◎ Li Qinyu
"Pinball Game" is based on the novel of the same name by writer Lee Min-kim, from the Korean fishing village during the Japanese colonial period to Osaka, Japan, through World War II, until the late 1990s of the Japanese bubble economy era of Yokohama, Tokyo and even New York, in a complex historical background, the whole drama focuses on depicting the relationship and contradictions of several generations of a family on a series of issues such as family and hometown, integration and belonging, money and faith. Since its inception, the show has had a pretty good reputation, receiving excellent reviews on both IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes.
It is necessary to say two more words about Lee Min-jin, a Korean-American writer who is not very familiar to domestic audiences. She graduated from Yale University's History Department and studied law before moving from lawyer to professional writing. Her last work, "The Millionaire's Free Lunch", was already a national bestseller, and the later "Pinball Game" (translated by a domestic publishing house as "Bai Qingge"),was widely concerned by readers as soon as it was published, and won many literary media awards. Both works focus on the identity of Korean immigrants living in foreign countries.
But for Chinese viewers watching this drama, it may be more deeply felt that it is really a bit similar to the recent hit domestic TV series "Human World" - it is all about the fate of several generations of a family in the ups and downs of history; they all pay attention to what kind of shadow the light of the big era has left on each little person.
Modernization and nostalgia: the spiritual belonging of a generation
The adaptation of "Pinball Game" is bold and successful, changing the narrative in the original to a juxtaposition of past and present. One line is that the young girl Sun-ci was born and raised, and began a forbidden love affair with the Korean-Japanese gangster Gao Hanxiu; the other line is that solomon, the grandson of the elderly Shanci, came to Japan from the United States to persuade an old Korean-American lady to sell the property, and to make this big business, he needs his grandmother's help.
Why is it so adapted? The interlacing of different time and space is not just a showmanship, but a "meaningful form". On the one hand, the young girl Sunci witnessed the tragic history of the North Korean people being bullied during the Japanese occupation, and on the other hand, the elderly Shanci and the Korean old lady recall the past years together. Thus, two narrative lines meet wonderfully: the young girl Shanci leaves her hometown, and the elderly Shanci returns to her hometown. The "nostalgia" that cannot be dissolved is actually the spiritual belonging of these immigrants.
Shanci's children were born and raised in Japan, but in the eyes of the Japanese, they are still foreigners from North Korea. Their deepest home is still on the distant Korean Peninsula. Shanci and her children and grandchildren realized that race could not be chosen, that the environment could not be changed, but that they could still uphold the character and character of the nation and live on love and courage. As Li Minjin wrote in the book, "Everyone who goes out must pay attention not to disgrace his compatriots and the nation because of his words and deeds."
Many people say that Liang Xiaosheng wrote "The World of Man" to promote the "philosophy of good people", but things are not so simple. The reason why the story of "The World of Man" should start from 1969 instead of reform and opening up is, in the final analysis, it is also to solve the problem of spiritual belonging of a generation.
Zhou Bingyi would rather give up the opportunity for promotion to be with Hao Dongmei; Zhou Bingkun resolutely rescued Zheng Juan's family; Zhou Rong went to another country for love. These stories occurred before the reform and opening up, but they correspond to a series of problems faced by society after the reform and opening up: Under the impact of the tide of commodities, can some officials keep their discipline? Can ordinary people insist on kindness? How many young people can still adhere to their ideals? And so on and so forth.
In other words, the desire of "The World" to be "good people" looks particularly simple and simple, but it is a good medicine for modern society after the creators have pondered and thought hard. The reason why "Pinball Game" and "The World" want to write the story of several generations of a family is also to tell the audience in an allegorical way: only by finding its own spiritual belonging can each generation of a nation avoid being "alienated" by the changes of society and the times.
Narratives about the "roots": the clash of two discourses of modernity
Both "Pinball Games" and "The World" emphasize spiritual belonging, which is in fact the traditional culture of their respective peoples. However, there are also two conflicts of modern discourse for "tradition": one is to look forward and take Enlightenment as the main composition of the discourse paradigm; the other is to look backwards, with "root-seeking" and "nostalgia" as the main forms of cultural narrative.
It is not difficult for the audience to find that many of the characters in "The World of Man" are very brilliant, but when the plot progresses to the young generation represented by Zhou Nan and Feng Yue, it begins to become jerky and stiff. Zhou Nan's premature exit is not so much an accident as an "inevitable" tragedy, because he is doomed to become the second Zhou Bingkun or Zhou Bingyi.
Yan Yunxiang said in "The Transformation of Private Life": "After the collectivization of intermediaries and the withdrawal of the state from many aspects of social life, the traditional moral concept also collapsed. At the same time, people were drawn into commodity economies and markets, and in this case they quickly accepted the morality of late capitalism characterized by global consumerism. ”
That is to say, morality is not a product of thin air, it cannot but depend on the actual social environment. It is difficult for people who have not experienced that era to imagine why the relationship between people in "The World" can be so close. Everyone is entangled, and it is normal in the poor years, but once the days are better, the gap in personal living conditions can quickly tear apart seemingly unbreakable relationships.
Therefore, there is nothing wrong with the tradition of "being a good person", but in the new life of globalization and marketization, "human feelings" will inevitably need to undergo adjustment and reorganization. The story of "The World" is very moving, but the culture that exists in the vacuum is closer to utopia.
In contrast, the younger generation in "Pinball Game" is not as vague as Zhou Nan and Feng Yue. Solomon was smart and capable, but still didn't get recognition from the top in the business for one reason: he was Korean. The Korean-American old lady asked him at the moment before signing the real estate agreement, if Grandma Shanci was sitting here, facing the arrogant faces of many Japanese chaebols, would you still let her sell the house? Solomon sat in his seat, hesitated for a long time, and said firmly: No.
At this moment, he finally woke up: he will always be an "outsider" in this world. Solomon rushed downstairs, stripped off his coat (representing his desire to gain american and Japanese approval), and danced freely in the rain (representing that he broke free of the shackles of wanting to gain outside recognition). The symbolic significance of this scene is obvious: you can never cater to the stereotypes of others, you must go out of your own way.
This also makes the interplay of time and space in the series even more profound: the korean singer can only use death to express her protest against the invaders on the ship where the young girl Sun-ci is riding, and now the old lady can already express her disdain for Japanese businessmen with the control of property. If "The World" is still looking back, hoping to seek redemption from traditional morals, then the Korean immigrants in "Pinball Game" have fearlessly participated in the survival game of the contemporary world.
Here can not fail to mention the metaphor of the title "pinball game" - the player thinks that he can rely on technology to win the game, as everyone knows, the scale dial of the game console can be adjusted by the merchant, and the result is never in their own control, which is like the personal fate of the times, full of uncertainty.
Since history always has the potential to fail us, we not only need the kindness of "being a good person", but also need to never give up our inner hopes and beliefs and bravely fight the real world, as Li Minjin and "Pinball Game" said.