Text/Zhou Zhou
What you see is not necessarily the truth, lao Yang's children may not see the truth, but gradually, they have no patience to see the truth.
--Zhou Ziyang
Put the most important sentence at the beginning of the article, that is, I am afraid that you will not have the patience to read this article, the world of fast action, the glimpse of the seeing is believing, how many unjust, false and wrong cases have been created, but no one cares, everyone is only worried about missing the next hot spot.
At the 54th Taiwan Film Golden Horse Awards, "Old Beast" won two high gold awards for best original screenplay and best actor, and the media have reported that "Old Beast" is a dark horse that is outrageous, and the audience and film critics are only happy to praise the superb acting skills of Tu's return to the truth, the Golden Horse Film Emperor is deserved, as for the other Golden Horse - the Best Original Screenplay Award, it seems to be collectively ignored.
Because it is defined as a realistic work that focuses on the marginal characters at the bottom, the script of "Old Beast" is mistaken for a documentary-style running account, but where there are so many golden horses under the sky, the good thing about the script of "Old Beast" is that it contributes a unique and unforgettable character - Lao Yang, and it lies in the complex structure constructed by the craftsmanship. Although the film's slow pace and loose narrative are a bit of a test of the audience's patience, if you sink your heart to follow Lao Yang's journey, the wonderful script structure of "Old Beast" will come to light, and when its complete outline gradually emerges in front of your eyes, you will be pleasantly surprised to find that it can be so intertwined, interspersed with each other, virtual reality, truth and misunderstanding in parallel, personal resonance with the times, with an ordinary little person as the eye, projecting a broader and deeper connotation.
If you make a longitudinal cut of "The Old Beast", you can clearly see its three-layer deep structure - the most superficial layer is basically equivalent to the main narrative line of the film - an old man who is not four or six, poor jingles and waves everywhere, abandons his sick wife who is paralyzed in bed, runs outside to meet his lover, sells the camels of his friends to make a living, and sells the camels that his friends make a living for money; even the money for the operation that his children made for his mother, he also stole it and spent it, and later the children tied him up to sign an agreement, and he actually sued his children to court. It is said that the earliest title of the film is "Old Bastard", which is a very accurate summary.
However, why should director Zhou Ziyang do a biography for such an old bastard, why should the film lens always affectionately illuminate his weathered face, and why should the sad and somber music be played for him again and again? If, if you are willing to give this story a little patience, you can peek through the gaps in the narrative section of "Old Bastard", which I named "Boss Yang" - only by the words and sporadic details in the movie can roughly collage the style of Lao Yang, who has made a lot of money, opened restaurants, invested in real estate, is informed and interesting (see the sunshine bracelet he gave to his lover Li Li), has a quick mind (see his space yurt idea), and he has not despised people who are poor in life when they are beautiful He was sincere to the herdsman Lubsen and the hair-washer LiLi from the countryside, "The level of people is not determined by how much money you make" is not a strong argument for him, but his consistent belief in both the peak and the low. At that time, he was not as unbearable in the eyes of his children as he is now, begging for a wife for his eldest son, helping his son-in-law find a job, and helping his third daughter buy a house. Such a person, it is simply impossible to imagine that it is the same person as the previous level of "Old Bastard".
When the two levels of "Old Bastard" and "Boss Yang" are stacked and juxtaposed, the sharp and spicy meaning of the film arises, just like the sunlight is projected on the ground through the leaves, which can outline the outline of the leaves - what is the difference between Boss Yang and the old bastard? Why did Boss Yang become an old bastard? The answer is only one word, "money." As Zhou Ziyang said: "He once had the experience of being rich, but after he did not fall behind, everyone rejected him, if he still had money, I think the people around him would not reject him." "People are always forgetful, the children who have taken Lao Yang's money will shout and kill the old father of Huajia for a few thousand yuan, Li Li, who has received a lot of relief from Lao Yang, is anxious to bid farewell to Lao Yang and rush back to his hometown to earn money, only Lao Yang is still clinging to the past friendship, he did not forget Lubsen's wedding gift to his son, and he did not hesitate to steal his wife's life-saving money to buy cows to return to Lubson. After all, he is lagging behind this era, in an era of rapid change, which can tolerate a little nostalgia.
Cut deeper into the longitudinal cut, you will reach the background of the story of "Old Beast" - Ordos, a city that has created an economic miracle, from 2004 began to build the Ordos Kangbashi New Area, in the years when coal resources were realized, the streets and alleys can be seen everywhere the legend of overnight wealth, the house price even soared to 20,000 yuan a square meter, many citizens will invest funds in private usurious loans. In 2012, coal prices plummeted, capital bubbles burst, and too many people were caught up in the wealth roller coaster that fell from the peak to the bottom. Old Yang, Lubson, old Yang's children, Old Yang's lover, real estate sales, car repair shop owners, all the people in "Old Beast" are all caught in the economic dilemma, if the hand is more generous, who is willing to be forced to suffer, human nature can not withstand the test, especially can not withstand the test of money. In this tense almost broken capital chain, in addition to his own family, Lao Yang has not owed anything to others, even if the person who owes him a debt hangs up his phone arbitrarily, even if there is only 70 yuan left on his bank card, even if many bosses like him transfer the debt to the downstream, this is the arrogance and dignity of this "old bastard", just like his big back that is not messy, he refuses to take off his sunglasses, is a person with a level of style, has nothing to do with whether there is money, has money, and has no money.
In "The Old Beast", there have always been two parallel lines - real and virtual, some film critics call it realism and surrealism, others call it man and beast, and I prefer to call it realism and freehand. The white horse in Lao Yang's dream, the bird he caught from the walls of the bathing city, the old and sick camel, the white ghost floating in the snow (in fact, the local custom, people will catch pheasants in white robes on snow days) interspersed in the realistic narrative, which can be seen as a bixing and metaphor for the current situation of the characters, or can be classified as their kind, in a nomadic city that is no longer nomadic, the unsupportable beast is trapped in the cold and gray concrete forest. Trying to maintain his old posture, even if he knows that there is not much road ahead, he still stubbornly does the battle of the trapped beasts.