Wen | Cheng Bo
Editor| Bowen-hsien
Director Wen Muye's "Miracle Stupid Child" can be said to continue the strategy of the realist melodrama and small character tragicomedy of "I Am Not a Medicine God", but it seems to dilute some pain and absurdity, more of a youthful atmosphere, as well as inspiration and warmth. The author believes that such continuation and change are necessary and valuable, and in the context of the new era of continuous evolution, the tragicomedy of the outstanding individual small people in the film has its own unique significance of the times.
The story time of "Miracle" is from 2013 to 2019, with a span of six or seven years, and the space is the iconic city of reform and opening up - Shenzhen.
In terms of time, after the reform and opening up, especially after the rapid transformation period of society in the mid-1990s, the differentiation and reconstruction of social classes, the rise and fall of industries, and the process of urbanization have really affected and changed the lives of every Chinese. Spatially speaking, the cities and villages where people live and work are also undergoing obvious changes, take the "miracle" of Shenzhen: small fishing villages, special zones, metropolises with urban villages and Huaqiang North, and new cities in the Greater Bay Area in the new era can be used as references at different time nodes.
Here, outsiders (migrant workers/workers/job seekers/entrepreneurs/partners), the company where the employee works or the factory where the worker works, and their families together constitute a more specific and personal emotional space and social space outside the physical space of the city.
There have been such a stem on the Internet: "Hit the worker, the soul of the migrant worker, the migrant worker is the person on the top", with helplessness, stubbornness and self-deprecation, although this is not a fact in the sociological sense, but the social psychological level, especially in the individual sense, almost everyone can be a hit worker, just like people often say: "Push back three generations, everyone is a foreigner (or a farmer)".
To put it smaller, with the "partner" of the intellectual elite of "Chinese Partner", the "partner" of rural construction of "Home at One Point", now we need "Miracle. To put it more broadly, this is a kind of civilian consciousness, no privilege, no shortcuts, down-to-earth efforts, and moving forward with the times, with the city and the country, this is a sense of home-country isomorphism and a community of destiny, a kind of people-oriented and people-oriented thinking that is really visible.
Chinese films do not lack attention and presentation of small characters, the historical tradition of "left-wing films" needless to say, the "fourth generation" directors also have "Beijing, you early!" "Honmei Year" is a masterpiece of small-character films, and the "sixth generation" director started from realism and low-level characters.
Needless to say, the details of the lives of the little people and the interior of the bottom layer have been obscured for a long time, they are the "silent majority", so the literary and visual strategies that show them are often "restoration", which is to construct "pain", "absurdity" and "tragedy".
Furthermore, because there is no social and aesthetic support network, the creation of the realist asymptote is a "pioneering strategy" in Chinese cinema in a certain time period: morally close to the "silent majority", and narrative and video representation of the "spectacle" of everyday life when unveiled because of obscuration.
Later, in the development process of the context of the times, the "bottom" has been generalized, consumed or even over-consumed, and the crazy "bottom comedy" that has been crowded up in previous years is its representation. "Little People Tragicomedy" is like the spiral of "negation of negation" of this process, starting from a series of works such as "The Piano of Steel", "The Pursuer", "The Unknown Generation", "I Am Not a Medicine God" and so on in the past few years, and the "Little People Tragicomedy" with both realist tradition and melodramical elements has increasingly highlighted its significance and value of advancing with the times.
Obviously, Miracle Stupid Kid is smart and conscious about this process and strategy, but it seems to be "stupid" and spends a lot of time and energy experiencing, feeling, and expressing such a life. In the movie, social problems such as the chaos and governance of the electronic products and mobile phone industry, the opportunities and risks of people in the industrial turmoil, the details of the repair shop, the factory, the "Spider Man" family and even the family life of the brothers and sisters, the language and behavior of the group portrait characters are restored, and it is known that the "stupid" method is used to experience and feel the real life. From "the ignorant are fearless" to "the ignorant are fearless", such a stupid method and stupid reason that stubbornly does not find a shortcut to go belongs to the people in the play and also belongs to the creators of this movie.
On the basis of realism, "Miracle" also consciously integrates the melodrama mode, and the elements of the "conscienceism" tear drama and the youth inspirational drama are obvious but not obtrusive: the misfortune of the family has become more neutral, and the risk of the business also comes from the optimization of the industry and the rectification of the market, which are not premised on the confrontation with mainstream society. Brotherhood and sisterhood, friendship, etc. have both a bitter and a pleasant side, and are not a one-way deliberate "suffering superposition" or "grease and powder".
Although the "love ontology" and "moral ethics" and "social conscience" in the melodrama partially overflow the category of realism, with a certain indoctrination function or a sense of "chicken soup", it is necessary, these growth, hard work, struggle, hard work, and the pursuit of dreams, because of sincerity, can be well connected with realism, on the one hand, maintain the texture and coldness of life, on the other hand, it transmits mainstream values and positive energy, and naturally infects the audience with emotional resonance and value identification.
For films, the carriers of meaning construction are often characters and narratives.
In terms of character construction, Jing Hao, the "young factory director" portrayed by Yi Qianxi, shoulders the two heavy burdens of taking care of his sister to complete the surgical goal of hereditary heart disease and the family career livelihood, some teenagers are old, have anxiety and heavy hearts, but he is optimistic and upright, honest and responsible, stubborn and unwilling to lose. Such a figure has a "mirror" appeal in the pity, he can see the pain and bright spots in our own body, or the wounds and shining moments that have been there, which is a kind of "return is still a teenager" pure heart.
At the same time, the small characters of the "Miracle Partners" have both personality and representativeness, and they have long since changed from the bottom of the painful scars of the "silent majority" to the small people and ordinary people who are still optimistic and struggling despite their difficulties. The ideological confrontation of the class is disappearing, and the vision of breaking the solidification of the class and the possibility of class integration are highlighted, which is reflected in a possible expectation, such as the class collision and value confrontation in several opponent scenes between Jing Hao and Zhao Zong (played by Zhang Zhijian) and Manager Li (played by Wang Chuanjun).
It should be said that the differentiation and contradictions of social classes cannot disappear completely, and common prosperity and the "Chinese Dream" are to resolve contradictions in contradictions and gradually advance through more effective economic and social development and social governance, so not only reality, but also the "tendency" of vision or reality also has the value of the times and the times. In the movie, Jing Hao cured his sister's illness, and his partners have walked through their own difficult dark moments and lived a better life, which is not a "poisonous chicken soup" without emotional foundation and no reality support, this is the "shape of dreams" that can be associated with current life.
In terms of narrative strategy, a prominent manifestation of the combination of realism methods and melodrama mode is that when the character motivation (raising money for the sister's surgery as soon as possible) is transformed into the main plot line (recruitment, internal contradictions and conflicts, external interference and threats, the goal of opening the factory, and achieving the goal), the big goal of this narrative has always been, but it cannot be achieved overnight, there must be delays and unexpected, there are resistance and dark moments, and it is also possible to integrate a lot of rich content with the texture of life. There are many broken things, and it takes craftsmanship to weave into an organic whole that does not disperse, and to grasp the rhythm.
At the same time, the way and timing of the character group portrait's memory points and plot branches to participate in the main line task, the prioritization of dramatic tension, the combination and combination of tragic and comedy elements to form an effective "emotional consumption rhythm" when facing the audience (at this point, the use of "Miracle" music is very effective, and the auxiliary plot naturally "stimulates" the audience to cry and laugh, so that the audience can empathize. These also require craftsmanship.
The image narrative of "Miracle" is also very effective: the presentation of spatial factors such as cities, Huaqiang North, urban villages, mobile phone shops, rental houses, container-converted factories, and communication rooms of primary schools is meticulous and natural; the creation of "big scenes" such as typhoon weather environments and food stall weddings is strong; the scheduling of several sports shots such as "catching high-speed rail", "fighting group fights" and "chasing trucks" is excellent, and the visual impact is strong; Jing Hao repairs mobile phones in small shops, dismantles mobile phones in factories, The "micro-movements" of the passages of the brothers and sisters' daily lives (especially being locked out of the door by the landlord to find a place to sleep, and sleeping in the school communication room on a typhoon day) can make people pay attention to it; some "static" shots and even empty mirrors are also quite thoughtful. The image does not jump out of the particular "stylized", but always connects with the characters and the story, which is the inherent requirement of the "little people tragicomedy" in the image, and may also be the excellent craftsmanship and "youth and old age" of director Wen Muye.
"Miracle" focuses on small people, very individual and folk, but it can evoke the resonance of many people, the individual and the times, the individual and the country are mirrored, implicit in the film, presented as a closely integrated community of destiny relationship. Under the fusion of realism and melodrama mode, "Miracle Stupid Child" writes a tragic and joyful story of small people and ordinary people, it is very specific and realistic, and at the same time has a conscious moral ethics and value transmission; it is not an allegory, but it can let us see the times with a small view. Reality is not perfect, but we can't be hostile to it or lie flat on ourselves, see the joys and hardships of ordinary people like us, the unremitting efforts of the moment and the beautiful expectations for the future, and get comfort and encouragement, which may be the significance of the era of such an excellent little person tragicomedy as "Miracle Stupid Child".
(The author is a professor at the Shanghai Film Academy of Shanghai University,
Vice President)
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