intrusion of "I", perhaps they would have survived this brutal and long war as they had in the previous eight years.
It's just that this is not a peach blossom garden.
Compared with a large number of mature anti-war film series, "The Devil Is Coming" is a nascent outlier.
On the one hand, it regards those classic anti-war movies - "Grain", "Mine Warfare", "Tunnel Warfare", "Evening Bell" and so on as a host, and obtains nourishment and motivation for growth.
But on the other hand, it is more about deconstructing these classics, and even deconstructing its own meaning, and eventually arriving at the dissipation of postmodernism.
Here, there is no grand ideology, only villagers with small and clever brains.
The next day, the fifth uncle and grandfather solemnly interrogated the two captives.
According to the prisoner's confession, the Japanese devil's name was Hanaya Kosaburo, and the traitor's translator was Dong Hanchen.
Thinking about it, the fifth uncle and grandfather patted the board: "The third year is raised, fortunately, it is only five days away from the root of the year, and it will pass after staying up." ”
Ma Dasan is raised, and it is clear that he is offering.
The thick quilts in the house, delicious, were all given to the two captives.
They wanted to eat white noodles, but there was no one at home, and Ma Dasan also went out to borrow noodles and steamed steamed steam
Among the two captives, Xiao Sanlang was very tough at the beginning, saying that he would give him a hard time when he said that he wanted to kill him, and he also had to kill himself, which was simply the embodiment of the noble sentiments of the Japanese, and he kept scolding and grinning in Japanese.
However, no one in the villagers, including Ma Dasan, knew what he scolded, and it was the translator who gave it to the translator.
It is precisely because of the credit of this translation that the Chinese and Japanese people actually get along well in a strange atmosphere of chicken and duck talk.
The fifth uncle and grandfather asked the devils whether they had killed Chinese men and abused Chinese women badly?
The devil replied, "I came to China for this purpose." “
After the translator's mouth flipped upside down, the words became: "No, I just came to China, I am a cook." ”
The following classic we all know, the devil let the translator teach him a curse, the translator taught: "Big brother and sister-in-law New Year's Day, you are my grandfather I am your son." ”
As soon as they heard this, the villagers were naturally happy.
However, until the first day of the Chinese New Year, no one came to take the two captives.
The villagers in Hangjiatun waited for another two months, but they still didn't wait for anything.
Seeing that ma Da's three families were going to be poor enough to eat soil, the two captives were not honest and made trouble twice and three times.
No way, can't go on, solve it on the spot.
That being said, no one dares to do the murder, so they can only catch the cast, and the unlucky third year has been caught again.
As a result, he did not dare, but still secretly raised a series of captives.
Later, the matter was revealed, and the villagers found out the truth and forced the junior to do it again. In the face of the pressure of the crowd, the cowardly third cried bitterly, admitting that he was timid and could not get his hands on it.
After another round of deliberation, the village decided to "borrow a knife to kill people" and sent the third year to the county seat to invite an executioner from the former Qing Dynasty to prepare to "kill" the two captives again.
A group of people were full of expectations for the big guy to show his fists, and as a result, the big guy operated like a tiger and finally lost his hand.
Under the toss of the five times and five times, the spiritual defense line of the "tough guy" Hanaya Kosaburo was broken, and the desire to survive occupied the basin of IQ.
Seeing him crawling on the ground, he begged the third and the villagers not to kill him, and promised to exchange two truckloads of grain for his life.
Now that we think about the impossible good things, the villagers actually believed it and really took the two prisoners to the Japanese artillery tower to exchange food.
incredible.
In fact, if you think about it carefully, you can still understand it.
Chinese Confucian ethics have always emphasized "practical application through the ages", so Chinese maintain a practical and pragmatic mentality. Coupled with the scarcity of religious complexes, it is natural to have a traditional concept that "it is better to die than to live".
This realistic principle of doing things ultimately has an ultimate goal -
grain.
Think of the peasant uprisings in Chinese history, most of them were "forced to go up liangshan" before they were unveiled, and going around was a matter of hunger, and success was "equal field".
The deafening "freedom!" in Braveheart "It was almost impossible to be shouted out in the Chinese environment at that time.
Because no one cares about being free or not being free, and not eating or drinking.
But there is one thing that is used in China, and that is human feelings.
The reason why the villagers of Hangjiatun dare to seek skins with the tiger is actually very simple, that is, they unilaterally feel that they have taken care of this devil for more than half a year, there is no abuse and good food and drink, and the new quilts in the family are tied to the pillar by Ma Dasan, and Xiao Sanlang commits suicide.
In the traditional Chinese conception, human feelings are above all else, and the villagers even feel that this can be used to subvert the relationship between the aggressor and the invaded.
Naturally, this wishful thinking was ultimately exchanged for the brutal slaughter of the Japanese army.
The national responsibility and ideology of the War of Resistance are like a joint law, trying to kidnap all the masses. But the people in the hanging armor tun do not have any self-conscious nationalist positions, they just want to live.
In the face of death, Hanaya Kosaburo also quickly discarded the so-called festivals of Japanese Bushido and desperately tried to survive.
In Here Comes the Devil, all grand meaning is dissolved.
There is no nationalist moral anxiety, but instead the simple principles of life of the peasants, and this pragmatic concept is the most fundamental and basic traditional national concept.
Both Kosaburo and the "Ma Dasans" were passively and almost coercively given the responsibility for the so-called national war, and both sides were passive.
And Ma Dasan's final revenge is not patriotism at all, but the fulfillment of revenge on a purely secular level, the revenge of individuals.
In the end, "Here Comes the Devil" completes the deconstruction of the nationalist collective myth of the anti-war films.
At the end of the film, in the face of the compatriots who were enthusiastically watching the beheading, Ma Dasan let out a long howl before the execution.
In the sunlight, the eldest junior, who was in a different place, tried to open his eyes blurred by blood, and watched the little saburo he had carefully cared for wipe the saber full of blood.
Here, the black-and-white image ends up being a bright, blood-red color.
Unlike Schindler's List, this red color in Here Comes the Devil is a metaphor for a chaotic and upside-down world, a nightmarish world.
For the film's black and white tone setting, Jiang Wen believes that the entire black and white film is the last few color shots: "Just for the last picture, it is worth making the whole film into black and white. ”
In other words, compared to black and white, the red color is actually the most important.
In the eight years of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Chinese nation shed countless blood, but has this blood really awakened the people of the world?
In the movie, Hanaya Kosaburo once said viciously, "I finally understand the reason why you can't win this war for so long." ”
This sentence that came out of the mouth of the Japanese devil completely unveiled the fig leaf of a nation.
In the film, "I" has never revealed its true face, but it does not matter who "I" am.
"I'm everybody and I'm not.
The nihilization and anonymity of "I" also makes the physical "I" meaningless and directionless, and Ma Dasan's death eventually loses its social and historical meaning due to the lack of "I".
In a chaotic society, no one can be left alone. In the face of the enemies of the state and the nation, in the face of absolute evil, goodness and cowardice are foolishness.
If you want to survive, you have to defeat them first!
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Tong Yunxi
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