Release on 2022-01-18Source:Hubei Radio and Television Author:Huang Hui[Close Window]
Editor's Note:
The film debut "Silent River Water", directed by Yao Jun, a student of the Hubei Provincial Screenwriters Backbone Training Class and a young director, was recently released nationwide. Many years ago, Yao Jun, who was still doing a documentary, came across a news story about a father in Wuhan who "used his deceased son's mobile phone to make up text messages and comfort his terminally ill wife", and was deeply moved. With the help of this news core, after 3 years of script creation, Yao Jun finally presented it in the form of a movie. Compared with the previous films that directly portray heroes, the angle of "Silent River Water" is no longer stuck to the heroes who save people, nor does it describe the heroes' deeds in a large way, but pays attention to the choice and forward of an ordinary father in the city, and expresses the humanistic care for the family who has suffered great grief. At the 15th Chinese Youth Film Week in 2020, the film won the Promotion Award of the Organizing Committee.
Movie posters
The film "River Water Silent" is the film debut of documentary director Yao Jun as a screenwriter and director, and has been released nationwide on December 26, 2021. I think it's a grossly underrated film that deserves a lot of appreciation.
The first three minutes of the film quickly explain the family, occupation, and economic conditions of the protagonist Lao Yuan: over fifty years old, living in the "old and broken", his wife is seriously ill, the business of the computer city is withering, and he often cannot afford to pay rent. The couple's greatest comfort is that their son is angry and is studying graduate school in a foreign country. In short, Old Yuan is an old and good person living in the middle and lower classes of the city, shouldering the responsibility of the family in the "chicken feathers in one place" and maintaining a decent and dignified life.
Filming location
The trigger event came from a phone call, son Yuan Xiaofan bravely saved the girl who fell into the water and unfortunately died! Although Old Yuan was in pain, in order to keep his only relative, his seriously ill wife, he could only hide everything related to his son's sacrifice, and also hide the pain of his own loss of his son, and he tried to design and compile text messages to deceive his wife.
If the plot only follows the development of the old Yuan's two sons "love each other", it is bound to appear thin. The screenwriter added another clue here, the "redemption and growth line" between the street gangster "loach" and the old Yuan. The precious "life-saving" mobile phone was stolen, the exhausted old Yuan had to accept the thief's blackmail, in the process of tracking down the whereabouts of the mobile phone, the old Yuan found that the thief's "loach" sounded very similar to his son Xiaofan, so he reached an agreement with him and paid him to talk to his sick wife regularly.
The "loach" lion opened its mouth widely, and it cost 50,000 pieces to open its mouth, a small leper statue of Old Yuan, and the 50,000 pieces that the audience felt incredible actually laid the groundwork for the later plot. As the plot progresses, we find that "the hateful person must have pity", and "loach" has become what it is today, which also has its own reasons and logic. The plot is reversed, and the audience follows Lao Yuan step by step into the life of the "loach", and gradually develops sympathy for him. When the "loach" began to support itself under the influence of old Yuan, and used the money earned to buy sea cucumbers to visit old Yuan's wife, the audience was pleased to find that the "loach" who had lost his parents found his father's love, and the old Yuan who had "lost his independence" found his "son", and they could warm up to each other and support each other from then on.
Old Yuan had always thought that he had successfully concealed his wife and let her die peacefully with the thought of her son, who knew that her wife had already known. The plot is reversed again, with ups and downs, fascinating.
Some other sub-line characters are also quite dramatic, such as: Old Yuan colleague, old Zhao of the Computer City murder case, he provides another reference - in the face of the devastation of life, is it tenacious to live, or broken cans and broken, towards collapse. The screenwriter hinted through this character that if Old Yuan had not encountered "loach", if "Loach" had not met Old Yuan, their ending would probably have been so tragic and unfortunate. This character also highlights the pain endured by Old Yuan from the side. The details here are very exquisite, and the bottle of wine that Lao Yuan brought to the scene of the jump not only became the key to reversing the crisis, but also allowed Lao Yuan's suppressed emotions to have an outlet, making the character's inner drama more real and full.
Under the premise of no special effects, no stars, and no bizarre and mysterious plot, this film can lock the audience in front of the screen and move to tears. The rigor and solidity of the screenwriter is indelible. The narrative advance is relaxed, the details are woven just right, the dialogue of the characters is appropriate and natural, the timing of the seizure and release of information is also quite elaborate, and the reversal at the end of the film expands the emotional tension and performance space of the story. It is not easy for a screenwriter to write a movie script for the first time to have such a standard!
The image expression of this film continues the documentary style that Yao Jun is good at, mostly using natural light, medium shots, no complex lighting, no push and pull and shake of showmanship. The overall image style is realistic and rough, which is limited by cost on the one hand, and intentional on the other hand. Objectively create a quiet gaze effect, forcing the audience to calm down and follow Lao Yuan's taste of life's sour, sweet and bitter. Of course, this kind of film will eliminate some audiences, such as those who can't continue to watch it without fighting for three minutes, but they will also pick out those who are willing to go deep into the heart of the character.
Imagery can be roughly divided into two systems: the city and the riverside, which constitute a set of contrasting relationships. In the urban series of scenes, we see that Old Yuan is always in a forced and depressing space, whether at home, in the computer city or in the hospital. The director encircled the tall old Yuan with doors, windows, cubicles, corridors, and buses, and the pressure came from all directions, and he was trapped in the net and could not stretch. This is a metaphor for the situation of the old Yuan in the real world: in the city, the old Yuan constantly "loses", loses his son, loses his wife, loses his colleagues, loses his economic income, and loses the old house where he lives. In the wheel of the times rumbling forward, in the process of the continuous mutation of the city, Old Yuan seems to be a stone that has been thrown down. He lived so hard, so helplessly, so miserable!
In the series of scenes by the river, Lao Yuan either pays tribute to his son XiaoFan, weeps, and talks to him; or chats with his son "loach" who has been picked up, and for him, the river is "reconstruction and repair", it is to cleanse pain and sorrow, and it is to rebuild the relationship to find the meaning of living.
The image on the riverside appears open and clear, and the sleeping people in the river are both the son of old Yuan and the mother of the loach. In the film, the image of the river is multi-meaning, it is the passing time, it is the cruel fate, it is the final destination, it is tolerance and acceptance, and it is the endless growth of people.
"Loach" appeared with the Yangtze River, he was abandoned by his biological father when he was a child because of congenital heart disease, his mother could not afford to pay expensive medical expenses and jumped into the river, he was adopted by the old boatman on the river. "Loach" appears as an "outcast" of a real society, with feelings of hatred for society. Later, influenced by the old Yuan, he began to pull scooters and do porters in the city, indicating that he wanted to work hard to integrate into the city. At the end of the film, he wears a scarf woven by Old Yuan's wife and walks with Old Yuan on the Yangtze River Bridge. They are determined to face the real dilemma together and try to survive in the city. The change of the scene in the film corresponds to the change of the image style, and also corresponds to the change of the character's psychology. The content and form complement each other perfectly and are just right.
"Silent River Water" is a rare and valuable movie, difficult in small cost, small people, debut works, a film circle of unknown people (once), want to send their own creativity to the big screen, the difficulties and bumps can be imagined. The valuable thing is that the director always adheres to the law of the heart, "I only shoot people and stories that have touched me." "Focusing the lens on the little people, at the less glamorous, less successful people, and on the life of the bottom who are tenacious and tenacious like grass, this is the people's feeling that a true artist should have."
Yao Jun is a veteran journalist and documentary filmmaker who has been keenly concerned about the fate of individuals in social change for many years, especially the living conditions of people at the bottom. The core of the story of this film: a man hides the news of his son's death from his sick wife. Originating from a newspaper article many years ago, Yao Jun, who was still a journalist at the time, was greatly moved and germinated the original intention to put it on the screen. Several other important plots in the film, such as "College Students Save the Sacrifice of the Fallen Water", are derived from real events. Plots such as barge migration along the Yangtze River come from the director's documentary "Amphibians" filmed by fishermen on the Han River. Originating from life, higher than life, such a original intention determines the true, sincere, not vain, and unattractive temperament of this film.
Director Yao Jun has had a movie dream since he was a child, but he has not had the opportunity, fortunately, interest is the best mentor, so many years, he insists on researching and learning after work, most people will give up their dreams after the age of thirty, deny themselves to adapt to the world, according to secular standards, drag themselves to the road of "successful people", and the ideal self gradually drifted away, but there are always some people who will stick to their dreams, until they are old.
Dreams are expensive, but worth pursuing! Fortunately, we have friends like Yao Jun around us, and their experience makes us understand that in this world, in addition to money, power, and housing, there are also letters, hopes, and love. Just this article to pay tribute to all those who have dreams.