The author | The Lady of the Film
At the 32nd Golden Rooster Awards ceremony, a 78-year-old man was nominated.
He is Yang Taiyi, but because he acted in a movie for the first time, not many people knew him, so he even looked for the camera for a long time.
The movie "Passing Zhaoguan" starring him was released in May this year, there is no luxurious production lineup, the entire film crew is only more than a dozen people; there is no huge commercial investment, the total production cost is only 400,000 yuan; there is no popular traffic star, only 78-year-old rural old man Yang Taiyi who acted in the movie for the first time.
It is not difficult to imagine that at the beginning of the release, it was only a dismal box office of more than 300,000.
However, the film overcomes the shortcomings of insufficient material conditions such as funds and manpower, and exerts the expression of the original grandfather's emotions and the mining of the wisdom of life that touches the audience to the extreme, and Douban 7.7 is an affirmation of it.
The male protagonist Yang Taiyi also won the Best Actor Award at the Pingyao International Film Festival, and was even shortlisted for the "Film Emperor" at the Golden Rooster Awards Ceremony, and the director of this film also mentioned the honor of best director.
Director Huo Meng said that Wang Hongwei, an actor who has played many Jia Zhangke films, told him after watching the film in Pingyao:
"This old man played by Yang Taiyi is a very real image of a Chinese that has not been seen on the screen for a long time."
This is the truth, "Passing zhaoguan" is not an obscure film, but a simple, relaxed abnormality, you can't use any tall words to describe it, because it seems abrupt.
In the 21st century, its leisurely, calm and relaxed images are invaluable in the irritable urban life.
The grandfather of the film, Li Fuchang, is 78 years old, a farmer in the countryside of Henan, and the 7-year-old grandson Ning Ning is studying in the city and comes to the countryside to live with his grandfather during the summer vacation.
What happens to an old man who has lived all his life in the countryside meets a little grandson from the city?
Speaking of which, I don't know if you think of the "Grandson from the United States" starring Luo Jingming?
The combination of one old and one young in the movie is not uncommon, like "Kikujiro's Summer" and "Heidi and Grandpa" are such old and young matches.
The old man's mature life experience and the child's fledgling innocence and liveliness will itself form a very contrasting contrast.
And this contrast and disharmony will eventually be gradually resolved in the process of travel between the two people, and the process of resolution is the main content of the film.
However, compared with "Sun Tzu from the United States", there is no obvious character conflict in the former, and the grandfather and grandson coexist harmoniously and lack important contradictions, while "Sun Tzu from the United States" is because of the fierce Sino-AMERICAN cultural conflict, and then there is a process of reconciliation and conflict between the two.
In contrast, "Passing zhaoguan" is not easy to bring up the rhythm, but fortunately, the film is not dull, grandpa uses his decades of life experience, life perception, to his grandson to convey life, life and the concept of death, a seemingly thin flow of water plot but the grandfather's life is connected.
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The historical "Passing Zhaoguan" tells the story of Wu Zixu being chased and killed by the King of Chu, and when passing through Zhaoguan, there were chasers before interception, and Wu Zixu was worried because of anxiety, and he turned white overnight, and later passed the pass with the help of the Duke of Donggao.
Because Grandpa had the same hard life experience as Wu Zixu, he was beaten into a rightist when he was young, and he only picked up a life with the help of old friends, so he especially liked "Passing Zhaoguan".
There were four old friends at that time, two of whom had already passed away, and the old man Han Yutang who was far away in Sanmenxia was the only one who was still alive except for his grandfather.
By chance, Grandpa learned the news that his friend was sick.
One rainy night, he sat alone in front of the window smoking a cigarette, recalling the past, and resolutely decided to cross a hundred miles from Zhoukou to see his old friend for the last time.
This decision seems to be too impulsive, but in the eyes of director Huo Meng, this setting does not need to give any motivation.
"What motivation is greater than wanting to do something you most want to do before you die?" The director said.
So Grandpa packed up his bags the next day, put food, quilts, tables, and small stools on a dilapidated three-wheeled motorcycle, and set off with his little grandson.
Drive an electric tricycle from Zhoukou, almost across the entire Province of Henan Province, to Sanmenxia to visit Grandpa's old partner.
At this time, there may be viewers to wonder, why not take the bus or train? How slow it is to drive a tricycle.
Here is the director's buried caution.
Because this road is grandpa walked back that year, 500 kilometers walked six days and seven nights, for grandpa is of unspeakable significance, plus grandpa himself is not a greedy person, slowly walking, he can think, can calm down to taste his life, maybe this is grandpa's last time out of the door, he has to have a sense of ceremony.
So the two grandchildren, one old and one young, a different journey unfolded.
In this trip, the grandfather and grandson eat and drink, sleep in peace, and also meet all kinds of strangers, adding plot variations to the long monotonous journey.
The first time I met was a lonely young fishing man who was desperate because of investment failures.
When young people owe huge sums of money when their investment fails, their good friends commit suicide, and they can't find the meaning of living, they meet their grandparents and grandchildren.
Listening to the story of the young man, Grandpa did not preach, but slowly and leisurely told the story of the dumb grandpa's family.
When the dumb grandfather was young, because he was afraid of scolding, he casually pulled a lie, causing his brother to be slapped by his father, his brother was temperamental, but he committed suicide, and his father also committed suicide a month later.
The dumb grandfather who did something wrong was very remorseful and wanted to commit suicide, but he could not die, he had to live to raise a pair of children of his eldest brother.
In fact, life and death are light, life is heavy, and it is easier to die than to live at this time.
But no matter how sad and self-condemning the heart is, the child can't ignore it, and the punishment given to him by the dumb grandfather is to stop talking.
Because what is said will be wrong, saying more is wrong, saying less is less wrong, saying more is useless, it is better not to say, and then there is nothing to say.
So he never married, and he raised a pair of children alone.
The young man listened, sighed, and rekindled his fighting spirit.
The second time I met was an old driver who had lost trust in the world after a long time of long-distance running.
The middle-aged driver needed to go to the city to buy a belt, but he stopped the car on the side of the road for a long time without help, and when Grandpa saw it, he took the initiative to stop and lend him a tricycle.
In order to save time, the driver drove Grandpa's tricycle into the city alone, and the grandfather and grandson waited in the same place.
After waiting for a long time, Ning Ning was a little anxious, but the kind grandfather firmly believed that the driver would definitely come back, and he told Ning Ning not to worry while making a windmill for Ning Ning to ease his emotions.
Later, the driver returned, not only expressing his gratitude, but also taking his grandfather and grandson for a ride.
In the middle of the way, the road sacrifice people stopped the car, and the middle-aged driver impatiently took out ten yuan to prevaricate, but Grandpa insisted on getting out of the car to see, not only to comfort the family members of the deceased who did not know each other, but even grandpa, who was only willing to add ten yuan every time he refueled, also gave all the money on his body to the family.
Faced with the problem of the middle-aged driver, Grandpa only said one sentence: "What is the strength of the living and the dead?" ”
Grandpa's kindness from the heart to resolve the middle-aged driver's anxiety and anger, before separation, the driver also took the initiative to leave Grandpa with the contact information of the riders who often walk this road, and there is something to find them to help.
The third time I met was a lonely beekeeper with communication barriers with her offspring.
Relatively "dumb" grandpa can talk but does not speak, beekeeping old people have to use the help of the current high-tech sounder to speak because of damaged vocal cords.
Like Grandpa Li Fu, he did not go to the city with his children.
Alone in his hometown, guarding his parents who died of famine, guarding the "roots" that he can never abandon.
In the wilderness, under the dim light, accompanied by a pot of turbid wine, two or three homely sentences, the loneliness of the beekeeper gradually appeared in front of the grandfather and grandson.
In fact, at the age of grandpa and beekeeper, there is no need for too many words, and companionship and listening are the best comfort.
Grandpa said: "Life is like passing through Zhaoguan, passing through Zhaoguan and Tongguan, passing through Tongguan and Shanhaiguan Jiayuguan, passing through the customs is sad, but it can be passed." ”
The beekeeper and the grandfather, too, are facing the last hurdle: death, and the grandfather's simple attitude to life is also in the wine belt to give the beekeeper an old man a short comfort.
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Grandpa eventually went to the hospital and met his sick old friend.
The content of the chat between the two was very simple, "Why did you come", "Did you come by car or how did you come", "I came to see you, my son is still waiting for me, I will come to see you next time", three words and two words, the dialogue stopped.
It took five days to cross a hundred miles to arrive, but in the end it was only converted into this short one-minute meeting and three-sentence greeting.
This minute, condensed, is the way that generation gets along, and it is also an emotion that our generation absolutely cannot experience.
The grandfather in the film always says "slowly" and "slowly", as if after watching the movie, even the heart will slow down.
In this day and age, everyone is in a hurry, anxious to take exams, anxious to make money, anxious to get what they crave quickly, and there is no end.
But in the end, most people are trapped by life like this.
Ning Ning was in a hurry while waiting, urging Grandpa: "Why doesn't Uncle come back?" ”
Grandpa said, "Wait, I'll be back." ”
Grandpa's speech speed is very slow, slowly speaking sentence by sentence; Grandpa's steps are also very slow, but step by step steadily and steadily.
For the little grandson, this journey is also a journey of growth that belongs to him.
Whether it's living a zhaoguan-style life, or giving a little kindness to a young man whose business has failed, or a stranger who has died in a car accident, he has gained enough wisdom to apply his life.
Looking back at ourselves, in fact, the old man in the family is as bad at words as the grandfather in the movie, but every simple daily action with the grandchildren is conveying the temperature of love.
It's just that we were young at that time, like Ning Ning in the movie, we couldn't understand the care and love of our grandparents.
It wasn't until they grew up that they gradually understood to understand and cherish, but when they saw the traces of time on their faces, they felt that the years had made a joke with us.
I still remember Jia Zhangke saying that his films focus on people who were knocked down by the train of the times, and the protagonist grandfathers in Huo Meng's "Passing Zhaoguan" are a group of people far away from the railway.
When the train of the times was moving fast, many people jumped on the train, became vested interests, made waves, and many people broke the blood in order to squeeze on the car.
And people like Grandpa, watching this train roar by, they may have been lost, but in the end they chose to drive their own carriage unhurriedly.
Some people say that they are people abandoned by the times.
Thinking of this, and looking back at the grandfather in the film, Madame finally understood his loneliness.
Grandpa's life has gone through countless difficulties, personal difficulties, big difficulties of the times, "passing the pass is difficult to pass", for grandpa, death is nothing more than the last "level" of life.
For him, who has experienced anti-rightism and experienced suicide, he has walked all the way down, and he is actually indifferent in the face of death, and he will eventually come to the last hurdle after passing one level after another.
But this road is too lonely, the old photos are circled one by one (circled to represent the dead), the generation is less one by one, but he is still alive, he still has a lot to say, but no one can listen.
His son wouldn't listen, he would have to run to earn money; his grandson wouldn't listen, he would have to go to the city to school, and the countryside was just a playground for his holidays.
Those old friends who died could not hear it, they had passed through Zhaoguan, passed through Shanhaiguan, and now they had passed through the Ghost Gate.
Who else can Grandpa talk to?
Maybe it's just about talking to every stranger you meet along the way.
This road is both the road to the reunion of old partners and the way to look back at the memories of their generation.
Most of the time, people's lives are like this, watching an individual grow up, watching an individual leave, and finally leaving himself.
Therefore, this is only a once-in-a-lifetime fate, and we must cherish it.
(The picture originated from the Internet, invaded and deleted)
About the Author: Lady of the Film, independent film critic, and signed author of Headline Number. I hope to meet you and be beautiful in the world of movies.