Title: Part-time Boss
Director: Zhang Wei
Starring: Yao Anlian / Tang Hui / Zhao Ju
Release date: 2014
Douban score: 7.6 points
Directed by Zhang Wei and starring Yao Anlin, the film was released in Guangdong in 2014 and disappeared from public view.
In fact, it is a pity, because it is one of the few industrial films on the Chinese screen since the new century.
Although there have been industrial theme masterpieces such as "Bridge", "Blood, Always Hot" and "The Republic Will Not Forget" in the history of Chinese cinema, with the deepening of the degree of film marketization, industrial films that naturally lack commerciality have gradually fallen to the edge of the market.
The emergence of "Part-time Boss" has successfully continued this theme.
The film puts together the two topics of "part-time work" and "boss", which are separated by 18,000 miles, and the attitude conveyed is also thought-provoking.
Made in China, made in China.
These four words are a slogan and a business card in the eyes of Chinese, and a label and an impression in the eyes of foreigners.
But in recent years, the country and its people have tried their best to get rid of the label of "Made in China" and gradually transform it into "Made in China".
From "Made in China" to "Created in China", it is a microcosm of China's social changes since the reform and opening up.
In "Migrant Boss", director Zhang Wei's creative intention is obvious: "'Made in China' was once the pride of the Pearl River Delta and even the whole of China. Speaking of toys alone, there used to be more than 4,000 toy factories in Shenzhen, but now there are only more than 400 left. Where have so many migrant workers gone? Where are those bosses now? I'm trying to figure these things out through this movie. ”
The film focuses on the character of Lin Dalin and records the pain of a reform and transformation experienced by China's private enterprises.
The overall style of "Migrant Boss" is more documentary.
Director Zhang Wei deliberately downplayed the sensational fragments in the original script when creating, canceled Lin Dalin's emotional line, and was quite restrained in his use of music.
The narrative adopts a multi-angle objective perspective, from the hard-working but meager workers who have left their homes; there is an undercover reporter who pursues the truth but does not think it through; there is a boss with a dream; a multinational enterprise that pursues profits; a government manager... It seems that everyone is not wrong, but the dilemma does exist.
The foothold of the film is actually to uncover the truth of "Made in China" and unveil the ugly face of foreign capitalists.
Workers work for the boss, and the boss works for the world.
Although the small bosses in the former face the oppression of imperialism, feudal forces and the comprador bourgeoisie, while Lin Dalin in "Migrant Boss" has to face the difficulties of globalization and upgrading and transformation, in fact, the two mentalities are the same.
Today, the transformation from "Made in China" to "Created in China" has developed to a certain extent, but in those corners that we have not paid attention to, will there still be a story of "Lin Dalin" playing out?