Zeng Yuli
"Hidden in the Dust" has become the highest score of this year's domestic films with a Douban score of 8.4 points. The box office of the film continues to rise with the help of good word of mouth. Although it is the only Chinese film shortlisted for the main competition unit of the three major European film festivals in recent years, as a literary and art film, the market situation of "Hidden in the Dust" was very bad at the beginning, and the row of films hovered between 1% and 2%, with only more than 300,000 box office on the first day, and the total box office predicted by the ticketing platform was only 2 million. Subsequently, director Li Ruijun called for an increase in the schedule of films, a large number of film self-media tap water Amway, a large number of fan audiences and the city middle class into the cinema, the box office fell, the current box office exceeded 12 million, and will eventually sprint to 20 million.
In "Hidden in the Dust", Haiqing is the only professional actor
As far as the eye can see, the reviews of "Hidden in the Dust" are almost all praise. There is no doubt that "Hidden in the Dust" is the best kind of film we can see on the big screen in the mainland. One of the premises that "Best" contains is that it will be released. For director Li Ruijun, as an urban middle class (such as the director likes to write scripts in cafes), he has done enough to let the situation of farmers be seen through movies. Therefore, in the clumsy text with critical tendencies, the object of our "communication" is not the director, but the target audience of the film, the urban middle class. This is a peasant film for the middle class to "watch", and it is not enough if they only see the most superficial narrative of the film. Otherwise, their "emotion" for the film will only flow into a feeling of self-good pity, which cannot be translated into any practical action.
This article will expand from three sets of keywords. "Bitterness and Tragedy": "Hidden in the Dust" is a bitter drama in which the low-level peasants suffer great ethical misfortunes, rather than the tragedy of individual confrontation with structural injustice.
"Patience and Taming": The land gives the protagonist great comfort, allowing them to endure any suffering in life, but the patience of "living like an animal" also makes them a silent blank sheet of taming, and fate is left to others.
"Middle Class and Farmer": Although this is a peasant movie, its target audience is not farmers, but the urban middle class, the film also has a strong middle class interest, the middle class when watching the pity of the bystander is far from enough, and should not be satisfied with "identifying" with the survival values conveyed by the movie.
Bitterness, or tragedy
"Hidden in the Dust" tells the story of two low-level farmers in Gansu, Ma Youtie (Wu Renlin) and Cao Guiying (Haiqing), working together, knowing each other, soaking each other, and sharing their fate around 2010.
Ma Youti was diligent and honest, hard-working and resentful, but in middle age, he was still called by the third brother to be a cow and a horse, and later his nephew was going to get married, and the third brother arranged a family affair for him to let them go out alone (find a reason to throw him out). Cao Guiying has been living in her brother's house, and when she was a child, she was disabled, some of them were sluggish, they lost their fertility, and they fell into the root of urinary incontinence. They have no right to decide their own destiny, and the two bottom marginalized people live together.
The two were initially reluctant to get married
They are people who are insulted, damaged and bullied, and they are the bottom of the bottom of rural society. As one grows older, the ability to work is deteriorating, and one is physically disabled and infertile. Outsiders don't care if they are optimistic or bad about their marriage, they are not cared about, and outsiders let them fend for themselves.
But they are forced to blossom in suffering. They are all good people, and soon dispel their hostility towards each other, Ma Youtie will not bully Cao Guiying because of her urinary incontinence, but buy her a coat to cover her pants, and cannot bear her to be laughed at by the villagers; They accompanied and cared for each other, Cao Guiying waited for Ma Youtie to return in the cold night, and the kettle in his arms was hot over and over again; Together, they worked hard to build a common life, planting wheat, hatching eggs, protecting mud bricks in heavy rain, and building houses; They also have romantic moments that belong to them, such as the shining light shooting out of the chicken nest hole on Cao Guiying's face, the imprint of plum blossoms on their respective arms with wheat grains, and the summer night they sleep on the roof Ma Youti with a trouser belt tied to Cao Guiying... If bad luck had not suddenly come, then this would have been the Northwest Rural version of "Love Myth", the ultimate sincerity and purity of love grown under extreme poverty.
They frothed with each other
Unexpectedly, the sick Cao Guiying gave Ma Youtie food, but fainted and fell into the ditch, and it was too late for Ma Youtie to rescue him. After sending Cao Guiying away, the villagers comforted Ma Youtie, "Don't be too sad, you now have a house and food, and it is good to live alone." Before meeting Cao Guiying, Ma Youtie could live like a cow like a donkey, but when he met Cao Guiying, when he experienced the taste of love and being loved, this kind of living like a beast was unbearable. At the end of the movie, Ma Youtie let go of the donkey, sold the grain, and repaid what he owed to the villagers... He looked at Cao Guiying's portrait and committed suicide by taking pesticides. This is the ending implied by the movie, although the director uses a subtitle to "suggest" that Ma Youtie is still alive, but in fact he has already left with Cao Guiying. The two most marginal low-level characters interpret the myth of life and death.
The middle-class audiences, who are troubled by the "incompetence of love", are moved by such pure love, but they must remind that the disillusioned ending of "Hidden in the Dust" is a reproduction of the "bitter love drama" gene that has been passed down in traditional culture. The narrative routine of the bitter love drama is "three broken and one bitter", breaking the family, breaking the emotions, breaking the characters, and all kinds of unexpected suffering; Most of the protagonists in the bitter love drama are women, and the continuous suffering of kind and strong women can better reflect the inability of "fate". Bitter love dramas have always had a strong vitality in Chinese films, from the "Orphans Saving Ancestors" "New Women", "A River of Spring Water Flows Eastward" in the Republic of China period, to "Mother Loves Me Again", "Tangshan Earthquake" and "Dear" since the 1980s, the context is clear and can be followed.
"It's all fate" is the real core of the bitter love drama. Almost all misfortunes come from ethical and moral issues, and almost all of them can be attributed to "fate." The story of "Chen Shimei" is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, which can be boiled down to the fact that people are not ladylike and men see different thoughts; The story of "Tangshan Earthquake" and "Dear" is quite tear-jerking, it comes down to ethical dilemmas, as if how to choose is wrong; In "Hidden in the Dust", Ma Youtie and Cao Guiying did not destroy them in the first half of their lives, but an unexpected misfortune made Cao Guiying die, and also destroyed Ma Youtie's hope of living.
Strictly speaking, bitter love dramas are not tragedies. Tragedy in the ancient Greek sense, the sense of tragedy comes from resistance - the struggle against the invincible fate, even if the outcome is quite tragic, the struggle still never stops, it highlights the will and strength of the individual, reflecting the unyielding of the so-called "fate". Evolved from the tragedy of ancient Greece, tragedy in the broader sense today is a struggle against institutional injustice, a struggle against fate. The egg smashed against the high wall, sighing "this is fate", this is a "bitter love drama"; The egg smashes into the high wall, the egg does not succumb to the high wall, the egg should leave traces and accusations on the high wall, and ask why the high wall can easily crush the egg, which is a "tragedy".
"Hidden in the Dust" is more like a bitter love drama. In fact, in many moments, the film points to the more essential source of misfortune: Cao Guiying was disabled and infertile, and the miserable situation of rural women, especially those who are "old, weak, sick and disabled"; Cao Guiying was "drawn with blood", both figuratively and metaphorically; The peasants who are "brought upstairs" lose their land, lose their roots, lose their lifeline... But these are not the main narratives of the film, they are supplemented by rather fragmented bridges. Just like the ten thousand Cao Guiying in the countryside, maybe only one Ma Youtie, the film presents this beautiful love of "one in a thousand miles", which gives good hope to two insulted people, and then destroys it, stimulating the audience's tear glands...
But I don't want to blame Li Ruijun in the slightest, he has made as large a scale as possible, just like for Ma Youti's ending, Li Ruijun said, "He can't die." Sometimes you can't die if you want to." But as viewers, we must understand the gap between the bitter love drama and the tragedy behind the director's compromise, and we cannot be satisfied with the flow of a bitter love drama, "We need to remind ourselves: never go to the middle of this logical chain and cry."
Patience, or tameness
The land gave great comfort to the suffering Ma Youtie and Cao Guiying. The film is very careful to follow the rhythm of the four seasons, filming a lot of their four seasons of labor, sowing seeds, hoeing, irrigation, fertilization, harvesting, and the joy of the harvest. With the land is their other labor to "live", they incubate chicks, from breaking out of their shells to growing into large hens capable of laying eggs, they personally build mud bricks, build their buildings on the flat ground... They are full of deep love and respect for the land, which gives back their tenacious and strong vitality, gives them food and harvest, and gives them great warmth and comfort.
They work in the fields
The audience admires the protagonist's endurance, which is also a kind of vitality, no matter its southeast, northwest, wind, land has everything, and living is the greatest victory.
The essence of this "patience and life" value is that survival is paramount. It has great significance, that is, to enable those who are even damaged and insulted to be able to show the tenacious and warm background of life in a cruel environment, like the brilliant and broken lights when eggs are hatched, like the powerless crying and laughing when the rain washes away the mud bricks... "Patience and life" has always been admired by literary and artistic works. In the movie "Furong Town", Qin Shutian encouraged Hu Yuyin to "live and live like an animal"; In the preface to his novel Alive, Yu Hua writes: "'Alive' is full of power in our Chinese language. Its power does not come from shouting, nor from attacking, but from enduring, to endure the responsibilities that life has given us, to endure the happiness and suffering, boredom and mediocrity that reality gives us."
They rejoice in their suffering
For cao Guiying's death, director Li Ruijun said in the self-description of "People", "For the role of Guiying, her mission has been completed... As a person, everything that should be enjoyed has been enjoyed, everything that should be had been enjoyed, she has been completed, and her departure I think is either a regret or a complete absence." Frankly speaking, I was shocked that the director interpreted Cao Guiying's death in this way. Li Ruijun then added, "A person's life is nothing more than life, old age, illness and death, eating, drinking, and sleeping, these are these things, nothing else." The life of the peasant, to put it bluntly, is to deal with life and death. Raise a pig in the spring, kill it at the end of the year, and raise the next pig. Raise a wave of chicks in the spring, raise them until the end of the year, kill them to entertain guests, and then raise them again. Grain is planted, it has new vitality, and the autumn harvest, no matter what this year's harvest is, can start again next year. Farmers have their way of thinking about life and death." Therefore, the director can understand that the other farmers in the film did not rescue Cao Guiying when he fell into the water, "If you have experience in rural life, you will understand that they are indeed thinking about the fourth elder, and in real life, it is a burden to take care of such a person who is sick and cannot create any value, and a person's life is more free."
It's cruel, naked "survival first", profit first, and dying a meaningless life (so-called "burden") is no big deal. When the protagonist repeatedly encounters great external misfortunes, "above survival" is reflected in the breathtaking endurance and vitality. However, the endurance to accept everything and tolerate everything like the mother of the earth and the father of the earth, from another level, means the complete loss of the spirit of resistance and free will, like a tamed and silent white paper, allowing them to smear tamper with it on the white paper, or crumpled and thrown directly into the garbage can.
Both directors and critics refer to Ma Youtie and Cao Guiying as "aphasiars.". In my opinion, "aphasia" refers not only to the protagonist's obscured and neglected state in the countryside, but also to their "aphasia" of all the harm that pours into them--they do not resist, but silently accept and endure. For arranged marriages, they have no words and silently accept the arrangement; Ma Youtie was bullied by his brother, he was not angry or angry, or he had been doing what his brother had told him to do; Even the only time in Ma Youtie's movie is angry with Cao Guiying, angrily calling her the "King of Idle" and pushing her down, Cao Guiying is also cowering and silent; More typical is the blood draw, Ma Youtie is "panda blood", has been asked to give a blood transfusion to a rich man in the village who was hospitalized, Ma Youtie has never refused... Ma Youtie knew that being harvested was the fate of the wheat, and being harvested was also his fate, and he recognized it.
In other words, the other side of "patience" is to be obedient, to "confess one's destiny," and they confess their destiny, believing that they are the ones who have been called, and that they are "born with bones." Ma Youtie released the donkey before committing suicide, and as a result, the donkey did not leave, and Ma Youtie scolded the donkey, "You stupid donkey, let people summon most of your life and have not made enough, let you not know how to run." This is not a self-metaphor for horse with iron. More significantly, when Ma Youtie "died" and his house was about to be torn down, the donkey ran back. In the mainstream interpretation of the audience, this is the deep love between donkeys and people, but in fact, it reflects the deep-rooted "servility" of donkeys and people under the warm feelings, and they do not know what "freedom" is.
A docile donkey, a docile man
"Patience- taming" constitutes two sides of the same body, which is indeed the survival philosophy believed by many farmers, and there is no need to criticize Ma Youtie and Cao Guiying accordingly. However, the middle-class audience must be vigilant against being captured by this concept, "living means everything" and "enduring all suffering" can certainly enhance the inner determination of the middle class to resist risks, and will also exacerbate the middle class's tendency to "exquisite self-interest" and become more "docile" and more "selfish".
Middle-class, or farmer
As of 2021, China still has 500 million people living in rural areas, and there are also a large number of farmers, but there are very few film and television works for farmers on the market. Including "Hidden in the Dust", a rural theme film with farmers as the protagonist and telling the story of farmers, the target audience is also not farmers. Box office data is very intuitive to reflect all this, to July 23 (Saturday) box office as an example, the total box office of "Hidden in the Dust" that day is 1.5182 million, the urban box office is 1.495 million, the rural box office is 23,200 (only 1.5%), of which first- and second-tier cities account for 79% of the total box office, only Beijing and Shanghai The box office accounts for a quarter of the total box office, while the theater opening rate in Beijing is about 75%, and nearly half of the theaters in Shanghai are not open. Therefore, "Hidden in the Dust" is a peasant movie for the middle class in first- and second-tier cities to "watch".
Farmer movies, watched by the middle class. This is reminiscent of a statement by Professor Dai Jinhua, "All the cultural phenomena you talk about today are middle-class cultures. One of the major problems of Chinese social culture is that we cannot see any other culture except the culture of the middle class." Although this statement is somewhat absolute, it is indeed the vast majority of cultures that can enter the mainstream line of sight for discussion, and they are all cultures that embody the taste of the middle class.
The aesthetic level of the film is high
Even "Hidden in the Dust", it is difficult to say that it is not affected by "middle-class fun". For example, Ma Youtie "exports into chapters", although he does not talk much, but every speech about the land is like a "philosopher"; Another example is the film's poetic but soothing internal and external rhythm of photography, composition and soundtrack, which are completely the high-level tone favored by middle-class audiences... Moreover, after the middle-class audience has enjoyed this film with a middle-class interest, it is still reinforced by the emotional system favored by the middle class: watching the pain of others, venting the accumulated emotions, and being moved by compassion. Watching the suffering of the weak bystanders first confirms the class status of the middle class – fortunately, we are the middle class, and we do not have to suffer those sins; Venting the anger of middle-class safety – the mechanism is unfair, and the situation of farmers is so bad; After satisfying the compassion of the middle class, we are touched by the self-emotion – we can empathize with the suffering of others, we buy tickets to support, we see the difficulties of farmers, we are very loving and responsible. Coupled with the "bitter love drama" nature of the film, as well as the acceptance and recognition of "patience - taming", it invisibly caters to the values and survival philosophy of the middle class of "conservative and moderate", "exquisite self-interest" and "tame". As Dai Jinhua criticized, the middle class "has always been in a state of tension and paradox in social rebellion and summoning authority", "only when the event makes the middle class skin, only the way of reproduction can touch the values and lifestyles of the middle class, and that event can be felt." In other words, if the interests of the middle class are damaged, the middle class may "socially rebel", otherwise the middle class will form a conspiracy with the mechanism, and they will "summon authority" to ensure the stability of the order and facilitate them to make good money; What kind of suffering suffers from the weak in other societies is their fate, and the middle class stops at the sidelines, at most shouting twice.
It needs to be emphasized here once again that these criticisms are not directed at Li Ruijun and the film itself, because even if Li Ruijun is shooting this film from a "middle-class" position, the filming of "Hidden in the Dust" itself means that Li Ruijun transcends the limitations of the middle class, and he is "perceptible" to the suffering of farmers and takes action. Nor are we criticizing the middle class who buy tickets — at least they're willing to buy tickets to feel the suffering of farmers, rather than, as some people think, the peasant image in this movie is "smearing China" and refusing to watch the movie. We just want to go beyond the natural limitations of middle-class interest and explore a more feasible and accessible course of action, so that our suffering of farmers is not limited to "seeing" in the movie, not to Douban 8.4 points, not to tears, not to move and self-moved, not to stop at social media appeals, but to really help them.
Here I would like to mention two TV dramas broadcast in the prime file of mainstream television stations some time ago, "Happiness to Ten Thousand Families" directed by Zheng Xiaolong and starring Zhao Liying, and "Daughter of the Mountain" based on the true deeds of Huang Wenxiu, a model for poverty alleviation. Today's television sets are increasingly exclusive to middle-aged and elderly audiences as well as rural audiences, and these two TV series set in rural areas are watched by more farmers. Although these two dramas are not necessarily liked by the urban middle-class audience, for example, they cannot accept that the heroine of "Happy to Ten Thousand Families" is "not divorced", nor do they like the task drama color of "Daughter of the Mountain"; But we have to admit that they are film and television works that can influence farmers and affect rural areas in a positive sense. For example, in "Happiness to Ten Thousand Families", the main line is that the rule of law thinking enters the countryside, telling farmers to know how to "say" and not to submit to all bullying; In "Daughter of the Mountain", Huang Wenxiu, who has received higher education, gives feedback to his hometown, returns to his hometown to devote himself to poverty alleviation work, and takes the countryside out of poverty...
In the middle-class taste, "Hidden in the Dust" is "advanced" than "Happiness to Ten Thousand Families" and "Daughter of the Mountain" - Chinese films do need more such works; But the middle class can not be limited to fun, but should be like Professor Dai Jinhua said, "overflowing" the values and interests of this class, to do some practical work. Whether it is to popularize the law to farmers in works for farmers, let farmers know how to "say what they want", or really devote themselves to the cause of helping. Compared with aesthetic divisions, cheap pity and long sighs, the middle class should do more "practical things".
All in all, "Hidden in the Dust" is the best kind of film that can be released, but it is a rural film that is interesting and watched by the middle class, and simply agreeing with the values of the film only verifies the conservativeness of the middle class and the cheapness of the middle class's pity. Whether it is limited by objective factors or limited by the director's ideological limitations, the part of the film that cannot be said is that the middle class that truly loves the countryside and really cares about the peasants can focus on improving the local areas; Even if they can't do something, the middle class can at least dare to break the bitterness and get out of the docile when they encounter difficulties. The middle class has their own predicament, and it is not easy, but as Jia Zhangke said, "I come from the same kind of poverty as them, and I am investing in the same injustice" and caring for the suffering of others has always been about ourselves.
Editor-in-Charge: Fan Zhu
Proofreader: Shi Gong