Reread the movie "Early Spring february": wandering, delaying and confusion

Author: Jin Tao

Every year at the Shanghai International Film Festival, old films always shine again. This year coincides with the centenary of Sun Daolin's birth, and his 6 films constitute the classic unit of "Tribute to the Master", which is full at the beginning of the ticket. The author saw that even Sun Daolin's daughter was begging for tickets in the Film Critics' WeChat group, and the name of this film was "Early Spring and February".

"Early Spring february" is enough to enter the history of Chinese films. After 58 years, the old film is revisited, and you can still touch the atmosphere of early spring, it is like a leaf light boat wandering in the tranquility and beauty of jiangnan water town, whether it is choreography, directing and acting, or music, painting and kimono, all reflect the third generation of directors' understanding of the national aesthetic style of Chinese films, lyricism and narrative integration, literature and film shine together, interweaving a kind of "strange beauty", evocative to this day. In response to this year's Shanghai college entrance examination essay questions, the value of all things in the world will eventually need to be "precipitated" by time.

Man wanders

The meaning of "Early Spring february" comes from the text. The protagonist Ofehi's original novel "February" is Xiao Jianqiu, who, as his name suggests, is described in the novel as "a person who likes to fall yellow leaves in the autumn clouds of the long yin". This is the background of the 1920s: disillusionment and sinking. The Great Revolution was at a low ebb, intellectuals were looking for a way to salvation, and during the period of social transformation between the old and the new, small-town youth sought a spiritual home, which was a common concern in the "left-wing" literature that arose at that time. The embryo of literature is gloomy, and in the film directed by Xie Tieli, a bright color of "awakening" is added, and the ending treatment changes Xiao Jianqiu's "escape" from Furong Town to an active "exodus" and re-thrown into the "torrent of the times".

For this "torrent", the film has no clear reference, which also lays the groundwork for future controversy. But in any case, in a textual sense, the adaptation of "Early Spring february" was a success. From Xia Yan's name for the film, using "early spring" to modify "February" can glimpse the film's improvement of literature, with good intentions. There is no doubt that the film is groundbreaking. First of all, in terms of theme, it broke the pattern of "workers, peasants and soldiers" occupying the main role in the movie at that time. During the founding period of new Chinese films, a total of 769 films were produced, and only 13 were based on intellectuals. "Early Spring february" is undoubtedly one of the most representative works. Secondly, in terms of characters, it has shaped the typical "wandering" of intellectuals. The film's portrayal of intellectuals is three points, and the humanitarianism represented by Xiao Jianqiu is bowed down to the sad heavens and compassionate people; the refinement represented by Qian and Mr. Fang exalts the rush for quick success and quick profit. The focus of the character portrayal is not bitterness, but wandering. Again, in terms of values, it touched the reef of individualism. Tao Lan, the female teacher portrayed in the film, is the representative of the new youth after the "May Fourth" and the embodiment of the new woman, and she boldly confesses in the film that "I just care about my own individualism". In the context of the film at that time, such a loud female declaration was tantamount to spring thunder and lightning.

The value of the classic is often measured by its ambiguity. For more than half a century, "Early Spring February" has been repeatedly interpreted, as a representative of "left-wing" literature, compared with Roushi's other short story on the theme of women's liberation, "Mother as a Slave", "February" does not confine itself to the perspective of stage struggle to reveal social problems, but the meaning is more broad, and the whole story cannot find a real big antagonism, but has a profound tragedy. Xiao Jianqiu's departure is usually interpreted as the confusion of petty-bourgeois intellectuals who, although awakened, could not find a way out, and as an enlightener and a savior, he was burdened with the propositions of the times of the generation of intellectuals after the May Fourth Movement, and under the dual attack of salvation and enlightenment, he made a difficult choice. The complexity of Xiao Jianqiu lies in the fact that he is a person trapped in the changes of the times, the contradictions of reality and the conflicts of ethics. In the midst of the turbulent Revolution, he was a wanderer, but he had the faith to save the country; among the new youth of the awakening age, he was a marginal man, but he had a sense of relief; in a small traditional and secular town, he was a foreigner, but he had the quality of sacrifice. The contradictions and entanglements in the intellectuals of that era were projected on a single character, as the author Roushi said, showing that the unconscious sentient beings with mental disorders of that era became absurd, and that conscious people lived in "pain".

The delay of love

The charm of "Early Spring February" comes from the actors. The "golden triangle" formed by Sun Daolin, Xie Fang and Shangguan Yunzhu follows the romance mode of "Spring in a Small Town", and the whole film begins with love, but what to express is far more than love.

The hero struggles between two women, which is actually a very common routine in the movie, the women's personalities are set up in stark opposition, the passionate Tao Lan represents progress, freedom and openness; the dull and sad sister-in-law represents conservative, introverted and closed. In fact, it hints at the pain of intellectuals in the period of transition of the times: how to balance modernity and tradition? There is also a layer of metaphor at the bottom that is the contradiction of human nature, how to deal with lust and etiquette? This is the most moving place in the whole film, Sun Daolin's Xiao Jianqiu, who can be called the "soul catcher" of the "May Fourth" intellectual image, is just the "literati taste", Sun Daolin in the same character, he interprets three different temperaments: in the face of lovers, there is a good piano demeanor; in the face of students, there is the pure integrity of being a teacher; in the face of neighbors, there is a dao bone soft intestine that selflessly helps each other. It can be said that the classicity of "Early Spring february" comes half from the text and half from the image. The long scarf of Xiao Jianqiu's posture fluttered and had a complicated meaning.

Sun Daolin is a lone peak. As a rare highly educated (graduated from Yenching University) actor in the Chinese film industry, Sun Daolin's "obliquely carried" label is dazzling. He combines his identities as a film actor, film director, voice actor, recitation artist, literary translator and prose writer, and has a lifelong scholarly temperament. His screen roles have formed two major genealogies: one is the image of revolutionary soldiers and underground party heroes represented by "The Reconnaissance of Crossing the River" and "The Eternal Radio Wave"; the other is the wandering literati role in the "May Fourth" era represented by "Home", "Revolutionary Family" and "Early Spring and February". In his self-description, Sun Daolin fondly recalled "Early Spring and February": "In the 17 years before the Cultural Revolution, I had the honor of working with artists such as Tang Xiaodan, Chen Xihe, Shui Hua, Xie Tieli, etc., who, together with some leaders in the film industry and the vast number of creators, created a microclimate that allowed works of art to breed in the climate of rampant dogmatism, so that I could still shoot some films with vitality in difficulties. His roles of Xiao Jianqiu and Juexin have almost become the aesthetic symbols of the early intellectuals on the Chinese screen and the "May Fourth New Culture Movement".

Re-watching "Early Spring february" will still be impressed by the rich texture of the performance. In the film, Xiao Jianqiu plays the piano twice, drinks three times, and crosses the bridge seven times, the characters slowly advance, and the action details are lightly stacked. Several rival scenes of Sun Daolin and Xie Fang, eyes soaked in the atmosphere and texture of the times, not pretentious, not blindly followed, unforgettable. In Sun Daolin's performance style, the most important aesthetic feature is delay. That is, the emotions of the main characters, do not directly give results, but are often in the eyes of the storm. Rejecting external flickering, everything is presented in the most rustic and concise way, such as a boat with still water and deep currents. On the surface, the characters are almost static, but through the subtle changes in their eyes, voices and fingers, people can glimpse the germination of their inner emotions. This is the expression of the third generation of Chinese directors, Sun Daolin's "talent and ingenuity", a lifetime of practice, the most classic is "Hamlet", the classic image created by Sun Daolin with sound, philosophical and profound and indecisive, so far it sounds like an empty valley echo.

The confusion of the township

The value of "Early Spring February" comes from style. Behind the "bookish atmosphere" is the "Jiangnan flavor", which can be described as the most poetic image expression of that era.

The beginning of "Early Spring and February" is an ink painting: in the boat dispatch, the boat window forms a picture frame, the subtitles emerge, and then the camera pans sideways, through several scenes, and finally cuts to the bow of the ship, in the gaze and the mirror, the characters appear one after another, from the inside and outside, in one go. This elaborate, silent treatment continues the exploration of national style by The Realist films of the 1930s, from "Goddess" to "Spring in a Small Town", similar to the subtle and elegant classical poetry, creating a nationalized film aesthetic tradition, both a simple and subtle personal style, and a modern film lens technique, showing quite skillful techniques.

More importantly, the presentation of Jiangnan imagery, from "Blessings" to "Lin JiaPuzi", because of Lu Xun, Mao Dun and other writers, one of the contexts of the "May Fourth" new cultural movement is the rise of local literature. In "Early Spring and February", Jiangnan, represented by the ancient town, is a "contradiction" in the eyes of a literati. It is not only a paradise for frustrated wanderers, representing ideals; it is also a place of escape for tired birds to return to their guests, representing nostalgia; and even, it is a feudal society of the gentry class, representing decay. The arrival of "foreign guests" is like the backwater of the town, bringing hope to people's lives. In frustration, hope and confusion, Jiangnan Water Town is finally shrouded in a haze of smoke and rain.

This hazy beauty runs through "Early Spring in February", the spring in Jiangnan is a fresh and timeless style painting; the night in the ancient town has bright and sad piano players. All mirror language is love language, the so-called shadow in the poem, the shadow in the poem, the painting outside the shadow, and the emotion outside the painting. At the beginning of the film, the dock of the boat is adrift in the current, metaphorically referring to the protagonist's turbulent inner state; the bow of the ship, the widow who appears for the first time in red, is the only warm color among the people in a boat, suggesting the turning point and hope of life after the protagonist appears; winter snow, the plum blossom forest in the first sunny day, the shyness of two young people who love each other but dare not reveal it, superimposed into two pairs of footsteps of the same frequency, and the thousands of feelings that cannot be concealed are all in it; the ancient bridge, the protagonist has picked up the steps seven times, hurriedly passed, but each time the costume, The mood and scenery are different, and the bridge has become an externalization of the mood. Nowadays, re-reading these passages, we have a deeper understanding of the name "Early Spring february"; Jiangnan, ancient towns and water towns, all the drama contained in a "spring" word, which is the emotional motivation of the characters and the tone of the film.

After all, although the town of Jiangnan is wonderful, for the revolutionaries, it is not a gentle township of love, let alone a retreat of the heart, whether it is Xiao Jianqiu's self-lamented "lonely goose in the group" or Tao Lan's self-comparison of "birds in the cage", the town is only a ferry after all, mooring is the thought, washing the soul, and releasing is the noble spirit. (Jin Tao)

Source: Liberation Daily