This year's Spring Festival movies are very lively.
But one of the most controversial ones is still "Four Seas" directed by Han Han.
After the release, netizens commented on the polarization.
Like it, feel very touched, still unfinished.
I don't like it, I don't think I can understand it, why should I watch such a movie in the Spring Festival file.
Curious, I made a trip to the theater.
Tonight, I can finally talk about this one-
"Four Seas"
The story of "Four Seas" is not complicated.
It tells the story of an adventure of the island youth Ah Yao about family, friendship and love.
The first half takes place on an island far from the city, and the tone of the story is lighthearted.
The film begins with a monologue by the protagonist Ah Yao:
"My name is Ah Yao, I don't have many friends, motorcycles are my friends."
Ah Yao's father ran away, his mother died early, and only one grandmother with Alzheimer's disease was left in the family.
He was used to being alone, accustomed to solitude.
When his father (played by Shen Teng), who had not returned for many years, suddenly returned, Ah Yao neither asked him for his departure with all his voice, nor did he hug his father and cry.
There wasn't much emotion on his face, and he seemed to have long been accustomed to some people leaving or returning suddenly.
However, the seemingly precocious Ah Yao, like many boys who have just opened their hearts, secretly has a crush on a girl on the island, Zhou Huansong.
Due to fate, Ah Yao met Huan Song's brother, Zhou Huan Ge (played by Yin Zheng).
The two people did not fight and did not know each other, and soon became good brothers.
In this way, Ah Yao joined the motorcycle team of Xinge and met a group of new friends.
At the opening party of the first nightclub on the island newly opened by Huan ge, Huan Ge took him to meet the big guy showta brother who mixed well in Guangzhou.
Brother Showta seemed to like Ah Yao and left Ah Yao his address in Guangzhou, saying that he could come to him if he had something to do.
Ah Yao and his friends were drunk at the party, and their hearts could not contain their hopes and imaginations for the future.
With the strength of the wine, the song shouted "I am the sea king". Then without hesitation, jumping into the sea, the others also took off their shirts and jumped down from the docks, as if life should be a carnival like this.
But, coincidentally, an accident happened—
The giant ship that suddenly appeared on the surface of the sea took Huange's life and brought huge debts, and Ah Yao and Huan song were forced to leave their hometowns to work.
Han Han chose to let everything stop abruptly when the romance reached its climax, so that the second half of the film began to slide towards the depiction of reality.
For example, the first night ah yao and Huan Song came to Guangzhou, because they would not use the room card, they sat in vain outside the door of the hotel for a night;
Because they did not know that Guangzhou was forbidden to motorcycles, the only means of transportation was also ruthlessly confiscated.
There is also the desire to find a new job as soon as possible in order to pay off debts, and as a result, they run into walls everywhere.
Obviously, they were all young people who were light and enthusiastic in their dreams, and when they turned their heads, they became the sufferings of migrant workers in the city.
This may be why movies are so controversial.
After all, this is a Spring Festival movie, many viewers are holding the mentality of watching comedy, the first half of the period was made to laugh, the second half was slapped to the bottom of the pit by the sharp and realistic "Diary of a Migrant Worker", and it is normal to have unhappiness in their hearts.
But I can understand why Han Han would want to make such a story.
This can be seen as his return to the essence at the age of forty, or it can be seen as a remembrance of youth.
"Four Seas" reminds me of a book by Han Han, "His Country".
The book also tells the story of Zuo Xiaolong, a boy who likes motorcycles, and his girl mud.
Zuo Xiaolong walked around the world for a long time, and found that nothing belonged to him, he came from the confused fog, and then ran across the motorcycle to the fog with nothing.
From the island to the big city, Ah Yao met all kinds of people, but in the end no one accompanied him to the end.
Han Han took his stories that had fallen into the pen or could not be written into images, and I saw in his images the most extreme romance of youth, the purest feelings, and the most wordless sadness.
As Han Han said in his Weibo, this is an expression opportunity that he has spent more than two years accumulating and creating.
"I feel that all that restraint and assertion, a moment of joy and eternal sorrow are burned out in it."
Indeed it is.
The group in the story is naïve and enthusiastic.
Ah Yao's love confession is to order a song for the beloved girl, holding a dollar in front of the song machine to secretly glance at his sweetheart, not knowing that his mind has long been seen through by others.
The sweetest wish to think of is simply to take the girl to the place where she played as a child to catch crabs.
"When I was a child, I turned over the stone cracks over there alone, and the road kept going all the way to the sea, but there were too many stones and it was not easy to walk, and I was afraid that she would not be able to stand steadily."
When life falls to the bottom, Huan Song will also seriously ask Ah Yao: "What do you think is the difference between liking and loving?" ”
Even the brother who doesn't look very serious will name his convoy "Undefeated Legend".
The team's people ride motorcycles every day and go to great lengths for a race without rules.
Their youth is so exuberant, but their expression of grief is so restrained.
All the sad emotions in the story are bland.
The sudden passing of the song, the joy of the song without crying;
Ah Yao went to Guangzhou to find his father, and when he heard that the father behind the door had reorganized the family and had a child, Ah Yao only put down the hand that knocked on the door and left with a cold expression;
Even when the last joy leaves, the camera only falls on the back of Ah Yao riding a motorcycle towards the fog.
The loneliness and sadness of "Four Seas" grow in the flesh and blood of everyone in the story.
Isn't this Han Han?
Happiness always ends in sadness, and the core of sadness is wrapped under the skin of comedy.
Just like the father played by Shen Teng, as long as he appears, he is laughing and laughing.
After the laughter, it makes people feel sighing.
He was reluctant to go back to his hometown to see his son and his old mother because he had taken over the job, and the gift he brought to his son, who was already in his twenties, was an Ultraman toy.
Driving his son's motorcycle with the "leopard print aunt" hit his son, earning his son's delivery fee to eat the takeaway ordered by his son.
The absurd is true, and the funny is also true.
But the background color is gray and dark.
And all this seems to have foreshadowed the end at the beginning.
For example, here:
When Ah Yao went to pick up his father at the dock, Ah Yao asked his father why he was called "Ren Yao".
"Ren Yao" and "Ren Yao" sound perfect, but their family name is Wu.
Wu Renyao, no one wants, is doomed to be lonely all the time.
These details fall throughout the film.
For example, the copy of "Maggie's Gift" at the head of Ah Yao's bed. It tells the story of a couple who give up what is important to them at Christmas in order to give each other gifts.
This is also confirmed by Ah Yao and Huan Song.
Ah Yao gambled his life to complete the motorcycle stunt performance of "flying over the Pearl River", and Huan Song redeemed Ah Yao's confiscated car with his hard-earned salary.
"Maggie's Gift" is a testimony to their pure love, which also leads to the separation of the two people.
The only wish that Ah Yao personally uttered was to catch crabs with joy.
But wishes cannot be expressed, so they are ultimately disappointed.
Ah Yao and Huan Song, one afraid of fire, one afraid of water.
But in the end, Ah Yao almost died in the sea of fire, and rejoiced in the car accident and fell into the Pearl River, how ridiculous.
I think that's what Han Han wants to express—
Life is such impermanence and absurdity, which is an unavoidable thing.
It's like a line in the film.
Huan Song asked Ah Yao, "When you were young, did you ask many questions about the starry sky?" ”
Ah Yao nodded, but Huan Song said, "But the starry sky will not give you the answer." ”
"Four Seas" seems to tell a dreamy story, and the giant ship that takes away the life of the song in the film is especially like the Titanic.
Romance confronts reality, and finally it is engulfed under the giant wheel of reality and reaches the bottom.
Many viewers feel full of staying power after watching "Four Seas", probably finding their real-life selves in the story.
Most of us are just ordinary people in the rolling red dust, just like Ah Yao, who has no protagonist aura.
When Ah Yao was on the island, he thought that he was very familiar with the mountain roads, and no one could compare with himself on a motorcycle.
As a result, the retired driver who came from the sky easily overtook the curve with a car with a lower displacement than himself;
He once believed that "the golden scales are the things in the pool", and when he arrived in the big city, he found that there was still the sea outside the pool.
But even if he jumps into the sea, he will be turned away by a "door that cannot be opened".
Although the island is small, it allows him to ride freely on a motorcycle; although Guangzhou is large, it can only keep him locked in an iron cage and circled.
The wind of the Pearl River will not change the direction of the wind for him, and the fire will not stop burning because of him.
All of this can easily subvert Ayao's world.
He once had friends, but the friends left him; he once had lovers, but lovely people remained in the four seas forever; he once had idols, but he became a stand-in for idols, knowing the invisible side of the city, and his inner sustenance also drifted with the wind with the shattering of the filter.
Ah Yao is like every ordinary us, who have struggled and fallen in the quagmire of the world.
But fortunately, Han Han still planted the seeds of warmth in these cruel realities.
It's like the necklace that Ah Yao hid in a hamburger and gave to Huan Song.
Sunlight fell on it, and the necklace shone with a fine dazzling light.
In the most difficult and difficult times, Ah Yao and Huan Song are the dark light that supports each other.
When we were young, the hero in our minds may be sun wukong who dares to make trouble in the heavenly palace, or ultraman who can turn into light, or Doraemon who can fulfill your wishes.
However, when I grew up, I realized that there is no omnipotent hero in real life.
The hero can also cry, he can also laugh, and he is also an ordinary person.
And the real heroism in the world is to love life after recognizing the truth of life.
This is probably why although "Four Seas" was full of controversy after its release, there are still many people who are moved.
"We can hug and warm, we can survive by snuggling, even in the vast sea of people, we will sink."